© 04 Colin Melbourne
No Greater Joy
There is a way to keep smiling in victory through whatever crisis you have to deal with.
How to please God; find happiness, be fulfilled, healthy, and at peace at all times.
Drudgery, Delusions, or Divine Life
Some people are satisfied with existence, coping with each day that comes.
Their triumph is not to be crushed by circumstances.
A single mother with HIV Aids, raising five kids on the edge of a Brazilian rubbish dump, grubbing for plastic bottles to recycle: She has existence, but doesn’t have life.
Others are contented by philosophies they’ve inherited, or embraced, which attempt to reconcile the conflicting calls of selfishness, conscience, and purpose.
The pick-and-mix New Age business-woman hawking ‘cure-all’ batty diets and fragrances, the Asian ‘free-thinker’, or Western yuppie, simply mould ideas and beliefs to suit their egos.
On reaching the ‘end of the rainbow’: they discover heartbreak not gold.
Many more ply the treadmills of religious tradition, subduing anxieties over their transparent hypocrisy with the deluding balm that their peers could not be wrong.
So the Catholic superstitiously counts his beads, and blasphemes Christ in the idolatrous Mass.
The Muslim bows to a rock five times a day, and repeats ‘holy’ words by rote.
Religious Jews call on a God they’re forbidden to name (YHWH, Jehovah), yet killed Him when He came to them in person.
Buddhist monks beg for provisions in return for fake ‘blessings’ they know they cannot bestow, and worship the work of their own hands.
Hindu ascetics torture themselves in a futile attempt to deny human nature.
Churchgoers and nominal ‘Christians’ grind through hollow ‘holy’ routines, because they always have, and appearances must be kept up.
Each has a façade of wisdom, with self-imposed worship; false humility, or harsh treatment of the body, but religion lacks any value in restraining self-indulgence.
Followers of religion have a form of godliness: but deny its power.
No wonder God detests religion.
Do you want to have real life instead of mere existence?
Are you ready to ditch that deluding philosophy sweeping you to damnation?
Have you tired of pedalling Satan’s treadmill of religion; are you willing to accept God’s Truth, and walk with Him at peace?
If so, I have Good News for you, and by the end of this article you’ll be able to enjoy divine life, and experience the greatest joy it’s possible to know.
What To Do In A Crisis
Let’s work God’s Way, by starting at the deep-end.
You’ll get nowhere with God by dipping your toe into the shallows, and cringing back. It’s all or nothing with God, the wholehearted get everything; the double-minded get nothing from Him. (See Jas. Ch. 1)
So test yourself in this situation to see which you are.
You’ve been genuinely saved, and Spirit-filled for several years, you know the reality of God’s leading, and have been used by Him many times.
Then you find yourself in a desperate trial, it could be many things; your husband is having an affair, Satan has put cancer on your body, your child is taking drugs and fornicating, or a trusted ‘Christian’ employee is embezzling funds from your business. How do you deal with this in the real world?
Do you:
- Ask advice from your Pastor, and respected Christian friends.
- Set up a prayer chain imploring all who will help to tear down strongholds.
- Seek help from lawyers, attorneys, police, doctors, psychiatrists, marriage counsellors etc.
- Confront the person demanding they repent, or face God’s Judgment.
- Begin fasting and begging God to move.
This is the way Christians respond in crises all the time, and God is gracious enough to bail us out many times; but can you see this is not what God wants us to do?
It’s not wrong to ask for prayer support; to fast, to seek wise counsel, to confront and exhort people to repent, that can help: but God has shown us a far better way to overcome in a crisis.
There are lots of Scriptures to validate the options above, some Christians even earn their living from them, but they’re a pale shadow of the best way.
No offence intended to Pastors, ‘counsellors’ and ‘prayer warriors’, but here’s what I mean;
Christ is in town and your son has an epileptic fit.
Almost all epilepsy is caused by demons, either directly or indirectly. Medication can ‘hobble’ them, but it needs Almighty God to get rid of them.
Do you bring Peter and John to cast the evil spirit out in Jesus’ Name, or do you take the boy to the feet of Jesus, ask Him to drive it out, and make the child whole?
We all know which is the best option don’t we?
You may respond, ‘But Christ is no longer in town, He’s in Heaven, and now His disciples carry out His ministry on earth.’
Certainly; today, every Spirit-filled believer walking with Christ has authority to cast out devils; and thank God many are exercising their authority, healing the sick, and proving Jesus is alive. But Christ does not want you chasing after men and women with Spiritual Gifts in action: He wants you following Him.
Can you believe that He will fix your problem personally, as you come to Him directly?
He will you know.
In fact many times, not even ‘the anointed ones’ can fix the problem, because God wants the person to come directly to Him themselves.
Why?
To show them they can.
No Other Name
One of my best Asian friends was in a trial of physical sickness. He asked everyone to pray for him, but nothing changed.
Twice, big name preachers with miracle ministries prayed for him. Nothing happened.
