Beloved Family… few, (if any) of us have had significant personal experience in the art and science of prizefighting or martial arts. Who among us ever walked into an arena and moved to a preassigned corner of a ring, to participate in a scheduled bout? But at least, we’ve all seen this in movies, TV, or in person. Fighters enter the ring, taking warmup swings at an imaginary foe, and perhaps they jump up and down with excitement. Sometimes they glare at their opponent to intimidate, and project an image of fierce invincibility across the ring and throughout the arena.
And at the opening bell, we know that as each fighter moves to the center to begin the contest, each one has a well thought out ‘fight plan.’ They know what they plan to do in the first and second round, and how and why they intend to follow those pre-planned tactics. They know their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, and plan to take advantage of that knowledge. Each fighter looks good, and fresh and energetic. And they’re ready to go at it, full force. Everyone looks good before the fight starts.
When the opening bell rings, the fighters come out from their corners, circle around, sizing up each other’s stance. They feint, jab, and look for the first opening to appear so they can strike. This preliminary ‘feeling out’ process can last for up to fifteen or twenty seconds or even a little longer; but eventually they begin to fight in earnest. They punch each other’s bodies and fend off blows to the head with upraised arms. But suddenly one fighter sends a lightning quick punch that drives itself right into his opponent’s face and causes the head to snap back, and beads of sweat to fly through the air.
For the fighter who scored the hit… his fight plan is laid aside… now he focuses on attacking ferociously to exploit this sudden advantage. He punches, again and again, trying to beat down his foe’s ability to resist. He swings with rights and lefts to end the fight before he expends all of his strength.
But let’s focus on what is happening in the mind and heart of the other fighter right after that punch smashes into his face and makes him ‘see stars’ and causes his knees to buckle. What will he do, now that his survival instinct has been activated to the ‘red alert’ level? Well, his fight plan has also just flown out the window; and now he automatically switches over to the automatic, default mode of doing whatever he can to survive. How he looks as he does it, and what impression he’s making on the onlookers, no longer matters. His only focus now is on survival! But what he chooses to do next will be of the utmost consequence, in terms of the outcome of this fight and, perhaps, even that of the entire future of his career!
I say this because immediately after your face is hit by such an impact, a terrific shock goes through your brain and nervous system. It temporarily stuns you and shuts down your ability to think clearly. It knocks the details of your carefully devised ‘fight plan’ right out of your head. And you lose awareness of your surroundings, and even the ability to remember your name, or where you are. For a few seconds, you stagger and have difficulty keeping your balance. And inside your system, all the bells and sirens of your survival alarm mechanism are now blaring, “Mayday, Mayday, Emergency Alert… seal off all compartments… Survive, Survive, Survive!”
Your former airs of arrogant bravado are now nowhere to be seen. At this moment, there is nothing but Life or Death in your consciousness. “Am I going to go down… or do I have it in me to somehow manage to survive this barrage?” That’s all you can think of at such a time as this. And you must make a gut-level personal decision:
“Should I call it quits, swallow my pride, and bow out of this in order to prevent further damage? OR… do I dig as deep into my inner personal wellspring as it will take… and find a way to weather this barrage, and make it to the sound of the bell? Should I shake this off and stay focused on the victory I came here to achieve, and work my way back, relentlessly, until I regain my senses and my ability to fight back? Shall I do whatever it takes to outlast this guy until he runs out of gas, and then beat him to a pulp? Or should I just give up right now and save my skin?
