1 John 4:4

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

DAILY BIBLE VERSES AND PRAYER THOUGHTS:

MONDAY - VERSES: Exodus 15:2-7,11; Psalm 21:13; Romans 13:1 PRAYER THOUGHT: Praise God for His awesome power.

TUESDAY - VERSES: Jeremiah 32:17-22; Luke 12:5; Romans 1:18-
22 PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank God for revealing Himself and His power.

WEDNESDAY - VERSES: Acts 6:8; Romans 1:16; Romans 16:25-
27; 1 Corinthians 2:5 PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank God that as a Christian you have access to Him and His power.

THURSDAY - VERSES: Acts 3:12; 2 Corinthians 4:6-10; Psalm 138:3 PRAYER THOUGHT: Acknowledge to God that you are powerless on your own. Admit your human weaknesses.

FRIDAY - VERSES: Psalm 52:7; Mark 14:38; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; PRAYER THOUGHT: Confess the times you lived below the privileges that you have as His child and have not used the power He provides for you.

SATURDAY - VERSES: Psalm 27:14; Isaiah 41:10-14; Ephesians 3:14-16; Philippians 4:13; 2 Timothy 4:17 PRAYER THOUGHT: Pray for God to help you use His power in your life.

When He Rolls up His Sleeves He Ain't Just Puttin' on the Ritz. Our God Is an Awesome God. There Is Thunder in His Footsteps and Lightning in His Fists. Our God Is an Awesome God. The Lord Wasn't Joking When He Kicked 'Em out of Eden. It Wasn't for No Reason That He Shed His Blood. His Return Is Very Sure So You'd Better Be Believin' That Our God Is an Awesome God. (Chorus)

Chorus: Our God Is an Awesome God. He Reigns from Heaven above with Wisdom, Power, and Love. Our God Is an Awesome God.

ASSIGNMENTS

1. At least once a day read over this material and read or sing the song.

2. Place the scripture where you will see it often throughout each day.

3. Look for areas in which Satan seems to win in your life and determine to win with God's help each day.

4. At close of day write ways you used God's power against Satan.

5. Plan to tell the class, next week, an example of how you or someone else practiced using the power of God and what happened as a result of doing so, or tell the class how you should have used his power but did not during the week.

SPIRITUAL HEALTH REGIMEN - POWER

WEEK 11 - 9/23/12 - 10/7/12

SCRIPTURE - 1 John 4:4b - He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

COMMENT - We overcome Satan and the world because God is greater than Satan and we always have the advantage if we are willing to take it.

SONG - HOW GREAT THOU ART

1. Oh, Lord, My God, When I in Awesome Wonder, Consider All the Worlds Thy Hands Have Made. I See the Stars, I Hear the Rolling Thunder, Thy Power Throughout the Universe Displayed.

2. When Through the Woods and Forest Glades I Wander and Hear the Birds Sing Sweetly in the Trees, When I Look down from Lofty Mountain Grandeur and Hear the Brook and Feel the Gentle Breeze.

3. When Christ Shall Come with Shouts of Acclamation and Take Me Home, What Joy Shall Fill My Heart! Then I Shall Bow in Humble Adoration and There Proclaim, My God, How Great Thou Art! (Chorus) Then Sings My Soul, My Savior, God to Thee; How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art! Then Sings My Soul, My Savior, God to Thee; How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art!

THOUGHTS

In his book Forever Triumphant, FJ. Huegel told a story that came out of World War II. After General Jonathan Wainwright was captured by the Japanese, he was held prisoner in a Manchurian concentration camp. Cruelly treated, he became "a broken, crushed, hopeless, starving man." Finally the Japanese surrendered and the war ended. A United States army colonel was sent to the camp to announce personally to the general that Japan had been defeated and that he was free and in command. After Wainwright heard the news, he returned to his quarters and was confronted by some guards who began to mistreat him as they had done in the past. Wainwright, however, with the news of the allied victory still fresh in his mind, declared with authority, "No, I am in command here! These are my orders." Huegel observed that from that moment on, General Wainwright was in control.

Huegel made this application: "Have you been informed of the victory of your Savior in the greatest conflict of the ages? Then rise up to assert your rights. Never again go under when the enemy comes to oppress. Claim the victory in Jesus' Name." Huegel observed, "We must learn to stand on resurrection ground, reckoning dead the old-
creation life over which Satan has power, and living in the new creation over which Satan has no power whatever."

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An enthusiastic believer in Christ, Dan Richardson, lost his battle with cancer. But his life demonstrated that even though the physical body may be destroyed by disease, the spirit can remain triumphant. This poem was distributed at his memorial service:

Cancer is so limited...

It cannot cripple love,

It cannot shatter hope,

It cannot corrode faith,

It cannot eat away peace,

It cannot destroy confidence,

It cannot kill friendship,

It cannot shut out memories,

It cannot silence courage,

It cannot invade the soul,

It cannot reduce eternal life,

It cannot quench the Spirit,

It cannot lessen the power of the resurrection.

