Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Advent 4 War Along the Trail
Advent 4 War Along the Trail
We are still talking about the trail between hearts being the longest trail. It is a spiritual trail filled with obstacles to faith in God. Along that trail guerrilla warfare is the devil’s order of the day. It’s not open warfare but one fought defensively on the perimeter of the heart. The devil sends his spirits of fear, lust, greed, envy, jealousy and anger, to name a few, so that defensive walls are built around the heart. Remember he is the prince of darkness who keeps himself hidden so that people deny his existence or that he is a problem. He thrives on denial of his existence, on ego-survivalism and on the exploitation of human weaknesses. Sin is not only his force, he uses it like a CEO ruling a corporate structure, the kingdom of darkness, with a work force of spirits and demons whose goal is to isolate and alienate human beings from God and one another. The ultimate conflict, the conflict behind all conflicts in the world, is spiritual.
There is a long, distant and dangerous war being waged. It has been going on since Adam and Eve, the war for the hearts of mankind. It is a spiritual war, waged on the trail to the heart. This war is deeper and far more demanding because it is a war fought in spiritual darkness. It transcends and spans generations, centuries and civilizations. It is not a war that can be won by any human individual, power or nation. It is a war waged by the devil for the individual heart. It is a war played out on the trail to the heart. While this is the greatest and largest war in history it does not take place on a visible battlefield where large armies fight. It is a war fought on the edge of the heart.
Just watch the news on TV or read any newspaper and try to explain the world in any other way. The ‘world’ is secular society, a spiritually fallen superstructure with its leadership thinking and acting apart from God. But Jesus tells us “The world is guilty as far as judgment is concerned.” Then He follows with good news, “That is because the devil, the prince of this world, has already been judged (Jn.16:11).” After this He gives everyone living in this chaotic spiritual environment personal assurance when He says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (Jn.16:33).”
God’s plan of recovery has a personal strategy. He uses sinners who believe in Jesus to reach sinners who don’t believe. It takes one to know one. You see, the disciple of Jesus who tries to reach the heart of someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus has two issues. He has obstacles in his heart that are the result of sin just as an unbeliever has issues in his. The believer and the unbeliever both have defensive blocks from their past. Here the believer knows the tension and turns to the Lord in repentance for forgiveness so that healing and removal of the block occurs. As he grows in God’s grace and love his blocks become part of his sharing with others. This is ongoing.
The unbeliever however, doesn’t know what his inner tensions are all about. He only feels it and is ready to close his heart in defense. So the believer always approaches others with an open heart empathizing, ready to share how Jesus made the difference by removing his fear and its defensive walls. The deeper the relationship with Jesus grows the less defensive the heart becomes in any encounter. It’s the erosion of defensiveness, the decreasing need to hide feelings and the increasing awareness of the hearts of others that marks spiritual growth. This is how the war is won. This is how God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
“Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you (2Cor.5:16-20).” Stay tuned………
We are still talking about the trail between hearts being the longest trail. It is a spiritual trail filled with obstacles to faith in God. Along that trail guerrilla warfare is the devil’s order of the day. It’s not open warfare but one fought defensively on the perimeter of the heart. The devil sends his spirits of fear, lust, greed, envy, jealousy and anger, to name a few, so that defensive walls are built around the heart. Remember he is the prince of darkness who keeps himself hidden so that people deny his existence or that he is a problem. He thrives on denial of his existence, on ego-survivalism and on the exploitation of human weaknesses. Sin is not only his force, he uses it like a CEO ruling a corporate structure, the kingdom of darkness, with a work force of spirits and demons whose goal is to isolate and alienate human beings from God and one another. The ultimate conflict, the conflict behind all conflicts in the world, is spiritual.
There is a long, distant and dangerous war being waged. It has been going on since Adam and Eve, the war for the hearts of mankind. It is a spiritual war, waged on the trail to the heart. This war is deeper and far more demanding because it is a war fought in spiritual darkness. It transcends and spans generations, centuries and civilizations. It is not a war that can be won by any human individual, power or nation. It is a war waged by the devil for the individual heart. It is a war played out on the trail to the heart. While this is the greatest and largest war in history it does not take place on a visible battlefield where large armies fight. It is a war fought on the edge of the heart.
Just watch the news on TV or read any newspaper and try to explain the world in any other way. The ‘world’ is secular society, a spiritually fallen superstructure with its leadership thinking and acting apart from God. But Jesus tells us “The world is guilty as far as judgment is concerned.” Then He follows with good news, “That is because the devil, the prince of this world, has already been judged (Jn.16:11).” After this He gives everyone living in this chaotic spiritual environment personal assurance when He says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (Jn.16:33).”
God’s plan of recovery has a personal strategy. He uses sinners who believe in Jesus to reach sinners who don’t believe. It takes one to know one. You see, the disciple of Jesus who tries to reach the heart of someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus has two issues. He has obstacles in his heart that are the result of sin just as an unbeliever has issues in his. The believer and the unbeliever both have defensive blocks from their past. Here the believer knows the tension and turns to the Lord in repentance for forgiveness so that healing and removal of the block occurs. As he grows in God’s grace and love his blocks become part of his sharing with others. This is ongoing.
The unbeliever however, doesn’t know what his inner tensions are all about. He only feels it and is ready to close his heart in defense. So the believer always approaches others with an open heart empathizing, ready to share how Jesus made the difference by removing his fear and its defensive walls. The deeper the relationship with Jesus grows the less defensive the heart becomes in any encounter. It’s the erosion of defensiveness, the decreasing need to hide feelings and the increasing awareness of the hearts of others that marks spiritual growth. This is how the war is won. This is how God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
“Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you (2Cor.5:16-20).” Stay tuned………
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