Satan is a master at deception. Just ask Eve. Just ask Judas. Just ask David, or Peter, or even me. His ultimate goal is to lead your thinking away from God. His purpose is to turn you against your Heavenly Father, and he knows the best way to do that is to weasel his way into your mind.
Learn more about the ministry of The Purity Coach at http://www.thepuritycoach.com
Satan is a master at deception. Just ask Eve. Just ask Judas. Just ask David, or Peter, or even me. His ultimate goal is to lead your thinking away from God. His purpose is to turn you against your Heavenly Father, and he knows the best way to do that is to weasel his way into your mind.
Learn more about the ministry of The Purity Coach at http://www.thepuritycoach.com
Satan is a master at deception. Just ask Eve. Just ask Judas. Just ask David, or Peter, or even me. His ultimate goal is to lead your thinking away from God. His purpose is to turn you against your Heavenly Father, and he knows the best way to do that is to weasel his way into your mind. What you think determines what you do.
Welcome to the Point of Purity Podcast! I’m your host Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #147. In this episode we continue our journey through chapter 7 of my book entitled “Are You a Super Man? Becoming God’s Man of Steel.” This week’s episode is entitled “This is WAR!”
We are at war, guys. Make no mistake about it. The battles we are engaged in make World War I and II combined look like a child’s game. At times this war can seem overwhelming. Am I right? At times it feels like it’s never going to let up, never going to end. At times we can feel like we just want to quit.
Listen to what God says: “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you” (Deuteronomy 20:1). Guys, as a Christian man, as a Super Man of God, you have been delivered out of the very pit of hell itself. Read Ephesians 1:5; John 1:12 and Romans 8:15-17. You have been adopted into the family of the King of Kings. And as a Prince of the Throne of Heaven, as Teknon Theos, as a Super Man of God, you have been given a crown and an unbelievable inheritance (Titus 3:7).
Don’t ever—ever—let yourself listen to the lies of the enemy whispering to you that God doesn’t care about your battle, that God’s just going to stand back, sitting on the sidelines, while you fight the fight of faith and watch you flounder and be massacred. That just ain’t gonna happen! But don’t take my word for it.
Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before [your enemy]. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
“Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
That’s powerful!
Yes, you will struggle from time to time. Yes, you will experience feelings of discouragement and thoughts like, “Will I ever be free?” That’s not a bad thing. That’s not a sign that you have failed. That’s the time you need to get back up out of the mud and muck of life, plant your feet firmly in your faith, draw your sword, face the enemy head on and resist him, shouting, “Bring it, because you shall not pass!” James 4:7 tell us to submit ourselves to God resisting the Devil and then gives us the promise that when you do, the Devil has to flee from you.
If you are a Christian. If you have put your faith and trust in Christ and His finished work on the cross of calvary for your salvation ... you are Teknon Theos—you are a Super Man of God, my friend. You can fight the enemy and win!
OK. Time once again for me to read to you a short story from Chapter Seven of my book “Are You a Super Man? Becoming God’s Man of Steel.” And I quote:
“Nemuel awoke in sheer panic. Bolting out of bed, he threw on his armor as quickly as he could. It was barely dawn. Thick wisps of fog engulfed the camp, making it hard to see. Sounds of organized chaos echoed around him as his friends emerged from their tents, tying their shoes, buckling their belts, and positioning their breastplates.
“They looked at each other, confused. The blast from the trumpet had rung out—the call to battle, unmistakable. But why? Then he saw it. Rubbing his eyes to be sure he wasn’t seeing some apparition; a hand of ice gripped his heart as reality sank in. The rising sun revealed a terrifying sight on top of the ridge—Amalekites!
“Finding his regiment and dutifully falling into line, Nemuel tried hard not to throw up the ball of acid that was rapidly forming in the pit of his stomach. “I’m too young to die,” he thought. Looking at his brothers-in-arms around him, he knew they were thinking very similar thoughts.
“Gentlemen,” shouted Aaron, the Priest. “Today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory!” End of quote.
OK – I have a question for you. In your battle against sin, have you ever felt like Nemuel? Have you ever felt like tiny little David up against the big and mighty Goliath? Now consider this: has God changed? Is the Almighty, All-Supreme, Ever-Eternal and Unchangeable God of the Universe any different today than he was back in Nemuel’s day, or in David’s time? The God who was with David in that epic battle against Goliath is the same God who is with you right here, right now. Hebrews 13:8 declares that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In Malachi 3:6 God says, “I am the Lord, and I do not change.” The same power He gave to David to defeat that giant in his life, He makes available to you to combat the giant in yours.
