Being Battle Ready

UV 3575/10000 Being Battle Ready Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4 v 7 Under the old covenant promises, man had to flee from temptation even as Joseph fled naked leaving his robe in the hands of the adulterous wife of the Egyptian official Potiphar. Under the new covenant promises ushered in by the sacrifice of Jesus and His leaving behind the Holy Spirit to strengthen, enable, empower us, the devil has to flee from us. We only need to appropriate more and more grace through the power of the Holy Spirit to defy sin and live an obedient life that reflects both our faith in Christ and our gratitude for our salvation given freely to us. If we are self righteous or taking pride in our righteousness, the Lord may allow us to be tempted to heal our pride. Submission to God needs us to be always humble and yielded to Him. When He sees our humility He gives us grace to overcome the enemy of our souls. The enemy has been defanged or made powerless under the new covenant. He cannot sting us unless God allows him to. We can avoid the sting of shame and defeat if we lean heavily on the Lord and continually submit to the authority of the scriptures. We should not put ourselves on a starvation diet when it comes to the word of God but keep devouring it, applying it, like caterpillars and rabbits constantly devour its food. We should keep the clothes of salvation clean and pure, our bodies and minds undefiled by sinful desires. If we do not wear the belt of truth over our clothes, it would fall off and expose our nakedness to the world. The battle is the Lord’s. The only effort we need to take is to resist or take a stand to oppose the enemy. The Lord provides us the armour so that no part of our lives can be penetrated with the enemy’s weapons. We need to be filled with the assurance of the hope of eternal life, convinced that our lives are purpose-driven or Christ-driven. We should wield the sword of excellence of the Lord -the Word, the shield of defensive faith to extinguish every temptation and never to be discouraged by our trials and troubles. We should be ready to go places for the Lord and to be His messengers wherever He takes us. We are led by God even as Moses and the Israelites were led by God and at best, we are His second-in-command. As His second-in-command, we have authority and power to rebuke the enemy, to send his forces into disarray and claim victory for the Lord. All along we should remember that His banner over us is one of both victory and love.