Thursday – January 21, 2016
Proverbs 9:1, 6 (MSG)
1 Lady Wisdom has built and furnished her home; it’s supported by seven hewn timbers. 6 Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning.”
As we receive the Thursday God’s Word be reminded to pray for the pillars of society established by God and infiltrated and perverted by the original pervert. Today I am highlighting the Pillar of Banking and Finance. Now back to our study of Spiritual Warfare, the battle in the mind. It is a faith fight, it is a good fight because unshakeable faith in the Word of God will always win the battle.
1 Timothy 6:12 (KJV)
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
When we are confronted with other ideas and uncomfortable situations we than come face to face with what we really believe. For example there are times when faced with a situation the truth would expose a character weakness or situation that we want hidden so a lie or obfuscation (fancy word for lying) seems convenient. For example if we have a certain medical condition and we flat out say that it is not present that is a lie. To say; the medical condition is there illegally because Jesus paid the price for your good health and you are claiming that wholeness, that is the Truth. Physical evidence is a fact but may not be the Truth. Let’s say a person has lung cancer, which is a fact. The Truth however is that by His strips we are whole. If I really believe the Word of God the lung cancer will take a hike, if I don’t then I may die of lung cancer. It is not the will of God for anyone ever to die of disease. We are to surrender our spirit man to the Father when our assignment is done and we are satisfied.
There are three major ways to resist temptation and win the battle 100% of the time.
- Refuse to enter into the temptation.
- Resist the temptation with Scripture.
- Cast down the imaginations and words that are being lifted up against our knowledge of God.
We find the idea of not entering into temptation overtly expressed in Scripture by Jesus just before the crucifixion but is present elsewhere.
Matthew 26:41 (KJV)
41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Mark 14:38 (KJV)
38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
Our spirit man is comprised of the spirit and soul, we are a spirit with a soul which is intimate with the spirit (one unit) and this unit is housed within our physical body. The soul is attached to the physical body and the spirit. The soul is the decision maker deciding in favor of the body and its carnal lusts or in favor of the spirit by rejecting perversion and receiving the Word of God? Jesus is telling the disciples here in the Garden of Gethsemane to be diligent staying submitted to God so they do not enter into the temptation which is literally at the door. The temptation which they failed miserably would be to run and deny Jesus. He tells them that the spirit is ready and willing to pass this test but their flesh (physical body and unrenewed mind) will have a different take on the temptation. You know the rest of the story, with the exception of John they scattered that night like rats in the headlights at the dump (only understood by older people). Now let’s think back to Adam in the Garden.
Genesis 3:1-6 (KJV)
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Let me ask, was Adam (Adam and Eve) diligent, did they speak to the Heavenly Father about the new information they were presented with? No! Did they just run headlong into this temptation presented by the Serpent himself? Yes! Was their flesh weak? You bet yeah. Is ours? You bet yeah, Jesus said so.
1 John 2:16 (KJV)
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
By Pastor David R. Wood
