Unmasking the Enemy's Tactics in Digital Ministry Ep.3

Have you ever thought about the trials and traps that online influencers face in the digital world? Well, prepare for a revelation as we unravel the tactics used by our enemy to thwart our godly mission. Ephesians 6:11 serves as our compass, reminding us to gear up in the armor of God against the devil's ploys. We touch on the allure of fame and pride, the attack on our capabilities, and the overwhelming tasks that can easily pull us off track. 

Diving further into the discussion, we tackle practical ways to rise above these challenges. Tune in as we share three valuable strategies to help you defy these attacks and stay focused on your mission to spread God's word. Whether you're a ministry leader, a Christian influencer, or simply a believer seeking to navigate the digital space, this episode is your torchlight. Together, let's learn to identify the enemy's attacks and continue furthering the Kingdom in the digital sphere!

If you are interested in taking your digital discipleship to the next level through blogging, YouTube, social media, and/or online Bible study groups, be sure to join my private FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kingdombloggers
You can also follow me on YouTube where you will find a variety of helpful tutorials for navigating each of these important platforms: https://www.youtube.com/@KingdomBloggers

Transcript

LeeAnn Fox: 0:02

Welcome to the Kingdom Influencers podcast, where our mission is to get more Jesus online. This podcast will equip and empower ministry leaders as well as regular everyday Christians to take the message of Jesus Christ throughout the digital realm. I'm your host, Leanne Fox, digital Ministry Coach and the creator of the Kingdom Bloggers Ministry, and I am so excited and honored to be a part of this journey with you. Let's get started. Welcome, friends, to the third episode of the Kingdom Influencers podcast. So today we're going to talk about how the enemy attacks us as online influencers. The verse we're going to start with today is Ephesians 611 from the NIV translation Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. This is such an important verse to always kind of keep in the back of your mind when you're going to go into the online space. Even if you're not trying to be an influencer, even if you're not like trying to be a blogger or a YouTuber, but you're just like a regular person who uses social media, the enemy is really great about using it to attack you in ways that you probably don't even realize. So today we're going to talk about five very specific ways that the enemy attacks us here in the online space, and then I'm going to give you three ways to actually kind of help you overcome or be mindful of these attacks when they're happening. Okay, all right. So the first way that the enemy attacks us online as influencers is I mentioned this actually last week during our episode talking about the temptation of fame or pride. It's very easy, when you get into this online space and you start developing a following male subscribers, people following your different channels and so forth to start kind of getting a big head. And while even the most, I guess, faithful of us can't think of a better way to put it but those of us who feel as though we're truly grounded in our faith, we're susceptible to the temptation as well. You actually see this a lot with the pastors and preachers or whatever they're called, depending on the domination, the ones that take to the online space, or the televangelists and things like that, and it kind of seemed that the more popular they got, the more money kind of took control of their actions and things. And we see pastors who fall from grace, so to speak, and doing things Everyone's like. But he's a pastor. How could he do that? He's like God's right-hand man doing pastoral work and things.

LeeAnn Fox: 2:50

All of us are susceptible to the schemes of the enemy. All of us are susceptible to the temptations of sin, and it doesn't matter how outright sinful you are or how I'm trying to be really godly you are, you're still susceptible to it. And here in the online space, I think we're even more susceptible. So the temptation of fame and pride is real. I've seen it, and the problem with it, I mean, of course, is the sin. So it's a problem, right, but the biggest part of that temptation is it takes our eyes off of God and it puts it on ourselves Like I need more followers, I need more, more, more. And it becomes about me and less about getting more God-filled content on the internet. Less about pouring into others through the online space. It becomes more about pouring into yourself, and so you always have to be mindful of that, and sometimes it can be hard, especially as you do start gaining momentum and seeing growth, to kind of ensure that you have checks and balances for yourself, and I'll talk about I actually talked about some of those last week, but I'll talk about those again, like at the end of this when I get through all the five. But it's very, very important that you have some kind of checks and balances to keep your mind in the right place, like your mind on God, your eyes on God, because that temptation is very, very real. Like we all want to feel valued, but we want to be recognized, and those who maybe were never really felt seen, say growing up or as a young child or as a young adult, suddenly you get it and it's like kid in a candy store. You just want more of it, and that's kind of one of the dangers in this online space. But it's a danger that the enemy has created. It's an attack on you, because the more you're focused on yourself, the less you're focused on sharing the gospel, right, so I mean, it takes our eyes off of God, but that's the point, because when our eyes are not on God, we're not focused on sharing his message.

LeeAnn Fox: 5:02

Okay, so, number two, being an influencer in the online space. The enemy uses this to his advantage, like, I think, in no other way than I mean, in history. Maybe I don't know, but it attacks. He can attack our confidence in. In all my classes that I teach all the students I've had, the people who follow me and my Facebook group and things like that. This is the number one struggle that I see happening with with newer people coming into it like I want to start a Christian blog or be a youtuber or whatever, because I want to share the message of Jesus in this basis.

LeeAnn Fox: 5:41

But it's the confidence that most often keeps them from truly stepping into this calling, the confidence of, and it can take many forms. It could be as simple as I'm not pretty enough to be on video like nobody wants to look at my face, or I'm not a good writer, or I'm not. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. Pick a pick, an ending to that. When you step into this space, the enemy is immediately. I would I'm probably should have put this one as number one, because I think it is one of the most powerful ways that the enemy keeps us From stepping into our calling right. Because when we don't feel like we're good enough, we're not gonna do something right, we let that confidence kind of overtake us and then we don't. We see, we let fear you know, of what people are gonna say or how it's gonna be perceived or whatever, but then you add to that. So let's see, you do step pass that fear and you're like I'm gonna do it. Okay, I did it.

LeeAnn Fox: 6:40

Well, then comes the tidal wave of the confidence Breakers inside the online world, the criticism you are going to receive, whether it's from family or friends, whether it's from others in the industry, so to speak, like other online Christian influencers, other Christians y'all. I have to say this, but you all know it's true, christians can be the most critical of Anybody out there, right? The? Especially the really self-righteous ones, and and I don't really think they intend it to be mean, but how things come out of their mouths Tend to not be very encouraging and can really just kill any level of confidence that you may have had luck. I have seen this happen over and over again and I try to tell the individuals like look, if God called you through it, then he knew you had the capability to succeed and he didn't want you to succeed based on your looks or things like that. He wanted you to succeed because you Trusted that he was going to guide you through it, and we often forget about that part of it. We we see our successes based on something about ourselves and not simply in the faith that God called us to do something and he's gonna help us get through it right. Another way that our attack, that we get our confidence attacked and this is another one that I see a lot Is technology right.

LeeAnn Fox: 8:07

Most of us who who are feeling called into this online influence or space have no formal training in. You know all the techie stuff. We're not tech nerds, we're not any of that and so it's very like some of us barely know where the on button is for our Computer, if you want to be honest, right. And so the idea of having to learn how to build a website or how to edit videos or edit audio that is very overwhelming and Right out the door. We're like I can't do it. I don't know how to do this. I am too old to learn this kind of stuff. I don't have formal training.

LeeAnn Fox: 8:46

These are the answers a lot of people give me as to why they haven't, like, moved forward and whatever it is they're doing. So the technology in and of itself is a huge kill to our confidence. And let's say, you're like okay, I figured out what their on button is and I'm doing this. I got my website built and then boom, google doesn't update and it's like how. I don't even know. I don't know what half.

LeeAnn Fox: 9:09

These terms are like all the acronyms that you hear when you're in the online space, like other people are talking like am I supposed to know what that means? And so technology is always changing, and so you're always having to learn something new. This is not one of those where you're like I did it, that's it. I know everything. Nope, tomorrow something brand new is going to come out, and so the confidence in keeping up with that is very, very powerful and can be very overwhelming to get you to just like give up right and ultimately like newsflash here.

