The story was told of a father and son watching a basketball game. The father was for one team and the son was for the other. The game was a close game and tied several times. The son was on the edge of his seat, jumping up and down when his team was ahead and falling back in dispair when his team got behind. Dad sat calmly in his arm-chair, reading his paper, and glancing every now and then to see how his team was doing. But never in doubt or fear that his team would pull out a victory. The game came down to the last five seconds and Dad's team is two points behind. Dad still didn't seem to be anxious about his team losing. The ball is put in play and a player on Dad's team makes a three pointer at the buzzer. Dad never moved out of his lazy-boy recliner, confident that his team would win. As a matter of fact he knew his team would win, for the game was a replay of a previous game.
God sees far ahead of each one of His children, and knows that in the end that His children will win. But He wants them to enjoy the victory that has already been provided for them. He has planned for our victory, and He wants us to rest in Him rather than wrestle with the enemy. He wants us to master through life rather than muddle through.
On every hill and valley and city there lies slain Christians who have given up the fight that God has already won. Roy Putnam whose book,IN IT TO WIN IT gave me the title for this series, says:
In this series of messages we will trace the pathway that leads to God ordained victory for every believer. We will look at:
INTRODUCTION 1.One of my brothers joined the Marines some years ago during the Vietnam War. The first stop on the way to becoming a good soldier and a good Marine was bootcamp. At Marine bootcamp he learned to shoot a rifle; to get in top physical shape; to survive in the woods; to work as a team; to drive an amphibious tank; and many more military disciplines. What he learned could save his hide and others.
2.There are certain things a Christian must know and use to win victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. The prophet Hosea said that "my people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6) There are certain things we need to know about spiritual warfare if we are going to win.
3. If you are going to win, then learn the winning ways as given to us in the word of God. When Satan has unleashed his spiritual grenades and Christians are being shattered by Satan's lies and demonic attacks, you can remain standing. But you must know God's ways of winning which He freely gives to us because of His grace.
4.So what are those winning ways. What do I need as basic training to win as a child of God. First of all I must...
1.Quote:F.B.Meyer..."God's imperative to the Church is: Be what you are! The phrase "let there be" is the operative phrase in the Bible. God at creation said, "let there be light." The theme of many of the pastoral letters of Paul is a call to adjust to who they already are in their relationship in Christ. Many are not appropriating the riches of what they have in Christ.
ILLUSTRATION: A bag lady named Hetty Green lived on the streets of West Palm Beach. When she died, she had no next of kin. The police went to her house and discovered that Hetty Green was not as poor as they thought. She was the heir of thousands of dollars worth of railroad stock and a substantial savings account. Yet she eke-out a poverty existence on the streets. She was an heir of a fortune, yet lived far below her riches. So goes the life story of many Christians. They live far below what they have "in Christ." They are heirs of an eternal position from which they can draw spiritual riches and power. Yet they are poor and anemic. God is not calling us to strive to become, but to adjust to who we are in Him.
2.Quote:Roy C. Putnam..."We can mount the battle heap and shout a victory song, if we learn the truth of who we are and appropriate it...Be it."
Miles Stanford in his book THE COMPLETE GREEN LETTERS says "all spiritual life and growth is based upon the principle of position. It can be summed up in one word:source. Through physical birth we entered our human family position, from which we derive certain characteristics...Just so in the spiritual birth. When we are born again, the risen Lord Jesus is the source of our Christian lile; in Him we are positioned before our Father."
The Bible speaks clearly of that position that is our in Christ.
Ephesians 2:10"for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus"
Colossians 1:2"to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae."
II Corinthians 5:17"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature(creation)"
When we recieved Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit placed us into the Body of Christ. We are IN HIM, AND THAT IS OUR ETERNAL POSITION. It is a perfect and immutable postion, because it is "in Him." Our daily walk is our condition, and this is varible. When we exercise faith in the living Christ, our eternal position will transform our condition. Our condition does not affect our position, but our position will and does affect our condition as we appropriate what is ours in Christ. As Miles Stanford says, "our prime responsiblity is to pay attention to the Lord Jesus, and to rest (abide) in Him as our position." We must learn not to live by feelings and appearances, but to learn to live by faith in the fact of our heavenly and eternal position of power and grace in Christ. The Amplified puts in best in it's translation of Ephesians 6:10
B.YOUR INTERNAL PRESENCE
Knowing your eternal position and the internal prescence of Jesus Christ in you is of utmost value in the overcomimg life. God wants us to know that that HE IS OUR LIFE. Jesus said He is "the way, the truth, and the LIFE..."(John 14:6) Just as there is different forms of life-plant life, animal life and human life. There is also a spiritual life that is unique to all true born-again(born from above) believers. You are a container of the very life of Jesus Christ.He is here in the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the disciples that He was leaving them, but to not worry because he was going to send "Another." That another would be just like Him-the Holy Spirit. I believe this another is the ressurrected Christ living His life by us. You contain the living Christ if you are a part of the Body of Christ. What excitement-to go forth letting Christ live His life through you. And as you learn to depend on the Christ-in-you you will experience the flow of the Holy Spirit through your innermost being. But you most clearly trust that it is Christ working by you to experience the flow of the Spirit. Jesus spoke of this river of spiritual life flowing out of us to others in John 7:38
There certainly was a difference in the power that was evident before and after the day of Pentecost. The Apostle Peter did not have enough inner courage to testify to a young Hebrew girl that he was a disciple of Jesus. Peter had no power to speak of. But when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon the church on the day of Pentecost they had exceptional, extraordinary power. They had power to:
When the church is not evangelizing the lost, it is not using the power of the Holy Spirit. The empowered church has power to share their faith with the lost. Some 3000 were saved in one day as Peter shared the gospel. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus..."(Acts 4:33)
Philip shared the gospel with the Samaritans and their whole city was changed. The lame were healed...the demonized people were set free...and their was "great joy in that city."(Acts 8:8) Saul's life was tranformed by Christ from a church destroyer to a church planter. (Acts 9) Cornelius, a captain in the Roman army, heard the gospel from Peter and believed and God's Holy Spirit came upin him and all them that heard the word. He became a captain if God's Army. The power of God working through God's people and God's Word changes lives.
