Sunday AM January 6, 2019
Like me, many of you are now are have been involved in a trial that almost over-whelmed you. Satan would fill you with fear that you just can’t make it I just can’t carry on, many have felt the same way but with hope in our heart we must continue to walk on. The only way to get through anything is to keep walking, you’ll get through this dark time.
We fear that the depression will never life, the yelling will never stop, and will the pain never let up. We may wonder, will this gray sky ever brighten? Will this load ever lighten? We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Satan would have some to believe that they are predestined for failure. We may throw up both hands and scream, “will we ever get out of this pit?” YES, YES!!! Deliverance is to the Bible what birth is to a pregnant woman.
Deliverance: out of the lion’s den for Daniel…the prison for Peter…the whale’s belly for Jonah…the storm for the disciples…disease for the lepers…even the grave for Lazarus and the shackles for Paul and Silas.
God carries us through stuff: the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground…through the wilderness…through the valley of the shadow of death. We are told in Isa 43:2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
It won’t be painless. You may have not wept your final tear. You may not have felt your last pain. You may not have experienced your last broken heart. Your unhappy marriage will not likely become happy in a heartbeat. God does not guarantee the absence of struggle and the abundance of strength, not in this life. But He did promise not to put more on us that we can bear. Sometimes God takes His time as He did with Joseph. It was at least twenty years from the time that his brother sold him into slavery until he saw them again and two more years before he saw his father who he loves so dearly.
We see Satan’s tricks and ploys. God sees Satan tripped and foiled. We represent a challenge to Satan’s plan. You carry something of God within you. Something noble and holy, something your family needs, something your friends need and something even the world needs. What is it, wisdom, kindness, mercy, confronting, compassion, love and skills. If Satan can neutralize you, he can mute your influence. What Satan intends for evil, God will turn it around and make it good it we faint not. The story of Joseph is in the Bible for this reason: to teach us to trust God and TRUMP evil.
For years and years probably day upon days a great many of us have called out to God, Lord help me.
When we hear the story of David and Goliath most likely we think, that was all God. In one way, it was all God. But God didn’t just appear when David yield at Goliath. God started preparing for this scene long before. Actually God wanted someone to help Him so he chose a kid who was just freshly anointed to be King over Israel but was still tending sheep as though the anointing had very little effect on him. David was still a shepherd boy. In the course of caring for his sheep he had to learn to use a sling shot in order to protect his most valuable ascent. So he practice and practice and became very efficient being able to hit and kill the wild animals that were trying to devour his sheep. God gave David the skill but David had to develop what God had given him.
David had no idea that the day would soon come that he would be called upon to bring victory to a lost cause and save a defeated army but would save the nation of Israel. True enough God directed the stone but it was David using his skill that he had develop using a simple homemade sling shot that slung the stone that God directed to the only exposed spot that would kill Goliath. David actually helped God.
I think it was last Tuesday morning as I started to pray and as usual, first and foremost, the first thing that came from my mind and out of mouth, over my lips into my ears, back to my mind, the origin of the thought was, “Lord help me!”. Repetitiously, repeating the same phrase several times. Then a phrase coined by John Kennedy, President of the United States entered my mind: “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask, what I can do for my country.” Then for a few seconds there was silence. Then I heard myself say out loud, “Lord what can I do to help you.” I thought that was an odd question to ask God, the creator of the universe, the creator of all things.
I stopped trying to persuade God to help me and began to ponder on how on earth could this mind sobering thought apply to such a mighty God. So after a few minutes had passed by I repeated, “God what can I do to help you.” And God brought this passage of scripture to mind.
Matt 6:33
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
Matt 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
From before the time that God kicked Satan out of Heaven a state of war has existed between God and Satan and the angels of in heaven and those that followed Satan.
Like David God has anointed His army and given us power to be victorious and over-come the many pitfalls Satan has prepared for us.
God said in Acts 1:8. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Power in this verse is not verbal but a demonstration.
1 Cor 2:4-5. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
He prepared a way for us to receive the power that had been given to Him. So now we need weapons that we might effetely fight this ongoing battle. He told us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph. 6:13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Now we can receive the weapons that God has prepared for us.
1 Cor 12:1-11. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant…
2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
These gifts are actually weapons, powerful weapons. These are the only weapons that put fear in the mind of Satan and his imps. Each one of them are powerful and have their own unique purpose. On the Day of Pentecost only Speaking in Tongues and Interpretations of tongues were use and there were three thousand souls saved. Still today, Tongues are a very powerful weapon if used scripturally.
