Victory or Defeat

The first thing we need to know and always be aware of as Christians is that we are in a spiritual battle, whether we want to be or not doesn't matter. The bible says in-
Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) 
¹² 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. 

If you do not know Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord you are already defeated and will never taste victory in your life. And your eternal destination will be Hell. Read on for the solution.

THEN WE ARE TOLD HOW TO FIGHT THIS BATTLE IN 

EPHESIANS 6: 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Then we are told the weapons of this warfare in Ephesians 6:14-18 (NKJV)
¹⁴ Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
¹⁶ above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
¹⁸ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--

Let us take the weapons of spiritual warfare one at a time. First in verse 14 we need to have the truth of God's word around us every where we go and we are tell the truth at all times. Lies open the door for Satan to work and right away we are defeated. No one else may know you are not honest in your speech, but God, Satan and you know you are not being honest and so right away you are defeated. Satan can not stand against the truth, always remember that. So when you always tell the truth you are victorious. The next weapon is righteousness. Be made righteous in God's eyes by accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord. You have no power against Satan if you are not saved or born again. You can not do what is right in God's eyes until your sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. Then we must always do the right thing every time we face any circumstance in our lives. There are two ways to handle any situation and that is either Satan's way or God's way. To do things right or do them wrong. We will always have that choice. Then the next weapon is to have the gospel with us wherever we go. The picture of the gospel on our feet is a picture that tells us to walk or (live our lives) in the power of God's word of good news every day. If we make every decision as the word of God tells us to we will be victorious every time. The next weapon is the shield of faith. The picture is to always live our lives based on our belief of the truth of God's word and we will be protected from whatever comes our way. We believe that when we do what God says we will win every battle. We are totally convinced of that fact because that is what God's word assures us of. We trust as we live in God's word He will protect in every circumstance we face. Then we have the helmet of salvation. Do you know for sure that you are saved or do you have doubts? If you are not 100% sure of this, ask Jesus to forgive your sins against God and ask Him to save you right now and then invite Jesus into your live so you can live in victory over Satan ,sin and your fleshly desires. Then we look at the next weapon which is sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. You must read God's word daily to know how to overcome evil in your life, to resist the devil and be victorious in each battle you face in this life every day. There is power in God's word. The devil will try to get you not to read the word of God because he knows that if you do he will be defeated by you. Claim God's word and live your life based on it. Notice this is the offensive weapon with which we wound and kill the devil. When we stand in God's word no matter what, the devil has no chance against us. It's when we depart from God's word that we begin to suffer defeat at the hands of the devil and he will begin to control every area of your life until we stop him with God's word. We believe God's word over every other solution that might be available. No matter what some one else says that goes against God's word we reject it because it will lead to defeat. Then to close out we have the weapon of prayer. Talking with God and asking Him to lead, guide, and direct us each day and ask Him to help us make choices based on His word and not on anything else or anyone else's advice. We will always go to God's word for our advise on how to live and face each problem in life.

Romans 12:2 (NKJV) 
² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 

If we live our lives this way we can be sure of victory and if we don't there will be the agony and pain of defeat in our lives. The choice is ours! Will you be victorious or will you live in defeat. Make your choice today. It seems that choosing to live according to God's word no matter what would be the right choice. Try it and then you will prove God's word is right in your own life. 

