John 10:10...have heard this verse a ba-jillion times...could recite it in my sleep...yada yada yada. BUT WAIT...just had it explained to me in the Greek and God revealed some stuff that I had never seen before. The "steal" part...got it. The "destroy" part...got it. The "kill part"...got it...or at least I thought! Always heard this preached under the context that the devil wants to actually (physically) kill us. That, as Christians, he'd rather us be up in heaven with God than on this earth interrupting his plans. What I learned was that the greek word for "kill" in this verse doesn't refer to the loss of human blood...but rather that of animal blood. Animal blood, at least to me, seems to imply more about "sacrifice" than that of "human death." So I now read the verse as..."if the Devil can't steal from me, then he wants me to sacrifice the plan that God has for me..." WHOA, so instead of wanting me to die...you mean that he'd rather I *give up on*...*become discouraged with*...*lose faith in*....or *straight up quit* the dreams that God has put in my heart?!?! B-I-N-G-O! His whispering lies sound all too familiar: "You know that vision that God put in your heart 5 years ago...it's never gonna come to pass." "You know that thing that you've been pursuing God for...it's never gonna happen." "You know that dream that God birthed inside of you...it'll never exist...you're wasting your time." And that's when it hits me...HE's a SNEAKY BASTARD!!!! He's trying to get *us* to *sacrifice* the very things that God has purposed us for.

John 10:10