Ousting the Enemy!
WHO’s READY FOR SOME VICTORY?
Satan only has place when the individual isn’t submitted to God. James 4:7 – memorize.
Your issue is with the God you have sinned against, and not me, a mere messenger of His. Blaming everyone except the sinner who caused your separation from your Maker will only dig yourself deeper in misery. The sin you are living in has given full control of your life to Satan who has come “to steal, to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). The following information will equip you to know what the LORD requires of you to be back into His graces, in a vital union with the Savior.
Sin and Satan were defeated by Jesus when He died and sin and Satan are defeated in our lives as we submit to the LORD in dying, laying down our lives so He can reign supreme! (Hebrews 2:14-15)
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
Submitting yourself to the LORD means turning back to Him in repentance and putting your whole faith in Christ (Hosea 14:1-2).
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
Following Jesus means trusting Him, obeying, worshipping and loving Him and not yourself any longer. It’s time to change masters.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24
Here our LORD instructed us that if we are going to following Him, we must do so “daily” by way of the cross – the crucified life.
Evading, ignoring the cross is evading victory! (1 Corinthians 15:57)
You are only a threat to Satan and his kingdom as the explosive resurrection power of Christ is raising you upward out of the posture of death and burial! (2 Corinthians 4:10-12)
Embracing the cross – the crucified life – is procuring to yourself the full blessings and victory Jesus died to grant!
“God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.” A.W. Tozer
When you are in the cross, your life is being lived by the grace of and for the glory of Jesus Christ!
The depth you allow God to bury you determines the height of His resurrection, His raising up in your life! (2 Corinthians 4:10-12).
The joy of dying is that it is absolute, it is without exception – that GOD is going to raise you up! (2 Corinthians 4:10-12)
AS long as you are going down – into death and burial – Christ is raising you up!
THERE cannot and will not be victory in and through your personal life until the cross is placed at the center of your personal life (2 Corinthians 4:10-12). Get it brother. Embrace it sister.
The success of your life in Christ is going be according to you’re dying and allowing the LORD to raise you upward! (Luke 9:23-24; John 3:30; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3, etc.)
Either the flesh will crucify Christ out of your life
OR
Christ will crucify the flesh out of your life!
The life of self is death.
The death of self is life.
My own iniquitous “old man” sinful nature shall prevail until the “new man” is “put on” and kept on by the daily cross life! (Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:1-10, etc.)
WE can go nowhere with God outside of the cross – the crucified life! This He ordains so He can raise us upward out of sin and Satan’s grasp.
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Romans 13:14
God has a blessed resurrection gift reserved and waiting for all who are dying downward! It’s time to “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalms 34:8).
The person who’s been born again and yet is not walking in the crucified life – is miserable. Yet those in the cross are full and overflowing with Christ’s resurrection joy! (John 15:11; 16:22)
G.O.D. = Game Over Devil
IF you are not hearing Jesus’ call for you to take up the cross, you are not hearing the unchanging voice of God.
Outside of the cross lifestyle, sin and Satan shall continue to prevail in your personal life. Read Romans 6 each morning this week.
Downward Dying = Upward Rising
“And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:” Isaiah 37:31
WHO are Christ’s “remnant”? What cardinal fruit do they have? – They “take root downward (death and burial)“ and what happens as a result? – They “bear fruit UPWARD.” There’s the cross beloved.
“Though Death”!
Listen closely beloved. Notice that God’s Word tells us here that Jesus defeated the devil by dying!
Jesus conquered, overcame by dying! And, we follow Jesus by doing the same!
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;” Hebrews 2:14
Jesus defeated Satan by dying. Satan’s power is vanquished forever and the performance of such in the individual saint’s life occurs when he dies downward.
If you are not presently crucified with Christ you cannot experience His victory in your personal life.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
From this day forward, child of God, speak this Bible truth aloud from your heart and lips.
UNLEASHING the power of Christ’s cross on the devil and the world around you requires a death and burial of the self-life (2 Corinthians 4:10-12).
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10-12
You can’t be raised out of the grave until you have submitted to the death and burial that puts you there! Selah.