LeeAnn Fox: 9:42

The whole goal of all of this for the enemy is to get you to give up. He does not want you to continue on this mission that God has called you to. Why? Because he knows how powerful digital discipleship is, and the enemy is going to come at you any and every way possible to get you to give up, so always remember that. Okay, moving on, the third way that the enemy attacks us in the online space as influencers is simply the overload and overwhelm when you first step into any part of this.

LeeAnn Fox: 10:20

If you are like I think I'm supposed to start a blog, or maybe I'm supposed to start YouTube or whatever, you got to learn everything right and there's so many things and unfortunately, there are a lot of teachers out there those who teach this stuff, like I do who teach you a lot of stuff you really don't need to know and tell you you have to do all the things and then they get you to buy products and all this stuff. And then you have all this stuff and you're like I don't even know where to begin, right, and so quickly things get out of control and you're just like I can't do this right. It's like if you've ever had a room that just says you're gathering room, like anything you don't know what to do with, you just throw it in that room and then one day you're like you know, I need to clean this room. I literally don't even know where to begin. That is a very real thing in this world. You know you have.

LeeAnn Fox: 11:12

I got to learn how to build my website. I got to figure out what I'm supposed to write about. Now I got to learn how to write it in a way that Google likes oh and, by the way, I need an email list. And then I'm supposed to be on all the social media channels, like last time I checked, there's only 24 hours in a day and part of that time I'm supposed to be doing like family stuff, right, and so it quickly just becomes not fun, and so you just put it away to one of those like kind of you store it in that things I thought about doing but then decided not to right, and so that overloaded, overwhelm is a real thing, and usually it's because well, not usually it is it's because you're just trying to do it all at once and that's really never worked in anything. Learning to do it in a structured manner and kind of sifting through the things that really aren't important is a better way to go about that.

LeeAnn Fox: 12:02

But you don't know that, and the enemy knows that you don't know that. And so he's there like kind of guiding you to all these shiny new things that you know, like to get you distracted, really like oh what's this and oh what's that. And one of the things I teach in my classes is to avoid the shiny things. Just focus on the foundation. But the enemy's good about using those shiny things to draw us. It's like, you know, with kids and candy. It's like come here, little kid, here's some candy. And for us as grownups in this online space all the newest, how to get more followers, how to get ranked, how to all this. That's our candy. It's like we want those things and we follow every little rabbit trail that we see. And when we do that, what we don't accomplish the mission and then eventually we give up.

LeeAnn Fox: 12:53

Okay so number four, and this is one I don't think most people think about as a actual spiritual warfare attack in the online space, but it's very easy for us to be lured into sinful actions. And so what do I mean by that? Well, if you have, let's say, social media and you post something and then the comments begin, most of the comments are probably encouraging and you know the kind of comments you would like to see, but then you start seeing a barrage of not so nice comments, and this could be like on your blog posts, this could be on your videos, or you know things like that. Well, we have a term in the online space called the online trolls. Many times, for those of you who don't know, these comments that are being left are not actually humans. They are bot accounts. That you know how. So I'm not a techie person. So how all that stuff works in the back end, I can't really translate to you, but these bots go out and seek certain types of content based on keywords in what you post and things like that, and then they go intentionally leave ugly, negative comments.

