Thy word that I find and did eat it and it became unto me the joy and rejoicing of my life.
Satan cannot change what God has already done; what he can do is attempt to manipulate what God has said. Genesis 3:1.
1. Question what God has said.
2. Distrust God’s plan.
3. Self-Reliance vs. God Reliance
Once Satan can get you to distrust and question what God has said, God’s plan and God’s motive, his next phase is to get you to distrust who God made (you and me), why God made you, and why God won’t perform what He has promised to each one of us.
That’s why after the fall, God begins with a sacrifice, a sacrifice that He has provided. The provision for the sacrifice defied the logic behind it: since we were the ones who had fallen short, it would be logical for us to pay the debt that was owed. But God is not looking for us to live by logic, He’s looking for us to live by faith. Faith does without having to figure out how it’s going to work. Cain may have had initially a good motive: he wanted to demonstrate to God and give God something worth giving, but God knew that it wasn’t enough. Abel may not have understood exactly what God was doing but he trusted God enough to listen and to obey.
And this provides for us the actual daily model that we should follow: begin with the sacrifice of Christ, not what we have done or accomplished but what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. Then begin to thank God for each promise He has fulfilled in our lives so that we can look back and see. And finally present unto God the sacrifice of praise, saying though he slay me, yet I will trust him, as it says in Job. This is the template that we are given in Revelation 12:11 – And they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, not loving their own life unto death.
The three stages of victory are:
The blood of the Lamb – the sacrifice of Jesus
The testimonies that God has given to us and how we are grateful and thankful
And the cross that God gives to each one of us that delivers us daily
When we begin to truly apprehend the power of the sacrifice of Jesus, nothing is impossible. And that is the opportunity system called sonship. John 12:11 says, “As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God.” Our sonship is the gateway to all opportunities. When we know who God is, it becomes the gateway to discovering who we are and who God is making us to become. No limits.
Poison the Wells
What the enemy has done is poison the wells of our culture and our language. There is a strategic initiative called redefinition. The kingdom of darkness is looking to redefine God’s systems of opportunity. The system of salvation. The system of sanctification. The system of submission to God.
We all start at the same place, the need, the lack but also the potential. The story of salvation is that God recognizes the need, provides for the lack, and gives us the testimony that results in the realization of God’s potential in our lives.
What gave David the hope that he could defeat Goliath? Well, the first thing that empowered David to defeat the Goliath in his life was his relationship with the Lord. David had a heart that saw God in the middle. So that when the lion and the bear came, David’s relationship with God resulted in victories. So all of a sudden when David meets Goliath, he doesn’t need a sword, he just needs five smooth stones. David wasn’t religious, he was relational. That’s what God wants with each one of us, and out of our relationship will roll out the victories and the testimonies born of this relationship.
That’s why communion is so powerful: because it’s not a religious act; it’s a relational remembrance of what God has given to each one of us that produces the abundance and the glory of God’s Kingdom. Jesus’ sacrifice isn’t just more than enough, it is everything.
That is what makes the story of Ruth so powerful: she discovered that though her marriage had ended through the death of her husband, her relationship with the God of Naomi didn’t end. It was something that held her that she couldn’t let go. And that is why she stayed with Naomi and she was the one who discovered this kinsman redeemer Who provided for her the testimony of her life through the handfuls of purpose.
