Matthew 6:33 is one of those major road markers. It gives the direction we are to take whenever we encounter a crossroads. Following the directions at Matthew 6:33 will always lead us where we want to go. Not just our spirit, but our flesh as well. Our flesh is concerned about the food and clothing and housing. Matthew 6:33 is a promise to add all these to us if we make the right choice. By following the directions at this signpost we will always be heading in the direction that will lead to our ultimate happiness.
What I am just now starting to realize, at the age of 44, is that we encounter this crossroad multiple times. We are faced with this choice repeatedly throughout our month, week and day. And it's not the decisions that we make at huge multilane intersections that make the biggest difference. It's the small, moment by moment choices that make the biggest difference. On Monday morning, we are given the chance to seek first His kingdom by going to our jobs and performing with excellence. On pay day, we are given the chance to seek first His kingdom by being a tither. But those are the big intersections. Those choices are important but they don't have the same impact as all those little decisions we make throughout the day. During the day, we are faced with many small opportunities to seek first the Kingdom of God and it's the small decisions that make the impact.
It's the decision we make at 11 PM when no one is around to ask what websites we are visiting that's important. It's the decision we make at work when our coworkers want to gossip that has greater influence. Satan knows better than to come at us directly. He slithers into the small cracks of life and encourages us to make small private decisions that direct us away from the kingdom. These small decisions by virtue of their volume, have the greatest impact on what direction our life takes.
Refusing to worry is one of the most important ways we can seek first the Kingdom of God. A great moment of freedom came for me when I realized that there will never come a day when I won't have something to worry about. Even if all the bills get paid, the enemy can still attack my health. Even if I manage to believe in my healing, the enemy can still attack my marriage. There will always be something the enemy can attack that will give me a reason to worry. It is crucial at these crossroads that we choose to seek first the kingdom of God by refusing to worry.
I didn't say "ignore the problem and it will go away." That's how the enemy would have you interpret that. Refusing to worry is not pasting a fake smile on your face and just pretending not to be worried. Refusing to worry is acknowledging the problem and then obeying God's instruction to cast them onto Him. This is a good time to get our mouths involved and say out loud:"I know my God will provide for this need. I am casting that concern onto Him and going about His business. He will see to that need. I will not delay in my duties to the Kingdom by tending to that need first."
This is not easy. This is not what your flesh wants to do. But its good that your flesh is troubled by this. Your flesh resisting so much is what makes it a worthy trial of the faith. If the flesh didn't have a problem with it, it wouldn't be a trial. If it's not a trial, then there's no chance for victory. If it's not a trial, then it doesn't matter what you seek first. There has to be a choosing of sides. There has to be a point where you rest your entire weight on your faith in God's promises and faithfulness or it doesn't matter. Anything less than that is trifling. And it is in the choosing of what we seek first that God is either honored or doubted. If He is honored, then He has the right to move into our situation and act in our favor. If He is doubted, then He must sit and watch us endure the consequences of our choices. Which means, there will be no blessing or promoting or granting of favor. It is crucial that we seek first His kingdom in every decision because seeking Him first is what grants Him the legal right to act on our behalf.
This is the principle of the boiled frog. You don't boil a frog by throwing him into a pot of boiling water. You set him comfortably in a pot of cool water and then slowly but consistently raise the temperature. Soon enough, you'll have a boiled frog. It's in life's little decisions that the temperature is raised. A bill here, a parking ticket there, a broken tooth, and etc. It is what we do when we encounter these small crossroads that matters the most. If at each of these little crossroads we chose to seek our own ends to the problems, before long we will find ourselves completely out of range of God's voice. If on the other hand, we face each of these small decisions with a commitment to continue to seek God and His righteousness, it's not long before these pesky little imps are dismissed. Because of our obedience, God has the freedom to put us on the heart of someone with great resources. And just like that, our problems are handled by God and we are further along in our pursuit of God.
