Daily Word：Matthew 4111 power to make the adversary go away!

Today’s key issue: how to make your adversary go away and leave you alone? There are many petty hassles that are trying their best to distract you from the really important issues like nation or church building. Daily hassles are stressors and their intention is to drive you to the point of being dysfunctional. Today the watchman is led in the spirit to give this following 100% effective strategy. It has worked perfectly when Jesus initiated it and it is still working effectively today. The arch-enemy the devil tried to pester Jesus when Jesus started his ministry. But Jesus was well prepared as the Son of God. What happened in the end? “Then the devil went away, and the angels came and took care of Jesus.”

My notes are in brackets in italics.

Matthew 4:1-11 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Temptation of Jesus
4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

(There are times of tiredness as you assume your new office of great responsibilities. And that is the time to be alert against the wiles of the enemy. The more important your job is the higher rank devil will be assigned to tempt you.)

3 During that time the devil[a] came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

(Of course, the first trick is to make you eat unnecessarily and not at the right time and proportion. Many important people failed and fell because they made their belly/PHYSICAL PART their god. They suffer from a fear of lack. lack of physical comfort, popularity, security, esteem and friendship from others etc.)

4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,

‘People do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”

(WHAT DID JESUS SAY? THE SPIRITUAL IS MORE IMPORTANT AND POTENT THAN THE PHYSICAL! WHERE DOES HIS SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE COME FROM? THE WORD OF GOD.)

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, 6 and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,
‘He will order his angels to protect you.
And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’[c]”

(the devil then tried this seemingly equally spiritual and ‘godly’ temptation. He challenged Jesus in the matter of faith. “If you really have faith in God, you jump to your death!”)

7 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’[d]” (WHAT DID JESUS SAY? HOW DARE YOU CHALLENGE GOD!” JESUS IS INDEED THE SON OF GOD AND HE DOESN’T HAVE TO PROVE HIS CREDENTIAL.)

8 Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

(lastly, the devil tried a seemingly fail-proof offer, power and wealth, fame and fortune.)

10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say,
‘You must worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.’[e]”

(JESUS FINALLY COMMANDED THE DEVIL TO GET OUT OF HIS SIGHT. IT WORKED! THE DEVIL HAD TO OBEY. WHY? BECAUSE JESUS IS TRULY THE SON OF GOD AND HE KNOWS HOW TO USE HIS AUTHORITY AGAINS HIS ENEMY.)

11 Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

Footnotes:

4:3 Greek the tempter.
4:4 Deut 8:3.
4:6 Ps 91:11-12.
4:7 Deut 6:16.
4:10 Deut 6:13.

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY’S CHRISTIANS
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 New Living Translation (NLT)
17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers,
and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch their filthy things,
and I will welcome you.[a]
18 And I will be your Father,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.[b]”
Footnotes:
6:17 Isa 52:11; Ezek 20:34 (Greek version).
6:18 2 Sam 7:14.

WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD.WE HAVE THE SAME AUTHORITY AND POWER JESUS HAS TO COMMAND THE ADVERSARY TO LEAVE.
Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
Romans 8:15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
Romans 8:16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance

1 Peter 1

New Living Translation (NLT)

Greetings from Peter

1 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.^{[a] 2} God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.

The Hope of Eternal Life

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, ⁴ and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. ⁵ And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

⁶ So be truly glad.^[b] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. ⁹ The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
¹⁰ This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. ¹¹ They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.
¹² They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

A Call to Holy Living

¹³ So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. ¹⁴ So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. ¹⁵ But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. ¹⁶ For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”^[c]

¹⁷ And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” ¹⁸ For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹ It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰ God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.
²¹ Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.^[d] Love each other deeply with all your heart.^[e]
23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. ²⁴ As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;
    their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
²⁵     But the word of the Lord remains forever.”^[f]

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

Footnotes:

1. 1:1 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey.
2. 1:6 Or So you are truly glad.
3. 1:16 Lev 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7.
4. 1:22a Greek must have brotherly love.
5. 1:22b Some manuscripts read with a pure heart.
6. 1:24-25 Isa 40:6-8.

