If You Can't Stand the Heat....

James 1:12, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." 

Exodus 14:14, "The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still."

1 Peter 4:12, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;"

I awoke this morning with a sense of an "urgent compulsion" to write. The problem was that I didn't know about what I was to write about. I felt something on the lines of spiritual battles but that was about it. I've written about those in different posts in the past but I felt it needed to be "different." After some hours of pondering and praying, I reached out to a dear friend with a text telling her I had this urgent compulsion to write but didn't know about what and how crazy it was for me. With no provocation, and without her knowing I was already feeling "spiritual battles" she simply texted back with what ended up being the title of this post! As soon as I read it, I knew where I was being led, what I was to speak about and told her I was going to even steal the title! With love of course! I prayed a little more for direction as I wanted to stay within His will for this writing since it was such a strong pull in the first place. I knew this must be written....for someone, or many, but it had to be written.

The Heat is On

When I was growing up, there was a popular saying that I don't hear quite as often today. "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!" I loved hearing my mom use that phrase to others around us even though as a young child, I didn't fully understand what it meant until I got a little older. And as I got older, I found myself using the same phrase! Proudly I might add. This phrase can be applied to many different scenarios and situations but the meaning remains the same....if it's too much for you to handle (or bear) or if something is difficult to endure then step away and don't get involved, leave the situation, don't nose your way into the situation if you aren't prepared to feel the "burn" of that said situation. More importantly, to prepare to battle the growing heat and be cautious as you "cook." Anytime something is too hot, someone will get burned. We all have experienced that and learned very early on, when it's hot, don't touch it. But if you do decide to touch it, prepare to utilize first aid and hopefully you'll have brought the necessities along! Well, as a born again, Christ follower, the heat in the kitchen becomes intense! So intense that every area in your life might feel like it's on fire and you feel the heat so intensely that you can't even feel your way out. That's OK! It's normal to feel that way but don't feel trapped! This is when we need to rely on the guidance, direction, protection and intervention of Jesus Christ! As it states in the scripture above, Exodus 14:14, "The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still." It may not seem that way while you are going through the trials, tribulations and suffering, but He never let's you go to battle without Him! Ever! I wish more people knew this about our Loving Father! He's even equipped His children with the Full Armor of God for us to successfully, confidently and imminently do battle in this world! So our saying can be more aptly changed to be, "If you can't stand the heat, put on the Full Armor of God before going to battle!" I like that!

The heat gets intense in the proverbial Christian "kitchen" because the enemy is trying to make us fall, trip us up, confuse us and to lay fear in our minds and hearts. On the flip side, sometimes the heat is from our testing as well. We must be tested and sharpened to do more intense battles in the field so sometimes God raises the temperatures ever so slightly to acclimate us to the heat of the kitchen! As many of my regular readers know from some of my posts, I have been in a very hot kitchen for a season now! That season feels like it's never going to end because it continues to get hotter and hotter. It's very hot, very trying and there are days it's just a little warm but present, while other days it's a raging, full blown out of control fire! It appears I'm getting acclimated to the suffering and the many trials I've been led to and through though and I've battled, daily, to keep myself focused and to continue growing. I've grown in so many ways as a result and in many ways, I'm still growing. I'm learning. I'm more reliant upon the Lord. I've been taken to a whole new level of trust and Faith through some of my recent battles, one being my blessing of my central heat and air that I wrote about here. I've experienced His divine protection as I wrote about here. I've experienced His promises and presence during an ice storm that I wrote about here.  I've experienced His healing miracles and the impact of our moments that I wrote about here and here. I have endless moments of impacts that have grown my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His promises to me! Countless! Sure it's exhausting and sometimes very scary, especially when the majority of them happened while I was alone! It can get overwhelming to have to face so many mounting issues upon issues that it can sometimes feel like those trials and all of my suffering won't ever come to an end. They may not. I don't know. It's not for me to say but if they don't, God has proven over and over that He has gone before me and has made a way out for me in addition to providing for my needs, immediate and future.

I'm here to tell everyone that the devil is a liar! The devil is so good at lying and deceiving that many of God’s glorious, beautiful angels didn't even detect his deceit. They didn't understand his manipulative schemes either. He deceived a full third of heavenly angels!! That is so hard for me to comprehend because the angels had the most amazing home and can't imagine giving it up to follow Satan as he was thrown out of Heaven to rule the earth! I mean think about this for a moment. The Bible tells us in Revelation 12:7-9, that Lucifer convinced a third of the angels to wage war against the Almighty Creator God! It says, "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Pretty intense, wouldn't you say!? It would take a very convincing liar to persuade the level of intelligent angels to rebel against our Almighty God! This was an act of rebellion and defiance. I can only imagine this must have saddened God.

