Floodgates of Heaven Devotions: Victory is to be OBTAINED, not simply ABSORBED effortlessly.

Today’s Reading: 2 Sam. 21-22, Luke 18:24-43

Today’s Reflection: 2 Samuel 22:6 The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;

The powers of both hell and death always seek to prevent God’s anointed from moving forward. But because King David called upon The Lord in his distress, these otherwise powerful enemies ultimately failed to stop him. And so it is with the blood-bought, born again child of God today!

Although Jesus already TOOK the keys of death and hell (see Rev. 1:18) away from satan, yet today each force attempts to prevent God’s people from going forward throughout the Earth with the Gospel of The Lord Jesus Christ. Hell still sways the hearts of the people with its sorrow, and death still does so by its attempts of intimidation and threat.

The only Christians who are swayed by such forces of darkness are those who are ignorant or apathetic about the victory they already have through Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his church. This means that the gates of hell will not overcome, or gain the victory or superiority over, or gain the advantage over. It also means that hell will not be in such force, as to have prevailing effect, power or influence over the church.

And the truth is, this is ever so true, but only because the true church exercises the authorities afforded them through Christ’s shed blood on the cross, and the power of His resurrection. We must learn to wage war against our adversary with the weapons of our warfare (see Eph. 6). Victory is to be OBTAINED, not simply ABSORBED effortlessly.

Many of us are only using some of our armor, but we must take on the WHOLE armor of God! We often have our prayers in place, but we should also have our battle strategy against the enemy in place, because he stands in an effort to prevent us from serving God effectively.

So, how do we prevent the devil from preventing us from prevailing? One verse in particular teaches us to RESIST the devil (see James 4:7). Now, when we resist the devil, we are in fact preventing him from preventing us. Doesn’t it make since that if we are preventing the devil, while he is preventing us, that because God is on our side, that we will do the preventing and not him?

If so, then why are so many Christians still being prevented by the enemy from doing what it is that God has called them to do? May I suggest it is because many do not acknowledge that the preventing is done so by the forces of death and hell. We may call it bad luck, Murphy’s law, inability, inferiority, insecurity, poverty, etc., but not until we identify our true enemy will we prevent him.

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Floodgates of Heaven
Volume 2
Entry 115 of 365

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