Wednesday March 15, 2006 Bible Study Summary

For the past two weeks Pastor Tim has lead us through a powerful study on....

"How to Resist the Devil or Success in the Christian Life".

This is part of our study on Revival - the history and the reality for today.

Here is a summary of what we discussed last evening.

1. Success Comes By...
A.) Seeing that your life is properly ordered before Almighty God.
B.) Resist the Devil

2. What did Jesus Say About the Devil?
A.) He is the fountain head of all deception & lies.
B.) Infects with evil influences to crowd out the work of God.
C.) Seeks to rob lives of fruitfulness and the power of God's Word(believers & non-believers)
D.) Takes advantage of times of weariness and weakness.

At this point we discussed the ways that we witness people being affected in our circle of friends or families. We have witness this in our church very strongly over the last months. One only has to take a short glimpse of people that used to attend faithfully at Prayer, Bible Study and Church attendance to catch a true picture of how the Devil is at work.

3. The Devil's Operation in the lives of People

How is that he gains access to a person's life and spiritual worlds? 3 things to consider here that has an affect on our lives - The world, The Flesh, and The Devil. None of us are free from these powerful forces around us.

Here are 3 things that the devil uses to gain access and stop the work of God...

1.) Preventing
a.) The enemy seeks keep truth from germinating in a person's life - Matt 13: 18-23 and Ephesians 2:1-3
b.) He will blind the minds of people. 2 Cor 4: 3-4 and Romans 3:3-4

2.) Distorting - 2 Peter 2:1-2
a.) Appeal to something new... change my car for a new one, new electronic gadgets, new church, new people, I must have NEW!
b.) Desire to be loved - seeking approval from others, love in another's arms or life...
c.) Immediate gratification of our desires - with a world filled with messages centred around sensuality - not necessarily sexual things - but "What will I get out of it?" This could apply to the things you get involved in, what you buy, the way you live... but it also shows up in church. "What can I get out of this?" should be replaced by "What can I give?" "What can I do?" True satisfaction comes when we realize Give and Do.

3.) Tempting - James 1:13-16
a.) To cause us to live for fulfillment of our desires - today it produces Debt loads that we can't pay - leading to discouragement and worse...
b.) To lean on our own resources - 1 Chronicles 21 & s Samuel 24 are two accounts of David counting his troops to see if there are enough - perhaps to fortify his need to know if they can win the battles ahead... it was sin to do so... and they failed. Israel never lost any battles because they never had enough men... they always won when they were obedient and God was there.
c.) To let go of faith - in times of trials - the enemy causes doubt to rise in their minds

Finally -

There are four sources of power to defeat the enemy
i.) The Name of Jesus - Matthew 16:16-18
Means - a.) Fruitfulness is tied to prayer and prayer in His name. , b.) Recognizing His Lordship in every area of my life (he hates hypocrisy - Acts 19:11-18) and... c.) I can approach a gracious Saviour who is able to meet any need that I have.

ii.) Word of God - obedience

iii.) Blood of the Lamb - overcome by this - the Cross is the final statement.

iv.) Fellowship of the Saints - Hebrews 10: 22-25 Encouraging others... Pastor Tim pointed to the illustration of people that have left the church - how they have pulled out because certain people are attending the church - the end result is they are going no where - in almost 100% of the situations we have watched we have seen the folk that do this lose out spiritually. Watch what happens to people that leave this area go and choose to not be part of what God has asked them to do....

Do you know what the BIBLE stands for?
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth