We lust, we ask amiss, our only hope is Jesus Christ.

We Lust.

Jas 4:2,3-

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,

and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

We Lust.

Mar_14:38  Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

The fesh is very, very weak. All who comprehend that the we are at war with the flesh understand how week the flesh really is.

1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul

Our lusts war against our SPIRIT.   We have to fight our lusts, yet so many simply want to give into them claiming the impossibility of ever winning such a war. The truth is they're right, it's impossible for us to win the war. What isn't impossible is our SAVIOR winning the war for us.

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?

Who do we yield ourselves to?

Do you yield to sin?

Or

Do you yield to obedience?

One leads to death the other to righteousness, to obedience.

If we CHOOSE to yield to obedience we are making the choice to live as our SAVIOR desires we live, not as our lusts, not as our flesh desires us to live.

Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Rom 6:19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Rom 6:21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We must become SERVANTS to GOD not to self.

Jas 4:2  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.

Jas 4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

WE ASK AMISS.

Our motives matter. Our heart matters. Our devotion to God, to His righteousness matters. Our obedience matters.

We can ask God, we can pray to God but we have to know that we can speak to Him amiss.  Just like there are people who think they are the Lord's but aren't, there are those who pray to God and they believe they are praying rightly but they are praying amiss.  Their motive even if it's deep down where they don't want to admit is a self-centered motive, not a God centered motive. They really want their own will to be done, not God's will and they can't hide it from God even if they can hide it from themselves.

Please FATHER, please help us seek You and Your righteousness in all we do. Please let Your will be done, NOT ours! Let us ask rightly, not amiss. Please, Savior, please we would be YOURS always YOURS, only YOURS. Save us from OURSELVES!

All by the grace of God, all through the love of our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord!

Would you rather die than deny your lusts?

'From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?'

Lusts vary within us, and the lusts do war in us.

Psa_78:18  And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

Talking about the Israelites who were led out of Egypt and slavery into the wilderness. The Israelites were not satisfied to have been freed from slavery, they wanted their old lives back in many ways and one of those ways was food.  Food lust. Do you know what food lust is? Most of us do. Most of us have obsessed over food in some manner.  We like our bellies to be full. We like our appetites to be sated. We love when our cravings are well met.  What we don't like is being denied food we desire. We do not like to only get a single bite of something we want especially when there is more to be add.

The lust we have for food isn't much talked about in the way it probably should be.

There really is a sin in food lust.

Wikipedia says-

'Lust is an emotion or feeling of intense desire in the body. The lust can take any form such as the lust for knowledge, the lust for sex or the lust for power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food as distinct from the need for food. Lust is a powerful psychological force producing intense wanting for an object, or circumstance fulfilling the emotion'

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Lust.

Dictionary Definition-

noun
1.intense sexual desire or appetite.
2.uncontrolled or illicit sexual desire or appetite; lecherousness.
3.a passionate or overmastering desire or craving (usually followed byfor):a lust for power.
4.ardent enthusiasm; zest; relish:an enviable lust for life.
5.Obsolete.
1. pleasure or delight.
2. desire; inclination; wish.
verb (used without object)
6.to have intense sexual desire.
7.to have a yearning or desire; have a strong or excessive craving(often followed by for or after).

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The lusts of our flesh are LETTING the desires we have rise up and rule over us.

Is sex wrong? No, not in and of itself, but is a lust to the exclusion of all else for sex, wrong? Yes!  And it's this way with most lusts.

Food is something we are meant to enjoy, meant to desire. We are made to have to eat. We are given taste buds so that the pleasure centers of our brain connected with food are trigger when we enjoy what we are eating, and vice versa. A lot of things that are bad for us taste bad for us.

The children of Israel were slaves and yet even as slaves they were fed consistently. They had meat to eat and maybe they weren't overfed, maybe they even went hungry a lot, but they knew they'd be getting a little meat all the time. They never envisioned a time when they wouldn't have food available to keep them alive.  When they went into the wilderness that all changed. For the first time they had to worry about a lot of things they never had to worry about before. They were given food to eat to sustain them, but they were not given food that they were used to and desired.

