Vain Deceit.

Col 2:6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 

Col 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 

The world will try to bend you to its design there is no other way around it really. Satan rules this world and he will do all he can to deceive us. I can't talk about this enough because deception is so insidious. The very nature of deceit is not knowing you are deceived until it's too late.  God's word give us all the truth we need so we are NOT deceived, only we have to heed His word. It does no good at all to have a book of instructions if you never read it, never study it, never learn from its contents. Like many people with instructions in general - they believe they can get on without them, knowing what's best. Others will read a few of the instructions and go on ahead with things believing they can figure out the rest. There are many different approaches to a book of instructions, some will read the book all the way through but not in a way of comprehending, but rather surface reading.  If we do not read God's word we will be deceived. If we do not study God's word we will be deceived. If we do not seek full comprehension, we will be deceived. 

We need to be Rooted and Built Up in Christ!

We need to be Stablished in the Faith!

We need to be Thankful!

We have to Beware of men who would Spoil us! And they will spoil us with Philosophy, with Vain Deceit, with Traditions of Men, with Rudiments of this World!

We must believe these truths, we must. If we ignore the truth we allow ourselves to be deceived, and it is a vain deceit isn't it?

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools

Vain deceit causes us to believe in ourselves- not Christ. Vain deceit causes us to believe in others- not Christ.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Tribulation

Do you have tribulation in your life?

Definition of 'tribulation'-

trib·u·la·tion-

a cause of great trouble or suffering.

synonyms:        suffering, distress, trouble, misery, wretchedness, unhappiness, sadness, heartache, woe, grief, sorrow, pain, anguish, agony;  difficulty, problem, worry, anxiety, burden, cross to bear, ordeal, trial, adversity, hardship, tragedy, trauma, affliction

Seriously, do you have tribulation in your life? Are you suffering, in distress, troubled, in misery, wretchedness, are you unhappy, sad, full of heartache, woe, grief, sorrow, pain…. Just read the list above. Are you experiencing any tribulation?

If you are- don't be surprised.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. 

The world offers us tribulation. We are told in the world we SHALL HAVE tribulation.  End of story, we are going to have tribulation in our lives.  To believe that you don't deserve tribulation, that you should be exempt from tribulation is a deception Satan pushes at us. Satan wants us to believe that we aren't to have tribulation in our lives so that we consider our lives messed up and ourselves failures because our lives are so filled with tribulation.  Satan will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he can to deceive us and he's done a great job. A lot of people let the tribulation in their lives tear them away from Christ.

Christ told us that we'd have tribulation but He also told us that in HIM we'd have peace. NO WHERE ELSE can we find true peace, NO WHERE. Satan wants us looking all over the place, in fact anywhere but to Christ where peace is found.  Satan will throw in our faces that we don't have peace so we must not have Christ, is he right or wrong? What did our Savior do when He was buried in tribulation? He agonized with the Father in prayer. He wasn't laid back, matter of fact, everything is fine and dandy in that Garden of Gethsemane. 

Luk_22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus was in AGONY.  Did that mean He'd lost the peace of the Father? That He was no longer trusting God? No, it did not mean those things at all. We can feel the effects of tribulation and still retain the knowledge that there is peace in Jesus Christ our Lord. We can still cling to the promise of His salvation and the hope of life eternally without tribulation. Right now in this world we will have tribulation we can't allow ourselves to believe otherwise. 

Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

Our hearts, in the deepest part of us we must know that in Christ all our hope rests. In His peace - something the world CANNOT give us we can live. We may be troubled and afraid, but it doesn't have to be a HEART troubling, HEART fear that pushes out the hope of our Savior! We must keep the knowledge of Christ's peace in our hearts. All by His grace!

Do you have a THORN in your flesh?

2Co 12:7  And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

A thorn in the flesh.

Do you have a thorn in your flesh?

Do you have something in you- a messenger of Satan buffeting you?

1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 

Job 2:7  So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. 

Paul knew he had a thorn in his flesh, and he knew that thorn was placed there by Satan, and allowed to be there by God's plan. Did he like the thorn in his flesh? NO. He prayed for it to be taken away three times. Now this is a man of God, an Apostle who saw Jesus and whose life was changed by our Savior. This is a man who could pray for people and heal them. This is a man whose very touch of a garment sent to an ailing person could heal them.

