Never give up the fight! She fought back

 

I read and watch something very disturbing recently. A young 24 year old  lady named Nashali Alma in Florida was working out at her apartment complex gym 🏋🏽‍♀️ and a man knocked to enter. She remembered seeing the man before at the complex gym and so she opened the door to allow him in. Soon after the man attacked her, the man fought her ,tried to pin her to the ground so he could rape her. But she fought back, she first ran away from the man after he had try to touch her, she took her phone out , to call 911 for help. The man ran after her and grabbed hold of her

She fought back ! She believed she could win the struggle, she didn't give up, she fought back. In the video it clearly showed the man was stronger than her, the man was able to pin her to the ground but she fought back, she never gave up and she eventually got the man tired and he released his grip on her and she got up and fled. She escaped a rape from an evil man because she never gave up. She fought for her life, her dignity. And she gave the advice to never give up when facing difficult situations in life. God be praised for getting her out of that situation.

The man in the video looked demon possessed and truth be told he was under some form of demonic possession. While she had opened the gym's door to allow him in, the man had through his sexual lust opened the door of his soul to allow the devil in and the devil took full advantage of him, spiritually assaulted him and led him to do the wicked act he did. The Devil is the biggest rapist, child molester, murderer, thief, abuser etc.. in the world. Many of us close the doors of our home to keep human rapists, murderers, thieves out while we leave the doors of our soul wide open for the devil to enter .

We leave the doors of our souls wide open when we allow evil thoughts, evil desires to enter and remain in our lives. We open the doors of our souls when we watch evil and sinful things, when we listen to things that the Lord forbid. Sinful things in our lives leave the door of our souls open and the devil will take full advantage of us to spiritually rape us, to destroy us. But I am here today to tell you not to allow the devil to spiritually rape you, not to allow the devil to rob you of eternal life, you must fight against him, you must never give up the battle, you must resist the Devil,  wear him out and he will flee from you .

So how do we resist the Devil? In the video the young lady did a few interesting things. She tried to walk away. She took out her phone 📱 to call the police, she fought back and she prevailed, escape and run away. The police found the criminal in less than 24hrs. How does that apply to us ?  When we come face to face with the devil attempting to spiritually rape us by causing us to sin we must try to flee from the sinful situation and we must also take our phone 📱to call upon the spiritual authority of the universe to apprehend the suspect, the Lord God Himself.

An interesting thing we noticed was that the young lady fought back. Many of us think God is going to rescue us from sin, while we remain in sin without resisting it. We allow sin to ravage us and take full advantage of us .Had the young lady not fought back, she would have been raped and the Bible actually teach that if a young lady doesn't scream for help  during a rape, then it will be seen as a consensual act. (Deuteronomy 22:24). Friends we must fight against sin. We must fight against sinful thoughts, sinful urges and never give up. We just resist the Devil and He will flee from us. The more you fight against sin, the more you don't surrender to sinful ways, the stronger you become .

The more you resist the Devil by fighting against him, the weaker his temptations become in your life and soon he will flee from you. How do you resist the Devil when he is much stronger than you ? You gain strength to resist the devil by submitting to God. The young lady mentioned she was a body builder 🏋🏽‍♀️, and she was working out when the assault happened. We must be spiritual body builders 🏋🏽‍♀️ and be working out to gain strength. We gain spiritual strength by submitting all our thoughts, all our desires to the Lord in prayer, then when the enemy comes upon us suddenly," the Spirit of the Lord will raise a standard against Him." 

