.......................CHECK MATE....................
While reading one day I came across a section where the author was describing a painting in a French museum. This painting was called " CHECKMATE ". In it was chess board and the black rook and black queen were close to the white queen and white king. A man was sitting at the board with his head hanging forward cupped in his hands. On the other side was the devil laughing at him.
This piece of art speaks volumes. It has many layers of truth. To me the chess game represented life. The moves it took too get to where the playing pieces were at were choices made when the devil or simply life’s problems arose, or choices made in following the steps made in following the call of God on our lives.
In chess your opponents goal is to put your king in what is known as checkmate. Giving your king no outs and any move would result in him still being in checkmate. And your goal is the same against him. In life just as in this painting it is not people, places, or things that are our enemy, but rather the spirit that drives them. ( the devil )
The board has 64 squares in which you may choose to move your playing pieces. To me these squares represent choices that we make to take ground and neutralize the enemies advance into our lives, or choices we made that gave ground because we didn’t see a trap of the enemy.
One day as a tour was going through the museum and going on after looking at the Checkmate painting one person stayed behind studying the painting. After a while the tour guide came back and ask if there was a problem. The person said, "I am a chess champion, and as I look at this painting I think they need to change the name." " Why, " ask the guide. " Because you see the king still has one more move.
The artist painted it this way to get us to think. The man in the painting as well as in life at times thought or perceived he was checkmated. He was deceived by his own eyes. He still had options. His king still had one more move.
Example.. Have you ever been getting dressed and you looked to see which was the front and back of what you were putting on and after you got it on you discovered it was on backwards or inside out . Our senses can fool us. They can give us a false perception. We can not trust our senses.
2 Corinthians 5:7:
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
FAITH : truthfulness, conviction, consistency
SIGHT : exterior appearance, that which is exposed to view, that which strikes the eye.

How you perceive or the perception you have can put you in bondage or set you free....
Your perception is formed by what you give yourself too. The worlds way or God’s Way. The world will always oppose God’s way.. You can tell how much of the worlds way of thinking is in the church by simply saying what God says and stepping back and seeing if they agree or disagree. It is very important what you spend time looking at and listening to.
What you give yourself to will get into your heart. From your heart is where the issues of life are dealt with. What you perceive in your heart is what you will believe and act on From the heart you create your world...

Passage Proverbs 23:7:
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
This scripture is telling us that a person can tell us something and not be telling us what they truly believe. Ever hear a sportscaster say about an athlete, " His heart isn’t in it today"? That athlete has in his heart perceived he can not do it and has given up. When an athlete is so far behind there is no way to catch up, but he keeps on giving it his all, they say he sure has heart.
In proverbs 23:7 the word thinketh mean to estimate; to form an approximate opinion of( as to size, amount, number, etc) to form an approximate opinion about, a rough calculation based on incomplete data.
You are to study the word and as you do you will gather more data of who you are in Christ and what you can do and believe for and your perception and opinion or what you think in your heart will change, and you will be that.
The devil will try to work through circumstances and problems or people to cause you to form opinions and perceptions of yourself as worthless and useless. He will try to get you to perceive that you will never overcome.
As we grow in the Lord and listen to His Spirit as he gives guidance we will make the correct choices from the heart. Never give up always look up.
Let’s look at the of the chess board of life in the life of Elijah and the life of a widow woman that God sent him too.
Several times the widow woman was in a place she felt checkmated ( no way out ) but the Lord had one more move each time.. We have a king and he is the KING OF KINGS and he can never be checkmated
When ministering this lesson I used a large cardboard chess board with the squares being four inches square. I took a sheet of white and a sheet of black foam board and cut out thirty-two 4 inch squares of both. These squares would represent events, and choices made in life. I took First Kings Chapter 17 and broke it down into 19 squares of events and choices or moves made in life as in a chess game. This chapter is about a time in the lives of Elijah and a widow woman and I added things we face in our own lives and answers we can choose on the rest of the squares. If we truly believe and trust the Lord we will never be in checkmate. We will always through our King have One more move.
1 Kings 17
SQUARE ONE
1. And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 2 .And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 3. Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 4. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
SQUARE TWO
5.So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
SQUARE THREE
6. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
SQUARE FOUR
7. And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
SQUARE FIVE
8. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
9. Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
SQUARE SIX
10So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
SQUARE SEVEN
11. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
SQUARE EIGHT
12. And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
SQUARE NINE
13. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.
SQUARE TEN
15And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
SQUARE ELEVEN
16. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.
SQUARE TWELVE
17. And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.
SQUARE THIRTEEN
18. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
SQUARE FOURTEEN
19. And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.
SQUARE FIFTEEN
20. And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
SQUARE SIXTEEN
21. And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.
SQUARE SEVENTEEN
22. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
SQUARE EIGHTEEN
23. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
SQUARE NINETEEN
24. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.
As we look at these nineteen squares of the Chess Board of the lives of Elijah and the widow woman. Moves of the enemy were made to try to cause them to think Check Mate. It’s over no way out. And we see the Lord had one more move each time. The people had to obey and make a move and then the answer opened up. Elijah was Ask to hide by the brook. He had to go and do this, and the Ravens brought the food..
When the brook dried up he had a choice. God said to go to the widow woman. He could have thought check mate it’s over and stayed there and died. He went and when he found the widow she was in a mind frame of check mate. She had a small amount of meal and was going to fix it for her and her son and eat it and die. The Lord had one more move. He told the prophet to ask her for a cake first and then she and her son could eat and her barrel of meal wouldn’t waste nor the cruse of oil fail until it rained on the earth again. She had to make a choice. She had to make a move. She did and meal and the oil never ran out.
We come to many choices every day. The enemy is working to neutralize us and wants us to give up. He wants us to think there’s no way out.. CHECK MATE Jesus has overcome the world and greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. In Jesus our King we always have one more move. God is always presenting us with a choice as he directs our steps.. He never asks us to do anything that he hasn’t equipped us to be able to do. We must choose too step out and obey and put the enemy in check mate in our lives.
I was watching an episode of the show House tonight and he was playing a game of chess against a boy. The boy spoke up and rattled off a series of moves and counter moves and said to house you are going to lose so just turn the king over and accept it now.. House laid his king over. He kept the board as it was and studied it and found out he could have won. He told the boy this and the boy said I know I was bluffing. House took what he heard and formed a perception that he was going to be check mated and gave up.. That is what the devil tries to do to us. He tries to push us down and into believing that we just can’t make it but God always has a way. You can not check mate God. Life is series of choices. Never think there is no way out. Always choose God and his way. He has the answers for anything that is wrong in your life.