1. When you’re rebuking the devil, you’re just whistling in the wind. When you resist him, he will run like the wind.
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, James 4:7.
Those who rebuke and bind the devil are just playing word games with Satan, and he loves it. The whole time they’re rebuking him, they are missing the lesson God is trying to teach them, and they never reach maturity, because maturity comes from obedience, which comes from suffering, and not from feigning authority.
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2. Who are we in Christ? We are unworthy slaves.
“So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done,’ Luke 17:10.
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3. …nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified, Galatians 2:16.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone, James 2:21-24.
In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead, James 2:25-26.
So our works are not what we do in an effort to keep the Law. They are, instead, the works that come forth from our faith in Jesus. They are the works God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them,Ephesians 2:10. Without these works, we are not justified, for faith without works is dead.
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All of His promises have sustained me. He has comforted me when I needed it. He has made my marriage a walk in Paradise. He has been a constant companion and has led me down a path of roses. There have been many thorns, but the fragrance of the roses has always overshadowed the thorns. He is my life and I am His servant. I love Him deeply. God bless you.
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Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
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