PART 2
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
April 8, 2012
NewsWithViews.com
2 Peter 1:4 “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Protection
As I was growing up, my denomination taught me that when your number is up, it’s up and there was nothing that you could do about it. You don’t know how long your days will be here on earth. It may be 10 years or it may be 75 years, no one knows. I found nothing to verify that in the Word. As a matter of fact, what I did find contradicted that teaching. Psalm 91:16 “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” Solomon tells us in the book of Proverbs that the Word will add days to us: (Proverbs 3:2) “For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.” If we can add to our lives, then we can take away as well, so this teaching that we are just here for an undisclosed period of time running around in the dark is nothing more than a lie. If we live by God’s statues and His commandments, we will enjoy a long life. Even if we blow it, prayer and repentance can turn things around. Hezekiah became ill and was informed that his illness was unto death and he cried out to God. His prayer was heard and God miraculously healed him and added years to his life. 2 Kings 20:6 ”And I will add unto thy days fifteen years;. .” We do live in a world of sickness and disease and have opportunities to have major accidents or be involved in some type of catastrophe and we need protection from these elements and God promises us that we will be shielded from them. The philosophy that life is nothing more than a crap shoot has no Biblical basis to it whatsoever.
We do have a part to play and that part is to live according to the laws of God and according to His way of doing things. This protection is from anything that would subtract from any part of our life. If we continue to depend on God as our source for everything, He will protect us from the attacks of the enemy. We can’t walk around afraid all the time. We can’t talk about all the things that could affect us. We have to call upon God and He will deliver us from all troubles. Deuteronomy 20:1 “When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
(2) And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,
(3) And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;
(4) For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
It is only when we walk in His ways that God will fight our battles for us. Jehoshaphat was presented with a situation where a much greater army than his laid siege on the city of Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat determined to seek God about the matter first thing, not after everything else failed. His first action was to seek God. Have you ever been talking to someone about their problem and all of what they have tried to solve their problem was in their own power and might and then they make a comment like – ‘Well, I guess we’ll have to pray about it. Nothing else seems to be working.’ Praying should have been the first thing they did. This is what Jehoshaphat did. The Bible tells us that Jehoshaphat “set himself to seek the Lord ” and he received a Word from God: 2 Chronicles 20:14 “And he (Jahaziel) said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.” Jehoshaphat was not perfect but he did seek after the ways of God. He had set up a righteous government and commanded the judges of the land to judge according to the Word of God, so when trouble came he had the right to go before the Lord and request help. When he did he didn’t moan and groan and complain about the situation and ask God ‘How could you let this happen?’ What he did do was remind God of what He had done in the past to save and preserve His people. Jehoshaphat let God know that they were depending on Him for deliverance. 2 Chronicles 20:6 “And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
(7) Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?
(8)
And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for
thy name, saying,
(9) If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence,
or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy
name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou
wilt hear and help.
(10) And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;
(11) Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.
(12) O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” The Word tells us to put Him in remembrance of His Word (Isaiah 43:26). This is what Jehoshaphat did and he received an answer from God. 2 Chronicles 20:17 “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.” Because of their dependence on God, it took three days to collect the spoils of the war.
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God has promised throughout His Word that He will protect us when we are walking in His ways: Psalm 11:6 “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
(7) For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.”
David talked about how God had delivered him from his enemies in detail: Psalm 18:2 “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
(3)
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be
saved from mine enemies.
(17) He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated
me: for they were too strong for me.
(20) The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.”
