Exit strategy for Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

The fiercest arrow in the enemy’s quiver is temptation. It was what brought the downfall of man in the garden of Eden and it is still poised to pierce the children of God. However, the good news is, to be tempted is not sin, but what is sin is our reaction to the temptation. Many a times we find ourselves so uncomfortable with even just the thought of being tempted. It makes us feel guilty that men or women of God like us is even able to be lured. But guess what, even our Lord and savior Jesus Christ was not spared from the tempter’s assaults but He came out with flying colors in the area of obedience to God and completely understands that it is part of the our ‘manufacturing-design’ to be tempted. (Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”)

The exit route that God has provisioned with every signboard screaming ‘TEMPTATION’ that appears on our windshield on the highway of life is a ‘fast lane’. He intends for us to RUN from the tantalizing bait, not stare at it in the face or just walk away from it, so that we can truly chase down God’s best for us instead of being chased down by Satan’s worst. (2 Timothy 2:22 “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.”)~NLT. Here’s why- If we are not quick enough to decide to flee from what seduces us it is bound to overtake us at some point.There is a saying :

“If you hang around the barbershop for long enough, sooner or later you are going to get a haircut.”

There’s a different thing that entices each one of us. It invokes a desire in us for the ‘forbidden fruit‘ and it is that desire when satisfied, even just once, leads to sin and which in turn comes around to terminate our spiritual lives (James 1: 14-15 “ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”) Temptations are not always obvious in their approach. It need not be an addictive substance or a heaped plate of forbidden foods or even the provocative finger of an illicit relationship that beckons, which are, of course, the lusts of the flesh. But, even just the deep ‘need’ we may feel to have it out with a person so that we can be ‘proved right’ or to speak up when not absolutely required just to ‘make a point’, is a temptation. These lusts feed our pride. That’s why scripture warns us to steer clear of silly banter and futile arguments (2 Timothy 2:23 “But have nothing to do with foolish and ignorant speculations [useless disputes over unedifying, stupid controversies], since you know that they produce strife and give birth to quarrels.”)

The way the lamenting prophet Jeremiah speaks about the captivity of Judah at the hands of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar is so similar to way we fall prey to temptation (Lamentations 1:6 “All her beauty and majesty have departed from the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem). Her princes have become like deer that have found no pasture; they have fled without strength before the pursuer”). Escaping temptation successfully is not a race against time and other runners but it’s a marathon that requires adequate nourishment and evenly paced refueling of our spirit life for the stamina to last till the finish line. If we are starved of Jesus, the bread of life, then we are surely going to be game-meat for the hunter. But if we partake of the Living Word and allow ourselves to be satiated by Him, temptation loses its hold over us and cannot force us into submission anymore (John 6:51 “ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”) 

Shall we then hunger for more of Jesus, the Living Bread and the Fountain of Life, that we may leave no room for the tempter to have his way with us.

God Bless

 

Power of Intimacy with God

1 John 4:16 “ We have come to know [by personal observation and experience], and have believed [with deep, consistent faith] the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides continually in him.”

The  fact that intimacy with God can break every chain, heal every disease, move mighty mountains and part deep waters when we believe, experience and abide in the immense power of God’s love toward us is not a secret hidden from Satan. It is the enemy’s chiefest agenda to destroy the boldness of the children of God in their relationship with God. He executes this by planting doubts and fears in us in the form of  disasters, illnesses and other misfortunes. At best he’d like us to renounce our relationship with God (Job 1:11 “But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”) and at the very least he would like us to be harassed and restrained from glorying in our sonship with God.He doesn’t care about taking our lives or usurping our possessions but attempts to steal our time with God, kill our confidence in the finished work of the cross and destroy our understanding of our own worth in God’s eyes (John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…”).

The potency of intimacy is a divine principle instituted by God in the garden of Eden. He instituted holy matrimony between man and woman with His Spirit and caused its consummation to produce a fruit (Malachi 2:15 “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring…”) It is the same principle that applies to Christ and His bride, the church. Our intimacy with God begets the fruit of His Spirit in us (Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law..”). The enemy knows that God sees us as worthy to be loved and to fellowship with and won’t back out because Jesus Christ paid the price to have the veil torn between us (Matthew 27:51 “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. …”). So instead, the accuser tries to put doubts in our mind about our worthiness to be close with God.

