 
New Life

Volume 1

Rick L. King

Copyright © March 2012 Rick L. King

Published at Smashwords

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All Word translations are taken from the Greek and Hebrew in

The Online Bible used by Permission.

All Bible references are quoted from the

Authorized King James Version

About the Author

I have known the Lord for over thirty years. He came into my life when I was not even looking for Him. For years I would get mad at Him as He wasn't doing things that I figured that He should. He finally was able to get through to me that it was not Him that was causing so many problems. I had to learn that the devil was behind so many things and that I had authority over him. Now I know who to get mad at. God is a good God and wants good for His kids. We have an enemy and for the most part the church just disregards him. He doesn't go away just because we don't believe that he exists.

The books that I write reflect that we do have an enemy. We do have a God that if we will learn to walk in the Spirit instead of our head and/or flesh, that God will show us things that can change our world. Many articles I write are designed to help people find new freedom in the Spirit that they may follow Jesus. Until we get out of the way with our own ideas and plans, God cannot do what He really wants to do. We have been asking God to come into agreement with us instead of finding His mind and coming into agreement with him. What I write will help others learn to find His mind and find a closer walk with the Holy Spirit.

Table of Contents

About the Author

1. A Blessing or a Curse

2. A Doctrine of Devils

3. A Good Thing or a God Thing?

4. A Lesson in Pride

5. A Prayer or a Player

6. An Avenue of Healing

7. Being a Winner

8. Boldness to Speak Without Fear

9. By My Spirit

10. Can We Be Infected

11. Decree Grace

12. Did We Choose God or Did He Choose Us

13. Distractions from the Narrow Way

14. Donald

15. Endeavoring to Keep the Unity of the Spirit

16. False Burdens

17. Four Eyes

18. Freedom from the Law

19. Giving

20. God or Mammon

21. Greater Works

22. He Wants it All

23. Hindered Prayers

24. His Grace is Sufficient

25. How Can Two Walk Together

26. If You Love Me

27. Is Religion Destroying the Church?

28. Is There A Lazarus In Your Life

29. Jesus Has His Hands Raised

30. Keeping Our Word

31. Lay Down the Stones

32. Laying Down Your Life-part 1

33. Laying Down Your Life-part 2

34. Lazarus-A Higher purpose

35. Listen to Your Spirit

36. Majoring on the Minors

37. More Love, More power

38. Obstacles

39. Offences

40. Our Two Nature's

41. Overcoming the World

42. Prepare Yea the Way of the Lord

43. Putting Limits on God

44. Spiritual Grave Clothes

45. The Great Deception

46. There is More

47. There is More-Part 2

48. We Must Guard Unity

49. What the Devil Does Not Want You To Know

50. Yield to the Anointing

1. A Blessing or a Curse?

Many things that we ask God for in prayer we think will be a blessing to us. But is it really?

In Proverbs 10:22; the Word says "The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it" (KJV). God's blessings always make us rich. From a natural viewpoint we tend to think rich means wealth, money, possessions, etc. True riches are not necessarily these things although they may incorporate some of them. If wealth or riches were the thing that was really a blessing, then why are there so many rich people that are miserable? They seem to have all of the world's goods but have no joy or peace inside. God said that His blessings add no sorrow with them. Have you ever considered that true riches are actually spiritual? Have you considered the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23? Even though we may gain the whole world we may lose our soul. God's fruit of the spirit I have found to be true riches. If we have this fruit, no matter whether we are rich or poor monetarily, we can be happy. True riches are not based on externals, they are based on internals. It is the spirit that gives to us life, not all the worldly possessions.

I think of someone that I have known that has much money. Her goal was to have this big fancy house, so that she could house missionaries while they were in town. The house is worth a half a million dollars. She got her dream, but yet, none of her plans came into being. She must maintain and clean this house. She must pay a high utility bill. She must pay high taxes and insurance. She basically uses one room off the kitchen plus the bedroom. She got her dream, but did she get leanness of soul in the process? She is not really happy, nor filled with the joy of the Lord. It is interesting to me that she would have been full of joy living in a little shack and just giving away all the money that she had spent on this earthly mansion. So was her having her dream a blessing or a curse? Money if used for the satisfying of our own lusts will never bring the joy that the Holy Spirit brings. Joy, peace, and happiness only originate from the Holy Spirit. Sure there is a form of it, but it is not complete. We are only complete in Jesus. Our completeness comes as we are in Him and doing His will and not ours. If we think that building a kingdom for self will make us happy, then we are terribly deceived. If God places you in a house as described above, it would be full of His purposes. It would be used for His Glory and not yours. It would probably house many people and be a place for some kind of ministry. This is where life comes from.

One thing that I have found over the years as I walk with Jesus is that it doesn't seem to matter where I am, as long as He is there and in control I can be content and happy. My happiness comes from a relationship with Him. It does not nor ever will come from what I possess for self. What God allows me to have in this world is but the icing on the cake. He alone is the cake. The icing is more fun to share and give away to someone else. God owns everything yet do we see Him sitting on it? He loves to give as it is His nature. If we have God's nature working through us then we will be more pleased in giving than receiving. As we give, we always get back. We will never go without.

I am not in any way advocating that as Christians that we are to be poor. God I believe wants us to have everything. As we learn that the worlds good are not our happiness then they can no longer control us. Our decisions are made as we listen to what the Holy Spirit would want to do. Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friend. If we lay our lives down for someone, then wouldn't that mean that everything we are and have we would be able to give to our friend so that they would have no lack?

One thing that has disturbed me is that when I see someone wearing an expensive diamond ring and exploiting it on television as a minister, I must question where their heart is. There is nothing wrong with having such a ring, but have you ever considered how many people would the cost of this feed? How many struggling ministries are there that must live on almost nothing that are right on, could be helped with the cost of this ring? Personally, I have a tough time justifying owning such an item. I would have more joy in selling it and using the money to help someone in need. The deeper we get in the Spirit of God, the less these things matter to us. Things that I may have thought I needed in the flesh seem to never even be considered as something that makes me happy when in the Spirit. The deeper we go in Jesus, the less the worldly things matter. We find our completeness and joy in Him. Jesus said to a certain rich ruler to follow Him he had to sell all that he had and distribute it to the poor (see Luke 18-22 KJV). We don't hear that preached much do we?

2. A Doctrine of Devils?

This is a subject that I have wrestled with over and over. The church for years has preached this, yet my Bible says that we know them by their fruit. I personally have seen little good fruit from this doctrine. In fact, I have seen the opposite. I have seen many people disheartened and hurt. People have become disillusioned and stopped going to church.

The doctrine that I am referring to is the name it and claim it doctrine. This doctrine as I see it says that whatever we want just find a scripture in the Bible and confess it long enough and we will have it. I have known the Lord for thirty years and have never seen this work for me. I agree that the Bible is the Word (logos) of God. It has many precious promises. It also has many conditions to those promises. I look at the one that says that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. What is His will? Most would say that the Bible is His will. Ultimately this is true. Yet each circumstance that we face in life I believe cannot be fixed by just finding a Bible verse and repeating it over and over. We have to determine God's will in the situation. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Let's say you have a disease. You see in the Bible that the leper was told to dip seven times in the river Jordan. So, you take all of your money, buy a plane ticket and go and dip seven times. Did you get healed? Most likely you didn't. But you should have since it was the Word of God shouldn't you? The difference is this. The leper was told to do this. Were you told to do this? Did God by the Holy Spirit tell you to do this? Jesus said that He came not to do His own will but the will of the Father that sent Him. Jesus healed all that were sick and oppressed of the devil, yet He did each one in His own way. How do we know the way that He wants to heal us unless we hear from the Holy Spirit? Do we just try every scripture? Do we act out all the ones pertaining to healing? Of course we don't. All those scriptures about healing produce faith in us to believe that God does and will heal us. They are an example. To say that because God healed a leper once by him dipping seven times is the way that He will heal you is ludicrous. If the Holy Spirit tells you, that is different. Yet by just taking a scripture and acting it out in the flesh with no direct word (rhema) through the Lord is going to most likely leave you very discouraged and disillusioned.

What if Jesus wanted a new donkey? Did He out of his own will start confessing that He had one? Or would He go to His Father and ask Him for one and wait and pray till He knew if it was His Father's will for Him to have one? If it was God's will He would have just trusted and stood by faith till He got it. The point I am trying to make is the Name it and Claim it doctrine is religious and self-oriented. It leaves out God. It leaves out the Holy Spirit. It is asking God to do your will instead of you finding and doing His will. It is a backwards doctrine. The Holy Spirit is the one that leads and guides us. He is the one that reveals God's will to us (a rhema Word). He is the one that tells us what we should do. What He says to us will always line up with God's written (Logos) Word. Maybe God has a plan that when we are sick that He wants us in the hospital so that we may be a witness to a doctor or someone else. Maybe He wants to show you that He can supply your needs of paying the bill. God ultimately will always do what He said in His word that He would do for us. He is faithful. He just has many ways of getting us there. The promise comes through our obedience to His leading not by just acting out his word religiously. The trial is usually for a reason that someone may learn or be taught something by the Lord. Usually the naming and claiming is based in wants not needs. God promised to supply our needs, not necessarily our wants. Do we find anywhere in the Bible where we are told to keep confessing a scripture till we see it manifest? Did anyone in the Bible do this?

Jesus while on earth had a personal relationship with His Father. He gave up His will to do His Father's will alone. He died to self-want and desire. We are scripturally to do the same. Religion on the other hand is not based on a personal relationship. It is based on knowing about God and His Word, but not knowing God. It is based in self-righteous works. It does not allow Jesus to be Lord nor does it allow the Holy Spirit to be the one that teaches and leads. The doctrine of Name it and Claim it I see as a religious practice. It is not based in spending time with the Lord in prayer and intercession and getting the mind of Christ. It is not based in being obedient to the Holy Spirit leading and showing you what to do.

When we are sick does just confessing over and over by the stripes laid on Jesus back I am healed make you healed? What about the cause of why you are sick? Jesus wants to take an ax to the root of the problem. He can heal the problem any time that He chooses. It is a finished work of the cross. We are the given the right to expect healing through salvation. Yet, determining the cause of the sickness and how God would want to deal with it takes prayer, intercession and warfare at times. Let's say that there is a spirit of infirmity involved with why that you are sick. If Jesus just healed the sickness, the outward manifestation, then what about the root cause? If the spirit remained, at some point you would have the same problem again. Maybe if we spent time with the Lord He would instruct us to go to a certain meeting where the spirit would be discerned and cast out. Unless you heard from the Holy Spirit, you could never know to do this. The name it and claim doctrine never goes deep. It deals with surface problems, needs or our wants. The people that have tried this usually end up struggling with faith and are disillusioned. Where does faith that heals come from anyway? It comes from God. It is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So without hearing from the Holy Spirit and yielding to Him, what faith are we using? We are using our natural faith, not God's faith. When we have God's faith we just know we have something though we may see no evidence of it. We don't have to quote something over and over trying to convince our self that we have it. It is not supposed to be mind over matter. Faith comes through our spirit man. Just as when we are saved, we don't have to confess over and over that we are saved to know it. We confess once and we are saved and we know deep inside that we are saved.

The heresy I see in this doctrine is that the Holy Spirit is excluded. It is solely based on self and a religious practice. The statement we use to hear about praying through is important to know here. Praying through is praying till you know the answer. The answer may be just peace, yet you know that God has heard your request and His will for the particular situation will occur. He may tell you a scripture to believe Him for by faith or He may just give you a word to stand on. He may even tell you that this is not His will for you at this time. Praying through will take a major commitment with humility. It is saying that God's will be done. Its motive is only to find the will of God. If it is not His will then how will confessing a scripture over and over make something that you want to see happen? Whose kingdom are we trying to establish? Is it ours or is it God's?

I see this doctrine as a devilish deception based in a self-righteous religious spirit. It does not allow for a basic truth of the Word that's says that we must first lose our life to find it. We are trying to find what we perceive is life without losing our life in Jesus first. We are operating out of our carnality and trying to satisfy the lusts of our flesh. In James we are told that we ask and receive not because we ask amiss that we may satisfy the lusts of our flesh. Our motive is wrong; our motive must become as Jesus' to do His will and not our own. We need to be concerned more about pleasing Him than pleasing our self. Jesus may be our Savior but until we desire His will alone, He is not our Lord.

My Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned". Our life and faith come by the spirit not the mind. When we keep confessing over and over we are just doing a mental exercise to try to convince our self to believe something. Faith comes by the Holy Ghost, not our mind. The knowing is spiritually discerned not mentally. If we would just spend the time in prayer and get the mind of Christ through intimacy with Him, we would not even consider trying this devilish doctrine. We would know by our spirit what the will of God in a particular situation is and then stand by faith till it occurs.

We need to quit trying to take an easy way out, or so we think that it is. The only way to know is to hear from the Lord. To hear from the Lord will take commitment, humility, dying to self, fasting, prayer, intercession, warfare, and trust. That takes work on our part that some are just not willing to do. I want what God wants for me; as I know that what He desires for me is far greater than what I desire for myself. I just find out His word (rhema) which will never go against His (logos) word, and just stand by faith and believe that what He said He will do. I bring my thoughts into obedience with His and act as He leads. When the lies of the devil come I confess or speak verbally what God told me is true and the enemy will leave. What I confess is what God told me to confess by His Holy Spirit. Jesus also used the written word on the devil. He didn't use it to get something that He wanted. He said in Luke 4:8, "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve". Jesus used the word to tell the devil to leave. The devil cannot handle truth.

3. A Good Thing, or a God Thing?

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

I am reminded of a situation where I was trusting the Lord and walking by faith for all my needs. A friend told me that I was their project. I told them that my source was only God. Granted the Lord may use you at times to minister to my need, but my source alone is Jesus.

