Ever trade something with someone only to realize that you didn’t gain anything in the trade? We hear a lot about that in the sports world, where teams make trades only to find out that they made a big mistake.
Take the Boston Red Sox decision, under new ownership, on January 5, 1920 to sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, for $125,000 and $300,000 in loans. The new owners wanted to show their prowess in the sports world, but this trade has become known as the most lopsided trade in baseball history.
While with the Yankees, Babe Ruth not only set home run records, but his popularity drew in so much revenue that the Yankees were able to build a brand new stadium in 1923. In the 15 years Babe was with the Yankees, he helped them win seven AL pennants and four World Series.
This trade became known as “the curse of the Bambino,” which followed the Boston Red Sox for 86 years until 2004 when they finally won their first World Series since they had won it in 1918.
The flesh drives bad trades
Genesis 25:29-34 gives us the story of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a pot of stew. Esau let his flesh rule him with hunger, which blinded him to what was really going on. He traded something of great value, his birthright and the eternal blessings that would go with it, for the temporary satisfaction of satisfying his present hunger.
The thing about his hunger is that it would come back later on in the day, as the satisfying of his hunger would only last for a little while. His birthright would have made provision for his hunger needs to be always met. In Genesis 27 we see Esau finally realizing the value of what he had sold to Jacob, but it was too late. He could not recover what he had given away.
His focus was on the temporary things of the flesh, not on the eternal things of God.
Beware today’s trade!
The devil is enticing you, driving you with fear, to align yourself with his thinking. This causes you to trade your freedom and authority in Christ over the devil for the control of your life to the devil-controlled government.
When you align with the devil, you are in fact submitting to him, and your authority over him is negated because you have come in agreement with his agenda. It is done one small loss of freedom at a time, until they add up to a total loss.
Like the Boston Red Sox trade of Babe Ruth, which they could not undo, once you make a trade with the devil and the government, you will not be able to undo the trade, unless God intervenes by His mercy.
It begins with being drawn to the wrong focus
The devil has drawn so many Christians to focus on the physical realm of this earth rather than on Jesus and the Kingdom of God, where our life really lies (Colossians 3:1&2).
The apostle Peter fell into this trap when Jesus called out to him to walk on the water. Jesus was trying to get him to take a walk of faith in His word, to walk in the Heavenly realm. And Peter was doing that until he took his focus off of the One who had called him and onto the turbulent circumstances that Jesus had called him to walk over.
The COVID 19 virus has put the fear of dying into a lot of people, even Christians, who have been delivered from the bondage of the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). Everyone is going to die – it’s a law of God (Hebrews 9:27). If we have been freed from this law of death through Jesus Christ why would we place ourselves back under that law again?
Some bad trades Christians are involved in:
1) trading an untested COVID 19 vaccine with dangerous side effects, lockdowns, and masks with a vain hope of these helping them stay healthy and alive, for the healing provided by the stripes of Jesus Christ.
2) acceptance of illegal government executive orders and mandates, with the accompanied loss of freedom, for the real freedom and safety there is in Jesus Christ.
3) trading uncertain government financial handouts for the guarantee of abundant provision found in Jesus Christ.
4) acceptance as truth words spoken from the lying lips of demon controlled people in the news media and government for the truths found in God’s Word.
5) acceptance of abortion as normal to remove the guilt of an unwanted pregnancy, ignoring that God set sex up for continued life, and that the killing of children is an abomination to God.
6) trading loose morals of the devil for a life of sensual pleasure, ignoring the call of God to crucifying the flesh and live a life of holiness.
7) accepting lawlessness, anarchy, and rebellion to authority as something to tolerate rather than enforcing of God’s laws concerning authority.
8) acceptance of demonic ideals like CRT, evolution, and atheism being taught to our children in the public school system rather than following God’s guidance of the father teaching the family the laws of God (Deuteronomy 6:7-9).
9) acceptance of a man’s watered-down, powerless Christianity in our Churches, rather than the Holy Spirit empowered church services, displaying the power of God.
This has been prophesied
Are we not seeing what Paul wrote to Timothy about, in II Timothy 3:1-5, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power….”?
While this may be a description of the world in the later days, it is fast becoming a current picture of those who call themselves Christians as well.
And why is it so? Because they have been deceived into losing their focus on Jesus Christ as the One who has all the answers, and onto the false hope that government and demon controlled humanity does. The devil is causing people to be distracted by all the many things of adversity which are going on now so that we lose our focus on what the real battle is about, that being a spiritual battle.
The real battle is about control
The devil is trying to distract us off of our freedom in Jesus Christ and into accepting the control of the government. This is a ploy to set himself up in control of the earth, which he does through the use of humanity. When you submit yourself to unsaved men running the government then you are really submitting yourself to the devil who controls them.
This was the purpose of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus was a sinless man, so the devil had no control over Him, and therefore no authority over Him. Jesus was one person the devil had no mastery over, so that meant that whatever Jesus did was based upon the original authority Adam had, given by God, on the earth before he sinned and fell under the devil’s authority.
This is also one of the reasons that Jesus was able to take authority over all demons and works of the devil and destroy them.
Christians today are now in that place of authority in the earth. We are seated with Christ (Ephesians 2:6) in a place of authority over the devil. This is why we can do the same works as Jesus (John 14:12), and more, because when we use the authority given by Jesus to use His name He works to do those works (John 14:13&14).
What is going on now is a distraction of the devil to get us focused on the turmoil of this present day and take our eyes off of our Rock, our Sure Foundation, the LORD Jesus Christ, and off of the power and authority He has given us.
The devil wants us to be problem focused rather than power focused, so that we do not engage the power of God working through us by our faith in the Holy Spirit.
Fear is the faith killer
Remember Peter walking on water. It was fear that destroyed his faith to be able to walk in obedience to what Jesus called him to do. By accepting the thoughts which the devil brought into Peter’s mind by the spirit of fear, fear caused Peter to align himself up with the devil rather than staying aligned with Jesus by faith.
The fear being perpetrated upon the whole world at this time is just a ploy to neutralize Christians so that they think they are powerless against what is happening, so that we are no threat to him and his devices. He wants us to give up what we already have, and few realize this because they do not spend time with God and in His Word.
Hosea 4:6 states “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This knowledge is about a Christian’s place of authority and power in Christ while we are on the earth right now.
Primarily using fear of the unknown, along with doubt, especially that God will do what He has said He will do for us, the devil is trying to lure us into giving up what we already possess for something of no value.
The devil deceived one third of the angels into trading what they already had in heaven for a promise of something better by following him. After it was too late they found out that they had been lied to, and that what they had given up was of far greater value than what they received.
Stand firm
Do not let the fear of what is going on now and dread of what may happen in the future distract you from Jesus Christ.
Fear is not of God! If you are operating under fear then you are subjecting yourself to the devil’s control, for he rules his kingdom of darkness by fear. He has no power or authority to back up his rule since Jesus defeated him when He rose from the dead. His only way to rule over his demonic realm and mankind is through the spirit of fear.
II Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us (Christians, Children of God) a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
It starts with the mind
If you lose the war of the mind and give in to the thoughts of the devil, then you have lost your battle for freedom, or at the very least you are right at defeats door.
Paul instructs us in II Corinthians 10:5 to use the weapons of God in “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
Like temptations to sin, just because the devil is offering bad trades does not mean you have to take them.
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