YOUR CHOICE

 

Victory or Defeat Comes From God

Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly; and David said: "Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.  Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty;  For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;  Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all.  Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all.  In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all. 1 Chronicles 29:10-12

"The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up.  The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,  To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. "For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, And He has set the world upon them.  He will guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent in darkness. "For by strength no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; From heaven He will thunder against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth.  "He will give strength to His king, And exalt the horn of His anointed." 1 Samuel 2:6-10

Salvation, healing, deliverance, miracles and victories come from God and not from men or their different methods.  And David knew this to be true and he would most of time inquire of the LORD as to what to do about His enemies and the Lord would tell him including "Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?" And He answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." (1 Samuel 30:8). Then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim. Therefore David inquired of the LORD, and He said, "You shall not go up; circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.  "And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the LORD will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines."  And David did so, as the LORD commanded him; and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer. (2 Samuel 5:22-25)

Yes David, just like Hannah knew from experience, that The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. He brings low and lifts up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. They knew for by strength no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them.

So obviously if anyone doesn’t inquire from the LORD He will not have victory. But unfortunately for many Christians they are not hearing from the LORD but from deceiving spirits as they have no real discernment as they are not praying in the Spirit!

And you can pray until you drop dead but if God says no you will not have your desired answer because God looks at and deals with the heart of man and not just his words and deeds!  Both Judas and Peter betrayed Jesus but Judas was not forgiven while Peter was.  We see this in the statements Jesus made about these men:

"The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born." Mark 14:21

And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  "But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."  But he said to Him, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death." Then He said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me." Luke 22:31-34

"Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:11-12

And God also sees your motives and the evil people you associate just like He saw and knew about Korah:

Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them,  and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods.  So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.  Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, "Lest the earth swallow us up also!"  And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense. Numbers 16:31-35

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Jude 1:5

Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, "to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."  These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. Jude 1:11-16

If God says “woe to you” because you are a grumbler, complainer, walking according to  your  own lusts you are in deep trouble and require immediate totally repentance or else your due reward will be destructive? God’s word is true:

"But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.

Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets. Luke 6:24-26

"But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

"Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them." Luke 11:42-44

Jesus the epitome of love and character didn’t go around blessing people with words. He didn’t bless the religious and political leaders of His day but cursed them. ‘Woe to you’ doesn’t mean something good is going to happen to you.  He called them all kinds of names including hypocrites, murderers, serpents, brood of vipers, liars, blind guides, sons of hell, etc. He told them they would not escape the condemnation of hell (Matthew 23:15, 33, Luke 11:24-25, 23:38-31) and they didn’t!

The bible tells us what when God spoke as a result of His word heaven and earth came into existence? In other words, when God speaks a miracle happens? But not all of God's miracles are positive ones as Pharaoh and his mighty army can testify when God parted the Red Sea and closed it on His enemies! When Jesus spoke miracles also happened because He is God. So what happened when Jesus spoke to the false ones of His day and our day and said "Woe to you?" They died in the judgments that followed in 70 A.D. at the hands of God's other ministers, the Romans, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil (Romans 13:4).

But when it came to the poor and needy Jesus attitude and approach to such as these was completely different.  The bible says of Jesus ‘A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; And in His name Gentiles will trust’ (Matthew 12:20-21). He demonstrated His love for them by His miracle deeds. He healed the blind and cleansed the lepers. He was and is very kind and compassionate towards those who are poor and needy and need a miracle. When he saw a bereaving widow whose only son had died, he had compassion and brought the son back to life and presented him to his mother (Luke 7:12-15). When He saw a great multitude, He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick (Matthew 9:36, 14:14). When the blind men asked for healing, He had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him (Matthew 20:30-34).

Yes, Jesus Christ loved the poor and didn’t cast them aside like others have done. He healed their sick, cleansed their lepers, raised their dead, and cast out their demons. But he didn’t have nice things to say to the rich and powerful even if it was King Herod. The bible records:

On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You."  And He said to them, "Go, tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.' Luke 13:31-32

Jesus Christ was not and never will be a respecter of persons and doesn’t show partiality to any one including the rich and mighty. As a matter of fact the Word of God’s tells us it’s sin to show partiality and to be a respecter of persons. God’s word is unchanging:

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.  For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,  and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place,"  and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?  If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well;  but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.  For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:1-13

EXTRACT FROM In The Time Of Trouble
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