Posted: 2/28/2010 7:23:13 PM EDT
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My Sunday school lesson today had to do with, Ephesians 6:10-12: Finally be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authouities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
Strengthened––––-Life is hard and full of difficulties, challenges and traps. Let God equip you. His vast strength––––-Empowering is not automatic; it comes as we choose to obey God. Full Armor––––-God supplies the armor; however, we must dress in it in order for it to work. Stand––––-To remain intact and stay in the right place. Tactics––––-The Devil is deceitful. He attracts and then betrays our trust; he is thoroughly evil. Devil––-Powerful spiritual being but limited. Created by God and much less powerful than his Creator. Against––––-This spiritual enemy shows himself in surprising ways An engine in neutral can lull you into a false sense of security. You may not be aware that you are moving until the vehicle rolls into something and then the damage is done. A neutral mind is insidiously similar. To win the battle for your own mind, you must tune into what is going on. You probably would not leave your car or truck in neutral without putting on one of your brakes. Similarly, protect your mind and the people around you. First realize that we are always under attack. We lived through the Iran hostage crisis of the 1980's and Desert Storm in the early 1990's, the bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, but still, many of us as a nation didn't really realize that we were under attack, and had been in that state of conflict until the morning of Septemper 11, 2001. We learned the hard way that what happens in a remote cave in Afganistan, could and did affect us right here at home. We are just as affected by what happens in the spiritual realm. We must be aware there is a reality out there where the real battles of life have taken place, and are now taking place and are activley being fought right now. These battles are not being fought in a remote place, they are being fought not only all over the world, but right around us also. Believer's in Christ are no longer in league with Satan, so being against him, physically, mentally and spiritually, the bottom line is here that he is, and will be looking for a way to make an effective attack on us at any time and in all seasons. Whatever blessing that God has instilled in our lives, the Devil is going to try to undo; and he's going to be very subtle when attempting to do just that. In other words he'll try to get at you when and where that you least expect it to happen. Has God delivered you from fear, lust, depression or anger? If so, then Satan will make an attempt to put you back into those prisons. Has God broken down strongholds seperating you from other people concerning these things? Satan will keep trying to rebuild those barriers between you and God, as well as others that God may direct you to minister to, in order to attempt to break down the power of Jesus Christ not only in your own life, but also through your own witness to others as well being effective in a timely manner in doing so. If you are like that motor mentioned before hand, in neutral, you very well could roll right over into a place where Satan wants you to be! Our grandparents could rally for the troops during the world wars because they had a defined enemy. However, the wars that we witness in our day, which is now, are being fought against enemies that sometimes we cannot identify until much damage by them had already taken place. That can tend to make us fight one another instead of our real enemy at large. That should not, and need not be the case with Christian people. We can certainly know who our true enemy is by reading and studing God's word in a Holy Spirit directed way, and also with an attitude of being God's humble warrior while being exposed to the wiles of the Devil sometimes on a daily basis that may come in many ways and under all kinds of conditions. However, we as Christians, have the capability to know who our enemy is. The methods and operations that Satan carries out against the Christian, to me is accomplished much like the guerilla fighter or insurgent does in the physical realm of hit and run combat. He is a terrorist of the most cowardly kind. He might openly attack us, but is more likley to try and strike at us from a position of hiding, or out of the darkness. He often attempts to seduce us, and then attack us when we are at our weakest. Amen? The spiritual forces of darkness have no code of honor, do not pity, or have one ounce of remorse when it comes to attacking any human being. Therefore we must always be on our guard! So in doing this we must take certain steps in order to stand firm. The first step to winning is recognizing that we as believers cannot do this on our own. The apostle Paul didn't tell us to strengthen ourselves; he said to be strengthened by the Lord! This kind of strengthening is usually not automatic in nature. This strengthening will occurr as we deliberately do what God commands us to do, and is amplified as we become more intamately united with Jesus Christ as His betrothed. Next, we must put on God's full armor. This process among other things helps us realize the Devil's methods also when he seemingly comes out from nowhere and attacks us. If something that you are experiancing in your Christian walk seems a little off of center, compare it to God's word. There is no such thing as a little lie, a little slip or a little disobediance. Satan's attacks originate from the spiritual realm, so they must be fought with spiritual weaponry and protection. You already possess this armor through your union with Jesus Christ, you don't have to make it or buy it exept through the price of the Blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross at calvary for you and me! God certainly wills for anyone who is called by His Name to take it up, and put it on! This is a command and not just merely a suggestion on God's part. This is why that all Christians