Daily Meditations from John N N Ng’ang’a:<\/p>\n
Week of\u00a0 Feb.7th-13th, 2011…God is sovereign over Curses and blessings<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Day 1<\/strong> Yes, God is sovereign.<\/p>\n In case you think you get this from\u00a0 the Old Testament\u00a0 only, let\u2019s go to the New. Here\u00a0 we are told\u00a0 that\u00a0 He\u00a0 is in us is greater than he that is in the world. And who is in us? God. So where did we get the idea of God ever fighting with the devil ? From various\u00a0 \u2018isms\u2019.They teach that there is a fight between good and evil. \u2026\u2026Creating the impression that there is a fight between the devil and God. There is no such a fight.<\/p>\n God is a sovereign creator and the devil is a created being. It is your choice who to..whether to belong to the created being or to belong to God\u00a0 the creator . God\u00a0 leaves you to make a choice. If you choose to be on the devil\u2019s side, you are on the defeated side. It is not that he will be defeated, he is already defeated. The truth is God is the creator of all including the devil as the bible teaches us.<\/p>\n However, you and the devil are not a match. \u2026because the devil was an angel\u00a0 created well before you. He is not of your \u2018rika\u2019(age group). So you need to understand that on your own you cannot win against\u00a0 the devil. If you choose to be with the devil you are always the defeated one.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Day 2<\/strong> 1 John 4:4<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n Though the devil was created an angel , and you mere man ,when Christ is in you, it is different. Remember,,, He that is in us is greater than the one in the world. You know God has the ultimate glory. He decisively defeated the powers of darkness, disarming and triumphing over them on the cross. The cross of Christ is one final proof that the devil is a defeated foe.<\/p>\n But let me tell you something about the devil? The devil is depicted in the Bible as a serpent.\u00a0 And if you have grown in a place where serpents are, you know something about serpents. When you see a serpent or a snake,\u00a0 you don\u2019t start hitting the tail! If you did so, we would know you know nothing about snakes. Even if you\u00a0 cut a snake from the tail, does it die? No. It will just run\u00a0 into the bush. Anybody clever enough in fighting a snake aims at the head. And let me tell you something, as soon as you hit the head, you can walk away a winner .<\/p>\n But do you know something about the snake, it doesn\u2019t die immediately. After you have hit the head, those of you who have tried to kill a snake know that , it continues wiggling. And if it is a python and you are nearby, it moves with such strength it can knock you down. But it is already dead\u2026.yet\u00a0 if you are near the tail of the dying\u00a0 snake it can knock you down.\u00a0 You know very well after you hit the head the snake is as good as actually dead. But it is still wiggling\u00a0 itself and can knock you down. That is the devil way of acting also .<\/p>\n At the cross the devils head was knocked. For the last 2,000 years he is still on his way dying. And if you are near enough he knocks you down. Yet he is still as good as\u00a0 dead. He actually knocks you down yet he knows his Case is already decided. Hell was made for him . You need to understand the kind of power that you have when you become a Christian ,because your\u00a0 God is sovereign\u00a0 and your enemy is not at his level of power<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Day 3<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Col 1:16<\/strong><\/p>\n 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.<\/p>\n NIV<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n According to\u00a0 Colossians 1:16,God created everything which must include the devil.<\/p>\n Also\u00a0 in Colossians 2:13,God says that once we are forgiven our sins ,we are alive with Christ. His power is within us<\/p>\n Col 2:13<\/p>\n 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins<\/p>\n NIV<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And in\u00a0 1 Peter 3:22\u2026..because Christ resurrected, all physical and supernatural powers are under him including the devil and his demons<\/p>\n 1 Peter 3:21-22<\/p>\n It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand-with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. NIV<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n God is ultimately in charge of all the affairs of this universe. And we are not to fear a possibility of a satanic victory.\u00a0 There is no possibility, even the remotest, that the devil will win against God . He is a created being..created by God . Again remember that God and the devil never fight\u2026 because they don\u2019t have the same weight class.,not in the same league<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Day 4<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n You know, however, after mentioning how much power we have in Christ ,\u00a0Satan and his demons are still frighteningly real. In other words I don\u2019t want you to say that because I have said that\u00a0 you are powerful, the devil doesn\u2019t exist. Unfortunately one of the things that may have not\u00a0 gone quite right as the Christianity was being introduced in Africa,was the correct theology on demons<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Because they found the Africans were so superstitious, the white missionaries took us\u00a0 to the opposite extreme of assuming the demons no longer operate. So they\u00a0 kind of created the impression witchcraft is not real. How unfortunate this is, because the scriptures is clear: witchcraft is there, the devil and his demons use it for they are real. The average African in the village believes in it. If you start walking around in your village and you are the only boy in university, do not preclude the possibly that\u00a0 your jealous uncle will not go to see the witchdoctor to \u2018handle you\u2019. If you are a Christian of course you are protected by Christ ,whatever your uncle may try to use witchcraft to do.