One of the greatest deceptions of the devil is to get Christians to believe that when bad things happen to them that it’s God punishing them for some sin.

Newsflash: the reason for this is that to believe God will punish His children – or worse, that He will permit the devil to do it – is to deny the power of the Finished Work of the Cross.

Denying the power of the Cross is to deny the power of God. And, once you deny the power of God, you, yourself, become powerless.

Powerless saints cannot effectively fulfill the Great Commission! Powerless saints are incapable of performing Greater Works.

Tapping into the power of God and understanding your purpose in God are essential to victorious Christian living!

Now you know why there are so many powerless saints and churches…

© 2012 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Editor’s Note: Pastor Tom Tompkins is a friend of mine and an anointed preacher  an  teacher of the Word of God. He is the Senior Pastor of Winlight Ministries in  Shreveport, Louisiana. This teaching, when received, will completely change the way  you think the devil can react to God’s favor, anointing, and blessing on your life!

THIS TEACHING IS AVAILABLE IN MP3 FORMAT. TO LISTEN JUST CLICK ON THE  LINK:http://mtcsla.com/wlm/audio_teaching/New_Level_Same_Devil.mp3

There are many catch phrases used by Christians. We have all heard several of them from “God is awesome” to “the best is yet to come”. Some of these phrases are great but some are very misleading and will open the door to Satan in our lives without our realizing it. You may have heard somebody utter the phrase,.” new level new devil.” This is exactly what I am talking about when I say we may open the door to Satan without realizing it. Satan is full of crafty tricks and if we don’t have an accurate understanding of God’s word we are in for a battle that is going to leave us beaten and bruised.

Do we all deal with different threats from the devil?

I feel certain that all Christians have pondered questions concerning whether they are dealing with something that Satan came up with just for them. I used to believe that Satan had a plan exclusively for my life. I was completely wrong.

Believe it or not nothing we do as a result of sin is from something Satan just decided to attack us with. Satan must have an open door to come in and successfully attack our lives. I Peter 5:8 – Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Satan is not devouring whomever he wishes. He is looking for somebody who has opened the door to him and may not even realize it. I know this all too well from my own experience.

There was once a time when I believed that Satan would attack with twice the force any time God moved in my life. This was at a time in my life when powerful moves of God were far and few between unlike today when I am seeing God move powerfully on a regular basis. I had no clue at the time how widely I had opened the door to Satan with my belief system.

Each and every time I saw a powerful move of God in my life I would experience something terrible shortly after. Some examples are a serious car accident, physical sickness and even rejection from those who I believed to be my friends. While most of these experiences took place based on my own mistakes, it was ultimately the fact that I was expecting bad things to take place that opened the door for my beliefs to manifest.

Eventually a day came when the Lord revealed the truth to me about what was really happening in this area. Proverbs 23:7 – As a man thinks in his heart so will he become. I saw myself being attacked by Satan so this gave him an open door because I was thinking of it in my heart just as the Bible says. When I realized that I needed to change the way I thought if I was going to see any changes I did so. The results were immediate! I stopped expecting Satan to attack me when I experienced a powerful move of God and the attacks stopped.

Even though Satan was to blame in some of those situations it was ultimately my decisions and beliefs that gave him an open door. In short it was my fault and nobody else’s.

Don’t get me wrong. Satan is constantly trying to attack us but he cannot even begin to succeed without our permission. This may come as a shock but it is true. You cannot be tempted to do anything you do not first think about.

Have you ever been tempted to rob a bank or commit murder? If your answer is no it is due to the fact that you never gave thought to doing so. Yet there are many people who rob banks. Is this because Satan is tempting them from a different file other than what he tries with you? Not at all. I Corinthians 10:13 will seal it up for us. It says, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. ”
In other words Satan doesn’t have a new bag of tricks for every believer.

SATAN’S ONLY TRUE WEAPON
Satan does not have an arsenal of weapons to fight against us with. In fact he only has one, deceit. If Satan can deceive us he knows he has us. Satan may tell us we are going to die when God’s word tells us we are going to live.

Satan’s main goal is to get us to deny God and curse his name. If he cannot do so his next line of defense is to come at us with well meaning people who have been mislead by a mixture of God’s word and carnal knowledge (religion). The two don’t mix just as oil and water do not mix. The less pure of the oil and water will float to the top. The same applies in our lives. When we are taking in wrong teaching it will float to the top. This is just what Satan wants.

