Jude was one of the apostles. In Jude verse 1a, he introduced himself as a bond servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James. He wrote only one chapter epistle to believers and in verse 20, he made a profound statement “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit’,
In his words, he admonished that we should build ourselves up on our most holy faith. This statement is profound because we succeed or fails in our Christian journey by reason of how we apply or fail to apply faith.
Talking about faith, the Apostle Paul also made a profound statement in Hebrew 11:6 in which he said, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”
That is to say, if we are ever going to please God, we must have our faith intact. As said, we rise or fails in life in our Christian journey especially in our walk of faith depending on the level of our faith.
The devil and his host of evil forces knew this and that is the reason that their point of attack is our faith because once our faith are gotten, it is then easy to deal with us.
Also, Jesus himself acknowledged that when he told Peter in Luke 22: 31 saying, “And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.
Jesus then went further to assure Peter in Luke 22” 32 saying, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
What the devil does is to ensure that he attacks our faith, throttle it and cause it to fail. Majorly, faith failure is destiny failure. In this kingdom, I am yet to see anyone that succeeded even though his/her faith failed.
To this end, every believer that wish to succeed in this kingdom must take personal responsibility to guard his or her faith and should avoid anything that could cause our faith to fail.
In addition, every believer must take personal responsibility as well as make a conscious effort to build his or her faith as Jude admonished us.
The Apostle Paul speaks further about faith by listing the shield of faith one of the whole armor of God that we should put on. He said in Ephesians 6 verse 11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
The reason we should put on the whole armor of God according to him is because according to Ephesians 6:12 “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.
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.
The apostle Paul went further to make an equivocal statement in Ephesians 6:16 when he said, “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”.
Before we go ahead to look at ways we can build our faith, we must first and foremost look at how the devil launches an onslaught against our faith. The devil does that by using Satan’s Identification Number.
Are you sure you are not in possession of Satan Identification Number? Please don’t go further to look for the number because that number is the abbreviation for the word SIN.
Before the devil could attack us and succeed, the foremost he does is to ensure that SIN takes hold of us. No matter who you are or your status, once sin gets hold of you, your faith automatically goes down flat.
Look at what happened to Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3:1-4 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him, He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
In this kingdom today, one of the sin Satan uses to take many captives, even some men of God are the words pleasure and $EXUAL PLEASURE comes up most. In reality, Satan used and still using $exual pleasure to cause much havoc among the church of God.
The apostle Paul equally wrote to warn Timothy in 2Timothy 3:4 saying that in the last days, there will be many traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
Also, the apostle Paul himself was wiser enough by what he said in 2Corinthians 2:11 saying, “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices”. He refused the devil from taking advantage of him.
That is to say, one of the devices of the devil that we must never be ignorant of is his device of using $exual pleasure to take us captive. Joseph was wiser in that he refused $exual pleasure that Satan presented before him.
Please, read the story more in Genesis 39:1-end. What do think would have happened if Joseph had engaged in $exual pleasure with Potiphar’s wife? Obviously, his destiny would have been throttled, and he would have ended as a slave and a house boy for life.
End of part one, please keep a date with us as we continue in part two.