Psa_78:18  And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

They lusted after meat, enough so that they put it before God, they put it before their deliverance. Some even said this--

Exo 16:2  And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
Exo 16:3  And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

 They would rather have DIED than lived without their lust satisfied. We can't say they'd rather have died than slowly starved because they were NOT starving! God was not letting them starve! They were being fed but NOT with what they lusted for.  And they'd rather die than not satisfy their lusts, their desires!

We are filled with lusts that consume us.

'From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?'

Lusts do war in our members.
We are consumed in our lusts, we live inwardly toward selfish fulfillment so much more than outwardly, selflessly.

More tomorrow by the grace of our God, by the will of our God.

Lord please help us to learn to recognize our lusts that would consume us. Let us NOT make excuses for them. Let us NOT hide them but seek forgiveness and seek to give our lives to You so You can be our all in all. Help us LORD, keep us from all EVIL.

In YOUR love, all in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Amen.

If the Lord Will

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts 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, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

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.

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. Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Speak not evil one of another, brethren.

He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.

For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 

But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

James 4:1-17

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Truth.

Tomorrow we will delve into the truth above, 'if the Lord will'.

Truly, our lives are out of our own hands. We don't know whether we'll be alive from one moment to the next. We have hope to live, hope to love, hope to excel and yet these hopes need to be focused on our Lord, not our selves. Our excelling should be to His glory, not ours and this confuses so many of us in so many ways.

Please, Father in Heaven, please bless us as we seek to LIVE our lives here and now for You and Your will not for ourselves and our own will.

Please.

Thank You!   In the name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Envy Not.

Pro 23:17  Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.

We spend way too much time envying sinners.

First all. We do NOT like to call anyone a sinner. Yet there in God's word we are told NOT to let our hearts envy sinners. 

To do that we have to recognize sinners. 

I'm a sinner.  We are all sinners, yes? All of us are in need of forgiveness. And truthfully we should envy NO ONE. Right?  This is truth.

Pro_14:30  A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.

Envy the ROTTENNESS of the bones.

Pro_27:4  Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

Worse than cruelty and anger is ENVY!

Mar_15:10  For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.

Jesus was delivered to be killed because of ENVY and Pilate knew this. 

Act_13:45  But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

ENVY, the Apostles had to deal with the envy of the Jews.

Tit 3:3  For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

Tit 3:4  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

Tit 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Tit 3:6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

Tit 3:7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We can ONLY hope to be washed, regenerated, renewed by the Holy Spirit and in that hope that our evil sinning traits are done away with. We must be justified by our SAVIOR.

Envying sinners. 

Envying anyone is WRONG.

We cannot judge the sins of others, only God is the judge and can grant eternal life, as He knows the hearts of all. We can look at the lives of others and those in blatant sinning and know God would not have us stealing, lying, hating, murdering, breaking the Sabbath, committing adultery, etc. And still we cannot judge the end of any person.

To envy is to desire something that you don't have, to desire to be someone else, wikipedia says this-

'Envy

Envy is an emotion which "occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it" Bertrand Russell said that envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness. 

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How often do we find ourselves envying?

In the world we live in it has become NORMAL to envy. We taking envying as a means to spur us to get more, to change and we call it good.

It is so incredibly easy to get caught up in envying and it will happen inevitably when we live for this world.

Seriously.

The only way to avoid envy is to live for eternal life, not for this temporary life. We are to put our treasures in heaven- all of them. We need to live for the second coming of our Savior not for this world, this life.

Only by the grace of God is this possible!  Only by His mercy, His love!

More on this tomorrow by the love of our Father, our Savior, and the Holy Spirit.

What does it mean to worship Satan?

The mere mention of worshipping Satan brings up images of people clothed in black robes surrounding a pentagram covered altar, chanting to Satan. The truth however isn't that simple. Satan worship doesn't end and begin with people in ceremony. How many men and women claim to worship God and yet they don't spend their days in a church. 

Satan worshippers and God worshippers do not necessarily live the life of one worshipping day in and day out at an altar.

