PASTOR DARRYL BAKER

James 4:7 – Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

One of the easiest ways to keep the devil and his works out of your life is found in this verse of scripture. It is known as the power of positive resistance. Every time you submit your life to the ways of God, you are automatically resisting the devil. In doing so, you are taking your focus off of what the devil is trying to mislead you to do and looking to God instead.

For example, God’s Word teaches us that we should find our pastor and be a part of a local church body. Satan does not want you in God’s house, so when you go to church you submit to God and automatically resist the devil. God wants us to forgive, give to the work of God, present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto Him, etc; and as we do the things God’s Word teaches us, we are automatically resisting satan who wants us to do the opposite.

The opposite of this verse is true as well. What if you know you should be in a good church but do not go? What if you know you should forgive, and give to the work of God but you don’t? Then you would be submitting to the devil’s ways and resisting God. Some people do not realize their biggest problem is not the devil, it’s the fact that they are not resisting him by choosing to submit to God. You can resist the devil by simply submitting your life to the will of God. When you do, he will flee.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

James 1:26
If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

To walk by faith, you must believe in your heart what God’s Word says, but if you deceive your own heart, you will not have faith in God. James tells us we must deal with our tongue to keep from deceiving our hearts. If we speak contrary to God’s Word, we convince our heart God’s Word is not true, which leads to deception.

To change our words, we must change our thinking for our thoughts will determine what we believe, and what we believe will come out of our mouth. There are three primary influences that wrongly affect our thinking. They are observation, association, and falsification. Observation means what we look at or focus our attention on, and we must guard against doing so with things contrary to God’s Word.

The second thing that affects our thinking is associations. Scripture teaches us to choose our friends carefully for even the wicked will lead you astray. The third area is falsification, which refers to false teachings from God’s Word where people are not taught the truth but are taught man-made religion instead. So, to guard your heart from deception you must address observations, associations, and falsifications. Right thinking leads to right believing, right believing leads to right speaking, and right speaking will bring right results in your life.

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Hebrews 9:24
For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; …

When God breathed into Adam the breath of life, the first thing Adam saw was the face of God. This is where man’s identity came from, his Creator. When Adam sinned, the Bible says he hid himself from the presence of God, which that word in the Hebrew means the face of God. Man now looked to the creation, turning away from the Father for his identity. He could not see God’s face. But Jesus did something about that.

Hebrews 9:24 tells us Jesus went before the presence (face) of God for us. Jesus provided the way for us to find our value and worth again from our Father, our Creator, and not the creation (things of this world, or other people). By cleansing us of our old sinful spirit man within, He reconnected us with the Father. When you are trying to find your worth in life through things or other people, you will never be satisfied, for we were designed by God to find our worth by identifying with Him.

How do we see His face today? Look to God’s Word, for Jesus is the Word made flesh, especially looking to the New Testament which tells you who you now are in Christ. Jesus said if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. You are a new creation, more than a conqueror, one spirit with the Lord. So don’t look to the things of this life nor other people to find your worth, look to your Creator by looking to His Word.

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Hebrews 8:6
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

Under the Old Testament the children of Israel were given the promise of God’s provision, healing, protection, and more. We do not have any less available to us then they had, for we have a better covenant with even better promises, not less. The promises we have been given in the new covenant are based on what Christ has done for us, not what we have done. We receive these promises by faith in Christ Jesus, the One who shed His blood to purchase every promise.

One of the keys to faith is no longer seeing what we have in Christ as a promise, for that would put it off into the future, but a purchased possession. Faith takes what we have been given a promise of, and sees it as a present day reality, for faith brings everything into the present tense. “Now” faith is (Heb. 11:1). Faith is of the heart for man believes in his heart and confession is made unto what God has said. We are simply agreeing with God that we have what Christ has purchased for us.

Feed on the Word until it becomes real to your inner man. You need to take the promises of God found in the New Testament and continue to meditate on those truths, declaring to yourself that they are yours now. You need to see them by the eye of faith as already a part of your life. Choose to walk by faith and not by sight, acting upon what God’s Word says is yours, and you can receive all that God has provided for you through Christ Jesus for we have a better covenant.

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James 1:25
But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does.

Do you desire to be blessed in what you do? You can, but the key is looking into God’s perfect law of liberty (His Word), and you fix you attention on it, taking the time to hear it preached, and if you live out what you hear you will be blessed. What a powerful promise from God. God’s Word is filled with the life of God. The life of God is all that God is, and all that He has.

You must make giving your attention to God’s truth a priority. That means His Word is what you are looking to, so that you may learn how to live out this new life God has already placed in the new man on the inside of you. If you are fixing your attention on the Word, you are doing so because you desire to adapt your life to that Word. Many may hear the Word preached, but not with a focus to do what they hear, but instead to just fulfill in their minds a religious duty to God.

When your hearts desire is to become one with God’s Truth, then you are not a forgetful hearer. You desire to look like the Word of God. A doer of the Word is one whose desire is to let Jesus live through them, for He is the Word who was made flesh. A true doer of God’s Word make it their lifestyle, not picking and choosing what they may or may not want to do. As they do so, they will live a blessed life, the life God has planned for them.

