Satan Can't Throw Me!

Alright, I am more than a few days late on this post. It has been one crazy week as I just started student teaching. But it is no matter. God has been doing some awesome things, and I hope to be able to offer even more to people as a result.

Last week I posted about living in the state of forgiveness and how it allows you to love people extravagantly. Only a God as awesome as ours would wage war using weapons like forgiveness and love. This week, I want to add onto that a little bit.

In John 14:30,31 Jesus let's us in on something big. He says, "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me."

He just said Satan has nothing in Him. Some translations say that he has "no part in Me", "no power over Me", or "no hold on Me."

I like the way Bill Johnson recounts this verse, "Satan has tried to get a hold on me, but he can't find any handles."

Last week I talked about how sin actually doesn't separate us from God, but it creates thoughts in our minds and hearts that make us not join in unity with Him. Why? It creates fear and doubt in our minds. We start thinking God woudln't want us if we aren't doing things right. A secret I use when those thoughts pop up in my mind is that He is love, perfect love, and that perfect love casts out all fear. (1 Jn. 4:18)

So how does Jesus find that He doesn't have any handles for Satan to grab onto? "I want to show the world I love the Father, so I do exactly what He commands me." A couple things here. We often are caught up in wanting the world to know the love of the Father. But here Jesus actually says He is concerned with the world knowing that He loves the Father!! How do people know if someone is a good dad? Their kids love them!!

The second thing is that He says He proves this by doing what the Father commands. This isn't just saying He doesn't do what He isn't supposed to, but He does what He is supposed to. When we do what we know in our hearts we should, we keep from doing other things and becoming lazy. We also protect ourselves from feeling any guilt or shame.

So my two big take aways are this:

1) We cannot let fear and doubt accompany us to battle. They aren't for us. My trainer would never allow someone to walk me into the ring who is constantly saying, "I don't know, Justin. This guy is big. I don't know if you can win." NO!!! You only let people accompany you to battle who are encouraging you and feeding you positively.

2) What an awesome picture to not have any handles to grab onto. When we live in obedience, and live in a place where relationship with God is top priority, it is impossible for the enemy to touch us. He tries to throw me, but he can't get a grip to do it. I just imagine Satan and his demons are like, "Man, we keep trying to do everything to this guy, but all he cares about is growing closer to God. We've tried taking away things in his life, but he didn't care. We even tried making him feel worthless, but it just made Him turn to God again. We can't throw this guy."

So my encouragement this week is to live in complete obedience. Jesus conquered sin and death, so we don't need to have any part with them. All they do is cause us to question ourselves. But we have been given life and freedom in Christ!! We live from glory to glory!! Get rid of everything that causes fear and doubt, and lean into relationship with God!!

I do want to share that I have been making certain goals to further the Kingdom. These goals have been giving me awesome experiences. Even while I am at work I have been able to bless people and be blessed in return. Most of all, it is helping me to learn how to walk with God. I am hoping to use this as an extra blog post each week to give very practical things that I am learning that you can use anywhere and watch God work through you to further the Kingdom everyday. Hope to post that in the next couple days. Blessings to everyone!!