Because of Jesus sacrifice where He actually killed off sin and death, anyone who aligns with Him can genuinely claim Christ as his/her personal Saviour.
Obviously sin and evil still exist in the world! Otherwise extreme evil like ISIS and terrorism wouldn't be here and we would all be living an idyllic lifestyle.
Evil does exist and will continue to exist until Jesus comes again.This unfortunately means we still have battles to fight.
This us what Spiritual warfare means ~ there are Christians and those who purposely pursue and persecute Christians ~Satan is alive and well and loves to "put the boot in'' where he can ~ even though Jesus has already won the Battle for us when he died for us on Calvary all those years ago.
On saying that, does that mean we have no further battles to face? Of course not ~we have to pick up our swords, put on our armour and set out to conquer and win the battles we have to face daily.
Every day we fight battles to limit the impact of sin in our lives and in the world around us. And speaking very personally ~ these battles can get pretty nasty indeed!!!
We can fight battles in our workplace! When we get the cold shoulder or sniggered at because of our faith, or we can fight battles in our our own mind when Satan tells us that we can't possibly do this or that ~ and what Jesus did on that cross years ago just wasn't enough.
We can fight battles with doubt and hypocrisy ~ when we are even driving in traffic and someone cuts in on us ~something wells up inside of us and we are fighting a battle.
When we consider it all our battles can read like an adventure novel. The good against the bad ~ our impulses for bad can fight against our knowledge of what is right and good and how the Holy Spirit is leading us.
When you think about it, we as Christians have been given a mission from God. That mission will expose us to all sorts of dangers and apprehensions, doubts and fears, humiliation and scorn ~in fact all sorts of horrible risks.
We have other believers depending on us to carry out our God given missions and unfortunately we have an enemy who will stop at nothing to prevent us carrying on the mission and completing it.
Satan is definitely NOT God's equal! Often we may think that he is because the warfare we are involved in seems to know no end ~ it is an on-going trial by fire. But the fact remains that Satan's power has been trounced at the cross and his eternal doom is certain.
Furthermore in his ongoing guerrilla warfare against heaven, Satan is vastly over matched.
Because of our union with Christ, we do not have to fear Satan or anything that he throws up at us in the evil world we live in just as long as we are wearing the armour God has provided to us (Ephesians 6:10-18).
So yes! we are on a mission ~ a mission from God but He has supplied all we need. How will your story end? Will you be able to say "mission accomplished"at the end of your life? Will I be able to say that? Or will our old enemy celebrate our thwarted mission ~ or even worse, write us off as a "non-threat".
Please pray this prayer with me:-
Lord, I often get so confused about the power of darkness, especially inside of me which I know is lurking there just beneath the surface. I just know I'm not really in the place where you would want me to be.
I really want to be victorious for you in our walk together so please equip me to be so.
Please open my heart and mind to your leading ~ strengthen me for the battle which I know I will have to fight. Thank you Jesus Amen
God bless you this week as you pick up your armour and ready yourself for the battle.
Obviously sin and evil still exist in the world! Otherwise extreme evil like ISIS and terrorism wouldn't be here and we would all be living an idyllic lifestyle.
Evil does exist and will continue to exist until Jesus comes again.This unfortunately means we still have battles to fight.
This us what Spiritual warfare means ~ there are Christians and those who purposely pursue and persecute Christians ~Satan is alive and well and loves to "put the boot in'' where he can ~ even though Jesus has already won the Battle for us when he died for us on Calvary all those years ago.On saying that, does that mean we have no further battles to face? Of course not ~we have to pick up our swords, put on our armour and set out to conquer and win the battles we have to face daily.
Every day we fight battles to limit the impact of sin in our lives and in the world around us. And speaking very personally ~ these battles can get pretty nasty indeed!!!
We can fight battles in our workplace! When we get the cold shoulder or sniggered at because of our faith, or we can fight battles in our our own mind when Satan tells us that we can't possibly do this or that ~ and what Jesus did on that cross years ago just wasn't enough.
We can fight battles with doubt and hypocrisy ~ when we are even driving in traffic and someone cuts in on us ~something wells up inside of us and we are fighting a battle.
When we consider it all our battles can read like an adventure novel. The good against the bad ~ our impulses for bad can fight against our knowledge of what is right and good and how the Holy Spirit is leading us.
When you think about it, we as Christians have been given a mission from God. That mission will expose us to all sorts of dangers and apprehensions, doubts and fears, humiliation and scorn ~in fact all sorts of horrible risks.
We have other believers depending on us to carry out our God given missions and unfortunately we have an enemy who will stop at nothing to prevent us carrying on the mission and completing it.
Satan is definitely NOT God's equal! Often we may think that he is because the warfare we are involved in seems to know no end ~ it is an on-going trial by fire. But the fact remains that Satan's power has been trounced at the cross and his eternal doom is certain.
Furthermore in his ongoing guerrilla warfare against heaven, Satan is vastly over matched.
Because of our union with Christ, we do not have to fear Satan or anything that he throws up at us in the evil world we live in just as long as we are wearing the armour God has provided to us (Ephesians 6:10-18).
So yes! we are on a mission ~ a mission from God but He has supplied all we need. How will your story end? Will you be able to say "mission accomplished"at the end of your life? Will I be able to say that? Or will our old enemy celebrate our thwarted mission ~ or even worse, write us off as a "non-threat".
Please pray this prayer with me:-
Lord, I often get so confused about the power of darkness, especially inside of me which I know is lurking there just beneath the surface. I just know I'm not really in the place where you would want me to be.
I really want to be victorious for you in our walk together so please equip me to be so.
Please open my heart and mind to your leading ~ strengthen me for the battle which I know I will have to fight. Thank you Jesus Amen
God bless you this week as you pick up your armour and ready yourself for the battle.
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