We Must Choose Wisely
These are the questions we all have to settle in our heart and mind when we experience such a serious setback. The way in which we react when we run into great difficulty will soon become our habitual default response pattern, and the pattern we choose will soon place us in one of two categories and groups. If we allow ourselves to cave in and give up, we settle for being part of that large group of average-to-mediocre, quickly forgotten, also-ran performers. But if we deliberately force ourselves to get our focus back on the fight and never give up until we win, we’ll eventually join that much smaller complement of elite champions that have been willing to do whatever it takes to earn the top awards, titles, and accolades that accompany this particular sport and venue. So let’s see what the Word of God tell us:
“Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble! And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed. Pursue shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; and see to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it, many be defiled. Also see to it that there is no immoral or godless person—like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He found no chance for repentance, though he begged for it with tears.” (Hebrews 11:11-17 TLV, Emphasis added)
Just as it is in relentless, earthly, athletic competitions… so too is it with disciples who are engaged in brutal, relentless, to the death conflict with the demonic powers of Darkness! The questions that athletes in the midst of fierce competition have to answer in their heart of hearts are the very same questions disciples have to answer when they encounter the pressures and tribulations of demonic opposition. And the way you answer in your heart that ‘should I cave in and give up’ or ‘should I stay focused on winning’ question, when everything is at stake… will determine whether you have the heart of a loser, or the heart of an overcoming champion.
In worldly fistfights, to overcome adversity and trouble, you must draw from whatever you’ve stored within your personal treasury of past training and conditioning. Down deep in the wellsprings of whatever mental toughness and depth of desire you developed, along with the ‘muscle memory’ to win, that you previously invested in and developed in previous practice and training sessions, will serve as the inner reservoir from which you will have to draw. If there’s enough courage, strength and stamina left in that reservoir, then you’ll have what it takes to endure and patiently recover and overcome. In earthly athletic contests, it’s largely a matter of human pride, will power, previous practice, and your natural inner drive for self-assertion. That’s what you will have to draw from in order to have a chance to prevail.
But if you’ve developed the habit of giving up and quitting, your reservoir will be virtually empty. And when it comes to spiritual combat with the powers of Darkness, if all you do is rely on your own fleshly, soulish faculties and greatly diminished Sin-corrupted human capabilities, you’ll be hopelessly crippled, handicapped, and outclassed! When you must face supernatural demonic foes, no human can afford to rely and depend solely on himself! The handicap of having to abide within, and work from, a mortal body composed of fallen, devolved, Sin-corrupted human flesh, will never stand up against the forces of the demonic fury and crafty strategy of your much stronger spiritual enemies. To deal with them, we must be trained and equipped to deal with demonic opposition and attacks, by having spiritual resources given to us from which to draw… resources that will prove to be far more powerful and reliable than mere human strength, ability, and willpower!
“Finally, BE STRONG IN THE LORD and IN THE STRENGTH OF HIS MIGHT. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of GOD (God Himself living and operating from within you), so that (His Strength, Authority, and Power enable you and you) will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
“Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with Truth, and having put on the breastplate of Righteousness, and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the Gospel of Peace; in addition to all, taking up the Shield of Faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all perseverance and every request for all the saints…” (Ephesians 6:10-18 NASB, Amplification and emphasis added)
In earthly natural struggles, people consistently summon up levels of intense desire and soul-driven determination and mental focus on total victory. And they train themselves to settle for nothing else but victory. That’s the gold medal level of soul power we see exerted in venues like the Olympics, and championship sports games and matches in the earthly realm. But, when it comes to having to face and resist and overcome the enormous disadvantages we face when we are under the attacks of the spiritual powers of Darkness, there is nothing in our personal arsenal or ‘toolbox’ that can effectively fend off what they will be doing to us.
To resist and overcome such formidable foes, you must be very well schooled and trained to know and stand upon a wonderful ‘Secret’ that God has made available to those who truly are His own. That ‘inside information’ is what will pull the rug out from under the Father of Lies, and any demonic flunky foolish enough to side with him. They are helpless whenever they come against the Invincible Wisdom, Power and Authority of God! And if God Himself is what will be sustaining you, you will rout them!
