Welcome to A Word for Today

Scripture:   He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.  1 John 3:8

...that He might destroy the works of the devil.

 

As we look at the point of Christ destroying the works of the devil, we first need to understand what the scripture refers to when it discusses the fact that ANYONE that commits sin is of the devil.  I realize that people don’t like to talk about not sinning or living free from sin.  However, it is a much needed message in our church that has somehow lost the fervor that it once had.  I know this isn’t a popular message in today's society of “Name it and Claim it”, but when I was younger (not that I am old, just raised old-school), the preachers preached AGAINST sin.  They taught that you could be victorious through Christ Jesus and didn’t have to stoop to the level of sin under the umbrella of being “human”.  They taught that Heaven AND Hell was real and if you didn’t live according to the biblical teaching, you would go to Hell.  Nowadays it seems that the message of freedom from the bondage of sin is being diluted with the message of having prosperity and getting everything that you want.  However, I am reminded of the scripture that says, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”  It seems that many soul exchanges are being made for cars, houses, money and pleasure.  It isn’t that God doesn’t want us to have a good life or that He wants us to go in lack (that is definitely contrary to his plan for us), but our good life has to be in balance with our soul.  He said I would that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.  We have to understand that having nice things and living a good life doesn’t guarantee us a first class ticket into Heaven.  We have to live FREE from sin which is continually striving to please God and being obedient to His Word.

The scriptures aren’t saying that anyone who “FALLS” or is overtaken in sin is of the devil; however, to COMMIT sin indicates a willful AND continual commission of deeds which are contrary to the Will of God.  This is what the writer reveals in this passage.  But I hear you saying, "How can a child of God be of the devil?"   Here again we have to understand the scripture is written that we, the people of God, will be cleansed and made pure for God’s use on the earth and to be found blameless at His return.  So, “the doer of sin is of the devil” refers to the deliberate choice and continuity in sin.  Sinning isn’t anything new or original because behind every sinner is a master-sinner, who sinned before any sinner was exposed to sin; and who is called the devil, the slanderer, Satan and our adversary.  He has sinned from the beginning.  The Bible says that Satan (or "the thief") cometh not but to steal, kill and to destroy.  Satan’s purpose is to take from you, murder you and ultimately annihilate you.  But Jesus was manifested!  Let’s stop for a moment and let that Word register in our innermost being.  Christ was manifested or revealed to DESTROY Satan’s works.  So while the devil’s plan is to ultimately destroy us, we have a GREATER God (the Son of God), JESUS, who came with all power and might to demolish Satan’s devices. 

So we cannot use the excuse any longer that we are “HUMAN” and make mistakes.  A mistake isn’t a willful act.  When I make a mistake or error, it means that an incorrect, unwise or unfortunate act or decision has happened, but the mistake isn’t purposed or intended to happen.  Therefore, we can’t say that we have made a mistake and walked into the crack house and did drugs.  We don’t accidentally smoke a cigarette or drink a Martini.  We don’t mistakenly commit fornication or adultery.  When we say that we are of God and do these things, we lie and deceive our own selves.  The Bible says, “if we say that we have fellowship with him (Christ), and walk in darkness (sin), we lie, and do not the truth”.  A man cannot act like the devil and at the same time be a disciple of Christ Jesus.  SIMPLE AS THAT!

The devil has calculated and endeavored to ruin the plan of God that He has established for us to live in victory.   You must understand that Jesus has conquered Satan and given us the power to conqueror him in our lives; for the power to tread upon serpents and scorpions has been given to us.  We have been given life more abundantly through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus; so we CAN walk in victory. 

We may perhaps fall down, but we don’t have to, because Christ is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

 

Be Blessed!

© 2007 (L.O.W) Lifestyle of Worship Ministries.  All right reserved

Posted by donna at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Scripture:   But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  Romans 7:23, 24

Warring against the law of my mind...

