“I’m sorry. I completely forgot.” My daughter waited for me to return to the room where she was nursing the baby. I walked across the house to put away a few stray items and became distracted by several things at once. Half an hour later, she emerged, baby in her arms, searching for me and her cell phone. “Did you find it?” she asked. “Find what?” I replied. “My phone,” she said, the question hanging in midair. Seeing the look on my face, she laughed. “I wondered why you never came back.”
I meant to help. I left her with good intentions yet somehow along the way, and a very brief way at that, I faltered. I lost sight of my intended purpose and busied myself with other things. None of them were bad things. Each one needed to be attended to eventually, but there was only one immediate need- retrieve her phone- because she was expecting a call from her husband.
The phone and the call were both trivial in the greater scheme of things. She would only be busy for half an hour more. She could call her husband back. I would even hear the phone as it rang and remembering myself, take it to her. No harm came from my wandering mind, but there is an eternal sphere where a wandering mind, a wandering eye, and a wayward heart is extremely dangerous.
“Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world.”
Ephesians 6:12 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/eph.6.12.NIRV
“This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours.
This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.”
Ephesians 6:10-12 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/eph.6.10-12.MSG
Don’t dismiss the devil along with the gods of Greek, Roman, or Norse mythology and the like as figments of someone’s overactive imagination or the attempts of a sage to explain the inexplicable. Don’t over-inflate his influence and power but never be flippant about it like a comedian from bygone days who quipped, “the devil made me do it.” Scripture teaches from Genesis to Revelation of a very real enemy, giving him descriptives like accuser, deceiver, liar, and the father of lies. From long before the time he encountered Eve with Adam in the garden, he sought godhood. When his heavenly insurrection failed, he began lashing out at the heart of God in the only way left to him. He has power only in this realm and we are his targets. If he cannot own our souls, he will distract and deceive us into wasted days unless we wear the armor God provides and walk by the Spirit of God in our heaven born identities as sons and daughters of God.
“My jealousy for you comes from God himself.
I promised to give you to only one husband. That husband is Christ. I wanted to be able to give you to him as if you were a pure virgin.
But Eve’s mind was tricked by the snake’s clever lies. And here’s what I’m afraid of.
Your minds will also somehow be led astray. They will be led away from your true and pure love for Christ.
Suppose someone comes to you and preaches about a Jesus different from the Jesus we preached about.
Or suppose you receive a spirit different from the Spirit you received before.
Or suppose you receive a different message of good news. Suppose it was different from the one you accepted earlier.
You put up with those kinds of things easily enough.
People like that are false apostles. They are workers who tell lies. They only pretend to be apostles of Christ.
That comes as no surprise. Even Satan himself pretends to be an angel of light.
So it doesn’t surprise us that Satan’s servants also pretend to be serving God.
They will finally get exactly what they deserve.”
2 Corinthians 11:2-4, 13-15 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/2co.11.2-15.NIRV
The Spirit of God was awakened in Paul as he stormed to Damascus, intent on taking prisoner anyone claiming the Way of Jesus. A bright light from heaven blinded him and Jesus addressed him from beyond.
“We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.’
“‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.
Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness.
Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.
And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles.
Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.
Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’”
Acts of the Apostles 26:14-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.26.14-18.NLT
God continues to go to great lengths to restore His creation to Himself. When we threaten to be our own undoing, He pursues us doggedly because it is not his will for anyone to perish. This should not surprise us. You were conceived in the mind of God before you entered the womb.
“You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book.”
Psalms 139:16 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.139.16.TPT
“Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!”
Ephesians 2:10 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/eph.2.10.TPT
Too often, those we perceive as successful, those who are making it according to the world, walk apart from Christ. When a rich young man came to Jesus wanting to inherit salvation, he claimed, like Saul, to have followed God’s commandments to the letter, yet he walked away sad when Jesus invited him to leave behind all he had to follow Him. He stubbornly refused the Lordship of Christ when he failed to recognize Jesus as God and surrender to His call. He walked away from salvation and an eternal inheritance for a temporary fortune.
“Stunned and bewildered, his disciples asked, “Then who in the world can possibly be saved?”
Looking into their eyes, Jesus replied, “Humanly speaking, no one, because no one can save himself.
But what seems impossible to you is never impossible to God!””
Matthew 19:25-26 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/mat.19.25-26.TPT
“No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself.
Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”
Matthew 19:26 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/mat.19.26.MSG
Maybe you’re not wealthy. There are other idols that take the place of God in our lives. A spouse, a job, a social circle, children, anything or anyone elevated to the position of god in our hearts and minds, anyone whose opinion gives us pause, causing us to choose something other than God’s best for our lives has become a god to us. Any thought or action that sets itself up against the knowledge of God needs to be taken captive and put in its rightful place, bowed in obedience to Christ. (II Corinthians 10:5)
“Jesus said to his critics, “Tell me what you think of this parable:
There once was a man with two sons. The father came to the first and said, ‘Son, I want you to go and work in the vineyard today.’
The son replied, ‘I’d rather not.’ But afterward, he deeply regretted what he said to his father, changed his mind, and decided to go to the vineyard.
The father approached the second son and said the same thing to him.
The son replied, ‘Father, I will go and do as you said.’ But he never did—he didn’t go to the vineyard.
Tell me now, which of these two sons did the will of his father?”
They answered him, “The first one.”
Jesus said, “You’re right. For many sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes are going into God’s kingdom realm ahead of you!
John came to show you the path of righteousness, yet the despised and outcasts believed in him, but you did not.
When you saw them turn, you neither repented of your ways nor believed his words.””
Matthew 21:28-32 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/mat.21.28-32.TPT
“What if we keep sinning on purpose?
What if we do it even after we know the truth?
Then there is no offering for our sins.
All we can do is to wait in fear for God to judge.
His blazing fire will burn up his enemies.
It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Hebrews 10:26-27, 31 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/heb.10.26-31.NIRV
The wrath of God is meted out many times in the Old Testament on the enemies of God and God’s people. We don’t like to read of God’s judgements but we cannot escape them by ignoring them. There is a way, one way, to be reconciled to God and that is Christ Jesus, God’s perfect Son who took on himself the full extent of God’s wrath on the cross for all who will believe. This belief, this faith, is more than acknowledging that Jesus lived. It is accepting His Godhood, His death, burial, and resurrection in our place, and living surrendered to His way all the days of our lives until we meet Him in the air where we will be with our Lord forever. (
There are many who will miss eternity with him on a technicality. Some will trip over Jesus, preferring Him as a good person or a wise prophet. “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.” (II Timothy 3:5)
“They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.”
Romans 1:25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.1.25.NLT
““Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’
But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
Matthew 7:21-23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.7.21-23.NLT
“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.
As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”
So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?
God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.
Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.
It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.
So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-24 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.1.18-24.NLT
John’s Revelation of Jesus came while he was exiled on Patmos, a desert island where he was left to die. He simply would not stop speaking about Jesus as the one way to God. He followed Jesus in life and he would follow Him into eternity, but while he lived, he was granted a sneak peak into heaven. He saw events of the time of the end played out in visions, including the cosmic struggle between good and evil and God’s overwhelming victory. John was instructed to write down all he saw. The angel promised that once the events began, things would happen swiftly, so John should not seal the scroll, not keep it a secret. It should be read and shared, and John should understand, as should we, that not everyone would receive it. (Revelation 22) A time of testing is here and we should not be surprised. Today is the day of salvation.
One scene in particular breaks my heart. It depicts the angels final words, a stubborn refusal of God: “Let the evildoers be at their worst and the morally filthy continue in their depravity—yet the righteous will still do what is right, and the holy will still be holy.””
Revelation 22:11 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/rev.22.11.TPT
“But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God.
They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk!
And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
Revelation 9:20-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.9.20-21.NLT
May our hearts be broken for the lost. May we storm heaven on behalf of the souls who will perish in their ignorance and especially on behalf of those whose stubborn refusal brings condemnation.
“Could it be any clearer?
Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands!
What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection.
We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end.
Never again will death have the last word.
When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us.
From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word.
You are dead to sin and alive to God.
That’s what Jesus did.”
Romans 6:6-11 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.6.6-11.MSG
“I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless.
For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.”
Galatians 2:21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.2.21.NLT
“O nations of the world, recognize the Lord; recognize that the Lord is glorious and strong.
Give to the Lord the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor. Let all the earth tremble before him.
Tell all the nations, “The Lord reigns!” The world stands firm and cannot be shaken. He will judge all peoples fairly.
Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice! Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise! Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy! Let the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming!
He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with justice, and the nations with his truth.”
Psalms 96:7-13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.96.7-13.NLT
Stephen Stanley
WHATEVER IT TAKES
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