There’s no victory over sin and Satan outside of the cross – period! Yet there’s full and complete victory over sin and Satan via the cross!
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:57-58
Many desire to do the work of Christ and yet are not surrendering to and laboring in Christ’s cross. Let me explain ….
Jesus Christ is LORD Almighty and will reign forever – and He can reign supreme in your personal life – NOW. This is His desire and He made the provision for just this victory!
The position, the posture of victory in Christ’s kingdom is the cross – the downward dying and upward rising!
God will not raise up any person who is not dying downward. Yet He delights to and is awaiting your submission to His cross that He might raise you upward!
The Devil’s days are numbered when the child of God begins to get the revelation of the cross….
IF YOU HAVE A SIN PROBLEM, HERE’S THE REASON: In fact, you can forget EVER having the victory over sin until you submit to God by submitting to the cross (Romans 6, etc.). Just lay it all down today beloved…allow your LORD to have His perfect will and way in your precious life! It’s only then that you will experience His glorious grace in a way that is simply not possible outside of your oneness with Him – abiding in Christ – in the divine economy of the cross.
WHEN you are dead and buried with Christ Satan and sin can’t find you!
“For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Romans 6:7
In Christ’s cross is contained every blessing of God. The blood of His cross procured for His children every beautiful benefit…. including resurrection.
IF YOU are sitting under the teaching of any ministry that is not regularly teaching you the paramount biblical truth that you must die – the cross – you are willingly deceived and are going nowhere with God. You must go down for God to raise you upward (2 Corinthians 4:10-12). There was no shortcut for Jesus, nothing to circumvent the cross, and there’s none for you and me (Luke 22:39-46). We must take this cup – because God requires it so that He can liquidate us and raise us up in His holy image to conform us to the crucified raised up image of His only begotten Son (Romans 8:29).
God sure is speaking to you and He’s saying what He says in His Word – Go down deep into my death and burial and I will raise you upward beloved.
Learning to submit to His cross – embracing and obeying His truth – is the only way to oneness and fruit-bearing abiding victory in Christ (John 15, 17, etc.).
We must run from every cross-less voice – of whom Paul says that their god is their belly (carnal ambitions and appetites) and they are “enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18-19).
ANY man pretending to be representing Christ and yet who does not drill this cross message down into your being, is entertaining, is playing you and making merchandise of you! He’s a fraud. Run! (Philippians 3:18-19; 2 Peter 2:1-3, etc.).
WARNING: Once you get a taste of the glorious raising up of the LORD, you may become addicted!
Obedience to Christ’s message of the cross will make you free and nothing else can (John 8:31-32).
Jesus says that “the truth shall make you free” and when we embrace, we live out the truth of the cross, the crucified life, then and only then shall we be made free and not before (Matthew 16:24-25, etc.). The cross only makes free those who take it up, who do it.
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32
Divine truth only makes those free who obey God, who do His truth.
ANY man who is not in the cross, not presently crucified with Christ, is self-appointed, self-serving, selfish, and in rejection of the Savior – with no exception. Such a man is an “enemy of the cross of Christ” and is operating for his own selfish gratification – “whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)” (Philippians 3:18-19).
“(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)” Philippians 3:18-19
Hint: If he’s not preaching the cross, he’s preaching “another gospel,” is “accursed,” and is not taking up the cross himself (Galatians 1:6-9).
The cross – the crucified life – is an original Gospel imperative and not a mere suggestion (Luke 9:23-24, etc.).
Support | STORE | Podcasts | Prayer | Manhood | The Conquering Cross of Christ [podcast] | The Cross Victory | Sin – Man’s Core Problem


Abiding
The Cross Imperative [podcast]

The cross is not about self effort but rather self denial.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Dear LORD Jesus, please take all of me. Have Your way in this life.
“not my will, but thine, be done.” Luke 22:42
The cross, the blood of Christ’s cross is what He commanded we take up daily in order to follow Him (Colossians 1:20; Luke 9:23-24). The divine economy is a cross economy and that is the only way one can truly walk with the LORD, pleasing Him in all things. Pouring over the words of 2 Corinthians 4:10-12 is an imperative. Also reading Romans 6 each morning this week, prayerfully. Memorize Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14. John 3:30 and Colossians 3:3.
