Temptations

I1Pe 1:6  …IN heaviness through MANIFOLD temptations.

Are you in heaviness through manifold temptations?

Are you constantly being tempted?

Our defects of character are constantly exposed aren't they? And it's so easy, so incredibly easy for us to say, well that's just who I am, if you don't like it, tough.  We are who we are. We say it, we think it and we believe it. We are who we are character defects and all. Do you suppose we are meant to believe that? Biblically, are we meant to believe we are who we are - our temperament, our reserved-ness, our boisterousness, our cantankerousness,   our meekness, our … well, you get the picture. Are we really supposed to just shrug our shoulders and agree that we are who we are?

I don't think so.

Col 3:12  Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Col 3:13  Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Col 3:14  And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
Col 3:15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Put on-   we might not have this on already if we are being told to 'put on', right?  Our character right now might now possess these things and yet we are told to 'PUT ON' the following-

Mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness, charity.

If we truly examine our defects of character allowing ourselves to be completely honest, then we would realize that those defects stand in opposition to the things we are to 'put on'. 

Our temper is in opposition to our forbearance and longsuffering.  Our selfishness in opposition to our kindness, our charity.

We give into so many temptations because we lack the character traits we are to 'put on'. We'd rather feel the weight of guilt than suffer deprivation of whatever temptation lies before us.

We don't want to be long suffering in any way, it seems to go against our very perverted natures. And yes, our natures have been terribly perverted by sin.

We are constantly being tempted and we are constantly making excuses for succumbing to temptations.  We excuse away ourselves on so many levels we barely know who we really are underneath all of the sin stains soaked deep into our hearts.

We are allowed manifold temptations, and we feel the heaviness of those temptations. Our faith is allowed to be TRIED to expose it's weakness.  When you 'try' something over and over to make sure of it's worthiness you are doing so for a very good reason.

The manufacturers of cars test them over and over and over and over extensively and they do that because they want to expose the defects, the weaknesses that may occur over time. They don't do that in order to just jot it down in a book somewhere, but they do it so they can CORRECT that defect before they send their products out. From time to time it's discovered that not all the defects were exposed under the trials, but the actual use revealed the defects.  But a lot more defects are discovered through the trials than we can imagine. It's not just with cars either, but with a lot of products we use all the time. Would you trust a toy with your child if you hadn't been assured that it'd been tested for safety?

The point here being that we are TRIED, we face a lot of temptations and rather than DESPISE these we must allow ourselves to LEARN from them as GOD would have us learn.

We will be tempted. Fiery darts of the wicked one will mercilessly rain down upon us and do so with intent of bringing us to a place of despair where we can't imagine forgiveness being an option, where we can't imagine our Savior ever wanting to save us.  We are allowed to suffer for so many reasons but NONE of those reasons involved God's pleasure at our distress, not a single bit.

The temptations we face will reveal to us our characters and we can look to our Bibles and know the character God would have us possess, have us 'Put On'.  If our characters do NOT match up to the character God desire to work IN US, then we have to kneel at the feet of our Savior and seek forgiveness, repentance, a willing heart to do HIS good pleasure, not ours!

We cannot just shrug off our defected characters with a - that's just who I am, end of story- because the story does NOT end there, not if you are a child of the King, not if you have Jesus as Your Savior! He wants to perfect us, HE WILL perfect us in His own way and we have to LET Him, not hinder Him.

When our tempers are exposed, we need to thank God for the revelation and seek His mercy and grace to keep from letting our tempers get out of control, and that goes for any defect in our characters. If temptation exposes our bad character traits we need to feel blessed, NOT defeated because we know our Savior is working IN US or else we would NEVER feel the prick of conscience for our defects. We will come face to face with the worst we possess and it is ONLY our SAVIOR who can change that, we cannot, but there is NOT IMPOSSIBLE to our GOD! NOTHING!

Just imagine the rigorous trying a child's safety seat must go through before it can be deemed safe, and then the next time you are confronted with a painful trial remember we are going through a trial even MORE rigorous than anything material in our world.

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ

PRAISE GOD FOR HIS LOVE!

The trial of our faith- so we will be found unto our SAVIOR'S praise, our SAVIOR's honor, our SAVIOR's glory- ready for Him at HIS APPEARING!

Please LORD help us put on YOU and all YOU are! All you have revealed to us that YOU ARE. Help us LORD to let YOU WORK IN US! Please LORD, by YOUR GRACE, YOUR MERCY, YOUR LOVE ALWAYS IN ALL THINGS FOREVER AND EVER!

AMEN!

Jesus had a tempter

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Pe 1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

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I1Pe 1:6  …IN heaviness through MANIFOLD temptations.

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Luk 4:2  Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

*

Are you tempted?

How many people are caught up in sinful acts but do not consider themselves tempted because they welcome those acts.

How many sinful acts of ours are brought about through temptation?

Temptations comes when there is something we WANT.
Temptation doesn't come when there isn't something we want.
You aren't tempted to take an extra slice of coconut pie when you hate coconut.
You aren't tempted to get drunk on beer if you despise beer.
We are only tempted by the things we desire either blatantly or secretly, because we do try to hide our lusts even sometimes from ourselves- we pretend rather than confront and reveal, confess and repent.

Our lusts.

That sounds so… uhm…sexual but truthfully lust can be a lot more than sexual. You can lust after anything that exists.  Of course some would say that you'd never lust over some things, but you'd be surprised and disgusted by the things some people actually do lust after. 

We can take anything that is perfectly harmless and have it turn into a very harmful lust. Satan LOVES to take the innocent and pervert it to his ways, he thrives on doing that.

We are tempted.

And ALL too often we fall to that temptation.

We have a tempter.

We are TEMPTED.

There is NO getting around that. We are tempted and tempted by SOMETHING urging temptation upon us.

Our Savior was tempted and SINNED NOT!

He had a tempter!

We have a tempter, the SAME tempter that Jesus faced.

Those fiery darts we talk about are temptations as well as despair and all things evil.

You can have a painful dart of depression aimed right at you, or you can have the worst temptation to sin stabbed in your direction.

This is OUR reality.

Along with accepting the darkness of the reality we MUST accept the LIGHT of reality.

We have a SAVIOR. We have ONE who - yes - was tempted just like we are and HE PREVAILED!

HE PREVAILED!

He defeated the Tempter!

He never succumbed to Satan, not once! The love of the Father was strong enough to sustain Him through ALL the horrors of the Devil.

We too can prevail THROUGH our SAVIOR!

This is the ONLY way we prevail, there isn't one other single way!

By the grace of God may we PREVAIL through JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR! ALL THROUGH HIM!

More tomorrow, as the LORD WILLS!

His Will Always!!!!!!!

In HIS LOVE.

Demons in the real world

Demons in the real world. 

There ARE demons in the real world, the world outside of books, movies, and television, the world outside of fiction.

Non-fiction demons.

It's true, it's factual but try and tell people this and you'll most likely get a squinty-eyed skeptical look, or perhaps one of those nods with that telling smile. You know what telling smile I'm talking about, the one that should a person look closely enough at they'd know they were victims of condescension. People might listen half-heartedly all the while they are internally shaking their head quite vehemently, not believing a word but letting you rattle on and on as you like simply because they know better than to try and argue with you. To argue with you would be quite pointless because you are set in your ways, in your beliefs, and refuse to listen to common sense. You take the Bible of all things and hold that up as your proof when the book is a mere fable mingled history of sorts. You take what Jesus, a God of the Bible, has to say and believe it to the exclusion of your very senses- you know those senses that clearly tell you (should you choose to listen to them) that demons are not at all real in any way, shape, or form. Sure, tell a fictional story about them, or even try in a fanciful way to convince people they're real, but we know you're just doing it because of the money, but DO NOT for one moment truly believe they are really, really, really, real. 