Warring!!!! Let's look deeper into the word warring.  War can be described as a STRUGGLE between two opposing forces.  It is a battle or fight for or with.  So this is the idea that Paul tells the church in Rome.  You have a struggle, a war, a fight but it isn’t because you aren’t saved or love God.  The reason why you are struggling is because you DO love God.  Paul deals with the problem of the Old Testament Law and the fact that it can’t change us.  The Law only shows you that you are wrong, but the spirit shows you and changes you so that you don’t walk that way again.  The Law defined my behavior, but it was condemning and couldn’t give me life or change my heart.   Much like your doctor makes a diagnosis and treats the problem, but a diagnosis without treatment is useless. 

So therefore there is a struggle internally and I need treatment, not just the analysis of my struggle.  When I got saved I didn’t stop liking to do the things I was doing.  But now I fight to preserve my relationship with God.  The struggle remains, so I fight!  I recognize and embrace the struggle and fight to keep my victory.  There isn’t an “EASY” button to obtaining and retaining the victory in Christ.  You have to fight every day.  You have to fight to keep your mouth filled with the Word, fight to keep your love pure, fight to keep your mind on Christ.  When you know you have a struggle or war you understand HOW to strategize to win the battles that the enemy brings.  It may not be easy but it is possible.  So what you don’t have an “EASY” button, but you do have a “POSSIBLE” button.  Some struggles don’t stop on a dime like a bicycle, but rather come to slow stop like a train and that is apart of dealing with your struggle.  When you think you have it all together, God will place you in a strange even hard position which makes you go back to your prayer closet and back to your knees.  Paul said that he hadn’t already attained, but he kept pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of Christ.  We are all pressing toward the mark, we haven’t reached it in every area, some areas maybe.  However, the level of your anointing is based on how you embrace the journey to receiving your anointing.   

Paul said that when he wanted to do good evil was ALWAYS present.  That is because evil doesn’t take a day off, or a sick day.  Evil never calls in for vacation time.  So because evil is ALWAYS present, I need power to fight the flesh, so that I might get the blessings God has promised me.  Our hope doesn’t lie in escaping the problem, but instead receiving the power to fight.  I need power to fight this bad attitude, power to fight the feeling of pre-martial sex, power to fight the eager to hustle you, power to fight the pride and jealousy in me.  I NEED POWER….TO FIGHT!!!!!  In the beginning of Paul’s ministry he called himself the least of all the apostles, but AFTER he had the opportunity to embrace, deal with, trek through and pour out to God his struggles; he tells Timothy that he WAS the chief Apostle.  WHY???  Because after you get through the struggle, God gives us the anointing we need to help someone else through their struggle.  You will never understand child birth unless you actually go through it.  We all know WHAT we should do, but HOW to do it a long journey. 

Embracing the struggle implies that I’m coming out with the victory, not retreating in defeat.  Once God empowers me, the struggle won’t be a strain.  The struggle won’t control me or pull me down.  The flesh is unable to be a good Christian, but we can’t please God except we do it in our fleshly bodies.  So your spirit has to pick up your flesh and take you to your destiny.  We must not only be spirit filled, but spirit dominated.  We all have a struggle.  Some may be greater than other, but we must let the spirit of God war FOR us and not allow our struggle to war against the spirit!

Be Blessed!!!! 

 

© 2007 Lifestyle of Worship Ministries.  All right reserved

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by donna at 07:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Scripture: It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. Ex 31:17
 
On the 7th day he (God) rested and was refreshed.
 
Resting and being refreshed is something that we ALL long for, but how to get to the point somehow eludes us.  This scripture was given to Moses as God instructed him concerning the Ten Commandments.  God instructed Moses to tell the Children of Israel that there was a day of rest RESERVED for them.  It was a privilege and a sign or proof that God really loved them.  He told them that the Sabbath day or the 7^th day was a day of resting and refreshing.  So let’s understand what the Sabbath day was REALLY about. 

First, the Sabbath Day was a weekly day of rest and it its meaning derives from the Hebrew term Shabath or Seven.  The Jews weekly observed a day to rest from any and all labor.  It was stiplulated that even their servants were not allow to work.  However, their practice of Sabbath rest began to leave the original plan of God.  Many times they used the practices of rituals to impose a hardship upon others.  And the practice of Sabbath day resting was one such idea and made the practice of God's....labor.