Let’s think about that for a minute. Our first reaction to any problem is to ask God to take it away from us because we feel that having that problem does not fall in place with  enjoying the fullness of a right relationship with God. Paul received powerful revelations in his intimacy with God. He made his boast in Christ alone. Had he boasted in his own strength Satan would not have had a problem with it. So he attacked Paul to shake his confidence in his closeness with God (2 Corinthians 12:7-8 “ So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”)

Satan tries to shift our focus from the Answer-Giver to the answer.

It is to this cry of Paul in us that the Lord says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God wants us to know that we may undergo the devil’s shakedowns but because Jesus Christ is our righteousness our relationship with the Heavenly Father is intact and the power to overcome our turbulence is in our intimacy with Him (2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”).

So when we are faced with trials we need to get closer to God and start abiding in His love instead of asking Him to distance the tribulations from us. When we start fellowshipping with the Omnipotent One, He comes to dwell in us as Love and the consistency of our bond with Him has the power to conquer anything and everything.

God Bless

 

Safe Haven

Psalm 91:1-2 “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.””

The Lord, our God is very mindful of our need for a hiding place, to find an asylum from the various assaults of the enemy that we contend with everyday. He knows that oftentimes we are surrounded by circumstances and people that the enemy uses as darts aimed against us, to shake our faith and cause us to fear, so much so that we feel that no one is trustworthy. So, He gives us Himself as the safest haven, Whom we can run into at anytime and know that we are secure (Proverbs 18:10 “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.)

When we are tired of running away and the pressure to keep even just a straight face, if not a smiling one, becomes too heavy in the midst of all our challenges, God calls us to seek and find shelter under His wings (Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest”). He has seen  what we have been through, what we are undergoing and even what we will be faced with (Psalm 139:16 “..In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”) He assures us that He is a worthy hideout and that nothing can get the better of us when we abide in Him, because while difficulties may exist, He has already seen it all and won it all (Luke 16:33 “ I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]”)

Paradoxically, our response to uncomfortable confrontations is usually to hide from God and not run towards Him to find the strength to face and overcome it, much like prophet Jonah (Jonah 1:3 “But Jonah ran away to Tarshish to escape from the presence of the Lord”). But our God’s omnipresence surpasses our devices to flee from Him, and He makes Himself and His strength available to us a refuge against our odds (Psalm 139:7-10 “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave,you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.)

If we are up against the impossible today, let us ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to run into the open arms of our Savior King, Jesus Christ, and be enveloped in the warmth of His embrace, which is impenetrable to whatever storm or hell-fire that is raging against us, for He is our true hiding place and our shield (Psalm 119:114). Let us hide in Him and not from Him.

God Bless.

 

 

Potter’s Hand

Jeremiah 18:6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”

From time immemorial, God has loved using His holy hands to fashion mankind the way a potter works with clay. He even put together the first man out of clay from the marshy ground (Genesis 2:6-7 “ and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”) 

What we give in our Potter’s hands He gives life to, doesn’t matter how terribly sick or even dead it might be. When Jesus was walking as a Man among us, He exhibited the life-giving power of God’s hands over what is submitted to Him, when He raised the synagogue ruler’s dead daughter to life (Matthew 9:18, 25 “While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”…..”But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.”)

The pot never leaves the potter’s wheel until it is fully finished according to all that the potter intended it to be. So are we in God’s hands and He won’t ever keep us as unfinished business, but will persistently work on us till we are perfected according to His purposes (Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”) The thing to remember is this, that our God doesn’t forsake what is given in His hands even if it is, by nature, non- pliant, because of which there may be manufacturing defects. He may have to tear us down when we are not humble or sensitive to His leading, but only to rework us into better vessels (Jeremiah 18:4 “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.”)

No matter how broken our situations have made us, or how hardened our hearts have been to the Holy Spirit’s working, or even how stiff-necked we have been to receive God’s grace,  we need to know that He chose us and prepared us to be vessels of mercy, upon which He will pour out His glory.(Romans 9:23 “and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,”). Let us acknowledge that our rightful place is in the Potter’s hand and let us allow the Holy Spirit to remind us that we can used by Him if we would decide to give up our ways and become malleable to His Kingdom plans for us (2 Timothy 2:21 “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things [which are dishonorable—disobedient, sinful], he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified [set apart for a special purpose and], useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.)

