“Be very, very careful,” the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. “The enemy is going to try to turn you back.”
Less than 48 hours after arriving at my latest location on the road for Jesus and ministry for nearly 5 years, albeit just a 2-week stop on my way to my next big location, here I sit writing this. The Lord just gave me an ultra clear warning which does not surprise me in the least. I have loads of experience starting to move forward in the Lord’s instructions for me in life and ministry and facing tough opposition from the devil as he has tried brutally for years to get me to go backwards to my old life instead of going forward following Jesus. The biggest battles have usually been when the Lord has made clear His will for really big steps forward like writing a new book for Him or driving a long distance to a new location where He intends for me to do a great deal of ministry work.
So what does this have to do with you? The devil in his 3-fold mission to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) goes all out to keep people from believing in and following the Lord Jesus Christ, to try to wreak havoc on our relationships with the Lord once we enter into them, and to try to stop us from fulfilling God’s will for our lives. One ploy the devil seems to try with lots of us is to try to turn us back. To a lifestyle of sin, to people, places, and things God has told us to leave behind, to places of comfort and ease and familiarity so we cling to all that instead of cleave to God, to anything or anyone in the past God wants us to let go in order to move forward following Him and His will for our lives.
When the devil tries to turn you back, I want to encourage you with this. Cry out to God almighty, pray, pray, pray, seek God’s presence, study and live by His Word, ask for and receive a fresh infilling of God’s Holy Spirit, follow the leading of His Spirit in the strength of Christ for the glory of Christ, and seek prayer and encouragement from God’s followers if/when/as the Lord so leads you.
Please don’t follow the voice and temptations of the devil as he tries to turn you back. Turn to the Lord and go forth wherever He so leads you. For the glory of God, AMEN!
I love God’s words to Joshua!
“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”” Joshua 1:7-9 NKJV
I am so encouraged hearing Jesus say this:
“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” John 12:26 NKJV
Please find more encouragement in these verses that follow!
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 NKJV
“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”” John 10:2-5 NKJV