Faith Fights

Credit: film “One Night with the King”

Leaving Babylon pgs. 65                                                                                            Moses chose to leave Egypt and rejected the riches of Pharaoh’s palace. In doing so, he found his destiny in God and led a nation to freedom! Moses could no longer live with the reality of his people’s slavery and not answer the call of God. God is calling you also. There are needs all around you, unmet, unattended to. Are you one who will lead, who will organize, who will build for God? What is your choice? Will you leave Babylon? Queen Esther chose to risk her position as queen to save her people from mass murder. She was faced with the challenge of truth and then made a decision for God to lay down all of the trappings of Babylon and face the king. Her words of courage to obey God reverberate through history, “If I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16b, nkjv).

AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: There comes a time when all bets are off and all that matters is building for God. There comes a time when you set your face like flint and say like Queen Esther, If a perish, I perish, I’m going to see the king!

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credit: UDAKU Special Blog

credit: KasiLam

Pain that is not addressed can produce a shocking rage in even the gentlest soul. But the good news is that God can handle our rage.                                    Sessions in Pain Pg. 78

Author’s Comments: God can handle our Pain, our Rage, and anything else that inflicts us. He compels us to bring it ALL to Him.

credit: Alvin Daily

He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged ( Isaiah 42:3 NLT

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Leaving Babylon (pgs. 66-67)

Although drug addiction is an obvious captivity, there are many other trappings of Babylon that are not as apparent— trappings draped in the promise of money and power, trappings with the dangling price tag of compromise of the ways of God and relationship with God. That serpent continues to have the same slithering tongue that he had in the garden of Eden, asking humanity the same question he asked Eve, “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1). .

For this reason, the Scriptures in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 command us to “pray without ceasing.” The comment is   often made, “The devil is in the wind.” And he is. The hordes of hell are ever watching and waiting for an opportunity to deceive you and me. Remember what God told Cain: “Sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Gen. 4:7b). God gave you the free will to rule over it.

To him who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant [the privilege] to eat [the fruit] from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God’ (Rev. 2:7 AMP)

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The blood of Christ was the ultimate and complete sacrifice for our sins. The veil or barrier between us and God was ripped in two when Christ died, and now we can walk into His presence; but how we walk must still be addressed. He remains Holy even with the torn veil.

Sessions in Pain pg. 105

AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: As we remember and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord let us not forget the privilege it is to walk into His presence. He tore the veil for us to enter in, but He always remains a Holy King. His holiness will never change, so we must change by submitting to Him as we walk into His Presence. 

“But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your conduct [be set apart from the world by your godly character and moral courage]; ¹⁶ because it is written, “You shall be holy (set apart), for I am holy.” (1Peter 1:15-16 AMP).

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 Leaving Babylon pg. 70

The psalmist understood very well the human condition. He knew that when humanity chose to sin in the garden, all generations that followed would be born in a state of sin. It was our inheritance from Adam. We were conceived and brought forth in a swamp of wickedness. A swamp is contained and stagnant. Its stillness makes it a prime place for the growth of all types of bacterial scum. You can smell the stench of it as you approach its borders. This is where we were born and raised. Our contamination was certain from the first day we took a breath on this fallen planet. We would sin. We have sinned and do sin without conviction, because it is our way in Babylon. We sin although it destroys us. We sinned with no hope of escape, until Jesus Christ.

Jesus our Savior extended His hand to pull us out of the swamp of wickedness and out of our state of stagnation. He came down into the swamp and lived with us, then died here for us to bring us into the River of God. He carved a path with His own blood from the swamp to the River of God. We need only to receive Him, and He will do the rest. He pulled us out and gave us the power to become the sons and daughters of God!

When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and [voluntarily] gave up His spirit  (John 19:30 AMP)

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Pain helps us on life’s journey in many ways. It serves to protect us. Without pain we would not know when something is wrong in the body or in life; it is our internal sensor, alerting us that something needs to be addressed or changed.

Sessions in Pain pg. (Forward xv)

AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: The pain of a heart attack is brought on when a clot closes off the blood flow in a vessel and the surrounding tissues begin to die. In the same manner a “spiritual heart attack” occurs when sin closes off the precious blood of Christ in an area of our lives and that area begins to die. The “sin clot” began quietly and insidiously and grew into a blockage that cut off the redemptive blood that saves our soul. We turned a deaf ear to the counsel and Words of Christ.

Jesus continues calling to you with the remedy for the pain. He can remove the clot. This removal begins by nothing less than true repentance. With true repentance His blood will flow again and His restoration will come.

 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20 NKJV).

Picture Credits: secondscount.org, Chris Heinz Ministry

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I am convinced that the most powerful and effective praise and worship comes during and after episodes of great pain.

Sessions in Pain, pg. 97

There is a place that you can grow to in Christ where you know He is Faithful. The darkness around you does not dissuade you. You praise Him through the tears holding on to nothing but your faith.  This is the place of your greatest praise. This is the place of your greatest power. PRAISE IN THE PAIN!

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Leaving Babylon pg. 140

A big part of Christ’s death was to bear our shame and humiliation. His death could have been quick and painless, but God chose to lay on Him our shame and humiliation through a long and torturous death, to not only save us from eternal damnation, but also deliver us from the fear, shame, and all the other maladies that come with sin. He bore our shame so that we could love Him and each other unencumbered by the humiliations of our past (Isa. 53 and Heb. 12:2).

In Christ, we learn that His love covers the faults in us and our brothers and sisters. We can forgive them, and we can forgive ourselves. We can be free to release our hearts to love again in the security that Christ loves us, always and forever. Our part is to always keep Him as our first love.

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19 ESV).

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