We will be moved with compassion with people in need during our walk with the Lord. One thing that I believe we must always remember is that God cares for them more than we ever could. God has a plan for them in their walk and journey to find him. God is not calling us to take on "projects"; he is calling us to just be obedient to him. We may say that they need help and helping looks right, but is God telling you to help them? There is a fine line here, as we are told that if we see our brother naked, we should give him our coat. It is a good thing to want to help others, but the only way our motives can be pure, is if led by the Holy Spirit. We can get so caught up in doing a good thing, that we actually miss a God thing. You may think that if it is a good thing that is always a God thing. That is not true.

As we will look on our own journeys, had people helped us at times, we would not have learned some lessons that the Lord wanted to teach us. We may not have seen a miracle that God did had someone else been playing God over us.

I believe that we must always remember that God loves and knows peoples need. We are to always be willing to give and act, as the Holy Spirit would lead. Since the message of the Word is dying to self, then we must allow Jesus in us through the Holy Spirit to guide all we do. Even though we want to help, it can still be a fleshly self-driven motive. Our motives must always be to do the will of God, not our will, even though seems so good.

The word "care "in the Greek comes through the idea of distraction. Many things look right and are commendable, but yet they actually distract us from what God would have to do. When we of self take on projects, they will bear some fruit, but will they have the fruit that God desires? The Lord told me years ago, "It is quality, not quantity". Quality only comes as we do things Gods way and are led by him. Jesus said that he did what he saw his Father do. He didn't come to do his own will. I am sure Jesus saw many opportunities to do things, but yet he did not do his own will. He waited for God to show him what He wanted to do.

Mathew 7:

21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.

22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I think that maybe if we as a church would start doing God things instead of good things, we would see much more fruit. It is time that we all learned that it is not about our will and us, but only about Him and His will.

4. A Lesson in Pride

Did you ever deal with pride? Did you ever feel like someone show know something that you do and put him or her down because they had not learned that truth yet?

God said that we are to esteem another higher than self. When we walk in pride, that is very hard to do. Love is not self-pleasing. It does not exalt self over another. This is what happened to me. One of the lessons I had to learn.

A brother in Christ several years ago was unaware of something that I already had learned. I in my heart had unkind thoughts and words about him. I just couldn't seem to accept that he didn't already know this truth. God has a way of dealing with us when we exalt our self over another. He dealt with me in a way that I will never forget. I ended up being in a checkout line at a local store with him. I found myself thinking those same thoughts again about him. All of the sudden, I believe in the spirit, I saw myself as a little ant on the floor looking up at this giant of a man. I no longer felt so important and full of pride. I learned a tough lesson of esteeming another higher than self. Something that I had not realized at that point was, we are only what we are by God's grace. When we think we have all the answers, watch out, we are getting ready for a great fall. Just because God in His grace reveals something to us, does never mean that we are better than anyone else is. If we want to know God's grace, then we must remember that it comes through humility, not pride and self-exaltation.

I remember something the Holy Spirit once shared with me in church. He said Rick; I have gifted you to minister to others, but. I also have gifted others to minister to you. We need each other. We need the ministry of each other through the many gifts that God has given to His Church. When we think we are so great, we are unteachable and unable to be blessed by someone else that God has anointed to minister to us. Let's stay humble and know that our source, as well as our brother or sisters source is God. We are nothing without Jesus. I don't know about you, but I need His grace daily to stand at all. We are never our source. He alone is Lord!

5. A Prayer or a Player

In writing this article, I pray that people might sense my passion and heart. I am not writing to condemn or to judge anyone, but just the opposite. I hope to encourage people so that a fire might be ignited in their spirit so that they will go deeper in Jesus than ever before.

Each person is special and unique. Each of God's kids has callings and purposes that only they may fulfill. Unfortunately I have seen so many settling for less. The body of Christ needs each one fulfilling their destiny. We have limped along for a long time. Together we are a powerful force as we are in Jesus and being obedient to His Holy Spirit. God says that there is nothing impossible with Him. I just believe that to be true. Yet, I have learned in my walk some things that must take place in order for this to happen.

In Eph 3:20 Paul says, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us". The real key to the abundantly above are the words "according to the power working in us". It takes power, Holy Spirit power, to get the exceedingly abundant above. I have observed that for a long time a church that seems to stay busy yet has little power. The devil has many caught up in works, working for God. God is not our employer. He is our Father and desires for us to work with Him. There is a big difference. To work with Him requires us to find out what He wants or desires. 2Ti 3:5 says, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away". There are many that are religious, but where is the power? Religion causes us to get caught up in works and working for God. Relationship will cause us to walk in the spirit and power. The problem with working for God, it seems we never can do enough for Him and we find our self worn out. That is the devil's plan. It makes us look good to others, but how effective are we? Where our power to do the greater works that Jesus said that we would do? I have said all this to hopefully convey some things that the Lord has taught me that have really worked for me.

Many people like to pray. This is of course what we should be doing. Yet, how are we praying? Are we praying our will or spending the time to find out what God's will is and walking in agreement with Him?

Recently the Holy Spirit showed me an analogy about a tree. We can pray the leaves off the tree, but they will always return in another season. Praying the leaves off keeps us very busy and actually does not produce many eternal results. It works from a temporal worldly standard, but not too much from a lasting eternal one. People that do this have a good heart and mostly a pure motive. But what if there is a better way? The Holy Spirit told me that if I spend time with Him and wait on Him in intercession and prayer, that He will reveal the root of the tree to me. If we kill the root, the tree will die. Guess what? No more leaves. The person that spent their time raking up the dead leaves is now out of a job. Religious prayer is so based on us in control and what we want or think. Relationship prayer is based on what does God want or think. In 2 Cor 10:5, it talks about casting down imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Do you see what it said, the knowledge of God. This is not the knowledge about Him, but it is His knowledge. When we get those imaginations out of the way, we can have His knowledge. I don't know about you, but when this was revealed to me, it set me free. I did not have to depend on my knowledge. My knowledge was sending me straight to the pit of hell. We can have His knowledge! That is exciting.

We don't have to play the religious game that many play. We can have his knowledge and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. We can become more than conquerors through Him that loves us. We don't have to settle for less when He promised us exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. We just need to learn how to tap in to His power. One of the ways is to get our imaginations or thoughts out of the way. We are told to "Let" this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. To have His mind means we can no longer operate out of our own. We must allow His mind in us through allowing the Holy Spirit to rule.

The word tells us in James 4:10 to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift us up. One of the first things that we must do is to give up our control. It is not about us but only about Him. It is about bringing the kingdom of God down to earth. It comes through you and me. We bring the kingdom, or better said, He brings the kingdom through us. We can't be raised up until we are humbled. We must realize that all of our strength and effort is fruitless and vain. The writer of the book of Ecclesiastics figured that out when he stated that vanity, vanity, all is vanity. He found that the word "I" was vanity. It cannot accomplish eternal results. Many have made Jesus their Savior, yet not made him their Lord. When He is lord, He is allowed to rule and reign through us as we have surrendered our will just as he did.

Once we have learned that he alone is worthy of praise, we can then praise and worship Him for who he is. God does inhabit praise. When we enter into His presence we will never leave the same. His presence is healing, deliverance, revelation, direction, peace, and so much more. I sometimes think that one of the greatest things about His presence; is that self is out of the way. It is the only place where I have found safety, boldness, and peace that's far above anything that I have ever known. There is nothing greater than to be in His presence. No worldly thing, no person, no amount of money and any worldly pleasure can even come close.

My passion and heart is this. From what I have been taught by the Holy Spirit, He desires to take us deeper and deeper. There is no limit on how deep in Him we may go. The only real limit is us. Will be satisfied with a powerless religious walk or will we decide to pay the price and go deeper in him? You can go deeper. You can enter into a walk with the Lord where the Holy Spirit will lead and guide you. Will teach you, will empower you, and will revolutionize your life. Will you settle for less? Will you stay stuck in the religious mold or do you desire more? I hope this article has helped you to realize that more exists and that it is for anyone that desires it. God is no respecter of persons. You may be given gifts much different than mine, but I guarantee you that whatever God chooses for you, you will be happy in the end. I have learned that God's desire for me is so much greater than any desire that I had for myself. The journey gets rough at times, but praise God if we will stay on the road; it will lead us to a deeper walk with Him far greater than what we could have ever dreamed. Just remember that God really loves you and has a very unique plan just for you. I pray that you will let go and now let God take you deeper.

Isa 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Joel 3:9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

6. An Avenue of Healing

Have you ever needed healed? In the book of James we are given this scripture for our good. Unfortunately it does not always seem to come out that way because we do not see all of what the scripture is saying.

James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Recently, I sensed the Lord remind of the above scripture. I have been in need of healing. I asked for prayer according to the scripture. I asked that others would pray for me that I might know the root of the problem so that I could get delivered and healed. Unfortunately, I found that I could not trust some people that I thought that I could. Instead of showing love and compassion I was basically attacked. I was told to do this or that. I was told all the things in their estimation that I was doing wrong. They were trying to counsel me by their own understanding or what they thought should be. I did not ask for counseling, I asked for prayer. There is a difference. I wanted to know what God said, not what they thought. Eventually they all came and hugged me and prayed, which I knew some of the prayer was right on. Unfortunately, the main thing I received was just another wound that needs healing. One person said that the Holy Spirit did show him that I had been wounded many times in this area. Two of the people were dealt with by the Holy Spirit about their actions and asked me to forgive them. I do forgive them, as I do not wish to hold anything against anyone. I just had to realize that they are walking only in what they know. I do know although, that I cannot share with them and expect them to just pray for me.

The above scripture I have found to be very important in helping others. When we pray and intercede for someone we do not take account of wrongs as we see them through God's eyes. We realize that God alone is the one that changes people as we do not know how to change our self. When we know how or what to do to change comes by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, not someone beating you over the head with the Word or what they think that you should do. We are willing to lay down our life for our sister or brother in prayer. We do warfare or whatever is needed to help them be healed and set free. Our prayers should not be based on our wisdom but on the wisdom of God. I like what the Apostle Paul said in that he did not come to us in the wisdom of man but in the demonstration and power of the Holy Ghost. If we keep wounding our brother and sisters, then why should we expect the Holy Spirit to bring others into our lives as we will just wound them too? What good are our opinions anyway? Our opinions never saved, delivered, or healed anyone. Isn't it time that we learned how to lay down our life for each other and pray for them with effectual fervent prayer because we love them with God's love? God help us.

After I wrote this, I saw something in this scripture that I knew, yet seemed to forget. We must be selective as to whom we tell things. Notice some key words here. These are definitions from the Greek concordance in the online Bible program.

1) Fervent-to be operative, be at work, put forth power

1a) to work for one, aid one

2) righteous- observing divine laws

A. in a wide sense, upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands of God

B. innocent, faultless, guiltless

C. used of him whose way of thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God, and who therefore needs no rectification in the heart or life

If we confess to someone that does not yield to the mind of Christ, they will not come to our aid and seek the Lord for answers.

The major keys here are:

1) Confess your faults to only

2) A righteous person (one that has realized that their own righteousness is as filthy rags) as they will

3) Be effectual and fervent in praying for you to be healed

God help us to become a fine tuned instrument of the Holy Spirit that people may come to us for prayer in their times of need. Maybe if we could learn to do this people would come to our churches and receive help instead of more wounds. A righteous man praying brings healing. A self-righteous man causes wounds. One is God and one is devilish. May we all go God's way so that others may receive healing.

7. Being a Winner

Do you consider yourself a winner? This article may shed some new light on what a true winner really is and is not.

Webster's dictionary defines a winner as: One who gains by success in competition or contest.

Here now is the real difference to those who profess Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. The word Lord means Lordship or total control. To say this means that Jesus has total control over our lives. We have surrendered to His will alone. Our desire and priority is to find His will and to follow it. This may mean being as the Apostle Paul was by learning to be content with or without. Being that God's ways are higher than ours, what He wants may not coincide so much with what we want. Are we content with whatever decision or choice the Lord makes concerning us, or do we still want to have our own way? Are we willing to suffer the loss of all things that we may win Christ?

Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

What is more important to us? Do we want what we want and this is our objective and purpose in life? Do we consider our self to be a winner if we gain the whole world?

Mr 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Gaining things or having our own way does not make us a winner unless they are God's will for us to have. God knows what we need and He has a reason if we are not allowed to have something that will only bring satisfaction to our flesh. God looks at things from an eternal perspective not a temporal worldly perspective like many carnal people do. God is looking for eternal fruit that will remain. Being a winner means that the Lord has had free reign to bring change in us so that our flesh is crucified which causes us to become like Christ. Unless He is allowed to do this, though we think that we are a winner, we are actually a loser. We can be a winner from the temporal perspective, but a loser from an eternal one. We can gain the whole world, but lose our soul. Unless we learn to look at things through God's eyes then much of the so-called fruit that we have will not make it to Heaven or give to us any rewards in Heaven. We need to have fruit that remains. The only way to have this kind of fruit is to walk in the spirit and be like Jesus; give up our will for His alone.

I really like what Paul said in that he counted everything but dung that he may win Christ. He learned that the greatest thing that we could win was Jesus Christ. Following Him, walking in His Spirit, pleasing Him instead of self, brings the greatest joy that we could ever have. Unfortunately not everyone has tasted of the Lord in this way. They may have been saved but have never experienced Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through them. If you really want to be a winner, surrender your life and will to Jesus. Let Him be more than just your Savior; let Him be your Lord. Let what He wants become more important to you than anything that you want.

Mt 16:25 says, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it". The greatest thing that we can ever win is Jesus Christ. When He asks us, "Did you do my will?" Wouldn't it be glorious to be able to say to Him, yes, that to the best of our ability we did? That makes us a winner!

8. Boldness to Speak Without Fear

Often times, we ask the Lord to give us boldness without fear when we find we feel we need to speak to someone. Yet, we may be asking amiss.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (Sensual delight; by implication, desire:—lust, pleasure.)

