HE CAME TO DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE ENEMY

 

You overcome by the blood of Jesus, speaking the word of your testimony, and loving Jesus more than yourself.

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He Came to Destroy the Works of the Enemy

If We Faint Not

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

—Galatians 6:9

Hebrews 12:3 states, "For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." The King James Version puts it as, "lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." The term "consider" means to study, ponder, deliberate, examine, and meditate upon. To prevent ourselves from becoming weary and faint in our minds, we should intentionally consider and meditate on Jesus.

The Greek word "ekluo," which is translated as "faint" in Galatians 6:9 and Hebrews 12:3, actually means "to relax." This term does not refer to completely giving up; rather, it emphasizes the need to maintain the same level of intensity over an extended period of time. In other words, we need to practice patience.

Galatians 6:9 tells us not to become weary because one day we will reap. No one becomes weary instantly; weariness develops over time. The principle of sowing and reaping takes time to unfold. There is a "due season" when our harvest arrives, and we must maintain our faith until that time.  Weariness begins in our minds. Those who feel weary have often been thinking incorrectly. It's not the external events that cause our reactions; rather, it's our thoughts about what happens to us that determine our success or failure (Proverbs 23:7). To remain faithful during the growing season until our harvest arrives, we must win the battle over our thoughts.

The phrase "due season" signifies that there is an appointed time for our harvest to be ready. Farmers do not plant their crops one day and reap the next; it takes time for the seeds to germinate and mature. Similarly, spiritual seeds require time to grow. Those who do not understand this may become frustrated when they sow a seed and do not see an immediate return. All seeds—whether spiritual or physical—need to be planted well in advance of when they are needed. Just as farmers plant in the spring to harvest in the fall, we must also plan ahead when sowing spiritual seeds.

The promise of reaping is conditional upon our not fainting. Weariness is often the result of losing the battle over our thoughts. Many people may still appear to believe in God, but have given up mentally. They may deceive others, but "God is not mocked" (Galatians 6:7). The Lord examines their hearts (1 Samuel 16:7) and knows their innermost thoughts. 

Hebrews 12:3 offers us a remedy for weariness and discouragement: we must consider Jesus. He experienced more rejection and injustice than any of us ever will. Yet, He didn't just survive; He thrived. He even extended forgiveness to those who were crucifying Him. If He could do that, we can too, by following the guidance found in these verses. We shouldn't focus on the pain but rather on the promise that lies beyond it. By looking toward the prize to be gained instead of the race that needs to be run, we can endure just as Jesus did.

Have you compared the suffering Jesus endured to what you are enduring now?  In comparison, our problems are insignificant. Therefore, we can encourage ourselves with the certainty that just as Jesus prevailed, we too will prevail if we do not lose heart.

www.lynnlacher.com/2025/07/if-we-faint-not.html

Exalting Jesus

Is it challenging to express yourself in worship to God? Do you raise your arms and openly worship the Lord, or do you feel self-conscious and hesitate to worship in the presence of others?

On the final night of His earthly ministry in the upper room, Jesus taught His disciples about the Holy Spirit and His various roles. One key point Jesus emphasized was that the Holy Spirit would exalt Him. In John 16:14, Jesus said, "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

The Greek word "doxadro," used in John 16:14 to mean "glorify" can be translated as exalting, praising, magnifying, worshipping, honoring, and giving adoration. Jesus indicated to the disciples that one of the Holy Spirit’s most significant roles is to magnify, glorify, and worship Him, exalting His name above all others (Philippians 2:9). The Holy Spirit doesn’t seek attention for Himself; rather, He guides us towards Jesus and leads us into a place of joyful worship of our Lord.

The Holy Spirit cannot glorify Jesus without using a vessel through which He can work. You are that vessel because He lives in you. He glorifies Jesus through you by leading those who don't know Jesus to Him, healing others, casting out demons, helping believers develop a profound understanding and relationship with Him, and in many other ways. One of the most effective and wonderful ways the Spirit glorifies Jesus is when your heart overflows with joy, your hands are raised in praise, and your entire being is filled with worship for the Lord Jesus.

