The majority of mankind throughout history have been thoroughly beaten by the devil day and night. This has been so because God's way to defeat the devil has not been followed by the majority. 

Here are three (3) ways to beat the devil that are stated in the bible. The first step is to surrender to God, James 4:7. When one surrenders to God they are in the position to take the next step, which is to be armed by God for war against the devil. Ephesians 6:10 - 18 tells us how to be armed. It tells us to be armed with the truth of God, righteousness in our hearts, living according to the gospel, exercising faith at all times, living in hope according to God's promises, confessing God's word in the power of the Holy Spirit and praying constantly through the Holy Spirit.  When one has surrendered to God and armed for war, the third step is to fight the devil and his agents through the weapons that have been stated in Ephesians 6:10 - 18.

The result of fighting will be; the devil will flee, according to James 4:7. Therefore, put the devil to flight. 

Romans 8:28 tells us, that God works everything for good to them that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Sometimes this seems hard to grasp. It does not seem to make sense in the light of what is happening to us and others in life. 

The life of Joseph as recorded in Genesis 37 - 50 did not seem to make sense at the beginning. His brothers were jealous of him because of his father's love for him and the dreams that God gave him concerning his future leadership of them. As a result they set out to destroy him.

First they put him into a pit with the intent to kill him. Then they changed their minds and sold him as a slave. He was taken to Egypt and was resold. God promoted him to become manager of his slave master's estate. His master's wife wanted to have an affair with him, but because of his love and commitment to God he refused and was lied on. As a result he was sentenced to prison falsely for attempting to rape her. God was with him and promoted him to be a superviser in prison. He used his gift of interpriting dreams to interprit the dreams of two of Pharaoh's servants that were in prison. Two years after that he was taken from prison to interprit Pharaoh's dreams. Pharaoh was so inpressed by his wisdom that he promoted him to be governor of Egypt.

Subsequently, there was a famine in the region and Joseph's position made him the savior of his father's household, the Jewish nation, through which Christ came. If Joseph was not in Egypt at the time probably his father's household would have starved to death. But God stragetically used all the evils done to Joseph to trained him and put him in a position of power to save His chosen people through which Christ came to save the world.

Truely, God works all things together for good to them that love Him. As you have seen, Joseph's love for God was demonstrated throughout his sufferings and God worked all things together for good for him.

Every human being is dependent on someone or something. When people are sick they depend on doctors and medications to help them. When we are hungry and thirsty we depend on food and water to satisfy them. If we want to travel to another country we depend on transportations to take us there. But behind all of these is an ultimate source. God is the source of everything we have and will ever have. 

The Apostle Paul tells us that Christ is the one who enables us to do all things. Christ is both the source and the means in everything in life that we need. He is the creator and the sustainer of all things. And He is the same yesterday, today and forever; so He changes not. How can we access what we need from Him? The bible says, it is through faith in God. The ones who have faith in God are discribed as the righteous. 

If we are going to make it in life in any area we must focus on Christ at all times. Like Peter, walking on the water, the moment we fail to trust in Jesus we begin to sink under the problems of life. But the moment we call on Jesus He rescues us. Let us believe and say like the Apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 (KJV).

Goethe says, "Tell me with whom thou art found, and I will tell thee who thou art." In like manner it is said, "Birds of a feather flock together." The company we choose are very revealing; it shows who we are in character whether good or bad. The bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:23, "Do not be misled: bad  company corrupts good character."

Evil friends and companies will influence one to become evil, consciously or sub-consciously. Righteous friends and companies will also influence one to become like them. If we want to be wise, full of faith, hope and love we must choose friends and companies with these characteristics. They influence us greatly to become like them.

Therefore, we should make God and Godly people our friends and we will become like them in thoughts, words and deeds. If your friends and companies are evil, give them up and choose righteous and Godly friends. DO IT WITHOUT DELAY!!

Putting God first is the most important thing that one should do. It will bring the most glory to God, which He requires. In fact God created all things for His glory. Yet God does not need glory because He is totally selfsufficient and lacks nothing. Since God lacks nothing, why does God want us to glorify Him? It is for our own good and the good of the world. Like one who throws a ball on a wall and it bounces back to him, so it is with glorifying God. Glorifying God has possitive boomerang effects on the one who glorifies Him. 

Many person wrongfully think, consciously or subconsciously, that when they give or surrender to God they are losing. So they are detered from committing themselves to God. But let me tell you, they are DEAD WRONG. The bible says, he that lose himself by surrendering to Christ will find himself. So by losing one's self he gains and by refusing to surrender one's self to God he loses.

God's perfect plan for us is to have life to the full, but the devils plan is to rob us of it, kill and destroy us, John 10:10. How can we prevent the devil from doing this and experience the full life that God has for us? Jesus answers the question: He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." All these things includes everything that will cause you to experience the life that Christ has for us in full. Therefore, PUT GOD FIRST.