We, out of our own desire may pray for boldness without fear. We may not receive the boldness as we may be coming across religious or out of an impure motive. If our desire to speak to someone is based in Christ's love, then we will have no fear. There is no fear in love. So instead of praying for boldness without fear, maybe we should be praying to love them with God's love instead.

I recall an experience of years ago where a young man was rebellious and his parents were praying for his salvation. I found myself praying that I would have God's love for him. This I was later to realize was the Holy Spirit's prayer as I had not considered praying this way. Because of that prayer, I experienced a love way beyond the natural love and was able to go into intercession and warfare for him. Within six months, he was saved. I really had not spoken to him, but instead was given direction by the Holy Spirit in how to pray for him. He needed intercession instead of bold words.

Love never fails! (1 Corinthians 13:8). We can have a prophecy, or tongues, or knowledge, yet it is the love that brings the change. The love causes us to be able to lay down our lives for someone else. The love allows us to be able to esteem someone higher than our self. The love enables us to not look at the problems but to focus on the solutions and how God sees the person. We often pray out of our knowledge of good and evil, yet this is not a correct motive to pray. Our prayers must be based in love, God's love. Without this love it profits us nothing. God's love does not pray based on what we think or desire for someone, it is based only on what God desires or wants.

As an intercessor, I have found that when I am interceding for someone, the love that I sense for the person is sometimes very intense. I seem to feel God's heart for them to become what He alone desires for them. I find that I am aware of the areas where they may struggle, yet my focus is not on them. My motive is to see them enter into what God has for them. I think our religious nature seems to be more focused on what they should be or should not be doing. This is really not our concern. Our concern must be on loving them with God's love so that we may do whatever God requires to bring them to him. This may be laying down our lives for them by doing without some material things so that they may have them. This may be giving them finances when we our self seem to need them or from our viewpoint they may squander or use them in a manner that may seem wasteful. Concerning money, what they do with it is not our concern. Our concern must be just being obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This also may be praying and doing spiritual warfare for them until the strongholds that the enemy has them bound by are broken. Without God's love, we cannot do these things. God's love is not self-pleasing (1 Cor 13:5). God's love esteems others of more importance than our self (Philippians 2:3).

If you truly desire to pray and not ask amiss, then pray to have God's love for people. God is love. The fruit we see will be far greater than fruit from any religious words or prayers based in our impure selfish motives. God said that if we ask anything according to His will that He hears' us. If we ask for love, He will hear us. If we ask for boldness to speak without fear, He may not hear us. Love never fails! Sister Theresa I believe was an excellent example of love the way God intends.

1 Cor 13:4-8

Charity (love) attributes:

•suffereth long (patient)

•is kind

•envieth not

•vaunteth not itself

•is not puffed up,

•Doth not behave itself unseemly

•seeketh not her own

•is not easily provoked

•thinketh no evil

•Rejoiceth not in iniquity

•rejoiceth in the truth;

•Beareth all things

•believeth all things

•hopeth all things

•endureth all things.

Instead of praying for the attributes of love, then just pray for love and you will have the attributes!

The song we sing "More Love, More Power" is a great song that exemplifies what we get as we walk in God's love. We get more power! We need to be singing and believing and asking for this more. Another we sing, "Fill my way every day with love" should be our prayer. When we walk in this love, we then have it all.

If we can learn to walk in love and just be obedient to the Holy Spirit, then we have it all. We don't have to focus on what gifting we have as God will give to us what we need when we need it as we just do as He shows.

9. By My Spirit

We go to the gas station to get our vehicles filled up with fuel so that they will run at peak performance. The station offers many different grades of fuel plus diesel. We must choose which works the best in our vehicle. If we have a gas engine, we must determine which grade makes ours run properly. We wouldn't put diesel in our gas engine or gas in our diesel engine. None of us likes going down the road with a substandard fuel that causes our vehicle to sputter, miss, or die.

Here is then the scenario. We are told that it is the spirit that gives to us life (2 Cor 3:6), and they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8). The word flesh means in our mind. God has given us the opportunity or choice to either be in the flesh or in the spirit. It is not an automatic thing that once we are saved we are automatically walking and drawing from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is now dwelling in us yet we still as an act of our choice yield to Him. Philippians 2:5 states "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus". This scripture indicates that we must "let" or allow the mind of Christ. We do not automatically have it. By the way, the mind of Christ is God's mind in Jesus, not Jesus' mind. Jesus laid down his mind, will, and desires as He said that He came to do God's will not his own. Jesus had to make a choice to do God's will over His own. We must do the same thing. We must lay down our will also. So what does my original thought about fuel have to do with all this? Well, it's pretty simple.

We must go to the gas station to get fuel. We must choose the right fuel to cause our vehicle to perform correctly. So, think of it this way. Instead of getting gas as fuel to operate on, we have two choices. We can either run our life on our flesh or by the Spirit. Often we just drive by the station (God) when He is available to empower us with His Spirit so that we may find life. Yet, unfortunately, we all don't always stop at the station so we run out of fuel. My question now is: Why are we so particular about filling up our vehicle and with the right fuel, yet when it comes to us, we just walk on in the flesh (our natural mind), even though we have what is needed available to have real life? Could it be that maybe self is more important to us than God? It is according to God's Word that it is ONLY the Spirit that gives to us life. So without yielding to the Holy Spirit and doing the things that will draw us into His presence, then what are we actually walking in. death? Here is a good scripture to always remember. Zechariah 4:6......"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord".

10. Can We Be Infected?

Have you ever stopped to consider how many words are spoken in a day, an hour or even a second? We are told that the world population is around seven billion people. If only one-half of the people are speaking at the same given time let's say two words a second, then that's seven billion words per second. That is a staggering amount of words.

Whether or not you are a Christian and believe in a spiritual realm, words have an impact on others. Christians know that there is a spiritual realm that is more real than the natural realm. Words have an impact in this world on people and situations. Words can be an open door for the Lord to act when they are spoken in faith or they can be a legal ground for the enemy to come in and steal, kill and destroy. God watches over His Word to perform it.

Eze 12:25 For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.

God created everything by His Word. He spoke and all was created (Read Genesis). Obviously words have power, especially when they come from God.

God says this about words:

Pr 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Mt 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Words are so important that God says that through words that we are justified or condemned, and death and life are in the power of the tongue. So being that words can either cause positive or negative results, I wonder in those 7 billion words how many are of each? If half or 3.5 billion give place to the devil and give him legal ground to work in the world and peoples' lives, no wonder the world is such a mess.

Words Effect and Infect

Have you ever been around someone that is real negative? Maybe they exhibit bitterness, they are critical, they complain, or just have a real rotten attitude towards everything. What happens if you stay around them very long? You find yourself being drained, worn out, and most likely you realize a short time later that this had an effect upon your spiritual condition. Next thing you know you realize you got infected with what they have and you are fighting to not do the same thing that they were doing. Is this true or not? Even listening to a song how often does that song stay in your head? Sometimes it stays for days and it is hard to shut down. You got infected. Words have power over you.

A good analogy is when a person has a cold. You love that person, but you know if you stay around them and let them cough or sneeze on you, most likely will get infected also. What do you do to avoid this? Since you love them you would help them get whatever medicine needed to help them and you would be careful and keep your distance, right? This is the same with being infected with words. When a person is spiritually sick you have a couple of options. You can hang around them and get infected as they are or you can hopefully give them some medicine. The medicine needed in this case is God's Word. We are told that when we know the truth that the truth will make us free (John 8:32). Truth sets people free. The problem is that often when a person is in this state, they don't want to hear truth. We are told to speak the truth in love, but honestly people still do not want to hear truth. If you can say what is needed then you can just trust in what God says that love will never fail. Still we need to be led by the Holy Spirit in when and what to speak as God will prepare their heart to hear. You cannot force this upon a person. You can only share as they are willing to listen otherwise you will start a war. If they are not willing to listen, then you can only keep your distance. A person in their right mind won't hang around a person that will cause them to get sick physically or spiritually. One that is sick physically would understand yet the one sick spiritually feels rejected, as they are not thinking straight at all. All you can do at this point is go into prayer and warfare and trust the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to them. The Bible says that two cannot walk together except they be agreed. If you are following the Lord and desire to be used of Him, you cannot walk into agreement with a person that is spiritual sick. The two just do not go together. You may be forced to pull away from them for a time. You may love the person and realize that they do not understand why you pull away from them, but in order for you to stay spiritually or physically strong, then you must.

I have always heard that we are what we eat. Well, if we eat bad food we will get sick. This is also true about spiritual food. If we allow negativity and bad things into our spirit, we will also get sick and die spiritually. We must protect what we put into our spirit. Jesus came that we might have life. It is the devil's device to kill steal and destroy, so we must watch out for what we allow in our spirit. We must be careful as to what we allow to enter, even if it does come from a friend or family. The wrong stuff will kill us and God can't use us during those times.

They say that one bad apple will spoil the bunch. When there is an outbreak of some contagious disease the health Department will make a quarantine to protect the public. This happens also spiritually. Because of the domino effect that can occur, often the Lord will quarantine and individual or group so that they cannot infect others with the same problems. Because one can spoil a whole church if not contained, in God's wisdom sometimes this must occur. We all are being changed. We never seem to know the effect that we may have on others until the Lord reveals this to us. We then can understand as anyone that truly loves Jesus would never desire to do anything to harm another. This may be a painful time in one's life, but truly necessary for the good of all.

This article came about as I was praying about a person that was usually being negative about other people. I was asking the Lord as to how I should handle this. I really liked the analogy of the cold that He gave to me as it made so such sense and that hopefully this would help someone else in a similar situation. Thank God for the Holy Spirit and revelation knowledge. I would be lost without Him!

11. Decree Grace

Some time ago while in the spirit, I was impressed to decree grace over people's houses and all the inhabitants. Since that time, the Holy Spirit has led me to do this often.

Consider why or how we were saved. Ephesians 2:8 says that it was only by grace, Gods' gift to mankind that we were saved. We know that it has nothing to do with our works or how good we are. It is only by His Grace that we get saved. In Job 22:28 we are told that if we decree a thing that it shall be established. So when we decree grace over people; God says that it shall be established.

We as Christians desire to see all men/women saved. As an intercessor we must prepare the way of the Lord. God responds to our faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. So when we decree grace over the unsaved world, by faith, it shall be established. This of course needs to be led of the Holy Spirit, as we are tapping into Gods' faith and not ours.

I believe that we need to start decreeing grace over all mankind in the world. God desires that all men are saved more than we desire it. Can we believe with God and decree grace over all?

Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

God may have us decree something over a variety of things. If we are obedient, God says that it will be established. Decreeing is not just about grace; it can be used over many things as the Holy Spirit would lead.

12. Did We Choose God or Did He Choose Us?

I must first say that it was not my idea to get saved. I really didn't believe in a God or in a salvation message. Yet, I found that God's Word was true. He said that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I called not even believing, yet I got saved. He had told me about this scripture later in my walk that when a person that was on drugs asked to get saved. I had questioned this as valid. The Holy Spirit told me if they call, they get it. The Word said nothing about the condition that they were in as a prerequisite. This person called and God not only saved them but also delivered them from a demon spirit behind the drugs.

I was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Did I believe in this? I cannot say that I did. In fact I kept saying the opposite when I saw people being slain in the spirit I thought it was weird and in no way I could believe that it was of God. Yet, God chose this for me. He did it when I was prayed for. It had nothing to do with whether I believed or didn't or if I wanted it or not. God wanted this for me so he did it.

Later on the Holy Spirit had dealt with me about preaching. I talked with my pastor and was told that I definitely had a desire to serve the Lord. Out of my mouth came a scripture I never had read at least to my knowledge. I had not chosen God but he had chosen me and ordained me that I should go and bring forth fruit (John 15:16).

I have been reading some articles by others and this opened up some new thinking in me. The following scriptures I believe will support my thoughts.

Ro 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Did the Father not give all to Jesus? It looks like this says the ones that the Father gives to him, which is not necessarily every one.

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

This looks to mean every person not just the ones that are pre-destined to be saved.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

If God does not draw a person then they cannot be saved.

Ac 2:47 Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

The Lord did the adding on His time schedule not our time schedule. He drew them when he chose to.

Ephesians 2:

8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Ac 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. (KJV)

Ac 13:48 the Gentiles listened with delight and extolled the lord's message; and all who were pre-destined to the life of the ages believed. (Weymouth)

This must mean the ones whom were ordained for that day to be saved as in Acts 2:47. These alone were the ones added daily such as should be saved. It was their day. Certain ones at certain times it seems at God's choosing.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

From what I read in these scriptures it was all about what God did and not about what I did. Acts says the Lord added daily such as should be saved. Obviously it was pre-ordained by God that a person was to be saved in that day. God added, not man. Ephesians further says this when it says not of ourselves but was the gift of God. God gave a gift to us to be saved. Without that gift we would not have been saved. Once again, it is all about what God did. John 6 states that no man can come to God except the Father draw him. Once again, God originated the plan for us to be saved. We had to be drawn by Him to be saved. If He didn't draw us we would not get saved. All about what He did once again. John 15 talks about how that we did not choose God but that God chose us. I can honestly attest to this. I did not choose God. I did not choose to be saved or filled with the Holy Spirit. God chose this and caused it to happen in me. I cannot boast in anything of myself as it was God's idea and work that it happened and not mine.

Knowing this then I must look at the scripture that states that it is not His will that any perish but all come to repentance. Though I cannot find the one I am looking for as I don't remember how it was worded, there is a scripture that I believe says that every man gets a chance to be saved or to hear. I suppose that God being God and knowing all things past, present, and future, that he knows ahead of time who will accept Him and who will reject him. I do have to wonder if this is because it takes the Father to draw a person to Him, that he knows the ones that he will draw. The ones that reject, reject because they are not drawn? So I am looking at this maybe in a new way even though it may seem contradictory on a few passages. I am just looking for a deeper understanding on this subject.

