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Giving Opportunity and Speaking Engagements If God lays it on your heart, please consider supporting the ministry and Norm with a one-time gift or a monthly donation. Around 70% of our operating budget comes from donors like you, individuals that God directs to give toward keeping the ministry going. You can find out more about the ministry, give online, and find answers to frequently asked questions about donating here. •
July 23-25 Father/Son retreat at
Evangelical Institute of Greenville, SC. There is a limited registration
for this great weekend. If you're in the SE, please join us by registering
online at: http://www.eibibleschool.org/conferences/intro •
July 26-28 Alma will be speaking
at a young ladies retreat at Evangelical Institute in Greenville, SC. You
can join us by going online to: http://www.eibibleschool.org/conferences/intro • July 29-31 Woodlands Homeschool Conference hosted by THSC. Registration online at http://www.thsc.org/convention/General_Information.asp Chariot June 2010 - Norm Wakefield Battling
the Beast of Self, Part 2 As we begin thinking together in this month's Chariot
of Fire, I invite you to use your imagination. What do you imagine was
in Satan's mind as he tempted Eve with the fruit God forbade them to eat?
Could Satan see the entire sea of mankind before him? Do you think he knew
that if Adam fell, the entire sea would become polluted with his
blasphemous, idolatrous spirit? Do you think the dragon was excited about
striking such a violent blow against God and His creation?
We know his actual target was God and His promises. I think he was
excited because he knew that if the federal head of the human race
received his blasphemous, idolatrous, rebellious seed, a powerful ally
would be born within the heart of every one of Adam's and Eve's offspring.
God would have to hold Adam and all of his offspring responsible for the
act. The sentence had already been declared - death. Man would be
separated from God and left to himself. Ah, just what he wanted. Self in
the place of god!
Let's get a
little more information from the book of Revelation regarding Satan's
background before this disastrous event occurred. "And the great dragon
was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who
deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels
were thrown down with him" (Revelation 12:9). "Woe to the earth and the
sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing
that he has only a short time" (Revelation 12:12). Satan and his
angels were thrown down to the earth out of heaven. As a result, he is
filled with rage against God and His promise of salvation through His only
begotten son. Therefore, we should have no trouble imagining why God's
adversary set his sights on Adam and Eve. Perhaps by ruining their
offspring, he could sabotage God's agenda. A Satanic Agent
Here's one way
to think about original sin or the result of Adam's sin. By getting Adam
to sin against God - placing his own self-desires in the place of God -
Satan acquired an "agent in place" in mankind. He would be the agent's
handler, but the agent would never actually see him or meet him. In fact,
the plant would feel free when he acted on his own. He never would suspect
he was an agent of destruction in the cosmic battle against God, the woman
of promise, and her offspring. Additionally, when he sought his own
desires he would be unaware he was performing an act of defiance against
God by exalting himself above his creator. With such an agent in place in
the hearts of men and women, every relationship would be undermined,
governments would be in his control, and most of all, they couldn't
believe God's promises. Satan's
Blindness
So let's go back
to Satan standing before the entire sea of mankind as he tempted Adam and
Eve. Yes, I think he was excited about what he saw. But he was blind to
the fact that he was working within God's plan to establish and exalt
Jesus Christ as the savior of men. He could not see how God would glorify
His name through the most fantastic sins of man and turn his attacks into
opportunities to display God's power and glory. The devil could not
imagine that God would come and die in man's place when man lived to put
himself in God's place. Why couldn't he see that? Because such love doesn't
exist in him. God's Promise
and Power
After Adam and
Eve sinned, Satan did succeed in implanting his agent in man, but he
brought upon himself the curse of God. How shocked and angry Satan must
have been when God cursed him and made him a promise. The very
thing Satan hoped to destroy in tempting Adam to sin - God's promise of a
savior - was proclaimed with the curse. "And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on
the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel" (Genesis 3:14-15).
