KNOW YOUR ENEMY

MEMORY VERSE: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Revelation 21-23

Who is an enemy? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, an enemy is someone who hates another: someone who attacks or tries to harm another. We have an enemy and it is important that we identify that enemy. We need to identify him in case we want to plan an attack against him or defend ourselves. Once we have identified this enemy, identifying other things - his weapon, tactics, strengths, and weaknesses – becomes easy. It is difficult, if not impossible, to defeat an enemy you have not identified. God is not your enemy. The Most High God is for you. He is on your side. Your mother-in-law is not your enemy. Your husband’s brother is not your enemy. That neighbour who complains every time you pray aloud at night is not your enemy. Besides, you should not be disturbing your neighbors with your prayers. Jesus, in other not to disturb His neighbors, would wake up very early in the morning, go to an isolated place and pray. Mark 1:35 says: “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” That manager, at place of work, who refused to grant your annual leave request, is not your enemy. Neither is the traffic warden who gave you a parking ticket for parking wrongly.

Who is this enemy? 1 Peter 5:8 says: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” The devil is your enemy. Ephesians 6:12 says: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Flesh and blood i.e. people are not your enemies. They sometimes act like enemies- but they are not. They are only relatives in darkness who are believing lies and are being influenced by the devil. That fellow is wicked towards you because he has believed the lies of the enemy. Why does the devil hate humankind? Firstly, he hates us because every time he sees us, he sees God. Man is the only creation made in the image of God, even the angels, who he (Satan) used to be, were not made in the image of God. Secondly, he hates us because we stole his job and we are better at it than he was. Satan used to be a worship leader in heaven; after he rebelled against God, he lost his job. So now, when you and i praise God, he gets jealous. Lastly, he hates us so much because God loves us so much. God provided a way for us to be forgiven but He never gave Satan a chance at forgiveness. According to Romans 5:8, God Himself paid our debt for us in the form of Jesus Christ, His son but He did not do that for Satan. All this put together makes him hate man. The main target of the enemy is our faith (1 Peter 5:9). Remember the bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). The enemy attacks our faith with doubts and fear. Because we are involved in a fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12), we must do everything in our power to hold on to faith in God’s word (Hebrews 4:14, 10:23), and not give in to fear and doubt.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: We receive God’s provision by faith so we must believe what God says.

CONFESSION:  I refuse to believe the lies of the enemies, the devil, in Jesus Name. Amen.

twitter@BroOluwatoki

UNDERMINING THE ENEMY

UNDMEMORY VERSE: give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts, Proverbs 31:6. 

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Sam 22, Gal 2, Ezek 29, Ps 15-16 

The wife of Potiphar approached Joseph and told him I want to destroy you (Genesis 39:7-12). Wait a minute… she said ‘lie with me’ not ‘I want to destroy you’. Well Proverbs 2:14 says the mouth of a strange woman (adulterous woman or immoral woman) is a deep pit and he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. Proverbs 22:22 compares anyone going after strange women to an ox taken to the abattoir for slaughter. So anyone inviting you to fornicate with them is politely offering to destroy you. The wife of Potiphar did not hide her intentions, she made it known from the start that my mission is to bring you down and Joseph did not take her serious. 

Joseph undermined her; he thought within himself ‘I carry the grace of God so I can’t fall’. When he least expected, the wife of Potiphar grabbed him and said today is today; although he escaped, he ended up in the king’s prison. Joseph had ample time to put measures in to place but he didn’t. He could have brought the attention of people to the conduct of this woman but he didn’t. He knew the wife of Potiphar was in the house, he could have brought someone along with him but he didn’t. This boy just threw caution into the wind and went inside the house when no one was at home. 

