2 Timothy 2:3-4

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Paul admonished Timothy to be a good soldier of Christ. The word “good” in that verse implies “beautiful to look at, shapely, magnificent, good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends, genuine, approved.”

I believe Paul was saying that when you go through hard trials, your outward appearance and inward character should stay the same. You should remain stately like a king or queen and no one should be able to see stress on your face and mood swings in your attitudes. In this life we will have tests, trials and troubles come our way, but we don’t have to allow the troubles to trouble us. We are soldiers and we must endure tough times.

The word endures means “to experience exertion, pain, or hardship without giving up.” God never promised that we would not feel the affects of the storms. However, He did promise that they would not harm us though.

When you are in the military or armed forces, you are trained for combat. Soldiers have uniforms on that represent their country and when they enter enemy territory they become marked men, easily standing out to the enemy. When you are in military service, it is not unusual for your enemy to randomly shoot at you, throw things at you, spit on you and try to harass and defeat you on every hand. When people are in the armed forces they go through a different type of hardship because they are a definite threat to the enemy. They have been trained to destroy the enemy. If anyone can overthrow and demolish the enemy’s camp, it is the armed forces. They are equipped to win. They are trained fighters. They are master strategists at warfare. They are armed and dangerous and the enemy knows it so he does everything he can to impede, slow down, hinder, discourage, detour, weaken, harass, shipwreck, evade, kill, steal and destroy these special forces. However we must endure hardness, we are equipped to win!

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Esther 4: 13-14

Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? 

I absolutely love this scripture because it speaks to the destiny of every man, woman, boy and girl. Are you willing to go the distance for your God given destinyto be fulfilled? God’s plans and purposes in the earth will be fulfilled. The question is will you cooperate and be a part of His plan. If you won’t cooperate then God will find a replacement. Consider your true God given destiny and know that it is the only reason you are here. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate just jump right in and fight the fight of faith until the end! Someones future depends on your decision.

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Psalms 119:165

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. 

There is peace and there is great peace. God has great peace for those who love His law. When we spend uninterrupted time fellowshipping with God in His Word; that word produces great peace. Great peace guards our hearts and minds against offence. Offence is a thief of divine destinies. It leaves a person spiritually shipwrecked and withered. Offence opens the door for the deceptive devices of the enemy to spread like poison in a person’s system (their spirit, soul and body). The Word of God is a cleansing agent, it will keep us from defilement. God wants us to have great peace. Peace belongs to every child of God; the bible tells us that we have a covenant of peace. Peace will bring shelter to you in the time of storm. Peace will cause you to remain calm when in the midst of the raging forces of the enemy’s storm and make him run in defeat.

GREAT PEACE HAVE THEY WHICH LOVE THY LAW…

When I was in High School there were alot of books that I was assigned to read but I did not love them even though I read them. I had to read them otherwise I would have failed the class and potentially not graduated. Just because you read something from cover to cover does not mean you love it. Loving God’s Word is a choice that we make, not God.

It is important that we develop a passion and love for God’s Word. It is our life. We must desire it more than anything else.

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God is expecting much fruit from our lives. He has imparted love into our hearts and love is saturated with life producing soil. Love is the perfect medium for good fruit to grow, thrive and multiply. Love will never produce evil things; hatred, strife, jealousy, insecurity, pride, bitterness etc. Love will never give birth to spiritual death and decay. Love will always produce fruit that will glorify God. Love will never go against the will of God. Love will always side with God no matter the latest popular opinion. Love will always offer up the most holy sacrifices and praise. Love will always honor God.

Love’s fruit is easily ingested without harmful side effects. God can trust the fruit that comes from love because it is a product of Himself. Love produces after it’s own kind. Love will never produce off-spring that looks like the world, flesh or devil.

Jesus said you will know a tree by the fruit it bears. Love leaves no question as to who it’s Father is. The fruit of love is genuine, never phony.

Jesus said God chose us to bear fruit that would remain. God has faith in love, He knows it will never compromise. Love will not settle for less than what God promised. Love will not negotiate with the enemy when the pressures of life come. God knows that what ever is produced from love will remain and it will be faithful to glorify Him forever. God knows Love’s fruit won’t turn sour and putrefy after a few years but will remain luscious and pleasing year after year after year.

LOVE BEARS THE PERFECT FRUIT!!!!