This is the power of seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. With each little decision to seek first His Kingdom, we testify of our faith in Him and give Him the right to act on our behalf. With each of these little victories come greater resolve and stronger faith. There will never come a day when the problems will ease up and we can choose to seek God without putting a little stress on our faith muscle. But be encouraged. God is good. He keeps His promises. Each time we make the right choice, He moves into our situation with His abundant love. Each time we seek first the Kingdom of God, He adds to us all that we need.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Obedience that comes from faith
For the longest time, I have heard some words that didn't mean much to me. One of these words is "victory." Just about every church I've gone to sings a song about victory during praise and worship. At least once a sermon, the preacher will talk about victory. I've sung those songs and amen'd the sermons right along with everyone else but I must confess, I didn't really have any idea what I was talking about. What is this "victory" we hear so much about? Just recently, I have been taught what this word means and how important it is.
Let me start by stating what victory is NOT. Victory is NOT living to tell about it. That's called survival. Victory is not dealing with the pain. Victory is NOT achieving zen-like detachment from the tragedy while we adjust to life after a loss. That is NOT victory. Well, not for the believer anyway. This is a victory for our enemy. Victory for the believer involves us laying hold of the blessings of Abraham. Victory must include US winning AND the enemy losing.
My most recent victory came just the other day. I was allowing myself another day of self-pity and depression because I was upset with my lack of progress in the area of finances (what else?.) I was allowing my flesh to pout and mope about while doing nothing to improve my attitude. Every minister I can think of has told me what to do about my attitude when it decays like that. I have been told (and so have all of you) to count my blessings, take my thoughts captive, cast down everything that doesn't build my faith and start thanking God for all the abundance in my life. My brain knows what to do. But our brains are part of our flesh. Therefore, my brain couldn't get my flesh to change it's behavior. My faith was not in control. I had allowed my flesh to take control. Then came the miracle. Then something happened that will cause some of you to shout and others to yawn. I got a vision. I got a glimpse of my enemy laughing at me for acting like such a child.
That image of my enemy gloating and laughing over me fired me up. More than all the sermons; that flash of a vision of my enemy laughing at my failure changed me forever. That put the quarter in my slot. That has changed everything since then. That vision did what no sermon has been able to do. That fueled my faith with enough self-respect to grab my flesh by the ear and take control of my life. My flesh has made its last decision. From now on, my flesh will be taking it orders from my faith.
What is most humbling about this is the fact that I've been taught this lesson before. If you'll read some of my previous posts, you'll see that the Lord has been gracious enough to me to teach me this before. Apparently, this is one of those things I need to constantly stay aware of. Nevertheless, after seeing my enemy laughing at me, I once again made a commitment to defeating him and put my flesh under.
This is monumental! This makes living a life of faith possible. I am no longer just mentally agreeing to and seeing the intellectual benefit to living a life of faith. I am brimming with excitement to actually live by faith. It is impossible to live a life a faith if your flesh is still in control. And as long as our flesh is making decisions of any size, it is still in control. So the only acceptable way of life is to deny the flesh any say in any matter.
Incidentally, you'd think we'd have an easy time making this change given our flesh's track record. When we consider all the damage done and the complete lack of real progress towards our goals, you'd think we'd be ready for new management. Why then do we hesitate and chafe at this decision? It can only be because of one reason; our enemy knows how to influence our flesh better than we know how to master it.
Our enemy can influence the flesh. And he does. Our enemy knows what buttons to push. He knows how to lead us into making bad decisions that have terrible consequences. These consequences make living by faith even more challenging. And before you know it, many of us have lost decades of our lives to dealing with the consequences of bad decisions our enemy has conned us into making. We've have allowed the enemy too many easy victories. When I saw him laughing at me, I saw him enjoying his victory.
Now it's my turn. Now that I've had a taste of victory, I want some mo, I want some mo, I want some mooooooo. And I see this victory comes not by making just a mental change, it comes by making a commitment to obeying the Lord through faith. Paul talks about obedience that comes through faith in Romans. Obedience that comes from faith is constant and effortless. It is the difference between being drawn and driven. Obedience that comes from faith is drawn towards victory. Obedience that is driven by something isn't sufficient. Driven obedience won't provide enough motivation to persist against the enemy's attacks. Obedience that comes from faith is perpetually refueled with fresh vision of victory. Obedience that comes from anything else is in constant need of replenishing.