No fault of the preachers, plenty of others were being healed by miracles; indeed, he told me how he held the legs of a cripple as a famous evangelist prayed for them, and saw the legs straighten and grow in front of his eyes: Yet he wasn’t healed himself.
You know why don’t you?
Jesus wanted my friend to come directly to Him, to learn to trust in Him, not in men.
Have you learned that lesson Beloved?
Often I’ve trekked for days to distant tribal villages where the big names never tread, and a former Shaman, or ex-opium farmer, has quietly told me how Jesus healed them of cancer, blindness, or demonic possession, when they came to Him in simple faith.
Known in Heaven
There are Christians in prisons all over Asia, who daily endure the most appalling trials; locked in solitary confinement, beaten, starved, and humiliated for their faith.
Who can they run to for help?
They soon learn the point of this message.
I’ve met tiny Chinese grannies, whom the world has never heard of, yet they carry an anointing from God that star preachers would die for.
How did the grannies get it?
No spiritual warfare seminars in their towns; no Bible Schools, Christian books, or Spirit-filled tape ministries to learn from.
Not a single big name preacher to turn to.
Often not even a Holy Bible, only memorized verses hidden in their hearts.
All they have to rely on are the LORD Jesus Christ and His Spirit. ‘Poor grannies.’
Theirs is the kingdom of God. Halleluia!
And yours too when you comprehend what they have learned.
Jesus wants you to depend totally upon Him yourself; to obey Him, because you love and worship Him. Not only for what He’s done, but for who He is: Almighty God in the Flesh.
They did not have to grow strong in the Lord; they could have become captive to bitterness, self-pity, and resentment. But they chose to forgive when guards spat in their meagre meals, or beat them to the point of death for refusing to deny Christ. When officials confiscated their belongings, they chose to rejoice like the Hebrew believers who,
…took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
Heb. 10:34 KJV
You can choose to rejoice in persecution too: If you want to.
Face to Face With God
Take that problem to your prayer closet, and ask God face to face what He wants you to do about it. Do you think He’d like that?
It’s what He died for.
Beg, bawl, and plead endlessly, and you’ll spiral into unbelief and despair. But come through the righteousness of Christ; ask Him, listen to Him, obey Him, and you’ll be singing on the mountaintop long before your victory is evident to others.
The key is, simplicity of faith and obedience. After you’ve been let down and abused, are you willing to do something ‘crazy’ like turn the other cheek. If not you’ve failed already, and you will rely on the arm of flesh.
God’s Victory comes only one way.
Where no flesh can glory.
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Zech. 4:6 KJV
The Joy of Forgiving
Are you willing to stop thinking evil in your heart of somebody who has wronged you? If not, you’re going to have to row your own boat through the storm.
Unless you forgive from your heart, your prayers will bounce off the ceiling.
It’s divine to forgive, and essential to please God.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Col. 3:12-13 KJV
Jesus taught, But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mtt. 6:15, Mk. 11:25 KJV
Jesus was talking, under the Old Covenant, to people still under the Law.
Christians are under the New Covenant of Grace: don’t miss the vital difference.
Many believers do, and get bogged down in legalism and bondage to fear. But the principle that we are to be forgiving and redemptive still stands for believers under grace.
When sinned against, we are to immediately forgive the sin from our hearts, and resist the temptation to bear a grudge.
We forgive the sin before the person asks for forgiveness.
When they repent and apologize, we are to forgive them willingly.
This is basic discipleship, and applies to all sins. Don’t wait until the sinner repents; forgive the sin from your heart straight away, don’t fall into the crippling snare of resentment or bitterness.
Walk in the light, as He is in the light, and you’re out of Satan’s range: Sickness and demons cannot touch you.
People ask, ‘Why do Christians fall sick?’
The answer is; unbelief, false teaching, doubt, and sin.
The cure for all ills is repentance and faith in the LORD Jesus Christ.
Repent from unbelief; repent from sin, forgive as you’ve been forgiven, and receive your healing now. He paid the price, He took your infirmities, and He wants to heal you. Only repent and believe that by His wounds you have been healed.
Your Victory: His Delight
In your test; battle, or trial, make this your object and attitude:
‘How can I please Father in this… what would honour my Lord?’
When you do what Jesus is leading you to do; you bring joy to God.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
3 John 4 KJV
Think of that: You can give God pleasure.
You can thrill His Heart.
Or you can break it.
Which do you want to do: Please God or hurt Him?
Rejoice in your trial by trusting in and obeying the word of God. Then His Spirit, and His power will ensure your victory; not by might, not by flesh, but by God’s Spirit. Even before you see success, inwardly you know you have it by God’s grace, through loving Him, and doing what pleases Him. Just like Jesus showed us to do.
Be redemptive towards enemies and persecutors. Refusing to love, guarantees failure.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love: God’s love.
Love cannot fail to reach its goal. Love never fails.
When you stand in the place of sincere love for your enemies, you are assured of divine victory.
No greater joy comes to any person, than that of walking with Christ.
And seeing you walk in the truth, your Father in Heaven has no greater joy.
Give God pleasure right now: How to please God
© 04 Colin Melbourne
