Our wrestling with God and the devil part 2

Now in order for this process to take place in our lives, we must have an honest assessment given to us by the Holy Ghost of the condition we are in as to our thinking and reasoning that is going on in our mind and hearts and the different habits that are controlling our lives. We are to walk in obedience to every word that we hear coming out of the mouth of God. In order to hear, our spiritual ears have to be trained to recognize God’s voice when He speaks to us. For all this to take place there must be a heart of passion and intense hunger to become one with our Heavenly Father what ever the cost. It’s like playing sports and you become so thirsty that you need to have something cold to drink to satisfy this thirsting in you.

Jacob had to have a crisis in his life of being afraid of dying that caused him to make a decision to have an all night prayer session to find peace. In his case, he did not become a crisis Christian but his conversion stuck and he grew straight and strong because he received a spiritual blood transfusion from God his father and a commitment bonding took place and he received his first lessen of how to wrestle with God. The towers came down in New York on Sept 11 2001 and people became God conscience and filled the churches and a short time later we came back to business as usual. This represents (Crisis Christianity.) I talk to people who will sit and listen to me share with them the love and friendship of the Lord and while they are sitting listening whether it is on a one on one or in a group setting they will be comforted and feel safe in laying down their burdens.

However, they will walk away and pick up their addicted life style peculiar unto themselves and live in a unfulfilled lonely imprisonment and palsied spiritual state staying as bruised children and never learning how to receive God’s grace which gives us the stamina and patience we all need to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus the Christ. In spite of their condition (God gives to them again and again and again.) There can be no greater bondage that a born again believer can live in when they are not experiencing God’s love.

Didn’t God bless Jacob and Esau in spite of their character flaws? When the body of Christ learns how to wrestle in the Spirit world they will begin to love like Jesus loves. When one wrestles and hungers after their righteous position in Christ, they can then hold office in God’s kingdom. Let’s say we have a born again believer who says they love God and has been saved for a number of years but are a bruised child on the inside and do not really know the love of a father figure. They have the behavior of a child always needing and wanting help, just living in a survivor mode mentality and have never been taught how to sow into God’s kingdom. Sowing in to God’s kingdom is the main principle that says, “It is more blessed to give then it is to receive.” Maybe there living so far in denial that they are like the man who looks in the mirror and sees what he is and walks away not able to deal with himself as God intended. Does God call him a backslider and send him to hell or gossip and talk about him behind his back. Or kick him out of the Christian assembly permanently. For the born again believer who says he loves God and offends and does not carry his brothers burdens and loves as God loves I would say, they need as much help as the one who is bruised who’s life is a wreck to carnal childish behavior.

A born again believer who looks in the mirror and sees what a wreck he is in only walks away because, they can’t stand themselves because of the self hate and disappointment they see in them self do to the shame they live in. They want to be free but the love and patience they need can not be found anywhere because the born again church which is suppose to love as Jesus loves has to go back to class 101 and be taught the basic foundation of what their righteous position in Christ represents. This whole process that we are talking about has to come to this point with in us, do we really want to pay the price because we are beginning to understand the wrestling that we are going to have to be doing in our lives? When one wrestles the first thing God shows you is your shallowness and the terrible need of commitment and power that will be needed to be like Him. Jesus by His example shows us what wrestling is all about as He interacted with His Heavenly Father and the encounters He had with the Devil when He walked the earth.

Because, Jesus experienced this type of life while on earth, we can be assured what Heb 4:12-16 tells us as we can also go to God for our needs and wants. (If I needed some wisdom I would sure want to go to some one who understands my dilemma rather then go to a novice in an authoritative setting who hasn’t matured and knows the battles that I am going through in my walk to maturity.)

These verses in Hebrews state, ^{“For the Word that God speaks is} alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. And not a creature exists that is concealed from God’s sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him]. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].”

Scripture tells us that Jesus was the first born again begotten Son of God on the planet. He was born physically coming out of His mothers womb a born again believer because, Mary was impregnated by the Holy Ghost. We who are born again and God’s children need two births. One is a physical birth and then we need a spiritual birth when we became born again from above by asking Jesus to become our Savior. This should all be basic stuff for us who have been saved for a while.

