Thursday 12 September 2013

1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Revelation 12:10-11 “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

All too often, Christians fall short of the glory of God because they give place to the lies of the enemy. One of the names of the devil is the Accuser. He stands before God to accuse the righteous, and he sows his accusations in our hearts. (See Zechariah 3:1-7) nHis accusations can weaken us, hinder us or paralyse us.  They make our spiritual warfare exceedingly difficult because they can distract or disarm us with every sort of condemnation. Sometimes the Accuser uses our failures or mistakes, as well as the destructive criticisms of others, to persuade us that our perseverance is not worth it. His lies our sown in our soul much like weeds are sown in the ground: they begin to grow and then choke out the word of life we have received.

In my backyard I have a beautiful rosemary plant that stretches out its branches in all directions. This is a delicious herb for Mediterranean recipes.  When sheets or towels are drying on the line nearby, they absorb the fragrance of this plant. But from time to time I must remove from it a weed that grows like a vine and wraps itself around branches and gets all tangled up.  I have to unwind the weed and pull it up from the root so that it doesn’t return. The lies and accusations of the enemy are much like the this weed: we need to pull them out of our soul from the roots before they choke out the life!

The good news is that we no longer have to be victims of these bad seeds, these traps set by Satan!  Jesus accomplished the victory for us through his sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection.  His truth replaces the lies of the enemy and expels them from our soul. In this way we regain our true identity, peace, joy, well-being … everything that pertains to life and godliness. The Lord restores our soul because His truth has triumphed over the lies.

It is time to recover our true identity in Christ: the unrighteous becomes the righteousness of God in Christ ; the sinner becomes a saint ; the rebel becomes a loving and obedient child of God ; the worrier becomes a worshipper ! What we have done yesterday does not decide what we will do today.  What we were in the past does not define who we become in the future. True transformation begins in our lives when we uproot and burn up in the holy fire of God every bad seed, every weed, every word of accusation, guilt and condemnation.

God is restoring in us the ability to lead healthy, fruitful, victorious lives that exude the sweet fragrance of His presence.  Take the time today to get before God, and let Him reveal the lies that you have tolerated so that you can uproot them once and for all.  We have overcome the Accuser through the blood of the Lamb, the declaration of His truth (our testimony) and because we are not loving our own lives but rather HIS LIFE IN US !