If we are to exercise the obedience that comes from faith, then we will need a good enough reason to resist the devil's attacks. The only thing that will fuel that kind of obedience against the constant onslaught of the enemy is knowing how good the victory is. The only thing that makes the struggle worthwhile is knowing how sweet victory tastes. What better way to learn how sweet the victory is than actually enjoying it on a regular basis? Nothing tastes or feels as good as winning. So a steady diet of victories is just what our spirit needs to keep exercising this obedience that comes from faith. That's why James tells us to count it all joy whenever we face trials. With these trials come great big helpings of the sweetest thing we can enjoy in this life. Each trial gives us another opportunity to taste victory.
This is victory. Feeling a rush of self-respect when we control our temper and don't throw a hissy-fit at the hostess for not seating us fast enough. When get off the webpage with the racy pictures without spiraling into hours of surfing porn sites. When we bite our lip and just do what our snot-nosed bosses tell us without griping about it all afternoon to our co-workers. This is victory. These are the kinds of behaviors that delight our Lord. Giving into them destroys our witness and ruins our chances of being used for the kingdom. God can not build a kingdom of Love with people who fail to demonstrate obedience that comes from faith. When we stop acting according to our flesh, we give God another viable weapon in the war for souls. That is victory. That is taking a weapon out of the enemies hands, and putting it in the Lord's hands.
We must have faith if we are to see this victory. Without the promise of victory, we will continue to let the enemy beguile us into caving into our lusts, throwing our temper tantrums, quitting our jobs, gambling our wages away or snorting them up our noses. We must have a taste of this victory. Once we get a vision of our enemy lying defeated at our feet, no longer laughing but fearfully contemplating his destruction, we'll want some more.
When we have allowed the enemy to have the victory; when we do what he wants us to do we become his perfect weapon. We not only encourage others to sin, we also give the Church a shameful reputation. When we win the victory of the battle over our behavior, we become his worst nightmare. We show everyone watching how rewarding it is to live by faith. We give God the opportunity to shower His approval upon us so they will want it also. Satan loses his grip on their life and the Kingdom wins another soul. This is victory. Something is lost. And something is won.
Let me start by stating what victory is NOT. Victory is NOT living to tell about it. That's called survival. Victory is not dealing with the pain. Victory is NOT achieving zen-like detachment from the tragedy while we adjust to life after a loss. That is NOT victory. Well, not for the believer anyway. This is a victory for our enemy. Victory for the believer involves us laying hold of the blessings of Abraham. Victory must include US winning AND the enemy losing.
My most recent victory came just the other day. I was allowing myself another day of self-pity and depression because I was upset with my lack of progress in the area of finances (what else?.) I was allowing my flesh to pout and mope about while doing nothing to improve my attitude. Every minister I can think of has told me what to do about my attitude when it decays like that. I have been told (and so have all of you) to count my blessings, take my thoughts captive, cast down everything that doesn't build my faith and start thanking God for all the abundance in my life. My brain knows what to do. But our brains are part of our flesh. Therefore, my brain couldn't get my flesh to change it's behavior. My faith was not in control. I had allowed my flesh to take control. Then came the miracle. Then something happened that will cause some of you to shout and others to yawn. I got a vision. I got a glimpse of my enemy laughing at me for acting like such a child.
That image of my enemy gloating and laughing over me fired me up. More than all the sermons; that flash of a vision of my enemy laughing at my failure changed me forever. That put the quarter in my slot. That has changed everything since then. That vision did what no sermon has been able to do. That fueled my faith with enough self-respect to grab my flesh by the ear and take control of my life. My flesh has made its last decision. From now on, my flesh will be taking it orders from my faith.
What is most humbling about this is the fact that I've been taught this lesson before. If you'll read some of my previous posts, you'll see that the Lord has been gracious enough to me to teach me this before. Apparently, this is one of those things I need to constantly stay aware of. Nevertheless, after seeing my enemy laughing at me, I once again made a commitment to defeating him and put my flesh under.
This is monumental! This makes living a life of faith possible. I am no longer just mentally agreeing to and seeing the intellectual benefit to living a life of faith. I am brimming with excitement to actually live by faith. It is impossible to live a life a faith if your flesh is still in control. And as long as our flesh is making decisions of any size, it is still in control. So the only acceptable way of life is to deny the flesh any say in any matter.
Incidentally, you'd think we'd have an easy time making this change given our flesh's track record. When we consider all the damage done and the complete lack of real progress towards our goals, you'd think we'd be ready for new management. Why then do we hesitate and chafe at this decision? It can only be because of one reason; our enemy knows how to influence our flesh better than we know how to master it.