First of all we need to understand that, it is us meditating on the word of God night and day that gives us the vision of who we are in Christ and what God wants us to be and do in His service as a King’s kid. In the Greek day means, when we are in a state of rest and there is no immediate trouble that we are dealing with. Night means when we are coming under some attack from the enemy and these trials and attacks can become intense at times. So let me say that if you are poking at your kingdom walk with a stick in pursuing your kingdom living and not committed as a soldier going into battle with the word of God, you will make heaven you home after your spirit leaves your body however, you will never reach your potential and your life will be wasted on trivial pursuits that represent no eternal rewards in heaven.

A Christian that is hungering and thirsting after their righteous position in Christ recognizes the urgency of the times that we are living in and cries over the bruised and hurting people born again or not that they encounter because of the extreme bondages that people are living in today. We must if we intend to mature in Christ come to feel God’s heart and the great concern He has to love people into wholeness. When a person lives in shame and guilt, they can not be transparent and the Holy Ghost can not expose, sift, analyze and judge the very thoughts and purposes of their heart. It is the word of God meditated on by us that does the work as a sharp sword operating and showing us the thoughts that we have of leaning to our own understanding verses living by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. A born again believer will never understand spiritual wrestling without having a passion to be in God’s word and having an intense relationship with the Holy Ghost daily. This takes spiritual training and discipline with patience and tender loving care as a child learns to trust their parents in learning how to walk and grow in the physical world. This is the foundation that must be laid in church settings by leaders who are called by the Lord to tend the flock under their covering.

This can not happen in a one hour church service on Sunday or a Wednesday night teaching class. There must be ministry set in place as a hospital has different people on staff with different expertise or (Spiritual gifts in the church assemblies.) The army that God is raising must learn how to exercise their spiritual gifts in an internal wrestling warfare to produce physical manifestations of God’s glory in the earth.

It also means that God cares for us with great kindness and that He has fostered us into His family. When we say fostered, we are not talking about a physical blood relationship but by His spirit continually flowing through us bringing health and wholeness as we allow Him to pour His favor in and through our souls which represents our mind, will and emotions. (We need to learn to let go and let God love on us.) If this foundation is not in place in our heart and soul we will have no vision and strength to wrestle with the Holy Ghost.

In most of the church assemblies their concept of sanctifying comes in the guise of condemnation and focusing on the lack in a Christian’s life because they explain sinful behavior as a deliberate attitude of rebellion against God rather then a born again believer that has never grown up and matured and are still babies in their diapers struggling over this sin principle that Paul wrote about in Roman chapter 7:17-25.

Paul stated that he had the will to do right but not the will power to do it. This caused him to hate himself because he came to realize that he had a soul sickness that had control of his will and he needed some one as a spiritual doctor to deliver him from this bondage with in himself. When leaders in authority do not discern by the anointing of the Holy Ghost the bondage in God’s people and blame them as deliberately living in rebellion against God, they raise up their own concepts and agendas with a legalistic attitude of fault finding and continue to teach misinterpreted scripture that never lifts the light of God’s countenance on people but harps on the sinful behavior of the saints sitting in the pews under their care. This is what the Levitical Priests did in the Old Testament when once a year by sacrificing goats and bulls for the sins of the people caused them to continually be reminded that they were sinners and stay tied to a sin conscience mentality. When church assemblies teach this stuff, they bruise God’s children and keep them focused on a shame and woe is me image of them selves and weaken their resolve by laying guilt and condemnation on God’s kids and they have no power to learn how to wrestle because, they don’t know what their rights are as a King’s kid. Leaders like these do not empower God’s children to wrestle but lead and herd them to be slaughtered.

Even though they are God’s kids what a severe life imprisonment this represents when they live like illegitimate sons or daughters in such physical and emotional poverty because, they have a co-dependent mind set and have never grown to become independent thinking people and know the freedom God gave them to approach His presence with boldness and directness with face to face eye contact for what rightly belongs to them, so they can function in the inheritance that God promised them. As a matter of fact God’s inheritance isn’t hardly being preached in the born again assemblies of today at all.

