Growing in God for Victory

When God asks you to do something, the enemy tries to stop you from being obedient.

The enemy is crafty.  He generally doesn't wage a frontal assault against obedience. He uses our flesh. Satan quietly provokes our flesh to work against our own calling ... All in the name of God.

Fear, offense, jealousy, impatience, anxiety, shame, doubt, selfish ambition, anger, pride/self righteous thinking, distraction... This is how Satan mostly wages war against obedience.  Some external resistance, yes, but the "spiritual and not carnal war" is mostly waged by Satan's internal feeding of our old self with bad ideas and emotions.

A vision of sanctification... A changing heart... That is where victory in God is truly found, as well as faithfully walking out what God has asked us to do! 

Many are falling away rn.  Obedience unto heart change is what it means to "work out our salvation" 

Philippians 2:12-15 NKJV — Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,  

The problem for many of those unknowingly slipping backwards is they are working "so hard for God" but at the same time carrying fear, offense, jealousy, impatience, doubt, selfish ambition, anger, distraction (trying to live two lives, one in God and one in the world)...so the distance from God's heart is masked by busyness, religious consternation, debating what is "true," and annoyance with others "not getting it." These ^ all mark falling away from God, not growing in Him.

Falling away begins with backsliding.  We all face this challenge.  The wise recognize it and address it.

2 Peter 3:17-18 NKJV — You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Our relationship with Jesus has to be ALIVE.  Everything alive is either growing or dying.  We are either growing more like Yeshua, or we are backsliding.  There is no neutral gear in God.

This is a great day to get back into the race of obeying God. Infinitely more important than evangelizing... Especially politically-based evangelism... Is heart change... internal sanctification.  The great commission is only fulfilled by a witness of Yeshua changing the hearts of those that lead others to change.  It's the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony (of our own salvation by His perfect leadership) that overcomes. Nothing else.

Matthew 13:18-23 NKJV — “Therefore hear the parable of the sower:  “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; “yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Galatians 5:14-26 NKJV — For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

This admonition is offensive to our old selves.  It is life to the new creation.