The Face Of A Survivor...

The Face of a survivor...

In the wild male lions seldom live longer than 10 years due to the the wounds and hardships that come with the fight to survive. But the survivors the ones that live until an old age look like this one, scarred and beaten, memoirs of battles past, the scars are there because he lived through the battles, he has scars because he fought to survive and won. 

In our walk with God, look at the saints they are the strongest, and the most faithful, they are also the  most scarred, and wounded. The devil isn't going to worry himself about the people that are lost, he already has them, they are under his control. But he is after you the saved, Holy Ghost filled believer, he wants to take you're pride, he wants to destroy the things that matter to you, he isn't after the impure, but he is after your purity. 

Job was a righteous man, a devout man. 

Job 2:3-7

" 3 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. 4 And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. 5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. 6 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life. 

7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown."

God allowed Satan to try Job, to prove that Job was a true man of God, to show the Job was a man of faith. 

Satan afflicted Job with boils, From the top of  his head to the soles of his feet. Satan marred/scarred Job's body with these sores. But Job stayed true to God. 

Satan has come against the believers, he wants to scar you, he wants to break you spirit, he wants to steal your salvation. But all he can do to you is scar you. 

Hebrews 13:5-6

" 5 .......for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." 

God may allow the devil to scar you, to wound you, But he will never allow Satan to kill you or to fatally harm you, the only way that the devil can truly hurt us is if we give in and cease to look to God to heal our pains and scars. 

It's time for the Church to rise up and quite worry about a little scar and began to do the work of the Lord. Paul was bitten by a snake 

Acts 28:3-6

" 3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god."

These venomous viper bit Paul upon the hand, it should have killed him. But it didn't, I imagine  that the bite still left a nice scar, and later on when Paul would be preaching I imagine him pointing out that scar and taking about how God saved him from this devilish viper. The scars have now become a focal point of his testimony, oh Look What The Lord Has Done. Your scars are where Satan tried to destroy you, but through God they became a tool towards edifying yours and others faith in God. What was a place of pain is now a place of rejoicing, Oh the  Devil thought he had me, he wounded me, he scarred me, But God stepped in and he healed and scared of the wounds to show you look what I did, I saved you, and this scar is now a constant reminder that you are a child of a God who heals your every hurt and pain. 

But.

That is a choice, The devil scarred you, he hurt you, he wounded you: you had zero control over that. But overcoming it, Turning it from pain into gain, taking it from a blemish to a trophy. To take it from something you are ashamed of, to something that you cans point at and say, The Devil thought he had me, But GOD, saved me. That is a choice, the Devil knocked me down, am I just going to lay here, or am I gonna get up and say "Blessed be the name of the Lord,” The devil knocked me down, But God raised me up. 

It’s A Choice, Choose You This Day. The minute you give in and decide not to fight back, the day you choose not to use your scar as a trophy, but use it as a blemish, you have lost. That is the day that you have lost. You have given up the fight. But When You STAND UP, And it becomes a trophy of GOD’s and Your VICTORY over SATAN, Then you have won, it has become your testimony. 

Revelation 12:11 says "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”