As Hebrews 4:16 tells us, “Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].” This attitude must be in place if we are going to function as warriors in God’s kingdom to do the works of Jesus our brother in the earth. Sin conscience people have no boldness to approach God’s courts with freedom and thanksgiving because, they feel dirty and unworthy. This is the Devils main theme which is to put a lying wedge of doubt in the mind of mankind especially His children that, they have to clean up their behavior and maybe then God might take the time to lend an ear and take an interest in their pain or trials. It is the old record being played in our mind and emotions (I think God may love me but I really know He loves me not.) Let’s know define how Jesus wrestled with demonic forces when He walked the earth.

This example is found in Matt. 4:1-11 where we have the story of Jesus being led into the wilderness by the Holy Ghost. This is where we are in this dispensation of time in our wilderness walk on earth. Psalms 23 tells us “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.” To have this happen we must be, we must be functioning in a Promised Land mentality and bring God kingdom into reality in our lives and the lives of others. Jesus was tempted by Satan in three areas and you will see that His response was always from an inspiration from the word of God not his personal opinion. I will comment between verses in parentheses. The story goes. “THEN JESUS was led (guided) by the [Holy] Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (tested and tried) by the devil. (We are living in our dispensation of time which is our wilderness walk and we are going to be tried daily by the Devil and we must resist him but this can only be done by the wisdom of the Holy Ghost with in us.) And He went without food for forty days and forty nights, and later He was hungry. (In the Old Testament we have another person who had a relationship with God and wanted to fulfill his calling and constantly sought his fathers presence all of his life.

In Exodus 34:27-28 it tells us that Moses was with God on Mt Sinai getting the Ten Commandments and it says. “The Lord said unto Moses. Write these words: for after a tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” And Moses was there for forty days and forty nights and he didn‘t eat or drink water and he wrote on tables the words of the covenant which was the Ten Commandments. This word tenor in the Hebrew is peh: meaning in the mouth as a blowing that totally envelopes the entire being of a person. This represents the yearnings of the Holy Ghost to so totally bond with us so when we do go through our testings and trials as Jesus did our initial response is thus saith the Lord when the Devil shows up to tempt us to do it his way. Scripture tells us that God wants to write His laws of life on the fleshy tables of our hearts which is in contrast to Moses writing God’s laws on cold lifeless stone tablets.)

And the tempter came and said to Jesus, if you are God’s Son; command these stones to be made loaves of bread. But He replied, it has been written, Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. (The Devils first temptation wasn’t about Jesus hunger but about the fact that he tried to put doubt into His mind as to who He was, which questioned His security in God. We see here a testing that is also common to all of us in us coming to believe that God our Heavenly Father loves us enough to feed and clothe us in our daily needs and us learning to trust His provision and not lean towards our own understanding as to what’s going on in our lives. The devils ploy here is to keep us focused on our needs rather than believe what our inheritance is from God our Father as His children and His promise of provision. The second temptation started with the Devil again challenging His authority as to be God‘s son.)

The Devil’s tactics have not changed. This idea of a holy city in the physical sense was Jerusalem where during the one thousand year rule Jesus will come to govern the earth with us being His ministering servants to the people of the earth. In the spiritual sense it is the place where God wants to sit in our hearts where He becomes the final authority that gives us rest while we let Him rule. The Devil intent is to confuse our thinking and give us a fleshly thrill from time to time by giving us a prideful dart to tempt us to build our own concept of kingdom living but not according to scripture. This is what the majority of the denominations have fallen for and what they have done is tempted God by telling Him they have a better way to build His house then He does.

In the Old Testament the Israelites were constantly complaining to Moses because they had needs and they held him accountable to mediate for them to God for their needs and wants. There was no independent thinking and a commitment with in themselves to petition God on their own and become tenacious and warrior like in their pursuit of righteous living. Being a part of church fellowship is necessary if, God is building this house of believers. Now being a part is one thing. However, church membership was never meant to be a constant sitting in a pew and belonging to one denomination all of your life like chicks being fed week in and week out. Church was meant to be like a nursery where God’s children can be loved and taught not judged into wholeness by God ordained leaders who will disciple and nurture God’s children to become a mighty force of independent thinking people who get to know the voice of the Holy Ghost and go forth in the arena of life to do the works of Jesus. Jesus knew the word and by knowing it, He didn’t fall for that trick and form another denomination with His own beliefs.)

