Bible Verse of The Day – 8-28-20

Matthew 11:12 (NKJV) 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

We live in a natural world. We can see it, touch it, hear it and smell it. It is tangible.

The world we do battle in, however, is not natural at all. It is spiritual. 100% spiritual.

We fight battles for a spiritual kingdom. It is God’s kingdom, unseen by natural eyes.

As time has gone by, we often spoke of the coming kingdom as though it was a long way off, far into the future.

Recently, though, we have started realizing that it may be closer than we had thought. Recent events have shown us that darkness has been greatly on the increase.

Don’t get me wrong. It has been there all along, working behind the scenes. But now it is more visible than ever, not even trying to hide any longer.

It is now bold, in our faces and no longer trying to disguise itself.

So, what does this mean for us, as believers?

It means that we do battle. We fight. We meet attacks with attacks.

These attacks, though, are not physical. They are not natural. They are spiritual. Nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, we still live in a natural world. We see things with our natural eyes that can sometimes clue us in as to the intent of the enemy. Our biggest weapons, however, are what we see and discern in the spiritual realm.

The verse above says that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. It is hit with violent attacks. It is under a constant onslaught of the enemy and his evil forces. Some of those forces are unseen. Others are people that we see operating day to day, right before our eyes.

What do we do with that?

We do battle! We fight back. We meet violence with violence.

But this is a different kind of violence. This is not violence against people. It is violence against our invisible enemy and his armies.

Our reaction has to be radical, forceful and relentless.

There will also be things that we do in the natural that help expose the enemy and break down the defenses they have setup here in our natural world.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean that we should just lay down and submit when we see evil being played out.

On the contrary, it is because we are a Christian that we need to stand up and fight when we see this evil.

We fight it with truth. We fight it on a spiritual level, using discernment that doesn’t come by way of intellect or natural thinking.

Discernment is of the utmost importance, lest we end up like Peter, cutting off the ear of one of the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus.

We need to know when to speak, and when to be silent, when to attack and when to pull back.

We need to know when to “wield a sword” in the natural and when to wield a sword in the spiritual realm.

The battles are intensifying, so it’s important that our understanding and ability to see and hear what the Spirit is saying also intensifies.

Press in to Him.

As one disciple did, we need to lay our head on the chest of Jesus, so we can hear His very heart beat.

Revelation 3:22 (NKJV) 22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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