{"id":7071,"date":"2017-04-20T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/?p=7071"},"modified":"2017-06-08T09:18:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T14:18:44","slug":"always-aware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/blog\/always-aware","title":{"rendered":"BLOG: Always Aware"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/blog\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7040\" src=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-Logo-2-1024x303.png\" width=\"398\" height=\"118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-Logo-2-1024x303.png 1024w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-Logo-2-185x55.png 185w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-Logo-2-300x89.png 300w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-Logo-2-768x227.png 768w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-Logo-2-600x178.png 600w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-Logo-2.png 1850w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Views-A.png\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BlogPhoto1-1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-7031\" src=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BlogPhoto1-1-173x185.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BlogPhoto1-1-173x185.png 173w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BlogPhoto1-1-280x300.png 280w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BlogPhoto1-1-768x821.png 768w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BlogPhoto1-1.png 905w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/blog\"><br \/>\n<\/a><em>WRITTEN BY MELISSA H. STRAUTMAN, LMT<\/em><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Always Aware &#8211; Step #1 in Learning How to Be\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/praying-together\">Always Praying<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Did you know that God has actually appointed a supernatural ruler over this earth during this age; one that is in charge of all the worldly things that we pursue? (Ephesians 2:2) Did you know that this ruler opposes God\u2019s plan to strengthen His children through suffering and instead seeks to give Christians health and wealth and prosperity for their \u2018best life now\u2019? (James 1:2-3)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Pill-Bottle.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7079\" src=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Pill-Bottle-657x1024.png\" width=\"400\" height=\"624\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Pill-Bottle-657x1024.png 657w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Pill-Bottle-119x185.png 119w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Pill-Bottle-192x300.png 192w, https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Pill-Bottle-768x1198.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/downloads\/2017\/02\/170129-Praying-Together-Lesson-2.mp3\">Lesson #2 (Always Aware)<\/a> in the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/praying-together\">Always Praying<\/a><\/em>\u00a0series at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\">Grace Community Church<\/a>\u00a0makes the point that the two main reasons that we do not pray is the fact that we are either:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>not aware of the presence of our God or<\/li>\n<li>not aware of the presence of the devil<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No, I don\u2019t constantly think about the schemes of the devil, but after Pastor Wilson\u00a0hammered home just how hidden and pervasive those schemes are in our life, I see just how blind I\u2019ve been. \u00a0Those schemes can come in several forms. He can make our wildest dreams come true, leading us away from dependence on God or assault us with physical illness and chaos like Job.\u00a0 This is a war we know all too well but we fail to acknowledge it\u2019s origin and voracity.<\/p>\n<p>We must acknowledge the source and call it by name. The devil is tirelessly at war for our souls and we are in constant danger (1 Peter 5:8-11). If we acknowledge this we will stay in prayer for God to strengthen us through the battle, keep our witness pure and deliver us from evil.\u00a0 We don\u2019t get the option of being a conscientious objector to this supernatural war (Ephesians 6:12). \u00a0We also can\u2019t use human tools to fight it such as self-help techniques or substances that numb us.<\/p>\n<p>We need to always remember that Jesus is coming back to dethrone the devil and he has left us here in a constant battle, armed with some very special supernatural weapons (Ephesians 6). 1 John 4:4 tells us that \u201cgreater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world\u201d.\u00a0 So pray with confidence that God is always with you.\u00a0 Pray with thanksgiving for the promise of perfection, strength and peace that comes <strong><em>after<\/em><\/strong> we\u2019ve suffered. (1 Peter 5:10)<\/p>\n<p>Next week in <a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/downloads\/2017\/02\/170205-Praying-Together-Lesson-3.mp3\">Lesson #3<\/a>, Pastor Wilson shows us that the enemy around us (the devil) is not the only enemy we must contend with if we are going to be <em><a href=\"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/praying-together\">Always Aware &amp; Always Praying<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-via=\"GraceBG\" data-show-count=\"false\">Tweet<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\u00a0 \u00a0<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/share_button.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fgccbg.com%2Fblog%2Falways-aware&amp;layout=button_count&amp;size=small&amp;mobile_iframe=true&amp;width=68&amp;height=20&amp;appId\" width=\"68\" height=\"20\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week from Views from the Pew: Did you know that God has actually appointed a supernatural ruler over this earth during this age; one that is in charge of all the worldly things that we pursue?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"views":1958,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Church_pews_Old_Brick_Church_Mooresville_AL_image_by_Marjorie_Kaufman_01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11nUp-1Q3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7071"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7397,"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071\/revisions\/7397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccbg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}