Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:41.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Stop looking so hard at what you have done and look instead at what I have done. Then, like John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb, you will leap for joy. “For by You I can run upon a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall.” Psalm 18:29. Then your heart will throb and overflow. “Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with songs.” Psalm 95:1-2.
The devil seeks to make you look only at yourself. But I tell you to keep your eyes on Jesus. He is the reason for your faith in the good things to come. Your joy, your life direction, depends on where you put your eyes, that is, where you direct your focus.
And that is today’s Life Lesson in what to do when Satan attacks: “Keep Your Eyes on Jesus.”
You become and head towards where you have put your focus. David knew where to put his, “Magnify the LORD with me.” He magnified Me and the problem, even Goliath, became much smaller than the One upon whom He was focused.
The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23. “If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Luke 11:36.
Come with lighted lamp to meet Me. Never look away. Never step out of the anointing. I light your lamp and illumine the darkness around you. When you look to the light, it drives out the darkness for in the light all becomes light.
My apostle Paul received a calling from Me, and now I call you, to go to people who are walking in darkness and open their eyes so that they can turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to Me, and receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. Acts 26:18.
Satan, if you let him, will keep you in darkness, but the revelation of My Word gives light. “For You light my lamp; the LORD my God illumines my darkness.” Psalm 18:28. The words you allow into your heart will determine your affections and the thoughts of your heart. And it all depends where you give your attention. It matters the source of the words you are laying up in your heart.
“You shall therefore impress these Words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as days of Heaven upon the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:18-21. For you to have Heaven on earth, that is, the atmosphere of Heaven on earth, you must fix your focus on My Words alone.
Govern your house and your life by My Words and your eyes will be good and I will come and make My dwelling with you. Jesus told you that, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. John 14:23-24.
Look at Me and learn from Me. My Words will make you shout for joy. “But my heart stands in awe of Your Words. I rejoice at Your Word, as one who finds great spoil.” Psalm 119:161-162.
When you look at Me, focus your attention on Me, I will look after all that concerns you. Look at Me, that is, at My Word, and you will see yourself loved. Focus on yourself alone and you will see sin and darkness. And the devil will tell you that there is no way out, that you have messed up your life, and that you are under My displeasure. But he is a liar, and the father of lies.
Look at Jesus and you are no longer stuck in yourself and your past. YOU ARE NOW IN CHRIST.
“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” 1 John 4:9. You no longer are living on your own if you are in Christ, I gave Him in all His purity and goodness so that you can live in that as well. For it was by My doing that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to you wisdom from Me, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30.
I have rescued you from the domain of darkness and transferred you to the KINGDOM OF MY BELOVED SON, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14. You are in Him now and He is your peace. He is the Light of the World. And He has released you from your sins by His blood and made you a kingdom and priests unto Me. Revelation 1:5-6. Look there for that is who you are now. I have brought you out of darkness into My own marvelous light, and made you a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for My own possession. For you once were not a people, but now you are My people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10.
My apostle Paul understood this. He forgot what lay behind and pressed forward to the goal of My upward call to him in Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” Galatians 2:20-21.
If you start looking at your own works to get righteous, you will fail and be ignoring My grace. You will be much happier if you stop looking so hard at yourself and what you have done or not done for My Kingdom, whether right or wrong, and instead look unto Jesus and all I have made you, done for you, in Him. Value your redemption more than your failures. Think more about who you are in Christ rather than what you are without Him. And then the good works I prepared for you in advance in Christ Jesus will follow naturally.
What Satan tries to do is anything that will work to get your attention off Me. And that is why he is after the Word to steal it, uproot it, choke it off, and lure you into other directions which are not paths to life but paths to death. He did this from the beginning. He got the first man’s and woman’s attention off Me onto the tree and its fruit and enticed them with words contrary to Mine about what that fruit would do for them. But before they sinned he had to make them doubt My Word. And in this way, he stole it from them.
The devil tries to distract you from Me primarily by putting your attention on yourself. He gives you thoughts and keeps repeating whatever works on you. But you can reject the thoughts he offers or the words contrary to Mine that he offers to you through the words of other people. And you can only do this if you have renewed your mind in My Word. And that is up to you.
If you are not excited and joyful about who you are and what you have in Me, you are being robbed by the devil and he has succeeded in making you look just at yourself and the thoughts he is urging on you will not lead you into joy and peace. If you are upset about your past and present life, are angry about things, are jealous and dissatisfied, are depressed, anxious, fearful, or confused, you are letting him rob you. Isn’t it time you put your attention on Me and My Word? Remember, in Christ you died to sin, which means also to the schemes of the devil.
The devil will get you lusting after other things, or depressed about your physical or emotional status. He tried to get Abraham’s and Sarah’s attention off My promise and on Sarah’s barren womb and that led to Hagar, which was disobedience to My promise. But once I got Abraham’s and Sarah’s attention on Me and off their inabilities in the flesh, it did not take long for My promise to manifest. They renewed their minds and got fully persuaded that what I promised I will perform.
The devil will go to any lengths to get you focused on the flesh and off Me, but do not get tricked. If you keep your eyes on Jesus you cannot be moved. You will be able to run the path I have for you all the way to the finish line. Why? If you are running with Me, that is, with your eyes fixed on Jesus and not yourself, the devil cannot run there. To walk with Me you must agree with Me and he cannot do so. Isaiah 35:8-11. “For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with the devil, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
First and foremost when you get into the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, or just are despairing over you own actions or health, know it is not from Me but from the “god” of this world, the devil. So the first thing is to rebuke it by telling him “Oh, no you don’t none of that. Be gone you unclean spirit!” But the next thing you must do is renew your mind and get your attention out of the darkness to the Light of the world. It is a whole new day that has dawned for you in My Son, it is time to stop evaluating and stgart appreciating all you have and all you are in Christ.
It is time you submitted to Me and resisted the devil. Stop all the nonsense of fears and tears, stop the debate and settle on My Word before it is too late. Time is short now till Jesus returns for His glorious church, His body, the Bride. My Word alone is your home.
Stop trying to decipher how you “feel” and look at who you are in Christ based on the truth of My Word. And you, like John the Baptist in his mother’s womb, who had as yet done no good works or great deeds, did a leap of joy the minute he discerned the presence of the Savior.
Start appreciating and protecting the hope of your calling. The devil is trying to take it from you. Do less idle chatter about your feelings and more praising and praying. The past is over, finished and gone, it’s time to step up and sing a new song. I surround you with songs of deliverance. I pull you out of the pit and put your feet on the height of the Eternal Rock and put a new song of praise in your mouth. You have to watch that once I pull you out of the pit you know how to stay out and do not let the devil get you back in there. This is not for just one time. The devil is persistent and consistent, but you can be too. And you have all the power on your side. My Words are Words of POWER.
Jesus is the radiance of My glory and the exact representation of My nature, and He upholds all things by the Word of His power. Hebrews 1:3. Keep your eyes on Jesus. I have seated you with Him in Heaven. You really don’t have to look to far. You are in Him.
And prayer for others should be part of your life. And this will lift you up. Prayer is a vocation to redeem the nations for Christ.
“He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” Revelation 2:26-28.
I love you. Stop looking so hard at what you have done and look instead at what I have done. Look at Me and let Me look at you. “Let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” Song of Songs 2:14. It is not like you do not know where to look, I am very clear about that, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2. At Jesus. And He is My Word.
My son, give attention to My Words; incline your ear to My sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Proverbs 4:20-22