Fight The Good Fight Of Faith
By Pastor Steve Maile
1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1 Peter 3:15 NKJV
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
The Gospel of the Kingdom is all about fighting, the Kingdom of God is against the devil and his evil forces and the reason we fight is to battle for souls to come to Christ. When you are born again, you are born into the fight. Are you fighting or have you disqualified yourself? The safest place to be is in the battle because passivity will kill your faith. But remember you cannot fight if you are un-sanctified, persisting in an area of a besetting sin disqualifies you from moving forward in the Lord.
A- Sanctify the Lord in our heart
As we read in 1 Peter, we must sanctify the Lord in our hearts. The new believer needs to allow his nature to be sanctified because being saved does not necessarily mean we walk in sanctification, there are things we need to do in order to allow the Holy Spirit to continue working in our lives. Sanctification is a daily process and it requires diligence. As we feed on God’s Word, God’s truth begins to cleanse us from ungodly things in our lives.
B- Be ready to share the Gospel
The passage in 1st Peter continues saying: Be ready to give a defence of the Gospel, people will notice by the way you conduct yourself and communicate that we have hope and they will enquire of us and we need to be ready to answer them. We don’t stay silent and wait for them to ask us, they will ask us because we are vocal about it.
“Super spiritual” Christians will use the excuse of only evangelising when they feel led by the Spirit, there is some truth in that statement, but it is not to be used to avoid evangelism all the time, just because you don’t feel like sharing your faith. Sadly many use this truth to excuse their feelings so they don’t have to evangelise, we are to give a defence to everyone not just some people that we feel led to.
C- Learn to fight
Every morning we wake up there are three enemies we need to fight, the devil, the world and our own flesh. Learn to fight on your own but we are not to fight alone. God has designed for us to be part of a local Church, you need to be planted and establish there, attending church doesn’t mean that you are planted. You are happiest in the fight when you are doing what the Lord Jesus called you to do and when you are following Him and His ways.
The Bible tells us to fight the good fight of faith, it’s a good fight because we have the victory assured, Jesus won the battle for us and the Holy Spirit in us is greater than the spirit in the world. We are not defeated as long as we get back in the fight! Remember we fight from a place of victory.
The Lord has given us weapons to engage in battle and they are very powerful, every soldier carry weapons, and the weapons are there for us to use them not just admire them.
1. The word of God
2. The Blood of Jesus
3. The Name of Jesus
4. The Spirit’s Language
5. Praise and worship
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NKJV
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”
Prayer is fighting, we need to pray and intercede and fight and pray for the breakthrough, we must pursue the Lord with all of our hearts, find His will in His Word and pray those promises. Praying not knowing if we will win, it’s not faith. We will win because Jesus already won, don’t give up and don’t give in. Fight for the salvation of your loved ones, fight in prayer for your pastors, many do not pray for their pastors.
Pray over the prophesies that have been spoken over your life and pray them into being. Fight through into victory and pray in the Spirit! The real reason many cannot fight is because they are not clean. It’s time to repent and forsake sin and get into the fight now.
We have got to press into the Lord, we have to prevail in prayer, praying for more of Him, more of His Kingdom and more of His truth.
Breaking influences of the world, protecting our children.
By Pastor Karina Maile
1 Peter 4: 17 NKJV
“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
We are living in the dispensation of grace, salvation, forgiveness of sins and infilling of the Holy Spirit, but only for those who will repent and turn to the Lord. There is a judgement coming that will come to the whole world and it will begin in His Church with His children. This is a judgement for restoration unlike the Final Judgement, where it will be too late to try to amend your ways. Therefore, we must be thankful to the Lord for this judgement starting in His house, as it will expose the hidden sins of men and woman in order for them to repent and get right with God.
In the beginning after salvation we would cry out of thankfulness remembering God’s amazing grace in which He saved us but after a while we could be in danger of becoming complacent and loose that first love we had for the Lord. God warned Israel of this danger before entering into the Promised Land as Deuteronomy 4:25-28 MSG tells us, “When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in GOD ’s eyes and provoking his anger—I can tell you right now, with Heaven and Earth as witnesses, that it will be all over for you. You’ll be kicked off the land that you’re about to cross over the Jordan to possess. Believe me, you’ll have a very short stay there. You’ll be ruined, completely ruined. GOD will scatter you far and wide; a few of you will survive here and there in the nations where GOD will drive you. There you can worship your homemade gods to your hearts’ content, your wonderful gods of wood and stone that can’t see or hear or eat or smell.” Could it be that this problem of complacency and idolatry was only for the Israelites only? Unfortunately not, even though we are in a better Covenant, many still loose their first love for the Lord and get mix up with the spirit of this world and begin to make idols for themselves, blessings given from the Lord have now taken the first place in their hearts. Many Christians put career, family, friends, culture, fashion, fitness, intellect, talents as idols in their lives, they are too many to mention all. The influence we allow the world to have over us will ruin us. How much do you listen to the world? And how much do you listen to the Lord (through the truth of His Word)?
