What is your Problem? – Part 2

In review, what problem or circumstance are you facing? If you don’t know your problem, then you certainly don’t know the answer. You don’t have a health problem. You don’t have a financial problem. You don’t even have a devil problem. Your problem is NOT the circumstance. You have a knowledge problem.

Hosea 4:6a My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: (KJV) destroyed = Hebrew = A primitive root; to be dumb or silent; hence, to fail or perish; trans. To destroy, cease, be cut down (off), be brought to silence, be undone.

MSG My people are ruined because they don’t know what’s right or true.

AMP My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge [of My law, where I reveal My will].

5 Reasons Circumstances Overtake Us:

1) We don’t know how much we are loved.

You are valued in Heaven.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

Luke 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (NAS)

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing. (Berean)

1 John 4:9-11 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (ESV) Propitiation = Greek = forgive, pardon, favor.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (ESV) Plan = Hebrew = imagination, intention, purpose, thought.

2) We don’t know who we are.

Ephesians 1:11 In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, (ESV)

Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. (ESV) Sealed = Greek = to attest ownership, authorizing (validating) what is sealed.  
Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. (ESV)

3) We don’t know who the devil is.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (NKJ)
1 John 3:8b …the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. (Berean)

Colossians 2:14-15 having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross! 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Berean)

4) We don’t know the power and authority given us.

Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. (KJV)

Ephesians 1:17-23 in order that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. 18 I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, 20 which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 22 And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Berean)

1 Corinthians 2:12-22 We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. (Berean)

Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (KJV)

Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. (KJV)

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (ESV)

5) We have been taught wrong.

2 John 1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring these teachings, do not take him into your home or even greet him. (Berean)

Romans 16:17-18 Brothers and sisters, I urge you to watch out for those people who create divisions and   who make others fall away [from the Christian faith] by teaching doctrine that is not the same as you have learned. Stay away from them. 18 People like these are not serving Christ our Lord. They are serving their own desires. By their smooth talk and flattering words, they deceive unsuspecting people. (GWT)

Galatians 1:7-8 Not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! (NET)

Ephesians 4:17-18 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. (NIV)

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ. (Berean)

1 Timothy 6:3-5 If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with godly teaching, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and semantics, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain. (Berean)

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (Berean)

Isaiah 8:20-22 Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict His word are completely in the dark. 21They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven 22 and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness. (NLT)

When asked, “How are you doing?” many will answer, “Pretty good, under the circumstances!” What are you doing under there? It is your choice to believe and act upon the Word of God then you WILL rise above all circumstances that ever come your way.