Preaching the Word of God that people might hear and be changed!
I Peter 5:8 says "Be self controlled and alert, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him (you do it), standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings."
Jesus said in Luke 10:18 "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits must submit to you, (they will have to submit and that's for you today and that's wonderful,) but, rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
Having to deal with and cast out demons hindering our lives or the lives of others is important, and sometimes a real necessity to set people free from the problems and bondage Satan would put on them or trap them in. But our rejoicing must never be over the work we can do, or even of being able to deal with the devil with the authority Jesus has given us. It is to have a heart of joy and thanksgiving for knowing Christ and being saved, and for having our names written in God's book allowing us the priviledge of Heaven. Jesus was making sure that the diciples were keeping their focus on the right things, even though they would continue to do the ministry work that set people free from the strongholds of the enemy, so must we.
The people of God can neither run from the enemy or from the responsibility of dealing with him. That always ends in trouble for people, because he is relentless in going after what he wants, and he will not give up. Battle your enemy, or he will overtake you at some point and do you harm, that rerally is the truth of it all. God's people must begin to really understand the fullness of the authority that Jesus gave them, also of the power of the Holy Spirit that they walk in, as well as the protection they enjoy when they walk before the Lord with a right heart and confidence in their life in Him.
What He has said He will do, what He has promised will always come to pass, what He has said you can do in His name you can do. If the body of Christ would quit fighting themselves and each other and turn their strength and energies on the devil and his demons they would get much, much further with much less trouble.
The other part of the picture is that there are actually two enemies in your midst, the devil and yourself. Mankind has always been his own worst enemy, opposing himself with the wrong choices he makes, and with the deliberate sins he commits. He sets himself up by not taking the time to learn and remember from the past, by being prideful, and by not admitting his sins, faults and weaknesses.
The devil and his crew are real foes that Jesus said you must wage war against and keep out of your midst as much as possible, dealing with them firmly as soon as they show up. But they can only do what we allow them to do, they have no power against us, no ability to do us any real harm except through some other channel, a person, sickness, deception, lies etc. We have all the power, but it works through faith and love and a right heart before the Lord. When you truly belong to the Lord, you have the right and the responibility to deal with him, but you also have the responsibility to deal with yourself, and that's the one we have the most problem with.
James 1:13-15 says " When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me," For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted, when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death."
We are indeed our own worst enemy bringing on ourselves the fruit of our own choices. We should never, for even one moment put up with the devil and his demons, or with their ways of tempting, sneeking around and causing trouble. But we should neither put up with ourselves doing the same.
Mankind is bound to sin and so he needs a savior, but he should hold himself accountable to doing the very best he can to not bring about his own downfall. When we truly know the lord and rightfully belong to Him, we have the power of the Lord and His Holy Spirit against all the wiles of the enemy and we have the Power of the Lord and His Holy Spirit against sin, we must choose to use both.
" IN THE MIDST OF YOU "
While people come and go about their lives doing everyday tasks and goals, they almost never even acknowledge their true enemy let alone work to protect themselves, and are easy prey for him.
While they are busily moving through time they almost never look into their own lives to judge themselves to see how they are doing. Not even in a general sense let alone a true eternal one.
And are ever blind to the storm that is coming and will bring total distruction to their so taken for granted lives.
"He ( Satan ) has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn - and I would heal them." God says. John 12:40
Romans 10:14 "How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"
The world must hear from those who know, from those who already believe. They cannot be saved from the destruction to come unless they are rescued, for Satan will not back down from having them.
Yet, the fastest and best way for him to get them is to work to get and keep God's people in bondage. To trap them into sin and carelessness and a disreguard for the imortant things in life. To get them to refuse to come out from the world and to be seperate from it. To get them to believe that it matters not how they live, the Love of God will excuse all things in the life of a believer.
And so Satan wins on both fronts, he wins the world whom the church didn't rescue, and he wins the lost who wouldn't serve the Lord anyway.
Well, the Devil loses in the end and he already knows that, but he will work hard till the end comes, will we? God always has a remnant who will do His bidding and get the job done, but it is still going to be at a great cost to hundreds of millions who should have been saved and won't be.
The saddest and yet most encouraging thing in all of this is that the church, the people of God, have had all the equiptment to get the job done all of the time. They only need a true commitment to God's will (not their own) and faith filled confidence that they not only can, but have every right to stop the devil in his tracks and to set the captives free.
Let each one of us who names the name of Christ, humble himself before the Lord and repent of anything in our lives that stands in the way of obeying His command to do what He has told us. And then stand up straight and go forward in faith to do what ever He directs. Tell the world the good news, "That Jesus has come, that He's paid the price, that He's defeated the devil and also that He is coming back very soon." We must all be ready to meet Him when He comes, and have nothing to fear about the meeting.
If you are reading this and you have never made your peace with God, let me help and encourage you that He absolutely loves you and is not angry with you. He only wants to set you free from the devils schemes and from your sins which He already paid the price for and which you can never pay for yourself. Open your heart to Him and simply ask Him to come in, to forgive you all of your sins and set you free from any and all bondages that you have fallen prey to. He is gracious and has promised to do that if you would only ask from an honest heart of faith.
To anyone who is already a believer and you have to admit you have not lived you're life for Christ as you should have. Stop now, and just take care of it and allow the promise He made to you in 1 John 1:9 to come forth. That if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He will do it and you will start again clean and fresh from here. That's a promise!
Now, we have to remember that in the Lord there is now "NO" condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. It is Satan who condemns us, the Holy Spirit convicts us, to keep us on the straight and narrow, and that is for our own good and saftey.
He is sounding out the alarms of warning to keep His people free and safe and to rescue the lost and hopeless. Won't you become a tool in the hand of the Lord, someone He can use to reach out and rescue someone who is perishing. You can you know, you can do it because He will help you. Be bold, have courage and be not afraid as He told Joshua and the people of Israel and HE will give you the victory!
They either try to deny that demonic activity even exists, or they admit that it exists, but that there is nothing that they can do about it and just ignore it. God will just take care of it for them they think, and they will be just fine.
And yet to do either of those things denies or ignores the very words and teaching of Jesus Christ Himself.
Jesus dealt specifically with them, and He taught us to do so as well. Christians must accept and respond to the truth that is in Christ, to live and act according to His word, and to deal with what is in this world. To do less is at best self destructive, and the enemy works continually to bring that about. It can be by the enemies hand, or their own, no matter to him as he enjoys both!
It is probably one of the most unpleasent and shunned realities that Christians face in life. They are living in the middle of the enemies territory and their responce to it is usually denial.