And the last thing the young lady did was she fled from the attacker. We must flee from sin, we must not play and toy with temptations but flee when the Lord provides us with the way of escape. The lesson we learn today friends is to never give up in the battle against inward sin and outside evil but we must fight.  Fight in prayer, whatever it is your are struggling with, bring it to the Lord in prayer and fight the battles like a good soldier and soon, very soon the Lord will come and arrest Satan 👮🏾‍♂️and well be forever freed from his wickedness. Fight against sinful lusts and never give up 🙏🏾

1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-64671767

The key to happiness

 If you look around you 👀, if you look at our world 🌍, all you will see is misery, gloominess and depression. It doesn't matter where you find yourself, if you look carefully you will see misery beneath the glamour , beneath the smiles, beneath the pretense. You go to a poor country and you see the misery is obvious. In a poor country you can see the people are skinny, they lack food, they lack many basic services and you will hear complaints about the failure of the government and the desire to move to a better pasture, a better country, even to America or western Europe. They think that by going to America and Europe, misery will be over. "They will have plenty of food and money to spare" 

Many people think United States is "heaven on earth" and so many people take great risk to come to America, to come to "paradise." But is America "heaven on earth ?" Is misery absent from America's shores ? No, friends! Misery is as rampant on America's shores as in other nations except! Except in America the misery is less materialistic based but is more mental. In America you won't people saying they want to go to another country to find a better living, but you will hear many people thinking they want to die instead of living.  Depression, mental illnesses are the ways America's miseries are displayed. America is the richest nation on the planet, so food is not an issue for us.

"Increased with goods but naked and miserable!" In America we have plenty to eat 🥗, even our homeless people have more food than working people in many countries. We have things that rich people in other countries consider luxuries. We have TVs, cell phones, cars, jobs, all sorts of materials comforts and yet we are miserable, sometimes more miserable than the poor of other countries because we are not content. The poor of other countries are better than us in many ways because at least they have the hope that one day they may come to America and find a job but we in America are depressed, in despair because we are not happy and know not where to go .

And what is the source of our unhappiness? Pride, envy and jealousy. We are a proud people and so we think that we deserve the best in life. We have a saying the "sky is the limit!" So many of us believe we can reach whatever we aim for in life. And what happens when we fail ? We get depressed. Many of us believe we would be married right now but we are still single. Many of us believe we would have that high paying job right now but you still working part time. Many of us believe we would have that PHD right now but you just got your AA degree. We look at our friends who seem to have what we want and we envy them, we get jealous and our misery increase.

We walk around depressed and cast down because we stay looking at what other people have and ignore God's blessings in our own lives. We become dissatisfied with God, with life, with ourselves. A person who is always looking at what others have and ignore the many blessings God has given them will never content, will always be depressed and miserable. It was in ignoring what he had and looking at what God has that Lucifer became discontent and fell from heaven. He was the highest and most beautiful of the angels and yet he wasn't satisfied, he wanted what God has, He wanted God's glory for himself and was cast out from heaven as a profane thing. Discontent leads to misery

The key to happiness is to be content. To be content with however God made you and wherever God has placed you. God made you light skinned, be content! God made you dark skinned, be content. God made you thick, be content, God made you skinny be content. God made you poor, be content ! God made you rich be content. Wherever God place you in life, be content, because God may have you at this stage, in this season of life for a special task . Remember Moses was once a prince of Egypt 🤴🏾, but God humbled him to a sheperd in order to prepare him to lead His people Israel.

Joseph became a slave ⛓, then a prisoner. But God allowed him to become a slave to teach him valuable lessons, allow him to become a prisoner to teach him even greater lessons in humility, justice etc..All the stages of Joseph's life were needful in his preparation to become the prime minister of Egypt. Joseph did not do anything crazy or wicked to get himself out of his situations but He waited on God for His perfect timing. The key to happiness is to seek the Lord, to wait on Him for His perfect timing and to learn the lessons He want you to learn at your particular stage in life. Those who are not content with where God has them in life will be easy prey for Satan's temptations. Let our prayers be, Lord help me to be content with whatever lot you have given me in life .

Philippians 4:11

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

To know is to trust !

 

Imagine walking with a friend 🚶🏿‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️ in a forest or a wooded area . You guys are having a good time talking about all sorts of things and suddenly your friend pull out a gun or knife 🗡 and push you to the ground 😬! What would you do? What would you think ? This the end isn't it? I have been betrayed ? Or imagine you are having a major crises coming up and you have been asking a friend for help and instead of helping you prepare for the crises he starts fighting you and during the fight he wounded you in the thigh, leaving you crippled 😬. What would you think of such a person?
Can such person be called a friend ?

