written by Rick Joyner
[source: Morningstarministries.org]
There is a battle raging for the soul of every individual on earth. There is a battle raging for every church, for every city, and every nation. Victories are being won in many places across the earth, but the greatest are yet to come. Multitudes of new spiritual warriors are now being mobilized, trained, and will soon be sent forth. They will be entrusted with divinely powerful weapons and they will use them. They will tear down the enemy’s strongholds over the minds of men. A force is about to be released like the world has never seen. Joel had a glimpse of it:
Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; surely it is near,
A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people; there has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it to the years of many generations.
A fire consumes before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but a desolate wilderness behind them, and nothing at all escapes them.
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like war horses, so they run.
With a noise as of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, like a mighty people arranged for battle.
Before them the people are in anguish; all faces turn pale.
They run like mighty men; they climb the wall like soldiers; and they each march in line, nor do they deviate from their paths.
They do not crowd each other; they march everyone in his path. When they burst through the defenses, they do not break ranks.
They rush on the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.
Before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.
And the LORD utters His voice before His army; surely His camp is very great, for strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it? (Joel 2:1-11)
There is a fire in the army of God that will destroy the wood, hay, and stubble, but it will purify the gold, silver, and precious stones. It will consume what man has built and reveal what was indeed built by God. What is coming will be either terrible or glorious depending on what we have built our lives upon. The earth will literally quake at the presence of the Lord in the midst of this army that is now being mobilized. The word of God that will be in their mouths will shatter the idols of this world like a hammer shattering rocks. The Spirit that is in them will be an irresistible force.
CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON
It may seem like a paradox, but we cannot be a part of this great army until we are firmly established in the peace of God. One of the most powerful spiritual weapons that has been given to God’s people is peace. We may think that peace is not a weapon. But in fact, it is such a weapon that Paul did not write it was the Lord of hosts, or the Lord of armies, who would crush the enemy, but said “...the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). When we abide in the peace of God it is both a fortress and a weapon that the enemy has no power against.
It may seem like a paradox, but we cannot be a part of this great army until we are firmly established in the peace of God. One of the most powerful spiritual weapons that has been given to God’s people is peace. We may think that peace is not a weapon. But in fact, it is such a weapon that Paul did not write it was the Lord of hosts, or the Lord of armies, who would crush the enemy, but said “...the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). When we abide in the peace of God it is both a fortress and a weapon that the enemy has no power against.
If we abide in the peace of God in a situation it unravels the enemy’s power over that situation. That is why most of the attacks of the enemy upon believers are intended to first rob them of their peace. The peace of God is the linchpin fruit of the Spirit that must be in place to hold all of the others in their place. When we lose the peace of God we will quickly lose our patience, love, self-control, etc. This causes us to fall from our position of abiding in Christ. The fruit of the Spirit will always demonstrate our abiding in Him. It is the peacemakers who are called the sons of God (see Matthew 5:9) and because we represent the Prince of Peace, it is the church that the world should be turning to for solutions to its conflicts. Our victory over evil is accomplished by overcoming it with good. We destroy the enemy’s power of destruction by standing in and imparting peace.
WALKING IN TRUTH
If we are going to crush Satan under our feet we also need to understand that this metaphor “crush Satan under our feet” is used for a purpose. This speaks of Satan’s power being broken through our “walk,” our going forth. Christianity is not static, but is always moving forward, growing. That is why the “River of Life” is a river, and not a pond or a lake. A river is always flowing, proceeding toward its destination.
When we walk in the peace of God in our homes it will ultimately crush the enemy’s influence there. If we walk in the peace of God at work, it will soon crush the enemy’s influence there. If the Christians of a city would walk in the peace of God, the church would soon come into unity, and the enemy’s influence over that city would be crushed. When Christians in any nation begin to truly walk in the peace of God they will crush the enemy’s influence over that nation.
SUMMARY
The Scriptures are clear that difficult times are coming upon the world, but at the same time the glory of the Lord will be coming upon His people. Hearing the prophecies about difficulties should not disturb us, but they should awaken us and help to prepare us. This will only be true as we abide in the peace of God. The Lord is not sitting in the heavens worrying about anything, and neither will those who are abiding in Him.
If we are abiding in Him the whole world can collapse around us and we will be at perfect peace because we have built our lives on a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. When Jesus was tempted by the devil He answered every temptation with Scripture. The Word of God is stronger than any power that we will ever be faced with. Now is the time to search the Scriptures, taking our stand on that which will stand forever—the Word of God.
Consider the following promises of His peace. They are sure so we should never be troubled. If we will abide in His peace we will prevail against any fortress the evil one can build. The LORD will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace (Psalm 29:11).
written by Billy Graham
[source: DecisionMagazine.com]
Jesus said that your soul is worth more than the rest of the world put together. He asked, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). It is impossible for us to grasp what is meant by “the whole world.” For this is not only the physical world or the geographical world. It includes the business world, the scientific world, the intellectual world. Jesus said that the soul is worth more than all the world.