LeeAnn Fox: 14:08

But there's also people that do that. There's people who sole purpose in life is to go disrupt Christian spaces, disrupt happy spaces, really, and so it's very easy for you to engage unknowingly in this online argument with a bot or with a person who, no matter how much Jesus, you're trying to get across to them and you're commenting, they are just sparking more hate back to you, and what happens is then you start becoming angry and maybe are led to type something like comment something back that you normally wouldn't Like. How we lash out when we just get really frustrated, that's the devil y'all, that's the enemy leading us into temptation, right, leading us into temptation of being argumentative, of fighting with people in the online space, and we have to be very mindful of that. Other things, like with the bots they also not just leave you into engaging in that activity, but the biggest way to start a fight, so to speak, is for a non-Christian comment to be made in a Christian commenting thread, because not only then are you going to try to respond. All the other faith-filled people, well-meaning as they are, then start into an argument, and then your comment thread just becomes this huge bit argument, and you know what guys? That's what the enemy wants, because when a non-believer or those who are on the fence about us Christians see that they're like, why would I want to be a part of that? And all those Christians ever do is fight. All they do is argue, right. So it leads us into committing like sinful actions that we don't even realize we're doing sometimes, and so we have to be very mindful of that. When we find those comments, when we see those negative things. Honestly, when I see stuff like that, I just delete it. I don't even allow it the opportunity to create that in my space, and so each of you can deal with it how you want, but just be mindful, most of the time they're not even human, and if they are human, that's what they were there for. The whole point was, I mean, they probably don't even believe in God and believe in what they're really typing out to you. Their whole point is to get you to argue, and so that is again a very big way that we see spiritual warfare as online influencers. Ok, so number five, this is the last one, and again, this is one that you probably would not even think of.

LeeAnn Fox: 16:49

But the enemy can cause things to happen, or things that happen in our non-influencer life, so things outside of our online space family jobs, whatever attacking us in those spaces so that we're so distracted with that that we don't have the time to devote to what we're doing, to our mission. Literally anything that gets you away from writing that blog post, publishing that video, doing a podcast episode for me y'all. How the enemy attacked me for so long and even starting this podcast, was the noise in my house. I have dogs. I have neighbors that like to mow their grass at weird times. Every time I'd try to record an episode and it took me forever to figure out how to block it out. I mean, for me it was getting a really good microphone and there's a few other things I did in my room as well, and learning how to distract my dogs so they're not in here bothering me during that time and I was like my gosh, I've been putting off launching this podcast for so long over these things when I was like you know what that's the enemy trying to keep me from launching it, and so anything that's keeping you from doing what you feel called to do. Just see it as the enemy and figure out how to overcome it, how to adapt to it or, you know, whatever.

LeeAnn Fox: 18:16

So, okay, so we've talked about the five ways the temptation of fame and pride, the attacks on our competence, the overload and overwhelm of all of this stuff lowering us into sinful actions in the online space and attacking our non-influencer life. So how do we deal with this? How do we overcome it so that we can fully step into accomplishing the mission that God has put us on? So the first one is pretty simple Just be on the alert, right. Always be mindful that when you step into this space, there could be a danger. You know, I like to kind of relate it to when you have to walk out to your car. Let's say you're at the mall or you're somewhere at night after dark and you're walking out of that building through the parking lot to your vehicle and maybe it's in a you know, a parking garage that's really dark, or just something like that. As soon as you walk out the front door of that building, you are on alert, right. You're kind of scanning the parking lot. Your mind is aware that there could be dangers out here, and so you're alert to them. A sound of movement? You know something dark that you see over in the corner, whatever it is. We have to do that same thing, but in an online like manner Be alert to these things that I've actually talked about today. But just being alert, we should always be alert in everywhere, whether in the online space, in the physical space or whatever for schemes that the enemy is trying to throw at us, right?

LeeAnn Fox: 19:52

The second way is learning to discern. Is this something that the enemy is throwing at me? You know, when you start feeling that, especially with the confidence one, this is one that is so powerful, and that's why I said I probably should have put it as number one, because I see this over and over again I just don't feel like I can do this. Or, you know, I don't like. I've had many who did the blogging for so long and I'm telling them their next stage, like everything sort of is in stages. You don't want to stay at one place, right, you always want to like think forward and growth, and the biggest thing that keeps them from doing videos, say YouTube, or doing videos, like for reels on social media and stuff is their lack of confidence in how they look right. That is powerful. That is a powerful way to keep you from doing what God has called you to do.