We see the ultimate temptation. The devil couldn’t get Him to doubt His position as God’s son and even though Devil used it to make Jesus doubt who He was, God the Father used it as a test that caused Jesus to meditate on trusting His heavenly Fathers word verses the Devil influence. This made Him stronger and able to handle the second temptation because it showed Him not to lean to His own understanding but speak to the devil with the inspired word of His fathers leading. Finally the devil tried to bribe Him by showing Him all the pleasures of sinful behavior He could participate in which is a temporary season of his existence of power in the earth.

Scripture defines this in 1 John 2:16 as, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” Jesus told His disciples that His kingdom was not of this world. As a born again believer we must come to understand that we are in a spiritual battle that it is going to take a complete yielding to trust the Holy Ghost in us so we can use His strength to wrestle in the spiritual world. This is going to take a decisive commitment of knowing who we are as God’s children if we really intend to take back and rule over what Adam and Eve surrendered to Satan in the garden.

As long as the body of Christ stays on the milk of the word and does not start eating deeper truths of God’s word, they will never really come to know the wiles of the devil.

In 1 Peter 5:8 it says, “Be well balanced and live in self-control. Be sober and sound minded or be rational in your thinking. Be alert and watchful for danger at all times, for that enemy of yours the Devil, roams around like a lion (in a fierce hunger) seeking someone to seize upon and devour.” If we put the Devil in a physical form and he decided to go after one of our children. Unless we were watchful and grown up enough in ourselves to protect them, what chance would they or we have. You’ve seen National Geographic I presume, how they show the lions going after the calves and sickly wildebeests and killing them for food. When are we going to come to grips that this Christian life that Jesus gave us is not something to be abused and taken lightly because of our own pleasures of life and our own comfort zones????????

1 John 2:14 it says “You young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, you are now able to overcome the wicked one.” If we as born again believers are not strong in the word, there is no way to use Jesus example of how He wrestled with the Devil and overcame him in His wilderness walk. Lets look at this word abides and see exactly what it means. First of all what it does not mean is, having a data bank of scripture in your head that you whip out on every opportunity you get to show how knowledgeable you are in the word of God. This word abides in the Greek is meno: meaning, to stay in a relationship of expectancy or a prospect of a hope to come. It also means to tarry and to wrestle, endure or to long for. This word tarry means to wait on God’s revelation of truth. In the Hebrew abides is chakah: meaning to adhere to or to be moved upon sharply or deeply, as with emotion or pain. It also means to penetrate as if seeing into and understanding a mystery.

Paul the Apostle tells us that Interpreting s and functioning in the Kingdom of God which is already in us as a mystery that has to be discovered. Matt 6:33 states, “we must hunger and thirst after God’s kingdom and His righteousness.” I have said this hundreds of times and that this verse of scripture must be taught, massaged, repeated and roll modeled and a Christian must be deep rooted and swimming in the deepest of all waters in this verse because, that is the only way God’s Children will become warriors in the Kingdom of God.

Scripture tells us that out of the abundance of the heart of the righteous Christ speaks. And what will be coming out of their mouth will be rich and meaty with revelation of God thoughts and ways because they have been discipled and are maturing. When this scripture tells us that we should be speaking the familiar and the fresh, the fresh to the unsaved is Jesus saves. However, to the born again believer Jesus saves should be familiar not fresh.

For the first six months after my born again experience which took place in my automobile while taking my wife to the doctor my testimony in all of the services I attended when it came time for people to stand and give their testimony I told the people how I became born again by the spirit of God. God said to me after six months “Haven’t I been showing you more of my person and revealing to you my ways with new revelation of how to operate in my kingdom that you are participating in daily. Start sharing the new things I am showing you in your testimony.”