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No one has ever gotten all he could from God. His power is unlimited and we can access it through prayer, faith, and obedience, but how often we try to do things ourselves and fail.

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Christian has been explained as meaning without CHRIST, I Ain't Nothing. It may not be grammatically correct, but it is theologically correct.

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I cannot do it alone! The waves dash fast and high;

The fog comes chill around, and the light goes out in the sky.

But I know that we two shall win in the end – Jesus and I.

Coward and wayward and weak, I change with the changing sky;

Today so strong and brave, tomorrow too weak to fly.

But He never gives up, so we two shall win – Jesus and I!

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When Robert Morrison, the first missionary to go to China, disembarked from the ship in a Chinese port, the captain sneeringly said, "So you think you are going to make an impression upon China."

Morrison quietly replied, "No, sir, but I believe God will."

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To keep a broken vessel full, it must remain under the tap. - Moody

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HE WHO IS IN YOU IS GREATER

INTRODUCTION

I. GOD'S POWER IS THE _______________ POWER

A. 1 John 4:4

B. Ephesians ___:17-21

II. OUR ___________ SHOULD BE IN THE POWER OF GOD.

A. ___ Corinthians 2:5

B. 1 John ___:4-5

III. GOD'S POWER IS _______________ TO US.

A. Ephesians 3:____-____

B. _____________ 1:9-11

C. 2 Thessalonians ____:11-12

IV. GOD'S POWER WORKS IN OUR _______________.

A. 2 Corinthians ____:9-10

B. 2 Corinthians 4:___

V. WE MUST TAKE ____________ OF THE POWER OF GOD.

A. __ Timothy 3:1-5

B. 2 Timothy 1:___

C. Ephesians ___:10-17

VI. GOD'S POWER DOES NOT NECESSARILY PROTECT US FROM ALL ___________ BUT BRINGS US THROUGH THEM.

A. ___ Corinthians 4:8-10

B. 2 Corinthians ___:4-10

CONCLUSION

HE WHO IS IN YOU IS GREATER

SCRIPTURE - (1 John 4:1-4) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. {2} By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, {3} and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. {4} You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

INTRODUCTION

A. For skiers it's not the downhill action with all its thrill of movement and speed that is a problem. It's going back uphill. But now a new ski craze has been introduced to North America. Known as skisailing, it enables a skier with the aid of a sail, or parachute- type device, to ski uphill.

Does your path seem uphill all the way? Then, are you learning to use the winds of God to turn what must remain always a drudgery apart from God into a delight? After all, God's promise is: "They shall mount up with wings...." Stop laboring in your own strength, and start resting in His.

B. (Isa 40:28-31) Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. {29} He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. {30} Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, {31} But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

I. GOD'S POWER IS THE ULTIMATE POWER

A. (1 John 4:4) You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

B. (Eph 1:17-21) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, {18} the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, {19} and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power {20} which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, {21} far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

II. OUR FAITH SHOULD BE IN THE POWER OF GOD

A. (1 Cor 2:5) that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

B. (1 John 5:4-5) For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world; our faith. {5} Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

III. GOD'S POWER IS AVAILABLE TO US

A. (Eph 3:20-21) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, {21} to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

B. (Col 1:9-11) For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; {10} that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; {11} strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

C. (2 Th 1:11-12) Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, {12} that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

IV. GOD'S POWER WORKS IN OUR WEAKNESS

A. (2 Cor 12:9-10) And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. {10} Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

B. (2 Cor 4:7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

C. "God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him."

V. WE MUST TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE POWER OR GOD

A. (2 Tim 3:1-5) But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: {2} For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, {3} unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, {4} traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, {5} having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

B. (2 Tim 1:7) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

C. (Eph 6:10-17) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. {11} Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. {12} For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. {13} Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. {14} Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, {15} and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; {16} above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. {17} And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

VI. GOD'S POWER DOES NOT NECESSARILY PROCTECT US FROM ALL PROBLEMS BUT BRINGS US THROUGH THEM

A. (2 Cor 4:8-10) We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; {9} persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; {10} always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

B. (2 Cor 6:4-10) But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, {5} in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; {6} by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, {7} by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, {8} by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; {9} as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; {10} as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

C. I asked God for strength that I might achieve,

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life, I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for -- but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all men, most richly blessed.

CONCLUSION

A. There are two types of strength. There is the strength of the wind that sways the mighty oak, and there is the strength of the oak that withstands the power of the wind. There is the strength of the locomotive that pulls the heavy train across the bridge, and there is the strength of the bridge that holds up the weight of the train. One is active strength, the other is passive strength. One is the power to keep going, the other is the power to keep still. One is the strength by which we overcome, the other is the strength by which we endure.

B. (Phil 4:11-13) Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: {12} I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. {13} I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

C. ARE YOU TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE POWER GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR YOU?