Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

In the natural, when wars are fought, each battle has a duration of time that it takes before it is over.   As Christians, we go into each spiritual battle knowing the outcome!  We are in Christ.  Christ is the Victor. Ergo, we are victorious in Christ! However (clear throat), some battles are "bloodier" than others.  Some battles take longer than others.  And if we are going to live the Christian life, we must be aware of these facts. We are called by God to be strong and courageous.  We see these commands all throughout Scripture.  Fear not!  Be very strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go! The Lord knew we would need courage, and lots of it.  He knew the battles each of us would face and the weapons we would need in order to fight them. I won't go into detail here about how we wage war in the heavenlies, or about the armor of God - you can find plenty of teachings on these online, articles and YouTube. What I am here to say is this:  Don

Did you know that as Christians, we do not have it in ourselves to win spiritual battles?  We are no match for the devil. Now this should not scare you because when we are in Christ, He has the power to beat the foe.  Every Time. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 2:14 that Christ always  leads us in triumph.   Always.  That means always! So why, then, do we still fail in our attempts to live a godly life? Simple.  At that moment, we are not following Jesus. We call ourselves followers of Christ.  And overall, we are. But in the heat of the battle, when we are suffering, when others are upsetting us, or whatever the case may be, are we following Christ then? He always leads us  in triumph.  So that tells me that triumph, or victory, is not a given.  We must do  something.  And that something is not what we think!  It is not to fight back in our own strength.  We lose when we do this because our battles our spiritual, remember? Christ leads us.  We are to follow. How exactly does He lead us

When we truly know that our struggle is not  against flesh and blood - people - but against principalities in the spiritual world, then we know how to properly battle. We are not fighting against people. I repeat, we do not fight against people. People are either captives of the devil (knowingly or not) or children of God. Now the trick is to discern who is who and what is really going on. When you feel strife in your spirit because of how someone is treating you, or how they are trying to get at you, that is never, no never, from the Lord. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17) So where there is no righteousness, peace, or joy, as a child of God, you have no business there! You do NOT have to receive everything thrown at you! When you are committed to pleasing the Lord, obeying Him, walking in the Spirit, and serving Him, you will  come under attack from the devil!  Make no mistake about it.   If you are lukewarm, a "sort of" Ch

The minute you were born again into Christ, the devil became your enemy.  Before that, you were no threat to him.  But once you have the power of God living inside of you through the Holy Spirit living in you, he wants to destroy you.   I hate to even talk about him!  But as Christians, we must be hyper-alert to his ways in these last days so we can stand our ground, hold fast to our faith, love others, and be bolder than ever in our witness for Christ.   The devil is a liar.  The devil is a destroyer.  The devil hates.  But his tactics are usually more subtle than obvious.  He is crafty and sneaky.  He works through people and situations.  He is trying to: wear you out discourage you discredit you get you to sin get you to doubt get you upset get you to walk in the flesh get you to lose heart tempt you to give up altogether show you a supposed easy way out get you to hurry and rush God's timing get you to settle for less than God's best for your life get and keep you angry abo