There are several believers today who are undermining the enemy. That brother or sister who always wants to be alone with you in a secluded area is an enemy. Those little white lies are enemies; the moment you are caught you become a liar. Those late night movies tagged ‘adult only’ are enemies, one can become addicted to them. Those so called bottles of beer you call source of iron e.g. Guinness are enemies. I even heard it is called blood tonic and people make punch with it. According to Proverbs 31:6 , only those who want to perish are permitted to drink. Alcohol is far more dangerous than any drug you can think of. The effect of drugs is immediate but alcohol settles in first before causing harm. Whilst sitting and consuming alcohol everything seems fine, you smile and chat as normal. The moment you stand to walk, its effect kicks in. If you are not careful, you may fall and sustain injuries. Statistics have shown that alcohol kills more than drugs and guns.  

PRAYER POINT: Father. Please open my eyes to see the enemies of my soul and give me the wisdom to deal with them.

Bro Samuel – Reaching the world for Jesus

DISCERNING THE VOICE OF DISCOURAGEMENT PT1

MEMORY VERSE: and he spake that saying openly, and Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, Mark 8:32.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 26, 1 Cor 7, Ezek 5, John 6

BIBLE STUDIES: Mark 8:31-33

In Mark 8:31-33, Jesus called His disciples and began to brief them of the plan and purpose of God for His life. He hinted them of the rejection He was going to face while fulfilling the plan and purpose of God. He summarized the challenges and pain ahead of Him. He told them how He needed to be beaten because every stripe was going to cater for every disease known to mankind. He told them how He needed to go through pain because His pains were going to bring us joy. He told them all these were temporary because at the end He was going to get a name that is above every other name (Philippians 2:9-11). After speaking Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him in other words discourage Him from dying on the cross of Calvary. Thank God Jesus rebuked Him and carried on to please His father in heaven.

When the Lord is about to do something great in a life especially moments before the appointed time, the voice of discouragement will come. The voice of discouragement is the voice of the devil. The voice of discouragement can come through our thoughts. When the enemy knows that the Lord is about to reward a brother for his labour of love in the vineyard of God, he will use the voice of discouragement to distract him. When he knows that a particular service is going to mark a turning point in the life of a sister, he will use the voice of discouragement to ensure that the sister does not attend the service. He might tell the sister all these while you have been going to church ,why not rest this Sunday and go the next Sunday.

Friends I want you to know that the voice of discouragement will always come when breakthrough is around the corner. Few days to the submission of my final year project, the system I developed stopped working. I and the project supervisor worked on the system but all to no avail. On my way to work the voice of discouragement came through a thought that I should quit because God was not in the project. If God was in it, the system will not develop fault at the last minute. The voice advised me to inform my project supervisor of my decision to quit and re-submit a new project proposal the next year. Meanwhile my project supervisor was busy with my project trying to get the system to work but I didn’t know. Any way I decided not to give up and try again when I get home. Around ten minutes later my project supervisor called me that the system was now up and running. The enemy knew that breakthrough was close so he put pressure on me to quit. If I had informed my project supervisor of my decision to quit, he would have quit working on the system and that would have been the end but thank God I didn’t.

TO PONDER: You stand a chance of succeeding when you don’t quit.

OVERCOMING THE ENEMY

MEMORY VERSE: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death,Revelations 12:11

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Num 1, Ps 35, Eccl 11, Titus 3

Who is the enemy? The enemy is not that brother or sister at work who does not give you overtime or who is against you. And definitely your enemy is not that fellow you are not in talking terms with. Ephesians 6:12 says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. That fellow that is against you is actually a well wisher. He is only mean to you because he is starved of two things: 1) – your attention and 2) your love. This is why the bible advises that we love them and pray for them, Matthew 5:44. The enemy is the devil. John 10:10 calls him a thief, murderer and a destroyer. Revelations 12:10 calls him the accuser of brethren. John 8:44 calls him the father of lies. He is the tempter and author of all the wars and hunger in the world. He is a very terrible devil. The devil is everything we call him except a fool. He is extremely smart and full of all sorts’ trickery. He is very cunning. He does not like you and he is the only one the Lord permits you to hate with a passion.