OR.

Yes, that is a big OR.  OR, if you do want to believe they're real do so in such a way it's more convenient to believe in them. You know, as harmless things, at best slight nuisances. Believe in them in a mere passing sort of way, do NOT try to make them common place and everyday happenings. Tell people you once saw a ghost, or that you can communicate with people on the other side on occasion. Tell them you believe to a point, but no more.  Surely do NOT tell them that you believe demons are surrounding all people at all times trying to seduce them spiritually into giving up on the truth, on the love of our Savior and His amazing sacrifice.  If you tell them that you WILL get that eye rolling, condescending smile with a nod and maybe even a light pat on the hand or forearm that shows a tenderness that doesn't really exist.

Demons in the real world, non-fiction demons have ONLY one purpose- to keep you from Christ and His truth, which in turn will keep you from eternal life, from salvation through Christ.

Demons KNOW that you won't turn into a spirit being upon death- you don't have that right because you are NOT just a spirit being as they are, you are flesh and blood as well, you are a creature called a human being, you are part of mankind, not angel kind. You will NOT turn into an angel upon death, they know this and it suits their purpose wonderfully to let you keep deceived upon that point. Demons WANT you to believe you turn into a spirit being upon death, they want you to believe in LIES, not in truth.  Demons know that you are NOT automatically guaranteed eternal life just because you appear to be a living angel of light crammed into human flesh. Demons KNOW that you will NOT get eternal life in any other way than to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and have His FAITH, His TESTIMONY, keeping HIS COMMANDMENTS.

Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The demons KNOW this and will do all in their power to keep you from being one of those remnant which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

You think you're guaranteed an afterlife, but you are not.

So many are deceived into believing they die and instantly are transported into a spiritual body that will either ascend or descend, but MOST believe in only ascension because NO ONE wants to truly believe they will ever descend.  Those who do believe they will descend and are caught up in making sure they do that will be awfully disappointed when they wake up from death's sleep to realize they are NOT going to live forever in any sort of hellish state.  They'll be punished as they deserve and no more, literally, they'll be no more after that punishment. They'll be no more them, forever and ever. If you're reading this right now be honest and ask yourself if you can ever really imagine there never being a you in existence on some level.  Because you ARE you believe you always will be somehow even if it is all a big mystery.  Or perhaps you do truly believe that everything ends at death and there is no more anything on any level after death. You too will be shocked when you are awakened after death's sleep only to find that you were wrong and must now live with that refuse of faith by suffering according to your unforgiven, unrepentant sins and ONLY then will your belief be realized and you will be NO MORE. But you'll be no more only after you are confronted fully with the FACT there was something more than everything stopping at death, and you refused it.

There will come a time when every single human being that has ever lived will know the truth and know where they accepted that truth or denied it. There truly will be a lot of gnashing of teeth and upset at that point, and a lot of tears because it'll all be too late and while they'll want to instantly place blame somewhere else to see if they can't get a reprieve, they'll be made to see very, very, very clearly every single opportunity they had to believe and how they rejected all of those opportunities.  

It is often only when a thief is caught that they are repentant, not for what they've done so much, but over having been caught. It'll be true for ALL who have rejected the truth in Christ, they'll feel that awful repentance but only because they got caught not believing, not because they truly have a love for Jesus and all He's done for them. They would NOT be happy in eternity, and there will be NO eternity for those who choose sin over Jesus.

Demons love lies, they love deception and all around us the world is FILLED with a lot of deception so much so it would be impossible to number the deceptions.

Demons will stop at nothing to deceive.

These spiritual creatures are living around us but they are not without spiritual enemies working to thwart their evil.  There are 2/3rds more spiritual creatures that belong to GOD and these work just as hard to bring every opportunity to all people everywhere to find and believe in the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ our LORD. 

