How To Protect Your Blessings!

We pray for a lot of different things. Christians pray often and even non-Christians pray in emergencies!
     I have a question for you today, If the Lord does bless you with something, how do you protect and care for it?
     Recently our church was aware of a special gift from the Lord but at the same time, we were made aware that the enemy would attempt to steal it. That's when the question came to mind, how do you protect the things the Lord has given you?
     You do realize that the enemy is roaming about on Earth, "Be well balanced and always alert, because your enemy, the devil, roams around incessantly, like a roaring lion looking for its prey to devour" 1 Peter 5:8. and he is here to "kill, steal and destroy", right? The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; John 10:10a. 
     With that foundation to help understand our situation then we do need to look at the idea of protecting the things the Lord gives us because also in John 10:10b He tells us that He came to "But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!"
     If the Lord came to give and the enemy comes to steal, then it becomes vital that we learn to guard and protect! Just by reading and agreeing with this concept we have taken a giant leap towards protecting. Awareness is the first step!
     1. Awareness  What has the Lord blessed you with? This will be answered for you when you pray and meditate on the subject, and yes, you as a Christian are to meditate on the things of the Lord! Meditation is not just for yogis! We are to be careful what we do let into our minds however, so take every thought captive to the Lord and meditate on the things of His kingdom! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:2
     2. Thankfulness When we're truly thankful for something or someone we're not "casual" about our attitude towards it or them. We take care to be aware of the situation, "is everything as it should be?" If we have a spouse that we love and are thankful for then we try to make sure their needs are met, if we have a child in our life that we are thankful for then we try to nourish and care for them, if we have a home we're thankful for then we maintain it carefully. The word "care" appears often when we think about thankfulness, we take care of what He has given us, and when we're aware that the Lord has blessed us with something to be thankful for, then we tell Him! We thank Him and praise Him! 
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name. Psalm 100:4
     3. Faithfulness If we receive a gift from the Lord we need to stay in a faithful attitude and position with it. I've been to parades and seen children running out to grab candy that was thrown out by the people in the parade. Their attitude towards the candy was kind of what we're looking at here. They would run out, grab the candy, bring it back to a parent and then turn and run after more. That really doesn't appear "Thankful or Faithful", only greedy. While we are to want and expect more from our Heavenly Father we are not to neglect what He has already blessed us with. He is not stingy, and His blessings are multiplied as we give to Him and to others, we do reap as we sow, but we need to always remain faithful to what He has put in our lives, never neglecting them and always thanking and praising Him for His gifts, not chasing after more. Remain Faithful!
     4. Persevere A good soldier does not fight one battle and think his work is completed, there are often many battles, some unto death. We are to be as persistent in our struggle against the enemy and his attempts to steal from us as a soldier is in battle! For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12  Prayer is one of your weapons, Pray over the gifts and blessings you are given! The word of the Lord is one of your weapons also! Remember the "sword of the Spirit"? Read your bible, apply the word of the Lord to your life and the gifts you have received! And remember to Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7, you win!
    Recap:
     1. Awareness: Be aware of your gifts and be aware of your enemy
     2. Thankfulness: Know where your gifts have come from and walk in thankfulness
     3. Faithfulness: Don't be greedy to the point of neglecting the gifts you have received
     4. Persevere: Stand firm in the battle, don't release your gifts to the enemy

     If you don't give up, you protect your blessings and gifts from the Lord and you win!

