Hey guys...Joshua here.
Hey guys...Joshua here.
FIGHT IV: GUARDING YOU GREATEST POSSESSION
This week we’ll continue our study on fighting as a Christian by looking at how to guard one of the greatest tools God has ever given man to use in his stay on earth to overcome anything. This is the mind of Christ. This week we’ll begin on a journey to see how the devil tries to rob you of that tool by blinding you to it, corrupting your mind and other devices he would employ. God bless you as you read.
The devil is extremely cunning, I’m telling you this so that you’ll know that you can’t outsmart him with your own wits, but you need divine wisdom. Let’s look at one of the basic ways he tries to stop you from using the mind of Christ. This is through blinding you to the fact that God has a special provision for you to use to dominate on the earth. He does this by using all sorts of difficulties and hardships to blind you to the fact that you’re worth something. For example, a student who keeps on failing an exam over and over again. Such a student is likely to feel that God can’t help him in that course, and for as long as he thinks so, he’ll never realize that the mind of Christ has been made available to him, if only he’ll just activate it. This tactic is usually common in young converts and weak Christians but if you’re suffering from this you need to start putting God’s word in your heart and mouth. You must also realize that there’s nothing too difficult for God to handle. Once you’ve done this, the devil’s arrows will bounce off you harmlessly.
Another way the devil tries to stop people from benefitting from the mind of Christ is by corrupting their minds and taking them far away from the place where they can access all that God has for them through the mind of Christ. For teens, this entails bad friends, unholy parties, and lustful activities and so on. This tactic is used mainly used against people who have already activated the mind of Christ and are fully functioning in them. These activities are targeted at diluting the person’s faith by making you spiritually weak. Like we learnt in one of our previous studies, the extent to which you’ve developed your faith and your spirit man that you have will determine how far you can maximize the mind of Christ in you. So basically the devil tries to get you to a place of such spiritual dullness and insensitivity that you can’t utilize the mind of Christ effectively. Some people even get corrupted to the point that their faith level is so low and sometimes, they even backslide. One thing I feel you need to watch out for is bad friends. This is one of the major ways the devil comes at people to weaken their spiritual lives. The bible specifically says in II Corinthians 6:14, “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.” This doesn’t only apply to marriage or such relationships. It also applies to friendships. It is extremely important that you guard yourself in that area properly. The scripture we just looked at goes on to say in verse 16;
16) And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk with them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
17) Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
As we can see our friendships are extremely important when it comes to keeping our spiritual life safe and strong. As we just saw, we need to separate ourselves from bad friends so that God can dwell in us and allow our “mind of Christ” to function as it should.
You must remember to keep away from bad friends and continue to put God’s word in your heart, mind and mouth in order to keep your faith strong and the mind of Christ in you working as it should. Join us next week. GOD BLESS YOU.
Prayer: Dear father, please help me to keep your word in your mouth and heart, Lord help me to see the wrong friends I have in my life and to disconnect form them. In Jesus’ name amen.
FIGHT III: THE MIND OF CHRIST
This week we’ll continue our study on fighting as a Christian by looking at a very important tool God has made available to us all as Christians which is the “mind of Christ”. Let’s take a look at I Corinthians 2:9-16.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. ( KJV)
From the above scripture, we can see that as Christians, we have received the spirit of God which reveals to us the things that are freely given by God to us. Note that in verse 14, the bible says that “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” This tells us that there are some things God has prepared for those that love him (verse 9) which only those who are spiritually discerning can know about talk less of get them.
Now, the ‘main point’ is God has prepared some special things for those love him, which essentially refers to all Christians but it says that only the spiritually discerned can know these things to their full extent. The devil knows this and would do everything possible to make sure that you don’t get to this place of spiritual discernment and this is why you must fight extra hard to reach the level of spiritual discernment in your spiritual walk.
Before I go further, you should know that spiritual discernment means the ability to understand something that isn’t obvious. How? Well it is not with your physical mind that you carry out the “discernment” we’ve been talking about. It’s with something way, way higher which is “THE MIND OF CHRIST” refer to the scripture we studied at the beginning, verse 16b says, ‘But we have the mind of Christ.’
What do we mean by the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ refers to a renewed and transformed mind which has been spiritually aligned after Jesus’ mind, enabling you to think and behave just like Christ. Can you see the beauty of this? Not only does having the mind of Christ enable us to know to the full extent those things God has in store for us, but it also grants us the ability to understand any aspect of our academics because nothing can ever be too difficult for the mind of Christ. Also when you have the mind of Christ, you succeed in everything you do, you can never be a failure, and you won’t lag behind spiritually.
As one who has the mind of Christ, you are different from everyone else and you must behave as such. As usual, you know the devil won’t take this lying down. He will fight you tooth and nail and you must resist him as hard as you can. He would seek to use all sorts of temptations to lure you from the advantageous position you have by using lust, money frivolous distractions and other worldly things…even your own temper to get you to lose the mind of Christ.
Join us next week, as we look at how to guard the mind of Christ in you and avoid contamination from the world and the devil’s distraction. Confess the following over yourself this week.
· Because I have the mind of Christ, There’s nothing I can’t understand, learn, master or excel in. I excel in all my academics and endeavours in Jesus name.
· Because I have the mind of Christ, whatever I get involved in prospers and the will of God concerning my life is being revealed to me in Jesus name.
GOD BLESS YOU.
FIGHT II
Welcome to yet another edition of insight, a weekly write-up for teenagers and young adults for the purpose of enlightening teens on God’s plan for their lives and also to help them handle various situations they go through every day. At insight we believe that even though kids might be the future, teens are the immediate future, so I strongly believe that teens of whatever age or class should take themselves serious. God bless you as you read.
This week we’ll continue from where we stopped last time. This is, ‘how to fight’. The last point we considered last week was “Using the word of God that you’ve put in your heart”.
(iii) Use your confession strategically.
Last week we learnt that putting God’s promises in your mouth and using it continuously is a way in which we are to fight for our rights as Christians. But that’s not enough…in order to achieve maximum results from your confession; you have to do it strategically. What do I mean by this? I mean you have to take extra time to study the bible and listen in church in order to find the confession that suits your current situation best. Let me give an example; a common mistake a lot of students make is to use “I’m head and not tail, on top only and not beneath” in order for them to understand what they learn in class. Even thought this piece of scripture is extremely valuable, it’s not too applicable to that situation…why? Well it’s because that scripture says you’ll be the head… which is relative i.e. it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have the understanding of all the subjects you do, it only means you’ll be head and not tail…so whatever you need to be head, will be given to you because that’s what you asked for. A more suitable confession will be… “I have more understanding than my teachers” this applies almost directly to the situation. Hence, making this a better choice for that situation. That’s the power of strategy. This confession guarantees you all the understanding you need, and combined with the first confession we discussed will guarantee that you’re always head too. The beauty of this is that when you combine both, you have both understanding and outstanding success guaranteed. This is the power of strategy. Use it wisely. Always remember that God gave you faith, promises, and intellect to be used as thus; Faith to back up the promises you have converted into your confession and intellect to choose the scripture that best applies. And most of all, the Holy spirit to help you coordinate and oversee the whole process. Remember the promises are there in the bible, it takes you to find them and organise them in the best way possible and use them to fight against the devil.
Remember to join us next week as we continue our interesting study. GOD BLESS YOU.
Prayer; Dear father, I ask that you’ll help me to understand why and how I’m to fight against what the devil might try to force on me, using your word and power. In Jesus’ name. Amen.,
FIGHT
Welcome to yet another edition of insight, a weekly write-up for teenagers and young adults for the purpose of enlightening teens on God’s plan for their lives and also to help them handle various situations they go through every day. At insight we believe that even though kids might be the future, teens are the immediate future, so I strongly believe that teens of whatever age or class should take themselves serious. God bless you as you read.
These days most Christians just waltz around as if they aren’t different from anyone else. They portray themselves as people who everyone can take advantage of. A lot of us (Christians) believe that as Christians we are supposed to just take anything life throws at us and accept it. Some people even believe that some negative things that happen to them were from God. Well regardless of your beliefs or opinion concerning such issues, I’m here to tell you that as a child of God, you’re supposed to FIGHT. What do I mean by fight? When should you fight? And how should you fight? All these questions will be answered as we begin this new topic today.
First, I’ll explain what I meant by fight. To fight as a Christian doesn’t mean using your fists to settle things neither does it mean using violence. Fighting as a Christian involves you knowing your rights both as a citizen and more importantly, as a Christian. As a Christian you are special, you are different and the negative rules of life don’t apply to you. Now the devil knows this but he likes to play on people’s ignorance. He knows that as long as you’re ignorant of vital scriptures, he can rob you of your victory, and he can keep you failing your exams, he can keep you sick, he can keep you in sorrow. This is why you must fight. In life the devil will keep imposing these things on you except you stand up and fight because if you don’t the devil is going to keep you bound by failure, poverty, sorrow and a whole list of other negative things.
Let’s move on to when you must fight. You must fight every day. Why, because the devil is relentless in his efforts and will work tirelessly to frustrate you as a Christian and to cheat you out of what God has for you. And you must be ready to fight, fight and fight…as a Christian, the bible says that you are a warrior. A warrior doesn’t fight once, a warrior fights continually and is always ready to fight.
Having considered all these conditions, now we will look at how to fight. There are many ways in which we can fight against all the negative situations the devil will want to bring our way. Those ways include;
(i) Having a strong understanding of the word of God; This is important because, you wont know what to fight and how to fight against it if you don’t know that youre being cheated somewhere. This might not look like a means of fighting but it is extremely crucial in your battle against the various devices of the devil.
(ii) Using the word of God that you’ve put in your heart; It isn’t enough to have an understanding of God’s word but you must put it into active confession by constantly and incessantly saying what God has said concerning your situation. You will get more accurate in your confession because accuracy is extremely necessary for you to get the best results.
Join us next week as we continue this crucial study. God bless you.
Prayer; Dear father, I ask that you’ll help me to understand why and how I’m to fight against what the devil might try to force on me, using your word and power. In Jesus’ name. Amen