“I do it all for the sake of the Good News, so that I might be a fellow partaker of it. Don’t you know that in a stadium the runners all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win! Every competitor exercises self-control in all respects. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we do it to receive an imperishable one. So I run in this way—not aimlessly. So I box in this way—not beating the air. Rather, I punish my body and bring it into submission, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:23-27 TLV, Emphasis added)
The powers of Darkness can overpower any human being crazy enough to try to meet them on their own terms and ‘turf.’ If we think that our soul-driven ‘Self-life’ has a chance of ‘out muscling’ and ‘out foxing’ the wiles and traps of the powers of Darkness, we’re greatly to be pitied. They have incredibly cagey and diabolically effective tools, tricks and ‘fight plans’ to use against us. They know our personal strengths and weaknesses, and they devise their plans accordingly. They calculate the easiest most effective ways to get through our defenses and score direct hits right where we are most vulnerable and least likely to be ready and able to resist, much less prevail.
And, as soon as they manage to start scoring hits… they really pour it on in the hope of eventually stunning and disorienting us so they can wear us down and get us to cave in under their relentless onslaught. And, if they can finally manage to get us to cave in, give up, and swallow the Sin bait of unbelief and disobedience against God that they keep dangling in front of us, their brutal hooks will embed themselves in our innermost parts and they will captivate and enslave us!
So learn this well, beloved! Learn what Holy Spirit enabled the first century apostles to do. Their enemies could have easily overcome the best they may have had to put up against them… BUT… when those awesome disciples faced their foes while containing within themselves the Perfect Presence of Almighty God Himself, the demonic forces were always overcome and conquered!
“I am not saying this because I am in need—for whatever circumstance I am in, I have learned to be content. I know what it is to live with humble means, and I know what it is to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment—both to be filled and to go hungry, to have abundance and to suffer need. I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH MESSIAH WHO STRENGTHENS ME!” (Philippians 4:11-13 TLV, Emphasis added)
Dear ones, our Messiah is the Living Word of the Living God! And the Holy Spirit imparts His Perfect Presence into us! And the significance of this fact is what leads into the mysterious depths of the ‘Secret’ to which Paul was referring in the text above. He knew that God creates, maintains, and sustains everything He has created by and through His Living creative Word! And this is also why the apostle John wrote the following:
“In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness has not overpowered it.” (John 1:1-5 TLV, Emphasis added)
From the very first moment of God’s Creation process, the Word created and provided everything! Notice what John says about this awesome Word: “All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being!” Dear ones, this means that even the Serpent, and every demonic being that has sided with the Serpent in his rebellion and enmity against God, must continually depend upon God’s Living Word for their existence and for everything they will ever be able to think say, have, or do! Even when they think about hating and opposing God, or coming against His people, the powers of Darkness must depend on God’s Word to supply them with everything they will need to try to do it. And apart from Him, they can do nothing! They would not continue to exist unless He allows it! So even when they rail against Him and try to outdo Him, the Truth is inescapable and unchangeable… He is their Eternal Lord and Master and Owner! And they can do nothing, unless He permits it.
Never Forget: We War Under the Banner of The Lord Of Hosts
And, in addition to our enemy’s total dependence upon God’s Word, another element to this awesome ‘Secret’ is that God has already provided everything that His people, including us, will ever need in order to fulfill the identity, purpose, plan and destiny Father has reserved for each one of us! So we already have everything we need to prevail and succeed, regardless of what ploys or tricks our enemies may try to throw at us!
