CHESS GAME WITH the DEVIL - Bryan Hupperts
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
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Below is another insightful parable from Bryan Hupperts:
A CHESS GAME WITH the DEVIL
-by Bryan Hupperts.
A senior pastor was sent a challenge to play a game of chess.
The anonymous note said, "Victorious One: You are an undisputed
Grandmaster. You've beaten your fellow servants frequently. You
played against other senior pastors and won. Now, come beat me."
Game day came and the senior pastor found himself seated
across a chess board from none other than Satan himself. In this
knockout tournament, the pastor drew white winning the right to
begin first. The devil grabbed the white piece from him and said
arrogantly, "I always move first."
Each set up their pieces and began to formulate strategy. The
senior pastor was nervous but confident and declared to the
enemy, "I will win. I have the mind of Christ." Then the devil smiled
a devilish smile and said, glancing at the senior pastor's side of
the board, "I cannot outwit the mind of Christ but you I will easily beat."
The first match was on. Satan played with cunning and strategy
and it became quickly clear the senior pastor was outgunned.
Satan moved a pawn in gambit striking from the flank and taking
an unguarded rook. Loss piled upon loss. No matter how valiantly
he tried to respond, no matter if his moves were rooted in sacrifice
or power, the senior pastor blundered. Every move he made
seemed to benefit the adversary.
The chessboard carnage was brutal and the senior pastor was
finally humbled to desperate prayer. The devil laughed as he cried
out, "Lord, I need wisdom. I have your mind yet I am being
outplayed, outmaneuvered, and beaten at every turn. Why, Lord?
Why?"
They played to endgame and the dreaded word was pronounced:
checkmate.
The stunned senior pastor watched his king fall as he listened to
the enemy's taunts and, though he felt he had failed God, he
humbled himself further crying out all the more for wisdom. How
do you beat a master tactician and swindler like the devil? When
the 2 minute warning sounded, he began to reset his side of the
board for the next round. He was weighed down by a sickening
dread when suddenly the Holy Spirit of God came upon him and
said: "Review the board."
The senior pastor looked at the enemy's pieces: pawns aligned on
the front row with rooks, knights, bishops, queen and king in the
back. Everything was in perfect military precision waiting for the
strategic battle to commence.
The senior pastor then looked at his side of the board. He had the
same pieces: pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queen and king.
He noticed, as if for the first time, that things were askew.
Mentally reviewing the rules of engagement, he realized he had
placed a pawn where a rook should be, a knight in the place of a
bishop and, as he thought back on the failures of the first round,
he saw that even the queen was occasionally out of place taking
over the king's role. These foolish blunders were done at his
command.
And the senior pastor had an epiphany. He had all the right pieces
but many were serving in the wrong place on the board in roles
they were not empowered to play. "I have played like a fool," he
said aloud. "I am only a servant and not the Master of the game."
He began to rearrange the board setting the pieces, kingside and
queenside, into their rightful places. And the chessboard
transformed into a battlefield.
The devil looked at the repositioned board in alarm. His eyes
narrowed and he said slyly, "Perhaps, senior pastor, your first
strategy was right. Move those pieces any way you wish. After all,
you're in charge, right? I must have gotten lucky the first round;
that's all it was, just dumb luck. You've played your brothers in
Christ and beaten them all."
The pastor knew his cagey opponent was only seeking for an
opportunity to devour him again, and replied, "I did beat my fellow
servants and I was wrong to do so. Today, I repent. Devil, you did
not defeat the mind of Christ. You only defeated me. I see now it
is not mine to tell a piece how to serve not is it mine to dictate
anyone's destiny or calling. My role is to help all to work together
in their unique giftings for the advancement the kingdom of God."
The devil's face went ashen and he said, tempting the pastor to
pride, "You are the Grandmaster, the senior pastor. You decide
what people should do and be!"
The servant pastor smiled humbly as he placed the last pawn in
correct position. "It occurs to me now that to have the mind of
Christ in operation in my life and ministry, He must be the senior
pastor and I must be the undershepherd. I will rely on his leadings
to beat you. And, as you yourself so wisely said, you cannot beat
the mind of Christ."
The devil began to panic and said, "No, go back to your nepotism.
Your church has always been run like a family business with you,
your family, and your friends in charge. This could go badly for you.
You will no longer be the senior pastor. Why give up your power?"
And the undershepherd servant pastor said meekly, "Christ alone
is the senior pastor and it was never mine to dictate who serves
where or how. Each piece must move in the light it is called to just
as He himself is in the light. It is his kingdom, not mine."
He continued, "The board was out of order. I was out of order.
Christ is now our Senior Pastor and divine order has been
re-established. I neither submitted myself to God nor did I resist
you at first play which gave you first-move advantage. I will not be
so foolish again. And now," he said, redirecting his attention to
the strategically placed pieces on the board, "let us pray for
guidance as we play for victory. Christ himself will lead us as our
senior pastor and Grandmaster!"
This match was to be played to sudden death. The devil raged for
he now knew his time was short. And the battle was on.
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