To achieve success in anything in life requires perseverance. As the saying goes, "The race is not for the swift nor the battle for the strong, but for those who endure to the end."

Many have started out with great vigor and expectations for success but never continue, because they were not willing to do what was required until success came. It would be good to listen to the words of Bayard Taylor who said, "Those who would attain to any marked degree of excellence in a chosen pursuit must work, and work hard for it, prince or peasant." 

My encouragement to you is to find out what God wants you to do always and work at it through the power of God until it is accomplished.

The bible declares that God is absolutely good in nature, thoughts, words, and deeds. Everything He created was good and all things together were very good. So how did evil come into being? The bible tells us that God created angels and man with wills to choose and some angels and man chose to disobey Him and cause evil to come into being.

Even the French Philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau admits that "Everthing is good when it leaves the creator's hands; everything degenerates in the hands of man." 

The only way to clean up the evils of the world is through the redemption that comes through Christ as a result of His dying on a cross to pay for man's sins. Those who put their faith in what Christ did for them are forgiven of their sins and are made righteous by God. When Christ returns the second time He will eleminate from the world all those who refused to repent and become righteous and all those who repented and became righteous He will make perfect. He will make the entire world righteous again. 

If you want to be apart of that righteous world forever, you must repent in this world and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. DO IT NOW, IF YOU HAVE NOT!!!

The restoration of God's plan for sinful man is God's great purpose for each of us. If we fail to make use of God's provision for this, then we choose to exclude ourselves from participating in it forever. 

Romans 8:29, tells us that Jesus came to restore man to God's original purpose that is stated in Genesis 1:26 - 28, but restoration has been thwarted in the majority of mankind from Genesis 3 until now. The purpose of God is to restore man to image of Christ. This is the ultimate predestined purpose of the birth , life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit is to put into effect, in the lives of Christians, the benefits of the finished work of Christ that He accomplished for them. The Holy Spirit Helps Christians to duplicate on earth the priestly and kingly ministries that Christ has been executing at the Father's right hand in heaven. This will continue until the second coming of Christ to established on earth His everlasting kingdom.

LET GOD CONTINUE TO RESTORE THE IMAGE OF CHRIST IN YOU!! 

The men and women that God has used mightily in history had to be trained, tested and approved by Him. This is so because those whom God foreknew, predestinated, saved, and designated to reign over their respective domains must also be trained and appraised by Him. In other words, they must be called, competent, and committed to their God-ordained purpose, Romans 5:1 - 3; Romans 8:29 - 30.

"There are numerous biblical and other historical examples of this truth. For example, Joseph, Moses and David. Their life stories, as recorded in the bible, prove these points. To pass God's tests, one must possess knowledge, understanding, and wisdom imparted throgh revelation by the Spirit of God. These gifts are essentials, because God's testing methods often seem mysterious to natural reason. God's tests, the training and appraising of His chosen ones, are intended to help them comprehend His purpose, which entails developing a Godly character and enhancing God endowed competence. The purpose of these tests, in other words, is to qualify His chosen people to reign in their God-ordained domain." (Taken from Reign in You Domain, by Seaton D. Wilson)

Therefore, anyone who failed to be trained and appraised by God will never be able to reign in their domains that God has ordained for them. Their lives in history will be lived in failure rather than success. NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!

No leader can succeed if their followers put idolatrous trust in them. Since God has pronounced a curse on those who put their faith in man. Jeremiah 17:5 states"... Curse is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength..." 

It has been the practice of man throughtout history to put their trust in leaders rather than God. There is an interesting example in Judges 8:22 - 23 after God used the insignificant Gideon and his 300 hundred men to defeat approximately 135,000 Midianites soldiers and liberated Israel from slavery; the people instead of putting their trust in God, who used Gideon and his men to give them victory, immediately began to focus on Gideon the leader rather than God. Hear what the people said, in verse 22 "Rule over us - you, your son and your grandson- because you have saved us out of the hand of the Midianites." Notice their emphasis, "You have saved us".

This has been the crisis in world politics and all spheres of leadership, including the church. People have been focusing on the leaders that God has given them rather than God Himself. As a result, God's declaration in Jeremiah that "curse is the one that trust in man", has come through in their lives.

The crisis is increased when leaders accept the idolatrous focus given to them by their followers. They even go further, by giving the people more promises than they know they can fulfill. But true authentic leaders turn people away from themselves to God. 

Look how Gideon responded to the idolatrous Israelites in verse 23; "I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you." This should be the spirit and attitude of every leader to their followers who  want to put them in the place of God.

Leaders and followers who put their trust in man's ability rather than God's grace will certainly fail, because they are under the curse of God. FOCUS ON GOD, FOR HE IS THE ULTIMATE LEADER  AND HE BLESSES THOSE WHO PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM,as Jeremiah 17:7 says, "... Bless is the man who trusts in the Lord ..."