Sunday message: living by the Spirit; tongues; martyrs; Te Deum

Whilst preparing the following post, the watchman was led to the YouTube site and listened to the performance of “Te Deum”. He listened, continued to type and prayed in the spirit. Then he realized that he spoke some distinct words in unknown languages. So he wrote them down. After posting the blog, he had a bit of time and checked through the meanings (using online translator) of the distinct words. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the Spirit of the Lord told his spirit to “download-choir-others-see“. (In the short sentence four languages were used: Norwegian, Turkish, Lithuanian and Albanian. ). He did not know then but his spirit knew and obeyed! The first sound he uttered was ‘Sabbath’ which was English but he could not understand this utterance then.
Further revelation note inserted here on 6-4-2013: It dawned on him today that the day this tongue (above sentence ) was uttered was a Sunday while he was preparing this blog. The full sentence of the sound (tongue) he uttered while listening to the presentation of ‘Te Deum‘ on YouTube by Franz Joseph Haydn, Te Deum n.2 in C, and drafting the blog was: “Sabbath- last ned -koro- kito- sheh” (which means: “Sunday download-choir-others-see“, based on separate meaning of each individual words in four languages; when combined they formed one complete sentence which his spirit understood and obeyed!).
This confirmed an earlier question the watchman asked the Lord (in the preceding few days) about whether all sounds spoken in tongues have meanings. After this amazing revelation he was led to read 1Corinthians 14:10 which further confirmed this revelation: 
“There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” (KJV)
“There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning,” (ESV)
____________________
Excerpts from download on martyrdom:

________________Excerpts from download:
On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians – four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Indian, all Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen including three young boys, who were all members of the Third Order of St. Francis – were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki on the orders of Hideyoshi Toyotomi.^[1] These individuals were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears.
Persecution continued sporadically, breaking out again in 1613 and 1630. On September 10, 1632, 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. At this time Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the nineteenth century.
While there were many more martyrs, the first martyrs came to be especially revered, the most celebrated of which was Paul Miki.
Drawn from the oral histories of Japanese Catholic communities, Shusaku Endo‘s acclaimed novel Silence provides detailed accounts of the persecution of Christian communities and the suppression of the Church.
(Excerpts from Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
_____________________more excerpts from same source:
Paulo Miki (Japanese: パウロ三木; c. 1562^[1] – February 5, 1597) was a Roman Catholic Japanese Jesuit seminarian, martyr and saint, one of the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan.
Biography
Paulo Miki was born into a wealthy Japanese family. He was educated by the Jesuits in Azuchi and Takatsuki. He joined the Society of Jesus and became a well known and successful preacher – gaining numerous converts to Catholicism. The Japanese daimyo, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, fearful of the Jesuit’s influence and intentions began persecuting Catholics. Miki was jailed, along with others. He and his fellow Catholics were forced to march 600 miles (966 kilometers) from Kyoto to Nagasaki; all the while singing the Te Deum. On arriving in Nagasaki, the city with the largest Catholic population in Japan, Miki was crucified on February 5, 1597. He preached his last sermon from the cross, and it is maintained that he forgave his executioners, stating that he himself was Japanese.
____________downloaded as instructed by the Lord Holy Spirit:

Te Deum, which was translated into English in the 19th century as “Holy God, we praise thy name.”

Franz Joseph Haydn, Te Deum n.2 in C
http://youtu.be/PXNGqgNTNIQ

Latin text

Translation from the Book of Common Prayer

Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur. Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi caeli et universae Potestates; Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae. Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus, Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus, Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia, Patrem immensae maiestatis: Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium; Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum. Tu Rex gloriae, Christe. Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius. Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum. Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris. Iudex crederis esse venturus. Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. [added later, mainly from Psalm verses:] Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum. Per singulos dies benedicimus te; Et laudamus Nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. Miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.

