Recovery, Discipleship, and Spiritual Warfare – Purity 1163

Recovery, Discipleship, and Spiritual Warfare – Purity
1163

Purity 1163 10/04/2023 Purity 1163 Podcast

Purity 1163 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of United States Marines training for
combat in the foreground of a cloud-capped mountain under blue skies comes to
us from TammyLyn Clark who shared this screen capture still from a video of her
daughter Rachel firing off a heavy machine gun while on maneuvers somewhere in
Japan near Mount Fuji.  

Well, It’s Wednesday and when I saw TammyLyn watching Rachel’s training video over the weekend, I told her to send it to me
because of Mt. Fuji’s scenic beauty and
because I thought it would be a great scene to give us a visual reminder that
we have arrived at another hump day! 

Wednesdays are not only the middle of the work week.
Since May 10^th, they are also the day that the Celebrate Freedom
Growth Group meets at Starpoint Church where sincere Christians go to battle
with their hurts, habits, and hang-ups with the hope of sustained victory and
increased freedom. 

Our little group is fueled by an eclectic mix
of materials from Celebrate Recovery, Freedom in Christ Ministries, Deeper Walk
International, The Bible, and the leadings of the Holy Spirit is promoted as a
recovery group at our church but I am quick to point out to new members that I
took on the leadership role and named the group Celebrate Freedom with the
understanding that the emphasis was going to be on overcoming and experiencing
our freedom in Christ through Christian discipleship principles.

As disciples, we come to Celebrate Freedom to ask
the Lord to help us and to teach us how to live the new life that God gave us
as new creations when we put our faith in Jesus.  I often share the diagram of the “virtuous cycle”
to visually remind the participants of our groups that we are no longer going
to be trapped in the vicious cycles of our “Pre-Christ” existence that were
based on the world, the flesh, and the devil’s lies. The emphasis at Celebrate
Freedom is to agree with the truth of God’s word and what it says about who we
are in Christ and to take personal responsibility to increasingly and continuously
live according to God’s will for our lives: to become the people that He made
us to be, to be more like Jesus.   

But just as Marines have to be disciplined in
knowing how to fight and be aware of the enemy’s tactics, we as Christians have
to not only know about who we are in Christ and endeavor to live righteous
Christians lives, we also have to be aware that we are in the midst of a spiritual
battle for our minds as scripture clear warns us of the unseen spiritual forces
of darkness are hell-bent on a campaign of deceiving, tempting, accusing, and
killing us!

James 4:7 (NKJV) tells us:
⁷  Therefore submit to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we not
only have to choose to do “what is right” and humble ourselves and submit to
God’s will and ways for our lives, we also have to break any sinful bonds or
permissions that we have in our lives that allow the enemy to torment us – that
includes renouncing any lies we have believed and any sinful associations we
may have had as well as repenting of any known sin in our lives.  

Unfortunately, the “gospel” that is proclaimed
in most churches today leaves out the reality of spiritual warfare or the need
to repent as a part of the Christian life. 
What results are – and I know because I lived it- are Christians who
understand that they are sinners saved by grace but have no conviction to completely
submit to God when it comes to their habitual sins.  I know when I got saved – I thought that it
truly was a miracle that God would forgive and accept me since I was a sinner
who was entirely incapable of changing. God was so gracious that He welcomed me
into His kingdom with no strings attached and I could go right on sinning
without the worry that it would send me to hell.   

But that gospel smells like smoke and
while God’s grace is amazing when we study the word of God we realize that God’s
whole counsel advises us to turn from our sins and to be holy as He is holy.
Whoops!

So much for the idea of ultra-grace
or cheap grace or greasy grace!  God’s
word and Christ’s sinless examples make it clear that we are to “crucify the
flesh and all its passions” and walk in the light and out of our former darkness.
We are not supposed to stay in the darkness. 
So we have to renew our minds to the truth of God’s word and learn from
and follow Jesus’s example by walking in the Spirit.  

But the emphasis I need to remember to
make more often is that there is also an enemy at work in our thought lives
that wants to lead us astray. The spiritual forces of darkness can shoot mental
arrows of temptation, condemnation, accusation, and deceptions right into our
minds and so we must be well versed in the truth of God’s word to know which
thoughts are ours, which thoughts come from God, and which thoughts come from
the enemy.  