Our enemy can influence the flesh. And he does. Our enemy knows what buttons to push. He knows how to lead us into making bad decisions that have terrible consequences. These consequences make living by faith even more challenging. And before you know it, many of us have lost decades of our lives to dealing with the consequences of bad decisions our enemy has conned us into making. We've have allowed the enemy too many easy victories. When I saw him laughing at me, I saw him enjoying his victory.
Now it's my turn. Now that I've had a taste of victory, I want some mo, I want some mo, I want some mooooooo. And I see this victory comes not by making just a mental change, it comes by making a commitment to obeying the Lord through faith. Paul talks about obedience that comes through faith in Romans. Obedience that comes from faith is constant and effortless. It is the difference between being drawn and driven. Obedience that comes from faith is drawn towards victory. Obedience that is driven by something isn't sufficient. Driven obedience won't provide enough motivation to persist against the enemy's attacks. Obedience that comes from faith is perpetually refueled with fresh vision of victory. Obedience that comes from anything else is in constant need of replenishing.
If we are to exercise the obedience that comes from faith, then we will need a good enough reason to resist the devil's attacks. The only thing that will fuel that kind of obedience against the constant onslaught of the enemy is knowing how good the victory is. The only thing that makes the struggle worthwhile is knowing how sweet victory tastes. What better way to learn how sweet the victory is than actually enjoying it on a regular basis? Nothing tastes or feels as good as winning. So a steady diet of victories is just what our spirit needs to keep exercising this obedience that comes from faith. That's why James tells us to count it all joy whenever we face trials. With these trials come great big helpings of the sweetest thing we can enjoy in this life. Each trial gives us another opportunity to taste victory.
This is victory. Feeling a rush of self-respect when we control our temper and don't throw a hissy-fit at the hostess for not seating us fast enough. When get off the webpage with the racy pictures without spiraling into hours of surfing porn sites. When we bite our lip and just do what our snot-nosed bosses tell us without griping about it all afternoon to our co-workers. This is victory. These are the kinds of behaviors that delight our Lord. Giving into them destroys our witness and ruins our chances of being used for the kingdom. God can not build a kingdom of Love with people who fail to demonstrate obedience that comes from faith. When we stop acting according to our flesh, we give God another viable weapon in the war for souls. That is victory. That is taking a weapon out of the enemies hands, and putting it in the Lord's hands.
We must have faith if we are to see this victory. Without the promise of victory, we will continue to let the enemy beguile us into caving into our lusts, throwing our temper tantrums, quitting our jobs, gambling our wages away or snorting them up our noses. We must have a taste of this victory. Once we get a vision of our enemy lying defeated at our feet, no longer laughing but fearfully contemplating his destruction, we'll want some more.
When we have allowed the enemy to have the victory; when we do what he wants us to do we become his perfect weapon. We not only encourage others to sin, we also give the Church a shameful reputation. When we win the victory of the battle over our behavior, we become his worst nightmare. We show everyone watching how rewarding it is to live by faith. We give God the opportunity to shower His approval upon us so they will want it also. Satan loses his grip on their life and the Kingdom wins another soul. This is victory. Something is lost. And something is won.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Encampments
Psalm 35 promises us that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him. Many times in my haste to get to my agenda for the day, I have read quickly past this promise without appreciating just how significant this is. This is no small thing. There is an enemy out there that seeks our destruction. Without the protection of this angel, our enemy could very easily accomplish his goal. Today while reading in Acts, I saw a picture of just how robust and adequate this protection is.
In Acts 23:16, Paul's nephew overhears a plot about 40 men who have vowed not to eat or drink until they have killed Paul. First of all, let's take a moment and appreciate the fact that the Lord supplied a spy to overhear the plot. Our God is so good to us. Next, the boy reports what he's heard to Paul. Paul, a Roman citizen, is in the protective custody of the Roman legion at this time. The commander of this legion is forever grateful to Paul because Paul didn't have him killed for nearly flogging Paul. Then Paul, who now has the eternal gratitude of the centurions guarding him needs only to make them aware of the plot against him. Paul doesn't need to do anything else. From the moment his guardians are told of the plot, they go into immediate action to fully accommodate Paul's complete safety. They prepare a cordon of protection around him devoting 470 men to Paul's protection detail. 470 trained Roman soldiers to protect Paul against 40 rash citizens. This is the same protection we enjoy.
