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God is AWESOME!!!

These verses in Philippians are so real to me. When we are instructed to let our requests be made known to God with thanksgiving, it’s a reminder that we need to thank God for our trials even when we are in the midst of them. I can tell you from personal experience how being thankful through trials really opens us up to learn from the trial and grow closer to Christ in the process. I’ve tangibly felt the “peace that passes understanding”, and friends, it’s sooo freeing!!! -Amy The Key to Continued Peace Life Principle 12: Peace with God is the fruit of oneness with God. It’s a known fact that into every life a little rain must fall. No one is exempt from the difficulties that have a way of showing up when we least expect them. And chances are when adversity does strike, one of the first questions we’ll ask ourselves is why. We may even begin to fret about the impact it will have on our lives. While reactions such as these are normal, we also need another response—and that is to turn to the One who holds all comfort and security firmly within His grasp. Paul admonishes us to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). How can we change the feelings of anxiety when we come under pressure? One of the first steps is to recognize anxiety for what it is—the opposite of peace. It’s the fan that flames the fires of doubt and confusion, and it has the ability to leave us helplessly bundled in worry and fear. When we cave to thoughts of anxiety, we lose our spiritual focus and mindset. The key to overcoming anxiety is found only in the presence of God. Accepting God’s timetable and the limitations He places on a given situation help to dispel rising anxiety. Therefore, let Him provide for you in His timing. When you accept life as a gift from the hand of God, there you will find mercy and grace, forgiveness and hope, peace and everlasting security. Let His peace fill your heart—today and every day.

His Promise to Provide Life Principle 11: God assumes full responsibility for our needs when we obey Him. Do you really believe God is able and eager to meet all of your needs? Most people would say yes. But when difficulty comes, problems arise, and sorrow strikes, we often wonder where God is and how we can trust Him. The Lord is not only capable of meeting all of our needs, He also is able to satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts. Some question this reasoning. They say, “I know God is capable of meeting my needs, but will He? Doesn’t He know I’m struggling?” The Lord knows the battle that’s ensuing around your life. And while questions like these are asked by each one of us at some point, we need to learn a deeper principle, and that is how to focus on our faith when we’re under trial. God is committed to meeting our needs, but first He wants to know that we’re committed to living our lives for Him. Faith requires complete trust in Him, even when we don’t understand why He’s allowed circumstances to unfold a certain way. Think of all the people in the Bible who trusted the Lord and gained a wondrous victory: Moses, David, Jeremiah, Elijah, the disciples, Mary, and many more. We should never obey Him merely to manipulate our situation. God knows our hearts. When we’re surrendered to Him, He sees our devotion and goes to work on our behalf. You can count on God’s love, wisdom, power, and grace. He’s never failed you. He’s the God who cares, and He will provide what you need at just the right time. And when He does, it will be abundantly beyond all you imagined.

God Will Show You His Will Life Principle 10: If necessary, God will move heaven and earth to show us His will. God always wants the best for us, and He’s committed to showing us how to follow the specific plan He’s designed for each of our lives. And when we begin to wander from the course God has set for us, He’ll take all kinds of measures to capture our attention and protect us from harm. He has a wide variety of ways to help us take notice, among them: 1. A Restless Spirit Sometimes God gets our attention by making us restless (Est. 6). If you experience restlessness deep within—something you cannot quite identify—stop and pray, “Lord, are You trying to say something to me?” 2. A Spoken Word God also gets our attention by using the words of others. If several people in a short span of time begin telling you the same thing, ask the Lord if He’s trying to speak to you through them. 3. An Unusual Blessing God may bless us in an unusual way to gain our attention. 4. Unanswered Prayer Sometimes God will answer a prayer with “no.” He may remain silent to our prayers as a way of prompting us to examine ourselves. 5. Disappointment The Lord may allow setbacks in our lives to keep us from charting our own course. 6. Extraordinary Circumstances Sometimes God will use extraordinary circumstances to get us to stop and listen. Learn to look for the presence of God in every circumstance of life; He leaves His footprints and handiwork all around us (Ex. 3). 7. Defeat God may use defeat to show us the truth. But even this can prove to be a great stepping-stone to success (Josh. 7). 8. Financial Troubles The nation of Israel fell into idolatry and disobedience in the time of the Judges when “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6). Only when God took away every material belonging did they cry out to Him (Judg. 6:3-6). The Lord knew exactly what it would take to get their attention. The same is true for us. 9. Tragedy, Sickness, and Affliction When King Hezekiah became prideful, God used illness to alert him to the problem (2 Chr. 32:24). When Saul of Tarsus persecuted Christians, God struck him with blindness—a tactic that certainly g

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Fight Your Battles on Your Knees Life Principle 8: Fight all your battles on your knees and you win every time. Faith is saying to God, “I believe You will.” In our battle to overcome the enemy, we might pray this way: “I believe You will defeat the enemy and cause him to flee from me as I resist him and put my trust in You.” Again and again, David made this declaration of faith to the Lord: “O my God, in You I trust” (Ps. 25:2; also 31:6). Perfect faith views the battle as being done and God gaining the victory. When David said, “In You I trust,” he meant: “It is done. Lord, You are perfect in nature. You do all things well. And You have victory over all my enemies.” He had absolute faith in God’s ability. There was no hint of “I hope He will” because David knew it was as good as done. We grow in faith by exercising it, by trusting God in situation after situation, circumstance after circumstance, relationship after relationship. We develop a personal history in which we obey God and He remains faithful in His loving care of us. It’s impossible for you to resist the devil for very long if you don’t believe that Jesus through you can and will defeat the devil. Furthermore, you can remain firm in your faith only when you completely submit to God in all areas of your life. When you refuse to submit a problem or area to the Lord, you’re saying, “I can handle this. I don’t need Your help.” That’s precisely what Satan wants you to do: trust in your ability and not in omnipotent God. It’s also the place where he will level his greatest attack against you! The good news is that God has given each of us a measure of faith to develop. He also gives us the ability to trust Him and surrender our lives to Him. We can stand firm and resist the enemy, but only by the power of God. He’s the One who hears our prayers and rushes to our defense. When we pray, Satan flees.