If we are thinking obscene, blasphemous,
or tempting thoughts that seem to “come out of nowhere” and are against what we
want to think about, we have to realize those thoughts are not from God and
they are not from us. Persistent thoughts that condemn us or that lead us into
temptation could be from us, but they are probably demonically inspired.  So which is it? It doesn’t really matter
because the response that defeats these thoughts is the same whether the origin
of that “stinking thinking” is us or the devil – the remedy is the truth of God’s
word.  Just as Jesus defeated Satan in
the desert by challenging the enemy with the truth of God’s word, we can
overcome temptation or condemnation in the same way.  

When we are condemned are tempted,
our defense is to stand on the truth of who we are in Christ and to resist the
devil with that truth.  In Christ, we are
accepted, secure, and significant so anything that would tell us otherwise is
rejected in light of our new lives in Christ.  
Similarly tempting thoughts are rejected because we:

·       Know that we are being tempted to go against
God’s word.

·       Know the negative consequences for
doing so.

·       Reject those activities as something that
is no longer a part of who we are in Christ.

·       And we reject the temptation because
we don’t want anything to disrupt the harmony of our relationship with
God. 

When we live by faith in the power of
the Holy Spirit, we have the power to make good choices with the way we live
our lives, and we can recognize the thoughts that are not of us and not of God.
We can take every thought captive to the obedience to Christ because we are in
Christ and we can now recognize and resist the enemy’s ways that always lead to
pain, shame, and guilt and choose the Lord’s way that led to peace, joy, and freedom.

So recognize the fact that you may
have some bad habits that bring shame or guilt, but also agree that God has
given you the power to choose His truth and to walk in His way of life where
victory is possible and freedom reigns.   

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Anger, Hot Temper.

Ephesians 4:26 (NIV2011)
²⁶  “In your anger do not
sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

Today’s
verses fall under the twelfth point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Anger, Hot Temper

 12. Handle anger in a godly way. Do not let
the sun go down on your anger.  

Today’s verse acknowledges
that anger as an emotion will happen.  This
world is broken by sin and things just aren’t right. It would be unnatural if
we never experienced anger in the face of the evil that men do or from the
chaotic circumstances that bring suffering into our lives.   But the word of God tells us that although
being angry can be expected, we are instructed not to stay in our anger more
than a day as today’s verse tells us to not let the sun go down while we are
still angry.  

The implication is that we
are to practice forgiveness and trust in the Lord to help us to work out
solutions to the situations that make us angry or to accept them for what they
are. Getting and staying angry overnight will not help us. Staying angry will
only disturb our sleep and possibly make us all the angrier the next day.  

So agree with God’s word
and don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Instead, trust in the Lord to help
you and seek His godly ways to overcome your anger instead.

——————————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3) 

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

27 – The Spirit Transforming

Marks
of Transformation

First, where the Spirit has begun to
transform a soul the Divine Law is
cordially received as a Rule of Life, and the heart begins to echo to the
language of Psalm 119 in its commendation. Nothing more plainly distinguishes a
true conversion from a counterfeit than this: that one who used to be an enemy
to God’s Law is brought understandingly and heartily to love it, and seek to
walk according to its requirements. “Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we
keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). He who has been born again has a new
palate, so that he now relishes what he formerly disliked. He now begins to
prove that it is not only the fittest, but the happiest thing in the world, to
aspire to be holy as God is holy, to love Him supremely and live to Him
entirely.

Second, a life of self-loathing. The regenerated
soul perceives that complete and constant subjection to God is His due, and
that the gift of His beloved Son has laid him under lasting obligations to
serve, please, and glorify Him. But the best of God’s people are only
sanctified in part in this life, and realizing the Law requires, and that God
is entitled to sinless perfection from us, what but a life of self-abhorrence
must ensue? Once we are supernaturally enlightened to see that “the Law is spiritual,” the inevitable consequence must be for me to see and feel that “I
am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom.
7:14). And therefore there must be a continued sense of infinite blame, of
self-loathing, of godly sorrow, of broken-heartedness, of hungering and
thirsting after righteousness; of watching, praying, striving, or mourning
because of frequent defeat.