Act 19:11  And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 

Act 19:12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. 

This man could NOT pray away the thorn in the flesh. He stopped praying for it to be taken away after he did so three times. Why? Because He knew if God hadn't taken it away there was a reason for its existence in his life. Did that make it any less a messenger of Satan to torment Him? NO. What it did was give Paul knowledge that God has His reasons beyond our comprehension for the trials and tribulations, the chronic ailments in mind and body. We don't have to believe that we are lacking faith when our lives are not transformed- when thorns are not removed from our flesh. Satan would have us believe that we are to blame for these thorns and he wants the thorns we possess to damage us spiritually. Satan wants us to focus on our thorns and lament their existence in our lives. Satan would have the thorns we bear consume us, devouring every last hope we have of belonging wholly to Christ.

Paul would have been exalted above measure if he wasn't given the messenger of Satan in that thorn buried in his flesh, whatever that thorn may have been. Paul knew that God needed Him to be humbled by his imperfection, not crippled by unbelief that God was still in His life as he possessed this thorn of Satan. How many do you suppose may have uttered the words that he healed others but couldn't heal himself? How many focused on Paul's thorn to their detriment? How many allowed that thorn in his flesh to bring them closer to the Lord, realizing Paul, was indeed LIKE THEM and not some God to be worshiped?

Again I ask you, do you have a thorn in your flesh? Something you've prayed for God to remove only that prayer answered, wasn't the answer you desired. Will you endlessly ask God to remove that thorn from your flesh, never accepting that it may be His will for it to be left in your flesh to keep you on the path He has set before you, a path that would keep you His.

May God help us, bless us, keep us in HIM now and forever, all through Jesus Christ our LORD and our SAVIOR! 

Faith

Faith-   Please, Lord, increase my faith, make my faith true all through You and Your love.

Luk 17:5  And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 

Luk 17:6  And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. 

Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. 

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

2Th 1:3  We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

1Pe 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 

The Will of Him That Sent Me.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. 

Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 

(Excerpt - The Spiritual Man -by Watchman Nee)

'We need to comprehend the true way by which God leads man, and the relationship between man’s will and the will of God.

The obedience of the Christian to God ought to be unconditional.

When his spiritual life reaches the summit his will shall be perfectly one with God’s. This does not imply, however, that he has no more volition of his own. It is still there; only the fleshly control of it is gone.

God always requires man’s volition to cooperate with Him in fulfilling His will.

By beholding the example of our Lord Jesus we can be assured that the volition of anyone fully united with God is still very much with him.

“I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me”; “not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me”; “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (John 5.30, 6.38; Luke 22.42). Here do we see the Lord Jesus Who, though one with the Father, yet possesses His Own personal will apart from that of the Father. He has His Own will but neither seeks nor does that will. The implication is obvious that all who truly are united with God should place their will alongside His. They should not annihilate their organ of volition.'

If our Savior could say -

Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

• we have to realize that our Savior truly had a WILL of his own and blatantly said He came 'NOT' to do HIS OWN WILL.    We know that His will would never be contrary to His Father's, but He has a will all His own separate from the Father's that He chooses to give to the Father so He can fully do God's will and NOT His own.

Did allowing God's will to be done in Him lessen Jesus in any way? NO. When Jesus allowed God's will to be done in Him, He became fully, wholly all He ever wanted to be.  Satan has fooled us into believing that we of our own have something contrary to God's will and it's our right to be contrary to that will. Truthfully we DO have something contrary to God's will in us but it's only to our detriment not to our betterment.  We need God's will to be done in us as we realize God's will truly is our will, our desire, our hope.  We use our will to choose His will, freely.

Dead to Sin.

Being dead to sin is so important. Satan would have us deceive ourselves into believing it is impossible to be dead to sin. So why then would the word of God say this--

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Satan is a great deceiver, the best deceiver in existence and if we don't believe this then we are deceiving ourselves.

Please Father God in heaven, please help us to not be deceived by the great deceiver that you've conquered. Satan still works his deception at every opportunity, please keep us from all his evil. Please. All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever!

