Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Living in the comfort seeking societies of the world often blinds us to the truth of the spiritual reality that we face in life. We live in a visible world, but there is a realm that is invisible to our natural eyes that is the true issue of our wrestle in life. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but most of our conflicts in life come in packages of flesh and blood. Those packages are human lives that are often manipulated, controlled, and deceived in some way. Our adversary seeks to destroy love. He seeks to destroy relationships. Relationships are the most valued treasure in life. Our love for God and for one another is the true value of life. God is a giver. He is not a taker. He gives life, breath, and all things for the purpose of life. As children of God, we were created to be in our Father’s likeness and image. We must seek life and live our lives as a part of the family tree of life. As leaders, we lead others in clinging to life and giving life to each one’s world.
When we fall for the trap of thinking that our enemy is flesh and blood, we fall for a deception that only leads to dysfunction and death. We become more focused on right and wrong than we do life and death, and we end up living to be right and the fruit of our quest is death. It is death for us and death for one another. In our fight, we believe that our battle is with one another or even ourselves, but our true battle is against the one who wages war against our souls.
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
To be sober is to be serious about our role as sons and daughters of God. We must always be purpose focused. We must be awake to God’s purpose in our lives because we have an adversary who wants to devour us. The enemy seeks to wage war against our souls, and we must keep our souls focused on God’s kingdom and will in all things. Our relationship with God will lead to all things turning for good in our lives.
We resist the devil by being steadfast in faith. To be steadfast in faith is to be constant and consistent in listening to the voice of God in our hearts. This is not the voice of our will, but the voice of our Father’s will in all things. We must seek His kingdom and not our own. We were born into our world to bring God’s life into our world for such a time as this. In this process, we will go through suffering at times. In the suffering, what is true is proven. In the process of difficulty, the supernatural testimony of God’s love prevails. It is there that we find Him in an intimate and powerful way. In this process we are perfected as sons and daughters of God. We are established in our relationship with God, strengthened in our inner man, and settled in knowing God and knowing who we are in Him. We must never reject the path that is put before us. It is in the path of difficulty that truth prevails. That truth is not according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but according to the tree of life. The truth is always found through our abiding in God and He in us in all things.
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but the enemy seeks to inspire our personal desires to put our thoughts, reasoning, imaginations, emotions, and desires in a place that destroys our destiny as sons and daughters of God. Leaders set an example in holding fast to their faith to inspire others to cling to the One who does miracles in the hearts and minds of us all. It is only in impossible situations that we truly discover that all things are possible for God.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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