Savoring the meal to come…

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ~ James 4:7

Submit…Resist…there is no better testimony of submission in the entire Bible than the one Paul modeled in his message to the Galatians 2:19-20; For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. That brings us to Resist…

There is no better model of resistance in the entire Bible than we find in the temptation of Christ at the very beginning of His ministry {St. Mat. 4:1-11}. Realize that Jesus was led to place Himself in the absolute most vulnerable and weakened state to resist the three great temptations of the devil…with only the Word, Sword of the Spirit {Eph. 6:17}!

Now, if we take a closer look at the relationship between our #1 submission model (Paul), and our #1 resistance model (Jesus), we find the answer to today’s Tune-up question, How Do You Handle A Hungry Wolf? Before Paul’s (formerly Saul of Tarsus) submission to Christ he was one of the most zealous and widely respected Pharisees of all Pharisees. He led the persecution of the early Christians. He gleefully cheered on the stoning to death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. He believed he was doing God’s work through the law UNTIL his road to Damascus conversion, when he became dead to the law.

How many of us have lived successful lives by and through the law, building our stature and prestige, and earning the regard and respect of our peers, our families, our friends…our community? Every ounce of it a fairytale LIE. Not some of it. Not part of it. ALL of it! One enormously spectacular web of lies spun by the father of lies himself. Here is a wonderful summary of many of these lies revealed by a good shepherd Scott Kesterson turned many of us on to…

There are many mysteries in life. One of them for me is how Christian pastors still wonder about (Halloween). ~ Pastor Dave Bryan, Church of Glad Tidings

Unlike Satan who controls nothing but what weak people allow him, God controls everything including every mystery that has ever been and will be…until He determines the time to reveal. The mystery of the divided church body…the subdued and the endued…the pretenders and the contenders…many if not most all are pre-conversion Sauls clinging desperately to the lie we’ve now made our own beds with. And the wolf…savoring the meal to come: https://www.facebook.com/nikki.jeffers1972/videos/1551821078687099

You see, most people invested in a lie will refuse the truth…even cops when you show them the evidence will take the easy way out until that fateful day which will come to us all when there is no way out. Trust me when I tell you, having done my time on the pretender side, there are many pretenders who see themselves as contenders. Power of the head-fake…not the place to be when the music stops. Did you ever stop to wonder why Jesus chose Paul over the eleven who had followed him for most of his three-year ministry? I would say, in a word, ZEAL. Jesus knew the man on fire for the law, would be even more so for the truth…once convicted! Which brings us to our resistance.

Jesus knew He was sending us out as sheep among wolves {St. Mat. 10:16}. But He also knew He was equipping us in such a way as to make us invincible against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places {Eph. 6:12}. What did Jesus teach us in the very beginning of His ministry about how to handle a hungry wolf? Refuse to feed him! Amen? Satan attempted and failed to bait Him three times from man’s perspective…of the flesh. What Satan conquers through pride, Jesus defeated through pure humility. After 40 days of fasting, He had literally emptied Himself of himself.

Our resistance model did not sit back and wait for the wolf to come to Him. He went straight on offense and took it to the enemy as the very first act of His ministry! The modern church has allowed the enemy to make it Eloi…weak, irrelevant, impotent…helplessly hoping!