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Hebrews 4:14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, He fulfilled all that was needed for us to be victorious here on earth. One of the major keys to walking in victory is holding fast to a faith filled confession. Consistently confessing who you are, what you have, and what you can do in Christ. To hold fast to your confession means to keep saying the same thing.

As 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us we are to walk by faith and not by sight. The walk of faith is known as the great confession. Walking by faith we continually speak in line with God’s Word. 2 Corinthians 4:13 tells us that faith believes, and faith speaks. So, to live a life of faith we must address what we are consistently speaking. Faith is also present tense, so to hold on to a confession of faith, we are thanking God for what is already ours.

The key to changing your confession is in what you are feeding on. Scripture tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So feed on God’s Word, hold fast to a confession of faith, consistently declaring and thanking God for what is already yours through what Christ has done for us, and you can watch your life change for the better as you speak in line with the Word of God.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths smooth.

Listen carefully to what I am about to share with you if you want to truly understand faith in God and how faith actually works. When you look at how many define faith you will get a lot of different answers. But I will never forget listening to a great man of faith Dr. Lester Sumrall, how he after learning directly through the Word from the Lord what faith is and then proved it defines faith as. Faith is simply trusting in God. When asked about faith he responded, “How far can you trust God”. As simple as that may sound you need to understand what he is saying for I at first did not.

This is how faith or trust in God works. When you truly with all your heart trust God, then you begin believing, which means you are now acting upon what God has said through words and actions. When this happens then God’s supernatural ability goes into operation to fulfill what you have believed by actions for. When we talk about developing faith what we are truly saying is we are developing trust in God. The reason faith or trust comes by hearing the Word is because as you take time to go hear God’s Word by yourself or in church, if you are truly listening trust is being developed as you get to know God. Many who are weak in faith are simply weak in trust because they don’t take time to hear God’s Word, which reveals Himself to us.

When you get to know someone through relationship you develop a trust that then leads to acting on what they say. It’s the same with God. When you get to know Him as revealed in the scriptures above you won’t lean on your understanding, which is walking by sight, but instead by confession and actions you will acknowledge God in all your ways and He will bring forth what He has promised. If we focus on developing trust in God, the rest will follow. But to do that we must with all our heart desire to know Him and make that our priority. For all who do trust will result in believing, and that will result in the hand of God working in and through our life. Your level of trust (faith) in God is based on how much you want to know Him, and then how much time you give to hear from His Word what He will reveal of Himself to you.

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Galatians 6:9
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

We have a promise from God if we do not give up in doing what is good, staying planted in God’s house where He placed us, living by faith, walking close to our God, giving to the work of God, etc; we “WILL REAP” the benefit of what God has for us. If we allow things to lead us away from what is good in the sight of God, we will miss out. There are three key things that will help us to not grow weary.

Acts 20:24 – But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

1. Don’t allow things to so easily shake you, being overtaken by your flesh. Stop allowing your emotions to govern you. Choose to be governed by your spirit man instead.

Philippians 2:14 – Do everything without complaining or arguing.

2. A second area to address is our attitude. When you have a bad attitude, you tend to complain or argue. As your attitude goes, so goes your life.

Isaiah 1:19 – If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.

3. The third area to address is your willingness. If you willingly go to God’s house, give to God’s work, serve your God, etc, you will reap the best God has for you. When we approach life with a willing mindset, it makes a huge difference in our lives.

Address these three areas in your life and it will help you to not grow weary in doing good, and you will reap what God has for you.

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Hebrews 2:18
For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

Because Jesus was tempted in all things and yet free from sin, He can now come to aid us in overcoming every temptation. There is nothing He cannot deliver us from. We simply follow in His example that He gave us in the wilderness. Every time Jesus was tempted by the devil, He quoted the Word of God. Jesus is the Word made flesh, and it is the Word that helps us to overcome temptation.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He defeated each temptation by quoting scripture. As the devil would tempt Him in an area, Jesus countered that temptation with the Word as He would declare what was written in the scriptures. If we will feed on the Word, we will have the ammunition to face and defeat the temptations that come. As scripture tells us when we hide God’s Word in our heart, we will not sin against Him.

The Word is an offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit. As we declare the Word to our enemy just as Jesus did, we therefore resist the temptation, and he will flee from you. When temptations come to try and defeat you or mislead you declare what is written, and through the help of the living Word Jesus Himself, you can overcome temptation.

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Hebrews 2:14
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, …

Through the blood Jesus shed for us we have no reason to fear the devil. He has been rendered powerless to all who know their rightful place in Christ. In Ephesians chapter one we are told that God’s mighty power was seen when Jesus was raised from the dead, for He was seated far above all the powers of darkness and every name that is named. It goes on to tell us that all things were placed under His feet, to which He was made the head of His body.

We are the body of Christ. All these powers of darkness were placed under our feet, for the very next chapter tells us that we have been raised up together and seated with Christ at the right hand of God, far above all the powers of darkness. God’s right hand is the place of ultimate authority. For any believer to be afraid of the devil or his works they do not understand their rightful place in Christ.

Do not fear the devil nor his works. Rise up to your rightful place as a child of God, and through the name of Jesus and the Word of God, use your authority against this enemy who has been rendered powerless. The only power satan can use against you is by deceiving you or seducing you to be under his control. Walk in your rightful place and keep him under your feet where he belongs, using your God-given authority through the name of Jesus. The name above every name!

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas