The Kingdom of God!

Chapter 84

I always never spent much time teaching about Satan as some pastors do. There are a lot of pastors that talk mostly about demon possession and all about Satan. Their people get to the point where they see a demon behind every tree. The Apostle James said in Ja. 1:13-15,

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." 

In most Pentecostal, Charismatic churches it is taught what the great Apostle Paul had to say about where our warfare comes as a Christian. In Eph. 10-17 he instructs us to,

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

Paul made several important statements here. He said that we are not in war with people! Flesh and blood! Our warfare is in the spiritual realm, and we can wage that war successfully because we are seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father. Paul said this in Eph. 1:18-23,

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."

You must understand that we are spirit, we have a soul, which is our mind, will and emotions, and we live in a body of flesh. If you don't understand this, you will not understand that Paul is talking about the spiritual body of Christ of which Jesus is the head. It's the spiritual body of Christ that all of the fullness of God dwells in this spiritual body.

Jesus made such a powerful statement in Mark 11:22-24,

"Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore, I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them."

Our faith must be grounded in God, our Father! When we develop our faith by hearing the word of God, or in other words, what the Lord says to us, we can have confidence that our prayers are answered. John said in 1 John 5:14-15,

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." 

Jesus is the head of the spiritual body of Christ and we are members of that body. As Jesus was leaving His disciples, He told them this, Matt. 28:19, (NIV)

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

That authority has been given to the Church, which is His Spiritual Body and as such, we have the authority to take dominion in the world we live in. Satan does not have the kind of authority that we have. As I have shared with you before, there are wicked spiritual forces that have infiltrated every segment of our society and have gained control of the thinking of many of those who are in authority in our great nation and we are seeing the boldness that they are exposing in the last decade or so and are no longer hiding in darkness but are out in the open because they think they have succeeded in over taking our great nation.

What they have mistakenly overlooked, is the power of the Church that is waking up and doing spiritual warfare with them and the number of true patriots that are raising up in defense of the freedom we have experience in this nation.

I want to lay a foundation for you to explain what I am about to tell you. There are many patterns in the Bible of how Satan works to destroy God's purpose on this earth. The first one I want you to notice is found in the book of Exodus 1:15, (NIV)

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, "When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live."

The principal I want to show you is that whenever God is about to move greatly in a nation, Satan always tries to kill the man that the Lord has chosen to lead His people out of the situation that they are in. In this case, the midwives feared God and did not follow the Kings instructions.

Another example I want to show you is found in Matt. 2:1-8, (NIV)

"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, 'for this is what the prophet has written: "But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel."

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."

And in Matt. 2:11-12, & verse 16 (NIV)

"On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route."

"When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi."

Again, this evil King, inspired by Satan, tried to kill the Lord Jesus Christ who was anointed of God to deliver all of us from sin. However, once again God intervened and foiled Satan's plan.

Next, I want to show you another example of Satan inspired people trying to stop the Lord's man from establishing the Kingdom of God. Acts 21:26-32, (NIV)

"The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end, and the offering would be made for each of them."

When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, "Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place." (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)

The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul."

Again, we see the Satan using even religious men and women, to persecute Paul in an effort to stop the spread of the gospel. But the Lord intervened to stop them because He had a mission for Paul to appear in Rome.

Now, let's fast forward to today and what is happening in our nation. I don't know if you voted for Donald Trump or not. You may have not liked his personality or the way he conducted himself. However, if you will take the time to see, not only what great strides he provided to this nation and to the nation of Israel, but the tremendous opposition he was continually faced with during the four years he was president.

Never before in the history of our nation has a president been faced with the opposition and treachery that Trump was faced with. This, alone, should be evidence to those who know the Lord, that he was anointed of the Lord, as Cyrus was in the Old Testament, to drain the swamp that prevails in our nation's capital.

Satan's servants tried to impeach him twice and twisted every word that he spoke to mean something else. He had this nation flourishing in every area of our economy. He had the southern border controlled, he had NATO nations paying their share of money to protect the NATO nations. He had the United States the number one producer of oil in the world.

Once again, the United States was respected through out the world because they knew that we had a president that meant what he said. During this time, he was being harassed by the Democratic party and many in the Republican Party. His family was attacked, and the news media was posting lies and distortions about everything he was doing.

Satan even went so far as to steal the election for Trumps second term. There is overwhelming evidence that the election was tampered with enough to make the winner Biden! You can hide your head in the sand and ignore the evidence, but it will not stop the truth from getting out.

Even now, some two years after he was president, Satan is trying to stop him from ever being elected again by twisting every aspect of Trumps life to stop him.

Satan has his man, Joe Biden, in the office of the President of the United States and thus the statement that Jesus made in John 10:10, is demonstrated. (NIV)

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

All you need to do is just look at where our nation is at today compared to what it was like in the Trump administration.

I will leave you today with my final example of Satan's tactics. He finally was able to kill Jesus and all of hell rejoiced for three days and three nights, but on that third morning the gates of hell swung wide open and Jesus came forth and was found to be alive; not only that He emptied out hell and triumphed over Satan and Satan had just made the biggest mistake of his life.

Listen to me, all of you who are worried over the outcome of this great nation of ours. We have a covenant with the Lord that our forefathers made with the Lord and that is why this nation has been so blessed. But as with many other nations that have been on this earth, we were caught up in the things of this world and allowed things to be passed by our congress that were in direct opposition with the word of God. So now we are being disciplined by the Lord.

However, just because Satan thinks he has triumphed over this nation doesn't mean all is lost. The Lord has spoken and has said that He is not through with Donald Trump and that he will serve another term.

Be encouraged! Lift up your hands and give thanks to the Lord that He has heard our prayers and we have nothing to fear!