Overcoming the World, the Flesh and the Devil

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on  Sept 7th  2025 by Colin. For the audio & video please click here.  For the worship please click here. 

Overcoming the  World, the Flesh and the Devil through Giving, Prayer and Fasting.

The Berean Example

Acts 17:11 tells us about the Bereans, who eagerly received the Word and examined the Scriptures daily. They were hungry yet discerning. Colin reminds us that every believer is called to live this way: to receive teaching with openness but to test everything against the Word of God.

Don’t just attend church—bring your Bible, take notes, study at home. God transforms us when we engage His Word with humility and expectation.

More Than Blessings: The Call to Be Soldiers

Colin compared the Christian life to joining the Indian Army. Many join for the benefits—pensions, medical care, privileges—but the true purpose of the army is to train soldiers for battle.

In the same way, Christians often focus on the benefits of faith—peace, joy, and answered prayer—while forgetting that we are enlisted as soldiers of Christ (2 Timothy 2:3–4). The Christian life is not about comfort; it’s about commitment, obedience, and pleasing our Commander.

The Reality of Spiritual Battle

From Genesis to Revelation, Satan has resisted God’s people.  But here is the good news: Satan is already defeated.

Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that our struggle is not against people, but against spiritual forces of darkness. We are not fighting for victory—we are fighting from victory, secured in Christ.

Our Spiritual Weapons

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:3 5 that our weapons are not worldly, but spiritual—powerful to demolish strongholds. Colin highlighted three weapons Jesus Himself taught in Matthew 6: giving, prayer, and fasting.

1. Giving: Breaking the Grip of Mammon

The world says, “Chase money, chase wealth, chase pleasure.” But every time we give, we declare that money does not rule us.

• Tithing (10%) is not giving—it is returning what already belongs to God (Leviticus 27:30).
• Giving begins where tithing ends: voluntary, cheerful, generous, and sacrificial.

Generosity reflects God’s heart—“For God so loved the world that He gave…” (John 3:16). Whether blessing a friend with a meal, supporting the poor, or giving extravagantly, generosity is spiritual warfare. It pushes back against greed and reveals the Father’s love.

2. Prayer: Aligning with God’s Heart

Jesus taught us to pray in secret, not for show. Prayer is not about big words or repetition but intimacy with the Father (Matthew 6:5–8).

Throughout Scripture, prayer is central—Moses, Elijah, Hannah, Daniel, and Jesus Himself. Prayer protects us from temptation, aligns our desires with God’s will, and brings breakthrough.

Colin shared the story of “Praying Hyde,” whose relentless intercession led thousands to Christ. A praying church is a powerful church.

3. Fasting: Weakening the Flesh, Strengthening the Spirit

Fasting removes the flesh from the driver’s seat and puts the Spirit in control. Jesus assumed His followers would fast (Matthew 6:16–18).

From Nineveh to wicked King Ahab, Scripture shows that fasting moves the heart of God. It brings clarity, humility, and breakthrough. Fasting makes us sensitive to God’s voice and strengthens us for the battles we face.

 Final Call

The Christian life is not passive. It is a call to be alert, disciplined, and faithful soldiers of Christ. Our weapons are giving, prayer, and fasting—they are powerful to bring transformation in our lives, our churches, and our nation.

The blessings are real, but the battle is the reason we’ve been called.

Reflection Questions

1. Do I approach Scripture with eagerness and discernment, like the Bereans?
2. Where is money trying to control my heart, and how can generosity break its grip?
3. Is my prayer life marked by intimacy with God or just requests for blessings?
4. Am I willing to practice fasting as a discipline that aligns me with God’s Spirit?

Spiritual warfare is real, but so is our victory in Christ. Let’s be a people who give generously, pray fervently, and fast faithfully—for the glory of God and the advance of His kingdom.

  Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

Crave the Word| Colin D

This message was preached  by Colin D'cruz at Word of Grace Church on December 18th, 2016. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

Earlier the doctor would do a test on you, to see what was wrong with you. One of the surest sign that someone is unwell is a lack of appetite. That’s why look at their tongue. If that is ture for our physical bodies, it should also be true for the spiritual body. The lack of desire to feed on the things of God is the indicator that there is something wrong,

1 Peter 1:23- 2:3- “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”And this is the word that was preached to you.” Craving means to have a great desire.