The enemy surely has come against me, attacking different areas of my life, trying to weaken my strength in Jesus Christ and tried vehemently to derail the train the Lord had set me on! I'm still standing. I'm still battling. I'm still wrapped in God's loving arms. I'm still facing the heat in the kitchen as I spiritually grow in my "cooking lessons." I've watched as the master of disguise, lies and manipulation caused unexpected roadblocks on my journey while he simultaneously tried to compromise my testimony! He never compromised my testimony because for every dagger he flew at me, for every mountain he tried to place in my path, for every attack he brought against me God already had my escape route mapped out! He knows my eyes are upon Him. He knows my heart belongs to Him. He knows I'm a soldier prepared for battle. He also knows how to turn up the heat and allow trials to come at me in order to grow me, strengthen me and bring me to a new level of Faith and Trust! I can't explain the why's because my mind can't comprehend what He does but I KNOW He loves me! I KNOW He cares about me! I KNOW He knows me better than I know myself and protects me before I ever touch the hot coals in this life! He will do the same for YOU too! 

Let's look at Acts 28:1-6 about Paul and the viper. "Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. 2) And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. 3) But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4) So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live." 5) But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6) However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god."

Fun fact. Malta was derived from a Greek word meaning "honey." Malta was known for it’s production of honey! You see, the snake didn't phase Paul in the least bit. He just simply shook it off right into the fire and moved on. Why or how could Paul so casually do such a thing? Well, honestly, Paul knew and understood his own authority over the evil one given to him by God and he knew God wasn’t finished with him yet! Nothing was going to take him out. He trusted and had faith. This is an amazing example of how we should face the heat when the temperature is turned up! Shaking the snake into the fire was prophetic of the devil being cast into the lake of fire for eternity. We can see though that the snake attacked Paul because of the heat! Satan is, and always has been, referred to as a snake beginning back in Genesis! When things start heating up, when the kitchen starts getting a bit hotter, is when the enemy manifests himself in the strongest ways and it’s also when God’s overcoming power is at it’s greatest! Praise Jesus! But always remember that the devil needs God’s permission before he can do anything to you by means of oppression or attacks against you. The devil has figured out how to plan against the "system" in order to get God’s permission. He will do it very legalistically because you and I have free will. In Biblical times, mighty men of war relied upon their swords to slay their enemies. That’s why God inspired Paul to use a "sword" as a metaphor for a powerful weapon. God's Word IS the powerful Sword and weapon against the wiles of the enemy! Ephesians 6:17, "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;" Anyone familiar with the full armor of God will recognize this as part of His protection and power! We mustn't ever forget that there is no situation under Heaven that God can't deliver us out of if we trust Him!

The Sword is the Word!

There isn't a single situation that you find yourself in; there isn't a single attack that has come against you; there isn't a single trial that has been allowed or placed in front of you that God can’t deliver you out of if you trust Him! I'm a living testimony to that! I've been the target and I still AM a target, central to my faith and trust in Jesus Christ! The more I speak boldly, stand for the rightness of things and make His light present in the darkness, the more attacks I get, the more obstacles I face and the more battles I fight! I try hard not to bring too much attention to any particular situation unless it's warranted and I know Paul didn't bring attention to his situation either. He didn't bring glory to the enemy in any way by rehearsing the situation but at the same time, due to this, notice how the natives were watching Paul when the snake bit him. This is an important observation and another powerful lesson! You see, as a direct result of Paul's reaction to the snake, the natives changed their minds about him. Notice they first thought he was a murderer then after the incident, they thought he was a "god." Due to Paul knowing he was being watched in his reactions, or lack thereof, to the snake, it made an impact on how others saw him. I've always said, and keep saying to this day, others are always watching us in our times of trouble! Eyes are always upon us whether we know it or not, someone is watching to see the way we react or don't react to any given situation. This is a strong and powerful testimony for others watching because it may possibly have a significant affect on them! Because of Paul's experience, he introduced the POWER OF GOD as well as Christianity, to the natives of the island after the devil tried to take him out!!!

