Peter declares on the Day of Pentecost that Jesus was taken in a lawless manner, crucified and put to death. God raised Him up, loosed the pains of death and in verse twenty-seven David said concerning Christ,  “You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” [Acts 2:27] Jesus descended and stripped the devil of the keys to death, hell and the grave. [Acts 2:30]  Then He was raised in resurrection power and exerts His might, authority and total dominion over lucifer. Now satan is totally and completely defeated and his place is under the feet of Jesus. Ephesians 1:22-23 goes on to say that we are the body of Christ filled with the fullness of Christ, who fills all the earth.

Since we are the body of Christ, satan is under our feet. [Acts 2:24-28]  We were crucified with Christ, we died with Him, went to the grave, were raised in resurrection power with Christ, that we should also walk or live in newness of life.  “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. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” [Romans6:4-6] I call that a co-crucifixion and co-resurrection and in Christ we partake of the very life and the presence of God. That is what I call “Co-mmunion” with all the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit can pump into our lives.

Pastor Danny

I have at times wondered at the purpose and I must say I believe the whole purpose of Christ being manifested was that He might win His victory over the devil and completely destroy his works. “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” (I John: 3:8)

As New Testament believers, we like John, rejoice in the victory available to us through the glorious victory Jesus won on the cross for His church. I always enjoy watching John as he exults or rejoices in his victory over the world. Let’s read the words of John together. “For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith”. (I John 5:4) Repetition always implies importance in a Bible text, so John is putting the nails in the devil’s coffin, satan is defeated, overcome and conquered in every circumstance of life. Listen to John’s words in l John 2:13, "I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one." (l John 2:13-14) ESV

Many antichrists are in the world. Those were the words of John, read with me again, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18) Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.^” (1 John 2:22) and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4:3)

Watch John as he pulls out of this one, with an antichrist spirit all over the place the church has lived in fear over the years, of the notion of some antichrist dude rising up, yet John says, You are of God little children and have, overcome them, who is them? That is the question I always ask myself. “Them” is the antichrists, notice it is plural, meaning many. John goes on to say,” because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (l John 4:4) Now that is shouting ground brother and sister! Because of Christ’s victory on the cross we have overcome just like Christ has overcome. Now let’s walk in His victory.

There is a word that in my mind comes into play as we study the words of John. The word is boldness, which implies confidence and assurance. Let’s look at l John 2:28 (Amplified). “And now, little children, abide (live, remain permanently) in Him, so that when He is made visible, we may have and enjoy perfect confidence (boldness, assurance) and not be ashamed and shrink from Him at His coming.” Read with me again, l John 3:21 (Amplified) “And, beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us [if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us], we have confidence (complete assurance and boldness) before God.” Also, see l John 4:17 “In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.” And l John 5:14, a well known scripture, and I suppose one of my favorites of John’s writings. “And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.”

We do not need to live in cowardly or cringing fear, but in the boldness that comes in the assurance that Jesus, our big brother, defeated the devil and his hosts. On the cross, once, for all time, satan’s defeat was and is final for all who will receive His victory. Every fiery dart from the kingdom of darkness, every temptation to yield to the voices of darkness, every temptation to yield to disobedience, every temptation to become complacent when satan comes to steal your goods, kill you and your family, or destroy your life, Jesus defeated them all. Look at Paul’s words inspired by the Holy Spirit in the book of Hebrews 10:19-22. “Therefore, brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus, By this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain (veil of the Holy of Holies), that is, through His flesh, And since we have [such] a great and wonderful and noble Priest [Who rules] over the house of God, Let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water.”

Confidence ! you bet we have confidence ! We have confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ, who saved us and bought us with His own precious blood. He left absolutely nothing undone. Ephesians 6:14-18 tells us of the protective shielding provided for us as believers and I could go on forever, but that is for another day.

