Battle for Bethlehem

The Battle for Bethlehem

Posted on December 13, 2011by SusanDewbrew 

Dragons, angels fighting…. this is not your typical manger scene, is it? Revelation Chapter 12 (posted below) is filled with symbolism, and we have no idea what all the various implications are. But what is clear from that text is that there was a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil over the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan, the serpent of old, and his fallen angels were after this particular mother and Child. But this dark, evil dragon was no match for Michael and his angelic warriors. Once again good triumphed over evil… but it took a battle… it took a fight!

Now can you see? The manger didn’t just happen… it took at war in the heavenlies.
Looking at a greeting card version of Christmas it looks so peaceful, so sweet. You’d never guess there was a war going on. Why a war? What’s the big deal about a baby being born in a manger? It’s just a feed trough out in a stable ‘because there was no room for them in the inn’. But this was no ordinary Baby. This was God incarnate… Emmanuel, God with us. This was God sending His very own son to the earth as a MAN – as a human being.
This was no theatre, and He was not acting. This was for real. His humanity was not a costume. Jesus came as a man. He laid aside his divinity like a king would lay aside his robe. God – all powerful, all knowing, without limits or boundaries, took on flesh. Think about that. God unable to feed himself… God having to learn how to walk, how to talk…. how to obey His parents!
As Christians, we understand Christ’s divinity and worship Him as God. Hallelujah! But the Christmas story is about His humanity. You see, He came as an infant… helpless, vulnerable. Why? Why would He do such a thing? And, why would satan war to try and stop it? What’s so threatening about a baby in a manger?

In the beginning, when God created the world, He gave dominion of the earth to mankind. In His sovereignty this was His choice, His plan. He would not rule or control us, for love never forces its own way. Loves does not dominate! But we fell prey to the schemes of the enemy. He convinced us that God was holding out us. We became selfish, insecure, greedy, violent… domineering. We empowered the dragon by agreeing and acting on his thoughts, on his will. And the world became dark, just like the he likes it.
On that Christmas morning, the Light and Glory of Heaven broke into darkness. God would not violate the dominion He had given to man… so he became man. We had fallen victim and were now enslaved to the dragon in our thinking. Jesus came so we could be free. He would pay the price for sins, our debt, so there would be no separation from God… but that was only part of the mission. We could have kept sacrificing lambs. But that would not have freed us from the dragon. That would not have changed our thinking. It would not have restored our identity or our dominion. Jesus came to show us the truth of our dominion. He came to show us the way!!
The dragon was lying when he said God was holding out us. He tricked us! God held nothing back then; He holds nothing back now. Mankind still has dominion on the earth. It’s dark here only because we allow it to be. People still unknowingly empower the dragon.
Jesus came so there COULD be peace on earth and good will toward men! Jesus came to show us the way. Our world will become light when we take our place as kings instead of slaves… when agree and act on Love’s will, on Love’s way of ruling.… when we come into agreement and unity with Emmanuel! Our world will become light when we stop empowering darkness.
Christ came to bring you the keys of His marvelous Kingdom of Light! This is your Christmas present. He has come to set you free. You have the key to unlock the chains that bind you and those around you. Throw off that cloak of the enemy – that false identity that says you are anything less. Become who you were created to be – powerful, significant, loving.
Together, we can take this world from dragon and establish the Kingdom of light on earth. We can do it because God is with us! As believers He is in us – closer than our skin! Now go! Be light in this world.

The Manger didn't just happen... It took a war in the heavenlies (Rev 12). 6:00 pm. Life Gate Fellowship, 102 Bayne Road, Haslet, TX

Revelation Chapter 12(New American Standard Bible)

¹ A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; ² and she was with child; and she *cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.
³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. ⁴ And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.
⁵ And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. ⁶ Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
⁷ And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, ⁸ and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. ⁹ And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the wholeworld; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,

“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. ¹¹ And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. ¹² For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

¹³ And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. ¹⁴ But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she *was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. ¹⁵ And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. ¹⁷ So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Daily Vitamin - "Moved "

Moved just wanted to let those of you who follow by RSS or Email i have moved to a new site sorry I haven't posted this sooner. You can follow me at

http://kingdombrewing.com/author/gregorydewbrew/

Rememeber You can be a blessing Sir Gregory

Daily Vitamin - "Freedom"

Freedom

Galatians 5:13(NASB)
¹³For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 


Galatians 5:13(TMSG)
¹³It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. 

Sometimes we take our freedom for granted, not realizing it cost. A lot of times we want to complain about the way things are but we sit back and don't do anything about it. Our spiritual  freedom from sin and death cost our Lord and Saviour, His life here on this earth. Our physical freedom cost men and women their lives on a daily basis. As we prepare for the holiday season I would like for us all to remember why we have the freedom's we have. We celebrate Thanksgiving in a few days, what are you truly thankful for, food on the table, a job, a home, family, church? The list could go on and on. I believe we should really take the time and be thankful for our freedom, there is a war not only in the physical world but also in our spiritual world. in that world we don't wrestle with flesh and blood but of unseen forces. Jesus paid the price for us to walk in freedom let us guard that freedom and not take it for granted, or use it to do wrong. In the busyness of the holiday season take some time and reflect on your freedom, then go serve someone with love and be a blessing, Sir Gregory   

Daily Vitamin - "Conscience"

Conscience


1 Timothy 1:18-19(NLT)
¹⁸Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles.
¹⁹Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. 


1 Timothy 1:18-19(NKJV)
¹⁸This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
¹⁹having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 

The easiest way to keep from being shipwrecking our faith is to never let go of His (Christ) hem! we are in a war for our souls. A person never starts out wanting to fail. It's a slow process for most, some it's quicker, just like a person never plans on becoming an addict it happens over a period of time. It becomes a learned habit which then becomes some thing out of control. We need to hold on tight to Christ never let go, when life throws a curve ball, run to God and others that have helped you along in this war. Remember the things God has spoken about you, and hold fast the the encouraging words others have spoken. Learn to walk with Holy Spirit every moment of the day. We are supernatural beings in a natural body, our core is spirit not flesh and that is were our major battle is it's within. So hold fast to your Faith and realize that your conscience is the Holy Spirit talking to you. Be a blessing today, Sir Gregory

Below is a blog from John Eldridge, feel it fits with today's Vitamin

The Burial Of Our Shimmering Self

We come into the world with a longing to be known and a deep-seated fear that we aren't what we should be. We are set up for a crisis of identity. And then, says Frederick Buechner, the world goes to work:

Starting with the rather too pretty young woman and the charming but rather unstable young man, who together know no more about being parents than they do the far side of the moon, the world sets in to making us what the world would like us to be, and because we have to survive after all, we try to make ourselves into something that we hope the world will like better than it apparently did the selves we originally were. That is the story of all our lives, needless to say, and in the process of living out that story, the original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us hardly end up living out of it at all. Instead, we live out all the other selves which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world's weather. (Telling Secrets) Think about the part you find yourself playing, the self you put on like a costume. Who cast you in this role? Most of us are living out a script that someone else has written for us. We've not been invited to live from our heart, to be who we truly are, so we put on these false selves hoping to offer something more acceptable to the world, something functional. We learn our roles starting very young and we learn them well.

(The Sacred Romance , 79, 80)

Daily Vitamin - "Ignorance"

Ignorance


Acts 17:30(NKJV)
³⁰Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 


Acts 17:30(TMSG)
³⁰“God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. 


How many times do we hear or say I didn't know that? I've even heard statements like ignorance is bliss. Like it's okay to do wrong just because we might not know the truth of a matter. God does give us a lot of grace and mercy in knowing His ways, but there does come a time in our walk with Him that we can't just say I didn't know or I was ignorant to the fact. We can't tell the police that that we didn't know , they have a guideline or statement that says "Ignorance to the matter is no excuse" We should apply that to our Spiritual life and find out what truly is okay and if we are doing stuff that God doesn't like or wants us doing. Then repent from them and do whats right. Repent doesn't just mean your sorry that you got caught. It means turning from whatever it is and walking the other way, and every time it tries to tempt you turn and walk the other way. Jesus went away and sent the Holy spirit to to help us, God also had a manuscript written for us to have a guide to right living. That manual doesn't need updates or amendments to it. It's everlasting and will show us the way to go. Thank God for His Mercy and Grace to overlook a lot of junk that has been in your life, but it's time for us to be ignorant no more! We have a job to do and that's to change the world, lets be about our Fathers business, we can do it. Be a blessing today, Sir Gregory

Daily Vitamin - "Mirror"

Mirror

James 1:22-25(CEV)
²²Obey God’s message! Don’t fool yourselves by just listening to it.
²³If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror
²⁴and forget what they look like as soon as they leave.
²⁵But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget.

Do we know people like this or are we like this? Forgotten who we really are? Kings Kids! We were created to rule and reign on the earth to have dominion, but somewhere along the way we have been tricked into thinking we are something less. It all started in the Garden, we were tricked into thinking we were something less that we were. We never really lost who we were we just forgot. I believe it is part of our mission (Susan & I) in this era of  time to help other regain who they are to quit believing the lie that they, YOU! are something less than you are. Jesus came paid the price for us to be fully restored into the place God had set up for us in the beginning. God told Adam (man & woman) to subdue the earth and to multiple on it. well they did half of it the multiplied but forgot to subdue it or to take dominion of it. We have been given the authority and privilege to be rulers not only of our selves but of this planet. It's time to stand up and be recognized as the Son's of God that all of creation has been anxiously waiting for us to be. Today look in the Mirror of God, His Word the Bible and remember who you are. We Can Do It! We can change the world! Go be a blessing today, Sir Gregory

Ps. I read this blog from John Eldredge that fits so well it was taken from his book "The Sacred Romance" 

We Have All Forgotten What We Really Are

We are not what we were meant to be, and we know it. If, when passing a stranger on the street, we happen to meet eyes, we quickly avert our glance. Cramped into the awkward community of an elevator, we search for something, anything to look at instead of each other. We fear to be seen. But think for a moment about the millions of tourists who visit ancient sites like the Parthenon, the Colosseum, and the Pyramids. Though ravaged by time, the elements, and vandals through the ages, mere shadows of their former glory, these ruins still awe and inspire. Though fallen, their glory cannot be fully extinguished. There is something at once sad and grand about them. And such we are. Abused, neglected, vandalized, fallen-we are still fearful and wonderful. We are, as one theologian put it, "glorious ruins." But unlike those grand monuments, we who are Christ's have been redeemed and are being renewed as Paul said, "day by day," restored in the love of God.

Could it be that we, all of us, the homecoming queens and quarterbacks and the passed over and picked on, really possess hidden greatness? Is there something in us worth fighting over? The fact that we don't see our own glory is part of the tragedy of the Fall; a sort of spiritual amnesia has taken all of us. Our souls were made to live in the Larger Story, but as Chesterton discovered, we have forgotten our part:

We have all read in scientific books, and indeed, in all romances, the story of the man who has forgotten his name. This man walks about the streets and can see and appreciate everything; only he cannot remember who he is. Well, every man is that man in the story. Every man has forgotten who he is. . . . We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. (Orthodoxy)

Daily Vitamin - "Him"

HIM
Romans 15:17-21(TMSG)
¹⁷Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased—in the context of Jesus, I’d even say proud, but only in that context.
¹⁸I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders.
¹⁹In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece.
²⁰This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped.
²¹My text has been, Those who were never told of him— they’ll see him! Those who’ve never heard of him— they’ll get the message!

In our world today many would say that  there isn't any who haven't heard of Him (Jesus). I would tend to agree, except I would say that most have had the opportunity to hear about Him. But what about the whole message. That because He came and paid the price we can live a life free from sin, full of power to do the same things He did. We have the ability to change the world and because of us people can be told of Him, Because of us they can hear about Him. It seems that we as people sometimes would rather allow others to do the things God has set up for us. He set a plan in motion for each and everyone of us, and in that plan there is a place for everyone to see, hear, feel, know who He truly is and he is a loving Father that wants to hang out with His Kids all of them not just a few. That is why we can say in those place we go if they people haven't heard or seen  God they will because  we go in His Power and Might.  Its possible for those who believe to walk in the same power that raised Christ from the dead. so as you go today be Jesus with skin on for those around so they may go to others and be Jesus with skin on. we can do it if only we believe. Be a blessing today. Sir Gregory