On weekdays Mike leaves home just before 6 a.m. to start work at 7:00. So our alarm goes off at 4:50 to give us time to pray together for a while before getting out of bed for me to fix breakfast and for him to get dressed. Part of Mike’s morning routine is to post a scripture on our family Whats-app page, which is usually the first post there of the day; but I don’t usually read it until some time later, after doing my early morning chores.

This morning as I fixed breakfast downstairs, the Lord brought a memory and an associated scripture to mind, and I began to meditate on it with a view to writing a piece later, from that meditation. The scripture was 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has taken hold of you except what is common to mankind. But God is faithful—He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle. But with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so you will be able to endure it.” (TLV)

Before sharing the memory that brought this scripture to mind in my kitchen this morning, I’ll tell you what prompted me to share it without further delay. I had dealt with some early morning laundry (in the low-cost, off-peak electricity usage times) and had just settled in the living room to get caught up on the news, when my phone tinkled. It was Deb calling with a cheery message on her way to work, but before I put down the phone I checked our Whats-app page, where Mike’s 5:15 a.m. post was waiting. It was the very same scripture that the Ruach (the Holy Spirit) had earlier mentioned and amplified for me in the kitchen … 1 Corinthians 10:13!  I knew it was time to get busy writing this encouragement to share with you.

The memory the Spirit had brought up earlier was from my university days. I was really a ‘babe in Christ’ then, but had been raised in a religious home on basically Christian principles. One Sunday morning, the message in church had somehow left me with the idea that I could never be tempted in a certain way. The very next day, that Monday, after class, in the company of another Christian and engaged in a cultural activity that was surely God’s answer to my prayer, the very same temptation to which I thought I was immune ‘took hold’ of me!

I was totally shocked … and ashamed of the thoughts that dared to linger in my mind … thoughts of doing what I knew was sinful. Thank God that temptation is just temptation – a test. We do have the ability to respond rightly and to ‘pass the test’.  In a short time I did respond rightly to that temptation and I did pass that test, but the disturbing experience confronted me with the fact that, as 1 Corinthians 10:13a teaches, NO ONE IS IMMUNE TO TEMPTATION. Thankfully, ‘part b’ of the verse teaches us that those in right relationship with God – in the position to benefit from His faithfulness – are assured of His protection even in the arena of temptation.

In this arena He protects us in two ways. First, in His omniscience of what temptations are coming toward us (which He would have allowed for good reasons) God establishes boundaries that limit the tempter in how pressing a test he is permitted to devise. The scripture says, God “will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle.” He knows our frame, our stage of maturation, our strengths, abilities and debilities. He knows, even better than we do, what temptations we can handle.

Secondly, the scripture promises that “with the temptation (God) will also provide a way of escape, so you will be able to endure it.”  If we believe this, and if we truly love God (from whom sin will separate us) then we will be looking for and gladly utilizing the ‘way of escape’ He has provided in each instance of temptation. ‘Escape’ does not necessarily imply running away.

One may escape by wielding ‘the sword of the Spirit’ (which is the word of God – Ephesians 6:17) thus frustrating the tempter into retreat, as Yeshua did in the Matthew 4 and Luke 4 accounts. We are taught how to be ‘strong in the Lord and in the power of His might’ (Ephesians 6:10), how to resist thoughts that war against our knowledge of God, taking thoughts captive and making them obedient to Messiah / Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

However, quite often the ‘escape’ route does involve running … away from the source of the temptation and toward the safety of righteousness!  My way of escape from the temptation in question did involve getting out of that afternoon activity, that environment associated with the temptation.

In 2 Timothy 2:22 we are warned, “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (NKJV)  On the same topic, 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality! Every other sin that a man (a person) commits is outside the body—but the one committing sexual immorality sins against his (or her) own body.”

Finally, going back to the chapter with which I started this meditation (1 Corinthians 10) we read at verse 14: “Therefore, my dearly loved ones, flee from idolatry.” If we keep the first commandment (of the Ten) uppermost in our hearts and minds – loving God above everything and everyone else (including ourselves), then we will succeed in escaping not only idolatry, but all other temptations – whether my fighting good fights of faith or by obediently fleeing when we need to flee.