There are those called to serve God in that capacity, and there are those who choose to live in that capacity, but the majority of people are not to live a life serving the temple of the God of their choosing.  The majority of people live outside of the churches attending them on occasion. Some attend weekly, some monthly, some yearly, and then again some never go to a church to worship.

So what does it mean to worship Satan, it means not worshipping God.

A lot of people want to get around this by claiming neutral ground, neither believing in Satan nor God. In this choice they give themselves over to the one who accepts such non-worship. 

Those who choose to worship God know that God commands obedience and worship, that God is not satisfied with those who refuse to worship and obey.  However, God will NEVER force a single person to worship Him. Though this is what He commands, He will not force. You can command without forcing. You can rule without force. And God rules without force.

Satan will force. Satan will take any he can in any way he can without any thought otherwise. Satan will take all who do not choose God.  And all who are chosen by Satan, all who are taken by Satan will not worship Satan outwardly, and most will worship him and not even know.

Do you hear that? Do you understand?

Most of Satan's worshippers will not even realize they are Satan's.

To worship nothing means to worship yourself. Believing you have no need of God is believing you are your own God, your own ruler. Is it no wonder you are given over to Satan when you believe- like he believed- that he was greater than God, that he had no need of God.

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Satan's evil is the evil of mankind without God.

Satan's worshippers are mankind without God.

And if you are with God then you are these-

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

May God bless all who worship Him in truth, in spirit, in love by the grace of Jesus Christ.

May God open the hearts of those who are deceived by Satan, those who don't even realize they belong to the great deceiver.

Please Lord, save us!

The Most Awful Words You'll Ever Hear- 'I Never Knew You' (Matt. 7:23)

The Jewish leaders believed Jesus had a devil. They thought the devil inside Jesus made Him say the things He was saying, things completely absurd to their beliefs, to the truth as they had distorted it.  Their minds were so completely shrouded in darkness that the light of truth couldn't penetrate it. They didn't want truth! They truly did NOT want truth. They wanted only that which would support their desired life. They were perfectly content upholding lies as long as they'd coated them thickly in truth to hide the lie. Lie mingled truth is just another deception because that lie overshadows and overwhelms the truth every time. You can't point to the little bit of poison mingled in the perfect glass of water, it's seeped in to poison it all.  The lie remains a lie, the truth remains the truth. If you live with even a little bit of a lie, you are living in deception.  These Jewish leaders didn't want their lives disrupted. They were perfectly content to be the leaders of the people allowing them to serve God as they taught them. They didn't want their deception unveiled.  Jesus came and brought TRUTH with Him and they refused that truth, preferring to believe that Jesus had a devil in Him. Preferring the One who was doing miracles such as never before seen in all of history, be miracle working by the devil rather than God. He had to have a devil and that devil was doing miracles in order to deceive people.   You do realize that THIS is something the devil does. So they weren't totally lunatic in claiming Jesus had a devil- it was something they could convince themselves of.  However, Jesus was revealing their hearts to them. Jesus was ripping away their self-deception and allowing them to glimpse their sin stained selves. They didn't want to see! They didn't want their truth known! They didn't want to give in to the truth which would topple their lives as a fallen house of cards.  They knew they were fabricating lies about Jesus to keep Him from revealing lies about themselves.

Joh 8:54  Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:

Joh 8:55  Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.

Jesus told them that only the honor of the Father mattered to Him. Jesus plainly revealed that they did NOT know the Father. Jesus KNEW the Father and would NOT lie and say He did NOT know the Father. Jesus told them directly that He KEEPS the sayings of the FATHER.  And He went on to further say...

Joh 8:56  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

The father they claimed, their ancestor Abraham REJOICED to see the day of Jesus, and when He saw it, He was GLAD.

How could Jesus say such a thing?

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Abraham saw the promises afar off, and believed them, embraced them.

Gen 18:2  And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

Gen 18:17  And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

Gen 18:18  Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

Gen 18:19  For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Gen 18:20  And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

Gen 18:21  I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

Gen 18:22  And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.

