Big Guns

On July 16, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 5: 44

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

Okay, now we are talking about serious spiritual warfare. This verse doesn’t look like warfare though, does it? None the less, this is where the rubber meets the road. When the enemy is all around you and it feels like even the house is falling down on you then start praying. Sometimes the pressure on you is so heavy that it is hard to pray. I understand that. Just come up with something real simple that you can say each time you feel overwhelmed. Here is an example, “Father, I forgive them and ask you to forgive them. I pray that you bless them and meet their needs.” Then every time that feeling comes in your gut just turn your thoughts to our beloved Father and pray those words.

Jesus gave this scripture for us, not for them. He said “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16: 33 NIV). This is one of the ways that he is leading us from trouble to overcoming. Trouble comes but Jesus is our victory. He has already provided the means of triumph. He spent his time on earth teaching us those means. So when you read that you should pray for your enemies, take heart because Jesus is leading you to the victory. Glory!

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Advisable Reliance

On July 7, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 32: 8

And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Here is another significant lesson for winning spiritual warfare. Find someone you can rely on. Brother, you are a sitting duck if you don’t have someone you can rely on in the day of trouble. I don’t care who you are or who you think you are, you need someone to lean on. You may be the biggest preacher in town but the day will come when you are under attack and you will need someone’s words other than your own. You will need someone to listen to who is an encourager and a bold believer. Do I preach to myself? Sure, but I also have a plethora of people I listen to regularly and on whom I can rely in the day of trouble.

The second part of this is for goodness sake learn to rely on those who are speaking faith in the face of trouble. Jesus said, “Sure you’re gonna have trouble but take heart because I have already won” (paraphrase of John 16: 33). You are meant to overcome those troubles through the victory of Jesus. That’s the plan but when you are under the barrage of missile attacks it is often difficult to remember that. When the onslaught is heavy enough you will even forget which scriptures you know to rely upon. I will even think to myself, “Now, what do I tell other people when they are going through this?” In those times you need the advice of wise, Christian counselors; those who themselves rely on the scriptures. They will feed you the scriptures you need so don’t hesitate to call on them. In the very first Psalm King David starts us off with this advice. Verse 1 reads, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” I take that to mean “make sure that the counsel you receive is from Godly people who can speak truth.”

And then here is the real key. Make sure you are listening to these sage individuals. We want to know that they are listening God and that their advice is scriptural. And you are still responsible to God for the advice you take but the point is that you need to have someone that you can trust and listen to and you need to sublimate your ego and take advice and counsel. If you are an island then you are in error. God did not make us to be rugged individualists. He made us to be a family of believers. We are supposed to rely on one another as the collective members of one body.

If you never learn to submit to the instruction of others you will always be a target and you will never be a leader. Only those who learn how to follow responsibly ever become leaders. If you can’t quiet your ego long enough to take advice then you will never have the gentility to lead others. You will never appreciate what a good leader looks like. We learn to lead by following good leaders.

We all need those who can help us through the storm. In today’s passage the people listened to the direction of Hezekiah. They relied on his Godly counsel. And they not only weathered the storm but they came out victorious. This is the way and the counsel of God. Seek the wise, scriptural counsel of Godly counselors in the time of trouble and you also will prevail.

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Arrayed Against Us

On July 1, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 32: 1 – 8

After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself. 2 Now when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem, 3 he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him. 4 So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the region, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?” 5 And he took courage and rebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and erected towers on it, and built another outside wall and strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in great number. 6 He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, 7 “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him. 8 With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

This book of the Bible, 2 Chronicles, is such a great teaching on spiritual warfare. My favorite chapter on this topic is chapter 20 of 2 Chronicles. Today’s passage shows some of the key elements to prevailing over the enemy.

First, you see that the attack began after Hezekiah’s many acts of faithfulness to the Lord. Don’t let this frighten you but also be not unaware. Satan will try to dissuade you from doing the good things you are doing in Christ’s name.

Back in 2002 I went through a period of constant challenge. I remember some words of encouragement my pastor gave me. He said, “Ivey, this isn’t an attack. It is a counter-attack.” Now when you are going through some trouble the first thing that comes to your mind when someone says something like that is, “Whatever I did, I wished I hadn’t.” Of course, it isn’t true but you want relief from the present trouble yet it did, in fact, encourage me. I kinda liked knowing I got under the devil’s skin. It also renewed my strength. Most importantly it defined the situation for me. Once I got the revelation that this was spiritual warfare I pulled out the book of Isaiah and started attacking my enemy. Before that he was running over me at will. My pastor and friend from San Diego called me one day and started quoting from the book of Isaiah to me and from then on the attacks waned and then stopped all together. How bad was it? Well, I was in three auto accidents in three weeks, two nationally recognized banking institutions bounced checks to me for mortgages and so on. Every day it was a new problem until I realized that the devil was waging war against me. Once I recognized he had thrown down the gauntlet and that the battle lines were drawn I picked up my sword and started swinging back. That was that. 

The key here for me was realizing that I was in a war. Once I knew that I was fine. We have the might and power in our Lord Jesus to beat the devil every time but sometimes we fail to respond in kind because we have not identified the dynamic. I used to think, many years ago, that being a Christian meant we were going to live some kind of charmed life. Wow, I don’t know where I got that because it sure isn’t scriptural. Jesus told us that we would have trouble but to have no fear because he had already triumphed over it (John 16: 33). You see, Jesus’ victory becomes ours. We don’t even have to fight, if you want to know the whole truth. Jesus has won. We just take his victory and beat the devil over the head with it until he runs away. Your life in Christ isn’t charmed, it is victorious and we need to start taking the devil to task when he comes against us.

Tomorrow I will share with you another lesson from Hezekiah.

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Moving Day

On May 19, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 16: 33

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.

This is more of that red letter text from the Bible. I always like reading the red text. It seems to me that in this verse Jesus is giving us the chance of either being in him or being in the world. He is saying that we can be in him and have peace or be in the world and suffer its tribulation.

Now it may take a little meditation for some of us to wrap our heads around this concept but once you start looking at the Bible you find that this idea is all over the New Testament. Jesus is drawing a line between the world and the kingdom. We are to abide in him (John 15: 4). We are no longer to abide in the world.

Jesus taught his disciples this very lesson. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15: 19). But let’s look at more of Jesus’ words. These are from his conversation and prayer with the Father. “I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were and Thou gavest them to Me (John 17: 6). “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (John 17: 16). So what is Jesus saying here? I think it is pretty clear that he believes we are not of the world. We were chosen out of and taken out of the world.

Paul really had a revelation of this truth too. If you run a search of the Pauline Epistles for the words, “In him” you will see how much this revelation had permeated Paul’s understanding. We are in Jesus rather than of the world and this is a pretty huge deal. Believe it or not this concept actually existed in the Old Testament as well. David frequently wrote about God being his hiding place and refuge. He wrote about being in the Father in a similar fashion as Paul’s writing about being in Christ. This is a major precept for living a true Christian life. We are to abide in Christ rather than living in the world.

In him, Jesus, is everything we need. Further, if we are in him and since he has overcome the world, then we abide in world overcoming victory. However, this is an elective life. Just saying a prayer of salvation does not correlate to living in Christ. This abiding in Christ is a choice we make and a choice we usually have to make daily. We are constantly given the choice of choosing the world’s thoughts, words, way of thinking and behavior patterns. To live in Christ is to be aware of the choices you make daily and to choose to live in him and to him rather than to just passively float down the river of the world. Move out of the world and into him. It is like moving into the Promised Land. In him is where there is peace and victory.

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