The VOICE Of The LORD Is POWERFUL!

                                                                                 
The key to understanding how Satan operates against the church of Jesus Christ is found in the word rebellion. 

Simply put, rebellion means going against the rule and authority of God’s Word. 

When Lucifer declared war on God, he was rebelling against the word of the Almighty.

You must understand—God's word is His power. Through it, He spoke the worlds into being. And through it, the sun, moon and stars are kept in place.

His word brought all things into being and continues to produce life. And by His word, God pulls down kings and raises up nations. Through it, He blesses and saves, judges and destroys (see Psalm 29:3-9).

Satan’s aim is always to tempt God’s people to rebel against His word.

He planted thoughts of rebellion in Adam and Eve, causing them to reason, “I know what God said but I’m going to act according to my own will.” Those thoughts caused humanity’s fall.

Satan also succeeded in planting seeds of rebellion in God’s chosen nation, Israel.

The psalmist says Israel was “a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God” (Psalm 78:8). 

Scripture also says of Israel, “Ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God”Deut.1:26.

Please note that God revealed His word very clearly to all of these people. And yet they all rebelled against it. Why? They were seduced by the wicked one.

Satan will also try to tempt you to rebel against God's word. 

He knows he cannot get to you through blatant temptations so he’ll inject subtle seductions into your mind by flooding your life with pain, trials, struggles.
 
And he’ll try to block God’s blessings in your life, just as he hindered Paul in his ministry.

Many have fallen prey to Satan’s subtle seductions.

The psalmist says such believers “sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelled against the words of God, and [despised] the counsel of the most High”
(Psalm 107:10-11).

~David Wilkerson~

Nevertheless, I want Your Will To Be Done, Not Mine!

Luke 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 

The best thing possible for us, is always what God wills for us. Sometimes God's will may be pain, or worldly loss, or sore bereavement. 

Yet His will is always love, and in simple acquiescence to this will, we shall always find our highest good. 

No prayer, therefore, is pleasing to God which does not end with this refrain of Gethsemane, "Nevertheless, I want Your will to be done, not mine!"

This is also the way to peace. As we yield with love and joy, and merge our own will in our Father's***the peace of God flows like a river into our souls.
 
Act 21:14  And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. 

1Sa 3:18  And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good. 

~J. R. Miller~

ALL THINGS!

Heb 2:7-8  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.

See the sovereign supremacy of Jesus!

There may be circumstances in your earthly lot which at this moment are peculiarly trying. You look around and wonder how this or that circumstance will terminate. 

At present it looks very dark--clouds and mists hang over it, and you fear lest these clouds may break, not in showers upon your head, but burst forth in the lightning flash and the thunder stroke!

But all things are put in subjection under Christ's feet!That which you dread cannot take place except by His sovereign will nor can it move any further except by His supreme disposal. 

Then make yourself quiet. He will not allow you to be harmed. That frowning providence shall only execute His sovereign purposes, and it shall be among those all things which, according to His promise, shall work together for your good.

None of our trials come upon us by chance! They are all appointed in weight and measure are all designed to fulfill a certain end. And however painful they may at present be, yet they are intended for your good.

When the trial comes upon you, what a help it would be for you if you could view it thus, "This trial is sent for my good. It does not spring out of the dust.

The Lord Himself is the supreme disposer of it. It is very painful to bear; but let me believe that He has appointed me this peculiar trial, along with every other circumstance.
 
He will bring about His own will therein, and either remove the trial, or give me patience under it, and submission to it."

You may be afflicted by sickness. It is not by chance that such or such sickness visits your body--that the Lord sees fit to afflict head, heart, chest, liver, hand, foot, or any other part of your body.

All things are put in subjection under Him, and He has not exempted sickness and disease!
 
Whatever you suffer in bodily disease, He appoints and arranges it for your good. Be resigned to His holy and Almighty will.

All your afflictions are put under the feet of Jesus! You may
think at times how harshly you are dealt with--mourning, it
may be, under family bereavements, sorrowing after the loss
of your 'household treasures'--a beloved husband, wife, or child. 

But O that you could bear in mind that all your afflictions, be they what they may, are put under the feet of Jesus, so that, so to speak, not one can crawl from under His feet but by His permission--and, like scolded hounds, they crawl again beneath them at a word of command from His lips!