are to take up the full armor of God. It is that armor that has been graciously provided by God and through His word, or the Bible that will get you through. In victory. This is how you stand, and once you have stood against the attacks from spiritually wicked places, coming at you, sometimes seemingly on a continuous basis, then you will not only withstand these attacks, but have the power and confidence to stand some more, waiting as a strong and efficient warrior waits for another round of action to inflict some more heavy casualities against his or her enemy in a state of quiet confidence, and with Christ! Amen? It is not nessesarily that the enemy see's you standing there in your armor which is more than enough to put a sprit of fear in him if he feels like you are well trained and conditioned. It is always too what the enemy will see standing there all around you and with superior power over them! Those are God's holy warring angels ready and willing to do combat on your behalf and quite capable of routing any spiritual enemy, anywhere and everytime. Always without fail and quickly to their mark, as God will direct and personally authorize them for the express purpose of routing His and your common spiritual and even in some cases if the situation calls for it, your physical enemies also. The first thing that a soldier for Christ is commanded by God to put on is the truth like a belt to gurd yourself up with. Then a breastplate of righteousness. Not our own supposed righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ, which makes us righteous, and only through Him. Next is to sandal your feet with the preparation and readiness of the the gospel of peace. Then in every situation you must take up the sheild of faith, that will quench all the firey darts and flaming arrows of the wicked and the evil one and don the helmet of salvation to protect your mind. When these things have been accomplished then one will and must take up his Sword, the only offensive weapon that the Christian beliver has, and this is the Sword of the Spirit which is the infallible and inerrant Word of the living God! The battle we fight as Christians is not a sheduled one, nor it it over after just one attack. We shouldn't assume that deflecting one arrow will get the job done. Satan's arrows in a fray may come at us many times. So you must keep your sheild of faith on the ready at all times. You must behave and conduct yourself on this battlefield as though God is for you because you have been faithful and truthful, and righteous, and walk in a state of love and peace toward Him and all mankind. Be as gentle as a dove concerning physical peace, yet wise like a serpent concerning spiritual discernment. Know God's word so that it will know all about you, making you capable and most dangerous to spiritual rulers in high places that are placed there by Satan himself in order to keep you down and your most precious and important weapon that a Christian has, in a place where the Devil wants it to be, in It's sheath and not being used against him and his evil forces. Satan damages Christians the most through their minds. Why? Thoughts lead to attitudes and behavior. We stop this destruction when we protect our minds with the helmet of salvation. We stubbornly stand victorious regardless of what happens to us because we know without a shadow of a doubt that,''All is well with my soul.'' We win each battle when we deflate evey lie the enemy throws at us with the truth of God's word. Object lessons are valuable for helping us get the point. But we should not get so caught up in so many of the objects, that we miss the lesson entirely. Our armor provided by God's love for us does not consist of physical items, but spiritual realities. Each and every day we must choose ourselves to live in truth and have a right standing with God, in faith, or we not only deny Him, but His power. Because we have salvation, we are free, and with the choices that we are allowed to make, we must make a conscience decision to win against the Devil. We can and must apply God's word or the Bible to every situation. Fully equipped and trained soldiers eventually will prevail when they stand firm and with resolve concerning their enemies. No matter what battles that you have lost so far, as a born again believer in Christ, the war for your very eternal life has already resulted in victory! Your Victory and for the real benifit of a strong Christian witness that should be experianced by all that you will come in contact with on a everyday basis! Your job and what you have been tasked with now is to keep putting on your full armor of God, so that you will not only stand firm, but also with God's help and willingness will enable you to take back any lost ground that the enemy has already won. Then at that point, take the advantage of your position through God's strength and provision, and don't give him another inch through worldly compromises, actions or personal conduct. This is another important reason not to fall short, when it comes to regaining loss for God's glory and your own benifit as well. Start now to think strategically and do not walk in the ways according to the flesh, for there is certainly no benifit in this, exept to Satan himself, who is always looking for a weak spot or chink in your armor because you have not secured God's full armor about you correctly! For these actions will deflate your attitude about being a solid warrior for Christ, and then your armor will not be useful, nor will it fit without repentance. And the Devil will wait until the situation arises, and seeing his chance, he will come headlong straight at him seeing only flesh and blood without God's full armor because that Christian failed to do his or her part concerning what God said to do in obediance and in accordance to His word and His ways. For the Lord of Hosts says,'' Behold, my people are destroyed for the lack of My own knowledge in their own lives.'' Get some. Thanks, SAE |
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Good Sunday morning to all on the Lord's Day!
