'The life of a Christian is a warfare, an intense conflict, a lifelong contest'

'Christian soldiers, fighting the good fight of faith, have access to a place of retreat, to which they continually repair for prayer. "Praying always, with all prayer," is a clear statement of the imperative need of much praying, and of many kinds of praying, by him who, fighting the good fight of faith, would win out, in the end, over all his foes.

The Revised Version puts it this way:

"With all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplications, for all saints, and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me, in opening my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am in bonds."

It cannot be stated too frequently that the life of a Christian is a warfare, an intense conflict, a lifelong contest. It is a battle, moreover, waged against invisible foes, who are ever alert, and ever seeking to entrap, deceive, and ruin the souls of men. The life to which Holy Scripture calls men is no picnic, or holiday junketing. It is no pastime, no pleasure jaunt. It entails effort, wrestling, struggling; it demands the putting forth of the full energy of the spirit in order to frustrate the foe and to come off, at the last, more than conqueror. It is no primrose path, no rose-scented dalliance. From start to finish, it is war. From the hour in which he first draws sword, to that in which he doffs his harness, the Christian warrior is compelled to "endure hardness like a good soldier."'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 63)

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'From start to finish, it is war.'  TRUTH!

Satan loves to blind us with our own feelings. We feel love, we feel contentment and Satan allows us to believe this means we are right with God, when in truth our feelings do NOT matter at all!

Seriously, our feelings are irrelevant and yet we are told they matter so much more than anything else. If we aren't happy then leave our job, leave our spouse, search for happiness at all costs because we all have a right to it. That's NOT TRUE! It's a lie that Satan has fed us and we've devoured.

Step out of the Western world culture and into a third world culture and ask them about happiness.  Yet we here in the Western world have a constitution that tells us we have the right to pursue happiness.  And we've done that often at the great expense of many. It is NO lie that big corporations have become what they are through a lot of deceit. I'm not saying all of them, but a lot of them have.

When we live for ourselves and our feelings we are living a life that Satan can toy with at his leisure. How easy it is to manipulate those who rely on their feelings for their guide through life. Induce a bad state of mind and instill doubt in them, perfect. Satan has an arsenal filled with such tactics, such weapons to use against us. And Satan is the head of his grand army of evil angels who have learned well from their master.

C.S. Lewis wrote of small book called, 'The Screwtape Letters'.  Here read a bit about it from wikipedia-

'The Screwtape Letters comprises thirty-one letters written by a senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood (named after a star in Revelation), a younger and less experienced demon, charged with guiding a man toward "Our Father Below" (Devil / Satan) from "the Enemy" (God).
After the second letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is chastised for allowing this. A striking contrast is formed between Wormwood and Screwtape during the rest of the book, wherein Wormwood is depicted through Screwtape's letters as anxious to tempt his patient into extravagantly wicked and deplorable sins, and often reckless. Screwtape, on the other hand, takes a more subtle stance, as in Letter XII wherein he remarks: "...the safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts".
In Letter VIII, Screwtape explains to his protégé the different purposes that God and the devils have for the human race: "We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons". With this end in mind, Screwtape urges Wormwood in Letter VI to promote passivity and irresponsibility in the Patient: "(God) wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them".'

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Satan most assuredly will do all he can to keep us from ever realizing we are in a war. Satan wants us passively going through life totally unaware of the great battle, the great controversy we are all immersed in daily.

Read this again-

'It cannot be stated too frequently that the life of a Christian is a warfare, an intense conflict, a lifelong contest. It is a battle, moreover, waged against invisible foes, who are ever alert, and ever seeking to entrap, deceive, and ruin the souls of men. The life to which Holy Scripture calls men is no picnic, or holiday junketing. It is no pastime, no pleasure jaunt. It entails effort, wrestling, struggling; it demands the putting forth of the full energy of the spirit in order to frustrate the foe and to come off, at the last, more than conqueror. It is no primrose path, no rose-scented dalliance. From start to finish, it is war. From the hour in which he first draws sword, to that in which he doffs his harness, the Christian warrior is compelled to "endure hardness like a good soldier."'

Wrestling, struggling, demands all our energy of the Spirit - that's what this warfare demands.  It does not demand a blindness. If we are truly engaged in the war between good and evil - it is an ACTIVE warfare, not something that calls for absolutely no thought on our part.

Satan doesn't want us to realize him as a REAL enemy. Satan does NOT want us to recognize his tactics in our lives he much more prefers it if we attribute all of his tactics to something else, something we call ' that's life', or 'a bad break',  or 'terrible luck', he does NOT want us to call him out for what he is- the destroyer who will stop at nothing to get us away from the love of our Savior.

Please Heavenly Father, please help us to comprehend the reality we live in, keep us from living blind lost to the true reality of the spiritual war that is our life until our Savior returns for us.

All by Your grace, Your mercy, Your amazing LOVE!

Fulfilled Prophecy

'What is the Fulfilled Prophecy of Jesus Saying?

The very least that this fulfilled prophecy of Jesus is saying is that God is no longer restraining the power of Satan in his control of the nations of earth. Even though Satan declared that he possessed such power and could delegate it to whomever he chose (Luke 4:6), the book of Daniel draws the curtain aside and reveals that God "ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will" (Dan. 4:17). When kings and rulers resisted His purposes, Michael, to whom all earthly authority is given (I Cor. 15:27), comes Himself to influence the outcome of human events (Dan. 10:13). That time is now past, and God has stepped aside and Satan is working his will in the nations of earth.

We have not been left in doubt as to what Satan is seeking to accomplish. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the picture is drawn. "The spirits of devils go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14). But you respond, that is the sixth plague after the close of probation. No, it is the CAUSE for the sixth plague, NOT the plague. Consider the first plague: a "grievous sore" on those who had received the mark of the beast (16:2). Was not the mark of the beast received prior to the close of probation? Just so, the sixth plague. Verse 12 describes the plague - the drying up of the great river Euphrates, and verses 13-14 give the cause in probationary time.
Note the use of this text in The Great Controversy, pp.561-62. Observe the context - "the last remnant of time."

The location of this gathering is given as a place in the Hebrew tongue, called "Har-Magedon" (16:16 ARV). This transliterates back into the HEBREW as Har-Mo'ed - Mount of the Congregation. Here Satan will seek to realize his objective - "I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north," or Jerusalem (Isa. 14:13; Ps. 48:2).

Even as the sanctuary "was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment" in 1844 (See, Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, p. 268), so also it gives a further understanding as to the significance of Jesus' prophecy as recorded in Luke 21:24.

During the daily ministration, confession of sin, both individual and corporate was made in the court of the sanctuary. The distinct difference between these two ceremonies was WHERE the blood of confession was placed. For the individual, the blood of his sacrifice was placed upon the horns of the Brazen Altar of the Court, while for a corporate sin, the blood of the sacrifice was placed on the horns of the Golden Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. (See Leviticus 4). In the yearly service on the Day of Atonement, the ministration of the High Priest involved ALL three sections of the sanctuary. He moved from the Most Holy to the Holy, and then to the Court to complete the atonement at the Brazen Altar where the individual confessions were recorded. (See Leviticus 16).Thus the prophecy of Jesus would indicate in its fulfillment that the corporate bodies of earth have been weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting. The time of judgment has passed to the very last act of the Final Atonement - the cleansing of the living.

What Warning Has God Given? -- When God told Moses, the nature of the Coming One, that He would be a Prophet raised up in the midst of the Children of Israel like unto himself, and that He would put words into His mouth, He also sounded a warning:
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. (Deut. 18:19)

It was that Prophet who declared that "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the nations until the times of the nations be fulfilled."

Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:34-36)'

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Do not lay down your spiritual weapons, your spiritual armor - not for a moment!

'THE description of the Christian soldier given by Paul in the sixth chapter of the Epistle
to the Ephesians, is compact and comprehensive. He is depicted as being ever in the conflict, which has many fluctuating seasons -- seasons of prosperity and adversity, light and darkness, victory and defeat. He is to pray at all seasons, and with all prayer,
this to be added to the armour in which he is to fare forth to battle. At all times, he is to
have the full panoply of prayer. The Christian soldier, if he fight to win, must pray much. By this means, only, is he enabled to defeat his inveterate enemy, the devil, together with the Evil One's manifold emissaries. "Praying always, with all prayer," is the Divine direction given him. This covers all seasons, and embraces all manner of praying.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 62)

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
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.
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.
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:
Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

Ever at war.

Every waking moment is spent in spiritual warfare.

When we have lulls in our battles, even those can be used as tools of the enemy.  While we are regrouping the enemy does the same.

All our physical wars are nothing compared to the spiritual wars. I don't say that lightly, I say it with truth. Because even as our men and women fight the physical battles they are also simultaneously involved in a spiritual war.

The spiritual battle NEVER ends. Physical battles can end. You can come home from a physical war, but you cannot come home from our spiritual battle, you are in it until our Savior returns.

Can you afford to take a day off from the fight? No.

Can you take a day off? Yes. You can lay down your spiritual weapons, and you can take off your spiritual armor. Will the war pause for you while you set aside your warfare gear? No. It won't pause for even a single moment for anyone. The spiritual war never paused for our Savior as He walked the earth, it's just not possible.  When you choose to lay down your armor and weapons you are leaving yourself exposed to be attacked.  How often do we do this? How often are we left vulnerable by our own choice?

Truly being told this…

'Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit'

… we have to comprehend that it is TRUTH! We are to pray ALWAYS.  Ever ready in prayer.

Can we stress it enough? Never enough.

More tomorrow by the grace of GOD.

Please LORD, please Father in Heaven, please help us to comprehend, help us to be fully Yours in all things.

Help us as we continue to study prayer, bless us, help us please, by YOUR GRACE! In YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!

Trust and Obey- All Through Jesus

'The will must be surrendered to God as a primary condition of all successful praying. Everything about us gets its colouring from our inmost character. The secret will makes character and controls conduct. The will, therefore, plays an important part in all successful praying. There can be no praying in its richest implication and truest sense, where the will is not wholly and fully surrendered to God. This unswerving loyalty to God is an utterly indispensable condition of the best, the truest, the most effectual praying. We have "simply got to trust and obey; there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus -- but to trust, and obey! "

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 61)

Psa_20:7  Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Psa 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Psa_143:8  Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Trust and obey.

It would be futile for someone to expect you to obey  without telling you what you are to obey, yes?

When you ask someone to obey you, you are telling them to listen to what you say and then do what you say, right?  You never ask someone to obey you and then turn around and punish them for  not obeying unless they know they've disobeyed.  People have to know what is expected of them in order to be obedient.

God has allowed us to know what is expected of us, He has told us how we are to obey, what we are to obey. When we are told we need to be obedient to God we know what that means, He doesn’t leave us clueless.  He doesn't expect anything from us other than what He has asked of us. And He has told us we will have HELP. He has given us a SAVIOR who makes it possible to obey, He has given us a Holy Spirit who will help us! He hasn't left us helpless. He knows our weaknesses-every single one of our weaknesses.  He would never make it impossible for us to be obedient to Him, never.

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

This is truth.

We want to pray, we want our prayers to be heard, we want to be our Savior's knowing Him and being known by Him. Please, Lord, forgive us and save us! We are truly weak. We know what we are to obey You've made it very plain, very clear to us, You have not shrouded Your truth in darkness. We would be wholly YOURS all by YOUR grace, YOUR love, YOUR righteousness, we depend upon You for ALL things! Guide us LORD, keep us in YOU! Keep us from evil! Please LORD we would trust and obey You all by Your power.

We are told to obey when we are told to keep God's commandments

'We must look well to our obedience, to the secret springs of action, to the loyalty of our
heart to God, if we would pray well, and desire to get the most out of our praying. Obedience is the groundwork of effectual praying; this it is, which brings us nigh to God.

The lack of obedience in our lives breaks down our praying. Quite often, the life is in revolt and this places us where praying is almost impossible, except it be for pardoning mercy. Disobedient living produces mighty poor praying. Disobedience shuts the door of the inner chamber, and bars the way to the Holy of holies. No man can pray -- really pray -- who does not obey.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 60)

Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Why… I have to ask why, why would our Savior speak these words if they mean nothing, if His commandments mean nothing?

If we LOVE God, if we LOVE OTHERS we will keep the commandments.

Remember this?

Joh_10:30  I and my Father are one.

If this is true then the Father's commandments are the Son's commandments and the Son's commandments are the Father's.  How could this be otherwise? How could they disagree?

The moral laws will NEVER be done away with, they will remain forever because forever we need to LOVE GOD and LOVE OUR FELLOW MAN.

When we are redeemed to heaven when our Savior returns for us we will have kept all the commandments of our God, of our Savior.  Our love will be perfected in our LORD. We will love God perfectly, we will love each other perfectly!

Here and now we MUST learn obedience.  We are told to obey when we are told to keep, to actively live our lives in perfect harmony with the love of our Savior.

