Tag Archives: spiritual wickedness

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Be Thou Enlightened, Reminded, and Encouraged!

As we we move in our walk in Christ, we can not allow ourselves to soon forget that Satan or his minions never sleep as men do, nor do they require sustenance to exist. So while their mission is to defeat you by placing stumbling blocks in your Christian walk, they do not rest nor do they take vacations, for their sole purpose is to delay your understanding and relationship with God. They will not sleep nor give up on this quest and that is why we have to be aware of the Devil’s tricks and antics as the Word reads in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

So let’s not forget, brothers and sisters that we stand strong and be not dismayed at the things that we are going through, be they things of our faith and the hardening of our resolve, to never give up nor surrender to the systematic attacks of the devil or his minions.

In the Bible, Jesus had encountered this in the book of Matthew 4:1-11:

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

It’s so important that we remember what the Lord said in the book of Matthew 5:

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not
make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto
you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

My conclusion: Is this world, as we go about our daily walk in Christ, we should always remember to be mindful of what we say, mindful of how we act toward others at all times, and not offend others while watching
our attitudes in the trials and tests.

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We Wrestle Not against Flesh and Blood

Ephesians 6:5-8

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.

 

Emphasis on verse 8, Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Whether you are a slave or free, your’ll receive the same of the Lord. He is no respect of persons in that respect. A lot of people feel they can’t serve Christ if they are a slave or beholding to someone. But know that under the oppression of whomever or whatever it may be, if you are a true Child of God, you are still to do His will. By doing so, you’ll receive of the Lord, whether you be bonded to someone or free on your own. Doesn’t make a difference.

Ephesians 6:9-11

And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

 

Can someone say “Whole Armour?” Put on the whole armour of God, not just part of it, all of it. Put on all those things to be fully armored. Because Satan is not coming just to cut off your head, but anything he can get a hold to, whether it be your legs or arms…anyway he can. If he can strike you at your finances, in your body, he will. If he could strike at you by attacking your loved ones, he will. If he could strike at you at your job, he will. Know this, you must be prepared at all times when you go into battle. You have to have on all of your protective gear. In the military, they give you cavalier vests/armored vests, reinforced knee pads, reinforced elbow pads. They give you special helmets before you go into battle. All for the purpose of protecting you against any form of an attack. So as a Child of God, your amour is what it says in Galatians 5.

 

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 

So you have to put on your armor. First of all love. Sometimes its a hard thing to put on love, but put on love so when you come against that foe, they won’t know how to act. People seem to wait for you to be combative, so they can justify their attack on you. They want you to be afraid. Our President John F. Kennedy said this one thing that is very important and I hope that we catch this: “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” Now I hope you got that. The only thing to fear is fear itself. Let me break that down for you. Sometimes people don’t understand what they’re afraid about. They have been indirectly or directly taught to fear this thing, that situation, or this type of problem, not understanding that there was nothing to fear in the first place. In other words, people are being trained to fear and don’t realize it, so when they get older that fear comes out in them. It manifests itself in many different forms and ways, when you least expect it. That is why you have to be prepared to love in spite of. When somebody treats you wrong, you have to love them still. If someone talks about you, you have to love them still. I know its hard, we all have been through, when somebody just hurt you to the very fiber of your being. We want to lash out in revenge, hoping that taking revenge will resolve that issue. But I’m here to tell you revenge doesn’t resolve anything, it just opens another door that Satan can come into to destroy you.

The next armament is joy. I know some will say, how can you feel joy when someone has their foot on your neck? How can you feel joy when they are trying their best to destroy you? How can you feel joy when someone has taken all that you have? How can you feel joy when someone has taken your loved one? Taken your home, taken your livelihood? How can you feel joy? The Bible tells us in the mist of confusion and mess, God will calm that water. In the midst of trouble, He said cast your cares upon Me for I care for you. The joy you have to feel is, trouble don’t last always and neither does pain or hardship. So be confident that God has your back. Its a good thing when God has your back. We think that men have our backs, but we need not trust in men. Put your trust in God. When God has your back, He has your back.

The next thing is peace. What is peace? Freedom from disturbance, quiet and tranquility. When you look at the action of peace, it calms down everything about you and around you; the Word of God says peace be still (Mark 4:39). What comes along with peace is having faith. The only thing that would cause you to get agitated is when you don’t have peace; is when something has disturbed your faith. Does that mean you have no faith in whom you serve; in Christ that He would deliver you? When you’re going through a situation in your life, does that mean you have no faith to deliver you? It brings in fear, not having enough faith; causes you to doubt what you believe.

The next bit of armour is long-suffering. Some of you all can’t hold out for one minute without complaining. You can’t even fast for even 1 hour, notwithstanding one day. You can’t endure anything. Do you have endurance? Can you endure the stress and heartache of going through? Knowing after a while it will all be over? It reminds me of an old song they use to sing: After a while the troubles shall be over, after a while my Savior shall come. The race is not to the swift nor to the strong. The Bible says its to the one that endureth to the end. Long-suffering. Do you have on that armour of long-suffering. Can you stay with it without complaining or whining? Can you endure? That’s a heavy thing.

Another is gentleness. How many of you are gentle? How many of you have that quiet gentle spirit? How many have a gentle nature? Most people have the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth type of mentality. He hit me, I’ll hit him harder, if he hurts my family, I will hurt his, if he steals from me, I will take from him. We don’t have a gentle spirit. Another thing is goodness. When you say the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. It says toward the latter part of that, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall not fear. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Did you head goodness mentioned? Goodness has to be a part of a Child of God’s life, without any doubt, it has to be a part. When you think about the goodness of Jesus and all the things He’s done for us, yet we sill complain about the little things. Its a shame that we sit up there and complain about the little things. The Word of God tells us how long halt you between two opinions. If God be God serve Him, if he be mammon, serve him. I think some of us are caught between that making up our mind stage. Faith is the strongest armor because without faith its impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith in what He does, what He says, faith in what He tells us to do and where He tells us to go. The Bible tells us if we have the faith of a grain of a mustard seed, its like a little tiny bead. To say that someone doesn’t even have faith that size its an indictment on them.