Or imagine you are having a serious difficulty and you have a friend who is an expert in the area you are struggling in, you call for him to come help you immediately and he delayed. Can you call such a person your friend ? See friends, to know is to trust. In the first story I left out an important clue, I didn't tell you that the friend with the gun or knife 🗡 was an expert hunter. While walking with his friend in the forest he suddenly saw an animal 🦁 creeping up on his friend, he threw his friend on the ground and killed the animal. Had the friend not really known who the person he was walking with in the forest was, panicked would have overcomed him.

But if he knows his friend intimately, then he would recognize despite the hard push that he was in danger and his friend was moving swiftly to rescue him. The second story about the crippled thigh is about Jacob. Jacob had sinned against his brother Esau and Esau was coming for revenge. Jacob prayed to God for deliverance from his brother Esau. He wrestled with the Lord all night and the Lord touched his thigh and crippled him, then Jacob recognized it was the Lord. And why did the Lord crippled him if He loved him? Why would the Lord do such a thing to his servant? Well in the morning when Esau saw Jacob crippled, he was full of compassion for his brother and did not hurt him.

The third story is about Jesus , Mary and Martha. Lazarus their brother was sick, they sent a message to Jesus saying Lord "the one you love is sick." They knew Jesus was able to heal Lazarus, they knew Jesus was the only one who could and they knew Jesus loved them. But did Jesus come right away ? No, He delayed until Lazarus died. What would you say of Jesus ? How do you think Martha and Mary felt at the time ? See friends, this is why it is so important to know God, to know people. Because it is only when you intimately know someone you will understand their motives, the reason why they do things. 

It can be very hard to judge people's actions from a distance. It is certainly hard to judge God's actions from a distance. If you don't have an intimate relationship with God you will not understand His actions. When trials come upon you, it will seems like God has forsaken you, you will start questioning things and Satan will seek to discourage you. Why did God let my mother, my father die ? Why did God allow me to lose my job ? Why did God allow my child to die ? Why does God allow me to be so sick ? Why didn't God help me on my test ? Why does God let people humiliate me, mistreat me ? Why didn't God help me in my time of need etc..?

 When we don't know God intimately we will misjudge His actions, but when we know Him intimately we will know that God is love. When we know that God is love we will trust Him. We will trust Him because we will know that everything God does is for the good of His children. To know is to trust! When you know someone, you understand the motive behind their actions. Many of us have no peace in life because we dont know God intimately and when we don't know God we cannot trust Him. We panicked at the things He allows to come into our lives to save us. Like the guy with the hunter friend, when God push us down to save us from the lion 🦁, we get up quickly and run from God and run  to the lion's mouth instead . Many of us in our trials are tempted to run from the loving, healing care of God and into the mouth of the world, the flesh and the Devil. 

When we don't trust God, we misjudge His means of saving us. Friends, I'm here to tell you it is very important that you spend time with God and learn to know Him. For when you know God you will see His blessings even in the darkest of circumstances. In your sickness you will praise Him, in your financial difficulties you will glorify His name, in the loss of friends and families you will exalt His mercies and when people forsake, betray, misuse you for His righteousness sake, you will count it as a great blessing to suffer for the Lord's cause and like Job you will say " though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. " Job 13:15. To know God is to trust Him! 

Lord help me to trust you!