The Holy Spirit desires to magnify the presence of Jesus in every aspect of your life, including your actions and relationships. He wants you to consistently proclaim the name of Jesus. When the Holy Spirit is free to work within you, you will naturally glorify Jesus. By granting the Holy Spirit complete access in your life, you will find yourself, without hesitation or worry, freely raising your hands and praising His name. In worshiping and honoring Jesus, you may become completely unaware of anyone else's presence around you. Your sole focus will be on Jesus, with no concern for yourself.

The Holy Spirit's main purpose is to reveal Jesus to you and lead you into a deeper experience of Him. He is waiting for you to surrender and embrace this journey. If you’ve struggled with worship in the past, invite the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus through you. Ask Him to remove self-consciousness and help you worship authentically, free from judgment and reservation.

You are an instrument through which the Holy Spirit magnifies and exalts Jesus Christ. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, you are free (2 Corinthians 3:17). Inhibitions have no place in your worship. You are free to express your adoration and love for Jesus, the One who is higher than all others and whose name is exalted above every other name. Do you worship in that freedom?

The Holy Spirit wants to declare Jesus to you. He wants you to experience Him. Simply surrender to Him and witness the change He can bring within you. Take a moment, when no one is watching, and raise your arms to begin praising Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill you and take you into a place of worship that you have never experienced before. He is with you right now, eagerly waiting for you to let go and embrace the spiritual wonder of His presence.

www.lynnlacher.com/2025/07/exalting-jesus.html

Exchange Your Old List for His New Life

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

—Isaiah 61:3 NLT

 

There are many things in this world that evoke sorrow, including death, sickness, pain, loss, and loneliness. The list is endless and can be overwhelming. However, only Jesus can break the cycle of suffering. His grace, which transcends our sin and brokenness, offers us unconditional love and healing. 

 

Jesus replaces the ashes of life with His righteousness, transforming grief into joyous blessings and despair into praise. He is the answer to the endless list of things that plague you. Jesus desires to be sown into your life, enabling you to stand strong as an oak for His glory.

 

Is this your experience? Joy amidst the world’s pain? Peace, regardless of your circumstances? Forgiveness, even in the face of hurt? You received Jesus by faith, but has the incorruptible seed of His Word taken root and flourished? Have you embraced His understanding instead of your own? Until you have spiritually grown, your roots will provide little strength and fail to anchor you. Joy will remain elusive, and fear and anger will be your responses to sudden problems and those who challenge your circumstantial peace. If you refuse to allow the love of Jesus to transform your life—if you refuse to let the Holy Spirit illuminate the new life you have received—the things on this list will dominate your existence instead of His peace.

 

In the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read Isaiah 61, revealing Himself as the prophesied One. However, they rejected Him, and He performed little healing there because they didn’t believe in Him (Luke 4:16-30, Mark 4:5). The Holy Spirit speaks the truth about Jesus’ identity in our lives. Do we believe Him, or do we reject Him with our unbelief? Jesus affirms that all things are possible to those who believe (Mark 9:23). When we fail to spiritually grow and believe in what we’ve received, we limit Jesus’ healing power in our lives.  

When the Word comes alive and you believe it in your heart, you receive it (Mark 11:24), but may not physically experience it. Your belief can manifest as your reality in a matter of moments, or it may take a long time. But when the seed of God’s Word continually finds fertile ground in your heart, you will witness its tangible truth. The Word reproduces itself within you. You possess a new list of joy, peace, love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), eagerly awaiting the harvesting of your faith.

 

If your heart is hardened by unbelief, the Holy Spirit is ready to awaken your heart to Jesus’ sanctifying healing of spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Jesus’ healing is not fragmented or broken; it restores the entire man. By His stripes, you were healed over 2000 years ago (1 Peter 2:24). He completed a finished work. When you believe until you know without a doubt that it is yours, you enter into His finished work of healing grace.

 

Is your heart hardened to God’s peace and joy? If you’re still grappling with fear, loss, illness, and other destructive forces, Jesus came to heal you from them (Psalm 107:20). Only the grace of Jesus can awaken a hardened heart. However, you must nurture His Word in your heart and shield it from the lies of the enemy and the emotional upheavals of your circumstances. By seeking His new life of righteousness to be your reality, you can experience true healing and transformation.

