Wednesday, 2nd September, 2020 Weekly Anchor Scripture: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." - 1 Timothy 6: 12 Focus Scripture: "And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out." - Luke 4: 36 Admonition I bring you greetings from the Throne of Grace. Beloved brethren, yesterday was awesome as the Holy Spirit of God exposed three of those things that militarizes against our faith in God. If God permits, we shall discuss the remaining ones in our blog very soon. This morning, the Holy Spirit is rrady to take us through combating those enemies discussed yesterday. You will agree with the Holy Spirit this morning that no matter how well loaded a gun is, until the trigger is pulled, it is not better than a mere stick. That's exactly how most of us Christians are today in that we often fail to recognize the authority we have over many things that control us. For example, those three enemies discussed yesterday. While on earth, Jesus Christ declared that all powers in heaven and on earth are given unto Him. That is to say that He had AUTHORITY. And the people of that era confirmed it (Luke 4: 36). The Bible says because we have come to know Jesus Christ, we are no more slaves, but sons, and that we are called unto liberty. Now, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the First of all sons and that we are joint heirs with Him (Romans 8: 7) and He also says that the works He did and even more shall we do. This means that we have authority just as he had. In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Apostle Paul exercised his own authority by saying ". . . all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." Not being brought under the power of any means he won't be controlled by them. And an example of that was when he said in 1 Corinthians 9: 27 that "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: . . . ." What the Bible says about us at our New Birth was reitrated to us again yesterday: when we become born-again, we are no longer the old person. Therefore, having the consciousness of our newness in Him, we must be aware of our heritage and exercise that authority. For example, our hearts must be renewed as we stop dwelling on sinful thoughts (that war against our faith), but be thinking about things in heaven (Colossians 3: 2) more and more. By so doing, we become more and more, filled with the Holy Spirit and we are able to walk in the Spirit and therefore, not able to fulfill the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5: 16). That exercise just described involves a simple system of just allowing the new man to take over while we relegate the old man to the background where and until he becomes non-existent. The process of setting our hearts on the things in heaven involves a renewal of our minds every time those sinful thoughts that war against our faith came visiting (Romans 12: 1 - 2). We do this by reminding ourselves that we are no longer the person we used to be and we are no longer the one living, but the Christ that lives in us (Galatians 2: 20) Because we are no longer also is the reason we can no longer be friends with the world and anyone that belongs to the world again (1 John 2: 15 - 17; 2 Corinthians 6: 14 - 18), so that our new good manners may not be corrupted (1 Corinthians 15: 33). Therefore, brethren, as we close this morning, our faith is in Christ Jesus and we are His. We no longer belong where we used to and that's why we must learn to live in the newness and realities of our new life, which is Christ Jesus. This will not be automatic as some preachers do preach and by which many people have fallen and failed, but it requires a little conscious effort on our own part. Yes, the Holy Spirit will always come to remind and help us, but ours is whether to obey and yield ourselves to Him or not because He won't force Himself on us (Genesis 6: 3). Our FINISHING STRONG is dependent upon exerting the authority we now have in our new life. As many that fail to come to this realization, they may never FINISH STRONG. That will not be our portions in Jesus Christ's name Amen. Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.