He wants us to believe that his attacks are more powerful if we grow in the Lord. Yes, Satan will attack more often if we are more of a threat to him but once again, he cannot succeed if he does not have an open door to come through. It is the same way with God as evidenced in Revelation 3:20 – Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

The Holy Spirit will not invade our lives. In the same way Satan cannot do so either. Both God and Satan must have an open door to operate in our lives. Satan knows if he can cause us to look at God in a worldly way he (Satan) can basically have his way with us.

Most Christians believe in trials and tribulation. Yes, the Bible mentions this but they are not car wrecks, lost loved ones, losing a business we once owned or getting a divorce. Each one of these things is contradictory to the word of God.

If somebody you love asks you for help do you push them away and call it love? No! None of us hurt people out of love. If you just blessed your spouse with a gift are you planning to hide it from them or sell it and say, “I was just testing your faith”? No way! But Satan wants us to believe that God works this way however God is nothing like this at all. With Satan it’s all about deceit. If he can get us to believe that God wants us to suffer he knows he can attack us on a regular basis and have no resistance.

If Satan can get us to believe the opposite of what the Bible really says he knows he can have a field day in our lives. I personally live a nearly 100 percent problem free life. Sure I have some small struggles here and there but nothing like I used to. This doesn’t happen in my life because I am blessed in a way that nobody else is. God is no respecter of persons according to Acts 10:34. If I can live a nearly problem free life why can’t anybody else? Back when I believed that Satan would attack me twice as hard when I saw a powerful move of God in my life was when I had so many problems. Unlike today when I really have no problems and you can be in this position too!
Let the truth be known.

The Bible doesn’t tell us in any place that Satan can openly attack us at any time. As I have already mentioned, he must have an open door to do so. God wants us to be happy and have a great time getting through our earthly lives. Below are some scriptures that back this up.

Ephesians 1:3 – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (Satan is the thief, not God.)

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And the list goes on.

I challenge you to try it for a week. For a mere seven days. Don’t expect to suffer and see what happens. Expect things to work out without trouble and watch how it turns out. This is my challenge to you.

© 2010 – Tom Tompkins (http://www.wlmi.org)

satan, Let Me Refresh Your Memory

The following is an excerpt from the book, “satan, Let Me Refresh Your Memory,” by Derrick and Angela Day. If you haven’t already downloaded your free copy, you should do so today! This book will equip you to operate in your God-Given authority and put the devil where he belongs, under your feet!

Who’s backing you?

Before we get puffed up and wise in our own conceits to think we can take on satan on our own power, we have to remember that true warfare require fighting forces. Every standing army is backed by the government it is sworn to defend. And every standing army has a commander-in-chief; in the Kingdom of God, the Commander-in-Chief is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Citizens of the Kingdom of God serve two roles, ambassador and soldier.

First and foremost, we are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God:

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20)

It is our duty to represent our King. As part of the new birth, we are commissioned to spread the good news of our God and His glorious Kingdom. When our citizenship changes, we remain in the world but we are not of the world. Therefore, we are ambassadors in a foreign land and, as such have the responsibility to speak the words of his home government, lest we be subject to recall!

Next we are called to be soldiers. This is why the Apostle Paul gave the illustration of combat apparel:

Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God…(Ephesians 6:13-17)

We have to understand that, in our capacity as soldiers, we are to be an occupying force of a victorious power. We are to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), not aggressors. We are to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).

In our charge as ambassador and soldier, we are backed by the power and glory of Almighty God, creator of all things, the King of kings, Lord of lords, and the savior of mankind, Jesus Christ, and the Governor of all Creation, the Holy Spirit.

Just like U.S. dollars are backed by “the full faith and credit of the United States Government,” we must be fully persuaded we have the backing of the Lord of Hosts when resisting the devil. What is the guarantee we have this backing? The Word of God! It is the believer’s assurance that God will do what he says.

The devil is not the opposite of God. If this were true, satan would be God’s equal and would possess God’s creative ability. The fact is God has no equal! Evil is not the opposite of Good, it is merely the absence of it. Just like darkness is not the opposite of light, it is simply the absence of it!

© 2009 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com) and Angela day (www.angeladay.com)

Faith – The Fix For Frustration –  A new teaching lesson that llustrates the power of faith over frustration in the life of the believer. Click on the icon on the left to download.

