Want To Avoid TROUBLE In Your Life?

8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Bound in affliction and irons--
11 Because #1 they rebelled against the words of God, And #2) despised the counsel of the Most High,
12 Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; They fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then  they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. ,
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their chains in pieces. ,
15 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For He has broken the gates of bronze, And cut the bars of iron in two.
17 Fools, because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
Psalm 107:8-17

We will find trouble in our lives IF:
#1) We rebel against the words of God
#2) And despise the counsel of the Most High.

I WILL OBEY ALL OF GOD'S WORD.
I WILL NOT DESPISE HIS COUNSEL.

I John 2:16: tells us: For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.

"The world" does not refer to the physical creation, but to the sphere of evil operating in our world under the dominion of satan.

Fortunately, with the finished work of Jesus, He told us in Luke 10:19, 20: "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."

The only enemy that God has is one called satan, we're told how to earmark he and his work in John 10:10: "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

The writer of James, tells it stright out in James 1:12-17:
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation (endure=to preserve: under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one's faith in Christ); for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

None of us can mess around with sin. Ignoring God's Word and His counsel is serious business, it will put us in a hole that WE cannot handle. By that time, it will take laying down pride and sin that already has a strong hold. Once anyone finds themselves blinded, in darkness, bound in afflictions and irons without humbling ourselves before God will eventually bring the wages of sin.

"They fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke the chains of pieces. Oh that men would give tghanks to the Lortd for aHis goodness, and for His wonderful works to the childeren of men! For He has broken the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron in two." Psalm 107:12-16

We've got to submit our WHOLE lives to the Lord, our desires, our tongue, our committment to Him. I don't want the devil to have a hook in my flesh, so that his seed can be conceived - give birth to sin, and for sin to become fully grown, to bring death, in my life. Do you?

Under our own steam, we're no match for satan or any of his minions, but remember what we're told in Luke 10:19 ? We've been given power over ALL the power of satan, through the finished work of Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross, decended into hell (FOR US), defeated satan on his own turf, and ALL of satans minions witnessed that defeat. They KNOW that their masters defeat is their own defeat. ANY TIME we submit ourselves to God, with HIS WORD, we're MORE than CONQUORERS through Christ. Just like a wrestler goes out into a ring for a fight, wins the match, and comes home to Mama with a check in hand, the winnings for his efforts. Mama is MORE than a conquorer. So are WE!!!

In Colossians 2:15 we're told that Jesus: ...disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

This is what He did while He was in hell, while defeating satan. Hallelujah!!! That's why He could tell us what He did in Luke. That's why we can, with confidence, stand against every tactic of hell used against us.

Matthew 6:19 tells us: "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

We have the authority to bind and loose, which means binding up the devil and his work, and casting him away, not to return or go to another...and loosing ourselves and others from the work of satan.

When our enemy, satan, bring thoughts, and temeptations to us, what we are able to do is make use of God's Word. THIS is what the devil responds to, the BLOOD OF JESUS, the NAME OF JESUS and THE WORD OF GOD.

THE WORD OF GOD: Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

THE NAME OF JESUS: Philippians 2:10 "... that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth

THE BLOOD OF JESUS: Revelation 12:11 "And they overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death."

What WE'VE got to do is Romans 12:1,2
1 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Renew our minds to God's Word. Making it the first line of defence in our lives agains the devil.

James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

If we have the Word of God under our belt, in our hearts and in our minds, when our enemy comes along with a defeating lie, or temptation, we can pull it out and make use of it. Submitting ourselves to God, rebuking the devil and he MUST flee. We need to learn to make use of God's Word, the Blood of Jesus and the Name of Jesus.

If we do not have that advantage working for us, then we will be presented with a trap from the devil, and be taken unawares - and not just "taken" by surprise, but overcome by him, into a dark place that we cannot escape from without God.

We will find trouble in our lives IF:
#1) We rebel against the words of God
#2) And despise the counsel of the Most High

If we do not give God's Word the honorable place, FIRST PLACE, in our hearts and lives and mouths, there will be open season on human.
If our minds are not RENEWED to God's Word, we will not have it ready in our heart to be spoken out against the tactics of hell. We've got good instruction from the Lord. We've got to OBEY His Word, not rebel against ANY of it.

Remember Luke 6:45? "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks"

While renewing our minds to God's Word, after a time, it settles right down into our spirit (heart), and is made ready for use, with our MOUTH. "The word of our testimony," being set in agreement with God's Word, coming out of the abundance of our heart.

THAT is how we defeat the enemy of our lives. That's how Jesus dealt with him.
Remember when Jesus went into the wilderness to pray and fast, preparing himself for ministry? Three times satan challenged Jesus, and His response was: IT IS WRITTEN

Matthew 4:3-10
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
4 But He answered and said, "It is written,, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6 and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' "
7 Jesus said to him, "It is written, again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' "
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
9 And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."
10 Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written,, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' "

Jesus made use of God's Word and defeated the devil with it.
He gave us a good example, don't you think?

I want to avoid trouble in my life. I shall, with the help and grace of God, continue to renew my mind to God's Word and be an overcomer, by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of my testimony...my agreement with God's Word, and the devil MUST FLEE, every single time. I will NOT be overcome/overtaken by any lie of the devil or any symptom he may attmept to place in my path. I AM an overcomer!!!!.....and I WILL receive ALL of God's Counsel in my life, in Jesus' Name.

The Power of Stillness

The Power of Stillness

It was a “still small voice” or the sound of a gentle stillness. Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more eloquent than the one word, Selah (Pause)? Is there anything more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the bursting of the tempest and the strange quiet that seems to fall upon all nature before some preternatural phenomenon or convulsion? Is there anything that can so touch our hearts as the power of stillness?