Many Christians accept that we must engage in ongoing repentance for our constant sinful struggles, and are aware that we must receive ongoing healing for wounds, past and present. However, the notion that Christians could have demonic problems is not only foreign to most believers, but is a downright repugnant suggestion! It’s a common belief in much of the Church that Christians are immune from demonic activity. However, there are obvious warnings to Christians throughout the New Testament not to be ignorant of Satan’s schemes and the threat the enemy poses. Of course, not every problem is a demonic one. People can have mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual issues not derived from demonic spirits. Yet, there can often be demonic empowerment behind certain sinful patterns. Our wilful and habitual sins, allowed to go unchecked, have the potential to open doorways through which the demonic can gain an influence. Satan’s demons can enter our lives through sin and can also ‘infect’ our wounds. Give Satan that foothold and he will seek to make it a stronghold, and eventually a stranglehold, squeezing the life right out of you. He will take up residence in your life if you give him a right to be there. We’re in a spiritual war and Satan wants to take us out! Isn’t it logical that he’s more interested in getting us between his cross hairs now that we’re Christians, than before, when we were no threat to him? Jesus Christ came not only to be our Savior from sin and our Healer of wounds, but to be our Deliverer from darkness - to undo what sin and Satan have done to our lives. Our Deliverer accomplished this through His death on the cross and victorious resurrection from the dead. Often as Christians, we understand the benefits of Jesus’ death for us in the forgiveness of our sins, but fail to appreciate the full ramification of what Christ accomplished. At the cross Jesus defeated Satan for ever! The message of the gospel incorporates the defeat of the enemy’s influence in our lives. However, this victory over sin and the enemy is by no means automatic, nor should it be taken for granted by those who believe in Christ as Saviour. Many Christians are influenced

The Dark Moments in Our Lives Life Principle 7: The dark moments of our life will last only so long as is necessary for God to accomplish His purpose in us. If you want God’s best for your life and desire to be used by Him, at some point you’ll have to travel the road of adversity. This means that God can and will use adversity in your life for a good purpose—and yet, sadly, many people view adversity as only negative and defeating. But you don’t have to be among them. God has designed adversity, regardless of its source, to become a turning point from which you take your greatest leaps forward in spiritual growth. He allows adversity to remain in your life only until He accomplishes His purpose in you. He will not keep it in your life one second longer than is necessary. Right now, right where you are, remember this: God has put a limit on all adversity. Because you are a child of God, the Holy Spirit is living inside of you, and He knows how much you can bear. The psalmist said: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Ps. 34:19). And, “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” (Ps. 103:13-14). Through adversity, God is molding you into a mature and effective servant. When you know Christ as your Savior, God sees you as a saint—sometimes struggling, sometimes falling, but justified, redeemed, forgiven, and reconciled to Him. He sees a person full of His unconditional love, indwelt by His presence, sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. He also sees all of your potential—all the good you could accomplish for His kingdom. So take comfort—adversity won’t take up permanent residence in your life. But when it’s present, it can develop good things if you’re willing to trust Him. Therefore, no matter what dark moments you may walk through, be confident He’s going to bring you into the light. And when He does, it will certainly be worth it.

We have established that sins must be repented of, wounds must be healed and demons must be expelled. The correct remedy must fit the particular problem. Misdiagnosis will likely result in mistreatment. In most of our lives, there has been a mixture of all three of these fields. However, these three distinctions are helpful in clarifying exactly where our real problems lie. For example, many people have been trying to unsuccessfully repent for a sin without realising that it has actually been a coping mechanism for some underlying pain or emotional wound. As we have discussed, repentance is non-negotiable - it needs to happen for the freedom to come - but without healing for underlying hurts, the chances of complete moral victory are very slim indeed. God’s Word searches us completely, scanning us in order that the Great Physician should diagnose our condition. God is able to distinguish sins of the flesh from wounds of the heart. With surgical precision, the divine scalpel of God’s Spirit can pinpoint exactly where our problems lie. We need to know what sins need to be repented of and what the wounds are that need healing. This discernment is vital. Is your thought life troubling you? Are you exhibiting emotional distress? Are there behavioral patterns that are getting out of your control? All these are indicative of the fact that something buried deep within you is broken. Proverbs 18:14 states that if our inner part is injured, the whole person will struggle: ‘The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?’. The good news of Jesus Christ is that on the cross He not only bore our sins, but He also bore our brokenness and our sorrows. The wounds that Jesus our Savior bore on the cross have the power to heal our wounds and human brokenness. It’s impossible for any of us to pass through this life without incurring wounds. We all have them, the question is: what do we do with them? Do we deny they exist? Do we ignore them, hoping they will disappear, only to find them raising their grotesque head later in life? Do we try to stupefy them with some thrill or addiction? Or do we bring them to the only One who can truly help