"I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only on me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

In my last e-pistle I made the statement that God is a good God and the devil is a bad devil and that when we have good things happening to us it is from God and when we have bad things happening to us it is from the devil. Some of you expressed concerns over this statement and I want to apologize for making a statement that has caused some of you to look at me with a funny look. Hopefully I can clarify my thinking for all of us and I truly appreciate your patience and love as we all pursue Him, the One we all desire to have our being in. I work to make my thoughts concise in order to present each devotional in a manner that is not too long because I know you are busy.

We as a family began this walk in the Spirit back in 1968 and one of the first things we saw was that God is good and the devil is bad and if we are not careful we will blame the Lord for bad things. I had spent years working to produce health in myself and our family. We had moved to the country and were raising as much food as we could organically along with wonderful fresh milk and barn yard produced eggs. It always seemed that perfect health was just around the corner and we would just work harder to attain it. The Lord gave me an open vision of Himself on the cross one morning and I recognized that he not only was made sin on our behalf but at the same time he was made sickness on our behalf. Literally He died as a sick sinner and went to the grave as such.

I heard a preacher preach about Friday is here but Sunday is coming and this is the good news of what followed Calvary. When Jesus came forth from the grave he came forth in resurrection life both free from sin and sickness. I love the following verse and pray that the Holy Spirit will help us today grasp what He, the Holy Spirit did for Jesus and us on resurrection morning. Glory!

"If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:11-13)

We quickly saw that as we embraced Jesus as our righteousness and health we irritated the devil and he was not going to just pack up and leave. We saw that we had a fight on our hands but by the grace of God we purposed to give it all we had and asked the Lord to help us put on His armor and rise up to the occasion of very possibility being more than conquers through Him. We saw many miracles over the next few years as we learned to fight the good fight of faith. We stood this morning here in the hills of Samaria giving thanks with grateful hearts for our good health. Yes, God has been an exceedingly good God to us.

It was from this vantage point that I came to the conclusion that God is good and the devil is bad. Yes, we have been called to suffer for His great name sake and I want to make sure we understand this and what it entails. Bottom line for each of us is that we must allow the Holy Spirit to reveal moment by moment where we are at in Him and if we are being picked on by the devil or have we been called to embrace and endure suffering. This can be a real challenge for each of us as we ask the Lord for a spirit of discernment to help us in our walk with Him on a daily basis.

"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:8-11)

We will continue this discussion in our next e-pistle as the Lord leads. May you have a glorious week end in Jesus and I pray that you will discover Him more and more in every facet of your life and those around you. Let us give Him praise and Glory for being who He is and the great love He has given each of us.

Blessings, Homer Owen