Weapons of Praise

On May 17, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 149: 6       TPT

God’s high and holy praises fill their mouths, for their shouted praises are their weapons of war!

This is simple. Praise is a weapon. Last Tuesday’s devotional was a reminder that we must clothe ourselves with Jesus’ victory; that his victory isn’t automatically operating in all the situations of our lives (Victory in Jesus, May 11, 2021). Instead, we must acknowledge his victory and then apply it to our circumstances. He is victorious over everything which attempts to plague us. However, it is up to us to put on his victory.

Here is one of the most powerful ways I know to clothe yourself with his victory. Put on the garments of praise. I wrote in Strong Leader (WOTD, May 10, 2021) that praise is a power tool for repairing the broken things. When we praise, we release the power of heaven to work in our lives. Praise anoints our lives with the oil of the Holy Spirit, who is our go along, our helper. He walks right beside us all the time waiting for us to give the Word so he can command his forces to work in our lives. This is so much bigger than most people know. If we understood the power of heart-felt praise, we would become praising machines. The angels of God would swirl around us because they are attracted to praise of the Father. I imagine nothing harmful would be able to get to us because of the whirlpool of angels surrounding us. What a beautiful, nay, glorious image that is.

I invite you to ponder this today. See yourself surrounded by angels bathing themselves in the glory of God which arises from loving praise. Selah!

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Withstanding the Storms

On June 6, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 6: 11 – 12

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Do you want to be able to stand against the storms of life? Do you want to be able to remain firm when all around you the tempest rages? Well then, the first thing you need to understand is that the fight is against the devil and his gang.

There are two problems I see with people distinguishing their enemy. First, they do not know who their enemy is because they do not have a realization of the devil. There are many people in our society who do not even believe there is a devil much less that he is at work in this world all of the time. And even though this scripture is about as plain as it can be; even though the Bible clearly tells us that our problem is the spiritual forces at work, many Christians are just as misled as the rest. This works very well for Satan because if we don’t even acknowledge his presence then we cannot fight against him. So, he just wanders around uninhibited. That is a real problem.

Second, people generally focus on the people who seem to be the cause of their trouble instead of penetrating the sheath and recognizing that it is the devil’s crew behind the scene that is manipulating the whole mess.

If you are going to win against the schemes of the devil, you first have to recognize who your enemy is. Once you have done that, we have some answers about how to deal with his shenanigans. Verse 11 tells us that putting on the armor of God will give you the ability to stand against him. What is the armor of God? Verses 14 – 17 hold that answer: truth, righteousness, preparation in the gospel, faith, and salvation. You must put on truth and wear it like wearing a pair of pants. Wear righteousness as your shirt. Your shoes are the time you spend in the word. Faith is your shield. It completely encompasses you and everything you are. Faith is in everything you say and do. Finally, salvation, the precious blood of Jesus, is your hat. It crowns you and covers all. It is the top and everything else is beneath the saving grace. You wear these pieces of armor as part of yourself. Any piece you leave off, though, leaves you exposed. Do not leave truth out of your wardrobe. Don’t forget to put on your shoes of the Word. Every piece is important, and they will guard you and help you.

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Halt, Thief!

On June 28, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 6: 31

But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold.

Restitution by a thief is what is being discussed in this passage. When the thief is discovered, he must repay seven times what he stole. There is an interesting connection from the New Testament. Jesus told us that “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy” (John 10: 10). Who is the thief? The devil, of course. He is the enemy of all who love Jesus and he would love to steal everything from you but you have the ability to stop him and even to make him repay seven times what he stole.

I wrote to you last week about how we are increasingly ignoring, or denying the existence of the devil and his minions. When we deny the existence and influence of Satan we begin to blame God for the bad things that happen. I find this tragic. Not only do we allow the devil to get off free when we hide in our denial but we don’t receive the restitution we are due. Worst of all, since we need someone to blame, we blame God. Obviously, these recriminations against God damage our relationship with Him. How can you have a close, trusting and loving relationship with someone you believe is doing you harm? Even if you try to justify the assumption that God is the one who is making bad things happen as His attempt to strengthen you, it will still destroy your relationship with Him.