Q. Do you crave the word of God?

John 8:47 says “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

John 8:31-32- ““If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” If you know the word and you obey it, then we are his disciples.

In Psalm 1:2 the psalmist says, blessed is he whose delight is in the law of the lord and who meditates on it day and night.

Q. Is it a delight or is it a chore?

Sometimes, it’s our flesh that wars against holy desires. We say to people, youre in my heart. It means, you’re close to me.

Think about this- you wake up late and you have to make a choice between having breakfast or read the word. What would you do? Job 23:12 says I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread! If he had the choice, he’d have read the word.

The normal is that we need to desire and delight in God’s word. 1 Peter 2:1- like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk. Babies are cuddly and lovely. But they are helpless. They can’t do anything. They are only interest in milk! Peter is giving us a strong simile. Once the baby gets hungry there is no more peace. This is the aspect of new born babies that peter wants us to imitate.

Q. How does someone come to know Jesus?

It is only through the word of God. Peter could have said, teach the word, meditate on the word, hide the word on your heart, etc. they are all important, but he says, crave for the word. The starting point is to crave it. We need to ask God to change our appetite.

Q. What do you spend more time on?

It is not what you say you crave, it is the amount of time you spend on what you’re doing.

Peter is reminding us that we are born again by the word of God and so you will crave the word of God. Then he says, rid yourself of all slander and malice,etc. If these things are in your life, you cannot crave the word of God. If a little child has had a lot of junk food, they won’t want to have milk.

The Bible will keep you from sin and the sin will keep you from the Bible.

Pure spiritual milk- is uncontaminated word of God. You need to be careful where you are eating from. When you have kids, you sterilize whatever goes into their mouth. In the same way, let’s start with the unadulterated word of God. Hearing from God is not a very difficult thing to do.

1.      Get a modern translation of the Bible

2.      Start with the gospels if you are reading after a long time. Don’t read sporadically but systematically. The Bible is a series of letters. If someone you love wrote a letter, how do you read it? You start at the beginning and finish at the end.

3.      Read it regularly. Feeding ourselves spiritually is similar to feeding ourselves physically. You don’t eat one big meal once a week. We feed ourselves many times a day- in bits and pieces. How can you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So also read the Bible one chapter at a time. There is so much in the Bible that great theologians can’t understand it. But so simple that even small children can get it.

4.      Keep a journal, put the date and ask God to speak to you from the word. If you skip a few days, you’ll know how often you’re reading.

Q. How do you know the Bible is true? 

Just start obeying it and you’ll see your life transform. As you keep doing it, you grow strong. 

All the babies came out small and frail, but as they craved milk and fed on it, they have grown big. The same thing will happen in our spirit. 

 Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  

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Finishing the race| Justin

This message was preached  Justin at Word of Grace Church on the November 15th, 2015.  To listen/download the audio please click here  

Q. How we can stay focused in this great calling that God has given us?

It’s said of Eagles that they fly very high and don’t fly in groups. And they can see a prey from 5kms. The wind, other birds, even the rain doesn’t affect the eagles. It is completely focused on its goal.

We become effective when we are selective. The world steps aside to let those pass who know where they are going, who are focused. Even a slight deviation can be disastrous.

In March 6, 1987- Eamonn Coghlan, the Irish record holder for 500 m race was running in Indianapolis in a qualifying heat. With 2.5 laps left, he tripped. He managed to get up and catch up with the others. Just as he was about to cross the finishing line, he came onto the inside and relaxed because there was no one nearby. But he did not see that there was someone running on the outside that overshot him and finished the race seconds before him. All his efforts were rendered useless because he lost sight of the finishing line.

In Hebrews 12:2 we are called to fix our eyes upon Jesus who is the author and finisher of our race. We all have goals in life. What was Paul’s goal? Philippians 3:10- I want to know Christ. This was his burning desire. He’s not saying this at the beginning of his life, but at the end. He was a great pioneer and at this stage. He encountered Jesus in a very dramatic way, but he still lives with the longing to know Christ.