The Jews at Thessalonica were afraid of Paul and Silas coming to their city because they had seen how the gospel had "turned the world upside down."(Acts 17:6) Communites were radically changed by the preaching of the gospel. The power of the gospel changes people from the inside out. They are no longer the same people. This power is available to the church today. We are not using a fraction of all that God has given. We are operating out of weakness not strength. We must go out into our world at school, at work depending on the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. When we do there will be people saved, and communities transformed.
In Ephesians 3:6 we are instructed to be "partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." God offers us "exceedingly great and precious promises", but are we taking Jesus at His Word. Are we taking His promises personally. We can have great confidence in His promises because there has "not failed one word of all his good promise."(I Kings 8:56) God promised the children of Israel a land flowing with milk and honey, but only a few believed and entered into the land. God has given the believer even greater promises, but few believe and enter into His Blessings.
1.He is a "great red dragon."(Rev.12:3) He is formidable and awesome. He is not to be taken lightly. With his tail, John says Satan wiped out a third of the stars. He is not all-powerful, but he is a real force that we must reckon with.
2.He has "seven heads and ten horns."(Rev.12:3) Seven refers to the fact that he is perfect in his evil plans and ways. Dr. Ray Robbins, N.T. professor at New Orleans Baptist Seminary says "the seven heads suggests the completeness of his wisdom and cunning for the execution of his plans." He knows exactly how and when to undermine your life and witness for Christ. He sees your weakness and works his plans around that to render your life ineffective for the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He devises plans to wreck the witness of Christ in His Church.
3. He has "ten crowns." Crowns represent power and authority. There are legions of evil beings under Satan's command. And you must be careful that your life is not a pawn in Satan's hands. Satan has a stronghold in many people's lives. Satan has a way to manipulate people to carry out his agenda. But we can resist him in Jesus Name and through the blood of Christ, and he must flee.
The Apostle John said in Revelation 12:4, as he reflected back to Christ's birth that Satan, that old dragon "stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." Satan knew the incarnation of "God in the flesh" would defect Satan. Satan used King Herod to issue an edit that all male babies under two years of age in Bethlehem be killed. Satan tried to destroy God and the people of God. But he has failed. Jesus' perfect obedience overcame Satan's plans. Now mankind has a qualified redeemer-Jesus Christ. Now Satan takes aim at Christ's Body-the Church. Even when John was writing about Satan, all the apostles had been killed and John was in prison. He was in prison where Satan was trying to curtail his witness for Christ. Satan will use any tactic to render your life ineffective as a witness for Christ. He can't destroy your salvation, but he can work havoc on the effectiveness of your witness for Christ. He will rob you God's blessing and try to destroy what God has given to you. That is where we need to be cautious and watchful. We need to resist Satan coming against our families, our churches, our evangelistic activities. We have been given the key to overcoming Satan. As we use the name of Jesus Christ and the Blood of Jesus as our covering, Satan must flee. That name and that blood is what has defeated Satan. Use it to defend the family of God. Tell Satan he must go in Jesus Name and he has no authority over what belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. RESIST ...RESIST...RESIST SATAN IN JESUS' Name.
