As Christians, we need to be overcomers. To take a passive stance against the enemy of souls will only lead to Devil eventually wearing us down.

From the very beginning, the Devil has been on the attack against mans soul and it has been devasting: Genesis 3: 1-5)

• "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

Imagine if Eve, having recongized that the Devil was lying to her went and got a handful of rocks and starting stoning the serpent. That would of ended the conversation real quick and Adam and Eve would not have fallen. Instead, Eve, took the passive role. She let the enemy work on her until he got her attention and her sin cast all of mankind into turmoil.

The enemy wants us to only see what he is pointing out. Whether that be a temptation, a trial or a heart ache, the Devil does not want us to be focused on Christ.

We need to overcome the Devil but the blood of the lamb, the workd of our testimony and we need to love not our lives unto the death (Revelations 12:10)

• We have the tools and weaponary to overcome the Devil, we need to be overcomers and take the mountain (Joshua 14: 6-15)⁶Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea. ⁷Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. ⁸Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God. ⁹And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. ¹⁰And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. ¹¹As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. ¹²Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said. ¹³And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. ¹⁴Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel. ¹⁵And the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.

We studied the past couple of weeks on how to be proactive in maintaining our spiritual condition. We have heard it said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure - so it is spiritually, being proactive and not finding ourselves in a difficult position is much better than trying to dig our way out of hard spot that was avoidable.

Some things we can do to be proactive:

Be Content:

The Apostle Paul teaches us to be content in whatsoever state we find ourselves to be content therewith. By being content, we take a major avenue away from the enemy to get us thinking the wrong way. Discontentment oftens leads to selfishness which is a root cause to many bad decisions

Be Thankful:

Being thankful for what we do have is good, and when that isn't working, we can always be thankful for somethings that we don't have (IE there is always someone worse off than you). When you really step back and take a look at things, usually the good far out weights that bad, but if all we think about is the bad, than we may never see the good. The bible equates unthankful with unholy

Be Humble:

The bible teaches us that humility is before honor. When we take the humble route, not only does that help us to treat others with respect, but it also helps us to keep our own ego's in check. By being and staying humble, it helps us to keep the right perspective and we treat every day as a gift instead of an entitlement.

Meditation:

The way we think has much to do with the way we act. Maintaining discipline in our mind and thinking on those things that are pure and healthy have a huge impact on our attitude. Our attitude, often if not alway, affects the way we handle ourselves.

Being proactive by focusing on those things we can control can help us avoid the pitfalls created by pride, bad attitudes, unthankfulness and discontentment

To recap from the last post - God calls his people to be steadfast in the battle as a Christian and to maintain discipline in standing for the right and against the wrong.

Joshua 23: 1-11 (emphasize on 6-11) God wants his people to be of good courage and to trust in God as their refuge and strong high tower. God does not want us to conform to the world or to follow after worldy Gods (fads or fashions) - to the contrary, God wants us as his people and his soldiers to not look back, to establish fellowship and confidence with one another and to recognize that we CAN fall if we become careless (II Peter 3:17)

The biggest achilles heel to steadfastness is to be doubleminded; (to be unsure) about where you stand with God. By staying humble, thankful and contrite we can avoid becoming doubleminded and falling from our own steadfastness.

2nd Kings 17: 33 & 41; Luke 16:13; 1st Corinthians 10:21; and James 1:8 warn us against being doubleminded and show us the affects (and therefore warning signs) of doublemindedness.

James 4:7-8; Hebrews 12:1; and 1st Peter 1:13 give us the answers and tools we need to fight doublemindedness.

Be steadfast saints. The world is going to change and fads, fashions, governments and institutions are going to rise and fall, but the Word of God will abide forever and is the only solid ground suitable to build the foundation needed to survive the storms of life and make heaven our home.

God wants us to be steadfast as Christians. The Devil, who has been attacking man since the inception of time, knows how to try to wear down Gods Saints.

The devil works on the mind, on the flesh, and on our weaknesses. He like any roaring lion attacks the slowest and weakest (and often the youngest (new converts) in the Flock so he may devour them. It is important as Christians that we stay strong and fit and that we are steadfast in the work of God, exercising our senses to discern good and evil. We are only as steadfast as our willingness to lean on Christ and stay close to the shepards tent. If we become careless and stray from Christs feet, we may very well fall from our own steadfastness and become prey to the enemy. As time goes on and we begin to learn when Christ is calling us close to Him (gaining in experience), we will be better prepared for the onslaught of the enemy.

We continued the study and retouched or reviewed a lot of what was in the previous two posts on being a Christian Soldier. See previous two posts.

This week we continued our study on Christian Soldiers by digging deeper into the relationship of a man and woman in marriage. Last week we posted this statement

"This isn't more true than in the Chrstian Family home. Wives need to embrace their place and Husbands need to take responsibility for their place. Decisions need to be made with the "safety" and "prosperity" of the unit (family) as the primary driver and not be done with a unilateral (you just need to submit) attitude. Wives and Husbands need to honor and respect each other and work together to guide the family."

In many places in the Bible, there is a comparison drawn between being a Christian, and being a Soldier (onward Christian Soldier.....marching as to War). The title to this weeks lesson was "God Ain't Got no Wimps, He has soldiers"

We continue our study on temptation and how to overcome temptation as a Christian.

Just before Christ began his ministry, he faced something that every Christian has to face today. Temptation!. Temptation is all around us and although the devil has tricked many people into giving in to temptation, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. Temptataion is real, but so is victory.