New Life Christian Fellowship Church - How to Set Your Will in Tough Times

In Everyone's life, there will be tests. Being a Christian does not make anyone exempt from trials. The difference in trials when you are a Christian (believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior) is we have the ability to overcome every trial, every situation, and every attack of the enemy (satan and demonic influences); the ability is on the inside of us and this ability is through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Trials and tribulations do not come to make you strong. Many people go through a plethora of tribulations and they are still not strong. When trials and tribulations come, understand, and know, they do not come just to test you. Trials and tribulations have the ability to produce character on the inside of you; fortitude, the willingness to stand still and know that God is God; it is the ability to overcome with Joy. It is the ability to be under pressure yet, no one can identify you are under pressure, because you have set your mind, your will, and your trust and faith on the LORD!

James 1:2-8
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Therefore, when you go to God, ask for wisdom by faith, and understand doubt can limit your faith. According to the bible, a double-minded person will not receive anything from the Lord. Doubt hinders faith!

I John 5:4
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Your faith can overcome everything that comes against you. So how do you get faith? Once you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, God gives all man a measure of faith.

There are several types of tests that you will face:

1) Situational tests; these are situations that occur or come about that you did not cause, had no control over, and are occurring as a trial or circumstance in your life. For example, fluctuations in the economy, friends or family member needing help, needed repairs, etc.

2) Sovereign tests; these come from God and are not designed to destroy you, but are designed to draw out the potential that is on the inside of you.

3) Satanic tests; these come from the devil and demonic influences and they comes as tribulations and adversities and you are willing give up in the midst of it. In other words, you submit your will to the tribulation or attack and willingly forfeit utilizing the power of your faith.

So would you like to know the schemes of the devil, and how his craftiness is affecting too many people so you can prepare yourself with God's counter attack provided for his people?

Several attacks that will come:

1) Doubt;
When you doubt God, you deny He is able to handle your situation, you deny He is able to take care of you; you deny He is God in your life. Even if you do not say this is the case for you, when you doubt, your actions will show this is so for you.

Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

2) Confusion about your identity;
If you do not know who you are, you will try to be something that you are not. Therefore, the devil will attack your identity in Christ Jesus by saying things like "you're not really saved!" Why does this matter? If you do not know who you are and do not know the God that you serve, you cannot have faith in God. You cannot have faith in what you do not know!

The devil will attempt to cause you to question who you are.

Genesis 3:1-3
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

When you are under attack or in trials or tribulation, do not forget who you are and that you belong to God. You are wonderfully made in His image and are predestined to prosper in life!

Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

3) Prosperity;
The devil will attempt to attack, steal, kill, or destroy the things that he feel or believe you love more than God, like your prosperity. In other words, the devil will attack your finances, your peace, your possessions, your family your health, or your integrity, and your character.

Job 1:6-11
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?”
So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

9 So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

But know and understand this people of God.

Mark 10:29-31
29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Therefore, no matter what the devil attempts to bring your way, no matter the situation or circumstance (be it finances, family, or health concerns), Know that Jehovah Jireh is your provider and He is always there. Jehovah Rapha is the healer of health and troubles, therefore, we walk by faith and not by sight; knowing that God is God and that He is thinking of us!

Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

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