Will our lives be perfect? NO. All around us there is a world of tremendous imperfection and we must live in this world among all sorts of imperfection. The imperfection surrounding us will tear us apart if we aren't in God's hands always! Satan will use every means of evil to keep us breaking the commandments of God, to keep us from Loving God and Loving Each Other.

Please LORD, please help us to be YOURS in perfect OBEDIENCE so our PRAYERS will reach YOU.

All by YOUR GRACE!

Who do you obey?

'The difficulty in prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is faith's foundation.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 59)

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
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2Co_10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
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Don't you know that to whom you obey as a servant, that's whose servant you are. If you obey sin it will be to death, if you obey righteousness it will be to life-- right?  Seriously, when we think of obedience- who do we obey?  Who? Do you know who you obey?  You can obey sin or God, you choose. So who do you obey?

Our every thought should be in obedience to Christ.  And just thinking about that - the wording- 'bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,' has to make us think!   Bringing into captivity.  When we are bringing something into captivity as a rule it's something that doesn't want to be captive. To capture something we set up traps, we put up snares, we play tricks all to get it trapped. We keep things captive sometimes for their own good, don't we? Some would rather capture the wild creatures that are threatening others than kill them.  When we think about captivity of our thoughts  we are thinking of caging thoughts that would keep us from obeying our Savior. The wild animal of our thoughts, our carnal nature, the thoughts that would keep us from obeying Christ must be brought into captivity. We have to do all we can to capture those thoughts and NOT allow them free reign because if they are not brought into captivity then we yield to disobedience, we yield to sin.

Truly many people will say they believe but then they turn around and disobey, when we read 'the difficulty in prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is faith's foundation.'  we have to realize that it's truth!

Obedience.  May God grant us the ability to obey! It is only through our Savior that we can obey. May the Holy Spirit bless us and keep us as we struggle to bring every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ!

By the LOVE of our God.

Just a note here- Thank You Lord for leading Chloe into her long sleep, ending her suffering. Please bless Alena, Diane, Lee, and Seb, and all who are mourning the loss of such a beloved pet, a true family member.

Sin exists because of disobedience to God

'How great and manifold are the misconceptions of the true elements and functionings of prayer! There are many who earnestly desire to obtain an answer to their prayers but who go unrewarded and unblest. They fix their minds on some promise of God and then endeavour by dint of dogged perseverance, to summon faith sufficient to lay hold
upon, and claim it. This fixing of the mind on some great promise may avail in strengthening faith, but, to this holding on to the promise must be added the persistent and importunate prayer that expects, and waits till faith grows exceedingly. And who is there that is able and competent to do such praying save the man who readily, cheerfully and continually, obeys God?

Faith, in its highest form, is the attitude as well as the act of a soul surrendered to God, in whom His Word and His Spirit dwells. It is true that faith must exist in some form, or
another, in order to prompt praying; but in its strongest form, and in its largest results, faith is the fruit of prayer. That faith increases the ability and the efficiency of prayer is true; but it is likewise true that prayer increases the ability and efficiency of faith. Prayer and faith, work, act and react, one upon the other.

Obedience to God helps faith as no other attribute possibly can. When obedience --
implicit recognition of the validity, the paramountcy of the Divine commands -- faith ceases to be an almost superhuman task. It requires no straining to exercise it. Obedience to God makes it easy to believe and trust God. Where the spirit of obedience fully impregnates the soul; where the will is perfectly surrendered to God; where there is a fixed, unalterable purpose to obey God, faith almost believes itself. Faith then becomes almost involuntary. After obedience it is, naturally, the next step, and it is easily and readily taken. The difficulty in prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is faith's foundation.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 59)

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Obedience to God.

Sin exists because of disobedience to God,  the rejection of perfect love.

How can we imagine we can disobey God, continuing to reject perfect love and yet have God hear us?

Do we one to another like to listen to those who reject us?  Yet we want God to constantly listen to us as we pray to Him while we constantly reject Him through our disobedience.

Eve knew right from wrong and chose wrong, she chose to disobey.

We too are allowed to know right from wrong, God hasn't hidden it from us expecting us to work it out on our own. Plainly we are told right from wrong and once we are told right from wrong we make choices for one or the other.

We choose to obey or disobey.

It is so true that prayer, faith, and obedience are all together, if we fail to see this we are choosing ignorance over truth, we are choosing blindness over sight.

Please LORD, please help us to comprehend all we need to in order to pray as You would have us to pray, to have the faith You desire we have, to obey You as we must all through YOUR LOVE!

By YOUR GRACE!