God's Word is Alive and Powerful - Part Three
Sunday October. 13, 2024
The Word of God is Alive and Powerful!
“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 5:5–11
Submit yourselves to your elders
Be submissive to one another
Be clothed with humility
God resists the proud
God gives grace to the humble
Humble yourselves under the Spirit of God (His hand represents His Spirit in Isa. 51:16)
God will exalt you when the time is right
Cast all fears an anxieties on God because He cares for you
Be sober - means to be free from drunkenness and every form of excess; hence to be calm, mild, collected, self-controlled, and even-tempered in mind and action.
Be vigilant - Watchful; circumspect; attentive to discover and avoid danger, or to provide for safety.
Be free from drunkenness and every form of excess, remain calm, mild, collected, self control and even tempered in mind and action and be watchful, circumspect, attentive to discover and avoid danger because your adversary is trying to take you out.
Resist the devil who goes about to steal, to kill and to destroy.
What are we resisting? We are resisting that which steals, kills and destroys. We are resisting the devil who goes about like a roaring lion to destroy whatever he can.
Resist the devil by being steadfast in faith because he is looking for the weak. Being steadfast in faith is (believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth God’s word. The word of Gods is near you, in your heart and in your mouth; this is the word of faith which we preach. Romans 10:8-10).
Understand that all believers suffer the same attacks and temptations from our adversary so be sober and vigilant in the faith.
Pray for others as Paul prays. May the God of all grace, who called us to His glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile…
Let’s stop right there.
Why, “After you have suffered awhile”? Suffering has a purpose.
If we were not to have struggles, we would not need faith.
Will you need faith in heaven?
In this world you shall have tribulation.
Persecution comes for the Word’s sake.
The evil comes immediately to steal the word that is sown in your heart.
If you keep God’s word near you, in your heart and in your mouth, you will see His salvation manifest in your life after you have suffered awhile.
After you have suffered awhile...
Be of good cheer I have overcome the world.
This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.
Resist the adversary who is trying to devour you and take you out.
After you have suffered awhile, God will perfect you.
You will be Made complete as you stand in the day of trouble.
Stand therefore, and having Done all keep standing. Remain steadfast in the faith.
As you stay in faith in the midst of trial, persecution, tribulation or suffering, your faith is completing you. Looking unto Jesus The author and finisher of your faith. Finisher is perfecter and completer.
What is lacking in you is being filled in by your steadfast faith as you keep His Word in your heart and in your mouth while you are suffering.
God will establish you.
In due season God will exalt you. When is the due season?
It comes at a time when your faith is strong and you are complete. Completion comes before establishing. He fills in the missing pieces and this completion makes us able to be established as a permanent fixture unable to be moved. 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NKJV): Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Strengthened with might (dunamis) or filled with the power of God - strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man Col. 1:11, Eph 3:16
Settle means to bring you to a place of outward calm and peace.
Every one of these words are what takes place in your life when you walk by faith and overcome adversity.
And God does this in our life when we walk by faith for His own glory and dominion in the earth. God glorifies those who walk by faith so that His dominion is established in the earth.
Gods Word is alive and powerful so we who have received righteousness through faith will reign in life through the one Christ Jesus.
When God's dominion is established in me, I can establish His dominion in whatever I have been given authority to influence.
Two prayers of Apostle Paul for believers. Take these prayers, personalize, memorize, and pray them daily over yourself and those you care for.
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14–19, NKJV)
“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:9–14, NKJV)