2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
For the last couple of messages, the Holy Spirit has led me to write about citations that illuminate information that the Lord wants us to have which helps to equip us to going into spiritual warfare with confidence. While we know that encounters with the devil and his followers are painful and cause suffering, we don't have to feel that we will be defeated by them. This is true as long as we are willing to endure in our faith, remain daily in His word, and stay connected to Him through prayer (two-way communication with Him, where He speaks first). You'll recall that I cited DN 7: 13-14, that very significant part of Daniel's vision which allowed him to see Christ being presented to God and God granting Christ authority to judge and rule forever. What a profound impact that event has on our lives as believers! Because God conceived His plan of salvation even before the world was created, I have confidence that part of this plan was for Christ to be the judge. Remember too that Christ is the second personality of our Abba, so all that applies to God also applies to His other two personalities, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit [COL 1: 15-20, 1 PET 1: 20-21; JN 14: 6, 9, & 11]. David was faithful enough and smart enough to know to place himself in God's hands and not in man's when the Holy Spirit convicted him of the wrongfulness of taking the census in Israel. He knew he was facing judgment, and put himself in the hands of the fairest, most compassionate Judge to whom he had access, the Lord [2 SAM 24: 14]. David knew that God would be merciful.
PS 75: 6-10, "Judgment does not come from the east or from the west, from the north or from the south; it is God Who is the Judge, condemning some and acquitting others. The Lord holds a cup in His hand, filled with the strong wine of His wrath. He pours it out and all the wicked drink it; they drink it down to the last drop. But I will never stop speaking of the God of Jacob or singing praises to Him. He will break the power of the wicked, but the power of the righteous will be increased." The only exception to the pouring of the wine of His wrath on the wicked came when He answered Christ's prayer in LK 22: 42, "'Father,' He said, 'if You will, take this cup of suffering away from Me. Not My will, however, but Your will be done.'" God made this tremendous sacrifice of pouring His "cup of suffering" on His only Son, so that the prophecy of IS 53: 4 & 6 would come true, and the plan He had set in motion before creation to provide salvation for mankind would come to pass. IS 53: 4 & 6, "But He endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne. All the while we thought that His suffering was punishment sent by God...All of us were like sheep, each going its own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on Him, the punishment all of us deserved." In that act, the Lord through His grace affects the ultimate in justice and compassion toward us. The separation of sheep and goats described in MT 25: 32 will be brought about, with the sheep being saved and the goats going to sure destruction. All of this was made possible by Christ's courageous and loving Atonement.
When we are saved, God's power is with us. That is why our Abba lovingly raised His Son as "the first among many brothers" to life from death [RO 8: 29] and named Him "Jesus" meaning "Savior" and "Immanuel," meaning "God Is With Us" [MT 1: 21 & 23]. When we endure in faith and face spiritual warfare, we are equipped by God with the same power to do battle that He used to raise Christ from life to death [EPH 1: 18-20]. God is our Supreme and Sovereign Deity. DN 2: 20-21, "God is wise and powerful! Praise Him forever and ever. He controls the times and the seasons; He makes and unmakes kings; it is He Who gives wisdom and understanding." Since God created us, He knows everything about us, including what we are capable of doing. He knows that we can face the challenges to our faith, those arrows that Satan hurls at us, and that we can defeat Satan with His help. He loves us so much that He uses this situation-our spiritual warfare-to sanctify us, building us into strongly faithful, perfected recipients of eternal life with Him. What a better alternative for us when compared to what Satan offers-eternal damnation in the lake of fire and sulfur! REV 4: 9-11, "The four living creatures sing songs of glory and honor and thanks to the One Who sits on the throne, Who lives forever and ever. When they do so, the twenty-four, elders fall down before the One Who sits on the throne, and worship Him Who lives forever. They throw their crowns down in front of the throne and say, 'Our Lord and God! You are worthy to receive glory, honor, and power. For You created all things, and by Your will they were given existence and life.'" We should meditate on this as I am being led tomorrow to begin the segment of this series called "Fear Satan?" We should look at our own individual lives and ask: "What are my I wills...?
PRAYER: O Lord, mankind has a long history of stubbornness, especially Your chosen people the Jews. We come before Your altar with the knowledge You give us that our stubbornness and unfaithfulness must stop, as it leads to destruction. In this song of praise, PS 95, David uses the example of the ancient Jews in the wilderness to show us the reasons why refusal to be faithful is foolishness. PS 95: 4-9, "He rules over the whole earth, from the deepest caves to the highest hills. He rules over the sea, which He made; the land also, which He Himself formed. Come, let us bow down and worship Him; let us kneel before the Lord, our Creator! He is our God; we are the people He cares for, the flock for which He provides. Listen today to what He says: 'Do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribah, as they were that day in the desert at Massah. There they put Me to the test and tried Me, although they had seen what I did for them." The foolishness of testing You and complaining about our suffering is shown in the fact that You provided water from a rock and manna from Your heavenly stores despite these complaints and tests [EX 16:31 & 17:5-7]. The urging to test You and complain came from Satan then, just as it does today. We offer our thanks that through Your word we have a way to recognize his deception and hatred for what it is and to be empowered to defeat Him in Your Son's name. We humbly confess our sin, turn from our stubbornness and unbelief, and offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, amen.
As promised, I am led to begin writing about the question: Should we fear Satan? In tomorrow's message. Our God is so awesome that words to describe Him fall short. He asks us to seek Him out to share our pain and sorrows, as well as our triumphs. He corrects us, teaches us His ways, and offers us encouragement when we need it. He provides for our needs and protects us against Satan's snares. He is a constant presence in our lives and showed us how to love by the sacrifice of His Son. He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, so we could understand His word and reach toward His perspective. He is an always fair and always compassionate Judge. I could fill a book, listing all His marvelous attributes and deeds. All we are and all we have are from Him, especially the life-giving faith we share. We are truly a blessed people! Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn