"THE DEVIL'S DEMONIC DECEPTIONS BIBLE STUDY"
(A Special Bible Study Series)
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"OPPRESSION AND PERSECUTION"
~FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE~
By Evangelist, Diana Gray
Copyrighted (c) 2000, All Rights Reserved
 KJV Bible For All Scripture

     Oppression and Persecution for Righteousness sake:  Oppression is an overload of troubles that a person just can’t seem to carry.  They feel weighted down, under tremendous burdens.  How many Christians over the years have been ridiculed for striving to live their lives with Godly values.  The world sees only money and fame.  Sometimes a person will pursue sacrificial ministerial efforts to preach the word for no monetary reward? ( A Heavenly reward is the only real reward.)  People living worldly lives can't possibly understand the dedication and determination to share the good news of Salvation with a lost and lonely world. 

     Persecution for Righteousness sake is hard and can really hurt one's feelings.  We are to take joy when it happens but I know it can be very painful when people are unkind and cruel.  Everyone would like to be popular and appreciated but following the Lord will cause separations and divisions among friends and even families. 

     Once a person has made up their minds to fallow Jesus, there is no turning back and it can become extremely costly.  Friends who once called on the phone who live worldly lives no longer seem to feel comfortable in your presence.  Family members now feel under conviction. Even if they go to church themselves but have never truly asked Jesus to become Lord of their lives now feel convicted of their sins.  Even if you don't say or preach anything to them they still feel this conviction and that is coming from the Holy spirit.  The more conviction they feel, the more they will feel uncomfortable being in your presence.

     Sometimes life for a season, takes a type of separation and loneliness.  Persecution for Righteousness sake can draw a person away from friends and loved ones because you  are following the Lord.  Now you can look at it this way,  Satan desires you to only think negative thoughts and feel hurt feelings. (This is sad and really does hurt.  It is not easy to experience rejection when a person desires to be loved.) You can curl up into a tight little ball full of pain and sadness allowing the rejection to take over your life or you can pull yourself up and tough it out with the Lord's help.

     The Lord desires you to handle these problems with His positives.  Look at this time of rejection as a time of spiritual growth.  Raise your head up, take a walk outside to look at the life around you.  Look up at the sky and take a deep breath.  Allow yourself to see the wonder of this world with new eyes.  When one door closes because of Persecution for Righteousness sake, the Lord will open up another door.  In time new friends come and take the place of those that were lost.  These relationships can become stronger and more loving than the old ones. 

     You see there is a principle at work here.  Water seeks it's own level!  This means like minds think alike.  The new friends that you make in time, will believe more as you believe.  God has a way of healing wounds and inner hurts if you allow the healing to take place.  Bitterness only tears your heart up but allowing the Lord to renew your spirit within you is the best and most positive thing that you could do.  Think and take all of God's positives for joy and in time you will feel so full of Holy joy that the hurts of rejection seem to dimmer into the background.

     Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. 

   Matthew 13:3-8 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:  But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 

     Matthew 13:18-23 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. 

     He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.  But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 

     The activities that a person has throughout their day becomes too hard when they are oppressed.  Instead of taking these problems to the Lord and leaving them with him, they worry.  After praying asking for the Lord’s help, they withdraw the problem back again and worry or stew about it.  Instead of leaving the problem with God and trusting that He will help, they try to fix things themselves by worrying about it.  They  walk around letting Satan keep their mind on the problem instead of on the Lord.  Satan had gotten control of their will! 

     They had weakened their faith by allowing it to happen.  Trusting in the Lord is the only reasonable solution to their dilemma.  They have to rely on faith and trust of the Lord to get them through their problems.

     Matthew 6:24-34 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.  Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 

     Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 

     Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 

     Worrying over your friends, your children, husband, financial problems, work etc.. is "sinning and being disobedient to God's Word."  His Word says over and over again not to worry.  It brings on a sad weighted down oppression of the spirit.  No one is immune to this problem including people of the clergy.

    Luke21:33-34 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 

     By disobedience to God’s Word daily problems take on such a large proportion of your life, that there is no space left for the Lord to help.  The oppression is heavy and thick and makes a person loose energy.  Lethargy of the spirit seems to take over, and life becomes a horrible struggle even to get through each day.  Can a person's spirit be sick? 

     I Thessalonians 5:4-8 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 

     This is a dangerous situation that a person can have happen.  Through the "sin of worrying and disobedience to God," some people open up the door to Satan’s lies about drinking and drugs.  They begin to believe the devil when he tells them they need to take a drink or use drugs to help them handle their problems.  They start to think that this is an easy fix instead of trusting the Lord with their problems. 

     The bottom of a glass of alcohol seems for the moment, to take the pain off.   The reality is that instead of trusting in the Lord to help them with their problems, they have believed Satan’s lies.  Satan has tricked them into a "worry" road, paved with many other oppressed people before them.  They have allowed themselves to be on the road to Hell through drugs or drinking.

     Satan not only hurts them with his lies but all of the loved ones that care about that person are hurt and sad too.  The rippling of hurt goes out to everyone who love you.  Don’t you think that by following the Lord’s Word it would be happier for all concerned?  When we trust the Lord and lay all of our cares and worries on Him, He is big enough to handle our problems.  Trust and have faith in the Lord is the bottom line of defense against Satan’s demonic oppression.

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