Temptations and our exercise of resisting them through Messiah who strengthens us, will only make us stronger in the faith, equipping us with more experience, knowledge and wisdom from which to minister. What the devil intended for evil will only succeed in bringing good to those whose lives are on track with God. He has declared this in many scriptures; but that’s anther message for another day.  God bless you as you submit yourself to Him today, resist whatever temptations arise, and experience the thrilling outcome promised in James 4:7. “Submit (yourself) to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

 

We are at the beginning of a new year by the Gregorian calendar, which is used most widely in the world. The year 2018 lies before us, to human eyes an almost blank page despite the predictions and prophecies that some have claimed to stamp on it.  I am not a prophet, but I am a believer in God, seeking to be a doer rather than just a hearer and reader of His words in the Bible. Mark 11:22-25 records some of these instructive words.

• And Yeshua answered, saying to them, “Have faith in God!  Amen, I tell you, if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but trusts that what he says is happening, so shall it be for him. For this reason I say to you, whatever you pray and ask, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your transgressions.” (TLV)

Yeshua prefaced his mountain-moving promise with the prerequisite, “Have faith in God!” Then, in the same breath as giving the promise, He forewarned us against a faith-buster: doubt. (Forewarned is fore-armed.) Finally He sealed the promise with the reminder of another prerequisite, forgiveness toward others who have wronged you. Essentially the same powerful promise is repeated with other prerequisites at Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6 (mustard seed faith), John 15:7 (‘abiding’ in Yeshua), John 14:13, 15:16 and 16:23 (asking in Yeshua’s Name), 1 John 5:14 and Colossians 3:17 (asking only what God’s will approves and doing everything – even our declarations of faith – in Yeshua’s Name).

Another instructive word that I want to act on today is found at Job 22:28, but for context I will quote verses 23-30 (TLV with NKJV and KJV inserts at verse 28). The passage begins with the all-important “If”, presenting what follows as conditional.

• If you return to Shaddai, you will be restored; if you remove iniquity far from your tent and throw your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir to the rocks in the wadis, then Shaddai will be your gold and your precious silver.  Surely then Shaddai will be your delight and you will lift up your face to God. You will pray to Him and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. 28. What you decide will be done (NKJV- “you will also declare [KJV-‘decree’] a thing, and it will be established for you”) and light will shine on your ways. When people are brought low, and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then He will save the downcast. He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered by the cleanness of your hands.

Due to the disagreement between translations, I refrain from quoting Isaiah 45:11, the King James Version of which some believers cite as God’s invitation for us to ‘command’ Him to do things for us. Instead, I am putting my trust in His words cited above and following those guidelines to confidently make the following declarations of faith for 2018.  The contents of these declarations are definitely according to His will. Secondly, I have met the prerequisites above by the grace of God and the enabling of His Spirit. Thirdly, I am legitimately acting in the Name of Yeshua.

On the basis of all that, I declare in Yeshua’s Name that in 2018 we in the Body of Messiah will experience the following. We will experience a refocusing of our attention on God, on His word and on worshiping Him in the beauty of holiness. We will see pastors and preachers returning to scripture-based teaching. We will see luke-warmness being kicked out into the cold. We will see worship leaders deliberately redirecting the limelight to Him who is the only One worthy of adoration and the only One to Whom adulation is due. We will see the awe of God coming back into evidence – the Body once more adorning itself with holiness, and the world awakening to a fear of the LORD. We will see Godly boldness increase in the public arena, and Godly leaders will lead in this. We will see more of the LORD’s hand openly protecting and rescuing His people – so openly that the worldly media will not succeed in quashing that news. We will see the Holy Spirit welcomed back into the life of congregations where He has been held at arm’s length, and we will see Him stir up the gifts and bring forth the fruit with which He desires to bless us and make us a blessing. We will once more begin to see in our midst the signs, wonders and life-changing miracles that set Almighty God apart from every other ‘power’! We will see more backslidden believers returning to the LORD’s congregations and more carnal believers seeking Holy Ghost consecration. I declare in Yeshua’s Name that even outside the Body of Messiah, 2018 will be a year when the glory and power of the God of the Bible becomes evident to more and more of the world’s population!

Father, You know I have already forgiven everyone who has sinned against me personally. Now I am standing as an intercessor on behalf of Your Body. In that place I am pleading the blood of Yeshua for the forgiveness of the sins committed within the Body that are related to the declarations of change which I have made above. Father, You also know that as a beneficiary of John 20:22-23 I have forgiven everyone whose actions have damaged congregations in my experience. So in the Name of Yeshua HaMashiach (‘Jesus’ the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ) I say, let all these changes become evident in 2018, for Your honour and glory. Amen.