Nowadays, there are may ways to send a message. There is email, direct message, private message, phone call, letter. These are forms to which a message is sent. If you share the truth, the message doesn’t get attacked, but the messenger does. These messengers will be called names, categorized and ridiculed for telling the truth. This has not changed throughout the centuries. They did this to Jesus in His day. When He defeated sin at the cross, He sent a clear message out to all the principalities and powers throughout the world that sin has been defeated. Now these principalities and powers go after the messengers of Jesus to stop this message.
Colossians 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Every messenger that brought the good news of what Jesus has done has suffered persecution. The persecution is against you from bring the good news. The good news that Jesus has made peace between man and God in our behalf.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, 7 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The message of Jesus is so great that the enemy will go to great lengths to destroy the messenger. Each one of us who is born again of water and spirit, carries this message inside of us. To stop this message the devil wants every born again believer to live from the flesh. This destroys the message. The message is spirit, and if the Christians figure that out, the devil has lost.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Romans 8:8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Each born again believer carries the message, the Kingdom of God. If you live from the flesh, it’s very simple for the devil to quench the message. He uses the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches to stop the kingdom in you. Those who focus and live in the spirit, from the Kingdom, will produce 30, 60 or even 100 fold. This is a great incentive to live from the spirit, but it is one of the most difficult things to do.
Luke 17:20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Could you imagine what would happen if Christians figured out that the Word of God is spirit?
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Mark 4:13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
The other thing that the devil is also trying to do is change the message. Take a look at all the denominations out there. Jesus is the head of the church and the people are the body. The early church was unified in Jesus so they moved in the authority of Jesus. Interesting that in the book of Revelation there was only one church in each city. If the devil can keep the church divided, they will never walk in the authority of Jesus.
Revelation 2:1 To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
The devil used the word against Jesus, he will use it against you. The biggest one that I have come across is 1 John 1:8.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
You will notice that in 1 John 1:8 it says that if you say you have no sin. This doesn’t mean your a sinner. Putting it into context from the verse before, if you have no need for repentance. The law exposes your sin and the blood removes it. What boggles my mind is how far born again believers will go to defend sin rather than defending Jesus.
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
Hebrews 10:11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Be Blessed my friends