Peggy Joyce Ruth

Do you have family members who are not born again? This teaching is to help you pray effectively for family members who have yet to know the Lord. Even if your children and grandchildren are grown and out of the home, your prayers still have authority in their lives. God wants to partner with us to bring our family into His kingdom. 

Are you aware of how the enemy attacks, and do you know how to respond? Most begin with a single thought that grows until eventually we end up overwhelmed, with out-of-control negative emotions. We must learn how the enemy traps us and how we can take our thoughts captive, bringing them into obedience to God’s Word.  

Many believers are unknowingly involved in witchcraft, yet God is calling us out of witchcraft and idolatry. Being ignorant of what God's Word says about the occult is not an excuse. We must partner with God to root out all occult practices from our lives. 

Are you aware of how the enemy attacks? It is vital to understand how the enemy attacks our thought life and how we can take our thoughts captive, bringing them into obedience to God’s Word. 

Don't ignore satan - answer him. When Satan sends thoughts our way, many times we ignore them instead of answering with the Word. The enemy's thoughts and temptations don't simply disappear by ignoring them. They continue to build until the enemy traps us. It is vital to answer the enemy with the Word until we get the victory.  

We are caretakers of the mysteries of God that are to be revealed in these end days. As believers, our faithfulness is under investigation. We are in a time where everything and everyone is being shaken. Consistency with what God is revealing to us is necessary to remain faithful to God. Have you been faithful with the revelation God has entrusted to you?

There are times the enemy comes as a roaring lion, and times he comes as a serpent. In Corinthians 11:3, Paul says, "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ." The enemy seeks to introduce deception into our lives. This battle begins in our minds first. However, the good news is that if we recognize the enemy's scheme at the thought level, it is much easier to defeat. 

Are you in the middle of a storm? Storms come to steal our peace, but we can decide to hold on to our peace no matter the storm. Fear comes to tell us God doesn't care. Jesus calmed every storm while He walked the earth. God is never the one sending storms. God is our hiding place, our fortress in the midst of the storm. He is the one speaking, 'Peace, be still to the storm.' John 6:33 says, "In Jesus we have perfect peace, and in the world we have tribulation, but take courage, Jesus has overcome the world." 

Satan and bad angels are not all-powerful, but they can influence a person's thinking and emotions until we learn the enemy's schemes and the authority God has given us. Since his fall, Satan now peddles his merchandise of sin and rebellion to the unsuspecting and ignorant. He works through fear and self-will, pushing us to our "own" devices instead of the power and authority that comes from submitting to God and His Word.

There are good and bad angels. Today, we are going to talk about the origin and goals of bad angels. Satan himself is an angel who fell from God's presence in heaven. Bad angels are spirit beings that don't have a physical body, but that doesn't make them any less real. We must recognize the enemy's schemes. If we remain ignorant, we will fall prey to his tactics. 

Proverbs 21:2 says. "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but Jehovah weighs the heart." When we don't intentionally seek God, we end up justifying our own actions. David justified not going to war in the Old Testament, just as many times we justify not doing spiritual warfare under the New Covenant. God wants to show us the things we don't see about ourselves. If we cry to God and have a heart that is after Him, He will show us our blind spots so we can repent and turn completely from them. 

How do we partner with God to bring His Word and will into reality? Sickness came on the earth by man's choice to sin. God created everything perfect in the Garden of Eden, and He now desires our lives to be completely redeemed, but it is not automatic. Through the blood of Jesus every part of our redemption has to be accepted and fully received. God is never sending the sickness or tragedy. He is always working to redeem us from it. 

Healing is a part of our covenant with God. We must be intentional in taking in the promises in the Word on healing. In Matthew 8:2-3, Jesus sets a precedent in the Word regarding healing. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately, he was cleansed of his leprosy. Because of Jesus' word, we know biblically that God wants and is willing to heal us.  

What does the Word say on healing? For starters, the word Salvation means: health, healing, deliverance, protection, and provision. God's salvation offers us everything we will need in this life and in the life to come. The Word of God can be either a preventive medicine or a cure, depending on what we need at the time. When we need to work with God for the Word of God to become part of who we are. 

When we were born again, our old sin nature died and was buried with Christ. Baptism is a picture of us being resurrected into newness in  Christ. So when we are born again, we are resurrected in Christ. We are no longer a singular person. We are put in Jesus. So every good thing in Christ has been made available to us. We need to come to the place where we believe we are a new creation in Christ Jesus to truly be able to overcome sin.