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God is expecting much fruit from our lives. He has imparted love into our hearts and love is saturated with life producing soil. Love is the perfect medium for good fruit to grow, thrive and multiply. Love will never produce evil things; hatred, strife, jealousy, insecurity, pride, bitterness etc. Love will never give birth to spiritual death and decay. Love will always produce fruit that will glorify God. Love will never go against the will of God. Love will always side with God no matter the latest popular opinion. Love will always offer up the most holy sacrifices and praise. Love will always honor God.

Love’s fruit is easily ingested without harmful side effects. God can trust the fruit that comes from love because it is a product of Himself. Love produces after it’s own kind. Love will never produce off-spring that looks like the world, flesh or devil.

Jesus said you will know a tree by the fruit it bears. Love leaves no question as to who it’s Father is. The fruit of love is genuine, never phony.

Jesus said God chose us to bear fruit that would remain. God has faith in love, He knows it will never compromise. Love will not settle for less than what God promised. Love will not negotiate with the enemy when the pressures of life come. God knows that what ever is produced from love will remain and it will be faithful to glorify Him forever. God knows Love’s fruit won’t turn sour and putrefy after a few years but will remain luscious and pleasing year after year after year.

LOVE BEARS THE PERFECT FRUIT!!!!

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There is an enemy of your soul and his name is Satan. He will do whatever it takes to try to shipwreck your life and abort your destiny in God. His plans are to hinder and ultimately stop your progress.

Hinder defined:

• To delay or prevent the development or progress of somebody or something.

Words that help us understand hinder are: hold back, delay, deter, hamper, encumber, obstruct, get in the way, thwart and impede.

God has given you authority over your enemy. Luke 10:19 declares, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”However the enemy will try to do everything to keep you from using that authority over him, so he will try to put road blocks and hindrances in your way.

Remember the devil cannot obstruct your authority just because he wants to; you have to give him permission. We don’t generally give the enemy permission to come in and wreck havoc in our lives knowingly, most often times it is through yielding to his deceptive devices. These satanic strategies and devices are sent to you to cause you to not use authority or to cause your authority to be ineffective.

Hindrances:

1. Lack of Knowledge (specifically in who you are in Christ)

2. Fear

3. Lacking Confidence

4. Unbelief

5. Weights

6. Lacking spiritual discipline

*This is not an all inclusive list, just some of the main strategies the enemy may use to try to thwart your authority.

We must be alert and sober, keeping our spiritual senses keen (finely tuned and able to sense minor differences, distinctions and details). When someone is drunk from the cares of this life or intoxicated with its false glamour and seductive ways they become dull to the deceptive devices of the enemy and are easy prey. If we want to stay loyal to God and see His will done in the earth we must stay alert and tuned in to His Spirit to lead and guide us. We must be faithful to use the authority He has given us to continually maintain our victory and finish our God given course in this life. We will discuss in greater depth each hindrance on this week, so stay tuned we’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, use your authority and keep the enemy under your feet. Go forward and make progress, expand and increase, take new territory in Jesus Name!

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Proverbs 3:5-6 (amp)

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

Have you ever been at a stop light waiting for the light to change and suddenly the car in front of you and beside you begin to move forward. How many times have you taken your foot off the brake and proceeded to drive without even looking to see if the light was green. Sometimes in life we begin moving, doing and busying ourselves just because everything else around us is moving. There are times when the light is still red for your journey or maybe has taken a turn from the majority’s path but you and I must learn to obey the signals for our own course.

On the other hand, we also can get distracted with the trivialities of life and miss our green light and have to sit still until the light turns green again. We must practice being alert to the instructions God gives us and keep our focus in the right direction.

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Proverbs 28:1

The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. 

A wicked person can be described as someone who is hostile towards God. The wicked are those who live habitually in sin. They live a life riddled with guilt and this guilt consciousness is what causes them to flee. Remember in the Garden of Eden when Adam heard God’s voice walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, Adam and Eve fled and hide themselves from God because they had become sin conscious. The wicked flee when no one is even after them because their sin consciousness robs them of peace. Sin separates mankind from God and when we are disconnected from the true source of peace we are paranoid.

Paranoid defined:

• To be distrustful and obsessively anxious about something, or unreasonably suspicious of other people and their thoughts or motives.

This is the total opposite of peace which is calm and trusting. When we have peace with God we are not fearful and anxious, we know and trust that He is always with us and will take good care of us. The wicked flee because they have separated themselves from the protection of the Almighty and they are constantly afraid.

