In what area of my life is Satan working?

Looking for spiritual principles and concepts to use to feed this evangelistic vision that we want to found in our Church, I saw here in Luke chapter 4 what I call an evangelistic lifestyle and that would be the theme of this sermon, an evangelistic lifestyle.

And normally I like to choose a short, small passage to concentrate on and go in-depth on that passage, but I'm going to do something different and I'm going to take this chapter, which is quite long, there are about 40-odd verses, 44 verses , and what I want is to take a tour from the bird's eye view so that we have a more or less idea, I am going to highlight certain moments in the life of Jesus Christ, at the beginning of His Ministry, and the Lord has said that He is our model, that we stick to Him and then we will bear fruit.

I do not believe that anyone can improve on how to live an evangelistic life on the model that Jesus already established, no one can invent a better model, the Lord defines the evangelistic model and by seeing His life, and seeing how the progression of His life we too we can learn principles for an evangelistic life.

So throughout this chapter 4 we can find some of those principles that the Lord embodied, that the Lord integrated into His own path and that help us understand the lifestyle that we should live, I want you to put your name and t person in this chapter because the truths that we see here reflected in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ apply to each one of us personally and to our Congregation as well.

So here in chapter 4 in verses from 1 to 12 for example, we see, and if you have a Bible that is divided into sections from 1 to 12, it kind of makes a natural separation of a theme and it is the temptation of Jesus, is a very specific passage that describes the famous moment when the Lord says that after His baptism He was led by the Spirit into the desert, and one thinks: how is it possible that the Holy Spirit led Jesus Christ to be tempted by the devil? one thinks: that does not make sense.

One sometimes goes through situations in our life of confrontation with the enemy and we think that it is the enemy that is in control, the one that is making things happen but why does the Lord himself sometimes want us to have confrontations with Satan; That kind of sounds weird sometimes, right? You are saying: Pastor Miranda is already becoming a heretic, he is beginning to preach false doctrine, but the truth is that there are cases in Scripture where God has a very strange relationship with Satan and puts Satan to do His purposes.

For example, in the case of the Apostle Paul, Paul says that so that the greatness of the revelations that he had received in his life would not make him too proud, God sent a messenger from Satan, a thorn in his life that would persecute him about which he three times he said to the Lord: deliver me from this and God told him three times: My grace is enough for you because My Power is perfected in weakness, God was using the attacks of the enemy to perfect and polish the life and ministry of His servant Paul.

In this case, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus, it is not in this text but there is another passage, a passage in Mark that you can see that says that the Holy Spirit led him into the desert. And well here it tells us: "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days and was tempted by the devil" a direct confrontation with Satan was a prerequisite for Him to fully enter into His evangelistic mission.

I see something here and it is that there are areas of our life that God wants to deal with before we can be useful to Him, before He can use us. In the case of Jesus He had to defeat Satan, He had to establish a precedent that He was superior to the devil and it's like He had to clearly establish His Lordship and clearly understand why God had called him; many times the fights with the enemy help us to define ourselves and clearly understand things about ourselves.

In the case of Jesus it was as if for the Scripture to be fulfilled He had to be directly confronted as appropriate to His great importance and His status as the Son of God. The confrontation between Jesus and the devil was something that will not happen before or after in the life of any human being, that was something that was specifically for the Lord Jesus Christ in His messianic character.

But you know what? that in our lives also if we want to be effective in Evangelism and in a fruitful life for the Lord there are areas of our life that will have to be resolved, there are areas in which the enemy has a part in our lives and that prevent us from living a fruitful life in the Lord how many can understand what I am saying? And that sometimes we're going to have to figure out those things because otherwise we're going to be limping all our lives and we won't be able to be truly effective with the Lord.

