The Presence of God

God is present within us, and in our world through the lives of His Saints. His Holy Spirit takes up residence in us and we are His temple. We live, move and have our being in Him (Acts 17:28).

His supernatural power supplies all of our needs through His glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). He abundantly meets our needs in ways we never have imagined.

Our Father rarely uses signs and wonders to accomplish His will. He works through ordinary people and often by ordinary means (John 4:48). His quiet presence is always in our midst (John 14:16; Matthew 28:20).

The fleshly desires, of our Adamic sin nature will decrease, as Christ in us increases (Ephesians 2:1-3). He replaces our carnality with His divine nature (Romans 8:8-9; 2 Peter 1:4).

Christ set us free from the bondage to sin, and He is showering us with His forgiveness, holiness, peace and joy through His Spirit (Romans 6:18, 14:17). Through His forgiveness, we can forgive our self and those who hurt us.

We have the choice now to walk in the Spirit or the flesh (Galatians 5:15-25). We are no longer deceived by the allure of the world, for we recognize it as empty and devastating. 

As we put Christ as our first priority in our life, and eliminate our attachment to the world, we enjoy real devotion at Jesus' feet (Luke 10:41-42). We organize our life and reduce the excesses until we have more time for worship and service.

The faith of Christ brightens our day and His mercy and grace fuel our desire to walk only in His will. We submit to Christ as He does the works of our Father in and through us (John 5:19).

Prayer:

Father God, we please You by our willingness and obedience to Your Word. With Christ in us, we are enough - good enough, strong enough, obedient enough, anointed enough to serve You with our life (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

We serve You with joy in our heart, and we dwell in Your presence with gratitude and praise. We bless Your name, for You are good, and Your everlasting mercy and truth endure throughout ever generation (Psalm 100:2-5).

Thought for the Day:

God shows us the path of life, as well as continual delights at His right hand; and we find complete joy in His presence. 

- Psalm 16:11

Thanking Deb Campbell for the use of her photo.

Part 1 - Is Satan Real?

Satan is not the little man in a red suit with a pointy tail and pitchfork, but he certainly is real. God created him as an angel of mighty power. Yet, this was not enough for him. He led a rebellion of angels against God and he lost (Isaiah 14). He only won the distinction of “ruler” of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), “spirit” of this world (1 Corinthians 2:12), the prince of the “power” of the air (Ephesians 2:2), the “enemy” (Matthew 13:25,28,39) and the “god” of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4), but his end is to be bound up in the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:10). 

Satan inspires humans to seek gratification, ambition, status and the riches of this world to the detriment of our relationship with God and our family. He encourages us to enable others, boast in pride, take what we want, give in to the desires of our flesh, and make life miserable for everyone around us (1 John 2:16). He whispers lies into our mind, and we react to them with accusations, unforgiveness, bitterness, spitefulness and revenge.

Satan keeps us living in fear, so that we abandon our responsibilities, thwart our blessings from God, and escape into the fantasy of addictions. Self-indulgence becomes our motive behind our every action. Self-preservation causes us to build walls around our heart, which makes us run when confronted or easily angered to keep people away. He condemns us until we hide behind masks, because we are afraid of people seeing who we really are. (Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2; 1 Corinthians 7:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:5)

Satan loves to make us blame God for all the ills in the world. He gives us foul names to call Him and encourages us to disrespect Him and diminish Him in the eyes of others. He encourages us to believe His lies as the truth, and to consider the truth of God’s Word as the lies (2 Thessalonians 2:11). He undermines God’s purpose in our lives. He keeps us in turmoil and causes us to fear God. God never tempts us to sin; however, Satan’s favorite pastime is tempting us to indulge in our favorite transgression (James 1:13-14).

The last thing Satan wants us to realize is that although we live in the world, we do not have to live as part of the world (John 17:11,14,16). He encourages us to fit in with the crowd, and to covet our neighbor’s wife and goods (Exodus 20:17). Spiritual warfare is very real and constant, but Satan would rather make you believe it does not exist (Ephesians 6:10-20). He tempted Jesus on the mount three times, but Jesus contradicted every word Satan spoke by using the Word of God (Matthew 4:1-11). We can follow in Jesus footsteps.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You were tempted in every area that Satan tempts us (Hebrews 4:15), with the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Yet, You remained faithful. We too can stand against the wiles of the devil by the dynamite power of the indwelling Trinity within us (Colossians 1:27). I’m glad that Satan does not have Your powers of omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience. He’s impotent at best and his only weapon is deception. Keep us from believing his lies, because You rule and reign forever and ever. Amen.

Thought for the Day:

Every Christian battles with the Adamic nature, sin nature, self-nature, human nature, the "old man" or "old self" (Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9); but God is able to deliver us and will continue to deliver us as we submit to Him. – 2 Corinthians 1:10