“So the heavens and the earth were completed along with their entire array. God completed—on the seventh day—His work that He made, and He ceased—on the seventh day—from all His work that He made. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He ceased from all His work that God created for the purpose of preparing.” (Genesis 2:1-3 TLV)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah. He chose us in the Messiah before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Messiah Yeshua, in keeping with the good pleasure of His will—to the glorious praise of His grace, with which He favored us through the One He loves!” (Ephesians 1:3-6 TLV, Emphasis added)
“Let us fear then! Though a promise of entering His rest is left open, some of you would seem to have fallen short. For we also have had Good News proclaimed to us, just as they did. But the Word they heard did not help them, because they were not unified with those who listened in faith. For we who have trusted are entering into that Rest. It is just as God has said, “So in My wrath I swore, they shall never enter My Rest,’” even though His works were finished since the foundation of the world. For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works,” and again in this passage: “They shall never enter My Rest.” (Hebrews 4:1-5 TLV, Emphasis added)
Beloved… Can you see it? If it’s true that all of God’s Creation has already been completed, then everything God knew we we’d need to fulfill His will and plan for us has already been provided and given to us! All of it has already been set aside for us! It is waiting, in God’s Eternal Heavenly Treasury of Grace, for us to come to God in prayer, and wait upon Him in total faith. Then He can transmit whatever we need… into all the current temporal situations, circumstances, events and needs we will ever experience! So this is why Yeshua proclaimed with a loud voice just as He was about to breathe his last upon the Cross:
“IT IS FINISHED!” (John 19:30)
Our resurrected Messiah, the Commander of the Lord’s Host, had already become our eternally victorious Champion! THE OUTCOME OF THIS WAR WAS ALREADY SECURED AT THAT MOMENT IN ETERNITY PAST, SINCE OUR COMMANDER HAD ALREADY TRIUMPHED IN OUR NAME!
And now, He is ‘The Way’ that is ready to lead us into a share of the endless riches of His Total Eternal Triumph! We no longer have to fear or dread anything! We don’t have to fall for the lies, bluffs, and delusions by which our demonic enemies keep trying to fool and overwhelm us! Once we’re armed and covered by this wonderful ‘Secret’ we can tear, with unstoppable force, into the enemy’s ranks! We can stand on God’s Truth and resist them and cut each and every one of their tactical ploys to ribbons. And we can do it with the outrageous never-ending confidence of God’s Total Blood Covenant Assurance!
“… For God Himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you…!” (Hebrews 13:5b TLV, Emphasis added)
We know our Lord is with us, for we have His Word on it! He is always with us, ready to supply whatever we need to endure and outlast our enemies. The Fullness of God is in His Word! So we can know for sure that, In Him, we have overcome and completely triumphed over the Serpent! Because the war was won, our Covenant Representative and Champion, Messiah Yeshua, took back His Perfect Sinless Human Life, and rose from the dead! And because He represents us, we too are in the process of being raised up with Him, into His total Eternal Triumph!
“Therefore, if you have been raised up with Messiah, keep seeking the things above—where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of God. Focus your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in God. When Messiah, who is your Life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him, in Glory!” (Colossians 3:1-4 TLV, Emphasis added)
Our Messiah personally demonstrated how… when we abide in Him… we poor, Sin-corrupted mortal beings who cannot afford to rely solely upon ourselves can, nevertheless, prevail and overcome our enemies! He showed us how to do this by His own example! Even though His human flesh was utterly Sin-less, He served as our Covenant Representative and Atoning Champion. So He had to make Himself become totally vulnerable to everything our enemies do to us! But because He had already made total Perfect Atonement for us in Eternity past, and was already ‘The Lamb who was slain’ for us, when He came to Earth as our Covenant Representative, He was acting out in space and time, what He had already accomplished and finished in Eternity! Thus He took our place, and acted in our name, willingly surrendering Himself into the clutches of our demonic enemies. And He allowed them to do their utmost against Him, absorbing all the guilt, condemnation, and punishment that we all had coming to us, upon Himself. He was like a divine ‘Lightning Rod’ absorbing all the demonic power into Himself, and overwhelming and neutralizing it. For He knew that the powers of Darkness would not even come close to being able to foil God’s Eternal Plan, and overcome His Perfect Strategy and Infinite Sovereign Authority!
