Marching Orders #416... "Is it Finished?"

LET THE

SONSHINE

..."Your eyes light up your inward being.

A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul."

Luke 11:34a

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Is it finished?

Jesus' last words on the cross were, "It is finished!" and He died as He committed His spirit to the Father. Other than the disciples, His mother, the guards, and the others hearing these words, someone else clearly heard them and has been repeating them ever since. However, they are being spoken to us not in the context that Jesus spoke them in. Jesus' earthly ministry was completed. He would now go to the right hand of the Father to evermore intercede for His saints as victor over death and sin. He paid the price for every sin ever commited.

His work on earth was completed...Jesus had proven Himself as being all that God had required of Him. He had proven himself to be:

Jehovah-Tsidkenu...Our righteousness

Jehovah-M'Kaddesh...The One that sanctifies us

Jehovah-Shalom...Our peace

Jehovah-Shammah...The one who is there for us

Jehovah-Rophe...The Lord Our God that heals us

Jehovah-Jireh...The provision that shall be seen

Jehovah-Nissi...My banner

Jehovah-Rohi...My Shepherd

Satan has mocked God from the day of his fall from heaven. He has tried to imitate every work done through the cross of Calvary...and he, my friends, is still whispering those last words of Jesus into our ears... Have you heard them recently? They sound something like this:

"You are going to die; this sickness is it. There is no hope for you...it is finished!"

"You've lost your job...your income has been cut off...you are going to lose EVERYTHING... There is no way you can survive... It is finished!"

"Give it up...your marriage is finished...it is over...there is no restoration, too much has been said and done. Get that divorce...Finish it once and for all....IT IS FINISHED!"

"You are never going to stop sinning...don't even try. You will always be addicted, finish with your futile attempts to stop sinning. You're too weak, it's over for you, just resign yourself to a life of sin, you're finished."

"Go ahead, do God, yourself and everybody else concerned a favor and kill yourself. Find some peace for just once in your life. You have never amounted to anything and you never will... Finish your life now, get it over with...it is finished anyway!"

"This ministry you're doing, you think it is helping people? Who are you trying to kid...you hurt more people than you help! You are wasting time, nobody really cares. If it were of God why aren't you prospering like everyone else? Use your time on productive things. Your usefulness here IS FINISHED."

Satan does not ALWAYS speak to you in your OWN THOUGHTS.

He speaks through people But, never forget that we have an advocate sitting at the right hand side of God who has heard satan's whispers too. His name is Jesus Christ! There was a time in the wilderness that satan told Jesus to throw Himself off of a cliff, to finish it and trust God to raise him back up, but Jesus taught us how to overcome satan's "It is finished" whispers. Jesus said, "IT IS WRITTEN!" To counter every "It is finished" statement that satan throws at you, shout back to him loud and clear what is written. Ask Jesus to give you that portion of the Word of God that applies to your particular situation; allow Jesus to whisper it into your heart and stand firmly on that. I might add here how important it is to find what God is saying to you, not just what you want to hear. I am able to find a verse to nearly do anything I want to justify, the important thing is to do what HE wants you to do, and He makes it very clear when we allow His Spirit to speak to us. When Satan whispers something like this...

"You are going under this time. Your bills are piled up as high as your armpits. Give it up...you're finished!"

The Word says that if we submit ourselves to God, resist the Devil...he WILL FLEE! (JAMES 4:7) SO...respond to him like this...

"Satan, 'My God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:19. And furthermore, He IS JEHOVAH-JIREH MY PROVIDER!" Just don't say it to him, resist his lies by believing it and acting upon His Word!

What I am writing came about from a prayer request I received today. I am going to delete the person's name and copy it and my reply here, because the devil irritated me with the thoughts that he was placing in this dear sister's mind...

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST...

I always read the prayer request and immediately prayer for whomever has requested and at the same time I give thanks to God for how fortunate we are. Never thinking that my difficulties are severe enough to request prayers. We struggle and have difficult times but we always were able to stay one step ahead. Today we received news that changes that.

We are already under a great deal of stress financially and today my ex-husband wrote us that he will be unable to pay child support for the next 60-90 days. He is already about a month behind on his child support. This will finish us.

Please also pray for some peace of mind for myself and my husband. I am already praying for my ex-husband (there's more going on there than I could possibly explain) for he needs prayer too.