Glory to God! In this new year, we are beginning a new Agape Dominion ministry – that of health and fitness. I believe this is a neglected area of ministry. As a Body, we have long been focused on spiritual fitness while our physical fitness has languished. We need to ask ourselves, though, can we effectively serve God, exalt Jesus, and advance the Kingdom if our physical bodies are in disrepair?

We are going to take up physical fitness as a lifestyle and, I won’t lie, it isn’t going to be easy. If exercise were easy, we’d all look like Michelangelo’s David or Venus di Milo. Unfortunately, it happens to be quite difficult and, like so many well-intentioned resolutions, even more so to keep up. Starting a true, life-changing fitness program is akin to approaching the girl of your dreams for the first time; you know she’s good for you but you just can’t seem to take that all-important first step. That’s where this ministry segment comes in…

The tendency of man is laziness. We’d sooner kick back with a cold beverage and watch a ball game than walk to the mailbox. The purpose of this book is to help you overcome your lazy tendencies, get off your hind quarters and get started. One of the laws of physics elucidated by Sir Issac Newton held that “…bodies in motion tend to stay in motion; bodies at rest tend to stay at rest.”

Now, if you think these posts are going to be some sort of magic bullet to help you look good overnight, close this page and get to steppin’! On the other hand, if you want to take those critical first steps to avoid embarrassment when you start going to the gym or embarking on an intense physical fitness program, stay tuned!

© 2010 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Possess The Land is a sermon preached by Bishop Derrick Day at Apostle J.C. Francis’ Solid Rock Fellowship Church in Del Rio, TX.

Possess The Land [ 46:06 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

How many folks have planned themselves into a career filled with blandness and mediocrity when God has called them to greatness — greatness that lies dormant and unfulfilled because of fear and the criticism of others?

It’s easy to be mediocre — even a dead fish will move in the direction of the current. Greatness requires swimming upstream and overcoming resistance. God has called us to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9). Peculiar means casting aside the ordinary!

So many graves are filled with unrealized potential. The purpose of a thing can only be found in the mind of the creator. Without purpose, you CANNOT receive an assignment. Without walking in and completing your assignment, you WILL NOT enter into your destiny.

We as men and women of God (I’m speaking of the Ephesians 4 “five-fold”) have an obligation to EQUIP the saints to do the work of the Kingdom. In other words, folks must learn to grow beyond their physical boundaries and limitations. If we fail to do this, we hobble the saints and hinder their potential.

In Genesis 1:26-28, God gave man DOMINION. Jesus came to restore this Dominion through the re-establishment of his Kingdom, that is, His divine Government. It’s time to walk in the authority given to us by the Lord Jesus and appropriate His promises, that we may manifest His power to all corners of the earth.

© 2010 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Okay. The elections are done. The Democrats were handed defeat on many fronts. If you are mourning over this, I hate to say it but you are operating in carnality (Romans 8:6-7). Get over it. Cover the leadership with prayer, decreeing that God’s Kingdom invades earth and that His will, culture, and intent is done in the earth realm as it is in heaven!

Good HAS triumphed over evil. This has been the case since Jesus came out of the grave. Indeed, Good is superior because evil is simply the absence of Good.  However, we will only see the manifestation of it WHEN THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM (Matthew 24:14) is preached!

What do I mean? Many are preaching salvation. But salvation is the door to the Kingdom. Many are preaching baptism, which is an outward display of your allegiance to King Jesus. Many are preaching healing and prosperity, but these are manifestations of Kingdom citizenship.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is rooted in Love and demonstrative of God’s Power! It is the Gospel of wholeness and completion; nothing broken, nothing lacking!

Jesus said in Matthew 18:11 that He came to save THAT which was lost. The “THAT” is His Kingdom and the dominion of man as His regent. Until we begin to exercise this dominion, we are like police officers in a convenience store who witness a robbery and opt to do nothing about it!

Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” That means we have some work to do!

Jesus is talking about the COMPLETE Gospel. Not some piecemeal “gospel.” Not what ”Dr. FeelGood” preaches. Not what the hellfire-brimstone crowd is preaching. Not what the healing and prosperity crowd are preaching!

The whole Gospel for the whole man!

This is something that I am very passionate about. We must be about the business of winning and discipling souls for the Kingdom, showing them the love of Christ that they may experience the power of God.

Then we will see good triumph over evil — in this present world

© 2010 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Contrary to popular belief, the “Big Bang” and the Creation Account are in complete harmony. God stepped out of eternity into nothing, opened His mouth and, BANG, created everything (Genesis 1)!

© 2010 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)