The trouble here is the same as it was for Eve and Adam in the beginning.  They chose to believe a lie rather than the truth. And once we choose to believe a lie and continue in that lie we are shutting out the truth that God's spiritual creatures would reveal to us. We are building a wall around ourselves. We are putting on blinders that we would hate to take off because the light of the truth is so incredibly revealing.  That truth will reveal our true state of NOTHINGNESS without God. We are NOTHING without God, NOTHING! And we don't want to believe in ourselves as nothing beings.  We would much rather wear the blinders that allow us to believe we are something, even if it is only the tiniest of somethings, that's all it takes to keep from the truth.

People will continue to CHOOSE to believe the lies that make them feel most comfortable within themselves. The lie of total unbelief in any God or Jesus. The lie of believing in a Santa Claus-like God. The lie of believing in their own goodness. The lies people choose are endless and easily supplied by all the demons living around us. 

If you think you've never been influenced by a demon, think again. Just ask yourself if you've ever done anything at all in your entire life that you couldn't believe you did. Seriously, has there ever been even a small something or other that you couldn't believe you did? Perhaps it was something you said.  It doesn't matter what it was, what matters is that demons love to whisper in our ears and if you think they cannot whisper their evil at us think again- they can even live inside of us if circumstances allow. What those circumstance are I'm not entirely sure, but I know for a fact that demons can even possess children and it doesn't have to be the full blown spin your head around and spew filthy both verbal and that of the vomit sort. Not all demons possession is characterized by the wild men in the cemetery.

Mat 8:28  And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

Some demon possession as noted yesterday effected young people by making them fall down and thrash about- such as one with epilepsy.  Do you think the father of that young man would have even dared bring him about crowds if he were likely to be violent towards everyone around him? No.

Demons are real and the next time you are involved in an argument NO matter how seemingly justified it is, you can be assured the demons are surrounding you and urging you on to say hurtful things- even if they are true- the demons want you to show a spirit of dissension not love. 

I am serious, just in case you were wondering, very, very serious about ALL of this.

I wholeheartedly believe that demons use all the influence they can over us to get us to sin, to keep us from God, from the LOVE found ONLY IN JESUS CHRIST!

Satan himself tempted Jesus in the wilderness, but you can be assured Satan did NOT stop trying to influence Jesus right up until His very last breath.

So go ahead and choose not to believe in the reality of demons, but if you choose that path just remember you are choosing to NOT believe in the Word of JESUS Himself.  And if you are choosing not to believe in the Word of Your Savior, you must be choosing to believe in the word of the Savior's enemy- Satan.  Think about it please, and more importantly, PRAY about it all!!!!!!!

Pray, pray, pray! Communicate with GOD, He will help you, He will help us all find HIS truth and ONLY HIS TRUTH if we are sincerely desiring to find it all. And if we're not even sure if we are sincere, pray to be given that sincerity all the while comprehending how truly WORTHLESS we are, and the WORTH we need to have is ONLY found outside of ourselves in CHRIST!

All through HIS GRACE, HIS LOVE, HIS MERCY, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, ALL THROUGH HIM IN ALL THINGS!

AMEN!

Unclean Spirits

Eph 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.  (KJV)

Eph 6:12  For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world–rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  (RV- Revised Version)

Eph 6:12  We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world.  (CEV - Contemporary English Version)

Eph 6:12  because we have not the wrestling with blood and flesh, but with the principalities, with the authorities, with the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, with the spiritual things of the evil in the heavenly places (YLT- 1898 Young's Literal Translation)

The Spiritual battle is real.
Evil is real.

I read an article recently where a woman wrote about demons as if they were real- guess what- they ARE real. It seemed a little odd though to be reading someone say something along these lines: 

"Demons love it when we lie."

"Demons feast off our sinning."

