Good day, Mdm!
We have spent quite a number of weeks discussing on speaking of tongues, meditating on God's Word and partaking the Holy Communion. These are powerful gifts and truths. I would encourage you to continue to practice these truths as much as you can.
As I was preparing on what to share this week. I came to know about this lady named Irene who was at our office recently to introduce herself after being transferred back from Hong Kong.
Let's take a look at the news where she was involved:
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20140405/18680004
What a devastating moment for her! Though we may not know what exactly went wrong, these images will be haunting her for awhile at least. Imagine your love one decided to end his/her life without even sharing their problem with you. They rather find their own solution (commit suicide) than to find someone for help.
Life is fragile (without Christ). When I heard of this man Jason jumped to his death, I wonder what when through his life. Financial problem, work stress, health problem or relationship issues? Whatever that is, it must have resulted in him tremendous pressure. Even with sports like thai boxing doesn't seem to help him to reduce his stress. Despair, stressed and anger in its full manifestation can propel a person into action (like suicide or murder) which is usually irrational and destructive.
The Bible says " Guard your heart with due diligence, for out of it spring forth issues of life." Here it says "Guard our heart", With the advancement of technology, accessing information has become so much easier. Everyday, we can be flooded with thousands of information. Selecting what goes into our heart can make a different to the way we view and live out our lives. If fact, our Lord Jesus has already given us the answer on how we should guard our hearts. He said " Peace... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
This lead to what I would like to discuss this week... Spiritual Warfare. What exactly is Spiritual Warfare? Does it mean we are fighting the Satan, demon or devil all the time? What is the devil's game plan? When we know our enemy's game plan, we will know how to guard ourselves from those plan.
What exactly is Spiritual Warfare? Let's go to Ephesians 6, the famous chapter when it comes to spiritual warfare.
Ephesians 6:10-13
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[c] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Here, it says that our warfare is not about flesh and blood. The warfare is about the dark "forces" which are operating in the invisible realm. We can't see it, we call it "spirit". Often when we see a person speaks or act in a certain way, we can sense "of what spirit he is of?" Is he of joyful spirit? Is he of peaceful spirit? Or is he of patience? If those are his qualities, definitely he is of God's spirit.
On the other hand, if he starts to complain, being bitter about certain things, or become violent in his act, this is definitely not from God. But, in situation like this, we do not wrestle against this person but the spirit behind this person. What do I mean by that?
Think for a moment, from a devil point of view. The devil is out to destroy human race whether we are believer or not. When people are involved in physical fight, what is the origin of those fights? Do they fight because they want to fight or was it because of a trigger of emotions? And commonly it is through an exchange of argument, isn't it? And when those argument heat up to an extreme, physical attack take place.
How about despair and stressed? It has something to do with our emotions as well, isn't it? The devil knew when he can push our emotions negatively to the extreme, it is a matter of time we react with our physical body negatively.
If we allow our thinking to be infected negatively, we fall into the trap of the devil because this is what he want to achieve. Remember last week, we said that the devil hate us and he want us dead. If he can kill us immediately, he would do so without hesitation. But, he can't. All he can do is to lie and trigger our negative emotions.
That's how sin came to this world! Because Satan lied to Eve about eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And likewise, he will lie to you about eating the bread of holy communion! You will probably hear "Aiyah! What can this eating of bread do to my body? How can a mere bread bring healing to my sickness? If this is true, then why do we have doctors, medication & even hospital?"
If the world can be fallen (with sin entered and result in ageing, sickness, poverty) by merely eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil, by the same token, why not eating bread can also bring life to our mortal bodies? Are you seeing this? We fell by "eating", God want to restore us by "eating".
I said before and I will say it again. I have nothing against doctors nor medication. We are fighting the same enemy. What I am stressing here is we may not have placed the importance of partaking holy communion at the same level as we have to taking the medical prescription regularly. Jesus has paid for ALL our sins and with it our sickness, poverty, depression, ageing, deterioration, etc. The gift of holy communion cannot be underestimated.
So remember, guard your heart for out of it spring forth issues of life. Is your heart hearing God's Word saying "with long life will I (God) satisfy him and show him My salvation?" Or is your heart hearing the lies of the devil " Forget about eating the bread nor pray in tongues, it is not going to work. Why read the Bible, you are going to fall asleep anyway?" What you choose to guard in your heart today will eventually spring forth the fruits of what you allow in your heart. Amen!
With that, I leave you with this passage to meditate:
Jeremiah 17:7–8
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
Grace and peace be with you.
Shalom,
Bro
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