How would you feel if the Lord tells you that the reason He had allowed you to go through some nasty experiences this year was to teach you lessons on being tenacious in your relationship with Him? Tough one! As the year runs to a close, how would you gauge your level of faith in light of these experiences? Are you waxing stronger or you have become faint? If you had become faint, don’t lose heart! The Lord knew you would come to this point that was why He said in Luke 18:1 - it is very important that we pray and not get discouraged, faint, or give up. In areas where it looked as if the situation got tougher as you prayed, don’t give up; it is only a smokescreen of the enemy to make you feel nothing was happening. Unfortunately, so many at this point feel unworthy because they feel they have failed God. That is not true! Friend, you have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in the sight of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ according to Ephesians 1:3-4. It is not based on what you had done or would do. The Lord Himself knew who you are and what you were capable of and He chose you nonetheless to be holy and blameless. However, to become holy and blameless requires some carefully organized events by the Lord to bring you to the point. The Bible tells us that our walls are ever before Him (the totality of who we are), thus, He trains us to grow into what He purposed for us before the foundation of the world. That was why in Ephesians 6:11, we are told to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the tactics of the devil. Not a onetime event but an everyday affair. God is not raising a people that are cowards that would turn their backs and run from the battle, or an army that is ill-equipped to fight. He is raising an army that is disciplined, trained in every art of spiritual warfare. This year may have been filled with one struggle or the other; but settle it in your heart that He allowed you to go through this in order to strengthen your walk in Him and equally prepare you for what He has in store for you next year. The truth is He is taking you into another level of operation in Him and everything we need to operate in it He has already released to us; that is why the Bible says He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We must search out these blessings and walk in them so as not to get overwhelmed because there is so much land to possess for Him! God bless you.
"When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; Walk [habitually] before Me [with integrity, knowing that you are always in My presence], and be blameless and complete [in obedience to Me]" (Genesis 17:1, AMP). A while back, I overheard a conversation between two young men; both were wondering how a person can be and remain holy in a world that daily encourages you to exhibit and enjoy every self-indulgent pleasure one desires. Of course, they knew the Scripture in Psalm 119:9-11, which describes how a young man can keep his way pure, but they feel it is increasingly becoming difficult to discern the way of the Lord from the world system. To them, many Pastors and children of God have been won over by the kingdom of darkness to subvert the principles of God as written in the Bible. They were not wrong, in light of some of the teaching coming from the pulpits! The above ...
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