I was exposed to this dangerous teaching like many of you were. I remember telling my basketball coach, “It’s too hard with God so I am going to have to be without Him.” I turned my back on God because people had me convinced that God was doing all these bad things to me. I sure wish someone had stood apart from the crowd and said, “Hey, that’s the devil who is evil doing those things, not God who is good.” I think I could have taken it from there and realized how foolish and broken my logic was.

I don’t know if people are just afraid of the devil so that is why they deny his existence or if he just has really good Public Relations people. None the less, our continual denial of his existence and his shenanigans is putting God, our beloved, right in the target sights. No one is throwing stones at Satan. They are all casting stones at God, the one who loved us so much that He sent His only child to die a horribly cruel death so that we might be saved. When you state it that way, it really defies logic but that is what so many of us do without really considering.

Look, you don’t have to be afraid of the devil. You’ve got Jesus and his victory. All you have to do is catch the thief. He has to pay back seven times if you will catch him instead of blaming God. God is the one who will make him pay restitution because He is a righteous God. There are any number of weapons Jesus has provided for you, all of them effective. Praise music, reading your Bible out loud to the devil (he loves that), giving money to a ministry (one of my personal favorites), prayer and more. Just remind the devil of the blood of Jesus. Figuratively, bathe your business, ministry or family in the blood. Dedicate everything in your life to Jesus, whatever the devil is torturing you with or messing with, see yourself go put it on Jesus’ altar. Then dare the devil to mess with it. Install Jesus as CEO, but really do it, not merely mouth the words. Let Jesus run your business for a couple of weeks and see if the devil doesn’t take his hands off of it.

Give over leadership of your family to Jesus. He never meant for you to be the leader of your family. That’s how it gets messed up. He wants to be head of the household. As long as you are, the devil is going to get in your stuff. Give it to Jesus. It really is his problem afterall, because he is the shepherd, not you. You are one of the flock.

Whatever area of your life is being challenged. Go put it on the altar and sprinkle Jesus blood on it. Remember, this is how Abraham became the Father of us all, by putting his son on the altar. Releasing control to Jesus is the quickest way (not the easiest mind) to get the devil out of it. Where ever there is the blood of Jesus, the devil will flee. He hates the Word, and he cannot bear even one drop of the blood.

I want you blessed and I am so tired of watching the devil steal from Christians. God has prepared a way for us and has given us all of the tools necessary. Put blame where it is due and make the devil pay; make him pay back seven times what he stole.

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Bazooka

On June 23, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Corinthians 10: 4

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

Why is Paul talking to us about weapons of warfare after the death and resurrection of Jesus? Jesus has already won, hasn’t he? He marched in to Hades and took the keys of death and hell away from the devil. So why is Paul talking about warfare? Isn’t it done?

Well, I guess we have only to look around us to see that the war is not over. Yes, Jesus has won. He defeated the powers of hell for all time but that is almost useless if we don’t enforce it. Think of it this way. Perhaps there is a law on the books in your community. How effective is that law if it is not enforced? It is as though it doesn’t exist. You see, God gave the earth to us, therefore, we have authority in this realm. Jesus won the victory over sin, death, hell and the grave in his own flesh. He has given us this victory to employ in the earthly realm as well as in our own lives.

You have ultimate authority in your life, God does not. You can choose to go to hell if you want. Many are making that choice. God won’t stop you because He has given that right of choice, that authority to you. He has delegated His power in that area. Therefore, if Jesus’ victory is to be experienced, we must enforce it in our own lives. Failure to do so allows the devil run around free messing in people’s lives.

The Amplified version of today’s verse says that the weapons of our warfare are not physical. What are they then? They must be spiritual, wouldn’t you say? Also, I noted that he wrote about the weapons – plural. There must be more than one then. We all know about prayer and obviously that is a weapon straight from God’s arsenal. There really are many more though. Paul wanted us to be mindful of their existence, what they are and how to use them.

Don’t sit around on the couch expecting your salvation prayer to solve all of your problems. This is a process and that was only the beginning. Paul also told us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2: 12). We have a role to play. God gives us the tools and the weapons but it is up to us to utilize them for our lives. As for me, I am choosing a spiritual bazooka. What spiritual weapon do you want?

For more about spiritual warfare and the weapons of our warfare, visit our webpage and go to the Daily Devotional page (https://iveyministries.org/word-of-the-day/). Search “spiritual warfare”.

