Resist

Several nights ago Mike woke me up as I was stirring from a bad dream. I'm not a good enough writer to be able to explain the dream but it was very clear to me that the Lord was speaking the word "Resist" to me. I immediately wanted to email several pastor/teacher friends and ask them "What does it mean to resist?" and "How do you do that?" But just as fast as I was ready to grab Mike's iphone to send a note, I felt the Lord say to me "Hey, why don't you ask me?!"

So, I asked the Lord, "How do I resist? What does that look like?" The Holy Spirit took my mind to the scripture in James that says "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Then to the scripture when Jesus was tempted and answered back with the Holy Writ from the Old Testament and Satan fled. As I was laying in bed, now wide awake, I also thought about how the enemy of our souls appeared to Eve in the garden. It occurred to me a difference in her response to the father of lies and Jesus' response to him was that she gave in after the first try.

Here at Trinity, Dave, the pastor is in a sermon series entitled Come Alive steering us to the truth that the only way to be alive in Christ is to be "Word dependent and Spirit empowered". This is confirmation to me that I need to be memorizing The Word again. So I am going to work on a verse for two weeks and commit it to memory. This is especially powerful for me when I am dealing with a specific issue. To plant His truth in my heart for His Spirit to bring to my mind as needed brings victory in my daily life. I've grabbed a couple of verses already and I want to ask you if you'd like to join me.

A helpful technique I learned last year is to write them out on 3x5 spiral bound note cards. Something else I am adding to that this time is to text them to some friends for repetition sake and accountability. There are so many great benefits that come from tucking His words in my soul, but the thing that feels most pressing now is obedience.

The verse I am working on for a present struggle (and gaining victory in) is 1 Corinthians 10:31 "When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God. (CEV)

So how about you? Wanna become "Word dependent, Spirit empowered" and "Resist" with me? Feel free to jump in at your own pace. There is never a moment wasted weaving the gospel into the fabric of our being. Come on, let's watch the devil flee together!