There are areas of our lives that we have to overcome before we can be useful as soul winners and as fruitful people to the glory of the Lord. I can think of all of us, there are issues that afflict and harass us, for someone it can be a depressive tendency, others get discouraged and discouraged too quickly when difficulties come, there are people who have resentments in their hearts, there are others who have inferiority complexes, there are others who have spiritual ties in their lives that they need to resolve, some have spiritual ties, others have problems with the flesh, obsessive thoughts, practices that do not please the Lord, habits that do not honor the Lord and that have to be confronted and treated, and worked in our lives and submitted to the dominion of the Lord.

Some of us have pride in our lives, some of us have relational problems with people and are always getting into trouble and difficulties, conflicts, we alienate people around us, some people have domineering attitudes and always want to be in the first place. their life, others believe more than they are in the Lord and believe that because God has given them certain gifts they have the right to certain privileges in the Kingdom of God.

Brothers, the list is very long and note that the diversity of examples that I am giving you because many of us think: well the devil that means that they are sexual issues or immorality, or drug addiction, no, there are a number of things also in our character and in our attitudes that are from Satan because they are of the flesh, they are works of the flesh and there the devil has his tithe in the works of the flesh. How many know that?

So everything that is of the flesh in our life, our character, everything that is not of God has a diabolic origin and the devil takes advantage of those things, and when one wants to then enter and bear fruit for the Lord and serve to the Lord one discovers that those things are there as a brake that are pulling us down and prevent us from truly being fruitful with the Lord.

There are aspects of our life that sadden the Holy Spirit too and the enemy can use those things to destroy the best purposes that we have, there are areas of our marriage many times that are not treated by the Lord, there are things that we have to die to them to fix our family life, and if our family life is not fixed, our relationship with our children, our behavior with our spouse, be it the wife with the husband or vice versa, these areas will also be used by the enemy in your life to bring stone of stumbling and to distract you from your ability to bear fruit.

Some of us have an excessive appetite for money, for comfort, for possessions, and these things prevent us from dedicating ourselves to the Lord. Some people love to sleep, something as simple as that, that bed has a magnetic power that grabs us and when we want to get out hands come out so they grab us and tie us back to the bed, and the sheets get more delicious in the The moment we want to get up to pray to the Lord, we have to submit it to the Lord too. How many know what I'm saying?

And what about the TV? I couldn't be a Pentecostal preacher if I didn't also talk about television, television sometimes makes us waste so much time, brothers, it's terrible. I am going to confess something to you: recently I got caught up in a television series and I saw one, and until the series ended, I had to ask the Lord for forgiveness many times, look, the Pastor also suffers from these things too, and I I never promised, and here I commit myself in front of my Congregation, it is a waste of time, and I am not talking about spending hours and hours, but it is something that steals time in your life.

So, first of all, I want to encourage you to ask yourself today: what area of my life serves as a stumbling block so that I can bear fruit for the Lord, in what area of my life is Satan working? Again, it is not that a demon appears in front of him smelling sulfur to be from the devil, no, the enemy is very subtle and there are structural areas of our lives in which he prevents us from living an evangelistic lifestyle, and you know What are you going to have to do in that case? You are going to have to have a confrontation with the devil in that area of your life as well.

You are going to have to identify that area that is preventing you from being fruitful with the Lord and you are going to have to kneel and fast, take time to fast; Don't think it's a noon fast there eating corn flakes and that's going to solve your problem, right? perhaps you are going to have to fast for several months taking out one day a week or half a day, whatever, praying to the Lord bringing that request before God continuously and seeing it as you are entering the desert.

The desert can be your bedroom, the desert can be a sofa where you are going to sit to cry out to the Lord for a little extra, the desert can be coming to church half an hour before the service begins and looking for a separate place where you a brother comes to beat you up since he sees you there and he has nothing else to do and then he comes to bother you, hide somewhere where they won't see you there in the other sanctuary, and if you see him let him be praying, don't bother him either The fact is that the desert can be any place where you are going to seek to separate yourself to consecrate your life to the Lord, so you have to take time.