Sweet Stillness

The sweetest blessing that Christ brings us is the Sabbath rest of the soul, of which the Sabbath of creation was the type. There is, for the heart that will cease from itself, “the peace of God that passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7); a quietness and confidence, which is the source of all strength; a sweet peace, “which nothing can offend,” There is, in the deepest center of the believer’s soul a chamber of peace where God dwells, and where, if we will only enter in and hush every other sound, we can hear His “still voice.”

A score of years ago a friend placed in my hands a little book which became one of the turning points of my life. It was called “True Peace,” and was an old medieval message. It had but one thought, and it was this - that God was waiting in the depths of my being to talk to me if I would only get still enough to hear His voice.


Stillness Challenged

I thought this would be a very easy matter and so I began to get still. But I had no sooner commenced than a pandemonium of voices reached my ears a thousand clamoring notes from without and within, until I could hear were my own questions, some of them my own cares and some were my very own prayers. Others were the suggestions of the tempter and the voices from the world’s turmoil. Never before did there seem so many things to be done, to be said, to be thought. In every direction I was pushed and pulled and greeted with noisy acclamations and unspeakable unrest. It seemed necessary for me to listen to some of them and to answer; but God said, “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)


The God of Stillness

Then came the conflict of thoughts for the morrow, with its duties and cares. But God said: “Be still.” And as I listened, and slowly learned to obey, and shut my ears to every sound, I found after awhile, that when the other voices ceased, or I ceased to hear and heed them, there was a still small voice in the depths of my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness, power, and comfort. As I listened it became to me the voice of prayer, and the voice of wisdom, and the voice of duty, and I did not need to think so hard, but that “still, small voice: of the Holy Spirit in my heart was God’s prayer in my secret soul; was God’s answer to all my questions; was God’s life and strength for soul and body, and became the substance of all knowledge, and all prayer, and all blessing; for it was the living GOD Himself as my life and my all.

We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains, with ten minutes for lunch; but we must have quiet hours, secret places of the Most High, waiting upon the Lord, when we renew our strength, and learn to mount up on wings as eagles, and then come back to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)


The way of Stillness


The best thing about this stillness is that it gives God a chance to work. “He that is entered into His rest hath ceased from his own works, even as God did from His.” When we cease from our works, God works in us; when we cease from our thoughts, God’s thoughts come into us;’ when we get still from our restless activities, “God works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure",(Philippians 2:13) and we have but to work it out.

Beloved! Let us take His stillness; let us dwell in “the secret place of the Most High: let us enter into God and His eternal rest; let us silence the other sounds, and then we can hear “the still, small voice.”

Then there is another kind of stillness: the stillness that lets God work for us, and we hold our peace; the stillness that ceases from controversy, and self-indication, and expedients of wisdom and forethought - and lets God provide and answer the unkind word, and the cruel blow, in His own unfailing, faithful love. How often we lose God’s interposition by taking up our own cause and striking for our own defense.

There is no spectacle in all the Bible so sublime as the silent Savior answering not a word to the men that were maligning Him, and whom He could have laid prostrate at His feet by one look of Divine power, or one word of fiery rebuke. But he let them do their worst and He stood in the power of stillness -- God’s Holy Lamb.

God give to us this silent power, this mighty self-surrender, this conquered spirit, which will make us “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Let our voice and our life speak like “the still mall voice” of Horeb, and as the “sound of a gentle stillness,.” Then after the heat and strife of earth are over, light and sunshine, the evening breeze, the Lamb of Calvary, and the gentle Holy, Heavenly Dove.

By A. B. Simpson

Osterhus Publication House, 4500 W. Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55422
This article is used by permission.

A Prayer For Our Nation

In the anme of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, as priests and kings called by the Word of God, a royal priesthood seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus with all spiritual blessings, we apply the Blood of the everlasting covenant to the spiritual atmosphere that governs the United States of America. And into this nation, by the authority of the Son of Man, Jesus, we release Holy Angels from the innumerable company of the heavenly host, mighty warriors of righteousness, revelation, increase and blessing in the knowledge and the fear of the Lord...to hearken to the voice of the Word of God. Cast down the principalities and powers and the rulers of darkness over America, put to flight the devil's army and minister to the heirs of salvation, establish the dominion of the saints and the power that God gives them to prosper in all things pertaining to life and Godliness. That they may live to fulfill, sustain and perpetuate the blessed promise of the Father, that in the seed of Abraham should all nations of the earth be blessed, which seed is Jesus Christ our Lord, the head of the church. By righteousness of God vested in His people through the Blood of the everlasting covenant, we order the works of the devil in America destroyed, every state, county, city and home in America....to wash away every black lie of the devil, to convict of sin and righteousness and judgment, we release an invincible and glorious revelation of the incarnate, crucified and risen Savior to each and every heart in America. That Jesus Christ our Lord will be blessed, honored and obeyed, praised, worshipped and adored in all the land to the glory of God our Father.

And these signs will follow those who believe. In the Name of the Lord, they will cast out devils, they speak with new languages, they shall tread down the serpents and scorpions and ALL the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, every place they go they will establish the kingdom of God and signs, wonders and miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit confirming the Word of God, and glorifying His blessed Name, in righteousness, peace and rejoicing they will advance the banner of love....broadcast the glorious gospel to everyone, healing all those oppressed by the devil, for the Spirit of the Lord is upon them...for He has anointed His church with the testimony of Jesus Christ and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In Jesus' Name. AMEN~

"The effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous accomplishes much"