Thursday, August 14, 2014

Rejoice! Again I say Rejoice in The Lord!


Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice          Philippians 4:4 

While preaching this beautiful gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ last weekend I had a learning opportunity. I encountered an attack from the enemy I was unfamiliar with. Now we give no "glory" or "honor" to the work of enemy but we are not ignorant of his tricks or schemes either. 

The Lord gave me a word of knowledge to minister healing to those with chronic pain during my preparation time before the service. So after ministering the Word of God I proceeded to lay hands on the sick and minister His healing power. Suddenly, the enemy bombarded my thoughts with negativity and doubt and taunts of this won't work. Thoughts were screaming no one will receive. 

So I pressed on in faith. I gave no words to those thoughts. I exalted Jesus in the midst of those lies. I realize now after hearing a minister speak this was the enemy attempting to get me over into a place of mistrust. I also saw from the Word a great way to counterattack this attack from the enemy.

Go back to the old testament, even before the Law. Go to the book of Job. Of course Job is a source of great contention amongst believers. How could a loving God allow the devil to destroy someone's life and kill their family members and bring absolute desolation to their possessions? The answer is simple but traditional religion always rejects it. God had nothing to do with Job losing it all. God is good all the time. Always has and always will be. In a nutshell Job was simply the recipient of an all out attack from satan. In truth this level of attack is not possible today for the people of God. Why? Because Jesus has come. He is interceding for us. The enemy is defeated through the victory of Jesus. 

One thing to take note of is at the final chapters of this book God reveals Himself and speaks to Job. He reveals an important truth to Job that he and his other friends had no knowledge of. God pointed out to Job there is an enemy out there. He comes to steal and kill and destroy. 

Having said all this we now have the back drop to the passage I want to bring to your attention.


In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.        Job 41:22
I truly believe the 41st chapter of Job is referencing the adversary, satan. Let me show you why
34 He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride. Job 41:34

The enemy is the king of pride. What is pride? It is human effort, it is man exalting self over trusting in God. Doesn't that sound like a chief character trait of the enemy? Deceiving us to trust in our own effort and not God? 

Take note at verse 22. He rejoices at our sorrow. When we get over into worry or fear or anxiety the enemy is actually rejoicing. So lets not let this already defeated, broken, enemy out rejoice us! When we hear his lies and thoughts of unbelief that we can't receive or whatever lie he states, pause, and rejoice in the Lord. We know Jesus is exalted and the devil is defeated. Rejoicing proves to the enemy we trust God and it also gets our minds to focus back on Jesus and His finished work! So rejoice more and more in His love, grace and goodness extended toward us. 

I pray this post has blessed and encouraged you. Remember to rejoice this week and every week. We have the victory already in Him!

















photo by keerati/courtesy of freedigitalphoto.net

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