THE WIDOW'S MITE : KNOWING YOUR ENEMY-Priscilla Cheng

The Widow’s Mite

Knowing your Enemy-The Devil

 

HIS NAMES:

 

• He is called Beelzebub-the ruler of demons in Matt. 12:24.
• Belial in 2 Corinthians 6:15;
• Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12;
• Satan in Luke 10:18 & 1 Chronicles 21:1;
• Abandon and Apollyon in Revelation 9:11 and
• The Dragon/Serpent in revelation 12:9.

 

What is his character?

 

• He is cunning-Gen. 3:1;
• He is the accuser-Job 1:6-11;
• He is the afflicter-Job 2:7;
• He is the father of lies-John 8:44, 1 Kings 22:22;
• He is the Tempter-Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12-13;
• He is the Deceiver-Rev. 12:9, 2Cor. 11:13-14,Eph. 6:15;
• He is proud-1 Tim 3:16;
• He is fierce and cruel-Luke 8:29, 9:39-42;
• He is Wicked- 1John 2:13;
• He is presumptuous-Isaiah 14:13-14;
• He is Powerful-Eph.2:2,6:12;

 

He is the Prince of This World: WHAT HE DOES:

 

• He perverts scripture to mislead-Matt. 4:6, Psalm 91:1-13;
• He opposes God’s work-Zec. 2:1, 1 Thess. 2:18;
• He hinders the Gospel-Matthew 13:19, 2Corinthians 4:4;
• He works Lying wonders-2 Thess. 2:9;Rev. 16:14;
• He appears as an angel of light-2 Cor. 11:14.
• Occultist, witches , and wizards get their power from him.

 

 

Why we do not need to Fear Him

 

• Even though he is our enemy , and is moving about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour, Jesus had defeated him through His death and resurrection according to Colossians 2:15 and Revelation 12:10-11.
• We have the Word of God to use against his attacks and are also protected by God according to 2 Thessalonians 3:1-13. God has already delivered us from his power according to Colossians 1:13.
• According to John 3:8 and Hebrews 2:4 we already know hid end and he is doomed for the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10, Matthew 25:41).
• We are to resist him and not fear him (James 4:7).
• We are to give him no place (Ephesians 4:27).

Finally we are to overcome him by the blood of Jesus and the word of our testimony (Rev.12:11), as we employ our faith in our God (Ephesians 6:16).

Remain Blessed--Priscilla

GOD'S WAY FORWARD

GOLD FROM THE WORD

 

God’s Way Forward.

 

Recently many unexpected things have happened to various persons and to the Body of Christ that seemed to have thrown several families and churches into a mood of mourning and spirit of depression.

 

It has either been our witnessing helplessly as friends or ourselves lose jobs or watching our finances go down to the place we had never expected. Churches have seen their members in trouble even at a time when they are experiencing financial difficulties and can’t help as they used to.

 

If this mood is allowed to continue unchecked it can drain the life out of the church and her members and leave both vulnerable to the devil’s schemes to further afflict the Body and destroy it. It is at times like this that God gives a rousing call to the church and her leaders.

 

You may be thinking that this perhaps is the first time such a situation has occurred in the church. This is not so. When we look back in History we can see the church several times under depression and mourning. The church in the wilderness on her way to the Promised Land faced this. Another time History calls it the Dark Ages when it was like civilization was moving backward. For the sake of time and space we will limit ourselves to the Church (Israel) in the wilderness.

 

After the death of Moses Israel went into a thirty days of mourning. It was a period of disappointment and discouragement for the people who has seen the rise of the father of their nation and a powerful leadership that had given them independence, the law, and made the wandering nation a terror to the people of the Middle East. Rahab the harlot of Jericho had this to testify to the two spies Joshua sent to spy out Jericho;

 

9 And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.

 

10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.

 

11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.

 

Moses whom God had used to create this impression in the hearts of Israel’s potential adversaries had now passed away. The heart of the nation was full of apprehension. They were now on the banks of the Jordan that separated them from the Promise of the Promised Land.