*******

The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee- (Excerpt)

'During the battle it is positively essential that the believer stand on Romans 6.11, acknowledging himself as one with the Lord: the Lord’s death is his death. Such faith releases him from the authority of the evil spirits since they can have no power over the dead.

This position must be firmly taken.

In conjunction with such a stand as this there must be the USE OF GOD'S WORD against all the lies of the enemy, because at this juncture the adversary will lie to the saint by suggesting that he has fallen beyond any hope of restoration. If he listens to this guile he will surely tumble into the greatest peril of all.

He should remind himself that Calvary has destroyed Satan and his evil hosts already (Heb. 2.14; Col. 2.14-15).

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil

Col 2:14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 

Col 2:15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 

The work of salvation is finished that all may experience deliverance out of the powers of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1.13).

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son

Suffering for the sake of recovering ground assures a person of that which the enemy is afraid of, and how urgent that the ground be recovered. Consequently, whenever the wicked powers inflict new and greater afflictions upon the believer, let him perceive that these are from the enemy and then let him refuse and disregard them, neither worrying nor talking about them.'

Fight!

You will have a fight on your hands, a fight that you can scarcely imagine as being real. In fact, you will be tempted to believe this fight doesn't exist.

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. 

You'll go about your daily lives and everything may appear to be fine, but that is only because we've been conditioned to believe that many things that are NOT fine, are good.

Isa_5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? 

Luk 11:35  Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. 

Today, right now, there exists so many evils that are called good that we can hardly live without them as a part of our lives. We CALL evil- good!  And we call good-evil! And this is part is why so many people can't possible realize they are in a spiritual war, a very active, very real spiritual war. They hold up a banner with Jesus' name on it and shout out that He is their Savior and then they set that banner aside and live in a world filled with false goodness. They feel protected by their banner waving believing that is all they need do to dispel the evil from their lives, even as evil inhabits so much of what they do and they don't even realize it because that evil is known as good. We live in a DECEIVED generation, an age of DECEPTION worse than any other time in all of history.  We don't believe we should stand up for God's truth because it has been labeled by mankind as lies and accepted as such by all but the very elect of God.

I don't know about you, but I LONG to be among God's elect! Am I? If I am, it is only by HIS grace, by HIS mercy, by HIS love! 

Read the following and then try to deny the truth-

Luk 13:24  Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 

1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 

1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 

1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 

Heb 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 

Heb 10:32  But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; 

Heb 10:33  Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. 

Heb 10:34  For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. 

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. 

2Ti 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith

Tell me, are we in a VERY real spiritual battle?  If you are STRIVING AGAINST sin then you are in that battle, but only if you are truly striving against all sin, and not just striving against what has been labeled as sin by mankind. 

You think that banner you hold up proudly is enough, but it's not, the banner bearers are on the front lines of this battlefield and they will be cut down if they are not actively warring against sin daily!

(Excerpt)

'This element of free will should never be lost sight of. God has granted us an unhampered volition that we may be our own masters, but today the evil spirits have usurped our members and talents. They have become man’s master; he has lost his sovereign rights. To oppose this the believer enters the fray. He continually declares: I am not willing to let the evil spirits encroach on my sovereign rights; I will not allow them to invade my personality; I will not permit them to possess me; I will not follow them blindly; I will not consent to their manipulating me; I will not, I verily am unwilling; I intend to be my own master; I know what I do; I resolve to control myself; I prefer to have my entire being subject to myself; I resist all the works of the wicked ones as well as their right to work on me. In resolving, choosing and refusing with our will we arrest any further working of the enemy. Thereafter we must resist with our will.  The believer commences his life anew following the recovery of his ground. The past is over, and now marks a new beginning. What was offered to the evil spirits has all been reclaimed. The spirit, soul and body of the whole person are retrieved from the enemy’s hand and are rededicated to God. Every inch of the territory surrendered through ignorance has today, one upon another, been recovered. The sovereign power of man is once again returned to him. And how is this done? By rejecting what once was accepted; disbelieving what once was believed; withdrawing from what once he drew nigh to before; destroying what once was erected; canceling what once was

covenanted; retrieving what once was promised; dissolving what once was joined; resisting what once was obeyed; uttering what once went unspoken; opposing what once was cooperated with; and

denying what once was given. Every past consideration, counsel, and permission must be overthrown; even past prayers and answers must be denied.' The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee