Php 4:4-7
(4) Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, Rejoice!
(5) Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
(6) Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
(7) And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your
hearts andomega
replica minds through
Christ Jesus.
For a long time I engaged in the binding and loosing game of spiritual
warfare. I bound up every little negative event in my life. Told Satan to get
his hands of my life, my property, and my friends and family. I am sure I must
have been a strange character in my early Christian walk. Then again I did not
know much about scripture and was subject to the training of Christians that
were more mature than myself.
The fellowship I was attending at the time was staunch on the binding of the
devil and demons doctrine. So the doctrine was strongly geared to this kind of
a world view. Questioning this theology was of course taboo. Your doubts were
written off as you being under attack from Satan and you had to get into the
word to build up your faith. As time went on I could see that the effects of
these bindings were not in any way conducive to living the life of love that
was commanded by Jesus.
We were not dealing with people anymore but with evil spirits. After all our
fight is not against flesh and blood but against the spirits. Someone with
questions was just someone under the power of the devil and demons had to be
bound and chase out in order to talk to them. This of course was not in line
with the message of good news preached by the apostles.
I found myself in serious doubt and was in a very bad space spiritually. Guilt
ridden I fell on my knees and repented before the throne and begged Jesus to
free me from this satanic attack on my life. I was led to Philippians 4:4-7. I
read the first line that says we must always
rejoice in the Lord. I knew I was not always rejoicing. I was always rebuking.
Spending more time focused on the devil and his works in my life than I was
spending time on the work of the Holy Spirit.
There is a recipe to be protected, and once again God’s way is not our ways.
Please take your time to understand this scripture as this will set you free
and change your life in the biggest possible way. It was this scripture that
opened my eyes to a whole new life in Christ. Finally I tasted the freedom in
Christ the Bible promises.
This life starts with rejoicing. Verse four says we must rejoice in the Lord
always, and it is repeated to make sure we do not miss the point. Rejoice in
the fact that we are saved. Rejoice that God loved us so much that He sent His
only son to die for our sins and to give us His righteousness. Rejoice that
Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you in heaven. You seat is booked, your
eternal life paid for, you are now called a child of the living God. Man have
we got something to rejoice about. No matter what circumstance you find
yourself in, the above facts will never change. They will always be true and
they are always true to you. Don’t ever get so mature in your Christian life
that you forget these wonderful fundamental truths. They should be at the
forefront of all your Christian activities.
I can of course ad to this list for rejoicing, but I will leave it to you to a
bit of soul searching and look into the wonderful gifts that come with
Salvation. Maybe someday I will write an article on this subject.
Second on the list is to let your moderation be known to all men. What is
moderation and why it is a big deal, so big in fact that Paul says we must
check this because God is there and he can come at any time, he sees you. Time
for a little word study.
The word is built up of two parts. The first part of the word is
“epi” which is a primary preposition that can be used in different
cases. For instance in can be used in the genitive case which would render it
over or upon or the accusative case which would render the translation to
towards There are many words in the different cases but in fairness to the
translators they all point to the same general idea. To be moderate upon, or
gentle toward is what the translation is pointing to. Gentle is a bit weak in
that it does not include the inner man. Moderation is a better translation as
it acts upon the self as well as others. Be moderate in your actions with other
but also be moderate in your dealings with yourself.
Being within reasonable or average limits; not excessive or extreme and showing
self-restraint in response to other people, in other words be gentle, kind
longsuffering etc. Read 1 Cor. 13 for a full list of moderating actions. Last
word is live in love with yourself and others.
Then there is the modern day evil of anxiety. We are told not to be anxious
about anything. Seems like an impossible task right. We seem to be creatures of
anxiety in this 21st century. How then do we overcome anxiety? The answer is
“in everything by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to
God”
Really is that it. Is
this the answer to anxiety? This simple plan with no medicine, no relaxation
exercises and tantric yoga meditations. If you’d said this to me when I was
losing my company many years ago, I would have laughed in your face. But thank
God I have been implementing this verse in my life before that happened. I can
tell you with all honesty; this really is all you need to overcome anxiety in
your life. Let me explain:
My company was closing down due to non-payment from clients on a few big
contracts. I could not pay my staff and had to look at their families not able
to make ends meet because they have not been paid for two months. I could not
pay any accounts and were receiving numerous calls of fore closure on a daily
basis. The stress was incredible and I thought I would die of a heart attack. I
fought to keep the doors of the company open and I battled against all odds to
keep the lawyers away from my house and equipment.
Needless to say I stopped rejoicing and was on calming medicine. I was on the
verge of losing my mind when I opened up the word of God at Philippians and was
reminded of all its truths.
Immediately I knelt down and with prayers and supplications I let my request be
known to God. I did not ask for money or for miracles. I merely asked God to
give me peace and to take care of my staff. I would rest in His hand and allow
Him to guide the outcome of this event. I ended of my prayers with thanks
giving; thanking God that he has it all under control. I can trust in Him to
guide me through this terrible darkness in my life. I rejoiced in
salvation and focused on loving God and keeping my moderation towards everybody
I dealt with. All the advice I was getting was going totally against what
the Word of God said.
In the end, what happened? The company went under, all my staff members got new
jobs, I lost my house, my cars and had to move to a friend that could house and
fen me and my family for free. Well where was God, couldn’t he have saved the
day. Yes He could have. But I am glad he didn’t. I stepped through that process
and did not have ulcers, not suffer from anxiety, did not take revenge on those
that harmed me, and did not get sick. Through all of that I could rejoice
knowing that God had my back, and boy did he have my back.
Today looking back I did not get what I wished for, I got much better. I only
had to believe. Anxiety is a silent killer of faith and friendships and life.
Fight it with the above solution. You will not believe the power. Prayer and
petitions with thanksgiving. God is at Hand.
Here then is the key, the answer and the truth from implementing all the above
actions. The peace of God which transcends all understanding will keep your
hearts.
This word “keep” comes from the word “phroureō” which has the most
amazing meaning:
to be a watcher in advance,
that is, to mount guard as a sentinel (post spies at gates); figuratively to hem in, protect:
– keep (with a garrison).
Can you see the love of God here? It is like he is taking you heart into his
hands and he stands guard over it. Heaven forbid anyone wanting to come close
to your heart, they will have to deal with God. Your life, your circumstances,
everything might be in ruins, but your heart is jealously guarded from all
effects of the world, or from Satan and his demons. None will overcome the
power of the peace of God.
Rejoice, be moderate, prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, talk to God, this is
spiritual warfare. No mention of the devil, binding and loosing, or demons,
only God, and the beauty is you don’t do anything to the devil, God does, He is
the Guard, you just keep you eyes on the Lord.