 

Believe who Jesus says He is in your life. Receive His truth even though His truth isn’t seen, felt, or experienced. Jesus cursed the fig tree, and its roots died immediately. But its death was not visible to the disciples until later (Mark 11:20-22). Jesus speaks life and healing to you, even though the visible evidence may not be experienced until much later. It is up to you to plant God’s truth in your heart and nourish it until it becomes your reality.

 

Are you tired of being tired? Exchange your old list for the truth of His new life.

 

You shall be strong, secure, and unshakable. You shall walk in healing, not bitterness, hurt, and pain. You shall rejoice in the God of your salvation. No weapon of unbelief that comes against you shall prosper. You shall speak death to every lie that comes against the truth of the new life Jesus has given you. This is your heritage in Jesus, and your righteousness is from Him (Isaiah 54:17). You shall be as a great oak, bringing forth His glory in due season.

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2025/07/exchange-your-old-list-for-his-new-life.html

This is God's Abundant Life

 

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

—John 10:10

 

 

If you sow a seed, you reap a plant with more seeds. And if you keep sowing all those seeds, you will reap a harvest. The same is true in the spiritual realm. If you sow the seed of God’s Word, you will reap the abundant harvest of its truth.

Abundance is in the incorruptible seed of God’s Word that gave you new life (1 Peter 1:23). 

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

 

In 2 Corinthians 9:6, Paul applies this same truth to giving: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).

 

Paul compares resources and money to a seed. What does a seed do? It produces a harvest based on the amount of seed sown. And what is the harvest? The harvest is God’s grace “abounding toward you,” giving you sufficiency in all things to do more good works. 

 

Grace is God’s provision for man’s every need—for his spirit, soul, and body. Grace exists for every man to receive through faith, but not everyone walks in His abounding grace. Not all walk in God’s sufficiency or abundance. 

 

What is the reason? Because he who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. 

 

God’s grace is in the seed we sow. God’s abundance is in the seed. Whatever seeds we sow right now will include the abundance of our future harvest. You can sow seeds of forgiveness, compassion, wisdom, time, service, and resources. These seeds are the “fruits of righteousness” from our new birth in Christ.

 

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God” (2 Corinthians 9:10-11).

 

The Lord multiplies the seeds we sow and increases the “fruits of our righteousness.” His blessings on the seeds we sow can be realized in many ways. Favor with other people, greater opportunities in ministry and life, the Spirit giving us new ideas, and even unexpected financial blessings can all be part of His harvest. But “sowing seeds” is not a formula. Sowing seeds is a lifestyle. Some harvests don’t take a long time, while others take years. We inherit God’s promises by faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12). In due time, we will reap if we don’t grow weary (Galatians 6:9).

 

Our sowing will become consistent when our giving comes from God, prospering in our lives. When we firmly believe in the truth of God’s unconditional love, His love consistently abounds within us. The Holy Spirit comes before the flesh and leads us to what is good. We have compassion for others. We love because God first loved us. We serve because Jesus served us. We give because Jesus gave His life for us. As we spiritually prosper, submitting ourselves to God, we receive more grace. Our giving will grow consistently, and our harvests will become more frequent. All of God’s grace—all of His provision—will abound toward us. God will supply our needs and even more for every good work. God makes “all grace abound toward you” so you may prosper in every good work.

 

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

 

The Lord wants you to prosper in all things, just as your soul spiritually prospers. “All” of God’s grace is yours to prosper in “all” things. In health. In your need. In your circumstance. Our lifestyle is to sow seeds and give as we have freely received. We prosper to prosper others. We are blessed to bless others. 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:7-9).

 

When we truly “know” the love of God that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we live to give, and our hope for our harvest does not disappoint (Romans 5:5). As we sow seeds of love and compassion, we freely receive. God’s abundance to live and give continues on and on. We are at home in God’s heart. This is His abundant life! This is His true grace!

 

 

 

Give God A Chance

And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

—Luke 21:26

Does your heart fail because of the things that might come? We can see the events unfolding in this world and realize that we are living in the last of the final days. The Bible speaks of the final judgments that will be poured out upon the earth, but it also tells us that Jesus will remove His believers from this world and take us to heaven. We may live in a harsh and sinful world, but we don’t have to fear what we face now or what might come later. We have the perfect love of Jesus that casts out fear’s torment. Fear and faith cannot coexist; one will be greater than the other. We either succumb to fear or live in the victory that only faith in Jesus Christ brings.

