STAY DELIVERED!
It is said that a seasoned criminal does not know how to handle freedom and so would do anything to get back into jail. Could it be that for such persons jail is the only form of freedom that they know? But let’s not be too quick to judge such persons as fools, weak or having a twisted inner moral compass. Not everybody who has tasted the extremes of both freedom and bondage find it easy to make what we would consider the obvious and better choice between the two – freedom – not bondage. Yet if we’re not vigilant we too can find ourselves drawn back from experiencing a life of freedom to one of being in bondage; from being delivered to being re-captured. So for our FF today the Lord is saying to us to STAY DELIVERED.
If you have been DELIVERED then the call today is to ensure that you do all in your power to STAY DELIVERED. I’m quite sure that all of us have been DELIVERED from something or maybe even someone. Some have been DELIVERED from deadly and destructive habits: gambling, a lying tongue, gossiping, lusts, illegal drug use, sexual addictions etc. Others have been DELIVERED from people: a controlling boy/girl friend, being in a gang, an unfaithful spouse or an abusive marriage; friends whose influence was negative – you name it. The deliverance might have been instant or could have taken time. The need for deliverance might have been triggered by a desire or yearning for more, something better or could have been the Holy Spirit simply nudging and prompting you to step away from where you were and step towards God.
It doesn’t matter how you’re deliverance was started or how long it took. Just thank God that God DELIVERED you. Now that you’ve been DELIVERED whether it was ten years or ten days, the challenge now before you is to STAY DELIVERED. Failure to STAY DELIVERED could be disastrous. Let’s heed the warning found in Matthew 12:43 ff: ‘When a defiling evil spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn't find anyone, it says, 'I'll go back to my old haunt.' On return it finds the person spotlessly clean, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse off than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place’.[The Message]
We all need to STAY DELIVERED to ensure that our second condition is not worse than the first. But to help us STAY DELIVERED there must be a NO VACANCY sign posted on our lives. That which once held up captive, have we not only been DELIVERED from but God has replaced it with that which will never pass away – the Word of God which contains ALL that God is, can and will be to us.
So till next Friday, God’s willing, let’s thank God that we have been DELIVERED. But continually pray even as Jesus taught us, ‘DELIVER us from evil’. Those whom God has DELIVERED must walk daily with God so that they will STAY DELIVERED.
Mikie Roberts (Rev)
It doesn’t matter how you’re deliverance was started or how long it took. Just thank God that God DELIVERED you. Now that you’ve been DELIVERED whether it was ten years or ten days, the challenge now before you is to STAY DELIVERED. Failure to STAY DELIVERED could be disastrous. Let’s heed the warning found in Matthew 12:43 ff: ‘When a defiling evil spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn't find anyone, it says, 'I'll go back to my old haunt.' On return it finds the person spotlessly clean, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse off than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place’.[The Message]
We all need to STAY DELIVERED to ensure that our second condition is not worse than the first. But to help us STAY DELIVERED there must be a NO VACANCY sign posted on our lives. That which once held up captive, have we not only been DELIVERED from but God has replaced it with that which will never pass away – the Word of God which contains ALL that God is, can and will be to us.
So till next Friday, God’s willing, let’s thank God that we have been DELIVERED. But continually pray even as Jesus taught us, ‘DELIVER us from evil’. Those whom God has DELIVERED must walk daily with God so that they will STAY DELIVERED.
Mikie Roberts (Rev)
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