This is where a lot of the Body of Christ falls short. God will do for us “according to my (our) righteousness”, not according to what WE think is righteousness. If we live for the devil Monday through Saturday night, there is no reason why we should expect God to do anything for us. But that is just what a lot of the Body of Christ does. They live however they want to live and then when trouble hits, they expect God to jump in like Mighty Mouse and save the day. We have to live the way that God wants us to live 24/7, then when trouble hits, we have the right to call upon the Name of the Lord for help and He will deliver us from all of our troubles (Psalm 34:17). There has been a major misconception in the church that if you spend 40 minutes in church on Sundays, God is obligated to keep all trouble from you. We have to remember that no weapon formed against us will prosper (Isaiah 54:17) not that no weapon will be formed but we are also to seek His kingdom. God will not break His covenant and it requires us to walk in His ways for Him to protect us. A sinner can repent and ask for Him to become their Lord and Savior and He will, but then we have an obligation to seek Him and His ways and then live by them. If we continue in our same old ways, He is not obligated to do much for us. We can’t give Him a few minutes on Sunday morning, as long as a ball game isn’t on, and expect Him to do anything.
David was not a perfect man, but he was fast to repent when it was shown that he had acted in the wrong. And because he was quick to repent and get back on track, God would always keep him safe from his enemies. Psalm 23:5 “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:...”
Psalm 27:2 ”When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.”
Some people feel that because they are born again that the troubles that come upon them are from God. They have been taught that God uses car wrecks, sickness and disease, oppression and garbage like that, to teach us. There is only one thing to say about that. That’s a lie from the pit of hell. God does NOT use the things of hell to teach us. He uses the Holy Spirit: John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” This is red in my bible which means that Jesus was talking. We are going to have troubles because we are in this world, but just because we are attacked doesn’t mean that we have to succumb to that attack. David wrote - Psalm 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” Jesus also told us - John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Through Him WE can overcome every attack from the enemy. “Well, I don’t know about that, Brother. After all you can’t win them all.” That is the teaching of the traditions of men. Man can’t see how we can win them all, but the Holy Spirit had Paul tell us that we can: 1 Corinthians 15:57 “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(58) “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” The Name of Jesus and the Blood of Jesus is our best defense against anything that the enemy can throw at us. It is our obligation to stand against the wiles of the devil. Paul gives us a list of the armor that God has given us to withstand the attacks of the devil. Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
This is God’s armor. He designed it to be 100% effective in every battle with the devil. Besides, James tells us in that if we are walking in His ways we have the right to resist the enemy with the weapons that God has given us and the devil will flee from us. James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We just have to remember that we must ‘submit ourselves to God.”
If we don’t believe that we have an enemy, we are only fooling ourselves. If we don’t believe that the weapons that God has given us will be effective, and never use them, we are only fooling ourselves as well as putting ourselves in a position to lose more than a battle with the enemy. If we doubt what God is telling us we risk being classified with the one Jesus spoke about in Revelation – Revelation 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Our responsibility to walk in His ways is far more important than most realize. We have to take seriously what He says is His commandments and His statues and His judgments, not what we feel they are. Notice in the last verse the category God puts the ones that don’t believe what God has commanded; ‘they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire.’ Not a place to look forward to. Seeing that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts ( Isaiah 55:9), maybe we should set aside what looks right to us and do what God has said to do.
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In studying the Old Testament saints, that’s just what they did. They set aside their concepts of right and wrong, as far as what they thought should be done, and did what God said to do and were victorious every time. Even the New Testament saints walked in victory when they did what God told them to do even when it didn’t look like the right thing to do. They spoke AND acted on that Word and defeated the enemy time and time again.
We are designed to win. We are called to win. We have been given all we need to overcome all the attacks for the enemy. And when you read the end of The Book, it says that we win and we win because we did what God commanded us to do:
Revelation 12:11 “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.”
� 2012 Roger Anghis - All Rights Reserved
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Pastor Roger Anghis is the Founder of RestoreFreeSpeech.org, an organization designed to draw attention to the need of returning free speech rights to churches that was restricted in 1954.
President of The Damascus Project, TheDamascusProject.org, which has a stated purpose of teaching pastors and lay people the need of the churches involvement in the political arena and to teach the historical role of Christianity in the politics of the United States. Married-37 years, 3 children, three grandchildren.
Web site: RestoreFreeSpeech.org
E-Mail: editor@restorefreespeech.org