13. Distractions from the Narrow Way

Ps 119:104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. (Vain, without a cause, untruthful....highway, path, road, race)

Ps 119:128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

Mt 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God (God's knowledge or having His mind)), and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Php 2:5 Let this mind (God's mind and knowledge) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

There are many things that will try to distract us from running the race or going down the straight and narrow road. Anything that takes our focus off the Lord is a distraction. You may say that you are still thinking about the Lord even though you are concerned about things. God said to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness....then all things would be added. Unfortunately, we so often try in our strength to take care of things by our flesh. This is a distraction. Are our eyes totally focused on Him or de we have a lateral focus on things? We are told to cast our cares upon him. Do we not trust Him to do all things? The straight and narrow road is one that does not allow distractions or side roads. Our eyes are so fixed on Him and His will and purpose that nothing else matters. We will have learned to just not think on other things that cause us to focus wrongly. If we have His mind then we will get revelation knowledge and understanding. We will understand how much higher his ways are as compared to our own. We will be as Jesus who laid down his will to do only the will of His Father. This is the straight and narrow road. It is also why few find it. Many have never learned to become single minded with His mind and not allow the distractions to become a detour to their course.

14. Donald

A Testimony of God's Grace and Love

God allows us to experience things that forever change our lives. This personal experience touched my heart and life probably more than anything else has ever done. I was allowed to be a part of God's grace and love for a special boy.

Several years ago, I was honored to meet a 15 year-old boy whose name was Donald. He and his family were alcoholics. He didn't know what it was like to be otherwise. The little town where I lived would not allow him in the city limits. The police escorted him out of town. The churches that I knew would have nothing to do with him. Donald rarely bathed or had washed his clothes. His personal hygiene was far from good. God loved Donald and someone needed to show him. The Lord chose me.

God gave me such a deep love for him that words cannot do it justice. No matter what happened I was not going to let go of Donald. My landlords threatened to evict me if I had him on the property. I ignored them. No matter the cost, I was determined to show God's love to Donald. Over the next six months he visited me often. Many times we would be up most of the night talking. With his night time hours and my day time job, sometimes I only got a total of one night's sleep the whole week. Yet, Donald was worth it to God and to me.

Donald would come over in the wee hours of the night drunk, wanting to talk. I had only one requirement of him. He could drink, but he was never to bring beer into my house. He did respect my wishes, and left it outside my door. Donald did not know how to act any other way. He was born an alcoholic.

I remember one time he came over late in the evening. He came in, and as we talked, all of a sudden, out of his mouth came words about murdering people in grotesque ways, which I won't enumerate here. I was not the type of person who ever liked the thought of killing, let alone the ways that he described. I did something I had never done before as he talked. I literally picked him up and held him against the wall. With my pointed finger in his face, I said, "In the Name Of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, shut up!" This amazed me as I was not a violent person nor really even very physically strong. I had never seen or heard of this being done before. I had no teaching from my church or from anyone else in using the Name of Jesus in this way. Well, to my surprise, a voice that was not Donald spoke through him. It said, "Who are you? Who are you?" Of course, all I knew was that I was Rick King. I had no idea at that time who I was in Christ, or the authority I had been given by God to use the Name of Jesus over demonic spirits. Fortunately, the spirit did shut up. Later, I found the scripture in Acts 19 that told of one who tried to cast out a spirit. The spirit responded by saying Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Fortunately, the spirit didn't leap on me as recorded in the Bible. Jesus was in control.

Later on, Donald was visiting and was lying on the couch. I don't remember what he said, but I do remember my spirit didn't like it, as it was another spirit talking through him. I got up and went to my bedroom, got on my knees, and started praying. Before long, I noticed that it was finally quiet in the other room. When I went to see what had happened, Donald was fast asleep and subdued. The Holy Spirit told me that He had shut the mouth of the lion within Donald. Shortly after, Donald awoke and was calm. As he shared some things with me, my heart started to break, and a great wave of tears began welling up within me. I started to get up and leave the room, but the Holy Spirit said, "You cry in front of him since he has never had or seen anyone do that for him". I was obedient and released the emotion within me. Donald, for the first time in his life got to see that someone really cared and loved him. I had to drop all of my pride and be vulnerable, and in the process, Donald got what he needed. The Lord blessed us both.

Another time Donald came over as I was getting ready to go to church. He asked me for $3.00, which I gave to him knowing its purpose. My job was not to play God over him and tell him that he could do this or that. My job was to love him where he was and just lead him to Jesus. Donald ended up riding with me as far as church on the back of my motorcycle. This was not a normal church service for me that day. I do not remember hearing the singing or the preaching, since I spent the whole service in intercessory prayer and spiritual warfare. It seemed the Holy Spirit just took over in me. I prayed in the spirit deeply for over two hours, having no idea what was about to happen. After the service ended and I was leaving, I found Donald waiting for me on my motorcycle. He came running over to me and said, "You will never guess what happened". I said, "Tell me". He said, "Well you know why I wanted the three dollars don't you? It was to buy beer". I told him yes that I was aware of his intent. Then he said that a funny thing happened. He opened the first can and tried to drink it, but instead poured it on the ground. He said he did that with all six cans. He was so excited that he did it, and I was blessed to see the Lord was greatly at work. Intercession and warfare do work when God sets it up. When he came home with me for lunch we started talking again, and Donald said, "I want to get saved!" Oh, that thrilled my heart. I had waited six months and walked through hell with him to hear those words. Donald accepted Jesus as his Savior that day. Praise the Lord! He instantly changed so dramatically, it was unbelievable. I have never in my life seen a person so radiant with love. To this day, I have never even seen that amount of love in any person I have met in church or anywhere else. Donald started hugging me, and kept saying thank you Rick, thank you. It was as if someone flipped a switch. I was amazed. I called my friends over and we took Donald out to lunch. We were in awe of the new Donald. Then, we started noticing that Donald seemed to be fading back into the old Donald. After about three hours, all I saw was the old Donald. The love and beauty were no longer apparent. I was shocked and concerned. I spent three days after that seeking the Lord. I had to have an answer. I had to know what had occurred.

God finally answered me. It was not the answer that I had expected. He told me that the Donald we saw who was so full of love, was the Donald that He saw and the finished result of salvation. Had He allowed Donald to remain that way, he would not have known who he was. He would have had a major identity problem. There was much that God was going to have to change. This was going to be a process and would take time. As Donald was willing and allowed Jesus to enter those areas of his life, he would be changed. The Lord said that He had wanted to enter into Donald's heart for 15 years. He could now start pushing the things from the inside, out, as Donald willingly surrendered. I was then at perfect peace. Though I didn't get to see Donald much after that, I had the assurance that God had accomplished what He wanted to do through me and that Donald was going to be all right. God's grace and love would lead him on.

15. Endeavoring to Keep the Unity of the Spirit

Eph 4:3 Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Endeavoring-4704. spoudazw spoudazo spoo-dad'-zo; from 4710; to use speed, i.e. to make effort, be prompt or earnest:— do (give) diligence, be diligent (forward), endeavor, labour, study. (Strong's-Greek)

We must be on guard to keep the unity. Many churches have lost the battle because the unity was broken. We all know that there is my way, your way, and God's way. Our ways because they are in the flesh, will bring disharmony and disunity. God's ways by His Spirit will bring unity. Unity brings God's anointing and blessing.

When problems arise, what do we do? First we must be humble enough to keep our focus on what God wants, even if not what we want. We must be willing to cast down our imaginations and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal His will that we can walk in agreement. A house divided against itself cannot stand. The enemy is waiting for signs of disunity as he can then come in. Disunity gives an open door for the enemy. If we get into the trap of fighting each other, we will lose the battle. If troops on the front line in a natural war start focusing on each other and have division, when the enemy attacks they may not even recognize the attack and be defeated. We must stay alert and guard unity and understand the importance of it. We must walk in agreement as that is where our power lies. Two or more in agreement in the Spirit with what God desires, is so powerful and brings glorious results. This is one reason marriages get under attack. There is two to agree. The devil kills the agreement; he keeps the marriage from becoming what God desires. We must not give place to the devil and allow any disunity. We must endeavor (make effort, speedily give diligence to, be prompt and earnest, and labor) to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

16. False Burdens

Word from the Lord

When your focus is on others, it is like a cancer to your spirit. It will eat away at your spirit and will cause you to die. Focus on Me, as it will bring health to your bones, mind and spirit.

As a Minister, what others do is not your concern. My ministers, minister to me. As they minister to Me, others are ministered too. Just do as I show you. This has to be your only concern. Being led by the Spirit is not being led by what you see. It is being obedient to what I show you that I want to do. Yes, there are needs all around you. If you focus on the needs, you will have lack. If you focus on Me, you will have abundance. Saith the Lord.

False burdens are initiated by self. They are borne by selfish desires. My yoke is easy and burden is light. A false burden will cause you to miss my burden. When carrying my burden, I give you the power and ability to carry it. A false burden is a weight on your spirit. This is a load that will weight you down, as in self you have no power to carry it. Many times when you cannot feel my presence, it is because you carry a burden that is not initiated by me, thus you have no power to carry it or pray it through. Take my yoke upon you alone.

Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Freedom in my spirit comes as you take only my yoke upon you. If you take the world's or man's yoke, you will have neither freedom nor power to carry it. It is the ways of death, spiritually.

Minister to God and he will minister to and through you.

God is bound by his word. When we do what God desires, God does what he has promised to do.

17. Four Eyes

1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Eze 12:2 Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

Ac 28:26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

The word says that we see through a glass darkly. We can only see so much from a natural perspective. Yet, there is a spiritual perspective. There are things going on in the spirit realm that many dismiss, yet are more real than we know. In order to see in the spirit, we must get our eyes trained to see in the spirit.

I was thinking about the ant which is a small insect that has such limited vision and lives its life in a small area and really doesn't even probably know that there is so much more. It only knows what it can see. If a human walked past, would they even know, as a human is so large in comparison? If a storm was coming or they were crossing a street and a car was coming, would they even know? In the same light, we as humans see only what we can see in the natural. If things are coming by that would kill us, how could we know? With two eyes we are so limited in our vision. We are just like the ant in that there are things so much larger than we, that we do not see or are unaware of. God on the other hand can see all things. His eyes roam to and fro and He is aware of everything that is happening. Because we don't see it, does that make it unreal?

Man has this tendency to always protect himself. His protection is limited as to what he knows or can see. God can see what things that we need protected from. If for no other reason, being able to see things through God's eyes would be a major protection to us. We tend to just trust in our own two eyes, but God has two eyes that we can use also. If we learn to get into the spirit and allow things to be seen from a spiritual view, we will see so many more things. I think of the stories I have heard when the enemy thinks they have a person but then all of the sudden they see an army behind the one that they want to kill, and then they just run. I think the reason for this article is to maybe help others to know that there is a world that we don't see in the natural that is more real than the one we see. So much happens in the spirit realm that is actually the cause of what manifests in the natural realm. If we could just learn to see we would understand how to pray or do warfare and prevent many things from taking place.

Isaiah 42:

18 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant?

20 Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.

The Lord truly desires for His kids to hear and see in the spirit. We are a spirit being and God desires us to be able to use our spiritual senses but we must learn to use them. I pray that each of us will allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and ears so that we will be in tune with the Holy Spirit. Our life will take on so much more meaning and purpose if we would allow Him to do this. If we would just draw near to God, He would draw near to us.

Let this be our prayer. Father in Jesus name I ask that you open our eyes that we may see, and open our ears that we may hear what the spirit is saying and endeavoring to do. In Jesus name, Amen!

Four eyes are so much better than two! Two heads are better than one. We can join with God's eyes and head if we choose too.

18. Freedom From the Law

Years ago, I was seeking understanding concerning the law and my responsibility according to the Word concerning it. The Holy Spirit taught me a lesson that maybe will help someone else.

When I lived in another state, every time I got into my car the Holy Spirit tugged on me to put on my seatbelt. Like most people, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea. There was no law saying that I had too, yet the Holy Spirit kept insisting. I struggled with it for some time, but eventually gave in. I started wearing my seatbelt all the time and thought nothing of it. Then to my surprise a seatbelt law was enacted. I was required now by law to always wear a seatbelt.

This lesson taught me something very valuable. It gave me a freedom that I had not known that I could have. Even though I was a Christian, so many churches seemed to have a lot of things that were seemingly required of me to do to fit the mold. Not that the things by appearance were wrong, it was that there was a freedom that could come if done God's way and not man's. Let's look at a few scriptures and then I will explain what the Lord taught me.

Mt 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Ga 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Ro 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Ga 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Jesus did not do away with the law; he fulfilled it. When we walk or are led by the Holy Spirit, we are not under the law. Let me explain. In our flesh we know dwells no good thing. God says that in the flesh that we cannot please Him. The word flesh means carnal nature or mind. When we keep the law in our flesh, we are not pleasing God. Why is this so? God did not ask us to serve Him in the flesh. He asked us to serve him in the spirit. When we serve by the flesh, who gets the glory? We, not Him, do what is seemingly accomplished. We get the credit or glory, not God. Our works did not save us; we were saved by His grace alone. Since Jesus said that he didn't do away with the law, then how did He fulfill it and where does that place our responsibility?

In my seatbelt story, let's look at what really took place. The Holy Spirit initiated me to put on a seatbelt. I obeyed in obedience to His request, not because man's law required it. By my being led by the Spirit, I was not under the law, yet it was fulfilled. Everything we do needs to be led by the Holy Spirit. This is the only time that God alone gets the glory. Many people probably started wearing a seatbelt after the natural man's law was enacted. They did so however out of fear that they would get a ticket or fine. The Holy Spirit was not involved at all. They did it by the flesh. Here is an important statement to always remember. When the Holy Spirit asks us to do something, He always gives His ability to do it if we are obedient. It never requires our fleshly carnal strength to accomplish the task. Remember, in the flesh, we cannot please God. The real freedom comes as we realize that we depend on His leading and strength, not our own. Our job is to please Him, not man. When this becomes revelation, a freedom will come. We shouldn't be religious; we just need to walk in a relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Being religious has us in bondage to the law. Being in a relationship gives us a freedom in the Spirit. It takes the pressure to perform away and we are able to walk, free indeed.

I don't think that I did a very good job explaining on this article, but hopefully the message will come out clear and help people find a new freedom.

My favorite scripture is Zechariah 4:6...Not by might, Nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts

If can learn to base our walk on this, a freedom will come as the weights of religion and performance of works will lift off of our shoulders. Hope this helped someone.

19. Giving

If we are crucified with Christ and it is no longer us living, then whose money or possessions do we have? Taking that into account, then we are only stewards or actually he is the steward through us, as it has to be all his and not ours. A dead man can't own anything. It talks of being led by the spirit and not being under the law, so being that we are dead, and it is Jesus living in and through us, if we are led by His Spirit, we just do what He says. It is not a bunch of rules or regulations as Jesus fulfilled the law. When we walk in the Spirit Jesus fulfills the law in His own way through us. Still even goes back to one of my initial thoughts in that we just go along for the ride. It is all His property, His plans and desires working through us.

Was also thinking about Paul...he learned to be content in whatever state that He was in, so he actually was learning to be in the Spirit. In the Spirit we are complete...we don't need the external things of the world to be content. I think the Lord uses things to draw us to Him. Sometimes we have things and then other times he wants us mobile and not weighted down by the cares of this world. Just depends on what His plan is for us at the time.

20. God or Mammon

Sometimes the Lord puts something in our spirit that we know needs to happen. This is one of those times for me. What I see and hear all around me causes my heart to hurt. Priorities are so out of line with God's word. The world has taught us that life is in the abundance of things, which we possess. This is a major lie of the enemy. Unfortunately not only the world has bought into this lie, but also much of the church. Even many ministries seem to have such a money focus. Many have expensive possessions as if this will bring to them life. I am sort of odd I guess. I would much rather see a tent revival where worldly things do not come into play. The only thing that can be there is the power of the Holy Spirit. I think that maybe this is why historically these meetings were so successful. There were no other gods before God.

Scripture states in Luke 16:13 that, no servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. We also read in Mathew 13:22; He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. Do we know anyone that is more focused on making money or having the nice things of this world rather than bringing the kingdom down to earth? The word is being preached everywhere. Yet, is anyone listening? People hear the word and then it is choked out by the cares of this world before it can even take root. Does anyone believe that they can trust God with their life? Are there people that really believe that God will take care of all of their need? I said needs, not wants. When we focus on our need, we are so selfish. Does anyone consider that maybe God has a need? Does His matter? We seem to have this false sense of security that we must have money in the bank, or a fancy house or car. This is not life! Life is in Jesus alone. Only he can satisfy that hunger that is in us. God made us that way. He put a spot in us that only can be filled by Him.

Galatians 6:8 states; for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. It is the Spirit that gives to us life, not worldly riches or things. Our focus has been so wrong. We have spent our time pursuing our goals and desires rather than God's. I am not saying that we are to be broke. I am saying that if we will follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, that we will find life beyond what we could ever have imagined, plus see all of our needs met. For so many I see the pursuit of mammon their greatest desire. This is temporal. What God desires is eternal. I have found nothing greater than to either be in His presence or have the Holy Spirit use me to bring about something that He desires. There is no comparison with anything else to the completeness this brings to a person.

Somehow we seem to believe that our purpose on earth is about what we can possess or do for our self. This is a lie. Our purpose is to bring the kingdom of God down to earth for an eternal, not temporal purpose. Luke 12:15 says, "And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things, which he possesseth". Time is getting shorter as most will agree. Personally, I want to be about my Father's business when Jesus comes back, not my own. I am serving one master alone. How about you which one will you serve? Which master are you serving? Until the revelation comes to us that it is not about us, but only about Him, we are going to walk in darkness and miss what God has in store for us. It is time for America to wake up from the slumber that they have been in and get their priorities in order. Let's all help bring God's kingdom down to earth. The kingdom of God is in us, but we must decide if we are going to yield to it or not.

21. Greater Works

Jesus Was endued with power...ministry began

Jesus healed all that were sick.....note: they were not filled with the Holy Spirit

Jesus said that greater works we would do...Jesus healed from the outside in

Jesus died on the cross....took the stripes for our healing

His death was payment for our sin....sin brings forth death....the spirit gives life

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit after His death....we were endued with power...the same power Jesus had...difference now....power comes from within us

Likewise the spirit helpeth our infirmities as we do not know how to pray as we ought...but the spirit maketh intercession...according to God's will

When we pray in the spirit....the same spirit that was in Jesus...brings to us deliverance...healing...revelation as to what we are to do...Just as Jesus did what he saw the Father do, and spoke what He heard the Father speak...this now happens in us

The key.....the greater works come because it is the Holy Spirit working through us...The ones Jesus prayed for were not baptized in the Holy Spirit so healing was an external touch. As we pray in the spirit we receive a touch from an internal source.

The stripes were the wounds from sin or transgressions...Jesus paid them so that we could be healed.

I had prayed in the spirit and the Holy Spirit within...pushed out the demonic that I had taken on.

Think of it this way....We are the house that Jesus resides in through the Holy Spirit. If our body is demonic or sick...how can He use us to do the greater works?....He delivers us, heals us...and uses and empowers us...when we pray in the spirit. If He didn't...and we died or couldn't function because of sickness, disease...or the demonic strongholds...He could never continue His ministry on earth. We bring to earth His kingdom by praying in the spirit and allowing Him to flow through us. This releases God's power on earth to do the greater works.

22. He Is!

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

He is what?

• The Alpha and omega the beginning and the end

• Our peace (Ephesians 2:14)

• He is the propitiation for our sins(1 John 2:2)

• Provider of all our needs (Philippians 4:19)

• He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins(1 John 1:9)

• Our refuge (Psalms 46:1)

• The God of our salvation (Psalms 68:20)

• Our God (Psalms 95:7)

• Our strength (Psalms 46:1)

• Our hope (1 Tim 1:1)

• Our healer (Ex 15:26, Psalms 103:3)

• Our deliverer (Psalms 18:2)

• My goodness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield (Psalms 18:2)

• Thy praise (Deut 10:21)

• Thy God (Deut 10:21)

• He is Holy (Psalms 99:5)

• Our judge, lawgiver, and king (Isa 33:22)

• Our rewarder (Heb 11:6)

Four things that we must do;

1. Please Him by having faith

2. Believe that He Is

3. Diligently seek Him

4. Believe that He is a rewarder

23. Hindered Prayers

What is forgiveness? The Greek meaning in the Strong's concordance says that it is:

(1) The release from bondage or imprisonment

(2) forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty

When we do not forgive, we hold our self in bondage. We are in bondage to the offense. The bondage rules an area of our life. When this rules, it opens the door for other things to come in. We are building on a wrong foundation that eventually will crumble and cause the building that was built to fall. The enemy just rejoices when he can get us to be offended or hold an offense towards someone. He has convinced us to build on a wrong foundation.

God said that if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Mathew 6:15). He also said in Psalms 66:18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. In 1 Peter 3:7 we are told about prayers that are hindered. Our prayers are hindered if we do not forgive others. They are hindered in two ways. Firstly, since we are holding on to a grudge or an offense, which is iniquity in our heart, God will not hear us. Secondly, if we do not forgive, our prayers are also hindered in that we are unable to pray for the person. God said that we are to pray for those who despitefully use us (Luke 6:28). We are not to hold them in judgment or in unforgiveness. If we stop praying for people what happens? We will die spiritually. Jesus always intercedes for others. If Jesus is in us, and we do not pray, then we are no longer yielding to Jesus in us. We have bought the lie of the devil that this person or persons should not be forgiven. If you think of it, none of us should be forgiven. None of us deserves to be forgiven, but this is called grace! God's unmerited favor. Jesus in us always gives this grace to us and to others. When we don't, we stop the flow of the Lord within us, and we dry up spiritually.

Let's consider Job for a minute. Job had all the reason to hold much unforgiveness. He could have been bitter, angry, and resentful over the way which he was treated by his friends during his great time of testing. Job instead prayed for his friends. Because he prayed for them, God turned his captivity around. What would have happened to Job had he been unforgiving? Would his captivity been changed? Would he have received double of all that he previously had from the Lord?

Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. KJV

I like what I heard a preacher say. I have many opportunities; I just do not take them.

I can remember a time when the enemy kept working on me to be offended at what a person did. I knew in my heart that I was not offended at them, yet the enemy worked for over two days to get me offended. I recognized him and said no. I have no reason to be offended. I had a great opportunity though; I chose not to take it. I have learned that we are to have love towards each other. When we hold unforgiveness everyone loses. I have learned to recognize that an opportunity to become offended is just a ploy of the devil to put us into bondage. It is one way that he uses to hinder our prayers so that he may kill steal and destroy us. We must learn to recognize the opportunity to be offended is a ploy of the devil and to not allow it in our heart.

If you look honestly at your heart, do you see things that are hurtful where anger or bitterness keep surfacing? Are you reliving these memories over and over? If so, please consider that maybe you need to forgive. Once there is true forgiveness, there is no remembrance of these past hurts. Be like Job, kick the devil in the teeth, and go forgive these people and pray for them. Watch what Jesus will do if you do. You will find new peace and rest in your mind and heart. I always have seen an offense this way. Sure they may have done something that hurt me, but if I don't forgive, they are still getting me. Let's all let go of the offenses, and go on with Jesus and just love the people. Let grace prevail that our prayers are no more hindered!

24. His Grace is Sufficient

Do you wonder what you are going to do in these tough economic times? Are you having a real struggle because of the lack of money, jobs, or some essentials? Let me say, you can make it! His grace is sufficient!

I am reminded of the disciples when they were in the ship with Jesus in Mathew 8:23-26. The storms and waves came and crashed down upon the ship and it was filled with water. The disciples thought that they would perish; yet Jesus was asleep. Are the waves of life crashing in on you? Does it look like you will perish as nothing seems to be working out? Well, take heart. The problem is not the waves. You are just sitting in the wrong end of the ship.

The Word says that we are complete in Him. As humans we tend to look at things from a temporal natural perspective. God on the other hand is looking from an eternal perspective. We get focused on the temporal so easily. We seem to think that money, houses, jobs, and creature comforts are life. Yet this is really an untrue belief that we have been duped by the world and enemy to believe. The Bible says that it is the Spirit that gives life. If you have ever been in God's presence then you will understand what I am saying. When in His presence all of the cares and worries and fears, seem to just vanish. We find our self very content and complete. We are so happy to just be near Him. We don't even think to ask things that we thought we would ask, as they are not a concern anymore.

The storms we face are really for a purpose. They cause a focus change in our hearts. They cause us to cry out to Him. We learn that the greatest thing that we can ever possess and the true riches are Jesus and His presence alone. Jesus is trying to get us to go to the end of the ship where He is. We also can sleep in the storm. We just need to go where He is. Years ago the Holy Spirit told me this. "Focus on the problem, it will never get solved...Focus on Me, you will find that it was not really a problem at all". Because the Lord is much more concerned about the eternal, He allows these storms. He wants us to know and be complete in Him alone. He is faithful to take care of our needs. We may not get our wants that unfortunately we think are our needs, but are really just things that satisfy our flesh. Jesus will not let us drown. He will not allow the waves to overtake us.

I want to encourage you to seek His presence. Change the focus from the problem to just entering into His presence. Do those things, which draw you closer to Him. Scripture tells us in Hebrews 12: to lay aside every weight and sin that so easily besets you and run the race that is set before you. We get weighted down so easily by things that we think are our life, that we miss true life, intimacy with Him. It is time to get into praise and worship. It is time to lay down the weights. It is time to cast our cares upon Him. It is time to learn to be like Paul, content in whatever state that we are in. Circumstances should never dictate our peace. Peace comes as the fruit of the Spirit, so the closer we can get to Him, peace will be in us. True our flesh may not like the lack, but does God not say that they, which are in the flesh, cannot please him? Who do we desire to please?

I pray that you will allow the Holy Spirit to draw you into a deeper relationship with Him. You will be glad that you did, as you will not be moved any longer by circumstance. The waves won't cause you fear anymore. You will be able in Him to sleep when the winds and storms of life come crashing upon you. Take heart. You can win! He paid the price already for you so that you could. His grace is sufficient!

25. How Can Two Walk Together?

Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (agreed=betrothed)

Two people may walk side by side yet until they become one they do not fully realize what the Lord had in mind for a marriage. Consider a foundation. A house must be built on some kind of foundation that will support the weight of the house. Concrete is a perfect example. Concrete has cement and water. The concrete and water may be placed side by side but until they are mixed and become one, they do not make concrete. Just as we must become one with Jesus to find true life, a marriage must be like the concrete. It must be mixed together and become one so that it can hold up a house. There are many people married like the water and cement. Yet they have never been mixed together and become one. They may have become one in the flesh, but not in the spirit. God says that it is the spirit that gives to us life. True life comes as we are one with the Spirit of God, and then allow a oneness between each other in the spirit.

26. If You Love Me

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

I awoke with this one day, thought I would share. God says that we are to love Him. I was considering how often we serve him out of obedience as compared to out of love. We can be obedient to His word out of a sense of duty or fear. There is a big difference in being obedient out of love.

When we search the scriptures concerning love, we find that love is not self-pleasing. Love is willing to lay down our life for someone else. Love is praying for people. Love is esteeming others higher than self. Love is taking care of the widow and feeding and clothing the poor. Love is many things. Yet, I wonder do we love God the same way? Do we do things out of obedience because we are in love with God? I have found that the love for people will cause us to do things we normally will not do. We are willing to sacrifice all for them because we love them. Are we willing to sacrifice all for God because we love Him?