I am taking time and as I tell him one thing I tell him the other, this time in my life I need direction from the Lord and I am taking extra time to be in the Presence of God and ask him to help me break anything that is preventing the glory of the Lord is manifested more in my life and in my ministry. I want to invite you to do the same, I am speaking from personal experience, but if you want to be fruitful for the Lord, you are going to have to pay the price and you have to name that giant that is in your life, and you have to resolve that, and give the battle, and cry out to the Lord for God to break whatever is preventing you from entering that next level of productivity and being fruitful with the Lord, amen?

This is how the Lord Jesus Christ had His own moment of confrontation and then He had other moments as well because the Bible says that when the temptation ended and he defeated Satan, it says that the devil left him for a while, look for him there and you will see that it is so I don't know if it's here but it does say that: "And when the devil had finished all temptation he withdrew from Him for a while" and the fight against the enemy when you want to be fruitful with the Lord will be for your whole life , and when you identify that the devil is using something in your life to attack you and to hinder you, rebuke him in the Name of the Lord and any area of your life that is preventing you from being all that God wants you to be, identify it, do not live your life limping

The devil wants to bleed you continuously, bring you all kinds of obstacles and distractions. Sometimes they are bigger things, sometimes they are serious things but we have to identify that the enemy is working in all these things and we have to go before the Lord and go to the desert and say: Father, I am going to fight this battle in Your Name and I am going to win in the Name of Jesus, and I am going to define that topic and I am going to seek Your anointing and Your liberation, amen?

So that's one of the things that I see here, that the Lord throughout His evangelistic life was always fighting with the demons or the temptation of the devil in His own life in one way or another trying to divert him and get him away from His direction in that He had to go, and we have to continuously identify that in our lives and pay the price of being a warrior who is always alert.

The Bible says: "Be sober and watchful because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks like a lion looking for someone to devour" we have to look for those weak areas and always give glory to the Lord.

So if you want to live an evangelistic lifestyle what you have to do is confront the enemy at all times and identify those areas in your life. There is a lot of cloth to cut and I am going to deal with just one more so as not to finish too late, and I think that what I am going to do is that I am going to continue this topic later when we have the opportunity next Sunday perhaps.

The other thing that I see after that part of verse 1 to 12 that describes the temptation, says in verse 14 that: "Jesus returned" how? “in the Power of the Spirit to Galilee and his fame spread throughout all the surrounding land; and taught in their synagogues, and was glorified by all” what happens when you live a life of confronting the enemy and giving attention to the areas that have to be addressed and that you are always perfecting, polishing and surrendering your life to the Lord, and declaring the Lordship of Christ and of God in your life? It is that the Power of God increases in your life, the anointing of the Lord increases in your life.

There are areas of our life that, even if they are not such horrible sins, sadden the Holy Spirit. Do you understand that expression to grieve the Holy Spirit? Grief means anything that grieves, that diminishes the Holy Spirit's ability or desire to move freely in your life and that ultimately ends up diminishing your power, diminishing your anointing, diminishing your effectiveness, diminishing your sense of God's Presence. in your life and when you fix those things, and you deliver them to the Lord, you see that the anointing of God increases immediately; you feel more joy for the Lord, the Presence of the Lord manifests itself more in your life, God uses you, you will find moments in which you will be able to testify of Christ, you will enjoy more when you speak of the Lord, you will experience close moments with God, you will begin to see miracles in your life.

That problem that you had with your son who did not want to come to Church, who did not want to seek God at the moment, like magically one day out of nowhere your son tells you: Mom, I want to go to Church, or that person who She was harassing you at work at the moment or they move her to another department or she leaves work and it's like God resolved that and you don't know how. When a person is in the center of the Will of God, there are more opportunities for the Power of God to manifest in our life.

Do you know that there are many battles that we fight directly with the devil that are not even necessary? Because if the Power of the Holy Spirit were in your life, that power would keep the enemy at bay and many fights that you have to fight would not even take place because the Lord would neutralize them in front of you.