Pray

When did we become so divided? Do you believe maybe there is an enemy to our Nation in the Spiritual realm that has a goal of destroying the United States? 
     We are one of the few countries in the world that has had the nerve to declare ourselves "One Nation Under God"...... that is probably a battle cry for the enemy of our souls and the soul of our Nation! We are also one of the few....no wait, make that the only Nation that supports Israel, the home of God's chosen people! That puts another target on us! 
     Now to the divided part. In the last year or so we have seen so many divisions in our society, there is no more tolerance even though that is what is touted as the goal of our people! We have Democrats against Republicans, Liberals against Conservatives, blacks against other races, we have women against men, we have poor against rich, we have young against old, now we have teachers against government leaders...
     We have always been a Nation of diversity, always! The melting pot of the world was our nickname, I have a theory that part of the problem is some of the people's refusal to melt in the pot, but that is a different subject. This is about division brought about by our enemy.
     I'm usually writing this blog to "the choir" or other Christians, so now we can ask ourselves what do we do about this? We pray! We speak peace, love, and balance. 
     We are spiritual beings with a spiritual enemy but we also have a physical body and therefore our enemy uses physical issues to try to destroy us. 
     We may disagree with other people and their opinions, but we need to recognize that our battle is not against each other, it is not against people. We will always be in a spiritual wrestling match against our enemy as long as we are in this world. Be at peace with all people as far as in your power, but never, ever neglect to pray over issues that are against the soul of our Nation! If you do not stand firm and pray then there is a battle being fought over our Nation and you are not even showing up to defend it. Think about this, it is not something that can be ignored and/or left for someone else to do! Pray, pray, pray or face the victory of the enemy over our Nation.  

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 NASB 

If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18 NASB

Stay Spiritually Clean

     Lane and I have been to a conference recently and we know we are entering a new season of growth that while it brings exciting new opportunities it also puts us into new battles in the spirit realm. 
     "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12

     The Lord does not leave us on our own to fight the battles as best we can, but teaches us! He has equipped us with His armor, Ephesians 6:10-17, His Holy Spirit reveals things to us and matures us in our walk if we submit to the changes and the teaching.

     The lesson I have been given this week is to not allow the enemy to have anything "in us", even as Jesus said in John 14:30, "for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me". The visual that He allowed me to see was frightening and convinced me that it is vital to follow these instructions! They are not just casual suggestions, but instructions for our survival.

     Daily we are to put the Armor of God on and sometimes more than once a day if we remove part of it at any point! But we are also to walk clean, to give the enemy no ground in ourselves. 

     What does that mean? It means to give no room for fear, bitterness, envy, jealousy, criticalness, lust, selfishness, addictions, anger, pride, depression...the list goes on and on, but whatever the enemy holds out is bait of this world and that if you bite at it, that is the ground you have given to him to come against you. If you bite at his bait, he takes you deeper and deeper, if you resist, you are free from him and he has nothing in you, you are clean!

     In this season, it is vital that you stay clean! Pick up your cross daily, walk the path that Jesus walked, selflessness....at the end of the day, ask the Holy Spirit to show you any "slime" that you picked up through the day, any place that you might have slipped into the enemies grasp and confess it, get clean again! Don't go to sleep dirty! You cannot defeat the enemy if you do not stay spiritually clean. 

     Remember he is wily, but with the Lord you are victorious! Sometimes all it takes to overcome the enemy is to stand firm and refuse to be dragged into it. James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” An overcomer is one who resists sin no matter what lures Satan uses.

 

He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelations 3:21

He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. Revelation 21:7

Betrayed? Promoted? Prepare For Promotion!

     Where to begin? When God calls you to minister you will be hurt, there is no way to go around it, duck under it or ignore it. You're best hope is to focus on your heavenly Father and soar over it! Even outside of ministry life carries it's own share of hurts.
     We need to remember "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" Ephesians 6:12.             Trust me I know it's easy to say this but hard to realize it. The pain seems to be coming from someone that looks very "flesh and blood"! They are most likely people that you have in your life, maybe it's family, maybe someone you work with or go to church with. Unfortunately the truth is it's probably someone you've allowed into your life, otherwise there wouldn't be pain from their thoughts, words or actions, right?

     Have you read John 2:24-25 "But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart". 

     With these two teachings I believe you need to combine them to get the full idea. Our enemy is not flesh and blood, but because of the weakness in each man's heart, he easily becomes a tool of the enemy. 

     Yes, you'll probably go through a lot of carnal emotions when you feel betrayed or hurt by people, unless you've reached a higher level of sainthood than I have! You will feel betrayed, hurt, rejected, naked and exposed. Some anger may get mixed in too! But unless you want to go through all of these feelings again you really need to grab the lesson and incorporate it into your spirit. Once a lesson is learned you can apply it to your life and not have to go through the learning process over and over! In other words it's in your best interest to learn this! 

