Intentional Faith

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.

The believer is firmly—if reluctantly—engaged in spiritual warfare with Satan and his demons. Although you are no longer under the devil’s mastery, you are not immune to his plots and schemes.

The battle is not one of possession, for you belong to Christ alone, but for control. It is not one of destiny, for your future with Christ in heaven is secure, but for daily victory.

The adversary seeks an opening from which he can build a spiritual stronghold and influence your thoughts and actions for evil. You can give demonic forces unnecessary inroads into your life by participating in questionable activities—watching movies overloaded with sensuality or horror, reading materials laced with raucous references to a carnal lifestyle, listening to music with lyrics promoting lewdness and rebellion.

This is not an attempt to be legalistic. Anything that usurps Christ’s role as Lord in your life, competing for your devotion and time, can be fodder for demonic activity. The important issue is to examine your life, asking God to reveal any area of thought or deed that could give Satan and his powers opportunity for a damaging influence.

Dear heavenly Father, I know I am not immune to the plots and schemes of the enemy. Please reveal any area of thought or deed that could give Satan and his powers opportunity to influence my life.

She has every reason to be bitter.

Though talented, she went unrecognized for years. Prestigious opera circles closed their ranks when she tried to enter. American critics ignored her compelling voice. She was repeatedly rejected for parts for which she easily qualified. It was only after she went to Europe and won the hearts of tough-to-please European audiences that stateside opinion leaders acknowledged her talent.

Not only has her professional life been a battle, her personal life has been marked by challenge. She is the mother of two handicapped children, one of whom is severely retarded. Years ago, in order to escape the pace of New York City, she purchased a home on Martha’s Vineyard.
It burned to the ground two days before she was to
move in.

Professional rejection. Personal setbacks. Perfect soil for the seeds of bitterness. A receptive field for the roots of resentment. But in this case, anger found no home.

Her friends don’t call her bitter; they call her “Bubbles.”

Beverly Sills. Internationally acclaimed opera singer. Retired director of the New York City Opera.

Her phrases are sugared with laughter. Her face is softened with serenity. Upon interviewing her, Mike Wallace stated that “she is one of the most impressive—if not the most impressive—ladies I’ve ever interviewed.”

How can a person handle such professional rejection and personal trauma and still be known as Bubbles? “I choose to be cheerful,” she says. “Years ago I knew I had little or no choice about success, circumstances or even happiness; but I knew I could choose to be cheerful.”

O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?

Jehoshaphat’s prayer was God centered. He didn’t indulge in negativism by dwelling on the details of the difficulty. God wants you to be specific about a problem, but His desire is to move your focus onto His power. Name your concern, and begin with praise for His action and blessing in the past; then express the truth of His omnipotence.

The king was no novice in rulership, and that wasn’t the first kingdom problem. He had learned the value of coming to God in absolute humility, acknowledging his utter dependence. So complete was his trust that he never lapsed into self-reliance.

In other words, he could have quickly thanked God and then spread out the battle maps to make plans with his commanders. In your situation, the temptation to figure it out yourself may be the same, but God wants you to let Him handle the strategy.

What is even more awesome is that while the king prayed, God already had their deliverance under way. By the time the army of Judah arrived on the scene, they beheld a field of corpses. Not one foe was left standing. God not only provided what they needed, but He supplied them with gracious abundance.

Trusting Him to provide the resources for every demand makes you a God-centered person.

O Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. Deliver me from the hand of my enemy.

You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

You are Almighty God; I walk before You and am blameless. I shall be holy to You, for You the Lord are holy, and have separated me from the peoples, that I should be Yours.

I was bought at a price; therefore I glorify You, my God, in my body and in my spirit, which are Yours.

I am complete in You, the head of all principality and power … who gave Yourself for me, that You might redeem me from every lawless deed. I will be diligent to be found by You in peace, without spot and blameless.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, those who walk in Your law, Lord God! I look into the perfect law of liberty and continue in it, and am not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, I will be blessed in what I do. Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

You call me to a holy life.

Empower me, Lord, to obey Your law and glorify You.

Born of woman, I am of few days and full of trouble. I come forth like a flower and fade away; I flee like a shadow and do not continue. The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but if I do Your will, God, I abide forever. As in Adam I die, in Christ I shall be made alive. Death is swallowed up in victory. For if I live, I live to the Lord; and if I die, I die to the Lord. Whether I live or die, I am the Lord’s. To live is Christ, and to die is gain.
I do not cast away my confidence, a great reward. I have need of endurance, so that after I have done Your will, Lord God, I may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and You who are coming will come. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore I cast off the works of darkness, and I put on the armor of light. The end of all things is at hand; therefore I will be serious and watchful in my prayers.
Teach me to live, Lord, mindful that time is short.

Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

Lord Jesus, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom when You suffered once for sins, You the just, for me the unjust, that You might bring me to God. The way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

You, Jesus, are the door. If I enter by You, I will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

I come to the Father only through You, Jesus. Through You I have access by one Spirit to the Father. Therefore, I am no longer a stranger and foreigner, but a fellow citizen with the saints and members of the household of God. I have boldness to enter the Holiest by Your blood, by a new, living way which You consecrated for me, through the veil,… Your flesh. I have peace with God through You, my Lord Jesus, through whom also I have access by faith into Your grace in which I stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

I praise You, Jesus, for through You I have access to the Father!

John 10:7; Matthew 27:51; 1 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 9:8; John 10:9; John 14:6; Ephesians 2:18–19; Hebrews 10:19–20; Romans 5:1–2

In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.

Father, You warn me to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. If I do not stumble in word, I am a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. For by my words I will be justified, and by my words I will be condemned. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.

Your Son, Jesus, suffered for me, leaving me an example, that I should follow His steps: who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to You who judge, righteously. I consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest I become weary and discouraged in my soul.

In my mouth may there be found no deceit, for I am without fault before Your throne.

Lord, only in Your power and by Your grace can I learn to control my tongue.

A new national survey of registered voters conducted by the Barna Group reveals that the issues that will most affect the candidate people support for President in the 2012 election are most likely to be those affecting their personal security and comfort. The matters that are likely to have the least impact on their choice of candidate are moral issues.

The issues most likely to influence which candidate voters embrace in the 2012 presidential election are health care (which 64% said will have “a lot of influence” on the candidate they choose), tax policies (60%), terrorism (50%) and employment policies (50%).

A second level of influential issues included immigration policies (45%), education policy (44%), the wars in the Middle East (43%), and America’s dependence upon foreign oil (38%).

The issues noted as being least likely to influence how voters feel about potential candidates tended to be those with distinct moral underpinnings. Those matters include domestic poverty policies (37%), abortion (27%), environmental policy (26%), and gay marriage (24%).

Faith Impacts Views
The survey data showed that there are also substantial differences in the importance attached to various issues based upon a person’s faith commitments.

One of the critical voting segments in America is born again Christians, who have represented nearly half of the votes cast in the most recent presidential elections. The interests of born again voters are distinct from those of non-born again adults: there were statistically significant differences in interest levels between those two segments regarding eight of the 12 issues in the survey. In each case where there was a gap between those groups, born again adults were more likely to consider the issue in question to have “a lot of influence” on their candidate selection. The largest gaps related to domestic poverty policy (19 points), terrorism (16 points), abortion (15 points), and dependence on foreign oil (15 points). Unexpectedly, there was no difference in the importance attached to the gay marriage issue between these two groups.

Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
Lord, I have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, but I have come to Mount Zion to You, my Holy God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. Jesus, Your Son, is the author and finisher of my faith. I do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with my weaknesses, but He was in all points tempted as I am, yet without sin. Let me therefore come boldly to Your throne of grace, that I may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
You, Lord God, the King of Israel, and my Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, say: “I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God.” You are Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? Who is God, except You, Lord? And who is a rock, except You my God?
Thank You for calling me to know You, Mighty God and Everlasting Father!

If I could start over, I would have my children hide more of God’s Word in their hearts. Scriptures memorized in childhood are potent, time-released capsules that can save and salvage many a situation, and many a life.

When Howard Rutledge’s plane was shot down over Vietnam, he parachuted into a little village and was immediately attacked, stripped naked, and imprisoned. For the next seven years, he endured brutal treatment. His food was little more than a bowl of rotting soup with a glob of pig fat—skin, hair, and all. Rats the size of cats and spiders as big as fists scurried around him. He was frequently cold, alone, and often tortured. He was sometimes shackled in excruciating positions and left for days in his own waste with carnivorous insects boring through his oozing sores. How did he keep his sanity?

It took prison to show me how empty life is without God, and so I had to go back in my memory to those Sunday school days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If I couldn’t have a Bible and hymnbook, I would try to rebuild them in my mind. I tried desperately to recall snatches of Scripture, sermons, gospel choruses from childhood, and hymns we sang in church.
How I struggled to recall those Scriptures and hymns! I had spent my first eighteen years in Sunday school, and I was amazed at how much I could recall; regrettably, I had not seen then the importance of memorizing verses from the Bible. Now, when I needed them, it was too late. I never dreamed that I would spend almost seven years in a prison in North Vietnam or that thinking about one memorized verse could have made the whole day bearable.
One portion of a verse I did remember was, “Thy word have I hid in my heart.” How often I wished I had really worked to hide God’s Word in my heart. …