Are they true statements? The Bible tells us that Satan is the father of lies, and emphasizes that being a liar is a really bad thing, so if we believe that evil angels (demons) follow in the footsteps of their leader Satan then yes, I imagine it's true that demons love when we lie.  Do demons feast off our sinning? I don't know for a fact they feast in the sense that we imagine feasting, but we do know the Bible tells us this-

Mat 12:43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Mat 12:44  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Mat 12:45  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Jesus Himself is talking about unclean spirits and why not, He cast out unclean spirits, he cast out demons and LOTS of them.  They were VERY real to Jesus and He recognized them as the enemy of mankind.

An unclean spirit, an evil angel, a fallen angel, an evil spirit being inside a man.
Taken out of a man that spirit is walking in DRY places.
And here's a point that seems moot when we know that angelic beings - evil and good - have no need of rest.  But it's not moot because nothing Jesus says is. The unclean spirit is seeking rest and finds none. This cast out unclean spirit was used to living inside a man and once cast out the life of that unclean spirit has altered, there is a void that cannot be filled. So this unclean spirit returns to the man he was cast out of and finds it better than it was when he'd occupied it before so not ONLY does he return but he take seven more unclean spirits, spirits more wicked than him and they ALL entered into that man to live.

Now this is a parable, Jesus spoke a lot in parables and this is no different.

The parable of the wicked people of Israel who only make a show of repentance but never fully repent and ultimately their rejection of the TRUTH of God leads them to an evil more wicked state than ever. 

This parable does NOT negate that fact that real unclean spirits exist, just as the parable of the fig tree doesn't speak as if the fig tree isn't real.

Just reading the following tells us that Jesus believed in REAL unclean spirit beings--

Mar_5:8  For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

Do you think it's possible for a person to be cleaned of unclean spirits and then receive them back again at a later date?  I do.

Read the following--

Mar 9:17  And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
Mar 9:18  And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.
Mar 9:19  He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
Mar 9:20  And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
Mar 9:21  And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
Mar 9:22  And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
Mar 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Mar 9:25  When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

Jesus - REBUKED the foul spirit- saying unto that SPIRIT- Thou DUMB and DEAF spirit, I charge thee COME OUT OF HIM and ENTER NO MORE INTO HIM.

Would Jesus have had to say- 'and enter no more into him', if it were not possible for unclean spirits to come and go from a person? No, He would not have had to say that.  This deaf, dumb spirit was being PERMANENTLY EJECTED from this young man.  'Enter no more into him.'  That young man would never, ever be bothered by that unclean spirit again. The unclean spirit was not destroyed, he was ejected.

People love to say the boy was probably just suffering from epilepsy and in the dark ages etc they used to believe that people had unclean spirits, demons in them but the truth is they had a medical condition that is easily treated nowadays with medicine.  It is true that there was a time when people believed a lot of medical conditions treated today were caused by demons and they tortured and killed those people believing they were in league with the devil- they had to be if the devil was inside them.  People in the time of Jesus did NOT torture and kill those who were possessed. We read more than this one account of demons inside people who were obviously allowed to live as normal a life as possible, not tortured. They were victims and recognized as such.  Jesus came and HEALED the physically, mentally, and spiritually sick. Jesus knew when a condition was caused by an unclean spirit and when it wasn't.

Luk 8:43  And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
Luk 8:44  Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
Luk 8:45  And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
Luk 8:46  And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
Luk 8:47  And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
Luk 8:48  And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

Did Jesus cast an unclean spirit out of this woman? No. But she was healed.

Mat 11:5  The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Mat_12:22  Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw

Mar 8:22  And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
Mar 8:23  And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.
Mar 8:24  And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
Mar 8:25  After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

Not every healing was the result of a cast out unclean spirit.

But there was healing when unclean spirits were cast out, because those unclean spirit COULD cause illnesses. Simply because we have a disease that mimics the symptoms of demon possession does NOT negate possession.

One blind and mute man could be so as a result of a demon, another blind and mute for other reasons. To say all have to be the same would be ridiculous.

Read this--

Joh 9:1  And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Joh 9:4  I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Joh 9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Joh 9:6  When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
Joh 9:7  And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

Illnesses and medical conditions are not always the result of someone's sin, yet they can be.

