God arms me with strength, and he makes my way perfect. You have given me your shield of victory. Your right hand supports me; your help has made me great. You have made a wide path for my feet to keep them from slipping. (Psalm 18:32, 35-36 NLT) There is no armor in this world that can prepare us for spiritual warfare. We must be armed with the strength of God himself. Our way of 'dealing' in life will always be to focus on our own self-sufficiency. God's plan is for us to move away from self-sufficiency and toward his sufficiency - it far outshines and outperforms our own! We want a shield that will provide us with the shelter we need from life's attacks, but we try to erect it ourselves and find it just doesn't work all that well. The shield of victory and the support of his right hand may not seem like much to somebody looking at this from a purely physical vantage point, but when seen from the realm of the spiritual vantage point, it is the only defense we w...
I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. (Galatians 3:5 NLT) Does God give you the Holy Spirit AND work miracles among you? Yes, he does. How do we know this? We hear the message, we receive the messenger, and then we become the message and the messenger! The work of grace within us brings a new message into our lives and it results in a new message coming forth from our lives. Our behavior changes - the message becomes clearer. We are called to bring the message in word, but most importantly, in our actions! The message must be clear. We cannot dilute it because Christ did not dilute his grace when he poured it into our lives. We don't make grace more 'palatable' - it has a way of working just as it is. Those who haven't heard of his grace don't need to hear it in some 'namby-pamby' way or 'refined' to their t...