 

They knew God had used Moses mightily. Yet this military man they now had was not fully known. Joshua himself must have been apprehensive.

 

God could not allow this state of things to continue. So he responded with the words of Joshua 1:1-9;

 

 1 ¶ Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,

 

2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

 

3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.

 

4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

 

5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

 

6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.

 

7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

 

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

 

9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

 

In the first three verses God calls Joshua back to Duty to arise and take up his calling. He is commissioned and told his responsibilities. He is to take possession of the Land that God has given to the children of Israel. He tells Joshua “Moses my servant is dead,” i.e. Moses is now History. God means he should accept the fact that he is now the leader and move on.

 

God wants the church to get out of her pity party and move forward. We cannot like Israel continue to lament over what has happened in our past, in the last few months because we cannot go back in time. Yet we can move forward to a more glorious future that God has over the Jordan of this life.

 

When God wants to do a new thing the old has to die to give way to the new. We must realize that some bad things have to happen so that the new and better things can be embraced. If your 1990 truck stays alive you will lack space for a 2009 more comfortable truck. If you do not lose your old Job you might not be able to see that God has a better and more lucrative one for you.

 

In verses four and five God reminds Joshua of the Largeness of the task and inheritance before him. It will stretch from Lebanon to the Negev in the south, and from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River. God also promises him Victory and His presence throughout the length of his years.

 

The church must realize that the inheritance is as large as the task of possessing it. She must also realize that God’s presence is guaranteed. This makes the task of the years to come easier than of the past years because the Psalmist says in Psalm 16:11;

 

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

 

We are to seek God’s presence more than anything else because that is where sweat-less success is available to us. That is where favor will overtake us and bring to us what “eye has not seen and ear has not hear, nor mind ever conceived.”

 

In verses 6,8, and 9 God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. We may ask why all the emphasis. God understood that Joshua was going to face the savage ungodly tribes of Canaan whose iniquity was already full. This will lead to years of battle and blood and horror. Joshua needed courage and inner strength to stay the course of the campaigns and to govern the nation. It was important that the Commander should be courageous above all to lead the nation to victory. So God encouraged him again and again so that courage will sink into his soul and become part of his being.

 

The church of Jesus Christ is poised to enter into her glorious stage which the Lord had promised. There will be many battles with the enemy who is holding back what belongs to her. She and her leaders must courageously fight the evil forces and not back down so that she can possess her divinely granted possessions.

 

In verses 7 and 8 God gives Joshua the recipe that will guarantee victory together with his strength and courage. He is to do everything according to the law God has given through Moses. He is not to turn from it in any way if he is to prosper. He is to live the word all the time. He is to speak it, meditate on it day and night with the intent of observing it completely. In this way he will be prosperous and have good success.

 

In the church’s present circumstances, God’s instructions hold good. The word of God is to become the blue print for the character of the victorious church. The word is to become part of our daily conversation and our thoughts. We are to meditate on the word so much so that obeying the word becomes part of our Christian character . The Psalmist says in Psalm 119:11;

 

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

 

When the word of God takes first place in every activity a Christian or a church indulges in, or gets involved in. When we shall obey the word without veering from it, then the church will begin to get power to change and influence the world around us. Downplaying the word to the taste of the world around us is what has given us only partial success. Complete obedience and a complete application of the word will give us “good success.”

 

God’s final words to Joshua sounds very like Jesus Christ’s last word to his disciples before he ascended to heaven. God tells Joshua “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

 

Jesus Promised the Church the same in Matthew 28:20.

 

 

 

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

 

 

Whether in the old or new testament we are to take note that God’s presence which makes things easier for us is guaranteed if we take care to give his word complete obedience. Moving forward then into a new life of victory in the promises of God is sure to be our portion.

 

God Bless You--Joshua

 

 

 

 

 

The Widow’s Mite

A TIME OF SEPARATION.

Gold From The Word

A TIME OF SEPARATION.