Exo_20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me

This CAN happen, but it isn't something that would automatically happen, just as Jesus said.

Satan wants us deceived at all costs, this is his desire for every human being, deceived.

Demon possession is real.

Demons- evil angels-  love lies and all sins.

God alone can protect us, He is our ARMOR against all the fiery darts.

More tomorrow by the GRACE of GOD!!!!!!!

Put On Christ

The Armor of God

Girt Loins (protective girdle)- Truth
Breastplate - Righteousness
Footwear - Peace
Shield - Faith
Helmet - Salvation
Sword - Spirit - Word of God

The whole armor of God.

Truth- Joh_14:6  Jesus …I AM  the... Truth

Righteousness- Mat_6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and HIS righteousness…

Peace- Joh_14:27  ...my peace I give unto you

Faith- Gal 2:16  ...by the faith of Jesus Christ

Salvation- Luk 19:10  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Spirit Word of God- Joh 1:1,2  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.  Luk_11:28  But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. Luk_4:4  And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Do you catch the picture here? The BIG picture.

Jesus is- truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God.

Our armor, the Whole Armor of God is JESUS CHRIST our LORD and SAVIOR He is OUR Protector!  Do you see why we have to have the Whole Armor or none? You can't have just a part of Jesus, you have to have ALL of Him! You have to believe in ALL that He is, was, and will be. 

The only way we have of being protected against all that the evil angel Satan will throw at us is if we truly have our Savior as a REAL part of our lives, a PROTECTOR. He WILL be our protector but we MUST PRAY ALWAYS.  We cannot forget this part…

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

Praying ALWAYS.  Why do we PRAY ALWAYS? We pray always because that is HOW we live in contact with our Savior. Prayer is the communication channel, the SPIRITUAL communication we have with our Savior!

Faith- believing in the unseen. BELIEVING.

We have to BELIEVE. We have to CHOOSE to BELIEVE and HE is ALL THINGS!

Put on the WHOLE ARMOR of GOD.

Gal 3:27  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Put on CHRIST.

Here is Adam Clarke's Commentary on this concept-

'As many of you as have been baptized into Christ - All of you who have believed in Christ as the promised Messiah, and received baptism as a public proof that ye had received Christ as your Lord and Savior, have put on Christ - have received his Spirit, and entered into his interests, and copied his manners. To put on, or to be clothed with one, is to assume the person and character of that one; and they who do so are bound to act his part, and to sustain the character which they have assumed. The profession of Christianity is an assumption of the character of Christ; he has left us an example that we should follow his steps, and we should, as Christians, have that mind in us which was in him.'

Put on Christ.
Put on the Whole Armor of God.
Put on Christ.

We have to have Jesus as our PROTECTOR and believing that HE is our PROTECTOR is something imagining the ARMOR of GOD can allow us to do in a more visual manner.

God is our protective girdle.
God is our protective breastplate.
God is our protective footwear.
God is our protective shield.
God is our protective helmet.
God is our defending sword.

And we have to CHOOSE to make HIM a REAL part of our lives. He will protect us as long as we allow Him to, He'll never force His protection upon us, never.

ALL BY HIS GRACE! ALL THROUGH HIS LOVE ALWAYS!

The Whole Armor or No Armor

Physically we can HAVE these in our possession-

Girt Loins (protective girdle).
Breastplate.
Footwear.
Shield.
Helmet.
Sword.

Spiritual we MUST have these in our possession-

Truth.
Righteousness.
Peace.
Faith.
Salvation.
Spirit of the Word of God.

Do you suppose it's important to note what piece of armor represents which part of the body? We know that physically there are parts of our body we cannot live without, right? So I really don't think this is part of the issue. Why? Because walking in the Gospel of Peace is of the utmost importance and to say we can live without our feet  and equate that to living without the Gospel of Peace would be ludicrous.

