Jesus said, “The thief comes only to kill steal and destroy” I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
I was at a wedding reception years ago with a lot of people all from my wife’s side of the family. So I for the most part didn’t know anybody there. We were sitting at a table conversing with people and I went to get us some drinks. When I returned, there was a man sitting next to my wife in my chair talking to her. As I drew closer I felt jealousy get on me and then anger As I approached. I was already getting the fight on before I knew any of the situation.
When I got there I said, “Who is this?” {staying calm.} She said, Marty, this is my cousin so and so who I haven’t seen in years. He put out his hand and I shook hands with him and said hello. My wife introduced him and we talked for a time. He was nice about everything then he had to get going. It all made sense because this was my wife’s side of the family and she would be seeing relatives she hadn’t seen in years.
So the million dollar question is, why did I feel anger and jealousy and have to restrain myself when in reality everything was fine. I was a Born Again Spirit filled Christian at the time and still am, so what happened? A demonic spirit was waitng in the wings to bring destruction in my life any way he could. It was a spirit of jealousy accompanied with a spirit of anger that were trying to get me to fight and ruin my testimony in front of alot of people. Jesus in me restrained me from the temptation to not take Satans bait. Remember what Jesus said. satan comes only but to kill, steal and destroy. This was an attack on me to destroy anything in my life he could and bring reproach on me and the name of Jesus whom I serve. I have been giving my sinfull nature to God to destroy it and satan waits in the wings for an opportune time to get me to pick it up again. Satan wants us to stay in our flesh and be self reliant and keep God out of our lives because thats where he can beat us and afflict us and not have to worry about a believer walking in their authority over him. He cannot beat a human being who is walking with God in his or her authority. So he is constantly at us trying to get us back in our flesh nature to make us weak so he can make us ineffective.
[2nd CHORINTHIANS 12:9,10] Paul wrote God speaking to him;] And He said to me that My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness; Therefore most gladly I will boast in my infirmities, That the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, In reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak then I am strong.
Paul is saying that the more he sees what he can’t do the more He relies on God in all things. He gets victories everywhere, where He wouldn’t have been able to do them on his own.
I felt these spirits when they came on me. I knew what they were but now I had to resist them and not give in, and as a result, as I resisted these demon feelings, God delivered me and I was at peace as if nothing ever happened. God does not take us out of the fight or the temptations but instead gives us victory over them.
In [JAMES 4: 7,8] Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He shall come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded.
What is the understanding from this true life temptation and experience? [1 When you have the Holy Spirit in you, and you cooperate with Him through resisting temptations, you are always guaranteed the victory. First our part is to resist it, then hand your situation over to God after you have resisted it and let Him burn away the part of your flesh that gives you trouble in these areas. Remember that we are supposed to put our flesh desires to death. We are to become a living sacrifice. God not only gives you a victory in a bad situation but if you will confess your own weakness or sin that you did in it and give it to Him, He will burn away the part of you that gave into confrontation so that you will become stronger and stronger in that area to where it will not even affect you anymore. Forgiveness is a big part of this.
God lets us judge ourselves. [1CHORINTHIANS 11:31,32] For if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged, but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. For the believer when you see something wrong in your life, don’t sit with it and hold on to it but confess it and put it in God’s hands so you can be delivered and set free. sin is bondage like a prisoner turning a mill-stone wheel in circles. your stuck feeding that sin and life sits still. God has plans for you.
If you will forgive somebody who has done you wrong even though you don’t feel like it, you have taken the first step to obeying God. Then you verbally confess it to God and literally hand over your pain and anger to God and ask Him to deal with it and to deal with the person who offended you. Quote the word of God back to God and say Lord [MATTHEW 6:14] If you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. And also, LUKE 6: 37] Judge not and you will not be judged. condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you shall be forgiven.
ROMANS {12: 1,2] I beseech you therefore of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, Holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
This is where the fire comes in. You take your temptation that you are struggling with and with your renewed mind in God’s word you understand that your temptation is not God’s will, but see it is His will for you not to have that sin or habit or stronghold in your life. then through prayer you confess your sin or habit or strong hold to God and offer it up to Him and put it in the fire. God will burn away the stronghold and if you are standing on Him and His word to get delivered, you will come out like gold in that area. Pure gold cannot be burned up but refined. flesh and sin can be burned in the fire and destroyed. A stiff tree branch that is hard when thrown into the fire becomes ashes under your feet.