Third, genuine humility. In view of what has
just been pointed out, it is easy to see why humility is represented all
through Scripture as a dominant feature of those who are quickened by the Spirit.
An hypocrite, being experimentally ignorant of Divine Law—never having been
slain by it (Rom. 7:9, 11)—then, the more religious he is, the more proud and
conceited will he be. But with a true saint it is just the opposite: for if the
Law be his rule of duty, and his obligations to conform thereto are infinite,
and his blame for every defect is proportionately great—if the fault lie
entirely in himself, and his lack of perfect love and obedience to God be
wholly culpable-then he must be filled with low and mean thoughts of himself,
and have an answerable lowliness of heart.

There is no greater
proof that a man is ignorant of the Truth savingly, and a stranger to Christ
experimentally, than for spiritual pride to reign in his heart. “Behold, his
soul which is lifted up is not upright in him” (Hab. 2:4). The
graceless Pharisee, blind to the real character and purport of the Law, was
ready to say, “God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men;” while the
penitent Publican, seeing himself in the light of God, dared not lift up his
eyes to Heaven, but smote upon his breast (the seat of his spiritual leprosy)
and cried “God be merciful to me, the
sinner.” The proud religionists of Christ’s day exclaimed, “Behold, we see”
(John 9:41); but the holy Psalmist prayed, “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of
Thy Law.” Thousands of deluded people who profess to be Christians prate about
their consecration, victories, and attainments; but the Apostle Paul said, “I
count not myself to have apprehended” (Phil. 3:13).

Fourth, a growing apprehension of the Divine
goodness. The more a quickened soul sees himself in the light of God, the
more he discovers how much there still is in him which is opposed to His Law,
and in how many respects he daily offends. The more clearly he perceives how
very far he comes short of the glory of God, and how unlike Christ he is in
character and conduct, the deeper becomes his appreciation of the grace of God
through the Mediator. The man who is of a humble, broken and contrite heart,
finds the promises of the Gospel just fitted to his case. None but One who is “mighty to save” (Isa. 63:1) can redeem
such a wretch as he knows himself to be; none but the “God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5:10) would show
favor to one so vile and worthless. “Worthy is the Lamb” is now his song. “Not
unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and
for Thy Truth’s sake” (Ps. 115:1) is his hearty acknowledgment. It is the
Spirit’s continued application of the Law to the believer’s conscience which
prepares him to receive the comforts and consolations of the Gospel.

When the mind is
thoroughly convinced that God can, consistently with His honor, willingly
receive to favor the most naked, forlorn, wretched, guilty, Hell-deserving of
the human race, and become a Father and Friend to him, he is happier than if
all the world was his own. When God is his sensible Portion, everything else
fades into utter insignificance. The fig tree may not blossom, nor any fruits
be in the vine, yet he will “joy in the God of his salvation” (Hab. 3:18). The
Apostle Paul, although a prisoner at Rome, not in the least dejected, cries,
“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). When God is
chosen as our supreme Good, all earthly idols are rejected, and our treasure is
laid up in Heaven. In proportion as grace flourishes in the heart our comforts
will remain, let outward things go as they will; yea, it will be found that it
is “good to be afflicted” (Ps.
119:71).

Here, then, are some
of the principal effects produced by our being “changed,” or reformed,
conformed, and transformed by the Spirit of God. There is a growing realization
of the ineffable holiness of God and of the righteousness and spirituality of
the Law, and the extent of its requirements. There is a deepening sense of our
utter sinfulness, failure and blameworthiness, and the daily loathing of
ourselves for our hard-heartedness, our base ingratitude, and the ill returns
we make to God for His infinite goodness to us. There is a corresponding
self-abasement, taking our place in the dust before God, and frankly admitting
that we are not worthy of the least of His mercies (Gen. 32:10). There is an
increasing appreciation of the grace of God and of the provision He has made
for us in Christ, with a corresponding longing to be done with this body of
death and conformed fully to the lovely image of the Lord; which longings will
be completely realized at our glorification.^[1]

—————————more tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
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These teachings are also available on the
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Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship