Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Steps to a Victorious Life





STEPS TO A 
VICTORIOUS LIFE








To live victorious, there is no self-help program but only a “God help me” program. James, the brother of Jesus, details 4 steps to help us to live as a victor and not a victim.





Step 1-Submission to God
· Submit means to yield or surrender oneself to the will or authority of another. 
By honestly looking at your life, what or who are you submitted to?
· Areas of life we need to submit:
a. Spiritually
b. Mentally
c. Physically
d. Socially
e. Financially
· We are called to submit ourselves to God, all the time and everywhere.









Step 2-Resist the devil
· Resist means to keep from giving in or yielding to.
· Step one must be done before we can do step two.
· We can’t submit to God totally without resisting the devil fully.
· The result of resisting the devil is he will flee from you.
What area in your life are you not resisting the devil?







Step 3-Draw near to God
· We must understand that we can’t come to God just an old way, God has given us procedures to draw close to Him.
a. Worship
b. Prayer
c. Discipleship
· The result of us drawing near to God is He will draw near to us.









Step 4-Cleansing and purifying
· Cleanse means to make clean or free from dirt.
· Purify means to rid of foreign or objectionable elements.
· We are cleanse and purify the whole man.
a. Outward purity-cleanse your hands, ye sinners
b. Inward purity-purify your hearts, ye double minded.
· Double minded are people who divided the loyalty between God and the world.


God has given us the tools to be a victor
 in our spiritual and physical life 
but we must follow the steps. 
To omit one step is to continue to be the victim.


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Why Obey God?

Why obey GOD?

by David A. Depra
     Why should a Christian obey God? That is really like asking,
"Why should a child love a parent?" There really isn't any WHY to
it. The love simply happens because of a relationship.
     One would think that we could say the same thing about our
relationship with God, as our Heavenly Father. Instead of asking
WHY we ought to obey Him, almost as if it is some kind of imposed
obligation, we perhaps ought to ask WHAT to obey. Sometimes
we act as if God is at our disposal, rather than we at His.
Obedience is, in fact, a fundamental part of our Christian walk.
But what part? This is an especially important question to ask when
you consider that we are saved by grace, kept by grace, and walk
in the grace of God. So where does obedience fit in?

     This, of course, brings up the issue of law vs. grace and also that
of license. It must. Christians need to get this straight. We are
talking here, not only about the gospel of salvation, but the gospel
and Truth by which we must live after we are saved.
Unto Good Works
     One of the scriptures which best describes the place of works,
or obedience, in the life of a Christian, is found in Ephesians. There
Paul, in a nutshell, describes the impact of the gospel on the
Christian life:
for by the grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of god, not of works,
 lest any man should boast. 
for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which god hath before ordained that
we should walk in them.
(eph. 2:8-10)

     Here Paul says that we are saved solely by grace, and not our
works. That's simple enough. Yet before we say, "I already know
all of that," and go on, let's READ what is being said here. It may
contain a bit more than we ever noticed.
     Paul is, in this verse, drawing a contrast. Yes, he is saying that
our works haven't a thing to do with our salvation. He says, "Not of
works, let any man should boast." In other words, if salvation were
of our works -- even a little -- then we could take some credit. But
it is not based on our works -- even a little. So we cannot boast.
So far so good. Nothing new there.
     BUT --- that is not the end of the thought. Paul then draws a
contrast. He gives the REASON WHY we cannot boast. He says,
"FOR we are HIS workmanship....." In other words, THAT is why
our salvation cannot be based on your works." We are HIS
workmanship.
     Can we possibly see what Paul is saying here? Ask it again:
WHY is our salvation NOT based on works? Because we are
GOD's workmanship. Get that. Rather than US doing works for God,
Paul is saying that GOD is doing a work in US. THAT is grace.
THAT is why salvation is not based on works. THAT is why
NOTHING is based on works. GOD is the one doing the work. Not
US.
    
Paul goes on to make this even more clear. He says, "For we
are HIS workmanship...." --- and then he describes that
workmanship. He describes exactly what God is doing. He says,
"Created in Christ Jesus UNTO good works, which God has
ordained that we should walk in them."
     Here we see that God does a work in us to create us, or birth us,
in Christ Jesus. But UNTO something. UNTO what? Good works.
In other words, the RESULT of salvation in Jesus Christ is good
works.
     Now, you and I usually have it backwards. We think the good
works are supposed to come first. We think that good works will
create us in Christ Jesus -- either by saving us, or by earning us
something once we are saved. Some of us still think that God
accepts us based on our works, and that we must maintain our
standing with God through those works even after we are saved.
     Paul says no. That is error. It is really what it means to be "under
the law." The Truth states that rather than US doing works for God,
God is doing one in US -- that is -- we are HIS workmanship. We
are created in Christ Jesus solely by the grace of God. But not so
we can "sin that grace might abound." No. Rather, "unto good
works." These good works are ordained of God that we might
walk in them.
     This passage from Ephesians is so simple, yet contains the
essence of the Truth of grace. It is hard to believe we could read
it and miss the point.

A Good Tree
     Now, there is a reason why things have to work this way. Never
think that Christianity is simply a matter of God saving us and then
handing us a bunch of rules to obey. That is not the Christianity of
the Bible. It is dead religion.
     The Christianity of the Bible is a changed life, full of good works,
because it is a NEW BIRTH. New creations in Jesus Christ do
good works. But we do them because we have a new nature -- not
because we have a list of rules to obey.
     This is vital to see. It goes back to something Jesus said. He
said:
For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt
 fruit; neither doth a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit.
 For every tree is known by his own fruit.
(Lk. 6:43-44)
     The Bible sends us a clear message: We cannot obey God.
We cannot. Indeed, God gave us His law to PROVE it to us. The
law continually shows us we cannot obey God, and exposes us as
dead sinners. The more we try to keep the law, the more we find
that we are a "bad tree."
     The only solution is to BECOME something other than a "bad
tree," -- i.e. -- a GOOD tree in Christ Jesus. God must do that. He
must create us in Christ Jesus, solely by His grace. Then, and only
then, are we a new creature -- God's workmanship -- created in
Christ Jesus. Then, and only then, are we created "unto good
works."
   
  A Christian, therefore, obeys God -- not because the law
demands it -- but because it is his nature to obey God. He wants
to obey God -- despite all of the failures along the way. There is
a CHANGE as to desire and motivation.
Not to Earn
     If you were told that your obedience to God earned you nothing,
what would your response be? For some of us, it might be, "Well,
then why obey?"
     THAT is, of course, the question, isn't it? For if we are obeying
God simply because we think it is earning us something -- whether
it be His increased favor, some eternal reward, or some better
standing in the kingdom -- then how can we tell Him we love Him?
     Imagine our children obeying us as parents simply because we
pay them a weekly allowance. What love is there in that?

Obedience to God is supposed to be the outcome of a LOVE
relationship with Him. It is supposed to be the outcome of being
created in Christ Jesus. This is the Christianity of the Bible, and
thank God it is.  As Paul said, "I am what I am by the grace of God."\


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