They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death. Rev. 12:11 I hear this scripture quoted a lot and it amazes me that almost without exception that the last part of scripture which says “for they did not love their lives in the face of death.” This part is very rarely quoted and yet that phrase is the foundation of power that makes the first two parts work. Many translations read “and they did not love theirs lives unto the death.” The man or women who can say that and mean it understands that this is a war and in this war we are to deny ourselves, and pick up our cross, and follow him. The life of Jesus is the revealed will of the Father John 1:18. We must understand that the devil hates the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God is in us. So when we are being attacked it is not about us it is about the Kingdom of God that resides in us. When we pray from a Kingdom perspective versus a needs perspective, we are praying in faith, for we know that it is for the glory of God that all blessings flow to us anyway. Ezekiel 36. The person who does not love their life to the death is sold out unto God, Smith Wigglesworth said “I would rather die believing God, then live one minute in doubt.” Heidi Baker says “God take away all of my no’s, and turn them into a yes for you.” The three Hebrew boys on the day that the oven was turned up seven times hotter said, “Oh King, we do even have to answer you on this matter, for our God is able, and Our God will deliver us but even if he does not deliver us, we will not bow.” And they loved not, their lives unto the death that is where the power is. The flesh has a voice, and what that voice says is, you really don’t have to deny yourself, at least not in totality. The flesh says “look you have prayed for healing now for a long time and you are still not healed, it must not be God’s will, after all he is sovereign.” The flesh says, “Surely you don’t have to obey God in everything, don’t you know that when you sin he only sees Jesus, and you have given up so many things, surely he will not care that you keep this one area of your life for yourself.” And they did not love their life unto the death….period. The voice of the flesh, will always take you away from the heart of God, every single time. It will distract you, deceive you, it will manipulate you, it will justify you when you sin, with either doctrine or human reasoning, and all of it will sound very palatable in deed. The voice of the flesh is the natural mind that has yet to be renewed, and its desire is to keep you operating in the ways of the flesh so that you continue to do the things you did before you were saved, delivered, rescued, and set free from the bondage of sin. The truth is Christ has set us free, but we must exercise our agreement, and we must build up our faith by praying in the Holy Ghost. Jude. In Romans 7 we have a man trying to live the way he should but he is unable too because of the flesh, the answer to the flesh is Jesus Christ and being led by the Holy Spirit Romans 7:25 and Romans 8:1-10 The question becomes how do we get to a place where we can be free of the voice of the flesh. The answer is we follow Christ and do what he did. We deny ourselves, we pick up our cross and follow him and we stop loving our lives unto the death. We take the word of God and we start reading to become the word of God. We accept that the word of God is true no matter what we see or experience. Now as we do this we must understand that none of this can be done by simply mentally assenting to the word we must believe it with our hearts. And now we are at the fork in the road, none of the above can be done by works or duty no matter how noble the mindset might be. We must spend time with God and his word, and while we are doing that we must expect, God to meet us, and we must expect God to give us revelation that our faith can actualize. We must understand that God’s word is the only standard of measure and that we are growing up into Christ. So when we pray for a loved one and they die, we thank God for the opportunity to pray and believe, and we thank him that we have room to grow, and that it is his desire for us to grow, for we know that if Christ was here and prayed the boat would not sink, the person would not die, the bills would be met. So we have something to look forward to but no matter what we must continue on with God and his word, we must pray for the next sick person, we must continue to pursue God in fellowship not letting our hearts get hardened with unbelief. However none of that can be done completely if we choose to love our life or our flesh. Under the circumstance listed above the flesh will desire to draw back and create doctrine to appease our failures. Failures in the Kingdom of God are stepping stones to success in the Kingdom if we will move out and not quit.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:42:44 +0000