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Battle Lines

On June 29, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Corinthians 2: 10 – 11

But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

There is a quick way to let Satan into your life – stand in unforgiveness. However, it is just as easy to jerk the rug out from under him – forgive. I imagine this like a line drawn in the sand. On one side is the devil and the other side is the Father. When you forgive you step across into the garden of the Lord. When you stand in unforgiveness, you are playing in the devil’s sandbox. If you stay there, you give him (Satan) permission to come knock over your sand castle. 

Paul says, “Hey guys, we are not ignorant of the devil’s schemes.” Satan wants you to get offended and remain hurt and angry. Paul and the early church understood that this was Satan’s ploy. The church today teaches forgiveness but doesn’t really seem to understand the spiritual battle that is played out in this scenario. If we remain in unforgiveness, Paul says, we give Satan the opening to take advantage of us.

Now that is really a pretty simple teaching. I should think that no one wants to give Satan an opportunity to take advantage of them. Therefore, the simple conclusion is to forgive everyone who offends you (emphasis on everyone). Let their actions be between them and Jesus. Make your focus undermining the devil’s scheme by forgiving. That is where the battle line is drawn.

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Divinely Powerful

On June 12, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Corinthians 10: 3 – 4

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

How easy it is to forget that, although we are in this world, we are not to war according to the world. But wouldn’t we really rather have divinely appointed weapons anyway? Paul is reminding his readers that we are not to walk according to the flesh and we are not to fight our battles in the flesh or as we learned to do. We are to learn a new way to wage war. That is in the Spirit. We wage war in the Spirit through prayer and by speaking the Word of God. Every time we speak a verse of the Bible over a situation, we are waging Spiritual war.

If you have a mountainous challenge before you right now, set your heart and mind to use your most powerful arsenal, use the divinely appointed weapons of the Spirit. They are prayer, God’s word and love. We do not want to hear that last one but it is the nuclear bomb of spiritual weaponry. You are allowed to use this bomb. Whatever challenge or enemies you are facing today, remember to pull out the big guns. Don’t fight your battles in the flesh. Use the weapons that God Almighty has provided you.

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Vanishing Enemies

On March 24, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 41: 11

Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; those who contend with you will be as nothing, and will perish.

Trouble comes. You know that. Even for Christians there are challenges. Sometimes I think we ought to be able to live charmed lives where nothing can touch us but that is fantasy. In reality problems affect everyone. The secret is in how we deal with those issues and how we let them affect us. We really can live above the fray, above the chaos if we will let Jesus be Lord of our entire day rather than just our philosophical Lord. What do I mean by that? We have all given our lives and hearts to Jesus. We have asked him to be Lord of our lives and we are sincere in our surrender to his lordship. However, Monday morning always comes and in the clamor of all that must be done we lose sight of our position with Christ. That is why it is so good to give the Lord even just a few minutes in the morning before you are confronted with the tasks of the day. We need to re-establish first thing in the morning Jesus as Lord over our lives and, significantly, over every minute of our day. Then throughout the day when issues and questions present themselves we take them to Jesus. If he is Lord then he ought to have a say in what goes on. When we systematically apply Jesus’ lordship to everything we do and to everything that invades our lives then we can move from the center of the tumult. Jesus fights the battles, completes our task lists, multiplies our time and does everything else we need.  

You can’t fight the battles on your own because your detractors will lie and cheat. You need the supernatural power that the trinity can provide. If you want to look around and find the enemy just gone, then you need to put the problem in Jesus’ hand and leave it there. Sometimes that is a minute by minute process but when you allow the lordship of Jesus to prevail over the problems of your life then it becomes his problem rather than your own. That is when you will look around and find that those who contended with you are as nothing. We don’t pray against them, of course. We don’t have to. And if you truly understand today’s verse you will understand very clearly why Jesus told us to pray for our enemies. Those who attack, criticize and condemn us are walking into a hornet’s nest of their own making. The bad seeds they are sowing are going to sprout and produce a bountiful crop of trouble for them. We need to pray for them because if they mess with you they are going to be shamed and dishonored, be as nothing and perish. Okay, not a good forecast.

God is on your side. He is in your corner. Let Him be your fight manager. Let Him be the boss, the Lord and then the outcome is assured. You will arise and your enemies are going to suffer. Pray for your enemies because they have signed a destruction order over their own lives. Get a big revelation of Jesus as Lord of your challenges and step out of the turmoil and into his glorious victory. Amen.

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