SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/24/2019 9:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Intro to The Believer’s Warfare”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:10-13
Message of the verses: “10 Finally, be
strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor
of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore,
take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day,
and having done everything, to stand firm.”
We
continue looking at this long introduction to what will eventually be the
“Spiritual Armor” once we finish looking at these three verses. The introduction is very important for us to
look at so that we can understand what we will be looking at when we get to the
Spiritual Armor.
We
stated that we would begin this SD by talking about Jesus’ ministry as it began
in a great battle with Satan that lasted for forty days as seen in three of the
four Gospels. I have talked about my
opinion on fasting which is what Jesus was doing for forty days before Satan
came to tempt and attack Him. I have
fasted a couple of times, once for two weeks and once for 22 days and what I
have learned is in fasting is that my mind was very clear when I fasted, and
also I was pretty weak. Another thing
that I learned is that I was never hungry when I fasted because after three
days you are not hungry and then will not be hungry again until your body tells
you that you are hungry, and if you don’t eat then you will be on a starvation
diet and if you don’t eventually eat you will die. We read that Jesus came to this point as the
Scriptures states that after the forty days He became hungry.
Another thing that I believe is that Jesus drank water which is very
normal when a person fasts as you have to have water. When Moses fasted for forty days he came down
the mountain to find the sin that was going on, and then he went back up the
mountain and continued his fast for another 40 days. I have read of people fasting for 90 days as
they were very big men and had the body fat to burn for that long of a fast,
but it is my belief that the Lord sustained Moses for him to fast 80 days, but
in the case of Jesus I believe that He drank water during those forty days and
so when He was done He became hungry and that is when Satan attacked and
tempted Him. Another time Satan attacked
Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane just before He was going to the cross and
He sweat great drops of blood. John
MacArthur ends his discussion on Jesus by talking about believers and “as
believers grow stronger, so will Satan’s attacks.”
If
a believer has a great heart to grow in the Lord then the attacks will come
harder and harder from Satan. I was
posting a blog on the other blog about how Peter was attacked by Satan and I
believe that he wanted to end his ministry after that but Jesus came to him as
seen in John’s gospel and restored him in order for him to do what Jesus had
prepared for him to do in his ministry to the church and it was Peter who
preached the first message in the church age as seen in Acts chapter two at the
birth of the church. Peter, unlike Judas
was a true believer and eventually after Satan’s attack became very useful to
the Lord.
Paul
led many people to Christ when he first came to Ephesus beginning with some who
had only heard of John the Baptist’s ministry.
He stayed there two years and then the attacks came and he was run out
of town. Paul was working in the place
where Satan reigned and Satan did not like it so the attacks came, but only
when the Lord allowed them to come.
The
greater the spiritual challenge the greater the attacks from Satan will
come. This happened with the men in
Ecuador during the 1950’s as a number of them died for the cause of Christ, but
later on the gospel was taught to those who murdered them and many became
believers.
I
will conclude this SD with a quotation from John MacArthur: “Even God’s holy angels face opposition when
they minister for Him. The angel sent to
Daniel was opposed by a demon for twenty-one days and had to be assisted by the
archangel Michael (Dan. 10:13), and Michael even had a battle with Satan
himself over the body of Moses (Jude 9).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have mentioned in almost every SD this year
about how the Lord is working in my heart about humility and then in our study
of Ephesians, which I was very reluctant to do, the Lord convicted me to
continually be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to be humble, and not only
humble but other things too. I have been
in a battle much of the last few months because of what I have learned.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Be filled with the Spirit of God in order to
accomplish what He wants me to accomplish for Him, of which humility is one of
them I believe.
Quotation from “Love in Action” that
goes along with our verses from yesterday’s quote: “One of the primary motivations for the
ministry of encouragement in the body has to do with its size. Paul mentions the church’s immensity. Twice he refers to the “many” who are in the
body. The body of Christ is made up of
every believer in every place in this world.
Everyone who has ever put their faith in Christ is baptized into the
body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).”
9/24/2019 10:23 AM
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