Devotion: (The Trumpeter):
The Antagonist

1 Corinthians 9:27KJV

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway

It is important that you understand your makeup as a Christian. Man is a spirit; he has a soul and lives in a body. There are many who say that man is spirit, soul and body, referring to him as a tripartite being but this is not totally accurate. Man is a spirit; he has a soul but lives in a body. The body is not him but the house in which he lives. As long as God is concerned, He gave every man or woman a house to live and dwell in. The house is not that building made of blocks or bricks where you have called your home ever since. The house that God gave you is your body.

Peter calls his body a tabernacle, a dwelling place. Paul also calls it a house.

You’re not a body. It is a place where you live

“Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me…..2 Peter 1:13-14KJV”

It is important that you understand and recognize this. You needed a physical house called the body because without it you have no right to live on God’s green earth. The physical body is your right to be on earth. When a person dies, what they term as physical death, it is just a separation of the true man from the house that God gave him on earth. When that man comes out of his physical house, he will either go to heaven or hell depending on how he walked on earth. Man never goes out of existence, it is either he is on earth, heaven or hell depending on the circumstances.

When you understand this, you will be very careful how you live.

For instance, all the people who died in this COVID pandemic are existing somewhere in God’s universe. Some went to glory, others to suffering. Think about this, for some it was from one suffering on a sick bed to a greater suffering (hell)

Now, the Holy Ghost helps us to understand that the man on earth has two enemies, his body (lust in the body) and the devil.

When you get an understanding of what God is sharing with you today, it will help you out of many problems of life. There are many Christians struggling with sins and certain habits because they lack an understanding of today’s devotional truth.

Due to sin, the house that God gave man became an enemy to him. So Paul refers to your body as corruption.

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption……1 Corinthians 15:50KJV”

Again he says,

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not…..Romans 7:18KJV”

There is a lust in the flesh, which is an enemy; all it seeks is to destroy you.

 When you have this important understanding, it will make a big difference how to approach life. It is vital you understand that you are not that body, it is a house(a temple).

If a man who has been cheating on his wife had this wisdom, he wouldn’t have succumbed when tempted by a woman. He would have understood that those lusts weren’t desires but an attack from his enemy. When people see their body as them, they become indiscipline

Paul the Apostle had an insight into this vital mystery so he said,

“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway”

Paul says, I disable the antagonist (body). I knock it out. Paul here uses the communication of a pugilist (a boxer in the ring) who wants to give a knockout punch to the opponent. He says, do that to your body (lust). Those ungodly desires and motives are not a friend but an enemy seeking to destroy you.

God bless you!

Confession

I believe with my heart that Jesus is the very Son of God that He came to die for me and was raised up by God the Father. I confess Him as the Lord of my life from this day forward. Hallelujah! I am born again

Weekly Prayer

Pray to cast out that external spirit of fear from your homes and lives

Scriptural reference: Revelation 1:17-18, Hebrews 2:14-15, 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 4:17-18