Fire destroys what is impure and purifies what can be made pure. In the believers case, we have God Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us. They are pure. With God in us, He shows us from inside of us, in our heart, what is impure and has to be burned at the alter of sacrifice. That way God in us increases and we decrease. We become more and more like Him and more and more pure because our flesh along with all its temptations and weaknesses is being gradually put to death. This is where more and more peace comes to us and we rest in God’s arms knowing He has got us. our flesh sin-full nature wants us to be totally, self-reliant. Keep God out of it. What you don’t know is it will steal your peace, your salvation, your moral conscience, selfworth and you will always feel the pressures of the world. You will become your own god and will not be able to enter heaven. You will be like wandering stars never knowing your purpose or about the the book God wrote about you before He made you. He has a plan for your life which is far more than we could ask or think. Remember Jesus said I have come to give them life and that more abundantly. You must cooperate with God then to get that abundant life. God is Holy. He requires us to be holy.
Jesus said Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself. It is impossible to accomplish this when you will not forgive your neighbor. I had to forgive 3 of my family members for years of hate towards me especially when I became a christian . I went through great persecution from them but I purposely kept forgiving them. but they always kept on doing new things to me and I would have to forgive them some more. God said to me one day. forgiveness is essential because you cannot love who you wont forgive and your prayers will not work for them if they are not done in love. He said, how can I give me or any believers secret information about people that are hidden if they hate that person. they would take it and run with the information in gossip or slander.
So I went before the Lord and purposely addressed by name all my family members and handed all my unforgiveness to God in the name of Jesus to all the family members. Then I asked God to replace my confessed sin with Him and cause me to love like He does instead of unforgiveness. I got the victory. God gave me dreams of 3 of my family members all life-threatening to them if I didn’t intervene. in prayer. My repentance opened the door for God to show me things I couldnt know before. I have gotten tons of dreams about people who I had no issue with for different reasons God wanted to show me.
For example, My younger brother who I had forgiven was a whiskey drinker. God gave me a dream one night and I saw my brother dead. Then I had the job of telling my parents about it and I found them at a tavern. This was a sign that it was the drinking that was going to kill him. When I saw him dead there was no evidence of what did it until I saw the tavern. So God had me go and tell my brother the dream. I went to his house one day and he was alone. We sat in the living room and I told him, Hey God gave me a dream about you the other night, do you want to hear it? He said sure. My brother was not a believer at this time yet. I said that God showed me you, dead. Then I had to go the tavern and tell dad and ma that you were gone. My brother said, well I have heard better news than that before. I told him he needed to get off the bottle or his life was going to be shortened. God was not going to kill him but the whiskey was and it is destroying his insides. God wanted my brother to live and fulfill his purpose in life. but my brother has a free will like all of us and had to make his own decision. God was trying to stop him from premature death.
I kept talking to my brother about Jesus and salvation and receiving Christ in his heart. How God saves you when you let Him in your heart, not from the outside where religion stays. One day I visited him and I asked him again about his salvation and he said well I did it! He said that as he was sitting in his easy chair he asked Jesus into his heart. I was a happy camper. I told him that was what God was waiting for. you are in the kingdom. a month later from that moment, I had him on the phone for an hour on Saturday night. we were making plans to go up to my land and talking family and the things we used to do. we were close until I came to Christ and he didn’t want to. but I still loved him. Anyway, as we were talking he told me you will always be my brother, meaning never reject me and I told him you would always be my brother. We both had to go to work the next day so we had to hang up and get some sleep. Our last words were we told each other we loved each other. We are both in our 60,s now and God had saved him and he really changed. I was so happy for him because now he was on the road with the lord to get healing in his life.
The next day I got a call from his son about 9:00 pm that my brother was dead. An artery burst in his chest and he went off of the road on his way home from work. 2 1/2 years earlier I warned him about the drinking from the lord. God did not kill Him!!! God wanted him to live. That’s why the warning came. Thank God he made it into heaven.. I had peace at his funeral. When I stood up to talk to the crowd I told some funny stories about Ray but I said to them that the good news is that Ray asked Jesus Christ into his heart just a month before now. The most important thing a person can do in life. A woman cheered in the back. To my left was a stiff sanitized priest with no emotion conducting the service who doesnt understand salvation but their organized religion. it was so dead and structured. But it got lively when I told them about Rays salvation. People talked to me even afterwards, and wanted to do a bible study.
My point in this is that after i made sure that everyone was forgiven in my family I was available to God so he could show me things about them as I pray for all of their salvation.
FEELINGS, A TOOL OF SATAN FOR BEING DECEIVED.
