No wonder Easter is still the premier celebration in the universe. And no wonder the devil seeks to deceive the masses as to its consequences. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. (2Jn 1:7)   

Christ means Messiah. God come in the flesh to be our Saviour. This is such good news because it means a number of fabulous things.

1.                If Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, then God has revealed Himself! That means that we don't need to look for any other saviour. The gospel just needs to be told to all nations, races and religions.  It means we can all give up our false gods with false hopes and turn to Jesus Christ.

2.               If Messiah has come in the flesh, then God has spoken to man.  That means we can put away every other religious book, every other philosophy and ideology and give allegiance to the Word of God.  God’s Word is the standard by which every other book, every thought and every word is to be judged and weighed for truth and justice.

3.               If Jesus the Messiah has come in the flesh, then Jesus has modelled righteousness and right living. That means that we can judge all our behaviour, speech, and moral life based upon the teaching and example of Christ.

4.               If the Messiah has come in the flesh, then God has shown us the only way for us to be forgiven.  On the cross, Jesus paid the penalty for the sin of all mankind, so we can give up our pride-filled efforts to save ourselves and call on the Lord.

5.               If God came in the flesh, died and rose again, then allegiance to Christ alone is desirable and reasonable. Putting our trust in His word is life-saving and necessary. The Bible is not outdated. It matters not whether a man rides a horse or a helicopter, the Bible is always relevant and offers him hope.

What a fabulous Saviour! If we were saved by His death, how much more shall we be saved by His life? Romans 5.10.

In 1909 the Olympic runner from Tanzania, John Stephen Akhwari, fell as he was running.  He hurt his head and legs but dragged himself along to finish the marathon. When asked why he forced himself to endure unnecessary agony, he replied “My country did not send me 10,000 miles just to start the race but to finish it.”  Learning how to overcome adversity is important today because, while learning to parachute is optional and learning to macramé is a choice, learning to face adversity isn’t!  “In the world, you will have tribulation” (John 16:33).  

Every believer has troubles, even your neighbour.  They might be different from yours, or they may not even appear to have them, but believe me they do. Troubles are part of life for believers and nonbelievers.  Trouble is normal, but the big advantage is that we have Gods help and presence to empower us through it.  Knowing that troubles are normal, helps us persevere. Even while Elijah was chilling in the desert, he had challenges. First abundance, then famine, then ravens, and then lack and death in the home. It was an intense couple of years.  God was not trying to make great difficulties for him, but he was seeking to make him great.  God was growing Elijah for his tomorrow and us for ours. He was making a man of God who could pray down a revival, confront kings and turn back nations. A man who could pray earnestly and see the heaven opened over his nation.

Friends, our troubles are to make us more dependant and therefore stronger. God is developing conquerors, not survivors.  The hard thing about being a Christian is living on the earth; being a Christian in heaven, will be easy.  Expecting to have heaven now, where there is no sickness, no trouble, no sadness or trials, will only cause the pain of disappointment. There is a sure way to get into the blessing of God and there is a certain way into our destiny but there is no easy way. However Gods training in your life up till now, has made you more than strong enough to finish your race.

The sound of the rooster had hardly faded  from his ears, when Peter was gripped by remorse.  Embarrassed by his past, he wished he could have his time over again. How could he have been so weak and fearful?

Of course, Peter would felt bad after denying Jesus, but Satan seized the opportunity to condemn him terribly.  The devil seeks to sow lies into our hearts after we have failed.  Lies like, “Jesus will not want to meet with you; He’ll never want to work miracles for you; you have annoyed God too much; you have lost your call” and “you don’t really love God at all.”  

But look how Jesus restores him.  First, He comes to him. God always initiates and is never put off by our failures! Then He calls Peter and the other disciples children, affirming their family relationship with God. He then helps them with a miracle showing that God is not offended and still wants to bless him. Next, Jesus arranges for the fire and the coals to bring Peters past memories and shame to mind, only so He could speak over them with truth. He renews Peters call, and finally He gets Peter to affirm three times that he still loves Jesus.  By doing that, Jesus is undoing the lie the devil had been telling Peter. “You don’t love Him so how could be love you?”

