THE WAR OF THE WORLDS PART 2
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS PART 2 PODCAST NOTES
God initiated free will in the Garden of Eden. God was the one who planted the two trees in the garden. This shows God’s love for free will. Love requires free will! We typically live in free will. But sometimes God steps in and shapes things providentially with sovereignty . We see it throughout history every few hundred years or so, like with Noah.
James 1:2-3 , “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
Trials don’t test your character, they test your faith. There are three sources of trials:
1 - Our Own Choices:
Sometimes we create our own trials through our own choices. If I created the trial, I need wisdom.
2 - The Enemy:
There are trials from the enemy. God can use these trials, but He didn’t initiate them. If the enemy initiated the trial, I need to submit to God and resist the devil.
3 - The Lord:
If God has initiated a trial, I want to get under that trial and grow my faith. If God created the trial, I don’t want to resist it.
Moses is sent by God and he throws down his staff and it becomes a snake. The sorcerers also throw down their staffs to become snakes. When God moves, the enemy can’t stop it so he tries to dilute it with other snakes. We have to figure out which snake is God’s instead of running away assuming God can’t be in it. The enemy is throwing down snakes to make you feel powerless, but how you feel is not who you are.
It’s important that we understand authority. Let’s look at the centurion soldier when he comes to Jesus.
“And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.’ Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ But the centurion said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, “Go!” and he goes, and to another, “Come!” and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this!” and he does it.’” Matthew 8:5-9
Think through the centurion's idea that Jesus doesn’t need to go to his house. How did he come to that conclusion? The example he gives is sending a man to go when he commands it. You would think the centurion’s logic would be that if Jesus sent a disciple, his servant would be healed. But instead, the centurion’s rationale is third heaven . He understood that there are entities in another dimension, that there are angels to carry out Jesus’ words. He understood that Jesus had authority to speak a word and have angels carry out the word on His behalf.
In my last message on The War of the Worlds , I talked about demons. Today, I want to talk about angels.
Daniel had a prophecy, and he prayed into it. There was a war about the prophecy, the demonic was trying to keep the prophecy from happening. His angel was helping fight in the spirit realm because of his prayers.
If you haven’t listened to Eric’s message, “The Game is Rigged,” from a few weeks ago that I mentioned in this message, you can listen to it here .
Scriptures:
Genesis 1:1, Genesis 6, 2 Corinthians 12:2, Ephesians 6:12, James 1:2-3, Genesis 15:1-16, Exodus 1:8, Genesis 41:13-49, Exodus 2:1-14, Exodus 3, Matthew 28:18-19, Matthew 8:5-13, Psalm 103:20, Hebrews 1:13-14, Daniel 9:21, 10:12-13, 10:19-21, Acts 12:1-17, Revelation 4:1
