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Much More than Emeralds
Victoria Boyson
www.victoriaboyson.com
The next four years will be extremely strategic for the church and the glory of God will be poured out through key ministries and churches. Those who have endured a season of pruning, persecution and fire will bear the marks of His handiwork as He has shaped, fashioned and hammered them into a masterpiece suited to hold His glorious power. For those who have been slandered and persecuted, it will be a season of VINDICATION. For the Lord, it will begin His season of REVENGE upon His enemies. For the rest, now is the time to take account of ourselves and prepare for His outpouring and Holy Fire. You are very precious to the Lord and He's giving you time to align your life with His.
Love and blessings, Victoria Boyson
Much More Than Emeralds
If you owned a 20 karat emerald, brilliantly flawless, an extraordinary treasure, would you go to Wal-mart and leave it in the restroom, expecting it to be safe?
Of course not!
That's a pretty silly thing to ask, isn't it?
A valuable treasure like that would need to be kept under lock and key, and worn out only for special occasions, in safe places. If you owned such a treasure, you
would go to great lengths to protect it, providing the needed security in your home - a safe and alarm system perhaps.
You would do whatever is necessary to keep the emerald safe, with a clear understanding that
owning a priceless treasure is a responsibility. You would anticipate the fact that, due to its value, thieves would naturally try to steal it from you and you would guard against it.
James 1:18 says, "...we,
out of all creation, became his prized possession."
In the Father's eyes, you are much more valuable than a 50 karat emerald. Truly, "out of all creation," you are what He treasures the
most.
If you really understood how much you meant to the Father, that He truly regards you as His greatest treasure, you would seek to guard your life. Moreso because you are valuable in His eyes even if you cannot
see why He would prize you so highly. You would not leave His treasure vulnerable to the thieves who would like to take advantage of any act of carelessness on your part.
In guarding the Lord's treasure, of
course you would take the greatest precaution to guard doors and gates the enemy might use to gain assess. You would install spiritual security alarms to warn of an intruder trying to gain access to His treasure. You would
do whatever it takes to guard it. Amen?
Yet, I see so many Christians open doors to the enemy on purpose, giving him access to their soul - God's greatest treasure.
Worldliness has attempted to become a
trend in the church, using the blood of Christ like a paper towel to clean up the mess it creates in our lives. Yet, the blood was never intended to be an open door to sin, but deliverance from it (James 4:6).
Demonic Cons
Another con the enemy attempts against us is in trying to get us to cast out a demonic stronghold with another demonic stronghold. For example, in an attempt to fight against what they're convinced
is a spirit of legalism, I see many in the church open doors to worldliness and sin.
It isn't that God hates sin because He is just too holy to handle it. He hates sin because of what it does to His treasure. He
hates it because it really does bring along judgment that devastates our lives. It negates our testimony and blinds us to the toll it takes on our heart and mind.
The enemy is subtle enough to bypass your defenses.
To get at the treasure in your heart, he will sneak into your mind through lofty reasonings that cause you to allow things in that you would not ordinarily allow. Believing you are more enlightened than those you consider
to be legalistic, you open yourself up to pride and pride has many demon-friends who are anxious to violate God's treasure.
Seeing full well the value God sets on your soul, the enemy even sets up protective
barricades (strongholds) in your mind that will guard against any heavenly wisdom trying to warn you of impending danger. You can actually end up defending the enemy's invasion in your life whilst you fight against
those who could be of help to you.
Sadly, I've heard ministers fight for their right to be worldly, using their pulpits to promote worldly entertainment that is a blatant compromise with sin, saying that if those
in their congregation refuse to watch secular entertainment, they need to be delivered of a religious spirit! Doesn't the Bible say, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and
light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter," Isaiah 5:20? The end result of that argument is his congregants will have to compromise their conscience in order to get their pastor's approval.
Ridiculous!
Maybe you think your sin isn't too bad and think it's only entertainment, right? You only WATCH idolatry and fornication, you're not actually doing it. Those are the lies of the enemy trying
to destroy your life. They come as angels of light, demons trying to con you into thinking its all just innocent fun. However, the Lord said, "I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her (even in
entertainment) has already committed adultery with her in his heart," Matthew 5:28. Jesus did not shed His blood to give us a license to sin. He requires even greater holiness, because to whom much is given, much is
required (Luke 12:48). We have been given much through the blood of Jesus and because of what we've been given, much is expected from us. Because of Jesus we are capable of greater holiness than those who lived before
Him. If God made a way for our holiness, we should take advantage of it and going along with the trends of the world is no excuse.
