With the Power From On-High
Some people tell me that the Devil never bothers them. They say they live their own lives and don’t bother anyone, and people don’t bother them. “I just try to live my life by the Golden Rule” is the quote I often get from these harmless people. Well, if you’re not disturbing the kingdom of Satan, then he won’t waste resources on you. If you are not doing anything to fight against his works, then yeah, he probably will leave you alone for the most part of the time. A good sign to know if you’re going the same direction as the Devil is when you are encountering little or no opposition. You aren’t encountering any opposing traffic because you’re going the same direction he is. If you want to take it easy in your Christian life, then all you have to do is “go with the flow.” It’s not hard to go with the flow, and it takes no effort on your part. You can just relax and let the current take you along where it’s going. It’s easy, and effortless. Why, even a dead fish can float with the current.
But if you are bringing upheaval to the works of the devil, and creating too much disturbance, then he will always be launching offenses against you to silence you. Open your mouth and start telling somebody about how they can have eternal life as a free gift, through the simple faith of accepting the sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, and that through his sacrifice, death, and resurrection, they receive everlasting life in the presence of God, the creator, and watch opposition coming at you right soon. Heck, sometimes it’s from Christian churches.
If you’re going to fight the fight of faith against the powers of darkness, be prepared for vicious onslaughts that will never stop, though at times there may be periods of quiet. These are periods I believe is when the devil and his hordes are reconstituting their plans and will soon come again. But remember Jesus told us in Luke 10:19, “Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
The only reason Satan ever had any right to become a prince or rule over us was because we yielded ourselves to him through sin (Rom. 6:16). Since Jesus “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24), Satan no longer has power or authority over those who accept Jesus’ gift of salvation. Satan has been “cast out” — stripped of any power he had. Now he can only deceive, and if we fall for his lies, we stop God’s blessings from flowing in our lives.
The reason why a believer must live a holy life is to avoid Satan’s bondage. When we obey sin, we yield ourselves to Satan, the author of that sin. Yielding to sin is yielding to a person, Satan. God doesn’t impute the sin to us but the devil does. Our actions either release the power of Satan or the power of God in us.
Although God is not imputing our sins unto us, we cannot afford the work of sin because it allows Satan to have access to us. When a Christian does sin and gives the devil an opportunity to produce death in his life, the way to stop him is to confess the sin. God is faithful and just to take the forgiveness that is already present in our born-again spirit and release it in our flesh, thereby removing Satan and his strongholds.
Now before you go throwing a tantrum because you think I’m saying that if you are experiencing disease in your bodies it’s because you are practicing some sordid sin. I’m not saying that at all. Look, we live in a fallen world, and there is sickness and disease everywhere, and sometimes some sickness will come on us that have nothing to do with our spiritual walk. Sickness is just out there, and we can’t always avoid it. But we don’t have to welcome it into our bodies and give it a “welcome home” party. We do have the spiritual right to deny that sickness the right to remain in our bodies.
For those of you who may be thinking I don’t know what I’m talking about because I’ve never had some dreadful sickness. You may be thinking that I’m like a typical preacher who probably hasn’t had anything more serious to contend with than the flu, and I’m just quoting out of the bible all these verses that I know by heart. But no, my dear friend, I have been there, I have fought the fight and came out victorious! I have fought the fight of a gall bladder rupture, kidney failure, pancreatic disease, and a dreadful disease of the colon, and I rose up and refused to accept the finality of the outcome, no matter what the medical professionals said. I sat up and declared to the doctors and the nurses saying out loud, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has not given me over to death. Death and life are in the power of my tongue, and I speak life to my body, now! Body, live! For I know My Redeemer lives, and I know his covenant he will not break, nor alter the thing which has gone out of his lips!” Yes, I spoke and didn’t care if they all thought I was one of those religious lunatics. This was not a time for ego trips or self-consciousness, but a time to fight for the word of what God said.
Yes I spoke as he speaks, and I refused to lie down and accept whatever may come. He said “By his stripes you were healed” and I refused to put any conditions, pauses, excuses, exceptions, questions, human understanding, or doubts into what he said, and I refused to allow disease to be my requiem about how quietly and peacefully I had accepted death. No! My dad always taught us that a man’s word is the total sum of his integrity and his character. He says what he means, and means what he says, and he will not break his word even at any costs. I held that one who created me in my mother’s womb to his holy word, and his holy word said, “By his stripes you WERE HEALED!” He kept his word and I live now to declare the works of the Lord! When I say to you what he said, then you can believe him or put your own human conditions and exceptions into it. In the spirit, I chose to enter with full confidence before his throne room and I quoted what he said, and I stood there boldly looking him in the eyes, until I walked away with the promise of his covenant. “By his stripes you were healed; My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing which has gone out of my lips.” Ref: Psalm 118:17-18; Proverbs 18:21; Psalm 89:34; Isaiah 53:4-5
Let me go on…
A person who abandons himself to sin is actually becoming a slave to the devil while a person who obeys righteousness is yielding himself to the Lord. This is why a Christian should live a holy life. See when a person yields themselves to sin willingly; he gives the devil a spiritual legal right to operate in that Christian’s life. That is very dangerous because the devil comes only but for to steal, kill, and destroy. Don’t ever think the devil will be your friend, even when you promise not to create any problems for him. He is not your friend, and he will never be on your side. He will certainly never shed any of his blood for you; the only blood the devil will shed for you is your own. But when the Christian confesses his sin, that’s not when God finds out about it, but at the moment we confess, the door closes on the devil, as we come back into agreement with God.
Of course all those who don’t know Jesus or those who outright reject God to have anything to do with their lives, the devil has open season on them nonstop and in perpetuity. To the devil, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Easy targets, all of them. That’s why when you look out into the societal and political arena, you can tell those who have departed from the truth of God’s word, and only profess to know him, by the way they fellowship with workers of iniquity. The ones who hate God are easy to identify for they are the ones who never seem to be happy or satisfied about anything. They are always angry and accusing everybody else for their own miserableness.
Sin has a wage it must pay and no one can avoid payday without faith in Jesus. Anyone who does not receive the new birth will be held liable for all the wrong they committed as a result of their sinful nature. However, those who receive the new birth through faith in Jesus don’t have a sin nature and therefore, will not receive the payment of death.
So before you decide that you want to start a ministry for the Lord, first of course, make sure you are one of the ones “sent” and not one who just went. Then “count the costs. What is it going to cost you in the ministry? It could cost you everything. But the best victories you can experience are those you fought for while going against the opposition; against the current. The greatest moment of joy you will ever experience is when one soul gives his heart to Jesus because of your obedience. One soul who will forever exist in the presence of the Lord Jesus. You encountered the devil, and you won!
The Genesis Oracles 
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