Your Eternal Life Now!

1Timothy 6: 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Too many Christians are crawling into heaven. Having already won the battle for their eternal destination, they still can continue to allow themselves to be bound by the lies of the enemy and the lure of this world. In the Apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy we see him exhorting Timothy about taking hold of the eternal life he was called to when he made his confession of Christ. We too have made such confession. We too have been called to eternal life. Sometimes however we seem to relegate this eternal life to something that is coming in the future. Something we have to look forward to but the key verse today clearly spells out that we are to actually take hold of that eternal life NOW; today. The truth is that as Christians, we should be living the life Christ Himself said He came to deliver unto us:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10 (NKJV)

More abundantly, or as the NIV says, "to the full." Unfortunately, there are far too many in the kingdom who do not live the eternal life they have been called to. Their lives are not lived abundantly and to the full. Under attack from the enemy, we can waver. We can falter in our belief. We can start to play into the schemes of the enemy. Jesus says the enemy has come only to steal, kill and destroy. The chief way he accomplishes this is by taking your focus off of God and onto ourselves. Look, there is no doubt that we will face tribulation in this world, Christ said so:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33

The enemy uses the tribulations in our lives to distract us from God. The more we focus on the problem, the less we focus on the problem solver. If we look at our own situations, under our own power, it is easy to become discouraged, depressed or anxious. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the problems we will face in life. That is a temporal focus however and God, as Paul instructs Timothy, wants us taking hold of the eternal.

And how do we accomplish this great feat? By seeking the will of God in everything that we do. God never fails. Nothing catches Him by surprise. There is nothing that will change who God is. His will is found throughout the Scripture, which is why it is so important that we read the Word daily. But tucked away in the closing portion of the first letter to the Church at Thessalonica we find a more explicit instruction:

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. - 1Thessalonians 5: 16-18

God's will for us in Christ Jesus. Seven instructions from God on how to live your life within His will. Five of the seven are written as absolutes which has led to often heard Christian lament that achieving such standards is simply not possible. Realize that what we may limit to being possible in our finite minds does not change what the will of God is for our lives. The key to taking hold of the eternal life we have already been blessed with is in seeking such standards.

Be joyful always? That certainly sounds impossible by the standards the world has set up. If we stare at our circumstances long enough, joy is not usually the resulting emotion. That is because the world teaches and reinforces the negative. The devil will show you everything you do not have so you cannot appreciate what God has given you. David had everything but the devil showed him Bathsheba, and he fell. A great part of why we cannot imagine being joyful always is that we have allowed the world to define happiness. We have correlated it to money, fame, or power. We say to ourselves; "If I can just achieve this, or earn that...then I will be happy." God is not speaking about temporal joy however, but eternal joy:

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16: 11 (NKJV)

The fullness of joy that we need to be seeking is simply found in His presence! When the world shows you all of the temporal reasons to not be joyful, you counter them with the eternal reasons of how God has made you joyful. If you continue to chase the temporal, you will always be disappointed because the things of this world are fleeting. If you turn to the eternal, the chase is already over. Your joy is already there.

Pray continually? Absolutely! Once again however we can allow the world to define prayer. It can become almost ritualistic of we are not careful. A prayer only at set times, for set causes. Prayers become a complaining session to God letting Him know all of the areas we feel He has fallen short in; instead of praise sessions for all He has done. Prayer is supposed to be relational. God is concerned about every aspect of our lives.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 6-7

The Word does not say present only your top concerns to God. It does not say present only that which has gotten out of control in your life. It says in EVERYTHING. Why? Because God realizes that the enemy will use the small things to plant seeds of doubt. Those seeds grow into a little hill in your life as the enemy seeks to gain a foothold in your heart or mind. Soon, that hill becomes a mountain that seems insurmountable and then we bring it to God and ask for help. The foothold has become a stronghold. If we would just bring everything to God, then the devil would not gain the foothold or stronghold. Not only that, but the very peace of God would protect our hearts and minds from those seeds of doubt. Once again, the enemy seeking to distract you from the eternal, by way of the temporal.

Give thanks in all circumstances? Definitely! God knows that giving thanks is the key to having an appreciative spirit. The enemy uses the things we do not have or are unsure of to distract us from God. Remember, God has already forgiven your past and has a plan for your future. The reason the Word is a lamp unto your feet is that faith needs only to see the next step God has for you today. The enemy however, wants you either living in your past, or worried about your future. That way you cannot live for the present task God has for you to do in His kingdom. The Apostle Paul was visited by a messenger from Satan to torment him. He begged the Lord three times to remove what he referred to as a "thorn in his flesh." Three times God assured him that His grace was sufficient for him. Whatever the thorn was, the enemy was trying to distract Paul with something temporal to get his eyes off of the eternal life God wanted him to grab hold of. Here was the response from Paul:

That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Corinthians 12: 10

Giving thanks in the midst of your pain takes the power away from your pain and gives it to God. Giving thanks in the middle of your trial, takes the power away from the trial and gives it to God. It refocuses you from the temporal problem to the eternal promises you have in God. That is why it is God's will for your life.

Do not put out the spirit's fire nor treat prophecies with contempt. It is the will of God that we be "in tune" with Him. He has given us His very Spirit to do just that. Yet sometimes we can get into a pattern of deferring to the world or our circumstances. The same goes for prophecies. We can receive a word from God and seemingly dismiss it away or let the world speak its faulty logic into it. We must realize that we are called upon to renew how we think:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

His good, pleasing and perfect will. God has a calling on every born again believer's life. Even if it is just to do as Paul exhorts Timothy to do in our key verse and grab hold of the eternal life we have been called into! God does not want us to live a defeated life but one that is full and abundant.

Test everything? Everything? Unquestionably! What is the plumb line God has given us? What is the measuring stick? The Word of God! The Bible is not meant to be brought out once per week on Sundays and then put away for the week. It is meant to be an integral part of who we are. It is what we believe and it is alive. When the enemy attacks us it comes often in the form of thoughts or arguments that are in direct opposition to what God has already promised us:

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2Corinthians 10:5

Spiritual warfare begins with knowing what God has already said and promised. It is about knowing His Word and believing in faith that it is true. Then when the enemy attacks with thoughts that are in opposition, we can fight back with what we know. By doing so, we make the oppositional thought obedient to Christ. Obedient to what we already know to be true. When the enemy says you will never amount to anything, you respond that you are more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37). When the enemy says that you will never fulfill your potential, you respond that He who started a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6). When the enemy says you are alone, you respond that God is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). When the enemy says you have no value, you respond that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). When the enemy tells you to be afraid, you respond that God has not given you a spirit of fear (2Timothy 1:7). For anything the enemy whispers into your life, God has an answer that trumps it. But what is the key for defending against all of these lies? You need to respond to the thought that is set up in opposition. You need to speak your faith and what you believe into the very lie that is being spoken into your life. That is how you make it obedient to Christ. Test everything beloved and hold onto only that which is good that which is in agreement with the Word of God.

Avoid every kind of evil? Certainly. Especially in a world so fallen as ours, it is even more important that we strive to avoid every kind of evil. Too often we willingly walk into the evil that befalls us. We need to be vigilant to stay within the instructions for us within the will of God. As the key verse says, we need to fight the good fight of faith. It is faith in God and the promises He has made that will enable us to be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, test everything and avoid every kind of evil. Our good fight of faith will stoke the fires of the spirit within us and help us avoid treating prophecies with contempt.

Too many Christians are crawling into heaven. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were blessed with an eternal life we were meant to take hold of NOW. We were not meant to be bound by the enemy and the lure of this world. We were meant to fight the good fight of faith; exercising what we know to be true over the thoughts set up in opposition to God in our lives. Jesus came to give us life to the full live it today. Grab hold of the eternal life you have been given.

Reverend Anthony Wade December 10, 2009