Day Nine: Expect Sifting

March 12, 2014

Day Nine

Chapter  11:  Expect Sifting

Luke 22:31-32

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

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Jesus knows Satan will do everything in his power to keep Christians from working with Him to rescue people out of Satan’s evil kingdom.  He wills us any diabolical tactic necessary to sift us in order to render us ineffective in our battle for souls.

Jesus, the very Son of God, also is praying up in heaven while we fight our battle with Satan down here on earth.

Jesus is praying because He knows we are just as vulnerable to Satan’s attacks as His disciple Peter was.  He knows Satan is sifting His followers today—just as much as Peter. 

What is “sifting”?  It is those difficulties caused by Satan to rob Christians of their power and effectiveness in their work for Jesus.  Those problems Satan brings that make us useless in our battling him for souls for Jesus.

There are many different ways that Satan sifts Christians today.  Some methods are drastic, some are seemingly mild. 

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How does “sifting like wheat” feel to us today?   Like the little grain in Jesus day, we are violently tossed until it is impossible to keep our feet on the ground, flung mercilessly at the will of Satan. 

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We must realize that the more earnest and the more effective we become in helping lost people get transferred out of Satan’s diabolical kingdom, the more nervous Satan will become.  And the more nervous, the more he will concentrate his activities on sifting us.  And the more he sifts us, the harder it becomes to keep effective in our winning souls out of his kingdom of darkness into Jesus’ kingdom.

Hence, also, He (Jesus) is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.   (Hebrews 7:25)

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Jesus, the One who can –and will—keep our faith from failing when Satan sifts us!

Wow, this is truly opening my eyes.  I can now see that Satan has been out to destroy me.  Who knows maybe even with the events in my son’s life that has taken the wind out of my sails?  If I continue in the direction that I am Satan, could win.  I have started a ministry, been writing Bible Journeys with God, I have my second book about ready to be published.  Wow, I have never really thought about Satan out there trying to destroy me.  I just thought of everything that has been going on, as life.

I cannot let him win.  I have told my partners in the work that I have been doing that I will not move forward until we have a prayer team in place.  Actually, many years ago this was Evelyn’s advice to me.  “You need to get a prayer team in place.”  I have tried several times, but it just has not happened.  So this is going to be my daily prayer. 

Dear God,

If you want me to continue speaking, writing and sharing Jesus with others, please raise up a prayer team.  If that does not happen, I will put everything on the back burner until that door opens.  I do not have the strength to fight the battles alone.  It is in your hands God.

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And Astoundingly, God turns all our hard things, including Satan’s siftings, into our good because we love Him and are called according to His purpose.  (See Romans 8:28)  Although Satan intends them for harm and destruction, God uses them to firm up our faith, teach us lessons,  help others, make us more Christlike and equip us for future battles with Satan.