Proverbs 27:6

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Relationship build trust

 

God is a person! What do I mean by that ? I mean that God is not some cosmic energy out there in space. He is not the "universe," He created the universe. Nowadays people talk about sending "positive vibes," pray to the universe ect.. All these are plots  of the enemy to destroy who God is in our minds. God is a person ! It means that God has feelings. He rejoices over us , He cries, He grieves over our sins. He loves,  He hates . God has feelings and the things we do affects Him. Because God is a person, He is interested in relationships with us. What ? The Eternal God is interested in a relationship  with lowly me ? Yes, God is interested in you

Now that we understand that God is a person and is interested in a relationship with us, how do we develop that relationship? Does being religious mean you have a relationship with God? No. Does going to church mean you have a relationship with God? No. Let me break it down. You may go to church every weekend, you may see the preacher every time on the pulpit but it doesn't mean you have a relationship with the preacher. The pastor may not even know who you are even tho you attend his church every weekend. It requires conversations, fellowship for the pastor to know you and for you to know the pastor and so it is with Jesus, the Sheperd of the sheep.

We were born into this world not knowing God. A baby has no knowledge of God. A child has to learn about God. The Bible says in proverbs 22:6 ," train up the child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it ." It is the parents ' responsibility to teach the child about God, to teach the child how to have a relationship with God. But if the parents themselves have no relationship with God, what can they teach the child ? Next it is up to the church 💒 to teach the child about God, but if the preachers and members don't have relationships with God, what can they teach the child ? For many, religion is simply a coping mechanism, a drug that comforts them.

But praise be to God He has not left us at the mercy of parents and preachers. God reveals Himself to each and every single one of us at some point in our lives. At some point in our lives, through different circumstances we encounter Jesus in the way of life and He tell us come and follow me. It's interesting Jesus always invite us to come and follow Him, not a preacher, not your family,not your church , but Him personally. To follow Jesus is to walk with Him and to walk with Him means to have an intimate relationship with Him. For as you walk with Christ and follow Him in life's journey, both of you will be having conversations. You will talk to Him and He will talk to you

For many, God is only a therapist. Meaning that they only go to God when they have problems, but as soon as their problems are gone they forsake the Lord. While God is the chief therapist, He doesn't just want to be our therapist, He wants to be our Father, our friends. When you go to a therapist, you only talk about your problems, you don't even care about the therapist, relationship with a therapist is mostly one way 🛤. God doesn't want a one way relationship with us, He wants a true loving relationship and a true and loving relationship is always two ways. 

You tell God your problems and He tells you His problems.  

God's problems? What ! God has problems 😮? Yes, Jesus has problems. What are God's problems? When you become God's friend and not just see Him as your therapist, or Santa claus or some old grandpa, He will tell you about His problems, the pain your sins have caused Him, how your your unfaithfulness have bruised His Spirit and how your continuing rebellion and desiring everything else over Him has pierced His side. Yes, God has problems and He tells His problems to His friend. As you tell God your problems in prayer, God will listen to you and tells you His problems in His Word, by His Spirit and through the preaching of the gospel. 

As you follow Jesus, as you daily walk with Him, a true relationship starts to develop. As you talk to Him about your life and He speaks to you about His life, you begin to understand Him and He begins to transform you. As the Lord starts to transform you, you starts to see more of His goodness, His faithfulness, His love etc..and as  you start to see more of His love, faithfulness and goodness,  you start to trust Him more with your deepest and darkest secrets. As you start to trust the Lord more, He in turn starts to trust you with more of His blessings, He starts to empower you more, He starts to reveal Himself even more to you and your light start to shine the brighter .

As your light start shining brighter, you become a greater witness for Jesus to those around you. The more time you spend with the Lord, the more your character starts to reflect His character, the more the lovely Jesus is seen in you. Relationships require time. Trust takes time to build. Don't believe for a second that you can live your life however you want without an intimate relationship with God and in the moment of crises you will suddenly trust in God! No friends, you will not. People trust those who have been with them through thick and thin, those who have proved true to them and it takes time to test and see whether a person is truly trustworthy. 