The Bible says that the anointing of God rots the yoke, Pentecostals know that verse very well, right? the anointing of God rots the yoke. When something rots you don't have to look for a pair of scissors to cut it, do you? if the yoke rots you simply do: fuich and the yoke itself breaks because it is rotten by the anointing, the anointing of God moistens the devil's rope. Wow that turned out great, write it down there before I forget and return it to me at the end of the service.

Yes sir, the anointing of God in your life humidifies, moistens and rots the bonds of Satan in your life. When there is holiness, when there is closeness to the Lord, when we are continually giving Him different aspects of our lives, then the Power of God manifests itself because brothers, when we have Christ in our lives, in our hearts the Holy Spirit dwells within us, with all His Power is residing there, resident, but one thing is the Power of God that resides in us and another thing is the manifest Power of God that manifests itself in our life. Do you understand what I am saying?

An iron has all the power it needs placed on the board, it has the wires, it has the electronic programming, it has the cord, it can be connected to the electricity in the house but until you press the button, right? and you turn it on, the power is there in the iron but you touch the surface of the iron and it's cold, but when you turn it on the iron gets hot and you can iron then right?

And so it is with us, when you are a child of God the power is already within you, you are like an iron but it is not turned on. There are many Christians who are dull plates, listen to me how good that was, write that down there too (laughs), hey if you are not going to give it to me then I am going to have to give it to me myself. I am going to title this sermon: Don't be an iron turned off, be an iron on (laughs), what I want to say is that many times we are: Lord give me power, Lord I want Your anointing and God says: unless the anointing is already within you, activate it now so that it manifests itself, remove all that crap that is covering it and let it express itself in your life, right? many times it is so.

There are things, there are practices, there are attitudes, there is neglect in our spiritual life that is preventing the Power of God from manifesting in us and then when we have had our confrontation with Satan in the desert, and we are cleaning ourselves like the Power of God naturally it rises, God's anointing manifests itself and then miraculously things begin to happen around us.

You become a bearer of God's purposes, God can then use you in many things. Do not fight so much to obtain the anointing, fight rather to remove the obstacles to God's anointing in your life.

And so I see that, once the Lord is baptized by the Holy Spirit in water when He has His encounter with John the Baptist, once He enters the desert He has His direct confrontation that establishes a legal precedent regarding His superiority over Satan, then He returns from the desert, enters His public Ministry and God begins to do things around Him, and if you want to be a truly useful life for the Lord you have to have your own time of consecration.

I believe that many of you God wants to use you greatly and I tell you brothers I am very clear, the Power of God has very little to do with you having a doctorate in theology, it does not have much to do with being very well educated neither with money nor anything like that, the Power of God is irrespective of your educational condition or character, what the Power of God is looking for is an empty and clean vessel to dwell in it and manifest itself, and God wants many of you use for His glory.

Start looking for the Power of God in your life. Take a moment in your life and convert for the second time right now, and say: Lord in the Name of Jesus I want to be a stove, I want to be a stove lit by Your Power in my life, I renounce lukewarmness, I repent of my lukewarmness, I renounce spiritual lukewarmness. Don't do it to please me, do it because you truly have a commitment there. Say: Lord, I am tired of being a dull iron, I want You to light my life and I am going to pay the price, I am going to identify those things that are preventing Your anointing in my life and I give you right now that which is serving as a stone of stumbling block.

Brother, if you don't forget when you leave here, God is going to change your life and you are going to begin to see that the Power of God is going to manifest in you, but you have to understand that the Christian life operates based on power.

The great genius of the Pentecostal movement is that, that Christians rediscovered the importance of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and when they began to search for the Power of God and the Holy Spirit, and His gifts, God activated a movement that It has run throughout the Earth and has been the matrix of the Pentecostal movement throughout the Earth, but that Power of God was there in the world, it has been there since it was poured out on the day of Pentecost, but for a long time the Christians forgot to seek of that power and they got into simply being the Church doing their things as they do, but God wanted, God was looking for people who understood that you have to look for the Power of God, and I want to awaken your spirit this morning in the Name of Jesus.