Just As I gave you the example of the cousin that visited my wife at the wedding reception and the feelings that I felt were a lie that came from demons near by. I had to resist them. If the guy was a man hitting on my wife instead I would of handled it in what ever way it needed to be handled but in the end I would have forgiven the guy because I have been forgiven by God for greater sins and I understand the sin nature of man. I must forgive if I want to be forgiven.
The demonic realm is real and demons are all over the place causing distress to people and afflictions, sickness disease and especially negative thoughts that are not you the demons putting them in you.
WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MIND CAN GO INTO YOUR HEART IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED. WHAT YOU PUT IN IS WHAT YOU WILL GET OUT. If you think negative thoughts about work and people and drivers on the road and movies that are horror movies, negative news. thinking about someone you hate, spreading gossip and slander on the internet etc…..What you put in your mind is what you will be living in the future. Then guilt and fear come because you hide things from God and man that you dont want anybody to see. Is it a wonder then why so many of the population of the earth are in fear and miserable and empty even when they accomplish careers. When evil thoughts get into the heart where it is believed, then the thought from devils has power to carry out the thought physically and cause damage. these demonic entities bring feeling also which make the person think that what they are feeling is right, because it is a feeling. nothing could be further from the truth.
A murderer feels something when he kills. A rapist feels something when he rapes. A thief feels something when he steals. A rebell against law feels something when he rebells against the law. A woman leaving her family to be with another man in adultery feels something. A man sleeping with another mans wife feels something. People in arrogance feel something. People who are narcissists feel something. People who think that they have the right to judge others feel something. The list is endless. All this is the human fallen nature and the flesh and is satanic. Evil spirits are always there in this stuff. What I felt in that wedding reception of jealousy was a real feeling but it was false and I resisted it. but what if I would have believed it? A big fight could have occurred. The feeling was a lie!
Lets look at scripture about feelings. There are good feelings also from a good heart or a good conscience. We feel things but we must measure everything we feel by the word of God and the Spirit of God so we know if were being deceived. Good paths and good feelings from a good heart lead to life backed by the Spirit of God.
Take a look at [LUKE 8:27,33] And when He stepped out on the land there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time and wore no clothes or lived in a house but in tombs. When He saw Jesus he cried out and fell before Him and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with you Jesus Son of the most high God? I beg you not to torment me! For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him and he was kept under guard. Bound with chains and shakles and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him saying, what is your name? And he said legion, Because many demons had entered him. And they begged him that they would not go out to the abyss.
Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain, so they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake and drowned. END SCRIPTURE.
We are talking about feelings that are not of God or good but are believed. This man that Jesus dealt with with the legion of demons did not get this way over night. A Roman legion at the time could have been from 4,200 to 6,000 men. He was taking on more and more. He was so full of demons. He was crazy and could not resist them. This man was not safe to be around. However he got started down this road he was feeling these demons. He had to have been believing in them at one time and feelings were definitely involved. Evil spirits bring feelings. If the victim believes in them and begins to carry out the thoughts that they are giving along with the feeling they come with then you have a person in bondage believing a lie and if they keep going more demons can accompany that person until you could have a psychopath, narcissist, or worse.
LUKE 11: 23,26] He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest; and finding none he says I will return to my house for which I came and when he comes he finds it swept and in order. Then he goes and takes with him 7 other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there, and the state of that man is worse than the first. END SCRIPTURE.
As you can see by this scripture that demons look at the human body as a home. There are some demons worse than others. The man Did not have the strong man Jesus in him to keep the demons out. Today we can let the strong man enter our heart. Jesus, to keep devils out. We try to stop doing some bad things through human effort but without Jesus in you, the devils still have legal access to you. You must remember also that its not just the stopping of doing evil things but the heart has to be cleansed as well and the mind has to be converted to God’s way of thinking.
[PROVERBS 21:2] Every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. {JEREMIAH 17: 9, 10] The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it. I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
The Pharisees who apposed Jesus were called by Jesus hypocrites. why? They were the most knowledgeable people in Israel of the law of Moses. In short, They refused Jesus as Gods savior therefore would not receive Him in their hearts to be converted and made righteous in the sight of God. Their heads were full of the law of Moses which Jesus did not fault them for that, But Jesus was the completion of the covenant. He had to die for us and be resurrected. He had to complete everything written about Him. The Pharisees were then incomplete because they refused Jesus so their hearts to be converted. So the Pharisees were actors portraying righteousness before the people but refusing a converted heart to be right with God. Today we have the same thing in any religion that does not make Jesus Lord by repenting and being converted and receiving Jesus the sent one into their hearts. When people have it in their heads and not in the heart through conversion, are hypocrites. They are not complete. Jesus works from the inside of mankind through your heart.