My Sunday School lesson today deals with and about, 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4; But if, in fact, our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Regarding them: the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. I am a word person. I love words, I get words. When my children were at home, I could easily help them with their homework with writing and comprehension assignments. I am not however, a number person. I really don't like numbers, and after a certain level, don't even get numbers. That's not the fault of the subject or my teachers while I was still in school. I just don't see it because apparently, I don't have the mind for math. But I still was required, as everyone else was back and still are even today, to do math at school. I still had to help my kids with their math homework to from time to time also while they were growing up. The critics in the Corinthian church claimed Paul's teachings about spiritual matters was so obscure that they didn't have to live by it's high standards, much less believe in them. Their lack of understanding was not the fault of the gospel or it's teachers, the apostle Paul being a great one, or because they couldn't see it, it was more like in many cases, just wouldn't see it. Satan or the Devil, not St. Paul, had veiled the truth and blinded their minds to the gospel. Today we will attempt to answer some questions that once answered may help to equip the believer in Christ so that he or she may be better informed with some issues that even the early believer's at Corinth were perplexed about and so forth. Why does Satan strive to gain control of our minds? How do behavior and charicter start in the mind? How do people make themselves susceptible to Satan's mind control? The battle for the control of our lives as many here know, begins and takes place in our minds, first, it is in our minds where we all make decisions about what we will do, say, and believe. Our minds determine our charicter and whether we will decide to be obediant to God or not. Therefore, Satan does everything that he can to first cloud, and then to blind our minds. He will attempt to do this by getting people to become preoccupied with selfish pursuits, worries, pride, fears, and desires. What messes in life have we all gotten ourselves with one, single, stupid choice? I know I have had many in my own life. How can one bad choice snowball into many more bad choices, and then lead to a lifestyle that blocks God's will effectively out of one's life from what God had originally intended? What makes us try and justify these rather than to see our own error and then part company with them? God isn't keeping the gospel a secret. He does not spitefully prevent unbelievers from being in the right frame of mind concerning understanding. Unbelievers can't see God's ways because their are not looking. In the general sense or in the spiritual sense. Why? Because their so focused on what it is that they want, they are in fact, blind to the blazing light of God's glory and the truth that is Jesus Christ! We as believers should never question the validity or power of the gospel, when we see unbelievers who have a blinded mindset when it comes to Christ. It's not the fault of the Subject or the Teacher, they just can't see it. So why does this make it so imperative that the Spirit of God––––-not you––––-wins people over to Christ? What then is your responsibility? You can't give spiritual sight to someone anymore than you can grant someone physical sight to someone by your own power. Only the Holy Spirit can lift the veil and give sight to blind spiritual eyes(2nd Corinthians 3:16-18). But just as you can drive an aging parent or grandparent to the clinic for cataract surgery, you can direct a spiritually blind person to the One who is fully equiped and able to give sight, even in the physical sense, but more importantly in the spiritual sense, to the one's who are not able to see and hopefully, only for a season. When doing this, pray for that spiritual veil that is covering their eyes to be lifted. Then tell them about the true light, and then depend, through faith, for the Holy Spirit to bring them sight through God's glorious revelation, that is Jesus Christ! How can we as believers who still have some blind spots of our own and get into a better and godly right mindset ourselves, that clearly sees Christ in the way that God wants us to see Him? God's goal is to transform us into the image of His Son, including His mind. In other words, in your right mind through an attitude that is directly about Him. We started as belivers to be in this mindset when we accepted Jesus Christ as our own personal Savior to be redeemed and spiritually cleansed! Be aware though, that even when you are a believer, Satan can and will attempt to influence your mind. Stay on your guard so that you will continue to close your mind to Satan thus keeping your mind open to the Lord. For this truly is His will for everyone, anywhere, and at all times! Thanks, SAE Thanks, SAE |