The Apostle John in Revelation says that Satan has the ability to deceive "the whole world."(Rev.12:9) Satan masguerades as an "angel of light' according to Paul.(See II Cor.11:14) Satan is very religious and righteous in appearance, but underneath this cloak is an evil, dangerous and destructive being who wants to destroy lives. Satan will bait you with what appears to be "good" and "right" and "religious." He does this so people will miss what Christ wants them to do and to have in Him. People are gullible, they will beleive just about anything that looks authentic or has some authority behind it. People are decieved into thinking doing certain religious rituals will merit them Heaven. False. Only what Christ has done on the cross in His substitution for our wrath can forgive sin. Some are deceived by false prophesy about the "end times." Some are falling prey to the Y2K frenzy. Some of these religious leaders are making money off people running in fear and ignorance. Nowhere in scripture does it say a man-made crisis(computer-crisis) will signal the end of the world. But many preachers are deceiving people. The Bible says be ready at any moment. And most of Matthew 24 is "realized eschatology." Most of Matthew 24 happened in the first coming of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70AD. This and many other ways is how Satan deceives the general public and Christians as well. Look at the people in the Bible who were decieved-Isaac,Jacob,Judas,the Pharisees,Saul(Paul),Peter,just to name a few. The thing about deception is that you don't know if you are being decieved. You must ask God for wisdom to see the truth about a matter. Satan loves ignorance and confusion. Ask the Lord for wisdom as James instructs us in James chapter one.
I heard of a biology professor that showed a class of students a micro-scopic slide of a drop of water from the Ganges River in India. Millions of Hindus worship the river because they believe it is a holy river whose waters can cleanse them of sins. The slide revealed multitude of harmful bacteria that could cause disease. One man in class from India was so enraged, he picked up an object to destroy the slide and microscope. People are decieved in their religious thinking. I thought my water baptism was what would save me at age ten, but I had not at that time a personal faith in Christ or a personal dynamic relationship with Jesus.
D. A DISCOURAGING FOE-AN ACCUSER
Someone told a story that Satan had a sale of all his devilish tools. He was going to sell everything except one instrument. He said he could do without all the others if he could keep just one. That satanic tool was discouragement. Discouragement destroys hope and without hope we will soon quit and give up the battle. Some the God's strongest were nearly destroyed by discouragement.
God used Elijah in a mighty battle to destroy the prophets of Baal among God's people. Immediately after this great victory, Satan uses a wicked women to speak a word of discouragement to Elijah. Elijah was not prepared for this, and runs and runs and hides under a Juniper tree in Beersheba. And then he is so discouraged that he asks God to take his life. God sent him an angel that feed him and told him God was not finished with him.(See I Samuel 18-19) God sent Elijah an encourager and He has an encourager for you. Ask God to send him today. Go ahead and ask Him, and then believe Him to do so.
One of the most dicouraging scenes in the Bible occurs in I Samuel 30. The families, flocks and fields of David and his band of 600 soldiers were attacked by invaders-the Amalekites. Their wives and children were kidnapped; their homes and fields burned to the ground; their livestock stolen. David and his men "wept, until there was no more power to weep."(I Samuel 30:4) The men blamed David. Then David did what we need to do when we get into a hopeless situation. "David encouraged himself in the Lord..."(I Samuel 30:6) God lead David to find those who had taken his families and goods and to destroy them. And David recovered other spoils of battles from the Amalekites and used these to send to all the heads of the tribes in Judah and Israel. This set David up for these leaders to elect him as their next king. But he would have never reached that point if he had not disarmed Satan's tool of discouragement on his life.
Phase One of Satan's Defeat- Jesus told his disciples as they returned excited about the fact that the demons were subject unto them by using Jesus' Name, "I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven." (Luke 10:18) Satan was falling and completely was defeated by Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. The atoning death defeated the accusations of Satan against God's children. Jesus' resurrection defeated death, which was the penalty for sin. Thus Satan is detroned by Christ. Christ did everything the Father said for him to do, even going to the cross. Satan did not even want Jesus to obey in going to the cross. Jesus was obedient in all points thus again defeating Satan. No one else in all the world,no person, no so called deity, no one claim such complete victory over Satan. Hallalujah!
Phase Two of Satan's Defeat- In his vision as described in Revelation, the Apostle John sees a war in Heaven. In Revelation 12:7-9 it says there was a war in Heaven between the angel Michael and the old serpent,"called the Devil and Satan." Michael and his angels cast Satan and his angels out of the Heavenly realm. Satan was cast out of Heaven and "into the earth."(Rev.12:9) Praise God Satan is no longer in Heaven. But he is actively involved in the affairs on earth. But he has no access to the ones in Heaven. Satan tries to get to God through His servants here on earth.
Phase Three of Satan's Defeat- Jesus told the disciples that "all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth...go ye therefore and teach all nations..."(Matthew 28:18-10) They were told by Jesus that "I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thow shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven." (Matthew 16:19) And again they were taught by Jesus just before He ascended "whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorfied in the Son."(John 14:13) They were also told they could "in my name shall they cast out demons."(Mark 16:17) So phase three is God's children in the church using Christ's victory to bind Satan from their personal lives and their communities. He is defeated in the Heavenly realm and he(Satan) can be defeated here on earth as God's children claim his defeat in Jesus' Name. Yes, do it!
III.KNOW WHAT TACTICS THE ENEMY USES
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