<\/p>\n Do you have Christ within you? You only become bigger than the devil when the Lord is in you. So I am here telling\u00a0 you that the devil and the spirits are personal, evil,\u00a0 and they are supernatural . demons\u00a0 are fallen angels and they are in constant warfare with the course of Christ and his church. In other words they are always trying to fight you. They can\u2019t fight God but they can fight the people of God.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Day 5<\/strong> 1 Peter 5:8<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n Once a Christian you become the devils enemy .That\u00a0\u00a0 is why you have to hind in Christ. The demons\u00a0 are subtle, they are crafty, they are malicious, they are unrelenting, and they are tough.<\/p>\n Unrelenting \u2026means they never give up. There is a song we sang in the\u00a0 revival of the seventies which is totally untheological\u00a0 but it was very popular. It was a\u2019 top ten\u2019 in the nineteen seventies, when we were in\u00a0 the university. It stated, \u2018we have gone too\u00a0 far to look back again\u2026 \u2018.This is\u00a0 un-theological. It claims that you can become so Christian that\u00a0 you can\u2019t be tempted to look back.<\/p>\n Unfortunately this\u00a0 isn\u2019t true. As long as you are in this world, the devil is unrelenting. He doesn\u2019t give up on you. Read john bunyan\u2019sPilgrim\u2019s Progress and see how much the devil follows the guy Christian until the guy reaches heaven. There is no way that you can say that I am now so Christian, the devil has to give up on me. No, it doesn\u2019t happen. As long as you are on this side of the earth, the fight is on. Not between God and the devil, but between you and the devil. He cannot give up.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Day 6<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Peter 5:8<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n Pride comes before a fall .You know some of the spiritual problems that we have include\u00a0 thinking\u00a0 that we have become so spiritually mature, we don\u2019t need to worry about possibility of falling to the devil\u2019s temptations . There is a story told about a revival,( not in my generation, but\u00a0 in the late 1940s )just before the Mau Mau war. During a\u00a0 revival convention ,the Christians\u00a0 felt so holy they wondered, \u2018is it any use starting to say, ladies are going to this dormitory, and men to a different\u00a0\u00a0 dormitory, given\u00a0 the way the Spirit of God is working\u2019. Thus they decided that\u00a0 one\u00a0 slept\u00a0 \u2018wherever you wanted\u2019. Now you need to understand that they thought that they were so holy the devil could not touch them. Nine months later it was obvious what had happened secretly in the dormitories.<\/p>\n The spiritual fight is relentless. One cannot reduce the demonic in the scripture to \u2018primitive explanations\u2019. No, devil and his spirits are real.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Day 7<\/strong><\/p>\n Acts 26:17-18<\/strong><\/p>\n 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’<\/p>\n NIV<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n At conversion, God redeems people, transferring them out of Satan\u2019s realm, the dominion of darkness into Christ\u2019s realm, the kingdom of the beloved Son of God.<\/p>\n This message\u00a0 also comes out in Colossians 1:13.<\/p>\n Col 1:13-14<\/p>\n 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. NIV<\/p>\n In other words if you are reading this\u00a0 and you are not born again, you are part of the devil\u2019s kingdom. When you become a Christian, it is a transfer of allegiance. It is transfer\u00a0 of citizenship from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and of his dear Son. To become a Christian is to join a new kingdom under new rules, under the control of a king not a president. At the time of conversion, we become children of God, fully justified, fully forgiven, sharing the inheritance with Christ. That\u2019s what it means to be converted. Our lives begin to become conformed to that of Jesus Christ as we respond to the Spirit\u2019s leading. In other words, it is a process. You become a citizen but a baby citizen whose faith begins to grow.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Daily Meditations from John N N Ng’ang’a: Week of\u00a0 Feb.7th-13th, 2011…God is sovereign over Curses and blessings \u00a0 Day 11 John 4:4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world Yes, God is sovereign. In case you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
1 John 4:4<\/strong>
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world<\/p>\n
1 Peter 5:8<\/strong>
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour<\/p>\n
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour<\/p>\n