BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

None. As if that wasn’t humiliating enough, Jesus made things even worse for the devil by instituting the new birth. He made it possible for people like you and me, who were once held captive and contaminated by sin, to become new creatures in Christ. Jesus made us His joint heirs and gave us His power and authority. He put Satan and all his demonic hosts under our feet and said: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). I’m sure the devil wishes that verse wasn’t in the Bible. He’d like you to think he only has to flee from Jesus. But that’s not true. The Bible makes it clear, the devil has to flee from you. Why? Because you have Jesus living on the inside of you and, as 1 John 4:4 says, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Talk about big problems! Satan has no power of his own left to use against you. The only way he can get any foothold in your life at all, is by deceiving you into using your own power against yourself. And he can only do that by getting you to believe what he says instead of what God’s Word says. If you refuse to buy his lies, if you find out what the Word says, believe it and act on it, Satan can’t stand before you any more than he stood before Jesus. When you resist him in the Name of Jesus, he has to run from you, as one translation says, as if in terror! Because you have the right and the position to use the Name, Satan has to do what you say. We are told to cast out devils in Jesus’ Name (Mark 16:17). Not an Unworthy Dog, a Child of God “Yes, I know that’s what the Bible says,” you might say, “but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I can’t see how someone like me could be much of a problem for the devil.” Then you need to start seeing yourself differently! Instead of seeing yourself from a natural perspective, you need to see yourself as the New Testament describes you: As having been re-created in the very image and likeness of Jesus (Colossians 3:10). As a partaker of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). As a son or daughter of God who is so much like Jesus that the Bible says, “As He is, so are [you] in this world” (1 John 3:2, 4:17). Although it’s sad to say, that’s not how many Christians have been taught to think about themselves. They’ve been taught they’re unworthy sinners. They’ve been trained to see themselves as nobodies who aren’t anything at all like God. But nothing could be further from the truth. We’re God’s children—and children are like their parents! I’ll always remember when I had my first baby. After the delivery, the nurse handed little Kellie to me and she looked like a beautiful papoose. With a thatch of dark hair and dark olive skin, she was the prettiest baby I’d ever seen. I was totally delighted with her. If she’d looked like a little monkey, though, I would have been disappointed. I would have felt bad. I didn’t want her to look like some other species. I wanted her to be a human being. I wanted her to look like Ken and me! *****ADVERTISEMENT***** Get MORE The digital issue is packed with bonus content! magazine.kcm.org ********************************** BVOV : 29

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