In the fictional story of Superman, his powers come from Earth’s yellow sun. In real life, your ability to stand firm and resist your archenemy comes from God. God has promised to give you everything you need to fight this battle. Victory isn’t something you have to manufacture. Hey, you’ve tried that in the past and failed miserably, right? That’s why you end up feeling so discouraged and defeated. You picked up the sword and tried swinging it at the enemy in your own strength and missed.
When you and I try to take on the enemy in our own power, we will lose every time—guaranteed. Search your Bible from cover to cover, my friend. You won’t find one single verse anywhere that says, “You are from great stock, for greater are you than he that is in the world.” Nope. What you will find are these words: “You are from God and have overcome (your enemy), for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
I can vividly remember, as a five-year-old boy, being terrified because I had wandered too close to a bee’s nest. They were quite unhappy about my presence and began actively buzzing around my head, way too close for my comfort. I stood there, literally frozen in fear.
Then I heard my dad’s voice saying softly, “Son, it’s going to be alright. Look at me.” Too scared to open my eyes, I whimpered, “No.”
“Son,” his voice a bit firmer, “look—at—me.” Slowly, I opened my eyes to see my father standing just a few feet away. He smiled as he held out his hands and said, “Now, slowly walk toward me.”
Once again, I squeezed my eyes shut and began shaking uncontrollably. “I, I can’t,” I stammered.
“Do you trust me?” I heard him ask. I nodded my head. “Then look at me and start walking toward me.”
Terrified of the impending doom I was certain was about to happen, I took a tentative step toward my father, never taking my eyes off him. Surprisingly, nothing happened. The bees didn’t go ballistic and dive-bomb me, plastering me with their poisonous stingers like I had imagined; so I took another step. And then another. Again and again, I inched my way forward, until I was wrapped in my father’s loving embrace.
As I think back on that event, I am reminded of Psalm 118:12-13. There David writes, “They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.” Can you relate? Would you say that at times the temptations to sin surround you like bees and poke you like fiery thorns? Have you ever felt like the enemy was pushing you so hard that you were falling (and failing)? I assure you, God is there to help you, and through His strength you can cut the enemy off at the knees!
“David sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul. He sang: ‘The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.” (2 Samuel 22:1-4) Then in verse 40 we read, “You have armed me with strength for the battle; you have subdued my enemies under my feet.” In Joshua 1:9 God says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
I love the promise of Deuteronomy 28:7 which says, “The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven!” Don’t forget God’s promise in Isaiah 41:10. “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
Satan wants nothing more than for you to stay defeated—even though you have already won the victory through Christ. Your archenemy wants you to believe you’re no Super Man. He wants you to live in the false belief that you cannot win the battle. Think about when he tempted Christ in the wilderness. How did Jesus defeat each and every temptation the enemy threw at him? He used Scripture!
So, let’s put our focus on what God has to say in Scripture about living in victory. For example: “Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death” (Psalm 68:20). God stands ready to “Deliver (your) soul from death, yes, (your) feet from falling.” Why? “That (you) may walk before God in the light of life” (Psalm 56:13). “Say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:2). “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance” (Psalm 32:7). “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18). “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2). “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God” (Psalm 40:17).
In Romans 8:37 God promises us that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” I absolutely love the expression, “more than conquerors”! It’s filled with so much power and encouragement. It’s a phrase that means we haven’t just won a battle … we’ve already won the war! It speaks of being an over-conqueror, winning the war with success to spare, ending up supremely victorious. In short, being a Super Man! Is that awesome, or what?
Why, then, do we struggle with feelings of defeat and discouragement? Why do we feel less than a conqueror when we’ve given in (for the umpteenth time) to our temptation? Could it be that we don’t yet fully understand what it means to be more than a conqueror? Understand this: you cannot win the war on your own. According to Romans 8:37, we are more than conquerors only through the power Christ gives us (Philippians 4:13). He gives us that power not because of any great and glorious thing we have done, or are capable of doing, but simply because of His amazing love, mercy, and grace toward us.
Think about that for a moment. You and I will win the war against our archenemy because “(we) are from God and have overcome … for he who is in (us) is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
On my own, I will fail. But I’m not on my own and neither are you. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). It’s “according to the riches of his glory” that God strengthens you “with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:16). Never forget that God—only God—“is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Let’s close out this week’s episode with this promise: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15)!
To know victory, talk to the Victor! To be able to overcome, invest time with the Overcomer!
OK. Let’s hit the pause button until next week’s episode as we continue our journey through my book “Are You a Super Man? Becoming God’s Man of Steel.” If you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about The Pure Man Ministry, be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com.
And if you have not yet subscribed to this Point of Purity Podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes!
So, until next time this is Author, Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach Steve Etner reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.