Continuation from Part 1
Enemy #4: Not walking in love
Enemy #5: Hardness of Heart
Enemy #6: Ignorance of the Word of God
Enemy #7: Feelings of Unworthiness
Enemy #8: The battle of the mind / intellect
ENEMY #4: NOT WALKING IN LOVE (AGAPE LOVE)
Did you know that the bible says in Galatians 5:6 that faith works by love? If you do not walk in love your faith will not work because God is love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
Pray and ask God to help you to walk in love, ask Him to show you how to see people the way God sees them and to love them the same way He does.
SOLUTION
We are all capable of walking in love all the time. God lives inside of us and He is love. The God kind of love lives inside of us. It is a fruit of the spirit.
Walking by love means to deny the tendencies of your flesh and choose to be governed by love instead. The closer your relationship with God is, the easier it will be to walk in love.
ENEMY #5: HARDNESS OF HEART
The hardness of heart can have many manifestations. Here are a few:
- pride and selfishness
- self-justifying spirit
- prejudice, pre-judgment
- closing ourselves off from God and from others
- being cynical or skeptical
- unforgiveness
- spiritual blindness and self-deception
- absence of a loving and compassionate spirit
Hebrews 3:8-15 says.
8Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
SOLUTION
The walls that you build for your protection are the walls that separate you from God. Tear those walls down, come closer to God and ask Him to soften your heart. Keep your mind focus on God and His word.
ENEMY #6: IGNORANCE OF THE WORD OF GOD
God tells us in His Bible that His people perish for the lack of knowledge.
Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
The most common reason for unbelief is ignorance of what the Word of God has to say on a subject. Sometimes this happens because of wrong teachings or because we don’t study the Bible ourselves.
If we are going to believe it is important that we know the scriptures ourselves. It needs to be our revelation and not the revelation of others.
SOLUTION
Read and study the word of God. But before you do, take time to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you knowledge and revelation of His Word.
Be very careful to who you listen to. If what your pastor preaches or what you hear on the TV or the radio does not align with what the Word of God says then don’t listen to it.
Be led by The Spirit, He is our helper, and He will let you know when something you are listening to is not right.
ENEMY #7: FEELINGS OF UNWORTHINESS
Guilt, condemnation, and feelings of unworthiness are major enemies of our faith.
The devil will always come to accuse you and remind you of all the wrong things you have done. He is, after all the accuser of the brethren.
Romana 8:1 declares; “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”.
SOLUTION
The Bible tells us that we are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. You are not righteous because of how spiritual you are. You are not righteous because you are a good person. You are not righteous because you pray and read the bible.
You are righteous because Jesus’s sacrifice made you so. When you believe this, your faith is accounted for righteousness.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
When thoughts of unworthiness pop in your head you need to cast them down and replace them with what the Word of God says about you.
2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “…Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”.
ENEMY #8: THE MIND / A PERSON’S INTELLECT
The mind is powerful and sometimes it is an enemy of faith. The natural mind cannot comprehend the things of the spirit. The mind cannot understand the mysteries of God.
Mental agreement is trying to have faith with our mind but that doesn’t work. Faith must come from the heart.
SOLUTION
You need to renew your mind with the Word of God. If you don’t renew your mind, then your mind will always confront the things of the spirit.
Romans 12:2 declares, “And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be [c]transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you]”.
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