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.).
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Abiding
The Death before the Death [podcast]

Gethsemane Preceded Calvary
“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:42-44
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
“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
“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. 25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” Luke 9:23-25

Shall We Freshly Declare the Cross to be Front and Center in our Personal Lives?
“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
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Abiding
“Rend Your Heart, and Not Your Garments” [podcast]

Who Does God Look to? Who Does God Dwell in?
Beware of any man pretending to represent Christ who isn’t praying and preaching for you to be possessed by a humble and contrite heart.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
“‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). A low condition. ‘Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:4). To mourn over our sin and our utter wickedness before a holy and righteous God. Those are the ones who will receive the comfort and ‘joy in the Holy Ghost’ (Romans 14:17).” Karen Cochran
Abandoning Our Own Sin, Our Own Way, for God and His Better Way!
To “rend your heart” is a biblical phrase meaning to tear open your heart in radical sincerity, true humility, and genuine repentance.
The phrase comes from Joel 2:13 in the Bible: “Rend your heart and not your garments and return to the Lord your God.”
One source notes the following:
“Context and Deeper Meaning:
- Cultural Background: In ancient times, the Jewish people would tear (rend) their clothes as a public, highly visible display of grief or repentance.
- The Spiritual Message: God is warning that outward rituals (like ripping clothing) are meaningless if the heart remains unchanged. Rending your heart implies breaking through your pride, letting go of excuses, and being completely vulnerable and authentic before God.
- The Reward: The verse goes on to say that God is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” Tearing open your heart allows you to experience His forgiveness and restore your relationship with Him.”
To see an example of rending one’s physical garment in representation of rending their heart, see Acts 14:11-18.
Where is the LORD Looking?
“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God” Joel 2:12-14
“What a gracious invitation is contained in these words. How tenderly the Lord reasons with his people. And what an encouraging assurance it folds up with. Reader! do not fail to observe that this call of the Lord, the accompanying grace to incline the heart to the observance of it is implied. It is most blessed ever to remember that when the Lord thus comes forth in his endearing invitations, he is secretly inclining the heart to accept them. Grace must first enter the heart, or there will be no inclination to obey.” Robert Hawker
“Jeremiah’s message was never meant to leave the heart in despair. Every warning from God carried an invitation to return. The Lord does not expose empty religion to shame His people, but to heal them. Repentance is not the loss of hope, it is the beginning of hope. Christ still receives every soul that comes with humility, and He gives living faith where there was only habit, peace where there was only fear, and joy where there was only emptiness. The call remains the same today, to draw near to Him with a sincere heart, trusting that His mercy is always greater than our weakness.” Dan Blincoe
A Fresh Start with God Always Begins with Humility and True Repentance
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?” Joel 2:12-14
Concerning rending our hearts before the LORD, one source notes:
The classic Bible passage on this concept is Joel 2:13, where God commands: “Rend your heart and not your garments”. In ancient biblical culture, tearing (or “rending”) one’s physical clothing was a customary, visible display of extreme grief, despair, or repentance. Through the prophet Joel, God is essentially telling His people: Stop doing the empty, outward religious ritual of tearing your clothes to show everyone how sorry you are. Instead, let me see true, inward brokenness over your sins.
Examples of Rending Physical Garments
In the Bible, the physical act of tearing clothes was used as a dramatic expression of deep emotion in several well-known narratives:
- Joseph’s Brothers (Genesis 37:29, 34): When Reuben realized Joseph was not in the pit, and later when the brothers brought Joseph’s blood-stained coat to Jacob, they tore their clothes in grief and despair.
- Job (Job 1:20): After hearing that he had lost all his wealth and his children, Job stood up and tore his robe as an outward sign of his overwhelming sorrow.
- King David (2 Samuel 1:11-12): When David received news of the deaths of King Saul and Jonathan, he and his men tore their clothes to mourn.
- The High Priest (Matthew 26:65): In a dramatic display of hypocritical outrage, the high priest tore his own garments when Jesus declared He was the Son of God, falsely accusing Him of blasphemy.
The Spiritual Meaning of “Rending the Heart”
The concept of “rending the heart” contrasts an outward show with inward reality.
- Genuine Repentance: Tearing your heart means being vulnerable, acknowledging your brokenness, and deeply repenting of sin before God.
- Prioritizing Relationships over Rituals: God desires a sincere heart—true sorrow and a desire to change—more than he desires traditional religious pageantry or dramatic, public displays of grief.
- The Promise of Forgiveness: In Joel 2:13, the command to rend the heart is immediately followed by the promise of grace: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love”.
God sees beyond our external habits and religious actions, requiring instead a humble, contrite heart to fully experience His mercy.”
God’s Mercy
“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?” Joel 2:12-14
In God’s Word, where we see men who tear open their garments…. This holds the illustration of rending our hearts before the LORD.
Don’t render outward tearing, no, rather, tear open your inner man, your heart—be honest, sincere, exposed, and vulnerable to the LORD whom you trust.
Let’s attempt to get at, to ascertain what God is commanding of His beloved people to do in this “rend your heart” passage.
“Joel 2:13: Rend your heart—Let it not be merely a rending of your garments, but let your hearts be truly contrite. Merely external worship and hypocritical pretensions will only increase the evil, and cause God to meet you with heavier judgments.
For he is gracious—Good and benevolent in his own nature.
Merciful—Pitying and forgiving, as the effect of goodness and benevolence.
Slow to anger —He is not easily provoked to punish, because he is gracious and merciful.
Of great kindness—Exuberant goodness to all them that return to him.
And repenteth him of the evil—Is ever ready to change his purpose to destroy, when he finds the culprit willing to be saved. See the notes on Exo_34:6, Exo_34:7.” Adam Clarke
“Joel 2:12-14: III. DIVINE APPEAL TO JUDAH TO REPENT (2:12-14)
Even now, the LORD calls the people to repentance. It is not too late to return to Him. But it must be more than outward ritual. Their turning was to be with all their heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
To rend our hearts is the consistent message, mandate of God to His people of all ages and eras.
“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalms 34:18
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Psalms 51:17
In Joel 2 the LORD reminds those who are backslidden that He “is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? …”
They must meet His stated conditions to receive His blessings ….
He promises that He will forgive them as they…..
“Joel 2:12-27: THE AVERTING OF JUDGMENT
To rend the garment is easy, but a broken and contrite heart can be imparted only by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The love of God should bring us to repentance. He takes no pleasure in our miseries and if men repent and turn from their sin they find an immediate and loving welcome to the Father’s heart and home. Joel had called for the trumpet to announce war; he now directs the trumpet blast to summon the people, from the highest to the lowest, to plead for help. Prayer and true repentance and faith bring an immediate answer. As the husband yearns over his erring but repentant wife, and is indignant with those who have maltreated her, so will Jehovah remove from us, when we turn to Him, those who have cruelly oppressed us.
The great things Jehovah did against Egypt and Babylon are an earnest of what He will do again. The earth (and all the creation of God) … have good reason to rejoice in what awaits them. God promises not only to forgive sin, but to make us happy and well provided as if the locust and cankerworm had never settled upon our lives.” FB Meyer
Religious hypocrites, counterfeits, emphasize the outward to cover their inner darkness, rebellion.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Matthew 23:23-25
“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Mark 7:6
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Abiding
Have We Misunderstood Why Christians Meet Together? [video]

“We’ve created a whole culture of Christians who are just known for going to church.” Dr Wadsworth!
“It is hard to convince a man (modern pastor) he is wrong when his livelihood ($) depends on not knowing he is wrong.” Unknown

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