Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
Welcome back to our continuing Bible Study on the subject of how to live life under the New Covenant. The fact is, the New Covenant went into effect the moment Jesus resurrected from the grave more than two thousand years ago, but a lot of us live our lives as though nothing much really happened that day. And so, the main objective of this series has been to emphasize that something really big DID happen back then and that believers under this NEW Covenant have ALREADY received a significant portion of our inheritance IN ADDITION TO the assurance of eternal life BY FAITH (1 John 5:4, 13). We need to find out what's included in that inheritance because in it are all the things we need to live life in VICTORY like the born again and reconciled children of God we now are.
Last week we discussed the importance of rightly "dividing" (handling or teaching) the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15) particularly as regards the Old Testament. While it's true that believers are clearly instructed in the NEW Testament to move away from living under the LAW, in other words to stop trying to impress God by how good and religious we are, there are principles of wisdom in many of those old scriptures that we need in order to come into the fullness of New Covenant VICTORY.
A good example is that an important part of New Covenant life should be dedicated to dealing with a certain ADVERSARY named Satan, and sometimes how we deal with that assignment comes to us out of the Old Testament. The devil's been around since the Garden but New Testament Scripture confirms that he's still around and that we should "be on the alert because he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Indeed, he's working continuously to hinder us from receiving the full disclosure of the terms of our inheritance (John 16:15) and we're clearly instructed to RESIST him (James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:9). Yes, it's our job to RESIST him, not God's. That work has been delegated to the Body of Christ and we've been given a number of empowerments (graces) for dealing with him on a spiritual level instead of in the natural.
Finding Our Strength
This week I want to discuss a tremendous BASIC weapon for effective spiritual warfare with roots in the Old Covenant that reaches its fullest expression under the NEW "Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2). And I'll start by sharing a personal testimony that involved this particular weapon.
A number of years ago when I was a new believer less than a year old, I lost everything I thought was valuable in life including all my money. The enemy had attacked me and I didn't know what to do. I didn't share what was going on with the people in the church that I had recently started attending and the truth is I hardly knew anybody. One Sunday after the morning service, a beautiful young woman I didn't know and had never spoken to came up to me and said that the Lord had instructed her to give me a particular book which she then handed over and went quickly on her way. I was really new in the ways of God but I went home and devoured that book almost in one sitting.
As it turned out that little book changed my life and set me on a new course that's still with me more than three decades later. The book is called, "If Satan Can't Steal Your JOY, He Can't Keep Your Goods" by Dr. Jerry Savelle, and I read and reread that little book until it was falling apart. I learned from it that according to Scripture our JOY is one of the strongest weapons we have at our disposal for spiritual warfare, that we're to be in that warfare almost every day of our Christian lives and that this particular weapon produces VICTORY every time we use it. And I also learned where it comes from, how to get it whenever I want it and how to use it once I get it.
And oh by the way, that beautiful young woman and I were married a little more than four years later through a supernatural process (another story) after I had gotten my goods back from the devil and had learned how to live in JOY.
The Scriptural Basis
The basis for this principle is found in Nehemiah 8:10 where it says that "the JOY of the Lord is our strength." The context is that an advance group of Jews had been allowed to return to Judah from captivity in Persia for the purpose of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. Their governor at the time was Nehemiah and his chief priest was Ezra. To make a long story short, when the people after decades of captivity heard once again the Law of Moses read to them by Ezra and the accompanying Levites, they were moved to begin praising and worshiping the Lord and were instructed by the Levites to cease grieving about their captivity so that the JOY of the Lord could become their STRENGTH.
Now the Hebrew word translated STRENGTH in this verse means DEFENSE or STRONGHOLD; i.e. the JOY of the Lord is my DEFENSE. And notice that the JOY comes from the Lord. It's His JOY that I appropriate in order to DEFEND myself and only then can it become a STRONGHOLD against whatever comes to attack me. Keep in mind that as a Believer in Christ I have in me, you have in you, the nine FRUITS of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and one of those is His JOY. The truth is, all nine of those fruit should be viewed as EMPOWERMENTS to DEFEND against the ADVERSARY in the process of spiritual warfare. They are there for that purpose.
Since the Lord's JOY already resides within the Believer, the remaining question is: how do we access it? How do we connect to this STRONG weapon of warfare? The short answer is that according to Scripture, JOY manifests for us as we experience the PRESENCE of the Lord. The more we "sense" His PRESENCE, the greater the manifestation of His attributes. And JOY is one of those attributes:
Psalm 16:11 = In Your presence is fullness of JOY.
I need to point out here that JOY is different than "happiness." JOY is an attribute of the Holy Spirit. Happiness is a human emotion that we work up in response to favorable circumstances. JOY has nothing to do with circumstances. It's already within us and it's accessed by experiencing the PRESENCE of God. To experience His PRESENCE means to be acutely aware of it, to be tuned in together. Most of the time we live life oblivious to the PRESENCE of the Holy Spirit but He's within us constantly, He's ALWAYS speaking, and He'll never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). He doesn't ever go anywhere. The variable is our "awareness" of His presence and when we're fully aware, His JOY is readily evident and available.
So, we need to be more aware and that means we have to put our attention on God, we have to focus on Him. And according to His Word, one of the best ways to do that is simply to PRAISE Him:
Psalm 22:3 = God is exalted (magnified, enlarged) by the PRAISES of His people.
In short, we connect to the JOY of the Lord by focusing on the PRESENCE of the Holy Spirit because in that presence is the fullness of the DEFENSE we're seeking. We're seeking it because the Bible says it's a STRONGHOLD against our ADVERSARY, a formidable weapon that ALWAYS produces VICTORY in spiritual warfare. And God is especially HONORED when we PRAISE Him during times when our natural circumstances aren't so favorable, when the flesh doesn't feel like praising. The fact is when you're tired of defeat and discouragement and mourning, the way to get the VICTORY over all that every time in every situation is by PRAISING God sacrificially. God is especially honored by our SACRIFICE of Praise.
We're the ones who control the level of JOY in our lives because we're the ones who choose to be aware of God's presence, or not. When an attack comes, when a difficult circumstance arises, when a loss is experienced, when adversity monopolizes our attention, one of the ways to VICTORY on every occasion is by the SACRIFICE OF PRAISE which we initiate because we understand that the JOY of the Lord actually is a very real STRENGTH. And, experiencing VICTORY over the ADVERSARY is supposed to be an ongoing, routine way of New Testament life. It's yours/ours to have, won for us ALREADY by Christ. Take up this great weapon that ALREADY belongs to you by turning on some PRAISE music and then watch the VICTORIES roll in!
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on January 24. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
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Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be your Lord, you can do so today by believing and saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus, I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and I believe that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven for all time and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
When you get a moment have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
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