God's word was
fulfilled in history on April 3rd, 33 A.D. when Jesus died on a Roman
cross (the date given by the Jewish historian, Josephus). Stephen, a
deacon in the infant church in Jerusalem testified of God's glory, he said
that God proclaims, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool
of my feet" (Acts 7:49). When Satan orchestrated the crucifixion under God's
sovereign permission, he could not touch the throne of God, all he could
do was bruise the heel of God. But when Jesus breathed His last
sacrificial breath, the dragon and his agent, Self, were bruised on the
head - his ultimate power to kill the offspring of Adam was dealt a mortal
blow. The power of Adam's original sin cancelled! The agent exposed and
condemned! It could be said that Satan and Self were down, but not out.
God still had a purpose for Satan and the agent in place - to provide the
occasions for God to display His glory and power through Jesus Christ in
the lives of those whose names were written in the Lamb's book of life
before the foundation of the world. Self is the
Antichrist
Have you ever
considered self, the agent in place which rose up out of man in Adam which
consists of self-will, self-desire, self-ambition, self-defense,
self-esteem, etc., as the antichrist? What does antichrist mean? The New
Oxford American Dictionary defines the prefix anti in this way. It
means opposed to; against, reversing or undoing, the
opposite of, or acting as a rival. When used with the word christ,
we can understand it to mean that something has been put in the place
of Christ. The agent in place in mankind, self in the place of Jesus
Christ, was birthed into this world when Adam sinned against God. To live
for self is to live against Jesus Christ. It is to undo the glory of God.
Self rivals Jesus Christ as a god and lord.
The rivalry
between self and Christ is clearly declared in the Scriptures in the words
of Jesus as well as His disciples. "Then Jesus said to His disciples,
‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up
his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it;
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'" (Matthew 16:24-25).
The Apostle Paul wrote, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but
with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves"
(Philippians 2:3). James contrasted earthly wisdom with wisdom from above,
"But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do
not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not
that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For
where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every
evil thing" (James 3:14-16). John, the writer of The Revelation,
wrote in his first epistle, "And every spirit that does not confess Jesus
is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have
heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world" (1 John 4:3).
Some might argue
that it is not accurate to call self the antichrist. They say that self is
not the problem, sin is the problem. Self under the power of sin was the
result of Adam's sin. It is suggested that Jesus came to set self free
from the power of sin so that we could finally be the self God intended -
self-satisfied in Jesus. When self is used in this context, self
is synonymous with man. I'll not argue the point that man can
only be satisfied in Jesus and that is the ultimate blessing of Jesus'
work on the cross. However, I'm using self in the same way Jesus
and his disciples used it in the verses above. Man under the influence of
sin is selfish, self-consumed, self-ambitious. The point is: sin in you
has made yourself to be god. This is the spirit of antichrist. The antichrist
is alive and well
The spirit of antichrist is already in the world. It has been here since
Adam sinned and it is also coming. It does not confess that Jesus is God,
but instead proposes self, or mankind to be God in His place. It has
universal authority over everyone except those who believe in Christ, and
although selfishness and self-centeredness overcome even the saints, they
refuse to worship the beast of self, also known as pride or flesh. As Paul
wrote the Romans, "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind
set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is
hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for
it is not even able to do so" (Romans 8:6-7). The kings of the
earth worship self
Every local,
state, national, and international leader is drawn into the worship of
self. Do they not gain their position by appealing to the self-interests
of the majority of their constituents? A friend of mine was elected to a
state government position, and his heart was to serve as a man of
principle. When he told a powerful organization that they could trust him
to vote on principles, they responded that they would not support him
because they wanted a representative who would vote for what they wanted,
not principle! So here's how it works. Self-ambition or self-comfort are
powerful motivators. If a politician can help people advance their own
cause or comfort, then they will support that candidate. It's the way the
world system works because self is god in the hearts of mankind. Every false
religion is an idol of self
When God gave
the Ten Commandments to Moses, He addressed the dragon's idol-making agent
in the hearts of men. "You shall have no other gods before Me. You
shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth"
(Deuteronomy 5:7-8). Self is the object of worship in every idolatrous,
false religion on the planet in the history of mankind. Any action that
places someone, something, or some idea in the place of worship is the
same as bowing down in worship to self. If the prevailing philosophy of a
church is to make the most people happy, then self has become god in that
church. It is a synagogue of Satan even though it might have Jesus' name
on the sign out front. It is no wonder that the Spirit of God isn't
manifested in so-called churches where the members are intoxicated with
self-happiness and comfort rather than Jesus Christ. Jesus came to
undo Self
This should not
be, but it is understandable how it occurs. Without the new birth by the
Spirit of God, people can do nothing else but serve their self-interests.