Let us then hold fast this truth, for on it depends so much of our comfort.

~J. C. Philpot ~

Lest Madam Bubble Bewitch Them With Her Vile Suggestions

                                                                              
Gen 39:12  And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
 
In contending with certain sins, there remains no mode of victory, but by flight. 

He who would be safe from acts of evil must hasten away from occasions of it. 

A covenant must be made with our eyes not even to look upon the cause of temptation; for such sins only need a spark to begin with and a blaze follows in an instant!

Who would wantonly enter the leper's hut and sleep amid its horrible corruption? He alone who desires to be leprous himself would thus court contagion. 

If the mariner knew how to avoid a storm, he would do anything rather than run the risk of weathering it. Cautious pilots have no desire to try how near the quicksand they can sail, or how often they may touch a rock without springing a leak; their aim is to keep as nearly as possible in the midst of a safe channel.

This day I may be exposed to great peril***let me have wisdom to keep out of it and avoid it. 

The wings of a dove may be of more use to me than the jaws of a lion.

I may be an apparent loser by declining evil company but I had better leave my cloak than lose my character!

It is not needful that I should be rich***but it is imperative upon me to be pure.

No ties of friendship, no chains of beauty, no flashings of talent, no shafts of ridicule must turn me from the wise resolve to flee from sin.

I am to resist the devil and he will flee from me. But the lusts of the flesh, I must flee or they will surely overcome me!

O God of holiness, preserve your Josephs—lest Madam Bubble bewitch them with her vile suggestions. 

May the horrible trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil never overcome us!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Pardoning Grace

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  

My soul! your God summons you to His audience chamber! Infinite purity seeks to reason with infinite vileness! Deity stoops to speak to dust! Dread not the meeting. 

It is the most gracious, as well as most wondrous of all conferences. 

Jehovah himself breaks silence! He utters the best tidings a lost soul or a lost world can hear—"God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." 

What! Scarlet sins, and crimson sins! and these all to be forgiven and forgotten! The just God "justifying" the unjust!—the mightiest of all beings, the kindest of all!

Oh! what is there in you to merit such love as this? You might have known your God only as the "consuming fire," and had nothing before you except "a fearful looking for of vengeance!" 

This gracious conference bids you dispel your fears! It tells you it is no longer a "fearful," but a blessed thing to fall into His hands!

Have you closed with these His overtures? Until you are at peace with Him, happiness must be a stranger to your bosom.

Though you have all else beside, bereft of God you must be bereft indeed. Lord! I come! As your pardoning grace is freely tendered, so shall I freely accept it.

May it be mine, even now, to listen to the gladdening accents, Son! Daughter! be of good cheer! your sins, which are many are all forgiven you.

~John Macduff~

Building Air-Castle Upon Air-Castle!

                                                                             
He who goes about whining all day long about some imaginary drawbacks in the sphere which Providence has assigned him when all the while he is situated so much better than thousands around—is a suicide of his own happiness! He is also impeaching the faithfulness of the Supreme Ordainer and Disposer.

One half of life's enjoyment is eaten out by this sinful craving after what cannot be obtained the desire for something supposed to be better. Yes, but when "the better" is reached, there is the yearning for an imagined "better" still. This is building air-castle upon air-castle!

If in these days there be one household demon more than another which needs to be exorcized it is the demon of discontent!

Oh, for the spirit of Paul poor and lonely prisoner in Rome as he was an apparent bankrupt in all that the world deems wealth and affluence yet who could make this entry in his letter to his Philippian friends "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. At the moment I have all I need more than I need!"

~John Macduff~

By Faith

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Abraham “did not know where he was going” it simply was
enough for him to know he went with God. 

He did not lean as much on the promises as he did on the Promiser.

And he did not look at the difficulties of his circumstances but looked to His King the eternal, limitless, invisible, wise, and only
God who had reached down from His throne to direct his path and who would certainly prove Himself.
 
O glorious faith! Your works and possibilities are these: contentment to set sail with the orders still sealed, due to unwavering confidence in the wisdom of the Lord High Admiral;
and a willingness to get up, leave everything, and follow Christ,
because of the joyful assurance that earth’s best does not compare with heaven’s least. 

