| Daily Thought — February
22, 2008 |
|
| LIVING THE
SOLUTION WITH DAILY INSPIRATION |
For though
we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world
does the weapons we fight with are not the weapons
of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power
to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and
every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge
of God, and we take captive every thought to make it
obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 — New
International Version)
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when
the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your
ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around
your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in
place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness
that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to
all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you
can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17 — New
International Version)
Over the next few days I am going to
talk about the “warfare” that Paul speaks
of and hopefully dismiss some myths about this war, our
enemy, and empower you to be effective in your life and
in your own battles.
First thing we must understand is we are living in
a world at war, not the kind in Iraq, but a spiritual
war, a war for the hearts and souls of every man, woman
and child on this planet. If we don not understand
this and accept it we will never be able to be who
we were created to be and we will struggle throughout
our lives.
There are a number of myths that I would like to address.
First myth: Demons were active when Christ was on Earth,
but their activity has subsided today. Right here I
know I have lost some of you by using the word demons,
but you need to understand that when Satan rose up
against God, was defeated and cast out, he took with
him one third of the angels. These “fallen” angels
are what the Bible refers to as demons. The Gospels
are full of encounters between Jesus and demons and
of Jesus followers and demons. They are real; they
do exist. This is undisputable.
Now to the first myth about their activity, Paul wrote
these two passages to two different churches way after
Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. Why
would Paul be telling and warning people to equip themselves
for battle if there were not an active enemy to fight?
Why would God preserve these letters and include them
in His word if we did not need to be aware of and understand
how to fight our enemy if there was not an enemy to
fight? In both cases they would not. What we need to
understand is that the enemy does not manifest himself
the way Hollywood portrays him. If he did he would
be easy to recognize and avoid. His activity is much
more subtle. What we have to look for are things that
go against the Word of God and against God’s
truth. We are to watch for the things that take our
attention away from God and focus it on something else.
The enemy and his followers are just as active today
as they were in Jesus’ time, truth #1. But that
does not mean you need to fear for greater is He who
is in you than he who is in the world!
Live intentionally, purposely, free and with passion,
Pete Reinbold
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Scripture taken from the
Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights
reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of
International Bible Society.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks
of International Bible Society. Use of either trademark for the
offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent
of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission
of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189, USA. All
rights reserved. |
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