Expectant Faith

Do you have expectant faith? You may ask, what does that mean? What I mean do you really believe that God is going to take care of every situation in your life and all that involves you?
Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) ¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. God says here that His thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace and to give us a future and also He wants to give us hope when there is no reason for hope.
There is a story in the bible of a woman that believed God when it seemed that was the most foolish thing she could. You can read this true story in 2 Kings 4:8-36. She had often let the prophet Elisha stay with her and her husband as he would pass their house. In fact they built a room for him to live in whenever he came by their way.
To reward her for her generosity Elisha sent his servant to ask her if there was anything he could do for her. She said no she didn't need anything. But when his servant found out that she had no children he called her and as she stood in the doorway Elisha prophecied that she would have a son one year later and sure enough she did. The child grew in age and one day he was in the field with his father when He had a sun stroke and died. The woman took her son upstairs to the prophet's room, laid him on the bed and called her husband to send her one of his servants and have him bring her a donkey. Her husband asked her why she was going to see the prophet and she simply sent word to her husband that "all is well." Then she saddled the donkey and as she came near where the prophet Elisha lived he sent his  servant to meet her 2 Kings 4:26 (NKJV) ²⁶ Please run now to meet her, and say to her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?' " And she answered, "It is well." How could she say in all honestness that it is well when her son lay dead at her house? This is because she had expectant faith. She believed in her heart that God would give life back to her son. Elisha tried to send his servant to pray for the boy but the woman told Elisha that she would not leave till he came back with her to pray for the boy. So Elisha finally agreed to go with her. When he arrived he laid his staff on the child and prayed for the child's life to return to him. And of course the boy was healed.
Do you have this kind of faith? Can you trust God when all is going wrong in your life? Not unless you very close to God. These written articles are for the purpose of strenghtening your dependence on God for all your needs no matter what. We know from the scriptures that I have given you above that God wants the best for us and when we believe this truth of God we can begin to live our lives in the power of His word. Then we can believe God will save us from whatever we face and be able to say "All is well" even before we see the answer.
Hebrews 10:38 (NKJV)
³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." When we stand on the truth of God's word we can believe that He always wants the best for us.
But we must do our part by reading God's promises to us and then begin to believe that God means what He says and then [act] on the truth that we have just learned.
James 2:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷ Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. May God help us to be people of real faith that can believe God for the best even before it comes and then live our lives in a way that will bring the results God wants to give us.
Are you 100% sure that your sins have been forgiven by Jesus Christ and that you will live forever in eternity with God? If you are not 100% sure ask Jesus to forgive you right now. Don't put it off because the bible says:
2 Corinthians 6:2 (NLT)
² For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation. If you believe this truth of God and act on it now you will be saved. The word of God says in:
Romans 10:9 (NLT)
⁹ If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Be saved right now, then go to church and be baptized and worship and praise God there. Then you will be able to read and understand God's will for you and all your family.
Then you can say, "All is well," no matter what you have to face in life because you will have the very power of God working in your life perfecting you and working His will in you untill the day he takes you home to be with Him for an eternity.
Praise God- Amen- So Be It!

Living In The Promises of God

We as Christians have all around us the word of God. It lies on the end table, coffee table, and even the dinner table yet we see so many poor miserable Christians every where we look. In that Holy book that just lies around the house there are many, many promises for every need we have. In Joel 3:10b it says "let the weak say I am strong." When we are in God's will and reading His promises every day we can be strong. Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

What does this word say? We can do some things, no all things! God says in His word in Romans 8:37 (NKJV) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

No matter what the situation God said we are more than conquerors thru Jesus who loves us.
We have another promise in God's word. Let's look at it.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NKJV)
¹⁴ Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Notice the promises in this passage. First we have the promise of a Great High Priest. The High Priest's duty is to stand in the gap between the people and God. He presents the sacrifice [Himself] and He intercedes for the person to God. That should excite you to know that Jesus intercedes for you constantly! The next promise is that He can sympathize with our weaknesses. Jesus went through more than any of us will. He has been there and got the t-shirt as they say. He was tempted in every way that we are. Can you realize that? He laid down His Deity while He was on earth to live as you and I do. A person under the power of the Holy Spirit moving in Him just as the Holy Spirit moves and empowers us. He is our perfect example! Must read about Him in God's word to see how He handled each and every problem He faced. We too have that same power as He did. We have God's power in us that raised Jesus from the dead.

Ephesians 1:19-20 (NKJV)
¹⁹ and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
²⁰ which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

Then we have another promise that if we come boldly to God's throne of grace we will find the mercy and grace we need in time of trouble. Look at that scripture. We come before His thone. That is where He sits ruling over everything and everyone. We have access to the very presence of God. We don't have to send a message by someone else. We can come boldly-which means the following,not hesitating or fearful in the face of possible rebuff; courageous and daring:.

We are not to be fearful or hesitating thinking God will rebuff us or be upset or angry with us. We are to be courageous and daring to ask God for His help. He wants us to do that and we should because Jesus died so that we could approach God's throne forgiven by His blood. The last promise I want to look at is God said in that verse 16 of Hebrews 4 that we would find the help we needed in our time of trouble. What a promise. God can not lie so we have an assurance that when we do what He says we will have what He said.
Let's begin to live in the promises we have been given saints of God instead of going around with our heads hanging down and complaining all the time. Instead claim the promises of God. They are as sure as the the sun that will rise tommorrow.
If by chance you don't know God and you feel you can't call on Him just ask Jesus to forgive your sins against God and then invite Him into your heart to live in you and work His will in you. Then all these promises and many more will be yours.
Do it today before it's too late!

Our Priviledge In God