Warfare Part 3

Dear beloved: As believers in Jesus Christ, clothed with Him, we have been given authority over the works of the devil in our lives- someone should shout hallelujah! Jesus declared to the dispiples in Mark 16:15 And He said to them, "go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation, 16 He who has believed and been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 And these signs shall accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, v18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." v20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs (miracles) that followed. Beloved, as believers we have been given the Holy Spirit of God. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation; the old things passed away, behold new things have come. ...And again we are identified with Christ in Galatians 2:20 where Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.... we see by these and countless other scriptures the authority we have been given; it is not God's will or desire that we live defeated lives, for we have victory in Jesus, by the blood that He shed on the cross. Revelation 12:10 gives us a glimpse of victory in a future battle; And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation , and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. v11 and they (believers) overcame him by the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death." We know that in our earthly walk we desire to walk closely with the Lord, yet often times the devil, the deceiver and the accuser of the brethren, comes to accuse us before the Lord. He accuses us of our past and present failures, our sins, the iniquities of our fathers, he even tries to beat us down about our future, telling us that we are trapped by our past failures and losses. The devil will also attempt to steal our good health, our finances, our joy, all the great gifts the Lord has given us, even to the point of trying to get us to blaspheme the Holy Spirit of God and steal our salvation. He is ruthless and has no pity on anyone, even young children. There is no time at which the devil will say " I won't tempt or bother that person any more, they have had enough!" But we can overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Paul sums up our position in Christ with these words, Romans 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. v39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, v39 nor height, not depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rejoice, beloved, rejoice! WE ARE CONQUERORS. Tomorrow we will look at strapping on the armor of God as we prepare to go into battle each day. God bless you, in Christ, Jim