A- Be not deceived
2 Thessalonians 2: 3 NKJV
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition”
We could think we are very good Christians trying our best, but our opinion is not important, what matters is what the Lord thinks, at the End of Time will be only His opinion that will count. The Lord will judge the living and the dead but right now He is extending mercy to us, we must come to Him with humility and ask Him what He really thinks of our lives. Let Him show you if you are doing well or not. Our prayer should be:”Lord open the eyes of my heart to see your truth”
In the 2 Thessalonians passage we are told not to allow anyone to deceive us because the appearing of the Lord Jesus will happen, but before it happens many profess Christians will turn their back to God, His Word and His ways. This is the big apostasy, the falling away of believers and leaders from the faith to live in the flesh and do what they want to do and not what God says.
Our faith will be tested just like the people of Israel were tested in the Promised Land,
Deuteronomy 13:1-4 MSG tells us, “When a prophet or visionary gets up in your community and gives out a miracle-sign or wonder, and the miracle-sign or wonder that he gave out happens and he says, “Let’s follow other gods” (these are gods you know nothing about), “let’s worship them,” don’t pay any attention to what that prophet or visionary says. GOD, your God, is testing you to find out if you totally love Him with everything you have in you. You are to follow only GOD, your God, hold Him in deep reverence, keep His commandments, listen obediently to what He says, serve Him—hold on to Him for dear life!” There is only one way acceptable to serve the Lord and it’s to love Him with all of your heart, strength and mind, any less than that we will be disqualified from the faith. The test will come but we will overcome if we hold fast to Christ no matter what.
B- Don’t be silent
In 2 Timothy 4:1-5 NKJV says,“I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.” Pastors and leaders are commanded by the Lord to preach the Word, to exhort, convince, and rebuke the people to stay in sound doctrine, because all doctrines are not good. There are erroneous doctrines leading people astray. Watch out, stay alert and stay planted in the Church. Warn others and don’t keep silent, you could be the only person they have to hear the truth of salvation. Don’t let the fear of man hold you back from telling others the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 1:17 NKJV tells us, “You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s.” Pride is hidden behind the fear of man, people are terrified more by what others think of them than what God thinks of them. This should not be so. God is the judge, fear Him!
C- Protect the children
Deuteronomy 11:18-21 MSG
“Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that GOD promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.”
It is so important that godly parents are the main influence on their children’s lives. But if the parents are not sold out to the Lord and not really committed to Christ and His Kingdom, their children will not be either. Reinhard Bonnke used to say: “if you are on your way to hell don’t expect your children to go to heaven,” why? Because they will copy what you do. Children are given by the Lord to us to instruct them in God’s way, as Proverbs 22:6 NKJV says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” If children spend most of their day in secular schools being taught by unsaved teachers, and then at home they spend hours in front of screens playing games, watching cartoons and movies that are not godly. And if the parents don’t take them to church every week and their highlight is their holidays doing fun things and very little is mention about God, don’t be shocked if later on they don’t want to follow the Lord.
We must protect our children and not let the spirit of this world affect them and take them to hell.
In Song of Solomon 8:8-9 MSG says, “My brothers used to worry about me: “Our little sister has no breasts. What shall we do with our little sister when men come asking for her? She’s a virgin and vulnerable, and we’ll protect her. If they think she’s a wall, we’ll top it with barbed wire. If they think she’s a door, we’ll barricade it.”What does these verses mean? First, let’s read it in another version, (TPT) “My brothers said to me when I was young, “Our sister is so immature. What will we do to guard her for her wedding day?” We will build a tower of redemption to protect her. Since she is vulnerable, we will enclose her with a wall of cedar boards. But now I have grown and become a bride, and my love for him has made me a tower of passion and contentment for my beloved. I am now a firm wall of protection for others, guarding them from harm. This is how he sees me—I am the one who brings him bliss, finding favour in his eyes.”
These verses mean exactly that, we need to protect our children, they are vulnerable, we need to take responsibility for them and guard them from secularism. Whatever it takes, we must fight in the spirit for them, we must surround them with godly influences, we must continually talk to them about the Lord, pray with them, read the Bible with them. If we marry it must be for the purposes of God, if we have children it must be for the purposes of God, so those children can be a light to their generation. Do all you can to train them in God’s way, homeschool if necessary but don’t let them be lost. Keep yourself on fire for Jesus and you will reproduce after your own kind.
Psalm 127:3-4 NKJV
“Behold, children are a heritage and gift from the LORD, The fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth.”
Isaiah 8:18 AMP
“Listen carefully, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders [that will occur] in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.”
Dear brother and sister in Christ, repent and renew your first love for the Lord, put Him and His Kingdom first, many are watching you and they are being influenced by you. Be the carrier of the Good News of the Gospel, lead others to Christ and you decide that as for yourself and your household will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)