God Bless.

 

 

Rise & Pray

 

Mark 14:38 “ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Every disciple of God, in his spirit-man,  yearns to walk faithfully with Christ and to lay his life down for Him (Luke 9:23 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”). But seldom are we able to act on this divine intent due to our fleshly nature (Galatians 5:17 “ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do”).

While our spirit is already obedient to Christ, our flesh forces us to the very opposite end (Romans 7:19 “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice”). We learn that the law of grace grants us liberty from the clutches of our sin-nature (Romans 6:14), and that we need faith to keep us steadfastly under the grace of  God (Ephesians 2:8). Now faith, to consistently depend on God’s grace, is provisioned in the daily fellowship with God, in prayer and in quiet meditation in His presence.

Jesus made a very valuable demonstration of how to secure strength to execute one’s personal spiritual agenda of doing the Father’s will, using Himself and His disciple Peter, in the garden of Gethsemane. Just before the prayer in the garden, we see Peter declaring from his spirit-man, his loyalty to Jesus, even to the point of death (Mark 14:31 “But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you”). Jesus takes Peter with two other disciples and asks that they watch with Him in prayer. The Son of God, in the likeness of man, was demonstrating to His disciples that, strength to fulfill one’s desire to be faithful to God, must be acquired in prayer (Luke 22:43 “ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”). On His return, He even rebukes Peter for falling asleep and reminds him to do the same as Himself (Mark 14:37-38 “ And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”). We know that while Jesus was bolstered by the angel of God so is enabled to act on His desire to do the Father’s will, Peter loses his courage and falters on his claim to be faithful to  Jesus at His arrest.

Is our spirit willing us to lay our lives down for Jesus and yet are we finding ourselves lacking in the guts to carry it out? Shall we go to His throne room of grace and petition for the faith necessary to deny our flesh and the lusts thereof? (Romans 13:14)

Let’s remember: When Jesus prayed, God sent an angel to strengthen Him, When we pray He sends His Holy Spirit.!! (Ephesians 3:16)

God Bless.

 

The 4D Love of Christ

Ephesians 3:17-19 “ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the WIDTH AND LENGTH AND DEPTH AND HEIGHT— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

It is not given in the divine design of God for man to try and understand other mankind, but only to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”) And to that end, He enters our hearts and fill us with His enormous love.

Each and every creature of God is a product of His holy handiwork, and He alone is privy to the minutest details of His fabrication.(Psalm 139:13, 15 “For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb…My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.”) Therefore, it is imperative to understand that we are not called to understand the people that He has placed in our lives, because is simply impossible for man to try and comprehend the marvelous works of God and the purposes with which He works them.(Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!)

When we love others, we want to try to know them for what they are, what they have done, what they will do, what their feelings toward us are etc. Relationship advisers, family and marriage counselors make a living out of the victims of separation, divorce and family feuds, based on concepts such as ‘try to understand each other in order to love better’. But the word of God says that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:19). Even when we think we know our loved ones, we are not fully perceptive of them according to the entirety of  God’s purposes (1 Corinthians 8:2 “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.”)

When God loves us He does so, fully knowing who we are and all that is in us, whereas His commandment for us to love others (whom we can never fully know or understand) is purposed to create in us, a wonderful dependence on Him for the capacity of such incomprehensible love. Our faith in the love of Christ for us causes Christ, who is Love, to abide in us (1 John 4:16 “ So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”), filling us with the measure of His great love (width, length, depth and height), with which to love all saints. Who are these saints? Everyone who is loved of God and God soooo LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). 

Is there anyone too difficult to love? Our motivation to love such people is that they are more important to God than they may be to us, for He died for such.(Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”) Let us depend on Him for the sufficient grace to love them with the love of Christ.

God Bless

Battling the Fear Factor

2 Timothy 1:7 “ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

It is important to recognize that the source of any chaotic reaction is NOT God. Anything that causes us to fear, become anxious, worry, doubt, get depressed, feel insulted or condemned, be confused does not have its origin in God, who is the Author of Peace (1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.”)