Friend, it matters not what we think of ourselves or what the devil wants us to think, but it does matter what Jesus thinks.  Let Jesus have the final word, He loves you, believes in you, His plans for you are still good and is forgiveness of our failures just increases our gratitude and devotion to Him.

The gate clanged shut as he adjusted his eyes to the dark. It wasn't the first time for Paul. Paul spent years in various prisons on the way to his trial in Rome, but he never saw himself as a prisoner of the Romans but a prisoner of the Lord. (Eph 3.1)   In the Bible God’s people were put in prisons, because they served God, not because they committed a crime. People like Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and Daniel. Paul never saw himself in any place apart from in the hand of God.

Perhaps you seem to be in prison yourself at present. Maybe you are emotionally stifled as you face constant put-downs and manipulation. Perhaps you are stuck financially or work for a boss that is unkind or arrogant. Prisoners don’t have any say about who’s in their life. When we are a prisoner of the Lord, we don’t have much say, either. If we did, we would remove all the people from our “prison world” that we didn’t like. We would remove all the difficult parts of our job and lives and change all the challenging circumstances that are helping us to grow up.

Paul knew that the devil was against him, but God was sovereign. Therefore, no circumstance could stop Paul from fulfilling his assignment. They may be uninvited, and some certainly don’t feel good but will be turned for good by God. Joseph's troubles were all necessary steps toward him fulfilling God's purpose and bringing blessing to so many others. In the prison, God was working for his promotion. Paul said, “I know that I shall be delivered eventually through your prayer and the Holy Ghost” and he was.

Friend, through your prayer and the Holy Ghost, your prison will have an ending. If you are in the “prison of the Lord” for a limited time and for a specific purpose, thank God, He’s helping you succeed in your calling and destiny as He did for Paul. Talk to the “Prison Keeper” about the next assignment He has for you while you are in His prison.

The woman was bowed over. She was a faithful woman who walked to the house of God on the sabbath for decades. Perseverance wasn’t her problem. She never stopped going even though she had more challenges in her life than most. She had courage and commitment. Everyone looked at her. Some pitied her and some secretly thought she must be less holy than she looked. The ancient Jews believed the righteous earned good things but the unrighteous deserved only bad. (This was a generalization based on Proverbs, but the rest of the Bible shows that bad things do happen to good people.)

She stood through the service and then Jesus stood up in the synagogue, angry that a woman could be 18 years in the house of God and still bent over by an evil spirit. He was angry that a devil seemingly enjoyed the powerless meetings. “Ought not this daughter of Abraham be loosed on the Sabbath day (Luke 13.11) Ought not  this women be whole in the house of God. He commands demons to go and her back straightens.

How did a faithful women get bent over in the house of God?  The troubles of life touch us all, but it is never what happens to us in life that bends us out of shape, rather it is always the lies that Satan attaches to those events. Perhaps it began when someone close to her, was one of the people killed when the tower of Siloam fell. Perhaps the women had been lied to by the enemy and she had believed it. “God doesn’t care for you; you must have been a bad person; your life is a waste of time, you’ll never be well, God doesn’t think you are worthy.” The lies turned her gaze downward. It became permanent.

What lies has the enemy told you? “God can’t forgive you that many times, or you can’t hear from God, you have wasted your life” and as we believe his lies, we start bending over, loosing faith, looking down instead of looking up.

Friend, the truth is, Jesus loves you and your house is the house of God. He has come to your house and He wants you free from every lie of Satan. Hear Him speak and let His word touch you and straighten you as a pillar in His house. Look up! Be loosed from the infirmity of your thoughts.

During WW2, the allies sent battle plans across the continent, in code so if the note was intercepted, the message couldn't be understood. When the enemy heard the coded message, they couldn't understand it. They needed a code breaker, which when applied to the message, would give it sense.