Those who neglect building relationships with Jesus today will find it more difficult to do so in the time of trouble soon to come upon the world. A person who you have no relationship with is a stranger to you and you to them. For many church goers Jesus is but a stranger. On the last days many church goers  will come to Jesus asking for entry into the heavenly Kingdom, but He will reply ," depart from me you evil doers, I never knew you." Friends, now is the time to develop a relationship with Jesus, now is the time to learn to trust Him.
To delay is perilous, for trust takes time to develop. Seek the Lord while He is near 

Isaiah 55: 6

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Spiritual warfare

 

War! War ! War! This world is a battlefield and there is no peace. Many people are deceived thinking this life is about living good, having fun and make money. But friends, the Bible clearly tells us we are involved in a great battle, a battle between Christ and Satan, good and evil. This battle is the greatest battle in the universe, it is the origin of all other human conflicts. This battle is fierce, relentless and its consequences are eternal. To be on the losing side of this great cosmic conflict is to lose eternal life. This battle is not a physical warfare but a spiritual one and hence our topic today is spiritual warfare. Are you fighting the good fight ?

This world 🌍 is for the most part under the dominion of evil forces. Satan has conquered humanity. When Adam sinned in the garden, he was overcomed by Satan and became Satan's lawful captive. Adam's entire human family became the captive of Satan ⛓. Me and you were "shapen in iniquity and in sin our mothers conceived us." Sin is the lawful property of the Devil and all who are born in sin are his lawful captives. Me and you were Satan's captives and unless we come to Jesus we remain his slaves. The Bible calls Satan the Prince of this world, the ruler of darkness and the god of this age. All who are living lives of sin are under his control.

In order to understand the nature of our warfare, we must understand the nature of our enemy.Satan is a spirit being and by nature is way stronger than all human beings combined. Satan was the highest angel in heaven, covering the throne of God, which means his greatness is beyond our minds. Satan is way way older than us, humanity was created around 6000 years ago, the devil was already in existence way before. Satan has around 6000 years of experience dealing with human beings and he has overcomed billions of us. It means that me and you are no match for the devil, he is way stronger, way smarter and way older than us .

And not only is the Devil stronger, wiser and more experienced than us, he is not alone. The devil was cast out  with 1/3 of the angels of heaven. All these beings are way wiser, way stronger and more wicked than any human being in existence. Me and you are no match for the devil and his angels. The Bible says in Isaiah 14:17 ," the devil doesn't release his prisoners." We are his prisoners, the whole human race! Not only the Devil doesn't release his prisoners, but no human being can of his own strength escape from his power, rule and control.

There is only one way to escape from Satan's power and it is to flee for safety in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord Jesus Christ has conquered Satan at the cross, He paid the price of sin and He alone can set us free from the cruel, tyrannical power of Satan and his angels. But Jesus will not deliver us from Satan's power unless we accept His call to come to Him and to hide our weakness in Him. John 8:34," whoever commit sin is a slave of sin." All of us have sinned and all of us were slaves of Satan ⛓. John 8:36," if the Son set you free, you shall be free indeed." Only Jesus can set us free from the power of Satan. 

"All who neglect prayer and the study of God's Word will be overcomed by Satan."  (Great controversy.) And again, " satan well knows that all whom he can lead to neglect prayer and the searching of the scriptures, will be overcomed by his attacks. Therefore he invents every possible device to engrossing the mind. "  Prayer is the secret of spiritual power. If you neglect the exercise of prayer, or engage in prayer sporadically,  now and then, as seems convenient, you will lose your hold on God . Prayer brings power from God. "Power will come from God to man in answer to the prayer of faith." (Testimonies for the church 4:402).

No prayer , no power ! If you are not praying daily, opening your heart daily to God and asking for the power to overcome sin, you cannot overcome the devil. Satan has control over all who are not praying and seeking the Lord earnestly. Friends, it is a deception to believe just because you are not committing certain sins, you are free from Satan's power. There is only one way out of Satan's power and it is to put all your trust in Christ, to pray without ceasing. We are involved in a spiritual warfare with powerful evil beings, the only way to fight against them is with prayer and the study of God's Word. Seek the Lord daily and fortify yourself in His word.

Lord, strengten me for today 🙏🏾

Ephesian 6:12

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.