Triumphing Through Fiery Trials

In a recent blog we discussed "faith under fire" Our faith is the most valuable and precious thing that we have going for us. It stands to reason that the enemy is all about getting it shipwrecked in our lives. Think about what the bible says "In the last days MANY shall DEPART from the FAITH(1 Tim 4:1) We cannot depart from something that we were not first in. Now notice the phrase "last days" These are in deed the times that we are currently in the midst of. Its a day like never ever before to be sober and vigilant! In the "faith under fire" blog we discussed a number of things that our faith is to do. Faith is not suprised, faith speaks, faith rejoices, and faith is persistent! The Lord has ministered to me a few more that will enable him to turn trial to triumph in our lives. Number one, Excercise authority. Jesus said that ALL power(Aka AUTHORITY) has been given unto me in Heaven and in Earth, GO YE THEREFORE(Matt 28:18,19) Lets zero in on the phrase "Go ye therefore" To give you a picture of what hes saying in this verse, consider a track meet involving long distance runners. The first runner goes a certain distance, than passes the baton to the next one. When Jesus made this statement there was a "passing of the baton" to the body of Christ! Its now up to us to excercise appropriate and apply this authority daily. Think about a police officer, hes just a man. He doesent have any power to stop a car traveling in the middle of a road within himself. His authority comes from the government backing him up who gave him that authority. Were able to tell the devil, trials and tests to "talk to the hand" not because of WHO we are, but by WHOSE we are and the authority it represents! You see we represent HIM on this earth. The bible says that were Christs ambassadors(2 Cor 5:20) The boc is like the very representation of Jesus Christ! The thing is through many people when they get into the midst of a fiery trial, the last thing they do is excercise their authority. They ask God why? They feel bad for themselves wallowing in self pity. We must remember that a pity party is one party that no one will show up for! Unless we use our authority, we'll loose our authority! No onelse can excercise it for us. Its like we have to be ready to dance with the devil in the pale moon light! Recall what we said be more persistent than the enemy. Jesus said the thief cometh to steal, kill, and destroy(John 10:10) Oh yeah, make no mistake about it, satan is like "mission minded" and goal oriented. We must be willing to endure by our excercising this mighty authority until hes G.O.N.E.! The bible says Submit yourself therefore unto God, RESIST the devil and HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU(Jms 4:7) YOU is the undertood subject of the whole verse. Always be ready for a counter attack. Jesus in the midst of the advasary's assualt said IT IS WRITTEN! The best defense is a good offense. Number two, Examination. Its tough for the Lord to get us out of something that we have placed ourselves in! The children of Isreal were delivered from Egypt in one day, but it took forty years to get egypt OUT of them. The Lord said to me one time "Brian most of the trials you've been in have been "self inflicted" Is that true of you? When we sow bad seed, we cannot always pray for a crop failure! The law of seedtime and harvest is more powerful than gravity and lift. We must be willing to "check ourselves before we WRECK ourselves" Do a chekup from the neck up. Ask yourself before God the hard questions. How bout our words, actions, & deeds? Refuse to be the next contestent on the blame game. There is one person that we can never ever get away from and thats you and its me! If we want a change, we have to make a change. Its been said before "Gods more into changing us before the circumstance." Lets be like David Search me o God and see if there be any wicked thing in me(Psalm 139:23,24) Third, Enter into joy. Joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is a feeling, joy is a force! Joy is not going to come upon us like ripe cherries falling from a tree. It has to be entered into. God said through the mouth of the apostle James COUNT it all joy when you encounter tests and trials, for the trying of our faith worketh patience, let patience have its perfect work that you'll be perfect and entire lacking nonething(Jms 1:2-4) The word count means to consider. In other words theres nonething joyful about a fiery trial thats like hey "YAY" look at me, Iam in a trial! Right? The thing is its our counting it joy that causes a caterpolting out of the trial. The bible says we must stand in "THE EVIL DAY"(Eph 6:13) The evil day can be described as a trial. It takes strength to stand strong. The bible says the joy of the Lord IS OUR STRENGTH!(Neh 8:10) "Its NOT about what were going through, its ALL about where hes taking us too." The next one is Encouragement. The bible exorts us to ENCOURAGE one another daily(Heb 3:13) Heb 10:25 declares ENCOURAGE one another EVEN MORE AS THE DAY APPROACHES. What day? The great and terrible day of the Lord. Great for those that know the Lord, terrible for those that don't. How powerful can words of encouragement be? Heavyweight boxer Muhummad Ali litterally paid for a dude to simply speak over him words of encouragement. He said himself that it was paramount to his success. Please listen, its imperative to ours too! The apostle Paul himself sought for the encouragement of Titus while in Troas(2 Cor 2:12,13) In other words, we'll never outgrow the need of a heavy dose of encouragement. There will be times you will have to be your own. This happened in the life of David in Ziklag. While he and his men of war were out to battle, the amelekites came in and totally ramsacked the city. They burned the homes, stole the possessions and kidnapped wives and children. It was single handily the worst day of Davids life. To make matters worse his own men that he had taken under his wing marshalling them into a mighty army turned agaist him. Is this true of you? People you thought were for you and on your side, turning on you. What did David do? The most powerful thing that any of us can do, HE ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD(1 Sam 30:6) That flap of flesh hiding behind the enamal fense in our mouth was given to build not break! The bible says BUILDING YOURSELVES up on your most holy faith(Jude 20) Not long ago the Lord said Brian, Im the "SPECIALIST" In other words, I specialize in turning trial to triumph, darkness to day, and ashes to beauty! It just hinges upon us cooperating with him in being a doer of these principles and not a hearer only! As we do these things we WILL TRIUMPH THROGH FIERY TRIALS