In Revelations 2:

1. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

2. I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

3. And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

4. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

6. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

The church of Ephesus was doing works for the Lord, yet God says they left their first love. We sometimes can miss the mark as we get so tied up in the works. We can get all religious in what we do out of this sense of duty. Yet we can be doing things that really are not right. God wants us to have a love relationship with Him. He wants us to do things because we love Him. If someone that you love would ask you to do something, how would you respond? Usually when the love is flowing, you would do anything that they requested to just please them. We need to fall in love with God again. We need to stop playing church and going through the motions that may appear to man correct, but to God, are far from Him.

I have used this scripture before as I believe it is very important these days for people to understand. Jesus said in Mathew 7:23, that even though people had done many works in His name He said that He never knew them. Knowing someone means you must have a relationship with him or her. Maybe it is time to take stock of the motives behind what we do. Can we say that we love God with all of heart, soul, and strength? Are we willing to do anything He asks just because we have this deep love for Him? Do we act out the written word in our strength out of duty or a religious spirit? Will we wait on the Lord to hear His voice and directions for us because we love Him? Are we caught up in religious works that when we see Jesus He will say to us depart, as He never knew us?

In Proverbs 8:21 it states "That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures". The fruit of loving God is to receive our inheritance and our treasures filled. This is the fruit or by-product. It should not be our motive for loving God, as love is not self-pleasing. Unfortunately there are many religious formulas around the church that if we do this or that we will receive this or that back. God is not a formula. If we could just learn to love Him and put Him first, He out of His love for us would take care of all the things we need. We would so willingly seek what He desires and have no trouble being obedient to what He asks of us. Love does that! God desires for us to have a deep intimate relationship with Him out of our love for Him. Ever notice how that when we fall in love with a gal or guy it seems to consume us? We need to have that same consuming love for God. God is jealous of our love for others and things, but we don't have the same for Him. May God forgive us and somehow help us to fall in love with Him again in a way that He is pleased with us. Our actions will change as we do. God's response to us will also change.

27. Is Religion Destroying the Church?

I like the words that the Apostle Paul said in 1Co 2:4, "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power". Much of the church today is lacking in what Paul talks about. Where is the Spirit and power?

Man has come up with so many agendas and programs that seem religious. Yet there is no power. People cannot come into the presence of the mighty God and be changed and find peace and rest in their soul. We have so many formulas that we are supposed to follow. We are taught to walk God's Word by our flesh and that God will bless our efforts. We have such structure to our meetings that if anyone or anything tries to upset them we get all irate. We won't allow an anointed man or woman of God in the pulpit or to speak as we are afraid we will lose our control or that the people may actually want to hear that person more than us. Where is our faith and trust in God? When did fear start ruling instead of faith and trust? When did man get so smart that they decided that they knew how to be in control? When did man start trying to play God instead of allowing God to be God? Isaiah says in chapters 30 and 31 that we are in rebellion if we trust in anything other than the Holy Spirit. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Witchcraft is mind control. Whose mind is in control when we are walking by the flesh? It is not the mind of Christ, so it is in rebellion.

If you have ever tasted of the Holy Spirit and the freedom that comes when we allow Him to reign, then you will understand all that I am saying. The problem it seems is that there are so many that have never tasted of the power that Paul is referring too. All they have ever known is the tradition and structure that promotes only works by our flesh. Once you have tasted of His power, you are ruined for life. Nothing less will satisfy. Once you experience being in His presence and finding total peace and joy, you will long for it constantly. There is nothing that can or will ever compare with being in His presence. I have said for years that people only know freedom to the extent that they have experienced it. They don't miss what they have never known.

Somehow as a church we must get back to being the lighthouse for the world. People that come to our meetings need to sense the freedom and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in their midst. They need to see church as a refuge from all the storms of life where they can be renewed and strengthened to stand in a very ungodly world. The only way I can see for this to take place is that we must cry out to the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to change all of our priorities. If our priority has been to live for self and all its pleasures then we cannot expect to find the power of God. The word says that we cannot serve God and mammon. They just don't walk in agreement at all. Unless we can seek the Lord and allow Him to reign and rule we are going to miss it more and more. It takes time spent with the Lord alone to get to know Him and what He would want for us to do. We are to be co-laborers with Christ. Our ideas are rather pointless. The disciples in the upper room had spent time with Jesus before the cross. They knew all the things that they were told yet they didn't just run out and by their flesh start churches and programs. They waited till they were endued with power before they did things or went anywhere. We desperately need this today. I have often thought that if I was unsaved would I want to go to many of the so- called churches? Based on what I have seen, I don't believe that I would have gotten saved. Thank God that it is not based on that as people get saved as the Holy Spirit draws them.

I have been in meetings where the power of God has been so real that people got healed and delivered and saved right there. I have also been in meetings where it was all I could do to stay and listen to the dead words proclaimed by the speaker. Am I the only one that desires to see a church that is full of the power of the Holy Spirit? Am I the only one that does not care what happens when or who does the speaking just as long as it has the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon it? I am not impressed that a speaker has lots of money or position. I am not impressed that he/she went to a fine college and learned the ways of man to do things. The only thing that impresses me is that the person is humble and knows that God could use anyone that he chooses and they are totally dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit to flow through them. We are to be led by the spirit not by the word. I know I raised some eyebrows on that statement but what does God's word say? We can be led by the word yet it still can be in our flesh. There is no power in this. It is the same as trying to keep the law, as it couldn't be done. The only one that can do this is Jesus. Without the power of the Holy Spirit we are only religious in our efforts to serve the Lord. It is not by our works that we serve him it should be only by our obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit leads he also empowers.

I went to two different churches years ago and noticed this. One church where God's word was preached was dead as a doornail. People were asleep in the message. It was difficult to even concentrate of what was being said. I then went to another church and found that the same message basically was being spoken, but the power of God was all over the place. People were alive and excited and happy. So why was there a difference? I asked the Lord and was told that whenever His word is preached there is a certain amount of results, but it does not carry the results that he has ordained unless it is sent and led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must lead the Word. It takes both. It can't be one over the other; it takes both to produce power. We have all heard for years that we are to take up our sword, the Bible. This is really a false statement. If we look at the scripture we will find that it is not our sword but it is the Holy Spirit's sword. See Ephesians 6:17.

If it is the Holy Spirit's sword it means it is what he uses. If we are led by the spirit, then when the Holy Spirit wants to speak God's word through us; then this is his sword. It was he and not we. The key to power is tapping into the Holy Spirit and allowing Him alone to lead. He does what the Father desires to do when the Father desires to do it and the way the Father desire to do things. It is all about Him and never about us. This is why we are told that we cannot please God in our flesh. There is no power in our flesh. Our flesh must die out so the Holy Spirit alone may work through us.

To those of you that have gone to churches or meetings and have not found the help that you have needed I just want you to know that it is not God's fault. He will work as man gets out of the way and allows him to rule. Recently I was in a meeting and the whole order of the meeting changed. There was a person that was hurting that had come. Instead of the normal singing that seems to happen in the beginning, it started with prayer and thanksgiving. I knew to pray for this person so I did. The Lord touched them and they found freedom. Had we gone the way the religious structure would have gone, the person would have been hurting the whole time of singing and preaching. Assuming the Holy Spirit had not left by then, they then would have gotten prayed for at the end of the meeting. They would have actually missed everything that went on as they were so bound and hurt they could not receive anything yet. I tend to believe that if there is a hungry or hurting person that comes in and the Holy Spirit is allowed to lead, then that person will get a touch from the Lord. There is healing in His presence. We must promote His presence more than anything else. Without His presence we are just having a religious gathering.

I know that I may have stepped on a few religious toes in what I have said, but religion does not work. We need the demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit in the church and where people meet together. Short of His presence and power, we are going to have fruitless dead religious meetings that have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. Bottom line is what do we want? All is available if we chose to go after it.

28. Is There A Lazarus in Your Life?

In reading the story of Lazarus in John 11, we find some interesting things that Jesus did.

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. He called to Lazarus to come forth out of the tomb. Lazarus came forth, yet he was bound hand and foot with grave clothes. Lazarus did his part in coming forth. Jesus then told others to loose him and let him go. Jesus had a purpose for Lazarus. Jesus had a call on Lazarus's life for a higher purpose than to just bring healing when he laid sick. Jesus desired to raise him from the dead as a testimony to the Jews.

Another part of this miracle was not just for Lazarus, the Jews, but also for the people that Jesus told to untie him. Had the people that Jesus told to untie Lazarus not responded, many areas of blessing would not have occurred. First Lazarus was set free as his grave clothes and the napkin was removed from his eyes so that he could see. (all those things that prevented him from doing the will of God). Psalms 18:5 says that the snares of death prevented me. When snared by death, there is little one can do. The eyes are even covered by a napkin, as one cannot see how to get free. One needs help. One needs the rest of the body to come together and help them become what Jesus desires. It is about a higher purpose, souls, people healed and delivered. It is not just about our own little kingdom. It is about God's kingdom on earth, not ours. It is about esteeming others higher than our self. Secondly, the Jews believed on Jesus so many came to the Lord. Thirdly, the people that responded and untied Lazarus received a blessing. God had entrusted each of them with something to give. As they were obedient, they started in motion a domino effect in that they were most likely bound in some way also. We are told that when we give that it shall be given to us (Luke 6:38). They gave to Lazarus so God then gave back to them. Lazarus would have needed new clothes, finances, transportation, and a place to live, etc. The miracle was not just about Lazarus; it was about many people receiving from the Lord. Can you see that each time a person is obedient to the Lord that it sets into motion God speaking to someone else to do something for us? This can go on into infinity.

For some time the Lord has impressed me that He desires to speak to people. I believe the reason is that He wants to tell them something to do. As they are obedient, He will tell others what to do to help them. Each of us will get our grave clothes off. Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. Abundantly means beyond measure or exceedingly abundantly above.

Now of course when Jesus told the people to untie him and let him go, Lazarus was stinking. The people had to go past the stink. They had to get past their natural inclinations. How often do we see God bring someone into our life that stinks? How do we respond? Do we say they should go get clean, buy clothes, get a job, etc? Or do we go to the Lord and ask Him to give to us His love for them and that we may see them through His eyes and purpose. Do we ask the Lord to show us what He would desire for us to do with whatever resources that He has entrusted to us to help this Lazarus in our life? In Ephesians 3:20 we read; Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us). The text of Ephesians indicates that the "power" that works in us is love and faith. The exceeding abundantly above that is referred to is according to the love and faith that is working within us. In other words, as we allow the love of Jesus to flow out of us for this Lazarus in our life, God will return unto us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Gods ways are always give then get. You enable God's choice for something; He then will cause others to enable you. All that you may have is money, or extra clothes, or extra food, or extra vehicles, or none of these but you have been given an anointing to intercede and do warfare and prayer. As you use what God has given you to support what God desires to do in a person, then God will always return blessings upon you above all that you could ask or think. We must learn to see people through spiritual eyes and not the natural. We must learn to find out what God desires for a person instead of placing our desires upon them. Lazarus was bound. Lazarus even had his eyes covered with a napkin so he could not have been able to see. Jesus did not ask Lazarus to untie himself. He told others to untie him. (See John 11:44) How often do we tell others to clean themselves up and go do this or that? Jesus said that he came to set at liberty them that were bound. This is what He does, through you and me. We cannot set our self free any more than Lazarus could. We must have the help of others. Is it not the whole body working together using whatever each has been given by the Lord that will set others free?

The story of Lazarus can be representative of one that is spiritually dead. Spiritually we can be wrapped in grave clothes and be in a tomb. David said in Psalms 18:4-5 that the sorrows of death encompassed him and the snares of death prevented him. He was alive physically yet he was bound by death. How many of us are in that condition? How many of us have a call of God on our lives yet there is nothing we know to do to get the grave clothes (all the things that hinder or bind us) off our lives? Until we start looking at people through God's eyes and become obedient to whatever the Holy Spirit instructs us to do, many are going to suffer, us included. We need to start focusing on what would God have us to do to help another enter in to their call more than us entering into ours. If we help others find their call, God will see to it that we enter into ours. We need to start laying down our lives for others and support them (enable them, set them free, intercede for them, do warfare, etc) that they may do what God has called them to do.

Jesus could have healed Lazarus when Martha and Mary sent for him. Yet Jesus chose to allow him to die. Often times we wonder why we go through some things. Jesus has a higher purpose. He may allow us to go broke and nothing work financially for us because He wants a person that He has given finances too to share so that we might be blessed as well as the one that gives to us. The real key here is not looking at circumstances but learning to see through God's eyes. If we really trust Him, we will know that whatever He desires for us is for our good and His Glory. Jesus may allow us to spiritually die as through it a revelation will come that will change our life forever. All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). All things, not some, but all! I have always appreciated this scripture:

2 Corinthians 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

It is not just about you or I; it is about many. God wants to work out things for many for His Glory, not just one of us. He desires the body to be blessed, not just one member.

29. Jesus Has His Hands Raised

Have you ever cried out to God for Him to come into your life or in a meeting and be in charge? Have you ever wanted Him alone to run things?

Some time ago we were having prayer meetings in the morning then a fellowship and Bible study in the evening the same day. I am one to pray in the spirit till the Lord shows me what to pray. This particular time I had heard many at some point asking the Lord to come and lead the times we had. Yet, it seemed that there was always an agenda of some person that seemed to dictate what always took place in the meeting. This particular day I had a vision of sorts. I knew that Jesus was sitting in a chair with his hands raised saying may I speak? You asked me to come and I did but you won't let me speak. My heart just seemed to break; as I so knew that Jesus wanted to run the meeting and accomplish His Fathers will yet people were just not sensitive to the Holy Spirit and even knew that he was there. It seems that so often we do what we want and ask the Lord to bless our efforts. We have it so backwards. Our efforts are futile. Flesh never will please God. We seem to think that the Lord is working for us rather than us working with Him.

I really love the scripture in Zechariah 4:6 that says not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord. It has to be by His spirit alone if it is really of Him. How do we find out what is of Him then? This is where the cost comes in and is why few seem to want to go there. People must give up their own plans and agendas. They must empty themselves of self and wait on the Lord to get his directions and plans so that when they actually do something it will be anointed of the Holy Spirit and produce fruit for God's kingdom alone. Does Jesus have his hands raised in your meeting and wants to say something? He is a gentleman and he won't force himself on anyone. We must want and allow him to rule. It is always our choice.

30. Keeping Our Word

Some time ago I wrote a poem entitled "Words". These are a few lines from it that I am basing this article on.

Words are so binding

That sometimes they must be few

If we are going to represent Jesus

Then what we say, then we must do

When we speak words, we are planting seeds. Some words will bring forth good fruit, and some will bring forth bad fruit. This is depending on if we back up our words with our actions. We may mean well when we speak words, yet because we are not led by the Holy Spirit to speak, or we just have not made it a priority to follow through, people become untrusting of us. I know of people that say many things, yet I have learned that they rarely do what they say, so I let those words go in one ear and out the other. As a Christian, since we have Jesus that we are representing, then the words we speak become very important. We can have it all together so to speak yet we don't follow through on what we say, so people find themselves unwilling to trust us very far.

Psalms 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

The scripture above shows how important God's word is to Him. He magnifies it above His name. If Jesus is in us and we are led by the Holy Spirit, then shouldn't it be as important to us to be doing the same thing? I don't know about anyone else, but keeping my word has always been a priority with me. Yes, there are times I have been unable to like anyone else, yet if that happens, I try to go to the person and explain or apologize. Leaving them with the bad taste is not very cool. It creates walls. It separates people. It causes distrust. I realize that this may seem a small thing to many, but what happens as a result to relationships can become enormous. I would like to encourage others to become more aware of making commitments to others through words. If you are unsure if you can keep your words, for the sake of others, please do not tell them you will definitely do something. Everyone is better off if they just never say anything.

31. Lay Down the Stones

John 8:7 He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

John 8:11 Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

The Holy Spirit once told me that what people do is really not my concern. My job is to bring them into God's presence, as He is the one that will fix what needs fixing.

The question arises as to why do we cast stones at others? Even deeper than this is why did we pick up the stone in the first place?

If we remember that it is only by God's grace that we are what we are even through much failure, sin, and faults. His grace is the only reason we stand. This is true for everyone else also. We could not fix our self. We cannot fix someone else. Only Jesus can. The same grace that was given to us must come through us if we are walking in the love of God. What people do is not a law issue; it is actually a love issue. Love takes them to the only one that has the ability and power to change them into the image of God. Jesus is the one that set us free and Jesus is the only one that can set another free. The law says that we must fix ourselves, yet we learn in:

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Ro 7:18 or I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Ro 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Ro 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

The word flesh in the Greek can mean our fleshly covering yet it also can mean our carnal mind. Our body without a soul or spirit is dead. It can do nothing unless empowered and told to do something. If our carnal mind is unable to fix itself, then how can it fix someone else or for that matter expect him or her to fix their selves. This is why criticism, condemnation and judging are straight from the pit. They require actions that self cannot perform. It takes God alone. Only entering into a Holy God's presence changes us.

We can have our house built on the love of God or a rock of offense and stumbling straight from the pit of hell. Casting stones only hurts the one being hit; it does not change them. The person is wounded. Usually the problem gets worse as they try to fix themselves yet the problem usually only gets worse. If they could fix themselves they wouldn't need God. God could never be the one that gets all glory if man could fix himself. Oddly enough, when we cast stones at our brother or sister, we are actually casting them at ourselves. Scripture says:

Romans 12:

4. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

5. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one member's one of another.

Each brother or sister is part of our body. Each member has a unique anointing and purpose. We need each other for the body to be a complete body. If we would learn to help them get free rather than push them deeper, we would be much further ahead. Casting stones makes us part of the problem. Intercession, forgiveness, warfare, and love, makes us part of the solution. The day may come that the gifting or anointing that was in the brother or sister is just what you need for yourself. Yet, since a stone was cast, we may go on not healed or delivered because they were not helped to enter in to their call. It is rather stupid to throw a stone at our self when we also will be hurt as a result. We are cutting our own throat so to speak when we hurl stones at someone else. God does not do it to us, so why do we believe we should do it to another? God is a God of love and grace. If we are of God, the same will come through us. We are told:

Mt 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

1 John 2:

9. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

When we judge, condemn, or do not forgive; we get the same thing back on us. These are the devil's stones. These are designed to take us away from God's presence and power so that we will be ineffective in doing what God has called us to do. Stones are on the ground. Instead of picking up the stones, we should be walking on them. Is not the devil supposed to be underfoot instead of us carrying his demons around in our hands? Unfortunately the devil still entices our senses as he did with Adam and Eve. When a critical, condemning, or judging spirit is working look at what happens. The devil says well they deserve what they get. They should know better. The problem is, it is only by God's Sprit that we do right. In our flesh dwells no good thing. It is not about what we do; it is about what God through His Spirit does through us. The lie then puts the blame on self. The accuser of the brethren is supposed to be cast down, not picked up.

Re 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

It is not now nor ever was about works since Jesus came. Works did not save us. Grace saved us. All that happens when we accept these lies of the pit is that sin, which separates us from being free in God's presence, weights us down. God cannot use us as a vessel when we are full of these things. We are designed to soar with Jesus in the Spirit over the things and devils of this world.

Think of a hot air balloon. When we get saved the chains or ropes are cut so that we can fly. No matter the direction the wind of the Holy Spirit blows, we are able to freely fly with him. When the stones are picked up, the weight of the stones forces the balloon back down to the ground where the enemy is. We are held bound and a prisoner. We can no longer fly. Until we lay down the stones of bitterness, unforgiveness, judging, condemnation, criticism, etc, we will never be able to soar with Jesus and find all the exciting places that the Holy Spirit will take us.

Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

The question then is do we want to soar with Jesus? Then lay down the stones. Do we want to walk in the Spirit? Then lay down the stones. Do we want to please God? Then lay down the stones. Jesus cut the ropes or chains that tied the balloon or us to the ground. Do you want to go higher in the Spirit? Then lay down the stones. Jesus desires that you soar with Him, yet you cannot with the weights of the stones in your hand. Let us lay down the stones and walk on them rather than carry them in our hand.

32. Laying Down Your Life-Part 1

A friend of mine asked to me elaborate on a story that I told her. This is my feeble attempt to put into words some of what the Lord has taken me through. Hopefully it will minister to someone that may have some questions or give new insight as to what a few things mean in God's Word.

Some years ago, I left a full-time job as they were downsizing and shipping the jobs overseas where labor was cheaper. I found myself going through a major change in security. I had to ask the Lord as to what He would have me too at this time in my life. I just knew that my direction was to change from being a full time employee to full time walking with the Lord.

I was living in a small bungalow in a multi-unit complex. The owner was not a very friendly person; in fact he was very bitter and uncomfortable to be around. In my seeking the Lord for new direction, I was told by the Holy Spirit to help this person. It is just like the Lord to place you where you are uncomfortable, as it has to be Him. I started doing things around the property that I saw that were needed to be done. Finally the owner came to me and asked me what I thought that I was doing. I told him that I was helping him. He got upset and said that he had not asked for my help and he wasn't going to pay me for my work. I told him that I had not asked to be paid. The Lord told me to help you and that was what I was going to do. He stormed away upset. Later after doing many things, he came to me and told me that he was going to pay me $8.00 per hour for my work. I told him that it was not necessary, as the Lord was my source. I did need the money, but I was trusting God not in him. So little by little he came to me and started asking me to do things around the property. Next thing I knew he asked me to manage the property. I got a rent reduction plus he raised my pay to $10.00 per hour.

The owner started talking to me about the Lord. I always tried to wait as I was led to speak. He told me that the world was flat once I started talking. He would bring the subject up at times and I would interject some things. He would get upset. I finally told him this is a free country. If you can talk about the Lord then so can I. If you don't want to hear what I have to say, then don't bring the subject up. I really started to like the guy and found that he had a heart of gold. He had helped people in the past and was always taken advantage of. His last manager took him for a few thousand and just left after he had spent a lot of time and money to help him get free of alcohol. This was the reason that he was so bitter. He would help people that would amaze me. He told me one day to never ask him to help anyone again. The next day he let a person move in without any deposit up front and all money due to him paid over a period of time. I asked him and he told me to shut up that I would do the same thing. I just laughed at him. He couldn't help himself, as this was just the way that he was.

He came to me a few times and needed counseling. He told me that I would make a great counselor, which was a blessing to me. He finally sold the property and I had to move on.

Before he left, he told me that I had become the best friend that he ever had. Only the Lord could do that.

33. Laying Down Your Life-Part 2

After I left the complex where I was a manager of the units, the Lord had me go to live with a friend in the middle of the country. I loved the country, but I found that I was cut off from the world so much it became a new challenge for me.

We moved into a little cabin on his mother's property. I was so uncomfortable at first as you could feel the evil all around. I had to go into much prayer and warfare to even be able to stand being there. I had no earthly job, so I had no income and lost my vehicle because I couldn't make the payments on it. The Lord told me to lay down my life for my friend. This article hopefully will elaborate on what that really means.

We are to possess the Land.

In the Old Testament we read of people having to possess their land. We don't hear much about this anymore in the church, but it is very valid still. Our enemy, the devil has spirits, principalities and powers that are ruling over lands, cities, and people. These spirits are causing much havoc in the world that most of the church won't even recognize as even being real. Whether you accept or believe what I am saying is between you and the Lord. I know what took place and that it is very scriptural.

The Holy Spirit once told me that passive Christianity was a thing of the past, except we through the Spirit take it by force, then we would not gain it. Scripture to back this up is:

Mt 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

We must possess our land in the spirit and by the Spirit. I had to learn to posses this land for the Lord. Where there was evil all around, through the spirit, God had me to do much warfare to possess the land for him. You might ask how I did I do this? I pray in tongues. I have found that when I do this that the Holy Spirit gives me revelation of things in the spirit realm. He empowers and the Holy Spirit through me fights demonic spirits and possesses what they have held captive. Whether you believe this or not, it is true. Praying in tongues or in the spirit takes us from our natural carnal nature and causes us to enter and walk in our spiritual nature. We are a spirit as stated in Thes 5:23. Do we always walk in it? No way, though we can if we choose to. Everything with the Lord is a choice between our fleshly carnal nature and our spiritual nature.

The Holy Spirit revealed many things concerning the property and things that had been done there that created an open door for the enemy to possess that land. In other words, the devil had legal ground to come on. Sin is of the devil. When we sin we are agreeing with the devil and give him legal ground to come in. This is where the idea of deliverance comes in. We have allowed the devil to come in through our sin. The scripture comes to mind "Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling". The word salvation, in the Greek, means deliverance. The land needed deliverance as all the spirits that had come in through many sins in the past had to be ejected. After a period of time I found that real peace came over being there, at least from the property side.

Laying Down My Life

God had a greater plan for the guy that I was staying with. My next journey was dealing with all the spirits that were in him. He would explode in anger and destroy things faster than he got them. He looked at pornography every day. It was not a real pleasant time but God wanted him free. I told him that God wanted him free so badly that he interrupted my life to help him get there. God could have used anyone, but for some reason I was chosen. It was never about me it was only about what God had planned. I remember one day that I came down to fix breakfast and the kitchen was a disaster. I got upset and wanted to go after the guy to clean his mess up. The Holy Spirit told me to hush and clean it all up as that the guy couldn't handle it right now. I learned the meaning of giving grace. How often could God have come down on me for things that I was or wasn't doing? But because I was unable to deal with it at that time, my loving Father gave to me grace instead. I learned that the grace God gives to us, we must give to others if Jesus is really working through us. A real good reason that the law and religion just will not help anyone to be set free is that religion and legalism puts man into bondage and that they are expected to fix themselves by their flesh. Flesh cannot fix flesh. The word says that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. The Lord once told me about something that I was determined to fix in myself. He said could you save yourself? I had to say no. He then asked me as to why then did I think that I could deliver myself? He said if I could, then I wouldn't need Him. Religion puts the responsibility on self to do this or that. The responsibility is Gods. If we submit to God, God empowers and does the saving and the delivering. Jesus alone can set men free. Man does not have a clue how to do that. In our flesh dwells no good thing (Ro 7:18). For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. So answer this, how can no good thing fix no good thing? Jesus is the deliverer, not us.

We had times we had no food or knew what we would do. In the first part of this article I mentioned the owner of the property that the Lord had me to help. One day this guy came to visit us. He said that he had some food for us. He went to the car and brought sack load after sack load of food for us to eat. He had said that he spent $200.00 on food for us as he could not stand to know that we didn't have food. I was in tears. Funny thing was, we had not told him we didn't have any food. God provided through him. We had our times of little, but we also had our times of abundance just like Paul said about being abased and abounding.

One day I was ministering on the telephone to a person. A spirit manifested in this person and for whatever reason no matter what I did it just would not leave. I asked the Lord what to do and was told to get the guy that I was staying with on the phone. I thought why? This guy is messed up so what good would this do? To my amazement as soon as he got on the phone also, he saw the demonic spirit in the spirit realm and one word from him the spirit departed from the one that I was ministering too. I realized that God can anoint anyone that he wants at any time. I also saw the gifting that was in this guy was very powerful. I had known for some time that the guy had something in him that he was unaware of. He had told me many times of how he would go places and see the spirits in people. He would know of their spiritual condition. He has a powerful anointing and gifting. God desired to set him free so that he could be used to help others get free.