We praise thee, O God :     we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship thee :     the Father everlasting. To thee all Angels cry aloud :     the Heavens, and all the Powers therein. To thee Cherubim and Seraphim :     continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Holy :     Lord God of Sabaoth; Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty :     of thy glory. The glorious company of the Apostles : praise thee. The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise thee. The noble army of Martyrs : praise thee. The holy Church throughout all the world :     doth acknowledge thee; The Father : of an infinite Majesty; Thine honourable, true : and only Son; Also the Holy Ghost : the Comforter. Thou art the King of Glory : O Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son : of the Father. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man :     thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death :     thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the right hand of God : in the glory of the Father. We believe that thou shalt come : to be our Judge. We therefore pray thee, help thy servants :     whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Make them to be numbered with thy Saints : in glory everlasting. [added later, mainly from Psalm verses:] O Lord, save thy people :     and bless thine heritage. Govern them : and lift them up for ever. Day by day : we magnify thee; And we worship thy Name : ever world without end. Vouchsafe, O Lord : to keep us this day without sin. O Lord, have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us. O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us :     as our trust is in thee. O Lord, in thee have I trusted :     let me never be confounded.

Journey to see God: See God. Don't see yourself!

Today's message is to whom we are looking. When we focus on ourselves, we see defeat. When we turn to look at the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit), we see victory! The law (the words of the whole Bible) is not dead letters. They are alive and spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."

Romans 7

English Standard Version (ESV)

Released from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. ³ Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
¹³ Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷ So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

The Spirit of Life says, “Beware of depression spirit and burnt chicken!”

YUMMY BURNT CHICKEN

Dear Junior: (a watchman/intercessor who started young):

Yesterday your uncle watchman learned a lesson from the Lord Holy Spirit. He did not obey the lord’s command to watch and pray. Instead he spent a lot of quality time driving and waiting for spiritually unproductive administrative procedures in banks. By the time he returned to his abode, it was already afternoon and he made further unproductive decisions without asking the Holy Spirit.
Someone turned up for urgent ministering by his co-worker and he had to rush to finish laundry and cooking so they would not be distracted. However, rain waters poured like waterfall from above and strong wind brought the water right into his first floor home-office and whilst he rushed upstairs to close the windows, the bed sheets and kneeling pads which were earlier hanging out under the bright sun in the garden were soaked.
Whilst he was feeling upset and went up to ‘sulk’ in the third floor attic the chicken on the stove in the ground floor kitchen was burnt. The whole house was full of smoke. While he wondered where the smoke came from, someone came to his door and knocked and told him the bad news -instead of switching off the stove he turned to full power and it continued for at least fifteen minutes!
So the uncle felt self-pity and grumbled loudly to the Lord. He was a watchman and not a servant to the cares of this world. When he wallowed in self-pity he forgot that he was supposed to be sons of God and led by the Holy Spirit. He felt depressed and oppressed. He thought he was being neglected by all loved ones as the the smoke was swarming the whole house and no one paid any attention. These include those in the kitchen blissfully taking their tea, and those in the living room engrossed in talking. The rain poured into the house causing the beginning of a flood and yet the inhabitants were in blissful oblivion in their rooms doing their own things.
While moping, the Lord reminded him that he was to be led by the Spirit and not by flesh. He then discerned that the spirit of death, spirit of deception, and spirit of depression came into his mind through the ‘open window’ (or open-door) from the ‘patient’ and her mom downstairs. So he used the name of Jesus to bind and cast out the unclean spirits, using the same authority Jesus gave to His disciples and all who believe.

Matthew 16:19 (NKJV) ¹⁹ And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed^[a] in heaven. [”Footnotes: a. Matthew 16:19 Or will have been bound . . . will have been loosed.]

He also used the power of the Son of God -Jesus, to destroy the works of the devil as in

1John3:8b “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

The depression lifted instantly at the name of Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus refreshed him as he prayed in tongue. He took a refreshing bath and felt bright and sunny by the time he took his dinner. The chicken miraculously tasted good and juicy too. The burnt ginger was edible. The vegetables were extra delicious. So the smoke did not damage anything. He even had a treat of chocolate from Manila.
Summary of lesson learned:

1. Obey the Lord Jesus who urged us to watch and pray always.
2. Walk in the Spirit.
3. Do not assume that feelings and thoughts are the truth.
4. Always be alert of the spiritual realm. Look at the unseen.
5. Pray in the Spirit without ceasing.
6. Be always prepared to use the authority and power of the sons of God.
7. Be equipped and ready to use the sword of the Spirit -the word of God.