Self is the object and generator of all the worship and actions of men and
women from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Jesus came to set us
free from ourselves! The cross work of Christ crushed self - its power and
curse. When the Spirit of Christ enters a heart, the life of Jesus enters.
The life of Jesus is anti-self. At
the cross, Jesus deposed self and became the object and generator of all
the worship and actions of everyone whose names were written in His book
of life (Rev. 13:8). Is this the
gospel you have heard?
The
teaching that self is Satan's agent and Jesus' rival is part of the gospel
in The Revelation which was given to John by Jesus Christ, recorded
in Revelation 12-13. I have used Scriptures from other books of the Bible
so you might see that what John wrote is clearly communicated by his Lord.
Next month, we're going to look specifically at how the Holy Spirit
communicated these powerful truths to John so we might understand who our
enemy is and the warfare in which we are engaged. We are battling Satan,
the dragon, and the beast of self on a daily basis as were the members of
the seven churches of Asia Minor. I encourage you to read chapters 12-13
of Revelation with an old pair of glasses, although they may be new to
you. The original readers were suffering persecution because they would
not worship the idols of the people around them. It was costing them their
homes, belongings, businesses, and ability to buy and sell in their
communities. Self hates suffering. They needed encouragement and
understanding of God's plan and purposes in Jesus Christ. Who can't relate
to this battle? The backbone of Elijah Ministries is the prayer team who pray diligently for God to turn the hearts of men to Himself, their wives, and their children. Before I leave to speak, I send out a prayer team invitation to those who will intercede for God to work for His glory in us as a team for the Kingdom. Not only is it a blessing to those whom I speak and myself; but it is also a reminder to the team about the direction of their own hearts. If you would like to enter into the labor together with me, you may go to my website and click on "Prayer Team". Has Norm's Chariot or other resources been an encouragement to you? As a nonprofit organization, Elijah Ministries needs support from people like you in order to function. If God has ministered to you through Elijah Ministries and Norm Wakefield, would you consider supporting the work? You can do so here. (Elijah Ministries is a tax-deductible 501c3 and is financially accountable to an overseeing board of 8 non-paid members from around the country.) The Chariot is also available as a podcast. You can automatically receive the Chariot each month in iTunes by subscribing here. (An RSS capable browser such as Internet Explorer 7 or Safari is required.)
If you
haven't visited our website, www.spiritofelijah.com,
please stop by sometime. You'll find: * Resources to equip you and your family * Previous Chariot articles * Norm's speaking schedule *
Free MP3 downloads * Subscribe to the Chariot Podcast here. * Various resources/pages translated and available in Spanish * An online store to purchase resources and make tax-free contributions by credit card
I invite you to be a part of the
moving of the Spirit of Elijah in your church, community, and the world.
How?
1.
Send this article to other men or families that you know would
benefit from it. You might inform them of the previous articles
available on-line at our website.
2.
Share resources from the Spirit of Elijah Ministries with others.
If Equipping Men or Rising to the
Call have been a blessing to you, then you know it will be
beneficial to others. Either share your resources, tell them about the
resources, or purchase a set or two as an investment in their lives. 3. Share with others what you have learned and put into practice in turning your heart to God, your wife, and your children. If God has done this in you, then He wants to affect others through you.
4.
Join the Elijah Ministries email prayer team and make
intercession for others that their hearts would be turned in revival to
the Lord, their wives, and their children. This can be done on-line at www.spiritofelijah.com.
Norm
Wakefield 06.10 To unsubscribe, click here.
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