I’ve Seen This Before! Part II

When we began this thought, we realized immediately that it is much larger than one or even two days of delving into it. Most of what we classify as “trials and temptations” are things that we have seen before and for one reason or another didn’t deal with them, and instead of going away they come back with a vengeance.
This is exactly what scripture declares about people that come to Jesus to have their house washed and cleaned and then leave that house empty – and unoccupied:

43-45″When a defiling evil spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return it finds the person spotlessly clean, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse off than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place.

“That’s what this generation is like: You may think you have cleaned out the junk from your lives and gotten ready for God, but you weren’t hospitable to my kingdom message, and now all the devils are moving back in.” Matthew 12:43-45

If you have been around the church any length of time, you’ve heard the phrase, ‘I’m Just Going Through!” WE ALL GO THROUGH at one time or another. We all find ourselves in situations where we don’t know the ins or outs, don’t know how we got there, and don’t know where we’re going – we’re “just” going through! Yet, if we are going through that means we begin at one point of tunnel and walk through it, and come out on the other side!

You might also have heard the expression, “if God brings you to it, He can bring you through it! The greatest deceptive area that the prince of the power of the air opoerates with is to deceive us into believing that we can’t make it through- to what God has brought us too! Not only can we go through, we must go through.

I also have heard so many believers say, “you’re always telling us what we have to do, but never tell us how to do it” – and I concur with this statement. Because God cannot be put in a box, and because people are individuals and God deals with us as individuals it is hard to cookie-cut how God is going to move in a given situation. But one thing I know about satan is that he has very few new tricks, and that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ operates by His Word. So if we look for the key markers – we can always find our way back home! We can always defeat the enemy of our soul, and we can always pass the test that we are in.

It’s not deep – prayer, praise, and the Word – then the Word, more praise, and more prayer! Walking every day with our eyes fixed on Jesus (or his representative) and putting all hands with all due diligence to the things God tells us to do (And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.1 Samuel 15:21-23)

More on this tomorrow,
Maria