Why is your soul so valuable? First, the value of your soul is measured by its eternal quality. It will never die. You are going to live forever. Your body will die, but your soul, the part of you that is made in the image of God, will never die. Your soul—your spirit—will live forever. It is that part of you that has understanding and wisdom.
Many people have knowledge, but they don’t have wisdom. The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). A great British historian said some years ago, “Man, by his knowledge, has brought himself to total annihilation.”
Knowledge without God and without wisdom is very dangerous. That’s one of the problems in the world today. We have a lot of knowledge; we have a lot of learning, but the Bible says you can be “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). We lack the wisdom to use our knowledge.
Your soul is that part of you that has judgment. It makes decisions—moral decisions—what is good and what is bad. Your soul also involves your will. Your will chooses or rejects things that are brought before it. Your soul is that part of you that has emotion, like love and fear. It has memory—the mental capacity for storing up knowledge of ideas and events. There is something down inside us that is beyond science to know. The Bible calls it soul or spirit.
We tend to put all of our emphasis on the body with its pleasures and its physical appetites. But the soul also has appetites. The soul longs for God. Down deep inside every person’s heart is a cry for something, but he doesn’t quite know what it is. Man is a worshiping creature. He instinctively knows that there is something out there somewhere, and he longs to know that something or someone. Your soul longs for vital contact with God. Your soul is valuable because it is eternal—it is forever.
Second, the value of your soul is measured by the devil’s interest in it. Jesus said the devil is the prince of this world. He is the god of this age. The devil is greatly at work in our world, and he is after your soul.
God created a perfect world. He and man were friends. God never meant that there would be suffering and war and death. But Satan came. He was a mighty angel, possibly the greatest of all of God’s created beings, and he rebelled against God.
When God built the earth, He put humans in charge of the earth. God wanted someone in the universe whom He could love and who would return love to Him. So He gave man freedom of choice. God said to man, “I put one tree in this garden—you are not to eat its fruit. If you eat it, you will suffer and die” (Cf. Genesis 3:3). God was testing man. He gave man the freedom of will.
But the devil told man, “God doesn’t mean what he says. You’re not going to die. If you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will be as great as God” (Cf. Genesis 3:4-6). So Eve ate the fruit first and then Adam, her husband, ate it too. And that was the first rebellion by people against God. God had to keep His word or He would not be a just God. He had said, “If you eat the fruit of that tree you will suffer and die.” Man ate of the tree, and since then he has been suffering and dying.
But God had a plan. God said, “In spite of their rebellion, I am going to save the human race. I am going to send my Son to this earth.” And every step of the way the devil tried to kill God’s Son, even when He was a baby. Finally, when God’s Son was on the cross, it looked as if the devil had won a great victory, but instead the devil lost his greatest battle. When Jesus died, the devil suffered a mighty defeat, because on the third day Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The Bible says Jesus has “the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18). Christ is alive, and He is coming back to this earth again!
God is building His Kingdom, but the devil is also building his. Even though Satan is a defeated foe, he is still working. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus said, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19). Jesus pictured Satan as an enemy battling and bidding for the souls of people.
Third, the value of your soul is measured by God’s concern for saving your soul. God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). God sees your soul as the most valuable thing in the world, so valuable that He sent His only Son to the cross to suffer and die so that your soul may be saved. And if you were the only person in the whole universe, Christ would have died for you.
Fourth, the value of your soul is measured by the severity of its loss. It is terrible when a person loses his health, or his money, or his friends, or, worse still, his character. But what about the loss of a soul?
I live in the mountains of North Carolina, and many times in the thick woods and forests of that state children get lost. Many people come to help—the military sends helicopters and soldiers. They bring in specially trained dogs. Everything possible is done to find the child. The newspapers print the story, and the television stations report the story. But if a man’s soul is lost, that isn’t reported by the media. Yet the soul is worth more than all the world.
Suppose you had all the gold in the world and all the clothes you could ever dream of owning, and you lived in a magnificent home, and owned all the oil in the Middle East.
Suppose it was all yours, but you lost your soul. Jesus said it would be a poor bargain.
Even if you could get everything you wanted, it wouldn’t give you peace. You would still be searching. Great riches cannot make you happy. Much pleasure cannot make you happy. Only the peace of God coming into your heart through Jesus Christ can bring peace and joy and happiness.
Are you prepared for eternity? Are you sure that you have been born from above? The Bible says that you can be sure. The Bible says that there is a Heaven, that there is a hell. You choose where you spend eternity, and many of you are choosing right now.
Fifth, the value of your soul is measured by the price paid for its redemption. The Bible says, “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). What are you doing with your soul? Are you gambling with your soul, taking a chance with it?
I am asking you to make sure of your relationship with Christ. Christ demands more than just churchgoing, more than just baptism, more than just being good. He demands your total surrender—the surrender of your mind, your heart, your body, every part of you—to the Lordship of Christ. If you have a doubt in your heart that you have totally surrendered to Christ, do it now. Make sure of your salvation. Make certain that you know Christ.
Repent of your sins. Confess your sins, acknowledge them and turn from them.
Receive Jesus Christ into your heart by faith, making a total commitment to Him, and to Him alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment