BATTLING THE ENEMIES IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JUNE 26, 2021.

SUBJECT : BATTLING THE ENEMIES IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM!

Memory verse: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6 vs 12.) 

READ: Ephesians 6 vs 13 - 18:

6:13: Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

6:14: Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

6:15: and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

6:16: above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery dirts of the wicked one.

6:17: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which the word of God;

6:18: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

INTIMATION:

In the Christian life, we battle against principalities and powers (the powerful evil forces of fallen angels headed by Satan, who is a vicious fighter). To withstand their attacks we must depend on God's strength and use every piece of His armor. We fight against the demons over whom Satan has control. They are very real, and not mere fantasies. We face a powerful army whose goal is to defeat the body of Christ. When you believe in Christ, these beings become your enemies, and they try every device to turn you away from Christ and back to sin. 

The battle is in spiritual realm with manifestations in the physical. Although we are assured of victory, we must engage in the struggle until Christ returns, because Satan is constantly battling against all who are on the Lord's side (First Peter 5 vs 8). We need supernatural power to defeat Satan and God has provided this by giving us His Holy Spirit within us and His armor surrounding us. 

The war is a spiritual warfare—the war of prayers, and not the war of rifles such as "AK 47" to shoot down the devil and his cohorts. The failure of all Christian enterprises is a prayer failure. Prayer alone gives success. Preaching, and personal work are God-honored, and blessed vocations or ministries, but prayer is the foundation of it all. A man might preach with a superb eloquence and be the most skilled of diplomats as a soul winner, but he will fall short of his ministry in both fields if he isn't backed up by the prayer life. 

The demons (principalities and powers) and their master are spirits which you don't see nor engage physically, and the fight against them is also in the spirit realm via prayers. We need supernatural powers to defeat Satan, and God has provided this by giving us His Holy Spirit—the sole interpreter of the needs of the human heart—within us, and His armor surrounding us.

The armor of God is utilized in battle through prayer; praying at all times, that is, on every occasion, in every season, in the Spirit, with all manner of prayer and entreaty. And to that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance. 

Prayer: Abba Father, without You I can do nothing. O Lord, endue me with the spirit of constant communication with You in prayers, that I may be empowered by Your whole armor for the battle against Satan and his cohorts, that I will overcome them, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

HOW TO CALL GOD IN TIME OF TROUBLE!

 

The Fear That Draws Us In

 

“Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” (Exodus 20:20)

There is a fear that is slavish and drives us away from God, and there is a fear that is sweet and draws us to God. Moses warned against the one and called for the other in the very same verse, Exodus 20:20: “Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.’”

The clearest illustration I have ever seen of this kind of good fear was the time one of my sons looked a German shepherd in the eye. We were visiting a family from our church. My son Karsten was about seven years old. They had a huge dog that stood eye to eye with a seven-year-old.

He was friendly and Karsten had no problem making friends. But when we sent Karsten back to the car to get something we had forgotten, he started to run, and the dog galloped up behind him with a low growl. And of course, this frightened Karsten. But the owner said, “Karsten, why don’t you just walk? The dog doesn’t like it when people run away from him.”

If Karsten hugged the dog, he was friendly and would even lick his face. But if he ran from the dog, the dog would growl and fill Karsten with fear.

That’s a picture of what it means to fear the Lord. God means for his power and holiness to kindle fear in us, not to drive us from him, but to drive us to him. Fearing God means, first, fearing to abandon him as our great security and satisfaction.

Or another way to say it is that we should fear unbelief. Fear not trusting God’s goodness. Isn’t that the point of Romans 11:20? “You stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.” That is, what we should fear is not believing, not having faith. Fear running away from God. But if we walk with him and hug his neck, he will be our friend and protector forever.

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GOD'S HOLY NAME!

 