The most cunning enemy of every Christian is a spirit of fear, a shape-shifter which will take any form necessary to try and defeat faith. To resist this ungodly spirit, God gave us the perfect antidote, His Holy Spirit to live inside us, Who, being the perfect embodiment of power, love and a sound mind, shields us from the onslaught of fear. I believe that these three personalities of the Holy Spirit are targeted at the very source of the fear to cut them off  from the root.

Spirit of Power –  Fear caused by external factors (calamity, sickness, debts, loss of a loved one, etc.)  can be battled only by the strength in the inner man, which is given to us in exceedingly great measures through the Holy Spirit, the same that raised  Jesus Christ from the grave to the right hand of the Father God (Ephesians 1:19-20 “and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,”).

Spirit of Love – Fear caused by internal factors (guilt, shame, insult, condemnation, judgement) are due to our actions in the past. Even convicted christians sometimes wallow in past sins, fearing some form of punishment.  The word of God promises us that God, who is love, has come to dwell in us in His Spirit and His love that perfects us, gives us status quo with Jesus Christ on the earth (His righteousness is imputed on us through our faith), because of which there’s no reason to fear judgement or condemnation of any kind. (1 John  4:16-18 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.)

Spirit of a sound mind – Fear caused by unknown factors (doubt, anxiety, worry, fear of death, phobias) are rationalized by the world as psychological disorders. The bible reveals that the unknown enemy operates in the spiritual realm, according to principalities and powers of darkness and is not flesh and blood that can be overcome physically (Ephesians 6:12). So the provision of the Holy Spirit is also given as a spiritual  weapon of warfare, to conquer these unseen powers and makes war-captives of every emotion, fear included, that defies the knowledge of God, making them prisoners to Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”)

Shall we step out in the power, love and sound mind of the Spirit given to us, walking victoriously over every fear that comes our way.

God Bless.

 

Rejoice in the Lord !

Colossians 1:11 “strengthened and invigorated with all power, according to His glorious might, to attain every kind of ENDURANCE and PATIENCE with JOY”

It is often that when we are faced with a tough cookie, we want God to stretch out His hand and take away our reproach from us. We pray, asking for His strength to help us turnaround the situation in our favor. But sometimes, the Lord answers us with His might, not to remove our obstacle, but to equip us to endure it with long-suffering and joy (2 Corinthians 12:9 “But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”).

It takes God-sized strength to smile in pain, rejoice in persecution and bless those who curse us, but that is exactly what the Bible prescribes as the mark of a true Christian.(Romans 12:12,14 “constantly rejoicing in hope [because of our confidence in Christ], steadfast and patient in distress, devoted to prayer…Bless those who persecute you [who cause you harm or hardship]; bless and do not curse [them]). Glory to God is not in the endurance of distress and persecution, but in joyfully doing so, because the gladness is the acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty  over the situation, the perfect hope in His salvation. Therefore, He renews our strength so that we can be a testimony to the world around us, even in the climate of adversity.

What does it look like to be strengthened with the might of God to gladly endure and be patient? 

1. Bless God – To be able to praise God and honor Him, even as everything that we may have worked and hoped for is going up in flames, is proof of His strength working in us.(Job 1:21 “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”)
2. Bless the persecutor – In His faithfulness and love, Jesus Christ reached out to us, sinners, and blessed us abundantly. His Spirit that works in us, must produce a similar response in us toward those that sin against us. (Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.)
3. Bless the situation – The power of God moving in us makes us confident in the eternity of God’s goodness and His endless storehouse of heavenly treasures reserved for us, thereby enabling us to celebrate even in the hour of tribulation.(Hebrews 10:34 “…and you joyfully accepted the [unjust] seizure of your belongings and the confiscation of your property, conscious of the fact that you have a better possession and a lasting one [prepared for you in heaven].).

This kind of strength which gears us to be blissful in stressful circumstances, is generated in the close and daily communion with the holder of that strength (Jesus Christ). In our consistent prayer-life, we acquire the knowledge of the potential of the might of Holy Spirit that is at work in us (Ephesians 1:19 “and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe…”), causing us to be bolstered in our spirit even in the season of suffering.

Let’s heed to Apostle Pauls’s exhortation “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).

God Bless