Acts 23:23 gives us the full picture. There are 200 regular soldiers, seventy horsemen and 200 spearmen. This detail of 470 men with spears and horses surrounding Paul is a real life example of the encampment of angels that surrounds us. Satan would plant a picture in our mind that we are on our own in our travails. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When we are in the perfect will of God and carrying out his orders, we have great protection that is exceedingly sufficient to handle any assault.
However, imagine Paul's plight if he weren't in that protective custody. If he wasn't in the midst of dispatching his God-given duties, he would have been alone in his defense. We would be wise to ponder this as well. As encouraging as it is to know about His great protection, it should be equally frightening to consider life without it. This should give us new-found appreciation for this encampment that surrounds us. Because we are children of the Most High, because dwell in the shadow of the Almighty, we have a protective guard around us that is at least ten times mightier than our would-be attackers. If we were to step away from this protection, we are outnumbered 40 to 1.
Ponder this image today. Try to see with your spiritual eyes how the angel of the Lord encamped around protects you. Consider the car that DOESN'T drift into your lane and cause a wreck. Think about the virus that doesn't find a vulnerable host site in your body. Think about and give thanks for this protection today. Be careful not to dwell on these dangers but take a moment to appreciate the diligent service of the angel that protects you today. Ponder this and give glory to God for His mercies that are new every morning.
In Acts 23:16, Paul's nephew overhears a plot about 40 men who have vowed not to eat or drink until they have killed Paul. First of all, let's take a moment and appreciate the fact that the Lord supplied a spy to overhear the plot. Our God is so good to us. Next, the boy reports what he's heard to Paul. Paul, a Roman citizen, is in the protective custody of the Roman legion at this time. The commander of this legion is forever grateful to Paul because Paul didn't have him killed for nearly flogging Paul. Then Paul, who now has the eternal gratitude of the centurions guarding him needs only to make them aware of the plot against him. Paul doesn't need to do anything else. From the moment his guardians are told of the plot, they go into immediate action to fully accommodate Paul's complete safety. They prepare a cordon of protection around him devoting 470 men to Paul's protection detail. 470 trained Roman soldiers to protect Paul against 40 rash citizens. This is the same protection we enjoy.
Acts 23:23 gives us the full picture. There are 200 regular soldiers, seventy horsemen and 200 spearmen. This detail of 470 men with spears and horses surrounding Paul is a real life example of the encampment of angels that surrounds us. Satan would plant a picture in our mind that we are on our own in our travails. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When we are in the perfect will of God and carrying out his orders, we have great protection that is exceedingly sufficient to handle any assault.
However, imagine Paul's plight if he weren't in that protective custody. If he wasn't in the midst of dispatching his God-given duties, he would have been alone in his defense. We would be wise to ponder this as well. As encouraging as it is to know about His great protection, it should be equally frightening to consider life without it. This should give us new-found appreciation for this encampment that surrounds us. Because we are children of the Most High, because dwell in the shadow of the Almighty, we have a protective guard around us that is at least ten times mightier than our would-be attackers. If we were to step away from this protection, we are outnumbered 40 to 1.
Ponder this image today. Try to see with your spiritual eyes how the angel of the Lord encamped around protects you. Consider the car that DOESN'T drift into your lane and cause a wreck. Think about the virus that doesn't find a vulnerable host site in your body. Think about and give thanks for this protection today. Be careful not to dwell on these dangers but take a moment to appreciate the diligent service of the angel that protects you today. Ponder this and give glory to God for His mercies that are new every morning.
Monday, October 4, 2010
A big price for citizenship
In Acts 22:28 a Roman centurion is terrified of what will happen to him because he arrested Paul, a Roman citizen. He asks Paul if he is a Roman citizen and when Paul says yes, the centurion stammers with worry. The centurion also marvels because he had to pay a big price for his citizenship. The centurion is further horrified to hear that Paul was born a citizen which makes his actions even more egregious. The centurion was on the brink of doing the unpardonable in Rome. He was about to assault a citizen without cause. The punishment for this was death. He had almost signed his own death warrant. Paul was shielded at that moment from punishment because of his citizenship. This is exactly the same protection we enjoy as citizens of Heaven.
