Q&A with Koloff - #7

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Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Nikita Koloff here. Questions and answers. Q&A with Koloff. The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to Questions and Answers with the Devil's Nightmare, Nikita Koloff.

Q&A with Koloff. And today on the show, Jeff Pendleton sent in this question. He asks, what would you tell a seasoned Christian man who has struggled with living a pure and holy life for the Lord and has sabotaged his walk with God?

And then there was a second part to that, or a second question. How can he maintain spiritual strength and victory? Well, when I look at those questions, Jeff, what I'm really reminded of is that life in and of itself is a daily grind.

It's a daily walk. We're human. We're flesh and bone. There's a real enemy, Satan who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Whether someone's a seasoned Christian or brand new, what we call baby Christian, right? It doesn't make the enemy happy. We've stolen another one out of his camp, so to speak. And so he's relentless. The enemy, in my experience, is relentless in the pursuit of sabotaging, it's a good word, of sabotaging somebody's walk.

Or you might say staining their walk or trying to just really ruin their witness for Jesus. And so I would say the struggle is real with all of us, with everybody, and certainly not just this man who you're referring to, but with each and every one of us. And the good news is, the Bible says, I think it's in Hebrews, and I think in the fifth chapter where it says, you know, we don't have a high priest who can't sympathize, really, and I'm kind of paraphrasing here, but with all the same things we struggle with, because he himself was faced with all the same temptations, all the same struggles.

I mean, let's face it. I would be one to say, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he struggled with what he knew he was going, I mean, three times he asked if it could change, right? Hey, can a dad, a father, a abba, papa, is there any other, is there a plan B?

Right now would be a great time to share with me a plan B, like if there's any other way I can accomplish the same thing without having to go to that cross. And of course we know from Scripture, he anguished and struggled in the Garden, didn't he, to the point of sweating drops of blood. So even our high priest, even Jesus himself struggled, struggled with things and was faced, again, with the same temptations we're faced with. I mean, listen, the whole living a pure life, a holy life, gosh, I would imagine, you know, in his entourage of people who followed him, I don't know, I'm not there, but I can just envision, I know as much as things change, things remain the same, by that meaning, humans are humans, right? We're all fallen by nature, live in a fallen world, a broken world, and so I could just envision, you know, whether it's the betrayal of a friend, which he had, right, suffered the betrayal of a friend, or everybody who he poured into for three plus years and discipled, who all turned their backs, who all ran off, ran off, ran away.

I mean, literally, one ran away naked, right? They grabbed his boy who was wearing the night they arrested him and he ran off naked, the Scripture says, right? And so I'm saying all that to say, you know, what this man is struggling with is, I mean, really nothing different than any of us struggle with. So I just want to kind of lay that foundation, right? But you ask, you know, he's struggling with this, you know, how can he maintain, you know, spiritual strength and victory? And I mean, you, in a sense, kind of gave what I would give as far as part of an answer, you're realizing that if we stay in the Word daily, we develop a prayer life, because those are vital, those are vital, right? The daily Word, staying in the Word daily and developing a prayer life, those are, for me, two keys to me overcoming the struggles that I can be faced with, or you might even say the temptations that I might be faced with in living a pure life, a holy life for the Lord. So those are two key things, being in the Word daily, you know, God, I'm going to hide your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So I believe the more of God's Word we get inside of us, the more it transforms us into the image of Jesus. I was just reading it this morning in a devotion, you know, Him from glory to glory transforming us into the image of Jesus.

But that's a daily, that's a journey, that's like not an overnight thing. I'm reminded of a, there's really a Rich Mullins, I don't know if you ever know that name, it goes kind of way back, but a friend of mine sent me a movie on the life of Rich Mullins. Now he may be best known for, he was a songwriter, eventually moved to Nashville for a while, but our God is an awesome God. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love.

Our God is an awesome God. You probably know that song, or if you don't, man, go look it up on YouTube. That's probably one of, and he wrote songs for Amy Grant. I mean, but you know, if you watch his life story, guess what he struggled with his whole life? He struggled with alcohol his whole entire life. And yet, I look at his life story and see how God used him in such a mighty way as a songwriter. And he had a real love, he had a genuine, authentic love for Jesus.

You could just tell it. But yet he struggled with that. In one sense you might say, well, man, that sabotaged him. But then again, I don't know, did it?

I mean, people are still impacted by that song today, all these years later. And so, you know, as an encouragement to this man, right? You say, how do you maintain spiritual strength and victory? Just consistently every day be in the Word. Get the Word, write the Word on the tablet of your heart.

Get the Word in you. God, I'm going to hide your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. And I will say for the record, you know, I'm 27 or so years into this journey with Jesus. To some people's shock, perhaps, I don't live a perfect life.

Just so everybody knows. I don't live a sinless life. But I will say this, for the record, the closer I've drawn in my relationship and my love for Jesus, the more passionate I've got about him and drawn into that relationship with him, I know this, I sin less. So I don't live a sinless life.

I'm just being transparent here. But I do sin a whole lot less because more and more every day I fall more and more in love with him. I fall in love with his Word. And my prayer time is just conversations with him. And one thing that I'm going to learn in 2021 that he's really impressed upon my heart is, as much as I talk to him in my prayer time, is just then shutting up.

That's the only way I know how to say it. Just shut up and listen, right? I've learned that I don't listen enough. I might ask a bunch of questions and I don't even stay around for the answer. I'm like rushing out the door.

I'm like, really? And so part of my focus for 2021 personally is going to be learning to sit and just listen to the Lord, for him to speak. And so I would say, or kind of summarize, to say, implement those things, right?

The Bible, the Word, prayer. And again, this guy may already be doing those. There are others out there listening.

You may already be doing that. And how you phrased the quote, you said, it seems like victory still seems so far away. Well, you know what? God will move us from glory to glory, from victory to victory, until he returns or until he takes us home.

We never have the ultimate victory, right? And so I hope, I hope, I hope, Jeff, that that's helpful for you as you minister to this guy and perhaps maybe you're discipling him. I appreciate the question. Thanks for emailing that in. And I appreciate you being a fan of the podcast.

It's time to man up. And who knows, Jeff, maybe sometime soon I'll be up there in your community and maybe even at your church and able to minister and speak into the hearts and lives of those up there in your community. So God bless you, Jeff. Thanks for the question. And look forward to staying connected with you on Twitter and Instagram and all forms of social media. God bless. This is the Truth Network.