Wednesday – February 10, 2016
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God is so good to send His Son to suffer for us giving us total redemption from the curse restoring The Blessing to us. God is so good. Well it is hump day and time to plunge back into the precious, beyond price, Word of God and our study of Spiritual Warfare. Recall that our primary text is the following.
Colossians 2:1 (KJV)
1 For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
The Apostle Paul was engaged in Spiritual Warfare on the behalf of the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which were at Colossae and Laodicea. This act of Spiritual Warfare could also be labeled as intercession or intercessory prayer. Intercession is wonderful and may well have saved many of our lives because someone obeyed the leadership of the Spirit of God and asked God to extend His mercy and lovingkindness to us just a while longer. Having said that the best Spiritual Warfare is that which we conduct ourselves for it advances the Kingdom and advances us in that Kingdom. Now back to our secondary text.
1 Peter 5:5-10 (KJV)
5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
We have discussed how submitting (defer to) to those who are our elders in the natural and those who are our elders in the spiritual is a command of God. We are also to be subject (subordinate) one to another. Thirdly we are to be clothed with humility (be unpretentious, have an unassuming nature). When this is our practice we will not be opposed by God but will be facilitated by His Grace, the Holy Spirit. Failure to submit, failure to be subject, and failure to be clothed with humility is pride and God Himself resists the proud. We are to humble (be willing to learn from and follow after) ourselves to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and in that way we advance the Kingdom of God and we ourselves advance. Not advancing is an option but a very poor one because not to advance is sin or what God calls wickedness. It is wickedness because it means we are not following the Master. We are commanded to cast our cares, the cares of this natural life onto our Heavenly Father and He will take care of us. When we are focused on the cares of this natural life we cannot be focused on the Ambassadorial mission we have been given for the Kingdom. We of our own free will must choose to follow The Shepherd knowing there will be hurdles but we are more than conquerors in Him.
2 Timothy 2:3-4 (KJV)
3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
The Apostle Peter in verse eight goes on to tell us that we must be sober and vigilant which does not mean being a sour puss all the time. Perhaps as the Apostle Peter was writing this he remembered there were times when he should have thought and had a different approach rather than letting his mouth jump out in front of him. I suspect we can all say, “Yup been there and done that brother.”
As we move into verse nine we are reminded to resist (fight, repel, oppose, stand firm, withstand, endure, and refuse) the perversions the devil presents to us. Remember they will be very subtle at first and there will generally be a second factor involved like getting the approval of the person speaking the perversion. We may rationalize thinking it is a very small thing we just want to go along and get along. When we are not sober, vigilant, and steadfast we are lunch for the devil. We resist the devil by our faith which is what we believe concerning the Scripture. Believing a perversion of Scripture is not faith in God but faith in the perversion brought to us by the enemy. How much power do you suppose is in a perversion of Scripture? Zero!
Matthew 15:3 (KJV)
3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
Matthew 15:6 (KJV)
6 … Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
How much tradition is in your Church, my Church? One of the definitions of tradition is folklore, it is also something that has become an ordinance, and something to which the people submit. And it isn’t even true! We are to resist the devil in “the faith”, that is the Truth of God’s Word which we have made our own without perversion or corruption. We are also not to engage in pity parties which is what the rest of 1 Peter 5:9 is talking about. We all get the thoughts that we are the only ones going through a certain battle when in reality millions have been there before, are there now, and will be until we move to Heaven.
Until tomorrow, Grace and peace be multiplied to you as you grow in the knowledge of Him.
By Pastor David R. Wood