Of those three men that Abraham bowed to, One was the LORD Himself. He talked with Abraham about what was going to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah. The LORD was with Abraham, most assuredly He knew of the promise of Him in the future.

Heb 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

Heb 11:18  Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:

Heb 11:19  Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

Abraham comprehended that what He'd been asked to do was a figure of a future event.

The Messiah, the coming Messiah was NOT a concept lost on the Jewish leadership of that day, they KNEW there was a promised MESSIAH. They STILL know there is a promised MESSIAH and they still refuse to believe it was fulfilled in JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.  The were expecting and hoping for a Messiah and yet were too blind to comprehend the truth of the Messiah before them. They had their own CHERISH ideas of how their Messiah would appear and what He would do and Jesus did NOT fit their cherished idea.  How many today have CHERISHED ideas of things, refusing to see the truth because they are too caught up in the lies they've surrounded themselves with?

According to the word of prophecy, the word of Jesus Himself, many are caught up in their cherished deceptions and are going to cry out to Him telling Him they know Him but all He'll be able to reply is for them to get away from Him, He never knew them.

How horrific that day will be for so many who like the Jewish leadership of Christ's day refused to see the Messiah, to know the Messiah when He was right there in front of them.

Joh 8:57  Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

Joh 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

If the Jews believed their own history of Abraham then they had to believe the LORD spoke with Abraham. However they refused to believe that Jesus was the same LORD, now in flesh sent to earth to be the Messiah, the Savior, as God's only BEGOTTEN Son. The only one worthy to pay the price for all mankind, for no mere human being could ever pay the price necessary to redeem mankind.

What did the Jewish leadership do…?

Joh 8:59  Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

They wanted to kill Jesus, but miraculously He who had been in plain view speaking to them in truth was hid from them. It wasn't time for Him to die, and not in that manner.

Satan was alive and well and ruling the Jewish leadership of Jesus' day.  That same leadership was accusing Jesus of having a devil.

We've talked these last several days about Satan and his evil angels, about the reality of them. We know they exist and not in some make believe story or television show, or movie. They are REAL.  And in the last days they are going to appear as angels of light, as ministers of righteousness.

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

TRUTH.

Those supposed to be closest to God in the day of Jesus upon earth were in fact ministers of Satan.  Today it will be the same.  Those who appear closest to God, whole churches that claim to have God as their redeemer will be farthest from Him.  We HAVE to ask ourselves if we are following GOD'S WORD in all things or just picking out the bits we like and forming a whole religious experience around that.

People discard the fact that the saints will be those who KEEP the COMMANDMENTS of GOD and have the TESTIMONY of JESUS. They discard it by telling themselves they are doing that when in truth they've completely neglected BIBLICAL truth and the ability to find out what day is the Sabbath Day that God has commanded they keep. They've told themselves it doesn't matter as long as they choose one day in seven. They've told themselves it was changed from Saturday to Sunday by Jesus' resurrection yet NO WHERE is that claim made in the Bible, NO WHERE.  They pacify themselves with believing that the majority couldn't be wrong in keeping it Sunday their sabbath for thousands of years. They REFUSE TO SEE! They refuse to see. And in their refusal is their rejection of truth and in their rejection of truth is their rejection of Jesus and in their rejection of Jesus is their not being known by Him, not now, not ever, and they will be among those that cry out about ALL the good things they did in His name, sincerely crying out saying they did this, they did that, they gave everything and still He cannot say He knows them because all they did was for another savior, a disguised savior, Satan pretending to be an angel of light.  They refused TRUTH preferring their lies to the TRUTH.

GOD HELP US! PLEASE HELP US PREFER YOUR TRUTH ABOVE ALL ELSE! We know that the deception is going to be so great that all but the very elect will be deceived! Please we don't want to be among the deceived! Please, LORD, please save US! Keep us from EVIL! 

All in YOUR GLORIOUS NAME! All in YOUR LOVE!

THANK YOU!

AMEN.

Devil Possessed

Jesus was accused by the Jewish leadership of having devils.

