adversity

Did you catch that? He said all who live godly lives are going to suffer persecution. Not just the super-saints, not just the missionaries in hostile lands—but all.

If you're going to live for God, you're going to run into persecution somewhere along the line. The devil's going to make sure of it!

Now I'm not saying that to frighten you or to depress you. I'm saying it because I want you to be prepared.

When you're wise to the strategies of the devil, it's harder for him to use them successfully on you to confuse you and get you off track.

Is it possible to live free from fear in this dangerous and unpredictable world? Yes, it most definitely is! Because protection is a solid promise of God.

But it's not a promise that's offered to just anyone. It is promised to those who abide in the Lord. To abide means "to dwell, to remain and to continue." To abide in the shadow of the Almighty is to live in continual union with Him, keeping His Word and obeying His voice. Those who abide in the Lord can live without dread of what the devil will do.

Unfortunately most of us don’t know the first thing about fighting the kind of war this scripture refers to. For, as Ephesians 6:10-12 says, it’s not a battle of flesh and blood, but of the spirit.

Most believers are so earthly minded (or carnally minded) that they never even realize where the enemy’s attacks are actually coming from. They blame circumstances and people, and they waste their energy fighting natural conditions instead of supernatural causes.

We need to wake up to the warfare that’s going on in the heavenly realm!

Abiding in Jesus isn’t something that comes automatically to any believer. It’s a lifestyle that involves discipline and effort.

We have to choose to give ourselves to our union with Him, to give Him first place where our attention is concerned. If we want to grow spiritually, if we want to walk in power and in fellowship with the Lord, we’ll have to spend the time it takes to know Him.

That’s not something we can do for a while and then forget about either. We must continue in it every day. For the moment we stop moving closer to Jesus, we always start drifting away.

You may be facing trouble today that’s being caused by people who have willfully plotted to do you harm. They may be trying to steal your business, your home, your children, or even to destroy your marriage. If so, I have a word of encouragement for you. According to Psalm 33:10, God will bring the plans of those people to nought. He will make their devices of none effect. The counsel of the heathen is brought to nought, but the counsel of the Lord stands forever!

If I were to ask you to make a list of a hundred things you need to do to please the Lord today, you could do it, couldn’t you? In fact, you probably have so many spiritual “dos” and “don’ts” cluttering up your mind that you’d hardly know where to start.

But you can relax. I’m not going to suggest you make a list of them. Instead, I’m going to help you simplify things by giving you only one: Abide in Jesus.

The one thing you’re truly responsible for is your union with Him. If you keep your union and fellowship with Him intact, everything else will be taken care of.

How would you like to be so full of the glory of God that it's unmistakable to those around you? How would you like for people to be able to know just by looking at you that you'd been with Jesus? It's entirely possible if you are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. The same mighty power that changed you inwardly when you were saved can so revolutionize you outwardly that even strangers on the street will be able to see Jesus in you.

Do you want to know how to depress the devil? Just follow the instructions in that last verse. When persecution comes, when friends or family criticize you because you lay hands on the sick and believe in healing, and when co-workers call you a fanatic because you love Jesus and aren't afraid to say so, rejoice! Shout hallelujah and leap for joy!

I tell you that will discourage the devil to no end. He's expecting that persecution to hurt you. He's expecting it to damage your faith, to wipe you out and to leave you in dismay.

When persecution comes, don't sit around whining about it. Don't waste your time feeling sorry for yourself. Despite what you may think, that persecution hasn't come because the devil gets his kicks out of picking on you. It comes because you've become a threat to him. It comes because you've put the Word in your heart, and he knows that if he doesn't get it out, you're going to cause him more trouble than he can handle.

Considering how much the devil hates people and how dead set he is on destroying them, it's no wonder we see so much tragedy and disaster in the world. In fact, it's amazing that we don't see more!

I asked the Lord about that one time and He told me it takes the realm of darkness a long time to set up major disasters. Take the aviation industry, for example. It's highly regulated and works hard at policing itself because safety is its product. You take a highly regulated system like that and the devil has to work terribly hard to cause disasters.

There seems to be an abundance of "stony ground" Christians these days. Initially, they get excited about the Word of God. They'll hear a message on prosperity, for instance, and they'll go home saying, "Hallelujah! I'm going to prosper in the Name of Jesus!" But then, somehow, things don't work out like they thought they should.

Their bank balance doesn't double overnight. They go through some disappointments. They suffer some criticism. Then, before you know it, their faith has withered away.

If you've been standing around wringing your hands and worrying about what the devil is doing, it's time you made a switch. It's time you put that devil under your feet!

The Greek word translated afflicted doesn't mean the result of sickness and disease. It means "troubled."

If you're in trouble, you need to pray. That's what the Word says. Notice it didn't say your pastor needs to pray for you or your friends need to pray for you. It says you need to pray.

Too often we try to find a quick fix to our problems by asking everyone else to pray for us. There's nothing wrong, of course, with having others pray for you, but you'll never get your life to a place of permanent victory until you begin to pray yourself.

There are those who've said that some of the diseases that are on the rampage right now, diseases such as AIDS, are God's way of punishing immoral people today. There is absolutely no scriptural basis for that!

If there's any way the devil can get your eyes away from the Word, he'll do it. He'll cause trouble. He'll make the circumstances around you pitch and roll like a rowboat in a hurricane. He'll do anything he can to get you to concentrate on the realm of the physical senses and the situation around you instead of on the promise of God—because he knows that if he doesn't, you'll take that promise and beat his brains out with it.

Look up...because in times like these, your very life may depend on it.

Some time ago, the Lord showed me that a spirit of weariness is trying to work its way into our lives these days through all the pressure and bad news that surround us. It's working to get our eyes off the Word of God by bombarding us with negative forces. It's trying to get us to look down at defeat instead of up at Jesus.