Today’s Bible Reading: Ezekiel 39 God’s Holy Name “‘My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is coming and it shall be done,’ declares the Lord GOD.” – Ezekiel 39:7-8 NASB Since the beginning of time, God has made it clear that He has a wonderful plan for the world and all people. Yet, beginning with Adam and Eve, people often have rejected His plan and lived their own way. And some don’t stop with rejection—they develop a hatred for God and anyone who believes in Him. They curse Him and defy His laws. But God wants us to know that He’s aware of what is happening. He promises that some day “the nations will know that I am the Lord.” We see God’s sovereign hand in the visions He gave Ezekiel. He promised to orchestrate events so that powerful nations of the world would gather together against Israel. But God promised to send fire even on “those who inhabit the coastlands in safety.” As a result, “they will know that I am the LORD” (vs. 1-6). Every day, we see events in the news beginning to line up with Biblical prophecies. Many people react with panic and fear. Some doubt and are skeptical. But God wants us to realize that He still is in charge. He is God! Today, the Lord wants you to know that you can trust Him to take care of everything. He will defend His name and accomplish His purposes. This is a day to renew your faith in Him. Worship Him. Serve Him. Trust Him. Prayer: Father, help me to be aware of Your prophetic purposes. Help me to be spiritually prepared, and use me to bring the Gospel to the nations while there is time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Death Trap Called Covetousness

 

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. (1 Timothy 6:9)

Covetousness can destroy the soul in hell forever.

The reason I am sure that this destruction is not some temporary financial fiasco, but final destruction in hell, is what Paul says three verses later in 1 Timothy 6:12. He says that covetousness is to be resisted with the fight of faith. Then he adds, “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession.” What’s at stake in fleeing covetousness and fighting for contentment by faith in future grace is eternal life.

So, when Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:9 that the desire to be rich plunges people into ruin, he isn’t saying that greed can mess up your marriage or your business (which it certainly can!). He is saying that covetousness can mess up your eternity. Or, as 1 Timothy 6:10 says at the end, “It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (literally: “impaled themselves on many pains”).

God has gone the extra mile in the Bible to warn us mercifully that the idolatry of covetousness is a no-win situation. It’s a dead-end street in the worst sense of the word. It’s a trick and a deadly trap.

So, my word to you is the word of 1 Timothy 6:11: “Flee these things.” When you see it coming (in a television ad or a Christmas catalog or an Internet pop-up or a neighbor’s purchase), run from it the way you would run from a roaring, starving lion escaped from the zoo. “Take hold of the eternal life.”

WALKING IN THE NEWNESS OF LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JUNE 25, 2021.

SUBJECT : WALKING IN THE NEWNESS OF LIFE!

Memory verse: "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.” (Romans 6 vs 4.) 

READ: Colossians 3 vs 1 - 4:

3:1: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

3:2: Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

3:3: For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

3:4: When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

INTIMATION:

God planned that Christians should walk in the fullness of the divine life; that we should dare to take our positions as sons and daughters of God; and that hour is coming before the Lord's return in which members of the body will rise and walk before God the Father in newness of the New Creation Life.

In the New Creation life, Christians will be masters of this world, just as Jesus Christ and our Father are the Masters of this world. Any form of hindrance is destroyed. Disease will not be able to lay hold upon them. Ignorance and fear will be banished, because the wisdom that comes from above, that is in Jesus, will lead them into the full dream, ambitions and purposes of our Father. 

Christians have been translated out of the realm of darkness; that is, the kingdom of weakness, darkness, and ignorance. They have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His Love, which is the realm of wealth, of life, of joy, of light, of peace, and of faith. They are one with Christ and our lives hidden with Christ in God. To walk in the newness of life is expressed thus:

“That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (Colossians 1 vs 10 - 13.)

The apostle Paul, in the passage above, lists five benefits God gives all believers through Christ: (1) God has enabled us to share in Christ’s inheritance; (2) He has rescued us from Satan’s kingdom of darkness and made us His children; (3) He has brought us into His eternal kingdom; (4) He has purchased our freedom from sin and judgement with His blood; (5) He has forgiven us our sins. 

Sharing in Christ’s inheritance, the Scripture says; “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (Second Corinthians 5 vs 21). As believers, we trust in Christ’s substitutionary work for us, we make an exchange. He takes our sin and makes us right with God. Our sin was laid on Christ at His crucifixion. His righteousness is given to us at our conversion. 

By His Sacrificial death on the cross He rescued us from Satan’s kingdom of darkness, and He has brought us to His eternal kingdom, Through Jesus’ sacrifice, God has brought us into His family. We are God’s children, and joint heirs along with Jesus.

Jesus purchased our freedom from sin and judgement. Our sins are forgiven, It is of God’s grace that we are in Christ Jesus, “Who has become for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (First Corinthians 1 vs 30). Therefore, the limits of our wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, are the limits of Jesus, Jesus is also our life, and the limits of that life are the limits of the Life of the Son of God. But because He is limitless, we are also limitless.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You immensely for the inheritance you have given us Christ Jesus. Engrace me to walk in the newness of life in Christ, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!