~F. B. Meyer~

In no way is it enough to set out cheerfully with God on any
venture of faith.You must also be willing to take your ideas of
what the journey will be like and tear them into tiny pieces, for nothing on the itinerary will happen as you expect.
 
Your Guide will not keep to any beaten path. He will lead you through ways you would never have dreamed your eyes would see.

He knows no fear, and He expects you to fear nothing while He is with you.
 

Don't Submit To Influences That Would Limit Our Response Or Interfere With Our Obedience

Gal 1:15  But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,  

Gal 1:16  To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

I do not know what the apostles might have said if Paul had gone to see them, but seeing that they had not had the revelation that he had had and they had not the call that he had (theirs was not an apostleship to the Gentiles), they might have counseled moderation and cautiousness.

They might have told Paul to consider whether he had been deceived or misled, because nothing like this had happened before....

Now, while fellowship is always a good thing, and experience should always be used as far as available, when it is a matter of the Lord speaking to our hearts and making it perfectly clear what His way is for us, we must be very careful that we do not submit that to influences that would in any way limit our response and interfere with our obedience.

There must be a detachment from all rule that would injure a heavenly revelation.

If others are really under the government of the Spirit they will help, but we must be careful that consultation with flesh is not made in the presence of a heavenly vision. 

We may consult with tradition and ask what the common acceptance is. Common acceptance will hold you back.

The Lord is against mere freelancers in every way, His order is fellowship in the Body; nevertheless if we submit to any kind of natural influence concerning what the Lord has been saying to us, and take counsel or take our direction from governing elements of man or things, we shall come under arrest and probably be disobedient to the heavenly vision.

We know of lives that have been marred in this way. 

If there is fellowship in the things of the Lord, let us use it, but let us be quite sure that we do not take things outside and submit them to those influences which are not in the Light, not in the Life, and not in the good of heavenly things, and take our direction from something less than that which is wholly under the government of the Holy Spirit.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Look And Live

 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shalt come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live (Numbers 21:8).

This is a glorious gospel type. Jesus, numbered with the transgressors, hangs before us on the cross. A look to Him will heal us of the serpent-bite of sin; will heal us at once. "When he looketh upon it, he shall live." 

Let the reader who is mourning his sinfulness note the words Everyone that looketh upon it shall live. Every looker will find this true. I have found it so. I looked to Jesus and lived at once, I know I did. 

Reader, if you look to Jesus you will live, too. True, you are swelling with the venom, and you see no hope, True, also there is no hope but this one. But this is no doubtful cure. "Everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."

The brazen serpent was not lifted up as a curiosity to be gazed upon by the healthy; but its special purpose was for those who were "bitten."

Jesus died as a real Savior for real sinners. Whether the bite has made you a drunkard, or a thief, or an unchaste or a profane person, a look at the great Savior will heal you of these diseases and make you live in holiness and communion with God. Look and live.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Independent Of Outward Circumstances

Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! 

What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! 

How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed!

Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian’s heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss!

Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit’s power to comfort us. 

Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not; the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance.

You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content.

Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you.

You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross—a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul. 

Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus’ name will be your soul’s best music, and his person your dear delight. 

Socrates used to say, “Philosophers can be happy without music;” and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn.
 
In thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Leaving The World's Camp

Heb 13:13  Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Jesus, bearing his cross, went forth to suffer without the gate.  

The Christian’s reason for leaving the camp of the world’s sin and religion is not because he loves to be singular, but because Jesus did so; and the disciple must follow his Master.

Christ was “not of the world:” his life and his testimony were a constant protest against conformity with the world.
 
Never was such overflowing affection for men as you find in him; but still he was separate from sinners.

In like manner Christ’s people must “go forth unto him.” They must take their position “without the camp,” as witness-bearers for the truth.

They must be prepared to tread the straight and narrow path. They must have bold, unflinching, lion-like hearts, loving Christ first, and his truth next, and Christ and his truth beyond all the world.

Jesus would have his people “go forth without the camp” for their own sanctification. 

You cannot grow in grace to any high degree while you are conformed to the world. 

The life of separation may be a path of sorrow, but it is the highway of safety; and though the separated life may
cost you many pangs, and make every day a battle, yet it is a happy life after all.