All the while He was on Earth, living as one of us, He placed His human faith, hope and trust in this Eternal Reality that His Father had already created and made available for Mankind. The Son put His Humanity under His Father’s Care… trusting Him for everything, without doubting, or wavering, or being spooked by the powers of Darkness. That’s why they could never trick Him into taking matters into His own hands in an act of radically independent mistrust against His Heavenly Father. Instead, He received and reflected back the Truth and Reality that is in His Father, and served as His Father’s Perfect Human Image and Likeness here on Earth… to Perfection… in our name!
“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same way.”(John 5:19 NASB, Emphasis added)
Abiding On The Resurrection Side Of The Cross
What He accomplished through the Wisdom and Eternal Justice and Vindication of the Strategy of the Cross is now our Perfect Covering and Defense. By becoming totally weak and helpless before His enemies, He created a trap into which they gleefully and unwittingly fell. By dying to all Self-Life in Himself, as our Covenant Representative, He took those of us who believe in Him with Him, into His totally Righteous Death. And, by dying with Him on the Cross, our Self-life guilt, condemnation and corruption were expunged from our personal records. Thus we escaped entirely from the clutches that the powers of Darkness previously had over us! When we died, Satan had nothing left in us at which to clutch. It was as if we disappeared into thin air, leaving our enemies stunned, shocked, and empty handed. In this way, our Lord destroyed the Self-life trap that the Serpent has set before all human beings!
“Why do you gaze with envy, you mountain peaks, at the mountain God desired for His dwelling? Yes, Adonai will dwell there forever! The chariots of God are thousands and thousands—my Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness.
“You went up on high. You led Captivity captive. You received gifts from humanity, even from the rebellious—so that God might dwell there!” (Psalm 68:17-19 TLV)
Yeshua freed us from guilt, shame, condemnation, and liability! Thus He took back His Perfect Human Life and entered into Eternal Resurrection Glory to abide with His Father forever. And now, when we repent of our Self-life, and, by the obedience of our faith in Yeshua, we join ourselves to Him in His death. And His Perfect Atonement and Redemption also set us free from all demonic clutches and breaks any hold or authority they may have had over us in the past! And Father makes a place for us to abide at His side, in our Messiah!
And this is the Reality we must believe, embrace, and absorb into our innermost being… so that it can be there in our ‘inner reservoir’, whenever our enemies try to scare and deceive us into assuming that God, and what He has done for us, are not anywhere near ‘good enough’ to save and deliver us. Not only is He good enough to deliver us, but in Truth, HE HAD ALREADY DONE IT BEFORE THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS AND HIS HORDES WERE EVEN CREATED!
They tried to attack Yeshua when He was at His weakest and most vulnerable here on Earth. They pounded on Him for all they were worth, and he continued to lure them into doing their worst against Him. And, by giving up His Human Life, He made full Atonement for all of our Sin-ridden human lives, and reversed and neutralized the ravages of our Sin and our Death Penalty. So, once we died with our Messiah, the enemy had absolutely nothing on us by which to lay a claim or gain a grip! Yeshua made us privy to all that He is and all that He is now ready to share with us from His Eternal Inheritance and gives us the right to abide with Him and His Father, in Eternal Glory!
“Do not be far from me, for trouble is near; for there is no one to help. Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open their mouths wide at me, as a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a piece of pottery, and my tongue clings to my jaws; and You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and they cast lots for my clothing.
But You, Lord, do not be far away; You who are my help, hurry to my assistance!” (Psalm 22:11-19 NASB)
And this was Paul’s ‘Secret,’ the inside information that fortified him so perfectly and enabled him to rest in total Heavenly contentment, even while he experienced the roller coaster of experiences, circumstances, situations, setbacks, and emotions that are common to us all in this demon-oppressed world. In the midst of all his years of chaotic turbulence, Paul continued to experience the benefits that were flowing to him from God’s Eternal Treasury of Grace. And that Provision was, and always will be, the absolutely Perfect, All-Sufficient, and Infinitely Adequate Covering of every need in each and every situation of our entire existence here on Earth! All of this comes to us from the Holy Spirit… who abides within the innermost spiritual depths of our being. And so God Himself is the Treasury and Fortress that can, and will, cover and provide for those of us who believe. And regardless of what we may have to face during the Last Days Combat, we can hold on and persevere, knowing that nothing our already-routed demonic enemies strive to do to overcome us on the Last Days fields of battle will be of any avail.