Once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, our citizenship is forever changed to Heaven. We become the protected people of God. We enjoy, or should enjoy, the fully capable protection of God's own promises. This may not be accepted or understood here in the natural but it is fully understood and respected by Satan and his minions. Once we declare and demand our rights as citizens of Heaven, Satan shrinks from his attacks and flees. We have this promise that if we resist the Devil, he will flee. Here's why. Flashing our credentials as citizen's of Heaven will send our enemy running away from us because the punishment for ignoring this law is swift and severe. Remember the herd of swine?
Matthew 8:28-33 tells the story of some demons who were terrified of being tortured before the appointed time. This tells us something veeeeeeeeeeery important. As frightening and terrifying our enemy can pretend to be, we know what frightens him! We know that he is terrified of the torture that awaits him. We also have some clues to our authority here. If the demons thought Jesus had the authority to send them to their eternal torture immediately, and Jesus has given US that same authority, then the demons that dare to attack us are in grave danger. When a demon fails in his attempt to get us to fall into sin and doubt, he doesn't just go back to the bench until his next at-bat. He doesn't get another shot at it. He gets one opportunity to cause us to fall and if he fails at it, he is banished. We can, in our authority in Christ, send a demon to his eternal damnation early! I find that very empowering!
If a demon is successful and gets his hooks into us, then he can abide in our life and wreak havoc until he is banished. Until he finds a soul that will tolerate his presence, he is swirling powerless in the spirit realm in constant danger of being banished to his eternal damnation immediately. This should be very empowering for us to realize. This should completely change our posture. We should not be flinching at every enemy attack, we should be returning fire!
If some demon dares to raise their hand against us or our kids, we should explode with righteous anger and send that imp to his damnation. Word will soon spread throughout the spirit world that we are not to be trifled with and we'll find ourselves dealing with fewer demons. Demons are cowardly, they will only attack the frightened and weak.
Now back to the matter of our citizenship. If some demon attempts to stretch us across the rack to torture us with poverty, lack, sickness, or anxiety, we need to remind him and ourselves that we are citizens of Heaven. We are protected by the Name of the Lord. This should be all that is necessary to make him stop. Just like in our example with the Roman centurion, when Paul simply said the words "I was born a citizen of Rome", his would-be torturers stepped back in fear. When we remind the assaulting demons that we have the power to send them to their eternal punishment right NOW, that should be all that is needed to send them yelping into the nearest herd of pigs. This is our right; we have this authority. We can put the devil on the run!
The Roman centurion in our story paid what he calls a big price for his citizenship. And as a citizen of Rome, he was doing his duty of punishing anyone who violates the laws of Rome. He paid the price of citizenship and was fulfilling his duty as a citizen. This is an important picture for us to study. No matter what price that centurion paid for his citizenship, it was far less than the price paid for our citizenship in Heaven. Notice also that Paul had authority that exceeded that of his captors because he was born a citizen. Our torturer did not buy his right to operate in this world, he stole it from Adam. Therefore, since we were born citizens of Heaven when we accepted Christ as our Savior, our authority to operate in this world is greater than his and he knows it.
Notice also that no matter how important the centurion's role was to Rome, our duty is far more important to God. A great price has been paid for our citizenship in Heaven. With this comes great authority that is recognized by our enemy. We are to exercise this authority. As long as we fail to recognize this authority and use it, our enemy will have freedoms he's not entitled to. He'll use those freedoms to steal, kill and destroy. Our duty as citizens of heaven is to exercise the authority bought for us to stop the enemy from torturing our citizens and breaking our laws. It is a dereliction of our duty to allow Satan so much freedom. Whenever we see his influence, it is incumbent on us to squash it and banish the offending spirit.
What is most remarkable about today's blog is that it is coming from me. I used to be the worst at poking fun at people for saying things like this. I used to do the most obnoxious impersonations of wild-eyed, polyester clad preachers saying things like this. I thank God for showing me mercy for my ignorance. I am now fully persuaded and humbly compliant with God's word in this matter. It is extremely important that we recognize and exercise the authority Christ bought for us. We will not be able to fulfill all the work that has been prepared for us to do if we don't exercise our authority. Enjoy your citizenship today. Exercise your rights as a citizen of Heaven and put the devil on the run.
