"'The more you grow in grace, there are these moments where you become conscious of, 'That was me. That wasn't Christ. That was my action; that was me trusting my resources,' " explains Preacher Richard Jordan. "As soon as you realize that, you become aware of your own sinfulness; of the sin that dwells in ME. You become aware of what a long way you still have to go as a Believer.
"A quote from an old preacher I always remember is, 'The closer you get to the light the better you see the dirt.' The closer you get to 'It's Christ,' the more you realize, 'It's not me, because I don't have the capacity. I still have a long way to go and it seems like it's taking me forever to get there.'
"You become conscious of your pride, your impatience, your selfishness, your unrighteousness, your irritability, your laziness, your vanity, your complaining, your unbelief, your envy, your greed, your ingratitude. All those things, and you begin to see them in yourself, and you say, 'Woah.' That's what happened to Job.
"Those fiery dart are designed . . . I Timothy 4:2: 'Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.' Fire burns and it leaves scar tissue. It makes you insensitive. It kills the feeling. You become like Ephesians 4, 'past feeling.' You come to the place where you're insensitive to who you really are in Jesus Christ. That self-centeredness, that self-will, is an internal thing.
"Satan is literally seeking to get you to identify yourself with him and not with the righteousness you have in Jesus Christ. These darts assault you so you think of yourself more in the light of who you were in Adam than who you are in Christ--more when you were under the power of darkness than in the kingdom of His dear Son. That's the goal of these fiery darts.
"The shield against that is the constant, personal application of the truth of God's grace to you in Jesus Christ. You say, 'This isn't really who I am; it's the transformed life I have in Christ that's the real issue.'
"How can you say, 'I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live'? The way you say it is by faith. God's Word says that's the reality of who you are. The shield of faith says, 'This is my real identity; not the actions of me, the actions of Christ. Not my faithfulness, or lack of it, but His faithfulness.'
"The shield, the protection, is me trusting who He is and who He's made me in Him, and then personally applying that to my life in whatever the circumstance or situation I'm in. By the way, that transforms your view of the circumstances and situations, because now they're opportunities for your faith to trust who God has made you. They're growing moments.
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"The only one of the 10 Commandments that is not visibly obvious to the sight is covetousness. Everything else, you see whether you're doing them or not by watching your conduct. Covetousness is something in the heart; it's something you can't see. What Paul realized is, 'It's not what I'm doing; it's who I am.'
"Paul writes in Romans 7:8: [8] But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
[9] For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
[10] And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
[11] For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
"All of a sudden sin is alive because there's something down inside of me. You can put a guy in handcuffs and he can't murder or steal, but you didn't deal with what's down in the heart.
"Paul said, 'I discovered there's something down inside of me that's crooked, that's sinful, that works all kind of sinful thing.'
"Here's the conclusion. Verse 14: [14] For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
[15] For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
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"A constant struggle Believers have is to apply the truth of God's Word in denying ungodliness and worldly lust and living soberly, righteously, godly.
"The struggle is do what faith does, do what God says, regardless of our opinion or viewpoint about it, our emotions, our ego, our desires, our reasonings. What preachers call the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 says in verse 6: [6] But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
"When you think about your faith in God's Word, your persuasion that God's Word is true, your confidence that it is, your Christian life will never be a life that is well-pleasing to God except it be a life lived by faith. You must understand that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; it's more than just believing God exists.
"People ask the question, 'Can God really help me in my life? Can He really work to transform my life? If I trust Him, will it really pay off? Is there a payoff for trusting Him?'
"That's what faith is; it's what produces the reward of God working in your life. The transformation is in our faith trusting what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us as it's revealed in His Word.
"Faith and discouragement are polar opposites. They don't exist together. The attempt of the Adversary to discourage someone comes about with the assault of the fiery darts.
"It's easy when you're talking to other people to say, 'Here's what the Bible says,' but what happens when it comes to you?
"Galatians 2:20 says, [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
"What you have to do to lay hold on eternal life--get a grip on the life God's given you in Christ--is come through some of these 'not I' moments, where you realize again what you realized when you got saved. You said, 'I can't do it.' You were conscious of your sinfulness, failure, bankruptcy, brokenness. You said, 'Lord, I can't; I'll trust you because YOU can.' "
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