Today we don't go around accusing anyone of having devils. We've scientifically declared that devils are not a *real* thing but rather something amiss inside a person's brain. Anyone who seemingly has a devil is really plagued by misfiring brain cells. We believe saying anyone has a devil, a demon, an evil spirit inside them is total lunacy. Yet if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you believe in God the Father, you HAVE to believe in the reality of people 'having devils'.

Joh 8:48  Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?

Joh 8:49  Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me.

The Jews: Isn't it true, you are not only of a corrupt people you have a DEVIL.

Jesus: I have not a devil.

Jesus didn't chuckle and say there is no such thing as having a devil. What Jesus did do was say that He didn't have a devil.

Joh 8:52  Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil.

The Jews are CONVINCED that Jesus has a devil. A devil, something inside him that is evil and causing him to do and say evil things, things in opposition of God.

 Read the following verses about devils--

Mat_4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Jesus tempted of the devil. TRUTH.

Mat_4:5  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple

The devil took Jesus into Jerusalem and placed Him on a pinnacle of the temple. TRUTH.

Mat_4:8  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

The devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and REVEALED all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus.  Physical power to move, mental power to reveal all the kingdoms of the WORLD. TRUTH.

Mat_4:11  Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

The devil leaves. TRUTH.

Mat_9:32  As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.

A man POSSESSED with a devil.  TRUTH.

Mat_9:33  And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.

The devil cast out of a man! TRUTH.

Mat_11:18  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.

Accusing another of God's chosen of having a devil. TRUTH.

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.

Another possessed with a devil brought to Jesus. TRUTH.

Mat_15:22  And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

A daughter grievously vexed with a devil. TRUTH.

Mat_17:18  And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

The devil rebuked by Jesus. TRUTH.

Mat_25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels

A fire is the end fate of the devil and the devils angels. TRUTH.

We know that God's angels are ministering spirits-

Heb 1:13  But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

Heb 1:14  Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

If God's angels minister to the heirs of salvation, who do the devil angels minister to? They minster to those who will NOT be heirs of salvation but rather heirs of the prepared fire.

Jesus was accused of having a devil, why? Because He spoke TRUTH to those who could not understand truth, they lived in the devil's darkness, preferring that darkness to the light of truth and understanding because their evil deeds. They wanted their evil to be thought of as good, as just, as right, as of God. The only way they could truly live with their own evil and still appear as if they were God's was to call their evil deeds good and believe that true good was in fact evil and of the devil.

Today people do the EXACT same thing. They call their evil good. They use a counterfeit evil that appears to be good, and on the outside it is amazingly good, but underneath where God sees the heart of hearts there is evil intent, evil in NOT being of God, but of self. Self having the reign underneath it all buried so deep beneath the seemingly benevolent acts, the seemingly truly charitable deeds that entire churches filled with hundreds and thousands of people are caught up in the deception all because they do NOT really want truth, but lies that pander to their perception of what truth is, not what it really is in our Savior. 

Whole churches DECEIVED. And don't think it can't be because we know it can be.  The church favored of God as HIS chosen, HIS church, HIS people, that church was left desolate by Jesus Himself! And even as it was left desolate it continued on believing itself to be of God still. To this very day today they still believe they are God's by mere virtue of being called Jewish.  Individually they can be God's but as a church they were weighed in the balances and found wanting, they came up short, they rejected the Messiah and killed Him, and tried to do the same to all His followers. 

There are many, many churches out there claiming to have the truth, the light of the Savior, but that truth is a lie.  Everything on the outside seems on the up and up, the counterfeits are truly remarkably deceptive in appearing as the real thing, but they are STILL counterfeits.

Please Father, please uncover the darkness over the eyes of so many! Please, help them to see Your truth, nothing but Your truth! And when they see the truth please help them… help us… help me… walk in Your truth and ONLY Your truth! Help us to put aside the 'feel good' religions in favor of TRUTH.  Help us to put aside the sensational, the feeling based, the ecstasy desired spiritual high, in favor of Your TRUTH.

Your truth, Father, Your truth, let us live in Your truth even if it means never feeling an emotional ecstasy that so many believe they must have to prove they've been blessed by You. Let us live content in the knowledge and truth of You, and let the spirit blessings we receive protect us from all evil as we fight the harsh spiritual battles on all levels. 

