dailywordofdestiny

I see pastors and leaders, and yes, even us saints, falling into Satan’s traps of pride, lust, discouragement, envy, control, legalism, etc. and when all these shepherds fall, the sheep under their care will scatter (Matthew 9: 35, 36). God’s Word warns us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, walks about LIKE A ROARING LION, seeking whom he may devour” (1Peter 5: 8) and Christ addressed this same issue before His crucifixion (Matthew 9: 35, 36). Church, BEWARE! Do not let the enemy have his way; he delights in seeing destruction and death in your personal life of faith, and within the “body of Christ”!

I am reminded of an old saying, “There is safety in numbers” and it is confirmed in Scripture from the beginning (Genesis 7: 15, 16; Matthew 18: 20; Luke 10: 1-12). If sheep do not stay together within the safety of the flock (Mark 14: 27-31; John 16: 32), the peripheral ones become an easy target and fair game for the lion who is always roaming the earth to and fro, seeking to deceive, steal, and kill. (Matthew 12: 25-30; 1 Peter 5: 2-8)! I have heard various people I know say that they can stay at home and read their Bible and pray and in essence have “church” without being bothered with actually physically going to one where they’re not learning anything anyway. They will often add, “Where two or more are gathered, God is in our midst” and besides that, the T.V. evangelist, ‘So & So’ is far better!” Am I speaking to anyone out there?

I guess each of us has our “own opinion” based on our own perspective, so I can’t answer any other way than from my own situation. I was raised in church and I loved church; I loved the music, the familiar faces about me, and I felt the love that was a “given” between the members of that church. And then, I grew up and left the church in search of something far better. I never found it. I found destruction and chaos. When I rededicated my life to Christ nearly twenty years ago, one of the promises I made to Christ was that I’d always try to be in church each week and I have been. There have been a few times that I have missed, but let me say, “the missed times created an empty feeling within me and I believe it was because I had missed God’s corporate blessing!”

I KNOW THAT I KNOW if I had missed corporate fellowship early on in my return to the cross, I would NOT BE HERE this day! The lion that roams would have reclaimed this soul (Luke 9: 14; 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31; Ephesians 2: 6, 7, 19-22; 5: 29-32)! Without any finger pointing, I pray this addresses the importance of interdependence and fellowship among the members of the “body of Christ” for Scripture says, “Two are better than one, because they have good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion, but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, TWO CAN WITHSTAND him. And a threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12). Leviticus 26 is especially good; “You WILL CHASE YOUR ENEMIES and they SHALL FALL BY THE SWORD before you. FIVE of you shall chase a HUNDRED, and a HUNDRED of you shall put TEN THOUSAND to flight…” (Vs. 7, 8)! Oh hallelujah! Look what we could do as a UNITED body!

The lioness are the HUNTERS (seen as warriors by many of the ancient cultures) for their pride and they capture their prey with precise and complex TEAMWORK. Each lioness develops the SPECIFIC SKILLS for her own role during the hunt; then together they act as a COORDINATED GROUP to successfully stalk and bring down the prey. The heart of the lioness is quite small so they must get quite close to their prey before starting the attack. Therefore, they take advantage of factors that reduce visibility; such as night time attacks. Typically, several lionesses encircle the prey from different points; they then target the closest prey (peripheral loner). The attack is short and powerful and the prey is usually killed by strangulation. The prey may also be killed by the lion enclosing the animal’s MOUTH and nostrils in its jaws; both methods causing suffocation! Smaller pray may simply be killed by a swipe of the lion’s paw. DOES this not give a great representation of the power we have in CHRIST as a UNITED body?

Hallelujah! I believe the enemy always COUNTERFEITS what God creates; we need to be vigilant and become the stalkers of the enemy; NOT the other way around.