LeeAnn Fox: 20:46

And so learning to discern that those negative thoughts that you have in your mind, that's just the enemy, because he knows that that's the way to get to you. The easiest way to attack someone's confidence is to attack someone's confidence, because when you're not confident about something, you're not going to step into it. So, learning to discern, when something that has happened to you or something that is going on that is keeping you from moving forward in this online influencer endeavor of yours, discern it as being from the enemy and not from God. And remember I've said this at the beginning if God put it on your heart that you feel called into this, that's God calling you to it. We know if he calls you to it, he's going to see you through it. And when you always remember that, then all those voices of the enemy get drowned out right. So turn up the volume on God's voice and turn off, like mute, the button for the enemy's voice in your head.

LeeAnn Fox: 21:49

And number three and y'all all through this podcast every episode. Most likely, you're going to hear me say this I mentioned it last week and I think number three is probably the most important thing that you have to remember being in this online space keep a godly circle around you. You have to have godly counselors, whether it's in the community, so in the blogging community, the YouTube podcasting community, whatever the online influencers community of other influencers, your church, you should be involved in a women's group, a men's group, a life group, whatever you call it. At your church, you have to have people that you trust who will keep you on the straight and narrow and let you know in a nice loving way hey, what were you doing, hey? Or, on the flip side, to help build you up when you feel the enemy's attacks on your confidence and things like that. You know, with the overload and overwhelm, keeping a godly circle within the influencer community, they're gonna help you just like kind of sift through all that madness to let you know what things you should be doing. Don't try to do this on your own, because that is a surefire way to Let the enemy take you for a ride, right? Okay, so I hope this was super helpful. I hope you know somebody listening to this today was encouraged.

LeeAnn Fox: 23:16

I can't tell you how many times I've seen the enemy win in this Game, if that's what you want to call it. I've taught so many. You know I've been doing my classes for Since 2019, so I was doing four classes a year and then through my Facebook ministry and you know All the different things that I have going on. I have spoken to hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian writers, bloggers, aspiring influencers, whatever and I've seen so many of them just give up and quit because of one of the things that I talked about today, and you know it's not their fault. I don't shame them for it in any way, because you know the power of the enemy is real and, I think, one of the main reasons that it ended that way for many of them.

LeeAnn Fox: 24:05

Of course, you know if you get sick and there's life, things that happen that take you away from it. But deal with your life. Don't look as that, as the enemy got me no illness and things happen. We know that things happen in this world, but any of these other things Keeping that godly circle around you will help get you back on track, will help give you the confidence and the courage and All of that and the information and knowledge if that's where you're lacking to continue to move forward.

LeeAnn Fox: 24:33

God needs us here, y'all. God needs his army to take control of this internet space to learn what you need to learn, to step fully into the confidence that you have in him so that you can fulfill this mission and dominating the online space for God's glory and putting the enemy like in his place right, which is not at the top. And so Don't ever, don't, ever, doubt that. If God has put it on your heart and how do I know if God's put it in my heart because I'm thinking about it like I had this thought today Maybe I should start a Christian blog because I really love Sharing God's word, or I love teaching Bible study, or I love leading Bible study, or whatever it is. I've gone through this horrible thing in life and I came out a winner on the other side. I feel that God wants me to share that testimony to help others. That's how you know God put it on your heart. So if it's there and you're listening to this podcast today, what are you waiting for? God is going to see you through it. So stop putting your confidence in things of this world and put it back in God and Let him lead you to the resources that are going to help you accomplish the mission that he has for you.

LeeAnn Fox: 25:43

All right, guys. That is all for today. Thank you so much for listening. Be sure to follow our channel here and, if you're on iTunes, apple, please leave us a review. Share this podcast with a friend, a blogging friend, up an aspiring influencer friend, if you feel led. And Remember, if you aren't using the internet to influence others towards Jesus, the enemy is surely going to use it to influence them away from him. All right, y'all, I will talk to you in the next episode. God bless, and have a great week. Bye, bye.