Jesus the head of the church also send signals and impulses to His body but often they seem to be in a code that we find hard to understand. We need a codebreaker and that code breaker is the cross. When Jesus the Message was made flesh, the language he spoke was not just Aramaic but the language of humility. He came without reputation in the form of a servant. He humbled himself further and was obedient even to the death on a cross.

Even though He has been exalted, His messages still come to us coded in the language of humility, serving, giving and dying. Many times, we miss hearing because we have not embraced the “decoder”. His leading will still be in the form of a cross. Speak to that one, give to that one, prayer for that one, and ask forgiveness of that one. None may be easy to do.

In a war, everyday could be your last. They know that when the order is given, they must step out and face a hail of enemy lead. Some may be cut down but when the captain orders, they don’t have to weigh it up, all that has been done. They embrace death well before they face the moment. They are already dead; they just stand and fight.

Friend, Peter said that we should also count ourselves as sheep for slaughter, then we would be more fearless to obey whenever the One who loved us so much, asks from us any lessor act of humility and sacrifice.

During the Viet Nam war the phrase “The Eye of the Tiger” was coined, referring to the fierce gaze of a once wounded soldier who recovers to fight again. They were different and stronger somehow. Perhaps you have been wounded in the battle. 

Although we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, the devil still tries to intimidate us and bring his darkness around our heart and mind. The reason Paul says that we wrestle against our enemies (Ephesians 6) and not box , is that in wrestling, you never lose physical contact with the adversary. And it is the only one that strengthens you as you fight. Have you seen the All-Black rugby team do this in training?  While you are holding on wrestling, you are getting stronger.  When Satan attacks you, he is unwittingly developing your fierceness and strength in God.  Satan may think he has your measure now, but he doesn’t reckon on who you are going to be in the future. 

 Perhaps the greatest threat to Christianity is not attacks from the enemy but a time of ease - when everything is quiet and there is no need for weapons or strength. The Philistines closed all the blacksmith shops in Israel to weaken them and stop them making weapons. A blacksmith shop may seem a dark place; there may be the sound of hammers hitting and striking; it may even look like hell. But Someone is stoking the flames and forming weapons in the fires of adversity. If you take away the “blacksmith” trial experiences, from the church, there will be no weapons.  If we have never been attacked, we cannot gain the “eye of a tiger.”  We develop “the eye” when we go and grow through his attacks. 

Friend, the enemy has tried to intimidate you. Wrestle through the heat of the battle and you will soon find that you have a new strength and weapons that can now intimidate him.

Jesus never came to earth to prove He was greater than the devil – He’s always been that! He came here to defeat him as a human being on our behalf.  The devil was a strong man who could only keep his goods until a stronger one came upon him. That stronger one is Jesus and His Church!  The enemy is still our foe and in the presence of the enemy, Jesus provides victory.

King David said “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;” (Psalm 23:5) There are some things God only puts on the table for us in the presence of our enemies. In other words, most of the times we receive something fresh from God are in the midst of a battle.  In an environment where we need nothing, we receive little. The Christian life is a life of being in need. We should get used to it! We need Jesus every day to live as a Christian. We can’t heal the sick or forgive constantly without Jesus; we can’t cast out devils or defeat our enemies each day, except through Him.

Jesus said to one of the churches in Revelation, “…you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. (Revelation 3:17) They had everything they wanted but nothing they truly needed. If we know our true need, God will be our garment, our life, and the anointing we need to see clearly. Sometimes our greatest challenge is to know what we truly need. Like this ancient church group, sometimes we need an enemy to fight!

To increase in our experience of His authority there has to be an increase in the challenges we face. God works on the basis that His provision for us is not just sufficient but is more than sufficient for our need and the things we face. If our enemies are a two on the scale, then His grace can be a four. If our troubles are a five, then the strength and more than sufficient anointing that He gives us, will be a seven plus!

Friend, like young David, you can run to the battle because He planned for you to win!