Before I continue, let me share some strategies that the enemy uses to derail you while the heat is on!
1) IGNORANCE - Whether you know demons exist or not, and they DO exist as evidenced in God's inerrant Word, what the devil doesn’t want you to know is the greatness and power of God’s powerful Word and the awesome benefits of doing God’s will. Scripture memory to use during the intense heat is one that comes to mind.
2) ANESTHESIA - If somehow you give off an air of your ignorance of God’s Word then suddenly begin to read it, study it and memorize it, the devil wants to keep you "anesthetized." By anesthetizing your mind as you read the words, he wants to ensure they don't have any meaning to you as you read them, sort of like reading in a foreign language. He wants to veil the Gospel to you so you become in danger of perishing. Romans 11:8, "God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day." and also in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."
3) UNBELIEF - The enemy and his demons want to keep you from the truth but they also want to keep you from taking the truth seriously! He plants those thoughts of unbelief in your mind to derail you and make you weak, but also to make you an easier target. Things like making you believe reading and studying the bible aren't really important and give wandering thoughts of other things being more important. They try desperately to get you to doubt that God exists and/or doubt the accuracy of the Bible.
4) DISTRACTION - This is so prevalent in today's society that it can't go without mention! When someone, anyone, is determined to believe and press on forward, even after other strategies have failed, they will throw several modes of distractions at you or place them around you. Social media is high on the list in the technological realm and is playing havoc on being a distraction for Truth! Te enemy sets out to distract by making you feel hungry, tired, have your thoughts wander to a grocery list, or a to-do list, someone will inevitably call, something will "break" and you'll have to stop and fix it, you'll get an unexpected visitor or just spend hours on end surfing the internet, etc. He will use the means that he knows works for you. Be on guard!
5) DOUBT - Another thing very high on the list of things is that he will try to make you doubt such things as the very authenticity of the Bible, God's existence, God's sovereignty, God's power, God's love. The Word IS true as evidenced in Proverbs 30:5, "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him." He definitely even wants you to doubt that Jesus said in Luke 16:17, "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail." Tittle is the smallest amount of something and the law is the Bible/God's Word. The devil thrives on creating doubt, it's one of his tools and he uses it as necessary.
6) OUTRIGHT LIES - John 8:44, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." What the devil doesn’t want you to know is that EVERYTHING he says is a bold faced LIE! He is the author of lies and confusion! He would love nothing more than to keep you in a perpetual state of confusion in order to believe his lies. He’ll even tell half-truths, mixing a little bit if truth with a lot of untruth. We see his work in the the false teacher/false prophet/false religion arena that is so prevalent today! All of his half-truths and the preachers who propagate those same lies, are really nothing more than being likened to a nice, freshly baked chocolate cake that had some shards of finely cut up glass baked right in the middle of it! You would NEVER eat it if you knew what was baked inside! Well, you shouldn't "eat" the filthy words of the devil either!

The demons, as they always do without fail, exploit the fact that God has given us a free will. They will stop at nothing to discourage, disappoint, distract, and disrupt us away from allowing God to be the Lord of our lives! We mustn't confuse who is responsible for our troubles and problems. Our hardships and suffering. If the enemy can get you to believe that God is the source of all of your problems, both great and small, you're less likely and less willing to resist him.  Just another one of his wiles! John 10:10 says, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." The thief doesn't come for any good, only to steal, to kill, and to destroy! Nothing more. But please know that the abundant life doesn’t mean we aren't going to face problems or hardships or won't suffer. Rather, we know who to turn to in the midst of them. Jeremiah 29:11, " For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Luke 17:1, "Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!"

There will be some who might say the Bible says to thank God for all things, but that is obviously wrongly quoting I Thessalonians 5:18 which actually says "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

It doesn’t say "FOR all things give thanks"it says "IN everything give thanks". A very big difference one word makes in how it is received, applied and understood! Ephesians 5:20, "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," The word "for" here in this scripture is better translated as meaning "concerning" all things. We should and do thank God for being with us in our current situations and walking us through it. We should and do thank God that it wasn’t worse than it was or is. The preceding two scriptures, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and Ephesians 5:20, would appear to contradict themselves which, of course, simply can't be because God isn't in the contradiction business! You see, we're not supposed to, nor are we instructed or expected to, thank God for things that would contradict His Word. Things such as abortion, adultery, sickness and disease, temptation, murder, and so forth. As a reminder, don’t interpret the entire Bible by one text, one scripture, but, rather, interpret one text by the WHOLE bible. Sometimes we want to interpret a scripture to suit our needs rather than what God meant it to mean. That’s called self-justification.This is a common practice due to our fallen nature. Many non-believers, new Christians, and some of the "feel good, watered down" believers are prone to doing this as God's word, in full authority, convicts us of our wrong doing, our sins, and conviction makes us all feel unclean! We don't like to feel we're in the wrong.

