In the film Avengers Assemble, the avenger known as Hawkeye has had his mind poisoned by Loki, who is one of the gods of Asgard. Loki has invaded planet earth and wants to get his hands on the 'tesseract' which he plans to use to create a dimensional hole, bringing evil from an unknown world to wage war on earth. The beginning phase of Loki's plans involve polluting the minds of innocent scientists and soldiers using his sceptre. Using his sceptre, Loki gets Hawkeye to do his dirty work. Being lulled into a false sense of security, Hawkeye gets brainwashed and ends up turning against his own side ... Eventually Black Widow, another of the avengers catches up with Hawkeye and engages with him in combat in order to bring him back to his senses. Eventually she manages to whack his head against a metal bar - ouch - which fortunately brings the real Hawkeye round.
Hawkeye wakes up later on to find himself strapped to a doctor's bench with Black Widow watching over him. His mind is still cloudy but eventually, being strapped down, he manages to fight the torment and snaps out of it. He then opens up to Black Widow, sharing all that he went through while under Loki's control.
In Avengers Assemble, Hawkeye went through a process and in using some imagery from the film I want us to look at the process that we have to go through over and over at times in order for to discover the REAL you.
There are three common processes that we go through if we want to fight that lies and become the bold warriors that God wants us to be:
1. THE LIE. - We will most likely be aware of the lie. Although, in our minds the lie may not be a lie but will appear to be true. Deeply shaken by what has happened to him, Hawkeye describes his experience to Black Widow when he comes back to consciousness. He says, 'Do you know what it's like to have someone take over your mind, pull you out and put something else in?' Sometimes when we deal with sin or doubts or fear it can feel like these feelings have taken us over. And then Hawkeye says, 'Do you know what it's like to be unmade?' Sometimes it can feel like we have become someone else - that we are not our own anymore. But we can choose to say, 'No, this isn't me. I'm NOT unmade. The real me IS here. The real me will not be lost in the exaggerated lies that I have been exposed to...' When we believe the lies we'll do things that we never thought we'd do.
2. THE BLOW. - Another word for blow can be 'punched', 'hit' or 'knocked'. I love this imagery showing the process that Hawkeye goes through. When he awakes and sees Natasha (aka. Black Widow) and is isolated - strapped to the bench - he eventually snaps out of his trance. When Hawkeye inquires about how he broke through, Black Widow says to Clint (aka. Hawkeye), 'I hit you really hard on the head.' God knows how to get our attention and sometimes that's through hitting us round the head. In fact, every time that the devil is giving us gyp ask God to give you a good whack round the head. The Word of God - The BLOW, is stronger than the devil - The LIE. When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, each time the devil made suggestions that seemed reasonably inoffensive, but each time Jesus replied with a command from God. “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’” - “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” - “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’” (Luke 4.) The devil goes around with a couldn't care less attitude, but we as God's people know that boldly combating this with scripture gives us breakthrough. The BLOW is stronger than The LIE.
The next phase is the hard bit. - Persevering through the isolation.
3. THE RESTRAINT. - Before Hawkeye completely recovers he has to be strapped up or he would have caused havoc with his Loki - contaminated mind. He had to be restrained until his mind cleared. To be healed we need to be restrained or 'tied up' for a season... For us that's our private time of prayer, our devotion to the Word, our separation from unhealthy influences. If we don't then we'll run wild and do no one - especially our selves - any good. But when we've spent enough time in those places, praying, studying the word and separating ourselves from unhealthy influences, God says, 'Okay, you're ready - GO fight the good fight.' The key to persevering is to keep speaking scripture over your life - as Jesus did in Luke. Whenever The LIE tries to come back to you - speak The BLOW into action. My cousin encouraged me the other week when I was fighting the lie that I need to just spend some time in The Word. Get alone. Get before God. Get stuck into prayer. When we do this - when we strap ourselves to the doctor's bench and pray and read the Word, the devil will flee. 'So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' - James 4 v 7. The restraint is necessary. To restrain yourself is to humble yourself before God. To restrain yourself is to resist the devil. Before you know it you'll be firing arrows at your targets in no time, on your guard, ready for anything. FIGHT!
Keep on fighting! See you soon.
[Bible Translation: NLT (New Living)]
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