Although trials may cause suffering in our lives, there is a tremendous growth in our faith. God uses these times to refine our faith and draw us to deeper levels with Him. Even through difficult times we can rejoice knowing that God is doing a great thing in our lives. As our faith grows, Jesus will be lifted up and glorified.
How can God be glorified if His people live to escape every trial He allows? There is a physical, spiritual and cultural shaking coming in these last days. All those with a false sense of religion and security will be shaken. Those who call themselves Christians have been called to stand for what is right and true. We must determine in our heart to fight in the trenches of society and snatch people out of the fires of hell. We must fight for every man woman and child. We are not on this journey for a picnic we are here for the Glory of God and the souls of men.
Scripture speaks of several things God has foreordained about our lives. We have been sanctified, which allows us to be obedient to God. All this is accomplished by the sprinkling of Christ’s blood. Not only does this blood cover past sin, but continues to have power today. Through this blood we have an unmovable inheritance with God.
This message is for those who are in despair and are wondering how they will ever get free. The cry of God to you is, “don’t make peace with your sin, and don’t try to break free in your own strength”. Sin is waiting at the door of our hearts ready to usher us through life. But God declares that sin shall not master you but you shall master it. Sin loses its power over us because of Jesus Christ. We are not called in our own strength to get the victory we are called to believe in Jesus. When Jesus cried, “It is finished”, He broke the power of sin. It is not something we have to do. It is something He did for us! Give up your struggle, repent and believe that this is your hour of freedom!
You can resist and run from truth, but you can never escape it. When we have a wrong view of success we will develop a wrong method to achieve it. We are not called to live the Christian life with a wrong focus of what we can get for ourselves. There are no big or small players in the church. We are all moving as one body and we are a small part to a large picture. If we serve God for personal gain and reputation, we will end up pretending to be fully with the program, but in reality we have our own agenda. Pretending to be led of the Holy Spirit and to obey God is a very dangerous thing. God calls us to walk before Him with an honest and humble heart.
Seasons of hardship in our lives often leave us wondering. The children of Israel were familiar with hardships through numerous seasons of exile, but God had a purpose in these exiles. God allows these times to strip away things that have taken His place in our lives. When we understand God's purpose, we will look at our times of exile differently.
The Bible says submit to God and resist the devil. Sometimes we can be an enemy to ourselves. This message speaks about what happens when we embrace the values of a fallen world and have thoughts and plans that do not line up with God. We must resist the temptation to be other than what God has called us to be. The question is, “how do we humble ourselves”? Humility says not my plans, not my strength or wisdom. We finally acknowledge that we cannot live this Christian life on our own. True humility comes when all self effort dies! His life must become our life, His plan becomes our plan. That's when the power of God comes upon us! Humble yourself and He will lift you up.
Fear and dismay is a common condition to all of us from time to time. We must recognize them for what they truly are and know that God has given us a remedy to defeat them so they will not take us down. Fear comes when we are opposed by something of superior strength to our own strength. Dismay comes when we look inside ourselves and come to the conclusion that we are not strong enough to fight the battle. God is faithful and He will not allow us to be tried above what we are able to bear. He will make a way of escape. We need a divine deliverance not human strength or human effort. We are delivered by the power of God! It will always be all of Him and none of us.
Often we live our lives defeated because of a label someone has placed on us or an image of failure that we have placed upon ourselves. In ourselves there is no way to remove this image, but God has spoken an overcoming word to us — chosen. He believes in us and with this knowledge wants us to walk in confidence and power.