The first and most important step in winning the invisible war is not in addressing the devil but in submitting to God. I have seen many people who claim to be involved in spiritual warfare but whose lives are       not    submitted
to God. They know how to fast and they say they pray but they are still gossips, unforgiving and rebellious. Such “intercessors” may walk around with an air of spirituality but their prayers are not doing anything to push back the darkness or establish God’s kingdom.

You see the whole essence of spiritual warfare is that we are enforcing the authority of Jesus by taking ground from the enemy and thereby establishing God’s kingdom. But it is only those in whose lives the rule of God has been established – those who have submitted their lives to him and are living in obedience to him, that can enforce and establish his rule elsewhere.

Spiritual warfare is not so much in how we shout or jump or know the right words to say, as much as it has to do with our walk with the Lord. A right walk with the Lord is the first step to effective warfare. Remember those seven sons of Sceva? (Acts 19:14-16). They tried casting out devils using the right words but it carried no weight with the spirits because their lives were not submitted to God.

Before we rush off to bind and loose, let us submit all our sins, and fears (it is counter-productive to try resisting the enemy out of fear), and cares, and let us receive God’s holiness and grace. Let us submit to God in repentance, and in praise and adoration. And then from that point we can resist the devil.

It is when we submit our lives to God that we will be effective as we resist the devil. There is nothing that the devil fears like the prayer of a holy man or woman. It’s like coals of fire being poured out on him, so he flees                        (CHIMEZIE ONYEBILANMA)

Some of the various ways the tongue can damage or injure:

1. When it is used for gossip:  Gossip is saying negative things about a person when they are not present. It can also involve the telling of a truth that does not need to be told for the purpose of hurting someone. Sometimes we gossip by saying nothing when we hear things that we know are not true and say nothing to correct them. We also promote gossip by simply listening to it. Why is gossip so destructive? One reason is that it spreads uncontrollably. It also destructive because it warps the truth. People expand on what they hear until the rumor gets worse and worse.

2. When it is used to slander:  This is defined as saying negative things about someone else in their presence. The word “slander” literally means “ripping of flesh”. When applied to speech it intentionally hurts someone with the words you say about them. When we slander someone we not only involve ourselves and the other person–we also involve God. “Blasphemy” is literally putting God down. God made all humans. So when we slander fellow human, it is blasphemy because in so doing, we insult the God who made that person, loves that person and sent Jesus to die for that person.

3. When it speaks lies and exaggerations:   A local church body cannot be healthy if lying is a common practice within its membership. Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”  When we don’t put away truthless-ness people become afraid to reach out. They become afraid to move because they don’t know whom to trust.

4. When it grumbles and complains:   Even when we try to resist being influenced by such negativism, we find some of it rubbing off. This passing around of the poison of pessimism happens every day, and it steals our joy. It creates an atmosphere of wholesale negativism where nothing but the bad side of everything is emphasized.

Is this little two-ounce muscle in our mouths the problem? In Luke 6:45, Jesus unmasks the real culprit. He says, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” So, the tongue is actually neither friend nor foe. The tongue is merely a messenger that delivers the dictates of the heart, either for good or evil.

If you are guilty of using the tongue in a destructive way, remember the words of the prophet Isaiah 6:5-7, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Do you remember God’s response to this confession of Isaiah? God sent an angel to fly to Isaiah with a live coal in his hand taken from the altar. Isaiah 6:5-7 says, “With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Let’s stop right now and ask God to do the same for you and me.
(MARK ADAMS)

Each day, the challenges we face tend to change. But one thing we can be certain of is that the enemy won’t retire before we do! So let us decide to be obedient to the voice of God. Let us decide to grow sweeter in the Lord each day as we go on. Paul was a man who finished strong and very well. He wrote to the Philippians while in Roman prison around AD 60, probably six or seven years before his death. We find attitudes and actions from him that should guide us to end well and finish strong!

1)   CULTIVATE A PRAYER LIFE
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.” (Philippians 1:3,4)
Pray, Pray, Pray! And this can only be cultivated by discipline and obedience.

2)   SEE THE CUP AS HALF FULL
“Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.” (Philippians 1:12)
In chains today? Can we see the gracious hand of God upon us? To remain sweet in spirit, spend more time rejoicing over what is, than complaining about what is not!

3)  RELEASE THE UNRESOLVED
“Some preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter?” (Philippians 1:17,18)
Refuse to let other people’s bitterness infect us. Let go of other people’s STUFF! People come with their stuff and they will leave with their stuff. You did not give it to them and you cannot take it away. So let it go!

4)  VALUE PEOPLE MORE THAN THINGS
“My brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown…” (Philippians 4:1)
Get connected. Learn to value relationship above all else. God and people should be our treasure and in that order. Invest our time in them.

5)  FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
“But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13,14)
Focus on things that are ahead. Stop mourning mistakes and regretting lost opportunities. Write a letter to self-pity, leave failures behind and be captured by the future. What is ahead is more important. The best is yet to come! Thank goodness for that, huh?

Live Better! Why? Because “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21). And stay sweet to the very end.
Sweeter in spirit and in speech.
Better? Sweeter?
Yes, definitely better!

Ask your neighbor or coworker to list the “top ten” sins, and you will probably hear a version of the Ten Commandments. Murder, stealing, lying and adultery would probably head the list.

But when God revealed to the prophet Amos that He was about to bring judgment upon His people, He cited Israel’s treatment of the poor as cause for punishment. In startling imagery, God said Israel had “trampled” the needy and cheated the poor. The poor, the victims of Israel’s greed and exploitation, had no recourse but to appeal to God. And God listened.

In the New Testament, Jesus repeatedly takes up the often-overlooked cause of the poor. When Jesus preached in the synagogue in Luke 4:16–21, the prophecy He chose to read to reveal who He was came from Isaiah 61:1–2: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor.” When Jesus described final judgment in Matthew 25:31–46, He evaluated how well people cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the needy and the imprisoned. Jesus so identifies with the poor in this passage that He says that the good deeds done to the “least of these” were counted as being done to Him!

How does the way you live reveal your concern for the poor? Are the poor an afterthought? A nuisance? A perplexing problem you’ve quit trying to solve? For many of us, Amos’s message challenges us to serve the poverty stricken in ways besides simply giving money. Volunteering in a food kitchen or rescue mission may be the first step to helping poor people with their immediate needs. Working directly with people who are poor helps us to put names and faces on poverty. When we do that, we can no longer objectify and ignore the needy. But are there ways to take our compassion one step further? How can we speak up to make sure the poor aren’t exploited? How can we work to make sure our institutions don’t make the problem worse? How can we vote for policies and practices that are equitable?

It is God’s desire that we be willing to share what we have with those in need and help the poor whenever we can. When we do, our hearts beat in time with His.

REFLECTION

1.    What are your assumptions about why someone might be poor?

2.    Have you ever been without what you needed to live? What did you do?

3.    Why do you think God identifies Himself with the poor? What does that tell you about His character?
(SOURCE UNKNOWN)

Many Christians are defeated in witnessing situations, and that for one of three reasons. First, they don’t recognize the situation as they arise. They don’t hear the longing in the heart of a co-worker for some relief from guilt or fear. They don’t think about Jesus and the promises of God when others are prattling on about their plans and dreams. They’re just not paying attention to the open doors of opportunity God presents to them. If they spent more time focusing on the promises of God and getting to know Him, they would be able to feel His nudges when doors of opportunity begin to crack open, and they would be ready with a timely word and an answer explaining the hope that is within them.

Second, some Christians don’t bear witness, even when they see the opportunity, because they’re afraid they won’t “get it right.” This is nothing less than presuming to do the Spirit’s work for Him. His job is to supply the words; ours is to open our mouths and start talking. If you’re growing in your relationship with the Lord and always moving toward His promises, you won’t lack for things to say whenever a witnessing opportunity arises.

Finally, some Christians don’t witness because they’re afraid of what others will think or say. But that is simply to fear men rather than God, to love your comfort rather than to walk the risky path of obedience.

The key to knowing courage in the face of witnessing opportunities is simple, as Jim Kennedy used to say, “Do the thing you fear.” Afraid to bear witness? Start bearing witness, and watch how the Lord shows up to provide the words, fill your heart with love and courage, and enable you to do something beyond what you’ve ever believed or done before. God promises we will be able to influence others, and He’s given us the Gospel to that end. And He commands us to be witnesses and make disciples. All that’s remaining for Christian courage to flow in a witnessing situation is to do the thing you fear. Start the conversation, and you’ll be surprised at the courage, clarity, conviction, and persuasiveness you are able to show.                (T.M. MOORE)

Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette makes this observation about the spread of the Gospel: “The chief agents in the expansion of Christianity appear not to have been those who made it a profession or a major part of their occupation, but men and women who earned their livelihood in some purely secular manner and spoke of their faith to those whom they met in this natural fashion.”                                                                       (TIM BEOUGHER)

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help
this  man, what will happen to me?” But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” Martin Luther King Jr

“I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.”
Mother Teresa

“ ‘If you can’t do great things,’ Mother Teresa used to say, ‘do little things with great love.’ If you can’t do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can’t do them with a little love, do them anyway. Love grows when people serve.” John Ortberg

“You can’t be a successful leader or mentor until you have served. You can’t serve until you have stepped out of your comfort zone. And you can’t step out of your comfort zone unless you have character and keep your word.” Bill Courtney

”Faithful servants never retire. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God.” Rick Warren