Pastor Danny

David penned these words during his time with the Lord years ago. “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice you righteous, and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart.” (Psalm 32:10-11)  You have reason to be glad and rejoice in the Lord because his mercy surrounds you. Again, David writes,”Many are the afflictions of the righteous” and he tags it with, “but the Lord delivers us out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19)

Troubles for those who love God will not last forever, they leave behind a blessing! If you will read our text again in the first paragraph, notice, He does not promise “no affliction” or “no trouble”. What He does say is that He delivers you out of them all. I always like to capitalize on the good stuff, here is the good stuff, He delivers you and sets you on another course, a course of blessing.  The old saying, this too will pass, is true, not because it is an old saying, but because the Word of God is always true.

I like what Paul said to the Philippian Church, finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord; to the Thessalonian Church he said rejoice always, I believe that Paul said to rejoice always because the blessing of God is always on the way. No matter how great your troubles are, the blessing of God is on the way. Deliverance always follows troublesome times. Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice!

 Pastor Danny

Numbers thirteen lists the twelve leaders Moses sent into the land God had promised His people, in verse two of that chapter the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them”. (Numbers 13:2)

Returning home, Caleb and the spies brought the bounty of Canaan on a pole for all to see. Caleb said, look here boys, heaven came down in this desert land. Just like Moses said, we came into a land that flows with milk and honey and this is the fruit of it. The people are strong, the cities are walled and we saw the giants there. Caleb said, let’s go get it boys we are well able to take this land. As soon as he had uttered those words the other ten spies began to discourage the people and say, we can’t   for they are stronger than we. 

They forgot one thing, it wasn’t “we”, it was “He”. Caleb had it right, he said “If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey”, (Numbers 14:8) literally, up to your elbows in God’s blessing. One writer said, blessed with an inexhaustible dowry to serve the living God.  It will never be “we”, or “me”, or “you”, it will always be, God our miracle working Father.  He only asks that we believe.

 We are called to live in the vineyard of God’s grace and to become a feast for the entire world to see and to enjoy.

 Pastor Danny

 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shall meditate therein day and night, that thou may observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shall make thy way prosperous, and then thou shall have good success”. (Joshua 1:8)

Meditation in the Word of God is the surest way I know to build a foundation for a victorious prayer life. There must be knowledge of the Word of God as well as a knowing in your spirit of the Word of God. There is another principle equally important, that is the use of the mouth. I believe the mouth was actually created to articulate the Word of God as we fellowship with our Father. A large part of the Bible consists of overlapping quotations, in other words, they were always repeating another person’s words, words inspired by the Holy Spirit.  They spoke them, they lived by them, it was the breath from heaven their spirit man needed.  Example, Peter in Acts 2:16 quotes Joel 2:28-32. In first Peter 2:24 there is a direct correlation to Isaiah 53:4-5 that tells me the writers of the Bible kept their word level up. If we are to be successful in life, our word level must be, “always on the increase.” Now, back to the subject of prayer, specificity is important, If you don’t have scripture to stand on you have real problems, it is always good to be specific when you pray or fellowship with God. Have the Word of God handy. Example –scriptures that speak of Healing, Peace and Blessing need to become a part of your vocabulary. A small concordance is very handy to have with you at all times, most bibles have a small concordance in the back. One thing demons particularly like to say to people is, “It may be not the will of God.” Devils were never known to be very smart, just persistent. Demons accuracy, when it comes to the Word of God, is somewhat lacking and distorted.

There is a simple text in the Bible found in Matthew 4:1-11. It recounts Jesus’ battle in the wilderness with the devil, (v: 4) he said, hey, Jesus you can turn stones into bread. His response was, man does not live by bread alone, but by the Word of God.  Now look at verse seven, the devil got it wrong again and Jesus said, thou shall not tempt the Lord your God.  And (v:10) says,  Again the devil got it wrong, Jesus said, hey ugly get out of my way; it is written God’s Word says, “thou shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shalt thou serve.

 Notice what happened next – The devil Left Him!

 Pastor Danny