No joy can excel that of the soldier of Christ: Jesus reveals himself so graciously, and gives such sweet refreshment, that the warrior feels more calm and peace in his daily strife than others in their hours of rest.

The highway of holiness is the highway of communion. 

It is thus we shall hope to win the crown if we are enabled by divine grace faithfully to follow Christ “without the camp.” The crown of glory will follow the cross of separation.

A moment’s shame will be well recompensed by eternal honour; a little while of witness-bearing will seem nothing when we are “forever with the Lord.”

~Charles Spurgeon~

Keep Looking Up!

Exo 16:10  And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

You should get into the habit of looking for the silver lining of
storm clouds. And once you have found it, continue to focus on
it rather than the dark gray of the center. 

Do not yield to discouragement no matter how severely stressed or surrounded by problems you may be. 

A discouraged soul is in a helpless state, being neither able to stand against the devil’s schemes (Eph. 6:11) himself nor able to prevail in prayer for others.

Flee every symptom of the deadly foe of discouragement as you would run from a snake. 

Never be slow to turn your back on it, unless you desire to eat the dust of bitter defeat.

Search for specific promises of God, saying aloud of each one,
This promise is mine. 

Then if you still experience feelings of doubt and discouragement, pour your heart out to God, asking Him to rebuke the Adversary who is so mercilessly harassing you.

The very instant you wholeheartedly turn away from every
symptom of discouragement and lack of trust, the blessed Holy
Spirit will reawaken your faith and breathe God’s divine strength into your soul.

Initially you may be unaware that this is happening, but as you determine to uncompromisingly shun every attack of even the tendency toward doubt and depression, you will quickly see the powers of darkness being turned back.

Oh, if only our eyes could see the mighty armies of strength and power that are always behind our turning away from the hosts of darkness toward God, there would be no attention given to the efforts of our cunning Foe to distress, depress, or discourage
us!

All the miraculous attributes of the Godhead are marshaled on the side of even the weakest believer who, in the name of Christ and in simple, childlike trust, yields himself to God and turns to Him for help and guidance.

~Selected~

One day in autumn, while on the open prairie, I saw an eagle
mortally wounded by a rifle shot.

With his eyes still gleaming like small circles of light, he slowly turned his head, giving one last searching and longing look toward the sky. 

He had often swept those starry spaces with his wonderful wings.The beautiful sky was the home of his heart. It was the eagle’s domain.

It was there he had displayed his splendid strength a thousand
times. In those lofty heights, he had played with the lightning
and raced the wind. 

And now, far below his home, the eagle lay dying. He faced death because just once he forgot and flew too low.

My soul is that eagle. This is not its home. It must never lose its skyward look. I must keep faith, I must keep hope, I must keep courage, I must keep Christ.

It would be better to crawl immediately from the battlefield than to not be brave.There is no time for my soul to retreat.

Keep your skyward look, my soul; keep your skyward look!
Keep looking up The waves that roar around your feet, Jehovah-Jireh will defeat When looking up.

Keep looking up Though darkness seems to wrap your soul;
The Light of Light will fill your soul When looking up.

Keep looking up When worn, distracted with the fight; Your Captain gives you conquering might When you look up.

Peace Of Mind

Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken (Proverbs 3;25-26).

When God is abroad in judgments, He would not have His people alarmed. He has not come forth to harm but to defend the righteous.

He would have them manifest courage. We who enjoy the presence of God ought to display presence of mind.

Since the LORD Himself may suddenly come, we ought not to be surprised at anything sudden. Serenity under the rush and roar of unexpected evils is a precious gift of divine love.

The LORD would have His chosen display discrimination so that they may see that the desolation of the wicked is not a real calamity to the universe.

Sin alone is evil; the punishment which follows thereupon is as a preserving salt to keep society from putrefying. We should be far more shocked at the sin which deserves hell than at the hell which comes out of sin.

So, too, should the LORD's people exhibit great quietness of spirit.

Satan and his serpent seed are full of all subtlety; but those who walk with God shall not be taken in their deceitful snares.

Go on, believer in Jesus, and let the LORD be thy confidence. 

~Charles Spurgeon~