Please hear me on this. The greatest miracle is Jesus saves. However, after that in the born again Christians life we must be experiencing what God’s sanctification process is and how we need to be participate in it to obtain all the other miracles from God as His children. I am grieved to say that most of the born again church preaches Jesus saves which is the familiar but the new meaning of our sainthood in God’s sight as been buried in denominational teachings with no power. Well now we come to the weapons of our warfare that will enable us to wrestle and take the kingdom of God by force. A born again Christian who is on the milk of the word and ignorant of God’s word can not wear God’s armor and be called into battle and wrestle.

Ephesians 6:10-18 describes what our weapons are that God has given us to overcome evil. “Be strong in the Lord and draw your strength from Him as your having fellowship with Him. Allow Him to put His armor on you so you can be a heavily armed soldier and then, you can successfully stand up against the strategies and deceptions of the Devil. We are not fighting against people in our own human understanding of things, but against a tyrant, master spirits and world rulers of this present dark and wicked age who live in this heavenly (supernatural) atmosphere.

The first weapon stated here is the weapon of truth. Scripture tells us that the truth will set us free from any thing contrary to God’s will. When we live in denial and in darkness by lying to ourselves about the true condition of our hearts, we cannot participate in kingdom living and our lives are wasted on trivial pursuits that have no consequences in eternal matters. God’s judgment of things makes up truth. If you’re not listening to His truths and acting on it, life has no real meaning. This scripture says to tighten the belt of truth around our loins. The word for loin in the Greek is osphus: Meaning, hip or procreative power. God is the author of procreative power; its how He brought all of exists into being. We need to know God’s truths from His word and use it as Jesus did against the Devil when He was tempted. Since the Devil is a liar and the father of liars, he can’t stand the truth and he shakes when we use it, however, only when it is being inspired by the Holy Spirit. It’s only as we have our daily fellowship with the Holy Spirit, recognize His voice, and say what He tells us to say that, we can use this weapon.

Righteousness means that, when God the Father looks at us He sees Jesus His perfect son.

There must be an end to these childish teachings of the concept that says God loves us when we do this and He forsakes us when we do that.

These conditional love themes are the most destructive and blasphemous teachings ever perpetrated by the Devil through men of ignorance in explaining God are holding power.

Eternal security has to cease from being interpreted as a doctrine of Devils or a license to sin, as it is being interpreted in many circles. We are eternally secure but, we can through faulty teaching and bad choices be living out of fellowship with God and grieving the Holy Spirit because, we stop Him from comforting and strengthening us in our daily warfare.

Therefore, that is why there are so many Christians that have no commitment and a stick to it attitude no matter what happens. When the warfare gets to hot they fold and run away and deny their savior as Peter the Apostle did in his childish years of growing up. Without integrity in ones life you have no example to represent the Love of Jesus Christ to the world. The word of God tells us that our statements in life should be either yes or no. The Holy Spirit doesn’t compromise. He tells it like it is and we can do nothing less. Its time to put our childish thinking away and! Grow Up!

The next weapon is the shield of faith. The word for shield in the Greek is thureos: meaning, a shield shaped like a door that can be opened and closed. The word for faith is pistis: meaning, a consistency of confession, being persuaded and the truthfulness of God. As God showed me this concept it made me realize, what a commitment and trust God has for His children to give them a powerful weapon like this. As we use it, we are able to have the ability to control our thought life by being able to close and open this door type shield when we need to. To me it was a very practical application that was simple to understand. When the Devil shows up to dump his garbage in our minds we keep it closed.

In Rev. 3:20, Jesus tells us that, “He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks and if we respond to Him and open ourselves up to Him when He shows up, He will come in, discuss with us His plans, and train us in the warfare that we are all going through. In turn, we will be over comers and will be able to sit beside Him as a sovereign King and Priest having great power to rule and reign with Him.” You have to really be living in extreme darkness in your life or have a serious brain deficiency to not want to be close to Him and be in His company at all times. I can write unending volumes on the definition of faith because of the fact that, Jesus Himself is our faith. Every thing He thinks, feels, and His very being and intense passions rubs off on us as we hang out with Him. To be like Him that has to be our first desire.