     So, first you hurt, then you remember that you're not alone. Jesus was betrayed, beaten and exposed to ridicule and yet He walked the path that God had given Him, He drank from the cup. He prayed for His betrayers, even the one that He had befriended and walked with daily, the one that betrayed Him with a kiss....Even the ones that shouted "Crucify Him!"... Even the ones that drove the stakes through His hands and feet.. Even the one that denied even knowing Him! 

     Can we do that in our own will? No!....but our will can choose to turn to Jesus and He will bring the power to walk His path. He will bring the power for forgiveness, He will bring the power to trust Him in all things. 

     Will you have to do this more than once? Most likely!...probably every morning that you wake up and remember the situation again. You will be faced with a choice, you can choose to focus on the betrayal and wallow in the pain or you can choose to be promoted to walk with Jesus in the victory of forgiveness that He shed on the world and that He will empower in you.

     We encourage you, choose Promotion! 
     

Managing Evil, Ephesians 6:12

     This weekend we had such a powerful time with the messages delivered by our pastors! I'm going to share Sunday's first when Pastor Steve Gray spoke on Managing Evil. The scripture that Pastor Gray started with was 
     For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
    The history that started this struggle was when Lucifer rebelled against God in Heaven, then he and his colleagues were kicked out of Heaven. They ended up on Earth and Lucifer established his kingdom. Jesus came to Earth and planted His Kingdom (not as an immediate overthrow of Lucifer, that won't happen completely, of course, until Jesus' return. But He did defeat Lucifer's claim to Earth). Now we are Jesus' seeds that have been planted, we are to grow and take control over our area of the world. In Luke 11:14 Jesus delivered the man from a demon of muteness, but did not destroy the demon. It is not yet time for the demons to be destroyed, but as Jesus managed them so we are also able. The demons can be herded out of our lives or we can manage them, but we are not in a position to destroy them.
     Pastor Steve shared some of the beliefs of the Jewish people, some things that we as American Christians have not all been exposed to, their culture, their traditions. He also shared some of the teachings from the Book of Enoch. (Pastor Steve is well taught in Hebrew tradition, history and culture.) Pastor also gave some history of the flood of Noah's time and God's purpose in it. He taught about the Naphilim that had been on the Earth, that they had come from the intermingling of the beings of the fallen angels(Watchers, Familiar Spirits) and of women. The fallen angels were "fallen", which gave the offspring spirits that were not like that of the normal person. They were giants, they were violent, oppressive and even cannibalistic, their nature was evil. This is what caused the need for the flood, to cleanse the land, these creatures grieved God. Noah and his sons were the only ones that had not had their blood lines contaminated by these beings.
     As Jesus has planted His spirit here in His followers, we are given the authority to manage evil and not only are we given the authority, we are expected to bring honor to God through our endeavours. We are equipped and given the power to "manage evil" as we walk and live in Jesus. We are given authority through Jesus' blood and name, but Pastor Steve cautioned that "you can't use His name if you don't lose your name".
     When we don't manage evil(demons, dark spirits, familiars, unclean spirits, troubling spirits, etc.), they manage us. So for the sake of your families, your community, your work place, your neighborhoods, your very lives, learn to manage the evil that tries to invade your life. You are empowered to run off these spirits that bring depression, sickness, divorce, disease, conflicts, arguing and various other afflictions with them. We need to take up this responsibility, the spirits are already aware of their impending doom and are in a submissive spirit. Scripture tells us that if we resist the devil, he will "flee"! If you think you are being troubled by an outside spirit, you CAN run it away! Be aware of the power that Jesus has endowed you with and use it. Be sure that the words are integrated in you, don't just use a rote memorized phrase. When you say "through Jesus name", know that you are living in Jesus. Know who you are, know who Jesus is and clean up your world, run the evil spirits out of your home, your work environment, you neighborhood, your life, your realm. Let your life bring honor to God~(The message that Pastor Steve brought was very full of teaching and information, I'm not able to post the full message here, word for word, this is my condensation of it! I would like to add a caution here, if you send the evil spirits fleeing, you have to clean up your area and secure it with the Holy Spirit or they will want to return and bring other ones with them(Matthew 12:43-45). I would encourage you to go to the archives of the World Revival Church to hear his full message if you have any questions.)