I replied:

"We are praying for you and will forward your request...however, this will NOT "finish you" unless your ex-husband, yourselves and your own means are your Jehovah-Jireh, (The God that supplies our needs and provision). Let me counter the thoughts that satan is placing in your mind with the Word of God:

"My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19. Notice something here...it says "need" meaning ONE at a TIME, whatever the need is that is presenting itself...could be food, healing, etc. As a need presents itself, turn it over to Him in faith that HE is your provider...not your ex-husband, not your present husband, not by your own abilities. It says that it is the Lord that gives us the ability to gain wealth in the Word...not our own abilities. He provides the ways for that provision to be met, whether by jobs, the extra unexpected income, the miracle gifts from others...how He sees fit, not how we think He should do it.

Did you read my last lesson.."Rags to Richest Faith"... You are being tested to see whom you are going to trust in your time of need, and from the above statement, you may want tothink about that seriously and repent accordingly, for our mouth speaks from the overflow of our hearts. I don't mean to be hard on you darling, but I have been where you are right now for over 30 years and I can testify that the only time I ever lost anything, God had a greater purpose for it. I live on complete and total faith in Him to supply the financial needs for our household, and the ministry that I do. A verse over my desk is my constant reminder of God's daily care:

"All mankind scratches for its daily bread, but your heavenly Father knows your needs. He will always give you all you need from day to day if you will make the Kingdom of God your primary concern." Luke 12:30,31 L/B Either the Lord is my provider and His Word is true, and I trust in Him, or He is a liar and I trust in myself. I have found that He does not lie! As Joshuah said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." For over thirty years, as I have said, the Lord has not failed me. Yes, there have even been times when our house payments were three months behind, but He gave us grace with the bank as our faith was being tested and tried by the fire, and our electricity has almost been turned off, or turned off for a few hours several times. We have many times wondered where the very next meal would come from.

The only thing we ever lost was a car that one week after it was repossessed and was being driven by it's new owner, burst into a ball of flames. With the chemical allergies I had at the time, had that happened to me, I probably would not be here telling you this. So we praised the Lord for getting that car out of my possession because I wasn't about to give it up..it was a little sports car that I dearly loved.

We've seen Him heal cancers in our family, raise our daughter from death on the operating table, and doing the tiniest miracle like finding a shoestring. But over the years I have learned something of value: You turn it over to Him, trust Him to give you what is best for you, BUT be willing to accept whatever it is that He does as being done for your best, for your GOOD, not to harm you. Many people live on a false faith. That is that God will always do what they want, and He will whenever possible, when there is not a greater purpose in His doing otherwise. So always be willing to give your problems and burdens to Him and allow Him to solve them His ways, which are greater than ours.

None of that past faith I've had will be the faith I need to face today's tests. His mercy is renewed every morning, His faithfulness is fresh every day, His grace goes on and on, but so do the tests and trials used by Him to build and stretch and increase our faith, and our need for fresh daily faith will go on until we reach heaven one day.

I love you and I am praying for increased faith for you so that you can face this new test hat is stretching your faith."

Is it finished? Insofar as Jesus' being the supply to every need we will ever face...IT IS! Is it finished insofar as satan's threats, accusations, temptations and trials... But, NO, it is not finished and as long as you are alive, it will not be finished. Is it finished insofar as whether or not you are going to continue to believe satan's lies and suffer under his threats? It can be finished for that particular test when we learn to "Come unto Him, all we that labor and are heavy laden"...for He will give you rest. It is finished when we thoroughly know WHO Jesus is, WHAT He will do for us through the knowledge of and faith in His Word, and when we believe that He has defeated satan at Calvary when He said, "It is finished."

In Him and He in me,

Marlene

MARCHING ORDERS #416

Marching Orders come directly from the Word of God with no commentary added. They are compiled from the Living Bible. The King James version is available upon request.

I spoke too hastily when I said, “The Lord has deserted me,” for you listened to my plea and answered me.

Deeper and deeper I sink in the mire; the waters rise around me. The water flowed above my head. I thought, This is the end! But I called upon your name, O Lord, from deep within the well, and you heard me! You listened to my pleading; you heard my weeping! Yes, you came at my despairing cry and told me not to fear.

Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be favorable? Is his lovingkindness gone forever? Has his promise failed? Has he forgotten to be kind to one so undeserving? Has he slammed the door in anger on his love? And I said: This is my fate, that the blessings of God have changed to hate. I recall the many miracles he did for me so long ago.

I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that once again I will see his goodness to me here in the land of the living.

(Living Bible)

Psalms 31:22.

Ps. 69:2. - Lam. 3:54-57.

Ps. 77:7-11. - Ps. 27:13.

"As Christ's soldier do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the one who enlisted you in his army." II Timothy 2:4 L/B

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