One of the reasons that this religious hypocrisy wont work is that you are still belonging to satans world because like the house that was swept and cleaned and 7 devils more came in, the religious do not have the strong man Jesus in their hearts to fight back the enemy when he comes. Look what happens as a result. Judas didnt receive Jesus. Money was his god and we know he was a hypocrite. To the Pharisees god was Ceasar. they said it with their own mouths. We have no king but Ceasar. Pharisees wanted the approval of man and the Roman government and to keep their career status and lavish living as teachers of Israel. So look who got together even though their paths were different, Judas and the Pharisees. Satan entered Judises heart when he dipped in the dish with Jesus at the last supper and then left to join the Pharisees to betray Jesus. The devil was already in the Pharisees so here are the two parties who refused the strong man Jesus and the devil was able to enter all their hearts to kill an innocent righteous man. The Romans were already there but they were ignorant.
Acts 19:19, 21] Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that time of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the time of restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of His Holy prophets since the world began.
FOR A SAVED BELIEVER NEGATIVE THOUGHTS CAN COME INTO THE MIND BUT NOT GET INTO THE HEART WHERE GOD DWELLS. But there will be a battle within. The battle believers have often times is the mismatch of the heart and soul and flesh. they are not on the same page. The heart knows through Christ what it is supposed to do. The soul being the will mind and emotions is geared to this world and the physical. The flesh being the part of us that lives in this physical world is not on board with anything that makes it uncomfortable. so the flesh and mind pair up against the heart hearing from God and resist doing anything God asks in the interest of self preservation. We believers make life harder on ourselves when we think like the world and focus on the Worlds matters. we get weakened and lukewarm and can wind up in a dangerous place with God if we let the world overcome us by neglecting our fellowship with God and His word. All of us can always do more of that. A believer must always keep moving forward and listening to their heart to hear what the spirit is saying for the day and the future. repentance of sin is number one as God shows you.
A renewed mind in the word of God makes doing Gods will easier because the mind is now more in sinc with the spirit and the flesh though it doesnt want to’ is outnumbered and must do what its told.
So to end this segment. Satan is a liar and a thief and a manipulator through lies and feelings to send people in the wrong direction and ruin their lives and blame God. God is not doing the evil things to people, satan and his demons are then they put it in the heads of people that God is doing all this.
We humans were not made to take the trouble and stress and evil and danger of this world. We were made to live forever originally and have fellowship with God and subdue and enjoy the earth that God made for us. Without Jesus all your frustrations and pain and hurt and guilt and wrong decisions pile up over a lifetime with nowhere to go but hold it inside or try to medicate it so you do not feel the pain. The world system is Satans by the failure of Adam and Eve. The world does not forgive. satan does not forgive. He is condemned already and so are his demons and fallen angels. So do not expect mercy from this world. This world will run you over with a bus unless you play by its rules. So what do you do with your pain and depression and penned up sorrow and a lifetime of what you might call failure?
Answer? TURN YOUR LIFE OVER TO JESUS TODAY. He will not condemn you nor forsake you. He is looking for humble hearts that have had enough of this world and all its misery. He will deliver you of the pain and hurt and sorrow and make it as though it never happened. It will be a distant memory and your testimony when the deliverance is completed. In this world you earn recognition and the Worlds respect not by your personality but by what you can do for them with your talents other wise you can be worthless to them. Bobby Conner a World Wide minister was invited to a Green Bay Packer dinner and as he was speaking, he asked the players, something like “What is your #1 disappointment or sadness about being a NFL player”. A player spoke up and said. The people dont love us for who we are but for what we can do. This is the Worlds value system.
Come to the kingdom of God’s world where everybody is valuable by being human and made by God. [MATTHEW 11:28,29] Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden light.
A quick reminder to you people who mock God and have no interest in Him. All your daily records of your life are recorded by heaven. What you say and do. Just like the courts that are on the earth when a defendant comes in the prosecutor brings in evidence of why they believe that the defendant should go to jail. They bring up the history. God does not send people to hell, the people by their decisions send themselves to hell. In court, by the time all the evidence is presented and the jury finds them guilty. the defendant will know himself why he is going to jail. God has provided a way for you to start over and have your record erased. It means eternity in heaven or hell. If you have been hurt in the past, it is not God who did it to you. Satans kingdom did, but he stays hidden. It doesn’t even make sense that God would hurt someone knowing that they would blame Him and drive them away from Himself when He is trying to get you saved. False belief can bring feelings that feel like they are right. many are under this delusion. Believe truth in Christ and let your feelings line up with that.
[REVELATION 20: 11,12,13,14] Then I saw the great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.