I want to also add that the enemy is not a respecter of achievements, political posts, contacts or possession.How can one overcome the enemy? James 4:7 says submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The first thing you need to do is submit yourselves to God. When you submit yourself to God, you become God’s property. The devil knows his boundaries; he never comes near what belongs to God. This is why you must really give your life to Christ and stop pretending. If you refuse to give your life to Christ, you are at the mercy of the devil and he can do all he pleases with you. After you have giving your life to Christ, you can then tell the devil to get lost and he will run with his tail between his legs.

Another way to overcome the devil is through testimony. The devil rob many believers of their breakthrough because they fail to testify. Revelations 12:11 says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Immediately God does something in my life, I share with it at least five people because I don’t want him to rob me of what the Lord has done in my life. When you share your testimony, the Lord perfects your miracles and makes it permanent. Any breakthrough or miracle that has not been testified about can be lost at anytime. After the healing of the mad man of Gadara in Matthew 5:1-20, Jesus told him to go and testify to his family of what the Lord has done for him? Why? So that he would not lose his deliverance.

Action: The Lord has laid on my mind, to create a Facebook page called testimony board. This page is dedicated to testimonies alone. The page is up and running and the link to is below:
https://www.facebook.com/TestimonyBoard

You can share your testimonies freely on there. Please add your first name and the first letter of your second name to your testimony. We would also like to know where you are from. Remember your testimony can build the faith of others. If you are also feeling down, please visit the page and I can assure you that your faith would be fired up.

OVERCOMING THE ENEMY

MEMORY VERSE: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death,Revelations 12:11

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Num 1, Ps 35, Eccl 11, Titus 3

Who is the enemy? The enemy is not that brother or sister at work who does not give you overtime or who is against you. And definitely your enemy is not that fellow you are not in talking terms with. Ephesians 6:12 says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. That fellow that is against you is actually a well wisher. He is only mean to you because he is starved of two things: 1) – your attention and 2) your love. This is why the bible advises that we love them and pray for them, Matthew 5:44. The enemy is the devil. John 10:10 calls him a thief, murderer and a destroyer. Revelations 12:10 calls him the accuser of brethren. John 8:44 calls him the father of lies. He is the tempter and author of all the wars and hunger in the world. He is a very terrible devil. The devil is everything we call him except a fool. He is extremely smart and full of all sorts’ trickery. He is very cunning. He does not like you and he is the only one the Lord permits you to hate with a passion.

I want to also add that the enemy is not a respecter of achievements, political posts, contacts or possession.How can one overcome the enemy? James 4:7 says submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The first thing you need to do is submit yourselves to God. When you submit yourself to God, you become God’s property. The devil knows his boundaries; he never comes near what belongs to God. This is why you must really give your life to Christ and stop pretending. If you refuse to give your life to Christ, you are at the mercy of the devil and he can do all he pleases with you. After you have giving your life to Christ, you can then tell the devil to get lost and he will run with his tail between his legs.

Another way to overcome the devil is through testimony. The devil rob many believers of their breakthrough because they fail to testify. Revelations 12:11 says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Immediately God does something in my life, I share with it at least five people because I don’t want him to rob me of what the Lord has done in my life. When you share your testimony, the Lord perfects your miracles and makes it permanent. Any breakthrough or miracle that has not been testified about can be lost at anytime. After the healing of the mad man of Gadara in Matthew 5:1-20, Jesus told him to go and testify to his family of what the Lord has done for him? Why? So that he would not lose his deliverance.

Action: The Lord has laid on my mind, to create a Facebook page called testimony board. This page is dedicated to testimonies alone. The page is up and running and the link to is below:
https://www.facebook.com/TestimonyBoard

You can share your testimonies freely on there. Please add your first name and the first letter of your second name to your testimony. We would also like to know where you are from. Remember your testimony can build the faith of others. If you are also feeling down, please visit the page and I can assure you that your faith would be fired up.