Once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, our citizenship is forever changed to Heaven. We become the protected people of God. We enjoy, or should enjoy, the fully capable protection of God's own promises. This may not be accepted or understood here in the natural but it is fully understood and respected by Satan and his minions. Once we declare and demand our rights as citizens of Heaven, Satan shrinks from his attacks and flees. We have this promise that if we resist the Devil, he will flee. Here's why. Flashing our credentials as citizen's of Heaven will send our enemy running away from us because the punishment for ignoring this law is swift and severe. Remember the herd of swine?
Matthew 8:28-33 tells the story of some demons who were terrified of being tortured before the appointed time. This tells us something veeeeeeeeeeery important. As frightening and terrifying our enemy can pretend to be, we know what frightens him! We know that he is terrified of the torture that awaits him. We also have some clues to our authority here. If the demons thought Jesus had the authority to send them to their eternal torture immediately, and Jesus has given US that same authority, then the demons that dare to attack us are in grave danger. When a demon fails in his attempt to get us to fall into sin and doubt, he doesn't just go back to the bench until his next at-bat. He doesn't get another shot at it. He gets one opportunity to cause us to fall and if he fails at it, he is banished. We can, in our authority in Christ, send a demon to his eternal damnation early! I find that very empowering!
If a demon is successful and gets his hooks into us, then he can abide in our life and wreak havoc until he is banished. Until he finds a soul that will tolerate his presence, he is swirling powerless in the spirit realm in constant danger of being banished to his eternal damnation immediately. This should be very empowering for us to realize. This should completely change our posture. We should not be flinching at every enemy attack, we should be returning fire!
If some demon dares to raise their hand against us or our kids, we should explode with righteous anger and send that imp to his damnation. Word will soon spread throughout the spirit world that we are not to be trifled with and we'll find ourselves dealing with fewer demons. Demons are cowardly, they will only attack the frightened and weak.
Now back to the matter of our citizenship. If some demon attempts to stretch us across the rack to torture us with poverty, lack, sickness, or anxiety, we need to remind him and ourselves that we are citizens of Heaven. We are protected by the Name of the Lord. This should be all that is necessary to make him stop. Just like in our example with the Roman centurion, when Paul simply said the words "I was born a citizen of Rome", his would-be torturers stepped back in fear. When we remind the assaulting demons that we have the power to send them to their eternal punishment right NOW, that should be all that is needed to send them yelping into the nearest herd of pigs. This is our right; we have this authority. We can put the devil on the run!
The Roman centurion in our story paid what he calls a big price for his citizenship. And as a citizen of Rome, he was doing his duty of punishing anyone who violates the laws of Rome. He paid the price of citizenship and was fulfilling his duty as a citizen. This is an important picture for us to study. No matter what price that centurion paid for his citizenship, it was far less than the price paid for our citizenship in Heaven. Notice also that Paul had authority that exceeded that of his captors because he was born a citizen. Our torturer did not buy his right to operate in this world, he stole it from Adam. Therefore, since we were born citizens of Heaven when we accepted Christ as our Savior, our authority to operate in this world is greater than his and he knows it.
Notice also that no matter how important the centurion's role was to Rome, our duty is far more important to God. A great price has been paid for our citizenship in Heaven. With this comes great authority that is recognized by our enemy. We are to exercise this authority. As long as we fail to recognize this authority and use it, our enemy will have freedoms he's not entitled to. He'll use those freedoms to steal, kill and destroy. Our duty as citizens of heaven is to exercise the authority bought for us to stop the enemy from torturing our citizens and breaking our laws. It is a dereliction of our duty to allow Satan so much freedom. Whenever we see his influence, it is incumbent on us to squash it and banish the offending spirit.
What is most remarkable about today's blog is that it is coming from me. I used to be the worst at poking fun at people for saying things like this. I used to do the most obnoxious impersonations of wild-eyed, polyester clad preachers saying things like this. I thank God for showing me mercy for my ignorance. I am now fully persuaded and humbly compliant with God's word in this matter. It is extremely important that we recognize and exercise the authority Christ bought for us. We will not be able to fulfill all the work that has been prepared for us to do if we don't exercise our authority. Enjoy your citizenship today. Exercise your rights as a citizen of Heaven and put the devil on the run.
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