There is an element of analogy to the armor, but the most important thing we have to remember is all these Spiritual pieces of armor come from ONE source- OUR SAVIOR!

There is NO truth without our Savior!
There is NO righteousness without our Savior!
There is NO peace without our Savior!
There is NO faith without our Savior!
There is NO salvation without our Savior!
There is NO Spirit of the Word of God without our Savior!

This is truly the WHOLE ARMOR of GOD, because we cannot possess any of it without GOD. In fact we really cannot possess one piece without the other. We cannot put on the helmet of salvation without having the girdle of truth. We cannot have our feet shod with the gospel of peace and not have the shield of faith. This armor is a complete SET of armor and it does NOT exist without any one of the pieces.

Put on the WHOLE armor of God, or none.

One or the other and it makes sense because the choice we are to make is between God and Satan, God and Selfishness, God and any thing that separates us from God. We are not going to be able to choose to keep a little bit of our selfishness as if it's something good and won't really hurt us. We CANNOT choose to keep a little bit of evil anything! Yet we go about as if our faults are no big deal. That it is fine because we're human and cannot help but have faults.  Yet we are TOLD over and over to sin no more. We don't like to equate our faults with sin, yet aren't they sins? Anything that would keep us from God, anything that would keep us focused on our selves, any fault that is accepted as a part of us and NOT surrendered to God is something we will have to account for. We have to surrender ALL of ourselves, this must be the choice we make, a full surrender. 

It is ALL or nothing.

All of the armor of God or none.
All God or none of God.

This is something we have to truly consider, to think about, to dwell on because Satan wants us to walk the fence straddled between both worlds and on neither side because HE KNOWS that fence people are upon is HIS FENCE!

This armor must be thought of as a WHOLE most definitely NOT as something that is haphazardly assembled.

Let's dwell on this seriously, let's take time to contemplate all of this and by the GRACE of our LORD we'll study more of this tomorrow!

All in HIM, always in HIM!

Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands...

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God

Yesterday we talked a bit about Greek armor, we also got a bit of information from Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary. At the end of that commentary bit was this--

'1.    That the ancient Greeks and Romans went constantly armed'

The Greek soldiers were CONSTANTLY armed.

They didn't go about unarmed because they needed to have their armor and weapons on, they were soldiers.

When a soldier is in a war he NEVER goes about unarmed. I've seen a few documentaries on tv that explain how our soldiers are in their full gear even when sleeping when they are in the thick of things.

We ARE in the THICK of THINGS.

This spiritual war we are all involved in is constantly being waged. 

The Devil does not sleep, he does not take time off, he doesn't let his own soldiers - all those evil angels that chose to follow him- 1/3 rd of all the angels and we know that God has --

Rev_5:11  ... many angels ...and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands

Ten thousand times ten thousand  =  100,000,000 and thousand of thousands.  The number of angels is uncountable to us.  And 1/3 of all the angels are SATAN'S.

We cannot truly begin to fathom the number of evil angels that are doing the work of their leading evil angle, Satan.  We can be sure that Satan isn't going to rest, he doesn't have to rest, angels don't get tired. Satan isn't going to rest and he's not going to stop attacking us in any way he can.  We are NEVER out of the thick of things in this spiritual war, not ever.  We cannot rest, we cannot take off our armor, not ever. 

We have to put on the WHOLE ARMOR of GOD and NEVER take it off, NEVER! We are spiritual soldiers in a spiritual war and our spiritual armor must become a part of us. 

Physically we can imagine these-

Girt Loins.
Breastplate.
Footwear.
Shield.
Helmet.
Sword.

Spiritual we MUST believe in these-

Truth.
Righteousness.
Peace.
Faith.
Salvation.
Spirit of the Word of God.

We must have all of these as a REAL part of our lives, a very real part.

More on these tomorrow all by the grace of our GOD!

All in HIS LOVE!

HIS righteousness!

HIS truth!

HIS peace!

HIS faith!

HIS Salvation!

HIS Spirit.

HIS Word!