The next weapon is the helmet of salvation. The word for helmet is perizonnumi: meaning, to prepare one self for action and to tighten a belt around our mind. The word for salvation is soterian: meaning, our defender, rescuer and savior Jesus the Christ. There has to be created in us a security and total persuasion by God in our inner most feelings that, there is no way we can lose this war no matter what ever the adversity. This helmet or attitude of confidence cannot be tightened around our minds unless we are totally sold out with a concentrated effort in us seeking after the Lord and His counsel because the battle we are fighting is in our minds.

Romans 12:1-2 states that, “we are to present all our mental reasoning and will power and dedicate our lives to be earnestly and totally devoted to God’s causes. When we do this, it makes God rejoice over our enthusiasm. We having this attitude makes sense because, of what He has done for us. We are not to conform to these wordily ways of outward shallow customs. Therefore, we are to be inwardly changed by the entire renewing of our mind and in turn by this happening in us, we will know what God’s perfect and acceptable will is for our lives.”

The next weapon is the sword of the Spirit, which is the authority of God. The word for sword is machomai: meaning a knife, to fight or the administration of justice. The word for Spirit is pneuma: meaning, superhuman or the Divine God, Christ’s Spirit the Holy Spirit. I don’t know how God can make the interpretation of this any clearer. This gives us the authority as God’s children to rise up in the authority of the Holy Spirit to fight these demonic forces in this present age. This is what God’s kids are supposed to be doing, going about their Heavenly Fathers business administering His justice in the lives of people on this planet. We are not to do this in our own fleshly self-righteous attitudes by sitting in judgment and portraying God as some kind of control freak wanting to inflict punishment and pain.

This type of warfare has to be administered through us by the author and lover of our souls who became a servant and ultimately died on a cross for our sin and the sin’s of the whole world. We need to get a hold of what it means to die to self by the Holy Spirit’s leadings and unless we do that, we have the capability of becoming the Devil’s disciple coming in the name of the Lord and ministering self-righteous concepts that, we have been reaping on ourselves for years.

This way of ministry has no power to deliver others or ourselves. Scripture tells us that; “the Devil disguises himself as an angel of light.” It says only Jesus is the true Light of the world. We cannot expose the darkness in others or us by our false and fleshly interpretations of God’s ways. It’s time for us to not be afraid and let the Holy Spirit check us out and see if there are any wicked ways in us that, we don’t know about.

We now come to the last weapon that is talked about in this scripture. The weapon of prayer, (Intimate conversations with God) this is what it’s all about. Prayer is our endless conversation with God now and forever. It’s His life and our life becoming one life. Therefore, we see that there is no end to this weapon. It’s the weapon that makes all the other weapons work. Moreover, to me this is our greatest weapon. It is also the weapon that we need to discipline this fleshly body to lay down and die. It’s where we receive our stability, and sound minded thinking. Wisdom in the day and night hours of our life, His hugs, rebukes and chastisements, that are needed for our safety and guidance. It’s the way we search for His presence, play, and joke and carefully listen for Him to reveal new wisdom’s of His ways as we learn to be comfortable with His friendship. I have found that over the years my prayer life more than anything has changed.

The word for prayer is proseuchomai: meaning, to be in a humble state before God in worship, adoration and requesting. The prefix of this word is pros: meaning, on all occasions and together with at all times. The scripture that we have been using says that we are in warfare against spiritual wickedness and a force in the supernatural atmosphere. Let’s realize that this is an outward force trying to impregnate us with ideas, emotions and principles to do its bidding. It is a spirit of anti-christ. Now that we’re God’s children and the Holy Spirit lives within us; let’s learn to trust Him to keep the door of the house of our temporary stay on this planet locked, when the Devil shows up to bombard our thought life with things that have no eternal value. We will never know how to keep our armor on without our Commander and Chief inspecting us to see if we are equipped to go into battle and wrestle for the kingdom of God that lives with in us. Walking with the Lord doesn’t have to be a chore in our lives. What we have to do is lay down our lives and allow Him to live big in us.