When God touched Paul’s life on the road to Damascus, God talks about his purpose for Paul’s life. In Acts 9:15- he says to Ananias “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.” Paul’s goal in life is that for which God has taken hold of him at Damascus.

Philippians 3:12-14: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus

 Q. How can we remain focused till we cross the finish line?

1. We need to have a clear perspective of the race in which we are involved: in verse 12, we see that Paul has not reached his goal. This is our starting point. In Philippi, there were those who felt like they have already arrived. But Paul says that it is not so. “Not that I have already attained.” Then he says, “or am already perfected”. Paul says he is still a work in progress. That is what we all are.

All of us who have met Jesus have begun that race. You and I are not called to settle down in our spiritual walk. We are called to be sojourners. There is a long way to go to attain the purpose for which God has called us.

Elijah after Mount Carmel when he was threatened by Jezebel says I’ve had enough, I give up. But the angel of the Lord says to him that he still has a long way to go.

In our Christian walk, we attempt to settle down because of various reasons. But we walk with the Lord. This is just a beginning and we are a work in progress.

2. To press on: In verse 14 Paul says that he wants to press on. The Greek word means persecute. The root word comes from ‘chasing’- As a hound chasing a fox relentlessly. That is the picture Paul has in mind when he talks about pressing on. There is urgency in taking hold of that for which God took hold of us. It’s very important that our goal is the same as God’s goal for us.

William Wilberforce when was discouraged because of his defeat in his fight against slavery, he opened his bible and a small piece of paper- a letter by John Wesley- fell out of it. It said, “unless the divine power has raised you up, I see not how you can win in your battle against that abominable practice of slavery. Unless God has raised you for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of man and the devil. But if God is for you, then who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Be not weary of well doing. Go in the power of his might.” He later on succeeded in the abolition of slavery in England.

The Christian walk is not our decision to follow Christ. It is God’s plan in our lives- his calling and work in our life. We run the race because God asked us to run this race for him. Therefore we are not our own. He brought us with the precious blood of Christ. That’s foundational. That’s how we need to press on.

In order to press on to that glorious calling we need to do two things:
1. Forgetting what is behind: Past is a good friend but a bad roommate
Q. How do we forget things?
Paul says he refuses to live in the past. We cannot wipe out the past- the hurtful things that have happened. But we chose not to look back, not to remember. We choose to look forward.We need to forget both our past failures and our past achievements.

Paul had a past of failures. In Acts 7 he gave the approval of killing Stephen. Acts 8 he went all over the place persecuting the church. In Philippians 3 Paul says he was a great persecutor of the church and he wants to forget that. In 1 Timothy, he says I am the greatest of all sinners. He says I don’t want my past to be a hindrance in moving forward. Satan, the accuser wants to remind us of the past. But praise be to God as he has forgiven all the sins and the past is dealt with already. We need to choose not to look at the past, forgetting our failures

We also need to forget about our achievements. We like to live on how God worked in our life and our own achievements in life. Paul had a great heritage. He came from a good family background, but he says, what things were gain to me, I have counted them as loss for Christ. We have to forget those things and look forward in our race.

2. Straining toward what is ahead: Thomas Edison, in one experiment, he needed one thing, for which he searched the whole of Ceylon, Burma, China until he found that material he needed for the filament and his experiment became a success. We are called to strain towards the call for which God called us. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul gives the example of a boxer. Paul talks about the discipline and strict training that is involved in our Christian walk.

Q. What are some of these disciplines?

It is our personal quiet time, prayer life and fellowship with one another. How are things in your life? Are you struggling with them? Or are they completely neglected? These things help us grow in the Lord.

In a race, the winner is decided by a fraction of a second’s difference where one person pushes himself ahead by just that much. In our Christian walk, we are called to cross the finishing line.

Q. What is the motivation?

Paul says, I run towards the prize that is set before. The prize is not only for winners but for all those who finish the race. We need to be focused till we finish the race.

In 1968, the Olympics were held in Mexico City. The ceremonies were all over. The spectators were prepared to leave. When the public announcer asked them to remain in their seats they were surprised. John Stephen from Tanzania, covered in blood, was a marathon runner entered the stadium. He had fallen down halfway and hit his head on the pavement, was trampled on by the other runners. Then he got himself up and reached the stadium.