You have to die if Jesus is going to reign in your life (Romans 6).
Most men pretending to represent Christ are so busy telling people how wonderful they are that they don’t have time to preach that Jesus is the only “Wonderful” One and that we are “desperately wicked” without Christ (Isaiah 9:6; Jeremiah 9:17; John 15:5; Romans 3; 7:17, 24, etc.). The few true servants of Christ are known in that they preach the original Gospel of Christ which begins with us repenting, believing upon Christ, and then abiding, remaining in Him by denying self, taking up the cross daily and following the King (Luke 9:23-24; 13:3; John 15, etc).
Remember how Saul served God partially, didn’t count Him important enough to meticulously do His will, exactly how the LORD instructed him? Read 1 Samuel 15. Saul is ousted and so shall every half-baked fake “Christian” who makes excuses for their sins of ommission and commission – because they have not truly repented, flattened themselves before the Almighty. As was the case with Saul, so shall the LORD declare to all rebels – “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” and Hell awaits (Matthew 25:41).
“So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33
Anyone who is not walking the way Christ mandated, the crucified life, is in rebellion.
“And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23
Saul partially obeyed God and the LORD calls this unrepentant fake offering rebellion, sin, witchcraft, stubborness, iniquity, idolatry. Like Cain, Saul and his half truth partial offering to God were rejected.
Jesus says that to follow Him….
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24
Christ mandates your death and His reigning life in you.
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
“Until I embraced the cross, I had no lasting victory! No seed-bearing fruit, like clouds without rain, all promise but dry bones within. Christ will only indwell a vessel emptied of self and only he can give complete salvation to overcome all sin to be enjoyed at the marriage supper of the LAMB. Til then we press in abiding in Jesus, so that he may work in us his great salvation. (John 15; Rom 6; Php. 2; Col. 3; etc.) I die -> He raises me up.” Jon Crane
It seems that some among us have more faith, more confidence in themselves sinning than they do in God being able to forgive and establish them in His righteousness to overcome all sin. Jesus asks, “WHERE is your faith?” (Luke 8:25). It’s time to re-turn to the LORD, afresh, and to learn to apply the cross.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Recently I saw a clip of a pastor saying that the #1 reason God hates sin is because He loves us and sin separates us from Him. While these things are true, what is missing?
Of holiness, one writer profoundly notes:
“Holiness speaks more to nature than it does conduct. Good conduct is the spontaneous byproduct of the new nature of the new creation man through the cross and death to the old nature. We are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17-18). To preach holiness as conduct without the new nature through the cross understanding is legalism. Holiness is actually derived from ‘wholeness’ meaning the thorough transformation of the whole tripartite man (1 Thess. 5:23). So many of these ‘holiness’ preachers are preaching nothing but conduct under law. Law arouses sinful passions and causes sin to increase and was given in order to provoke transgressions (Rom. 7:5; 5:20; Gal. 3:20). They are enemies of the cross!”
#1 reason God hates sin – is not because He loves you…. it’s Because He is holy! (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8; 1 Peter 1:15-16). And yes He loves His people also. It’s time to let Jesus reign in all things and cease making everything about us. HE is first.
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. … We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:9-10, 19
Does sin separate one – anyone – from God? Yes. Did God cease to be holy? No.
“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE SEPARATED BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2
“Death” means separation.
“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:22-23
How do we know if we or others are truly “Christ’s”?
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24
Interesting how we never hear verses, divine mandates – essentials, imperatives – such as the scriptural truth below:
“Awake to righteousness, and sin NOT…” 1 Corinthians 15:34
There are a few ministries which declare “stop all sinning,” etc.. Yet how?
How can we possibly preach holiness, something nearly no pastor does today…. and not be preaching the cross, the crucified life as the only answer?
Yes God mandates, requires, and fully expects each of His people to “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16). Again, how? The crucified life.
The cross and nothing else is the LORD’s solution to overcoming sin. It’s only when God Himself is raising us upward out of the state of death and burial that victory is transpiring in our lives. Saying we are sinless perfection, praying, reading the Bible, going to church, or fellowshipping with other saints, etc. is not the answer. These are all important and yet the cross is the answer to being right with our God. Nothing else is the answer, nothing is the remedy for sin but the cross of Christ and the one He commanded us to take up (Matthew 16:24-25). There is no other divine prescription for victory over sin but the cross. | Sinless Perfectionism Rebuked
Any man pretending to be a representative of Christ and not regularly preaching the crucified life, is a false teacher (Philippians 3:18-19; Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14, etc.). Such a man is not teaching the original Gospel and so is teaching “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6-9).
Make Romans 6 your spiritual meat each morning this week. Read it prayerfully, asking God to teach you His ways.
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4
YOUR PRAYER: Holy Father, I here and now repent of my wicked sin, my rebellion, my unbelief, not trusting You, self-idolatry, and spiritual adultery. Please wash and cleanse me now dear LORD. Fill me with Your Holy Ghost and use me Jesus in this last hour. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Cross Saturation 101 – Get Saturated Here |
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Abiding
Overcoming the Antichrists Among You [podcast]

Anti as in antichrist means in place of: It’s the “spirit of antichrist” working through Satan’s false ministers that robs the glory from Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:12-15; Colossians 1:18; 2:8-10, 18-19; 1 John 4:1-3, etc.).
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” 1 John 2:18
“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” 1 John 2:22
“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:3
“Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” 1 John 2:18-19
anti – a. Against, opposed to. b. Before, predating. c. Usurping, in place of.
“For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” 2 John 1:7
We know when “that spirit of antichrist” is working through a rebel when he speaks contrary to God’s Word (John 8:47; 1 John 4:3). “That spirit of antichrist” – anti (in place of) Christ is anything that contradicts His what God’s Word says, working to subvert divinely stated truth while posing as Christ’s minister (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).
OBSERVATION: Jesus, the prophets, and Christ’s apostles never sought to change or reform the false leaders. They rebuked and exposed them and went about the Father’s kingdom business. See Jeremiah 23; Ezekiel 34; Matthew 15:14; 23; Acts; 2 Peter 2; Jude 1. There was the hope of the false leader repenting yet only after being rebuked (Titus 1:13).
It’s a futile endeavor, a waste of the precious resources of our time and energy.
“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Matthew 15:14
More on Antichrists
Overcoming the Beast Within [podcast] | Support | STORE | Podcasts | Light of the World | Evangelism | Jesus, Light of the Word | Compassion in Light of Christ’s Soon Return | Striving Together for the Faith of the Gospel [podcast] | Prepared to be Used of God | The Return of Christ


Abiding
The Imperative of Private Prayer [podcast]

We must be aware of our prayers we throw up while they have no congruence with our personal life – when they are shot gun prayers void of the foundation of private prayer, private praying, and holy living.
Private prayer with God is an essential to set your life up for success.
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Matthew 6:6
Private prayer is essential to the disciple. Jesus reveals here that those who seek His face in prayer privately, will be used of Him publicly!
Are you at Christ’s feet? Do you live a life of prayer? Have you ever studied the life of Christ and beheld the many instances of His prayer life?
“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Mark 1:35
“Solitary” simply means uninhabited.
If we want to assess our true spiritual state with God, we need only look to our prayer life or lack thereof. Show me a man’s prayer life, and I will show you who that man is! When God is truly first in a person’s life, all else will be demoted in importance!
“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Revelation 2:4-5
Backsliding begins with neglect of our relationship, our prayer life, our life of prayer with our LORD and Savior.
“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41
I will either pray my way into glory, or I will not be there (Matthew 26:41).
“Hebrews 10:22: ‘Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.’ This is how we are to come to God in prayer and fellowship. With a true (honest) heart that has been washed in the pure blood of Jesus, confessing our sins so our conscience is clear, and we are cleansed from the filthiness of the flesh. Then we can come boldly before the throne of grace! Hebrews 4:16.” Karen Cochran
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I return to You now. Please forgive my sin of prayerlessness. Break me LORD. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Moments with Our Master [book] 365 Day Devotional book available at safeguardyoursoul.com/store and amazon. English and Spanish.
See what others are saying about this devotional book.
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