Many believers fail to put their faith in Jesus and are instead distracted by the world’s deception, dread, and doubt. Some struggle with anxiety, depression, and despair, their hearts failing them due to their present circumstances and causing them to expect loss. Many live in fear of their situations, not just of what might come. A life of fearful defeat should not be the condition of any believer. We have no reason to fear what is happening right now in this world or what lies ahead; this should not be a time of hopelessness but of triumph. 

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14).

Paul asserts in this verse that Christ allows us to share in His triumphant success. Our faith is Jesus’s gift to us, enabling us to envision His victory and walk in it. Christians, above all others in this world, should experience the joy of the Lord, the peace that surpasses human comprehension, and the unwavering faith in Christ’s absolute triumph.

“As he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).  What you think about—what your mind dwells on—shapes the perceptions and beliefs you nurture in your heart. Negative expectations and attitudes lead to misfortune, while positive expectations lead to blessings. You must “keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). 

If you fixate on the news, the economy, wars, politics, and disasters, you inadvertently invite the spiritual forces of darkness into your life. However, if you meditate on God’s promises, His goodness, and His triumphant love that was poured out on the cross for you, you prepare your heart for victory, regardless of the circumstances.

The plan you have for your life reflects your faith and the future’s possibilities. What are your expectations? What do you see and believe in your heart? Do you see victory or failure? Do you see promise or hopelessness? No matter how much time you have left on this earth, don’t lose hope! Jesus came to give you an abundant life, regardless of your circumstances or the world’s. Jesus’ agony was for your restoration. His resurrection was for your victory. Life isn’t meant to be half empty! Life is meant to be overflowing in Him! Honor Him. Plan for life, health, success, blessings, and victory! Give God a chance.

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalms 27:13).

www.lynnlacher.com/2025/07/give-god-chance.html

Turning the Other Cheek

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;

    my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.

He is my shield, the power that saves me,

    and my place of safety.

—Psalm 18:2

If you believe that the Lord is your Savior and protector, why would you ever attempt to protect yourself? Wouldn’t you rather have God defend you?

“But I tell you not to resist an evil person,” Jesus said. “But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:39).

In this verse, Jesus presents us with a choice: to resist evil words or actions directed at us by turning the other cheek. Instead of succumbing to our offender’s abuse, turning the other cheek is a way for the Lord to become our defender. By allowing the Lord to defend us, we are surrendering to our Savior, our Rock, and the power that saves us, rather than giving the offense the power to disarm us.

Some people believe that Jesus’ instruction to turn the other cheek gives others the right to exploit them. Yes, this would be true if there were no God. But we have a Savior who has graced us with His forgiveness and goodness despite our sins. When responding to an offense with kindness (Matthew 5:39-42, Romans 12:20), we overcome evil with God's goodness (Romans 12:21). We yield to God's right to defend us.

Paul wrote in Romans 12:19, “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, ‘I will take revenge; I will pay them back,’ says the Lord.” When we follow Jesus’ instruction to turn the other cheek, we honor God’s right to avenge evil, and He defends us.

Never retaliate with evil; you’ll have no defense against it because you’re drawing on your own resources. However, when we turn the other cheek, we allow God to be our defense. Once we comprehend that God’s strength is the most powerful option, it becomes evident that “turning the other cheek” is for our own benefit.

“For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

Human anger can never produce the righteousness that God desires. Regardless of how justified your anger may seem or how you believe it could alter a person or situation, it never yields the most favorable outcome for either the other person or yourself.

Either God defends us or we defend ourselves. We cannot have it both ways. When we defend ourselves, we hinder God’s ability to defend us. By turning the other cheek to those who harm us, we release the power of God on our behalf. We are exercising the authority He has entrusted to us by choosing His strength over our own.

Turning the other cheek is about being submissive to God, rather than submitting to the control of another person. It is God being defiant in you. Humility is a powerful force in the face of persecution. When all your pride rails against your offender, turn the other cheek. By doing so, you surrender to the very power that saved you. God defends you.

The Lord your God is He who fights for you, just as He has promised you (Joshua 23:10b).

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