Next day the media asked him, why he did what he did even though there was no way of winning a prize? He said, my country did not send me 11000kms to start the race but to finish it. Phil 1: 6 Paul says, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”

That’s the calling of God in our lives. May the Lord help us, the one who is so faithful in calling us, will help us complete the race for which he has called you and me.


Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.

Whose hands are you holding up? | Colin D'Cruz

This message was preached by  Colin D Cruz at Word of Grace Church  Pune, on the 5th of October 2014. You can listen/download the  audio by clicking here

We have begun a 24/7 prayer at Word of Grace. It’s heartening to know that people are praying for us 24 hours of the day! 

We see that we all have trouble. If you are living on earth you’re going to have trouble. John 15:16  Jesus says that in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. 

2 Corinthians 4:15- Paul writes our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Paul was extremely persecuted but says that they are light and momentary. Peter says in 1Peter 1:6- in this you greatly rejoice, though you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. You rejoice in the hope of Jesus. But for a little while, there is grief. Trials come in different shapes and sizes. Some sicknesses, finance, relationships, our own selves… there can be lot of things in our daily life. If you don’t have trouble, you are probably dead. But in Jesus there is victory. Not the victory that delivers us from bad circumstances, but will deliver us through bad circumstances. 

The Bible talks about three enemies we have as followers of Jesus face- the devil, the world system and the flesh. Jesus has overcome all three- the devil was defeated on the cross, the world is passing away and our sinful nature being destroyed, we can live by the Spirit and not by the sinfulness of the flesh.

In Romans 8:28- And we know that in all things, God works everything out for the good of those who love him. Now why did he say all things? The good things are anyway good for us, but even the bad things are being worked out for our good. He is sovereign and everything happens according to His will.

Romans 15:4- for everything that was written in the past was written …

The old testatment was written to teach us- so that by the endurance of the scriptures, we might have hope.

Exodus 17:8-16

This is a familiar story. It begins with Israelites who’ve been for 400 years as slaves. Moses delivers them mightily and then they go to the promise land. God fought for their salvation. They only had to smear some blood on

First challenge- Red Sea before them and Egyptians behind them. They are scared but God, as Moses lifts up the staff, parts the Red sea and delivers them.

In the desert, god provides for them miraculously. God sends them manna to feed them. They are thirsty and they have water from the rock. But as they go through the desert, the challenge is this- Amalakites are attacking them.

Who are these Amalakite- the descendants of Esau. Jocab was a crook and cheated Esau, so they were enemies to the Israelites. Amalakites attacked the ones that were lagging behind. Just as the Israleites have enemies, we have an enemy who is like roaring lion waiting to devour us. One lesson to learn is- don’t be a straggler. Those are the ones that the enemy will go for.

So what’s the strategy? As Joshua chooses men and goes to fight the Amalakites, Moses will go up the mountain with the staff. Now the staff is a shepherd’s stick, but it was the same staff Moses used to set Israelites free. Using that staff, God’s power was embodied into it. Many miracles were performed by the staff. It represents depending on God- interceding and prayer.

As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But as soon as Moses lowered his hands, the Amalakites were wining. Really, victory was in Moses’ hands. It was the partnership, but the battle was being fought on 2 planes. When Moses’ hands grew tired. They needed to be persevering. So Joshua overcame the Amalakite army. See the amazing power and methods of God. Victory lay in lifting up hands to God.

1.    We will have trouble because we have enemies. Sometimes big and sometimes small.

2.    There is a we need to learn to face anything and the strategy is to do two things:

a.     We have to do what we can do.

b.    We need to also be dependent on God. Do as if it depends on you but pray like it depends on God.

3.      Moses told Joshua what God told Moses to write it down for Joshua.

4.    When we engage in prayer, it’s tiring- so we have to do it with one another.

We will all have troubles- but from the scripture we see that God takes us through these troubles to build us up. God can change our situations in an instant, but he is also interested in changing us. We have to persevere in prayer. There is power in partnering in prayer.

In Exodus 17:15 at the end of their victory, Joshua did not get the glory, Moses did not get the glory, but God got the glory! We don’t seek glory- we want him to be glorified through the healing, the provision.

 

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.