I believe that many of you need God to awaken your spirit, you need to have, I need to have a confrontation with the devil in the desert, an encounter with God but also to defeat Satan, we need a confrontation where God calls you to be aware that He wants you, He needs you, He is looking for recruits to do something great in this time of history, and He needs laborers for His harvest, and that He doesn't care if you have seminary training or if you have money, or that you have a privileged mind, or that you are physically attractive, the Lord does not care about any of those things, the only thing that the Lord is looking for is a man, a woman who loves him and who desires him, and who wants to see His glory manifested in his life.

There are so many people in the Christian Church including our Congregation who have not had that moment of naked confrontation to say to the Lord: Lord, I give you my life and I want to be a spear in Your hands, an arrow in Your hands, a cannonball in Your hands. Your hands and I need to meet with You, and I need to overcome neglect, indifference, fear, conformism, the excessive appetite for my comfort, inferiority complexes and on this day I promise to clean myself so that You can use me, I renounce to what prevents me from being what You want me to be and I promise to live the lifestyle that You require Lord, I am willing to pay the price that You require Lord, activate me, activate me, ask the Lord to activate you in this tomorrow.

If you believe that this is for you and again, think carefully before doing what I am going to ask you, but if you are having a moment of encounter like this right now, directly with this call to confront the devil in the desert and name him that you want that area of your life that has to be taken to the desert and delivered to the Lord so that God can then bring you out in the Power of the Holy Spirit and you can be a magnetic person like the Lord Jesus Christ was, used greatly by God , then I'm going to ask you to stand up according to God's motivation.

If you have made that pact with the Lord in your life, if you have truly told him and I would like to see, I hope that someone who has never taken that step this morning feels it, some young people, some people who are truly feeling that called, ask God to put that fire in you this morning, and then I want you to start looking for God in your life tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, during the week.

What prevents you from consecrating your life to the Lord, what has prevented you right now from having that moment with the Lord, what holds you back from taking that step? Do not do it by surprise because of what the Pastor will say if you stand up but if you have that conviction then I think you should stand up, and if you do not have it then my question is what is happening in your life that you don't have it, what ties do you have to break, what encounter in the desert do you have to have so that this miracle can happen in your life?

There is no better life than the life lived in total dedication to the Lord burning like a perpetual flame so that God can illuminate this world and warm this world. I want you to have your encounter there right now with the Lord, God is speaking to your life. Ask the Lord, identify that giant right now: your career, a habit that does not glorify the Lord, love of money, of comfort, the inertia simply that ah! this is simply nonsense from evangelicals, God is calling you to consecration, God is calling you right now to surrender, what I am saying is that it is like a second conversion, it is like a second conversion what God is asking right now of you.

This morning I myself right now say: Father let me right now be the first to declare my radical commitment before You to be a radical Christian and to live the rest of my days seeking Your glory and being a resource to You, whatever it may be. The area of my life that is trapping me and is holding me back I give it to you right now Lord, I give it to you and I promise to seek Your Will for my life, and I am going to enter the desert, tell the Lord like this: I am going to enter the desert, I want to enter the desert.

I have been in the desert, I have been fighting in the desert lately for a while, I have had many fights in the desert but I am in a time in the desert in which I know the areas of my life that I have to give to the Lord so that He can use me more and I want you to accompany me this morning in the same way.

It doesn't matter how consecrated you are but you have to have an encounter with your enemy, with the Power of God, God is not going to let you fight Satan alone, if you are consecrated He will be by your side and He will get ahead. Let's get out of here consecrated to the Lord, let's get out of here to be a useful people for God. Thank you Lord we adore you Father and we consecrate our lives this afternoon Lord this morning we praise you thank you.