One of the reasons that God may allow troubles to come into our lives is so we can show by way of our real-life examples how He works in the life of a believer! I know I've been that vessel on several occasions and I know others saw the power of God working in my life! I've never doubted! Others have but as I sit here writing this to all of you, I am reminded constantly that God is ever present and an amazing force in my life! Through many of my hardships, trials, suffering and battles, I've seen the eyes of others, Christian and non-believers alike, who have seen Jesus at work! When I pause to reflect, I'm thankful that I was chosen for those times, for those people, for those trials and for my testimony. The following Scripture shows how God wants each of us to be an encouragement and a comfort to others and a beautiful reminder! 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4) who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

There is, and always will be, frustration of trying to live right, to live a Godly life. It's hard. We try with all of our might to be a good Christian. We pray every day. We read the Bible. We go to our local church. We sing spiritual songs and we praise His greatness. Then, out of nowhere, it happens…..The devil pushes your button! You might lose your temper. You might fall into an endless pit of depression. You might be riddled with unwarranted anxiety. You might give into your temptation that you've been fighting. You might get caught up in some distractions. When these things happen we snap out of it and feel like we're not worthy. We feel like we've let the Lord down....yet again. It's when we think we've tried to do all the right things that the very thing (s) we didn’t want to do, we end up doing anyway and we blow it! The heat in the kitchen was just turned up unexpectedly. It’s the same feeling that Peter had when he heard the rooster crow for the third time! Just imagine! We just don't have anything to say because, well, we messed up. We know what we SHOULD do, and that's to go to God and say what we need to say to Him. But we don't. We're ashamed. We don’t pray or try to talk to God because we see the horrible reflection of our unworthiness coming right at us. The feeling is unbearable. But I'm just about to get real here because even when we're doing, what we feel in our flesh is good, and think we’re doing all the "right" religious things, we're still just as unworthy as when we do the sinful things that make us crawl back to our Lord and Savior and ask for forgiveness once again.

How do we get it right? The simple answer is found in 2 Corinthians 4:16, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day." We must continue to be renewed by the Holy Spirit. Daily. No exceptions. It's not easy and yes, we will fail. That's why we have a Living Savior who died on the Cross to pay our sin debt in full! This life is nothing without Him! By renewing through the Holy Spirit, this means we can't give up. No matter how difficult things get. No matter how often we mess up. No matter how hot the kitchen gets. When we mess up, we can’t give up but instead, we have to keep on redoing it until we get it right! We'll get it sooner or later. We can never be perfect on this side of Heaven because there is only One who is Perfect, Jesus Christ! So when we clearly can recognize an area, or an entry point, where the devil is controlling us, taunting us or attacking us, we must recognize and acknowledge it, then disconnect his power to that particular button in our lives. We have to muster up the strength and render his controlling ways and devices useless. It's easy for Christians to deny that there's a problem area and the more denying that one does, the harder it is to recognize the problem. We tend to become prideful, which in and of itself is a sin, and ignore the areas where the devil is controlling us. We mustn't continue in that destructive process! Those areas of control may look like unforgiveness, lust, anger or some other area that gives us problems. It doesn't really matter. If all we do is say a short prayer, chalk it up to being of the flesh and don't repent, then we do little to the attack the problem from the get go! There are definitely some issues that run deep.  There are strongholds of control that the enemy grips you with and if left unresolved, unrepentant and unacknowledged, the devil will, inevitably be relentless in taunting you with that area in your life. He might back off for a time, but will come back and keep coming back just to show you who truly has control. He will press that button again and again, and over and over and zap you. Be on guard. Be vigilant. Recognize the areas where the heat has been turned up and if you can't stand the heat, put on the Full Armor of God and battle the raging fire protected! Don't go it alone!

Romans 12:2, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Victory Over The Devil Is A Partnership With God! He Is the Best Partner There Is!


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