Meekness, I think meekness goes right along with gentleness. A quiet, gentle and easily imposed on submissive, yielding, obedient, compliant, humble spirit. Many people in the Church don’t have humble spirits, they aren’t too meek, and quick to jump down your throat. I tell people, you’d better leave people alone, because you’ll make that Peter spirit come out quickly.

Temperance is the last. Temperance is a moderate or voluntary self restraint to refrain from doing. How many people of God have temperance as an amour? How many can say I know where to stop, I know where the line is and I’m not going to cross that line? You’ve got to know when to say no. Then you’ve got to know when to go. Temperance is an important piece of amour on the Child of God on the battlefield of this world, because you will deal with some folks who cause you to loose your temperance. There is a time and season for everything under the sun. You have to know when you should do or not do.

Ephesians 6:12

 For 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.

That is an awesome statement. Reason being is because people think they are fighting against people. Democrats are fighting against Republicans and vice versa. They are fighting against spiritual entities behind the people. Demons and imps sent by Satan to control this world. It says against spiritual wickedness in high places. Did you know one level of demons controls a lower level of demons that controls another level of demons on you? The more successful you are in halting Satan’s growth, the more of a target you are to Satan. Being a Child of God, you are already on the radar if you are true. If you are a Charlatan, they don’t pay attention. They only want those people effective against them to make sure that the effect they have doesn’t cause their power to wane.

The term wrestle against flesh and blood…why do we fight and argue. The Word of God says in James 4:2-3 from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your lust that war in your members? Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not. Ye ask an receive not because ye ask amiss. In other words your fighting against yourself, against the church because you want what they have. You never asked the Lord if you could have that, if it would edify your soul. We want it because it appeals to our flesh and will do anything to obtain it. You see these different leaders around the country fighting against one another because of jealously. You have these number of members. I want the same number of members, a nice edifice, I, I, I. When did God come in? When did He leave. When it became your ministry, when you conduct service according to your will. That is when the Holy Ghost leaves the place. Then the word Ichabod is written upon that ministry meaning the presence or Spirit of God has left that place. You never want that to be on your ministry, because once the presence of God has left your ministry, it is dead. The whole purpose is to do His will, and when He writes Ichabod on you He will never ever visit again. So you never want to hear Ichabod being pronounced on your location.

James 4:4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

 

So, you hear a lot of people say I’m concerned about what will happen to this world, and all the things pertaining to loving this world. If you are in the House of God and love the world more than the Church, you are an enemy, so you might as well either get correction or get out.

James 4:5-6

Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

So can you humble yourself? There are quite a few reasons or excuses people use to justify their general disenchantment and disgust for each other. So I’ve listed some of the more common misunderstood emotions:

 

  1. Hurt-The Lord said cast your cares of Him. When you are hurting, it will cause you to have regret and anguish. That will cause you to mistreat someone, it would even cause you to hurt someone because you are hurt.
  2. Lying-What’s so big about lying? A lie hurts everybody involved. Most people don’t realize, when you tell one, you have to tell another to keep the first from being discovered. Who is the father of a lie? Satan. So you are doing Satan’s will.
  3. Hatred- It has caused people to go war. Families and friends not to speak for years. People to be killed.
  4. Fear- We talked about earlier. When a person is afraid, they will do anything to keep the fear from getting out of control.
  5. Rejection- Rejection has become a big problem in our society today. More youth are committing suicide because they are rejected by their peer group. They want to belong to some group of people that would befriend them and say good things about them. Kids sometimes can be so cruel. You have to feel good and confident about yourself. But those emotions have caused people to be disenchanted with each other.
  6. Anger- People have been so angry that they have hunted others down just to get rid of them. A lot of times people loose focus, and that is what causes people to become disgusted with other people and loose faith and hope in people.
  7. Confused- People in the Church are confused, but they don’t know what part they play. They know they are supposed to do something, because they never took the time to ask God. They want someone to tell them what to do, and when you tell them they get upset. Confusion is running rampant all through the Church. We need to understand that we can’t be confused when doing the work of God. That is one thing you need to take care of. If you don’t what will windup happening is you will lead someone astray, which will bring in contention between individuals. So you must be very careful how you walk in your Christian walk.

 

You can’t allow these 7 things to cause you not to deal with your fellow man correctly. These have caused us to fight against flesh and blood. Attack the spirit, by the Spirit. That Spirit in you should be the Spirit of God. So its very important that you allow the Holy Ghost to lead and guide you to all truth and understanding concerning your walk. Know this there is no man, woman or child or creature made of flesh and blood coming after you. It is spiritual wickedness attacking you. It uses whomever and whatever to attack the Child of God to slip up or fail. So I tell you again how long halt you between two opinions? If you are a Child of God, act like one. You are to be the salt of the earth, so put on that shield, and whole amour of God so that you may be able to stand against the whiles of the Devil. Everything is not going to be to how you like it or want it to be. Remember God is trying to make you. First he needs to break you down, so He can build you up His way.

Know this, Satan will use whomever or bring up situations around your life, he will bring people into your life that mean no good for you or anything you do for the Lord, so as to destroy God’s purpose for you in ministry. So I say again, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers and darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.