Micah 7:8 “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”

When I first read this verse, I loved it. This is exactly what we need to tell the devil or any person who may try to come against us when we fall or make a mistake or anything. When the enemy tries to come against us, especially in reminding us of our past faults, or remind us that we just sinned and therefore are unworthy of asking God for forgiveness, we need to quote this verse!

The devil loves to remind us of our sins and our faults. As we saw in yesterday’s study, one of the biggest things the enemy tries to do is get us to forget who we are in Christ Jesus and the power we’ve been given. Through Jesus also, we are not just able to overcome the enemy and be mighty men and women of God. We are not just able to be perfected in Him. Even when we fall, we can get right back up again. That is the key to scaring the devil. An enemy that constantly gets right back up again, is terrifying!

Imagine you’re faced with an enemy who is coming after you. You shoot him with a gun, and he just brushes it off and keeps on coming. You shoot him again and again, and he just keeps on coming. Then you hit him with a bat or some other object and manage to knock him down. Yet, he gets right back up again and keeps on coming. It would be horrible to meet up with an enemy that, no matter what you do to him, he keeps on coming! That’s truly a terrifying enemy, wouldn’t you say? The good thing though, is that WE are that enemy—to the devil!

I remember when I was in school. The very first week of living for Christ Jesus, I was faced with my first persecution. I was walking outside at school when a group of boys suddenly shoved me up against the wall and wouldn’t let me go. They started telling me they heard that I was a Christian now and wasn’t afraid of anything (One of the first things God taught me, nearly the same day that He called me, was the only thing I should fear was Him). There was about nine of them and all of them were bigger than I was (which wasn’t hard to be since I was rather short). I told them it was true, and they started asking me questions and telling me things they could do to me and others could do to me, asking me if I was scared now. Minutes passed and they kept at it, until I actually got angry and told them outright “Look, I’m not afraid of anything except God and telling Him NO when He wants me to do something!” Then I walked right out of their midst. That was both a first test for me and a show of how God would take care of me even against those who would do me harm (Miracle too, since they had me pinned and surrounded yet I walked away like they weren’t even there to stop me). It was the first of many times when people would come against me. However, in each time when someone would come against me, I never fought back but rather could not be stopped. I would be punched and thrown to the ground, but would get right back up again. I’d be knocked on the ground, and would get right back up again. This would happen over and over again and again. However, I would always get right back up again. I would never punch back or shove back or fight back (as much as I wanted at times), but I would never stay down. I remember in every single circumstance, because I would get right back up again and the person would see they couldn’t do anything to me basically, one of three things would always happen: The person would get scared because they couldn’t stop me; The person would actually become my friend; or the person would come back to me later on and actually apologize to me. There really was nothing else they could do. I was an enemy that could not be kept down, in their eyes!

We need to be that exact way toward the devil when he knocks us down or comes to attack us! As the first part of the verse says, let us say to the devil: “when I fall, I shall arise;” When we stumble in our walk with God through giving in to our flesh and temptation, we need to run back to God immediately and ask for forgiveness and get cleaned right back up again. Ignore the devil who tries to say we don’t deserve it or we can’t get forgiven or cleaned up again because we just sinned seconds ago. Ignore the lies that say we need to wait a day, or a week, or get right with God through some sort of penance before we can be forgiven or start walking in our calling again! That’s a lie straight from hell, because the devil wants us to stay down in the battlefield for as long as possible!

Then as the last part of the verse mentions when we sit in darkness . . . When we go through a trial or hardship and it feels so hard to keep moving forward, we need to remember the most important thing: getting up and moving forward in the battlefield to put the fear of GOD into any devil who tries to push us backward! I remember when I lost someone I cared about deeply, God told me I had to get back up and keep on walking. I told God, “How can you expect me to get up and walk after a blow this hard?” God then reminded me of all the times I got up from physical punches and attacks, and asked me how I got up from them. He reminded me I got back up, because I knew my body could take it and I’d be okay, even if at the time I felt horrible. In the same way, when we’re going through hell-deep valleys in our lives, it may not FEEL okay at the time, all we may see is darkness around us, but we can rest assured that we ARE okay, and things will BE okay also . . . because ultimately GOD is right there, and will always be right there, and He is in control. So we can rest in that, despite how we feel at the time, and we can press forward again. When things are dark all around us, the Lord shall be a light unto us, so we can get up and press forward again.

An enemy that cannot be stopped from moving forward is a very fearsome type of enemy. That enemy is feared, because that enemy is victorious! As we know from 1 John 4:4, Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world! As we know from Romans 8:31, If God be for us, who can be against us? Who stands a chance against us? Surely not the devil who is a defeated foe!

This is not just regarding sin and forgiveness, nor just getting through hardships. This is also regarding, following the call of God in our lives. The devil doesn’t want us to be forgiven, so he’ll try to get us to stay down from stumbling into temptation. The devil doesn’t want us to be happy, joyful, and have peace, so he’ll try to get us to stay down in the valley, sitting down in tears. However, there’s one MAJOR thing that spells certain death to the devil. This thing, is the absolute LAST thing the devil would ever want. . .

The devil does not want a Christian to get up from a blow, and walk forward, in the calling that God has planned for them! If the devil can’t stop someone from getting up and being forgiven, then he’ll try to give them unrest and make them stop in the valley. If he can’t get them to stop in the valley, then he’ll do whatever it takes to keep them from answering the call of God on their lives! At the very least, a man or women being saved, forgiven, and happy is fine to the devil. At least then, they’re going along with their lives and are out of his way. However . . . A Christian who gets up and answers the call of God on his or her life, is the worst thing to the him! That is not only an enemy that cannot be stopped from moving forward, but it’s an enemy with the Sword drawn, who is actively attacking while moving forward, and CANNOT BE STOPPED!

It is so very important that we learn who we are in Christ. It is so very important that we learn that when we are knocked down, we can and must get back up again. It is also, SO very important, that we seek to answer the call of God on our lives. God has us in this world for a reason. He has a plan for us! If He didn’t, or if all He had planned for us was to go through our lives happily, then He would take us Home to Heaven instead of leaving us in a sin-cursed world to have to deal with the troubles! We are not meant to live our lives unto ourselves. We are saved and called out, to live our lives unto God, answering His call and working His Work. And remember . . . His work is NOT simply going to church and sitting in a pew and nothing more. We are all witnesses. We are all teachers who can teach what we know (and we are all students, learning more and more as we study His Word DAILY, to share it). If you don’t know what exactly you are called to do, then here’s what you do: Ask God. God is not in the business of hiding His Will from us. So ask God, and seek God. Step out and start walking. Abraham didn’t know where he was going. All God did was tell him to start walking. Yet, as Abraham started walking, God guided him and eventually led him to exactly where He wanted him. It’s much easier to work with someone who is not glued to the floor. Yet if someone refuses to move and is waiting for a sign or feeling or something else before moving…well oftentimes that person will NEVER move. Over time they’ll only grow more and more stagnant.

Overall though, we are called to serve God and seek His face. So, the very least we can always do, is continually seek Him and His Will and His Face. If we do that, God can guide us into the details of what He has planned more specifically. But we must get up and move! Get up and walk! We shouldn’t fear the enemy, because in truth, we ARE the enemy’s worst nightmare: An unstoppable one.

Have a very blessed day today! I love you with brotherly love, and continue to pray for you. Please keep me, and the entire body of Christ in your prayers. May God guide you, raise you up, and keep you in HIS strength!

Love Always in Christ,
Your Friend,
And Brother,
Michael

+++++++++++
Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. . .” (Awesome read for today)

#726