Count It All Joy

James 1:1-3
After salvation, there is a period in a young Christians spiritual life where God places a hedge of protection around them. This gives the new convert time to grow spiritually, and get ready for the battles ahead.
At a certain point, God eventually removes this barrier. Almost like a mamma bird trying to help her babies learn to fly. When we are spiritually “reborn”, God keeps us in His nest of safety. However, we’ve got to get out of the nest sooner or later.
When this happens, we become members of the Army of God. We soon realize what team we’re on. When you bend your knees and bow your head in repentance to God, you have just picked your side. You personally realize that you have waged war on Hell. Now you’ve got to fight!
Ephesians 6:12- We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and rulers of darkness. This verse suggests a spiritual turmoil that is going to come our way eventually.
James 1:2- When the fight comes, count it all joy. Be happy for it. This is God’s way of making us stronger Christians.
My Dad taught me how to fish. He catches upwards of 1000 Bass every year. The man can fish. Ben Franklin said, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
This battle is God’s way of teaching us how to defeat the enemy! Not just in this trial, but the next one as well. So we should count it joy when we fall into spiritual hardships because God has shown an interest in us to make us better. However, when most Christians today go through trials, it tends to make them bitter instead of better. They are not counting the joyful factor. Remember this…those Christians whom God can use the most, are those whom God has bruised the most.
Resistance- This coupled with our faith makes us stronger. Example: Bodybuilding is based on the principle of resistance; the more the weight, the more the resistance, and the more the resistance, the more the muscles develop. Competition weight lifters welcome resistance. In fact, they keep increasing it to push their strength to the limit.
The trials that we go through are stepping stones to build our faith. Accept them as a challenge to the practice of your faith. Spiritual resistance is spiritual bodybuilding.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
The word resistance means, “to stand against”. The greek term of resist is “antihistemi”, the English translation of this word is “antihistamine”. An antihistamine is medication that helps us “stand against” the symptoms of illness.
The enemy will either destroy you or test your spiritual skills. If you give in to him, he will devour you. If you resist him, he will flee from you.
Count it all joy! This trial that you’re going through is not going to destroy you. We are more than conqueres through Christ Jesus! Resist the Devil!
Another word for resist is the word restrain, and a synonym of restrain means, “to bind”. When you resist the devil, you restrain him, and when you restrain him, you bind him. I’m not trying to preach a Do-It-Yourself message. You have to understand that only through the power that is within you, can you turn the tables on the enemy. Paul is famous for saying, “Not I, but Christ.” He knew that within himself he could do nothing. That goes back to the human notion in every one of us that tries to take a problem and fix it on our own.
Zechariah 4:6- Only by the power of God and our authority in Jesus are we able to resist and overcome the situations that we’re going through. The mountains of life, and the strongholds of our spiritual enemies are removed! Count it all joy! This battle is not yours, it’s the Lord’s!
I’ve heard this message preached many different ways, however, the same problem is prevalent in every case:
1. The devil has besieged you.
2. It looks like there is no way out of the situation that you’re in.
3. You are so discouraged you don’t know what to do.
James 5:16b- God lets us go through trials so we can exercise our faith. Faith is not something you have after the battle is over, but faith is something you build right in the middle of the fire! Faith is not you waiting on an outcome where you don’t know what the end result will be. The prayer of faith discerns God’s will and perseveres until that desired outcome is accomplished. I’m here to tell you and encourage you that no matter how you decide to fight your battle, God is with you. He said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you…” God has heard your cry in the night and joy is going to come in the morning!
Count it all joy! God will never leave you!
Count it all joy! God will never forsake you!
Count it all joy! God said He would go with you all the way!
The trial- How long does it last? A day, week, month, or year even? Why is there no specified timeframe when we first enter in our trial?
The promise- 1 Corinthians 10:13
You have to realize that you’re not going to get through this on your own! The best way to resist the enemy in your trial is to fight by letting go of everything that seems natural for you to do, and take a step back and let God do the fighting for you! 1 Corinthians 10:13 already said that you were going to come out victorious! God’s not going to let you go into something just so you can get bitter and backslide! That’s the enemy talking to you!
Understand This: Satan knows that you already have a way out. He knows that God has made a way for you to escape! But his job is to keep you thinking about everything around you, and letting you worry about something that you should have already given to God! His job is to keep you from submitting so you cant resist him. The very moment when you believe that you’re going to come out a winner, is the moment when you start resisting the devil! And that’s the very moment you start binding the devil! So believe on God! Believe that He is a rewarder to them that diligently seek Him!
Crawl out of that corner that the devil has you backed up into and pick yourself up and dust yourself off, because the battle is not yours it’s the Lords! Take the chain of doubt that Satan has you tied up with and resist him! Bind him hand and foot with the very problem that your facing and tell him that you have just started to count it all joy! This thing you’re going through, Satan meant it for evil, but God made it good! Count it all joy when you fall into the hands of the enemy! Devil you can’t stop me, and you can’t hold me back! I’m gonna get my breakthrough in the name of Jesus! I’m going to win this battle if I have to fight you tooth and nail! If I have to crawl to the altar, I’m gonna get it because God has made a way for me to get out of this! Devil you can’t stop me! I resist you right now in the name of Jesus!