We know that even the seemingly perfect can be truly deadly to us in our Spiritual battle. We must look to heaven for all our treasures knowing here and now all treasures are temporary and not always the blessings we call them.  If we cannot place the treasures we have in heaven but hold fast to that which can become corrupted and destroyed, we are treasuring all the wrong things. 

Guide us to TRUTH! Guide us to the LIGHT found only in YOU! Please, keep us from ALL evil, in all it's awful disguises! Please.

All in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ!

Back to the beginning of this little study- Jesus was accused of having a devil. Devils are real and cast out by Jesus. Jesus Himself was tempted by the devil. The devil's angels are evil ministering spirits working for the devil himself.  Devils then are devils today. Today we call a lot of our devils by scientific, medical terms a refuse to see them for what they are. We live in a society that refuses to see and society has created the perfect home for devils allowing them to live perfectly undetected. The movie makers, the fiction writers have created obscene tales of devil possessions that rank right up there with a lot of peoples imaginings of what the devil is and does.  People no longer comprehend that Satan doesn't need us to be sadistically evil to lay claim to us, he simply has to have us focus on our self and that evil alone is sufficient for him to call us his.  It's true. The devil possession today is as real as it ever was, but we no longer can tell the difference between a devil possessed person and someone we might label schizophrenic, or manic depressive, or bipolar, epileptic, attention deficit afflicted, hyperactive, etc. etc. etc.  Am I saying all those with these problems are plagued by devils? No. No more so than a person in Jesus' day who was blind, blind because of a demon. Yet, some could be blind because of a demon.  So how do we know the difference? I'm afraid I don't have that answer. I know some organizations have tests and such to rule out- all physical/medical disorders etc- before they dare claim devil possession.  Is that the answer? I don't know. We do know this--

Mat 4:23  And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Mat 4:24  And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

Jesus healed all manner of sickness and possession.  The Bible does not tell us that Jesus healed all by casting out devils.  There was a difference between those who were possessed with devils and those which were lunatic, and those who had palsy. So how did Jesus know?  He knew.  The devils inside the people knew.

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.

Mat 8:29  And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Mat 8:30  And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.

Mat 8:31  So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

Mat 8:32  And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

The evil spirits knew Jesus and knew He couldn't leave them alone.

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.

Mar 9:26  And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.

Mar 9:27  But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.

Mar 9:28  And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?

Mar 9:29  And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

The disciples had tried to cast an evil spirit out- unsuccessfully.

Jesus cast it out successfully and told them only PRAYER and FASTING could cast out some spirits.

This doesn't really help us with the problem we face today- how do we know the difference between an evil spirit and a medical condition?  Then again, is it really a problem? Do we NEED to know?

Seriously, do we need to know?

We are told this--

1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing.

Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

Jas 5:15  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Jas 5:17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

Jas 5:18  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

We are to pray.

We are to pray without ceasing.

We are to pray for one another.

We are to pray for healing.

We aren't told to diagnose before praying, are we?  We aren't told to pray in a certain manner for devils specifically.  Yes, some need prayer and fasting on our parts, but still we aren't told to diagnose before prayer. We aren't told to rule out all medical conditions before we pray that an evil spirit be removed. If our prayers don't seem to be working we do know that some prayers need fasting involved so that would be the next course of action.  Do we NOT believe that evil spirits possess people and make them sick? No, it's not our place not to believe what has already been proven by our Savior. We just have to realize that whether or not it is a devil possession making a person ill for years and years and years, that we need to KEEP praying for that person. We need to keep praying for one another and yes, fast along with our praying should the Holy Spirit guide you too do so.

We have our Savior's words as truth. We need His TRUTH.

The Jewish leaders of Christ's day accused Jesus of having a devil, the Jews believed in devil possession. They accused Jesus because they could not put off their own dark sin  obsessed lives.

Please LORD, bless us now and always!

Keep us IN YOU, ALWAYS!

In YOUR LOVE!