However the righteous are bold as a lion, Hallelujah! Boldness comes from a sense of security. The word bold means to be confident, to be secure, and to trust.

The scriptures declare to us in Proverbs 3: 5-6 (AMP)

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

When you know you are walking in the path that God has ordained for your life you can be bold. God will always confirm what He said with signs following. We can be bold as believers because we know that our God is God. We know that all power is in His hands. We know that He will always be with us and nothing shall by any means harm us. We are confident and secure that God will always keep His word and we can trust Him to be with us and for us in any situation, temptation, test or trial we face. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ and we know that we can be bold to declare God’s word and see it fulfilled in our lives. We know that God will never deny our faith; He will answer and perform His will and good pleasure. We are anxious for nothing but in everything we pray and make our request known to God and we know that He is faithful to do all that is according to His will. We know that God will always back us up when we are standing in faith therefore we can boldly possess, confess and quickly stress the devil and his kingdom. So go ahead and walk in your son-ship and be bold as a lion because you have been made righteous through the blood of the lamb.

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Revelation 2:9-11 (AMP)

I know your affliction and distress and pressing trouble and your poverty–but you are rich! and how you are abused and reviled and slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Fear nothing that you are about to suffer. [Dismiss your dread and your fears!] Behold, the devil is indeed about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and proved and critically appraised, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be loyally faithful unto death [even if you must die for it], and I will give you the crown of life. He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches). He who overcomes (is victorious) shall in no way be injured by the second death.

Listen defined:

• To pay attention to something and take it into account.

Many times we hear God but are we listening with the intent to do. In order to be faithful one must first hear instruction. How can a person be faithful or loyal if they won’t listen? Faithfulness is partner to passion. If a person is not passionate about a cause they are generally not faithful to it. When a husband or wife lose their passion or excitement about each other and their marriage vows, they will soon become unfaithful. When a person is passionate about something it usually is a priority to them. When something is priority you will fight for it. God said you would be willing to die for it. The cause of Christ is a greater priority then our feeling during a time of persecution or suffering.

Faithfulness is a fruit of the spirit therefore it cannot be accomplished in the flesh. The bible says that the flesh profits nothing. A person can never be faithful to anything or anybody apart from God. God enables us by His grace to be faithful unto death. That’s why when people make promises out of their flesh thy soon renege.

I believe being faithful unto death speaks more than just about physical death. I believe it is also speaking of dying to self in order to be faithful to God. We must deny fleshly desires and lust and cleave to God. We must be faithful to God above our feelings and selfish thoughts and ways. Jesus said if any man will come after me let him first deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. When something is important to us we will chose it over other things. Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments. How can we say that we love God or others when we habitually are unfaithful to them? Unfaithfulness is a characteristic of love of self or selfishness.

We must be willing to suffer for godliness rather than deny Christ.There is nothing we could go through or suffer on this earth that would be worth being unfaithful to Him.

God knows our struggles here on the earth and therefore He has given us access to everything we need to win in this life.

2Peter 1:3-4

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

Remember to be faithful to the one who has never been unfaithful to you! God is forever faithful.

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2Corinthians 4:4

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Have you ever tried to shine light in a room that is already brightly lit? The light has little or no effect because light is already there. However, if you shine the smallest ray of light in a dark room you will see immediate results because light is at it’s greatest function in darkness. Light is the opposite or opposing force of darkness. Light is always effective over darkness. Nothing dispels darkness like light.

The Bible tells us that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Jesus said, “Ye are the light of the world,” he was talking about Christians. No matter how great the darkness maybe in a place or situation, light can always overcome it. Light is only effective against darkness when it is turned on. No matter how much light you have, if it is turned off or hidden, darkness will continue to prevail. The scriptures remind us to let our light shine before men, why, because the Light is the only power that can set men free. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world.”The world is hopeless without light because it is dark. If the world had no need of light, why would the body of Christ be here in the Earth. There is no other true light except that which comes from God. The Bible says that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light but this is not true light, it is fake. Fake or artificial light has no effect on darkness. It pretends to bear light fruit but in all actuality the fruit is dead. When you slice open his fruit it is rotten to the core, it looks good on the outside but the inside is corrupt just like it’s source. However, the only way to see the corruptness in Satan’s fake fruit is to have your light on because you can’t see anything in darkness.

Let your light shine bright and continue to represent the Kingdom of God being a true light-bearer! Expose the darkness and set the captives free.

Shine! Shine! Shine!

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