“I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life! No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you have come to know Me, you will know My Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:6-7 TLV, Emphasis added)
Yes, our Heavenly Father has deposited His own Eternally Perfect, Triumphant Living Word… and all of His Absolute Authority over all of Creation… and the Omnipotent Power of His Holy Spirit… to abide forever, within our regenerated Blood-redeemed spirits… to bless, protect, supply, and equip us to overcome our enemies, even while our Spirit-filled spirits abide with Him in the highest place in Heaven!
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate in hope of the Glory of God. And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the Love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5 NASB. Emphasis added.)
The Battle Belongs To The Lord!
Beloved, for those who are ‘IN Messiah’… thanks to what the New Covenant makes possible for us all, we are ‘In God’… and God is IN us! God and His people, are one! So, when anyone comes against us, they are coming against our God! And so He is our Perfect Fortress, Shield, and Fire Power!
“No weapon that is formed against you will succeed; And you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 54:17 NASB. Emphasis added)
So, beloved saints of the Lord, keep these awesome facts in mind. Yes, we are all born into the midst of that awful war between God and His demonic enemies. But it is not our war! It is God’s fight! And the Lord Himself has already totally overcome the enemy’s Evil and He has won the War in our name! Meanwhile, the enemy who cares nothing about us, except in so far as God (whom they hate) loves and cares for us. He has cast his demonic enemies down from their original lofty heavenly positions, and He has elevated us to be far above them! And that’s why they can’t stand us and why they hate everything that reminds them of us!
“What is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You care for him? Yet You made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and majesty! You gave him dominion over the works of Your hands. You put all things under their feet: all sheep and oxen, and also beasts of the field, birds in the air, and fish in the ocean—all passing through the paths of the seas. Adonai our Lord, how excellent is Your Name over all the earth! (Psalm 8:5-10 TLV. Emphasis added.)
We are the beloved image and likeness and eternal co-heirs of God’s Son, the Word! And Father has sworn by His Blood Covenant Oath… that, for Yeshua’s sake, He will always stand by us to be whatever we will need Him to be and to do on our behalf. And that is why we never have to give up or cave in when our enemies try to come against us! God always gets the last Word… and that Word has become our Eternal Life!
“Keep your lifestyle free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. For God Himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you!” (Hebrews 13:5 TLV, Emphasis added)
“So pay close attention to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise. Make the most of your time because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. And do not get drunk on wine, for that is recklessness. Instead, be filled with the Ruach(the Spirit), speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your heart to the Lord—always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, in the Name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.” Ephesians 5:15-20 TLV, Emphasis added)
“Cast all your worries on Him, for He cares for you. Stay alert! Watch out! Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, searching for someone to devour. STAND UP AGAINST HIM, FIRM IN YOUR FAITH(in your indwelling Lord), knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being laid upon your brothers and sisters throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:7-9 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
“When they heard these things, they became enraged and began gnashing their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Ruach ha-Kodesh (Holy Spirit), gazed into Heaven and saw the Glory of God—and Yeshua standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
“But they covered their ears; and crying out with a loud voice, they rushed at him with one impulse. Driving him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out, “Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit!” Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” After he said this, he died.” (Acts 7:54-60 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
“Now may the God of shalom, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of an everlasting covenant, our Lord Yeshua, make you complete in every good thing to do His will, accomplishing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Messiah Yeshua. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21 TLV, Emphasis added)
“To the one who overcomes I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I myself overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah’s communities.” (Revelation 3:21-22 TLV, Emphasis added)