Genesis 2:1 says that “the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day.” The most noteworthy thing that this passage indicates, which differs completely from the other days of creation is the absence of any reference to an evening or a morning. The record of all the other days of creation closed with the words, "and there was evening and there was morning, (a first, second, etc.,) day." But there is no reference to evening or morning in this passage. This helps to confirm what we have already seen in these "days" of creation: that these "days" do not primarily emphasize time, but development. The evening and morning were indicative of a developing process, beginning in an incomplete state and moving toward completion. But on this seventh day there is no evening and morning. In fact, twice in this brief passage we find the word, "finished," occurring. "Thus the heavens the earth were finished" (Gen 2:1a) and "God finished his work" (Gen 2:2b). Obviously there is no need for development, no place for it.  The text says, “So God rested from all his work which he had done in creation” This is the last account of any creative activity by GOD. Man was made and then God rested, and there has been no creation since. Man is the last effort of God in creation, on the physical level. Therefore this Sabbath, this rest upon which God entered, is still continuing today. God is not creating physically today.  However, He has given the power to creatively manifest in the earth to US.  He has given us the keys to the kingdom.

So how does this rest apply to me?  GLAD YOU ASKED!!!

So how does this rest apply to me?

Sunday, is not the real Sabbath. It never was, and it is not now. In our society Sunday is the first day of the week and not the seventh.  The Sabbath in its biblical sense is a picture or a reminder of the real Sabbath. The true Sabbath is a rest; the Jewish Sabbath is a shadow, a picture of that rest. All the Old Testament shadows pointed to Christ. They were predictions, fore views, of the coming of the One who would fulfill all these remarkable things. Every lamb that was brought as an offering was a shadow of the work of Christ. Every burnt offering, every bit of incense that was offered, was a picture of the fragrance of Jesus Christ. The tabernacle was a shadow of him. The high priest, in his garments and his office, was a shadow of Christ as our High Priest. Read the book of Hebrews and you will see how beautifully all this is brought out. These Old Testament shadows were looking forward to the coming of the One who would fulfill these and thus end them. When the work of Jesus Christ was finished the shadows were no longer needed.  Much like my relationship with my husband BEFORE we were married.  When I became engaged to my husband, I received a ring as a promise of a future covenant or marriage.  I had pictures of him all over my room at home, in my wallet and when I went to college I had his picture plastered all over my dorm room wall.  I would look at those pictures 3 or 4 times a day. It was all I had to remind me of what was to come and it served moderately well for that purpose. But one wonderful day we married and we became one, in spirit and in body.  So now I didn't spend much time with those pictures because there is no need. The other day I ran across one of the pictures that hung on my dorm room wall.  It was still a beautiful picture, and I noted that my husband had not changed much except for having A LOT less hair now and a gray in his beard.  But I found that the picture was quite incomplete and unsatisfying.  It revealed that now that I have the real thing (and have been married for 16 wonderful years); there is no longer any need for the picture.  And so though this shadow- Sabbath, i.e., ritualistic Sunday observance, ended at the cross, the true Sabbath, the rest of God, continued and still continues today. The daily application of the Sabbath is stated in Hebrews 4: 9&10 “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God [it is available to us now]; for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.”  That is what the true Sabbath (rest and completion) is, to cease from your own labors, your own efforts, and your own activity; to cease from your own works. True Sabbath is designed that we might be refreshed and be more productive when used by God.  When God hallowed (sanctified) the Sabbath, he assigned it a specific function to perform. That is what sanctification is -- to put to a proper or intended purpose. Thus God designated the true Sabbath to the function of producing, fruitfulness and dominion and refreshing for man. This is why the Jesus declared, "the Sabbath is made for man; not man for the Sabbath".  When we walk in the rest and refreshing that Jesus has laid out for us we are resting in Jesus Christ, and that rest is the divine condition to produce fruitfulness and abundance of victory in a Christian's life.  

As we seek for and embrace the idea that God wants us refreshed, a wonderful thing will begin to happen. You will find rest.  The rest that is of moving and active but yet still refreshing and restful.  The bible says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest."  The rest that is in Jesus includes reigning, ruling, producing that which is worthwhile and satisfying in life.   That is what God wants to give us.

Be Blessed!

© 2007 Lifestyle of Worship Ministries.  All right reserved

 

Posted by donna at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)