Jesus is at war with our sin, and He paid for our deliverance from it with His own
blood. If Jesus is at war against our sin and paid such a high price to set us free, why don't we hate it as much as He does? If we follow Christ we should hate what He hates and love what He loves. For truly,
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas." Hebrews 13:8-9. Whatsoever things are pure and of a good report (Philippians 4:8), think, dwell and look to
those things and don't dig in the devil's trash for entertainment at the expense of your soul.
Religious Cons
Years ago, I had friends who left a church because the leaders encouraged their people
to drink beer in order to get rid of any legalistic spirits they had. What nonsense! It is foolish to think you can cast out a demon with another demon. The flesh has no power to cast out the flesh! If you open the door to
foolish theologies, where will it end? History has shown us that human depravity can easily mask itself as nobility and give way to all sorts of destructive ideologies.
God's Word tells us that we reveal our
faith and our relationship with Christ through our deeds (James 2:18-26). We show our faith to the world through our actions, but if our actions are the same as the world's, they will see the truth about our lives even
if we do not. They will perceive through our actions that our Christianity is not real, they will conclude we are not what we say we are. By merely talking and not walking out what we say we believe, we've become
hearers and not doers of God's Words.
What we risk by our lukewarmness is our effectiveness at reaching the lost, and those who are looking for truth will not find it in us. If they cannot find God in us through
our actions, they will either stop looking, believing truth does not exist or will look else where for the truth about God and, believe me, the enemy has many counterfeits to attract them.
If we want to win the lost,
our lives must show our faithfulness, we must reveal Jesus by how we live. We won't win them by becoming hard-hearted or judgmental, but neither can we win them if we are heedlessly sinning, opening the door to the
enemy to destroy God's treasure.
Indeed, either scenario creates a disingenuous witness. Jesus promised us that the world would know we are His followers by our love (John 13:35), and if we truly love the Lord we
will obey Him (John 14:23); giving His truth more than lip service. We won't seek to rewrite His Word to justify our own sin, but will do as He warns and put on the whole armor of God (Ephesian 6:10-18) and take great
effort to protect God's great treasure - our heart.
If the Lord finds such immense delight in us, we should live our lives to give Him pleasure. Making this life a seed for the next instead of living only for
ourselves, we focus on our heavenly future with Him.
Simple Truths Bring Protection
Humility, wisdom and obedience are all wrapped up together, and those who seek God's favor will grab hold of these
mighty weapons. For, God gives His grace to the humble (James 4:6), not the proud who will not listen to wisdom or heed the warnings in the Word of God.
Pride seeks to justify our lives, but grace leans on the
salvation of the Lord. So, we must run to Him, seek His forgiveness for our sins, fight to close any doors we've opened and seek God's supernatural power deliver us from the snares of the enemy.
We must rely
on the blood of Jesus to wage war on our behalf against whatever access we've given to the enemy of our soul. "Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God
will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purity your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world." James 4:7-8.
Sin has never been trendy with God. No, that's just another con
the enemy has tried to trip us up with. Jesus befriended sinners, but they did not stay sinners after becoming His friend. Truly, He changed the lives of everyone who drew close to Him and gleaned from Him.
Sin is
still the enemy of God (James 4:4), because it hurts His kids so much. It causes devastation in our lives. So fight for the Father's greatest, most treasured possession - YOU!
Close the door to sin and put on the
full armor of God, taking every precaution to safe guard your soul. For the devil roams about seeking who he can devour (1 Peter 5:8). Mend your fences, restore your fortresses and fight with God's grace, and not
against it. Defend God's treasure, wage war on worldliness and seek His favor. You are worth fighting for!
You truly are a great treasure! All of heaven agrees that there is nothing in heaven or earth, not even a
50 karat emerald, that even comes close to the treasure you are. You are worth everything to your heavenly Father! "Christ in you, is the hope of glory..." 1 Colossians 3:27. So, value yourself enough to fight for
yourself and find your joy in GOD! He is simply delighted by you!
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NEW Book by Victoria Boyson