One of the things which the Lord promises us about seasons in the Book of Ecclesiastes is that there is a time for everything. One of the times he speaks about is a time to gather and a time to scatter in Ecclesiastes 3:1,5,

1 ¶ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:…

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

As believers we make choices everyday. We also probably wonder if God could be making such choices too. I am persuaded that the reason we find these times so daunting is because God is using the economy and its difficulties to separate between the sheep and the goats, the shepherd and the hireling.

God cannot bless an unrighteous church else that will make God an unrighteous God which cannot be. We all know that the church must be without spot, wrinkle, or blemish before she can go up in the rapture. There might be many theories about the rapture but I would want us to understand that God does not promote those whom he has not purified.

The best purifier is the fire. So He will let the church pass through the fire so that only the Gold will come out. God must get out all the stubble from the body of Christ before he can promote her. Just like he did to Israel, all the rebels and grumblers fell in the desert and a purified Israel went into the Promised Land. This is what he says in prophet Ezekiel.

Eze 20:38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Eze 34:17 ¶ And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.

Eze 34:18 Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?

Eze 34:19 And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.

Eze 34:20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.

Eze 34:21 Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;

Eze 34:22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

God is purging selfishness, malice, and all forms of wickedness from the body of Christ before the church can walk into her best days here on earth with Christ as her true shepherd. All manner of sin, complacency, and compromise must be purged so that the church can truly resemble her Lord. Then “the whole Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).” This he will do from nation to nation, from church to church.

Mt 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

Mt 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

For God to truly purge the church He must also purge her leadership. The church has been producing a cacophony of sounds to the extent that men do not know what the true church of Jesus Christ is like. Secular humanism has taken over in certain areas. The shepherds of Ezekiel‘s day were more concerned about themselves than the flock they were called to minister to. This displeased God and he issued this indictment through the prophet;

Isa 56:11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

Eze 34:2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Eze 34:3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

Eze 34:4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

As servants to whom the Lord has entrusted His flock we are not to be discouraged by the Hard Times. We are to be especially careful lest we be consumed by our own needs and forget the needs of the flock. To avoid being like the shepherds of Ezekiel’s time, we should pray for patience because it is much more difficult to take care of other’s needs when you are in need yourself. Paul had these words of encouragement to the leaders of the Ephesian Church at Miletus:

28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

We are not to give up and quit on the flock as the hireling will do. We are to be thankful to God that he has allowed us to be tested so that he can find us worthy of our calling. The Lord Jesus sets the standard in John 10:11-13,

11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

“Those who know their God will be strong and do exploits,” according to prophet Daniel. If you know your God you will know that this is a time of sacrifice. A time for patience, hard work, faith, and endurance. The Word promises that it is those who endure to the end who will be saved.

Shepherds who watch must keep watch over their flocks by night if they are to see the glory of the Lord. It is in the night (this period) that the enemy comes to sow tares among the wheat. This is not a time to sleep. It is a time for true shepherds (pastors, elders, deacons, intercessors, bishops) to keep watch. Out of this present watching lies your promotion and your recompense.

It is a time for the Church to keep lamps trimmed for your Lord will come at an hour when you do not expect. This is the reason why discordant voices must be removed by the present tribulation so that they do not have a place to create confusion when the Lord wants the church to speak with one voice.

As this tribulation progresses we will see the church uniting in voice and message. We will see the gospel taking the place of activities that have hitherto been cherished. The Name of Jesus will take a more central place and secular humanism will walk out of the church door and out of the psyche of nations.

Then the power of God will begin to be more prominent. We will go back to preach not with the wisdom of men, but in the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. After the Church has matured through these trials we will see a glorified church that can face the anti-Christ without fear even of death.

Let each day be a time to examine if we are walking the walk. We must begin to judge ourselves or face the judgment of God our Savior. The church needs to return to holiness and a walk of righteousness to prepare for His Second coming. God is looking our for purified vessels to use. Any vessel that is purified will become a vessel of honor fit for the master’s use.

Get ready people of God for it is not going to be long and we will see the Father’s hand upon his chosen ones. It is a time of separation and the Lord is saying,

2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

We are the church of Jesus Christ and we must not look or feel like the world in any way. We must separate ourselves so that we will be ready to hear the Master say, “Well done!”

God Bless You-Joshua

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