5. DEATH TO SELF
Jesus always said to His disciples, "Follow me".
Therefore looking at His life, we can learn from Him how to overcome the devil.
The first case we see in the temptation in the wilderness. Whenever the devil spoke to Him some, He replied by saying, "it is written ". Mathew 5:1-10
He never argued with the devil. Never try to argue with the devil, always tell him what is written in God's word. It's unfortunate that most believers wait for their pastors to read the bible for them. The only time they open their bibles is on Sundays. What a pity. How do you expect such to overcome the enemy. They will be always deceived and defeated.
Remember what Abraham told the rich man in Luke 16:19-30, that those alive had Moses and the prophets, that is a reference for the old testament which was the only bible then, but today we have both the new and the old testament.
Abraham says to those living today, you have your bible, read for yourself and believe what is written there. Don't be satisfied with man's word, read the bible for yourself.
The way Jesus ultimately overcame the devil is through death.
Heb 2:14b, through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
It is through death. This way also is the way we overcome the devil, by dying to our self-will.
For example, if someone insults you, the self life wants to insult back, but if at that moment you decide to die, you will not respond. If you insult a dead person, they will not respond no matter what you do or say to them.
The devil is a master of attacking children of God indirectly through others, but if you learn to always die to yourself everytime, you always render the devil powerless against you.
Choose to always die to yourself.
6. BUILDING YOURSELF UP.
One who is always building themselves is like one who is continually exercising. Such a person is always likely to win in every competition compared to one who doesn't exercise.
The bible tells us two ways where we can build ourselves. One is through fellowship with others. Heb 3:13 tells us to encourage one one daily lest we be hardened through deceitfulness of sin. 1Cor 14:3 says that one who prophesies builds up , encourages and comforts those who listen.
1Cor 14:26 says that when we come together in fellowship, we should use whatever gifts that God has given us to build each up.
The other way we build ourselves up is through speaking in unknown tongues.1Cor 14:4.
There are a lot of confusion about this gift and God is not the author of confusion but of peace. 1Cor 14:33. There are two extremes, those who claim that it's of the devil and it ended with the early apostles and those who claim that everyone must speak in tongues, and that tongues is the only evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Paul never said so, he said that God gives different gifts to different individuals. 1Cor 12:6-10. There is not a single spiritual gift given to all.
1Cor 12:29-30, he asks rhetoric questions which the answer is no to all of them.
He says in 1Cor 14:5 that he wished everyone could speak in tongues, meaning that not everyone spoke in tongues even then, but at the end of the chapter He says, "do not forbid speaking in tongues". 1Cor 14:39
This gift is supposed to build up one who has it.
Think of it like this, If God in heaven decided to give me a gift, He noticed that I must be in need of it. If God think I need it and gave it to me, then refusing to use it is to think I know better than Him. Deciding to use it, is to agree with Him and His wisdom in giving it.
If God has given you this gift, use it in your private prayers to build yourself up. In fact I will encourage you to spend more time speaking in tongues that praying in a language you understand.
Keep on building yourself up, through fellowshiping with other children of God, through listening to their ministration through songs and sermons and their books and articles, through reading Gods word and through speaking in tongues if God has given you the gift.
You are blessed to be a blessing
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@Blessed Mshindi Mambo
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