Since that time, this man has grown remarkably. He has gone through much deliverance as demons literally yelled out as they left him. He has so changed over the years. The Lord gives him dreams and visions. He shows him the state of churches and the foundations that they are built upon, whether good or bad. He has been told that he is an apostle. God is training and preparing him now for a great work. As of now he is taking care of his ailing mother and just spending time with the Lord. He says that he doesn't even really pray much, but the Lord keeps showing him things and talking to him. I had stayed with this guy for seven years. I had learned to do without the things of this world. I had to learn contentment with just being with the Lord. I got to be a part of many miracles that the Lord did for me. There are many things I probably could say, but I think I have covered the most important.

I want to share a few scriptures with you.

Php 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Mt 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.

So what does it really mean to lay down your life for your friend? It means to esteem them of higher importance than self. It means to do without so that they may have. It means to give everything of you for someone else. It means to give a person grace till they are able to handle things. Is this not what Jesus did? Did he not give His life for us? If we are dead as the Word says, then would not Jesus still lay down his life for another? Sometimes we must get our hands dirty so to speak, and follow Jesus and die to self that others may live. How far will we follow Jesus? Will we do without as Jesus did that others may live? If we are still building our own kingdom, we would never even consider doing this. It is only those who will surrender to the Lord and allow him to work through them that will experience this kind of love. Jesus said, follow me! Jesus said that greater works we would do as He went to the Father. These greater works come only through surrender to the Lord. We are told in the world and sadly in many churches that it is all about what we can get. It is such a lie. We have everything we need if we will just get in Jesus and allow him to work for and through us. Our job is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. God's ways are not our ways. He chooses whom he chooses for His own reasons. Even through this journey, I had to learn to lay down my life daily. Paul said he died daily, and so did I. The more I died to self, the more He was exalted and lived in me. If this guy was important to the Lord, then regardless of what I thought or wanted, he was important to me.

As a result of these journeys with the Lord, I am now able to be content with or without. The world and its system no longer run my life. I have learned to follow whatever the Lord desires. Material things do not matter. What matters is pleasing Him and enjoying His presence more than anything this world can offer. I no longer care what others may think, it is just do I please Him alone? Do you?

34. Lazarus- A Higher Purpose

John 11:1-44

1. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

2. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)

3. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

4. When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

5. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

6. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

God had a higher purpose!

Even though his close friend was sick, Jesus waited two days before leaving. Martha and Mary prayed I am sure, yet Jesus was allowing Lazarus pain, sickness, and eventually physical death. Martha and Mary had not heard from the Lord in this situation. They were acting out of love and emotion for their brother, not out of the mind of Christ. He could have spoken one word and the situation would have changed in an instant. Notice God had a higher purpose. People knew that Jesus could heal, yet Jesus wanted to show that He had the power to raise the dead. Jesus was going to get glory from raising Lazarus from the dead. He had a higher purpose. Jesus knew that when we lose our life that we find it. His higher purpose was to do exceedingly abundantly above all that Lazarus, Martha, and Mary could think. How often does the Lord allow us to go through things that we wonder why. If He had shown up, we would not have had to go through some trials. Those trials were allowed for a purpose. Jesus saw the big picture. We just saw what we were dealing with now. Our vision was limited to our natural understanding. God has a higher purpose for all of us. By allowing Lazarus to die, He lived. He was a testimony as he then shared what Jesus had done.

Matthew 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

John 12:

10. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;

11. Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

Lazarus was a testimony to the Jews and many believed on Jesus as a result of the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead. God in His wisdom definitely had a higher purpose for Lazarus. Had Jesus healed Lazarus instead of raising him from the dead, look at all the Jews that may never have believed on Jesus. God's purpose for Lazarus was that he be a testimony to others. That testimony would never have come about if Jesus had done what man said they wanted Him to do.

Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God definitely had a higher purpose!

John 11:

7. Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.

8. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?

9. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

Notice the disciples were scared for Jesus as they figured it was unsafe for Jesus to go to Lazarus as He would be stoned. They had to be operating in their carnal mind as Jesus told them that if they walk in the light they would not stumble. This also shows a contrast of the natural against hearing from the Lord and walking in partnership with Him. Walking in the Spirit and being led of the Lord always will be safe because God ordained it.

10. But if a man walks in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

11. These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

12. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleeps, he shall do well.

13. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.

14. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Jesus first said that Lazarus was asleep. He then came back and said that he was dead. Relate this to spiritual sleep and spiritual death.

15. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

16. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

17. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.

How many of us have been laying in a grave much longer than four days? We may have accepted Jesus, yet there is no life in us. We are walking around like mummies wrapped in grave clothes. Death has swallowed us up. There is no life showing in our walk with Jesus. We may be religious and have a great knowledge of the Word (logos) yet we are dead.

What are some of the scriptural things that will cause us to be under death?

1. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

2. 1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

3. Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

We may be walking the word through our flesh and not by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We may not be walking in partnership with the Holy Spirit and finding out the mind of the Lord. Walking in the Spirit is not walking the word (logos). It is drawing near to the Lord and having a personal relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit. It is finding out the desires and will of the Holy Spirit and walking in agreement and obedience to what He asks you to do. It is an intimate relationship with Jesus. It is walking out the (rhema) word of God in obedience.

18. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off:

19. And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

20. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.

21. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

22. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

23. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

25. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

27. She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

28. And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.

29. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.

30. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.

31. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.

32. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

34. And said, where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

35. Jesus wept.

Jesus wept, not at the fact that in the natural Lazarus was dead. He wept as he knew that no one had believed him. Martha and Mary and the Jews were looking from the natural, not from their spiritual mind. They did not believe what Jesus told them. Jesus groaned in His spirit because He knew this. He was not reacting or moved by the circumstances as was Martha and Mary. Jesus did this miracle in spite of their unbelief. He said in verse 40, if thou would believe you will see the Glory of God. Jesus was going to do a miracle for the Glory of God, yet they looked in the natural and did not believe him at all, or maybe understand.

36. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!

37. And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?

38. Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

39. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

Spiritually speaking, how many of us have been dead four days or more? We may have accepted Jesus, yet we seem lifeless. We lack joy, peace, and the experiencing of the power of the Holy Spirit working through us. In actuality we stink. We are walking around in grave clothes, not the abundant life that Jesus came to give to us.

40. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

41. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

42. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

43. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

The body without the spirit is dead. Jesus spoke to Lazarus, the spirit Lazarus. There was no life in the body without the spirit. As Lazarus obeyed the voice of the Lord, he walked out of the grave. His obedience to the (rhema) word of God then caused Jesus to say to the people to loose him and let him go. I believe that the grave clothes were the spirit of death that had him bound. The grave clothes were anything that restricted him from entering into the will of the Father that he may fulfill his destiny in Jesus. His feet and hands were tied. His eyes were covered with a napkin so that he could not spiritually see. His grave clothes had to be removed for him to come alive. Jesus desired that death no longer have any dominion over Lazarus, but Jesus expected others to take him to that freedom. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. John 10:10 said that Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. The word abundantly in the Greek means "beyond measure" or "exceedingly abundantly above". (note: Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us). Look then at the testimony that Lazarus became as a result of this miracle. Many Jews believed on Jesus. There were so many that believed that the chief priests consulted one another as to how to put Lazarus to death.

Let us look at another thing Jesus did through this. Jesus not only spoke to Lazarus to come forth, but he also spoke to the people to do something. Lazarus was physically alive, yet Jesus told the people to loose him and let him go. Lazarus stank from being dead. Jesus required the people to untie him. He did not ask Lazarus to untie himself, as he couldn't. How often through religion do we require a person to try to untie themselves? Others were required to take his grave clothes off. Lazarus was alive, yet he was still bound. What would have happened to him if the people were not obedient to what Jesus asked them to do? He would be alive, yet he would still be bound by death. Psalms 18:5, the snares of death prevented me. Lazarus would have been prevented from being a testimony to the Jews. The grave clothes were things that had Lazarus bound from doing what God had ordained for him to do. To take a person's grave clothes off means that we use what God has given us to be a supply for another. Lazarus needed new clothes; someone had extra and had to give them to him. Lazarus needed finances, someone that God had blessed in that area had to give them to him. Lazarus may have needed transportation; someone that had cars must have given him one. God desires that all members of the body take part. We each have a part to play. If God didn't put a person into your path to give too, then how could He utilize His word for you when it said give and it shall be given to you? He allows this to bless you for your obedience. He confirms His word for you when you give. It is not for us to question why we should give to someone that stinks. We must just be obedient. The stink is God's problem. If He wants to use a person that stinks, it is His choice. We must get past the stink we see in the natural and find out what God's higher purpose is. Had the people not rallied around even through the stink, Lazarus would never have been able to testify of what Jesus had done and many Jews would never have believed. The higher purpose is about winning souls to Christ. God will bring people into our paths that He has a higher purpose for. Is an anointing on the person? If so, regardless of what they do in the natural, be obedient to what the Holy Spirit shows you to do to help them. God is not as concerned about the outward appearances and some of the faults men have. Look beyond them as Jesus does. What is more important, whether a person conforms to what you think he/she should be like, or whether God uses them to win others to Himself or set a captive free?

How many of us feel like we are walking in abundant life? Do we seem bound on every side? Do we have the freedom to worship in spirit and truth? Do we sense God's presence and approval as we walk each day? Freedom comes with obedience. We may focus on the problem yet never get free. Instead, even in the midst of the struggle with the grave clothes wrapped around us, we need to cry out to Jesus and draw near to Him. As we do this and hear Him speak, we will find the grave clothes will be removed by others which are obedient to the Holy Spirit as we are obedient to what He tells us to do. He desires to speak to us. He wants us set free more than we want to be free. Freedom comes as we know the truth. The written Word of God (Logos) is only a part of knowing God. We must also know the one who wrote it. Jesus said that He is the truth so we also need a personal intimate relationship with Him. We have said for years that the Logos word is the truth and as we know it we will be free. There is a twist here that we have missed. The logos is what the TRUTH wrote, it is not the person truth. You can know the logos word, yet not know the one who wrote it. This is called religion. How many do you know that are a walking encyclopedia of the logos word, yet the fruit of the spirit is not evident? Ever hear we are what we eat? The same is true we become like whom we associate with. If we will associate with the Holy Spirit, the fruit will become evident in and through us.

For us to enter into the abundant life that Jesus has for us, it will take the help of others. Lazarus could not take his grave clothes off nor open his eyes by removing the napkin. Jesus required that others do this for him. This is the body of Christ using their individual resource and gifting for others. This is the body working together to achieve the goals of the Holy Spirit, not the self-righteous programs of man. No person in the body of Christ should be in lack if they are following Jesus.

2 Corinthians 8:

13. For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

14. But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

Also in the book of Acts- chapter 2:

42. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

43. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

44. And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

45. And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

46. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

47. Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

They sold their possessions and parted the proceeds to all men so that no one had lack. They were all in this together with one purpose in mind, to do the will of God. Look what God did as a result. He did signs and wonders, miracles, and even added to the church people that should be saved. God did all this. How does this relate to our priorities? Are we willing to sacrifice all to help someone else so that God's will and kingdom be accomplished? When we can get to that point, we will see God do mighty things. The reason, it is about His Kingdom and will, not ours.

35. Listen to Your Spirit

A Word of Caution

There are many spirits at work in the Body of Christ that are not the Holy Spirit. These spirits parallel the Holy Spirit. From all appearances they seem to be right. The words spoken even appear to be correct. The only way to know is to listen to your spirit.

The spirit bears witness to truth. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. We are given a protection to know what is and is not of the Lord by the Holy Spirit. Unless we listen to our spirit, we can get sucked in to something that is not of the Lord.

A true case in point is when I went to a meeting a few years ago and was a part of the worship team. The worship time was glorious. God's presence was so beautiful as we worshipped Him. I was engulfed in His glorious presence. I sat down after to hear the speaker that had been brought in. Soon after he started speaking, it was if a switch went off in me. God's presence disappeared. I became increasingly uncomfortable in my spirit. The man was speaking words that were totally scriptural as far as I knew, yet I knew something was not right. He then started praying for people up front, after all the chairs were moved to give him much room as people were seemingly being slain in the spirit. I stood at the back and observed. He then stared at me. I knew that there was no way that he was going to touch or pray for me. I had no idea what I was dealing with, but I could not get out of there fast enough. I trusted the leaders of the meeting, so I figured something was wrong in me. I kept praying and seeking the Lord for three weeks. I then got my answer. The man had a familiar spirit. It looked right, and the words were right, yet it was a wrong spirit. Listening to my spirit protected me. I went again to the meeting and noticed that many that had been prayed for were no longer full of love and friendly to me as they were prior to being prayed for. I finally had a talk with the meeting leaders. They said to me, why did you not tell us? Well, I did once I understood what I was dealing with.

Since that time, I have encountered this spirit again through places I would not have expected. Let's just say that there are some ministries that are well known that have a familiar spirit in operation in them. I feel that I must caution people to not get caught up in the things they see that are so supernatural, but stay only caught up in the one that does the supernatural. This of course is Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This is the only way that you can be protected from these false spirits.

Years ago the Holy Spirit gave to me these words in a poem I wrote. They apply more now than ever.

"The words may be right yet the spirit or motive wrong"

Just because the words are right and you may see supernatural things taking place, does not mean that it is the Holy Spirit. Do you feel liberty? Do you sense the fruit of the spirit? Be on guard, as there are many spirits that have entered into the world to deceive many. Listen to your spirit. This is your protection!

36. Majoring on the Minors

The Holy Spirit once told me, "What other people do is not your concern, just do what I tell you to do, and leave the rest to me".

These are words I try to live by once I really understood how important that they really are. When our focus gets on people, problems, money, and world affairs we actually get our focus off the Lord. Not that these things are not important, but we need to remember what Jesus did. He did what he saw His Father do, and spoke what He heard His Father speak. When we take on these things we lose our intimacy with the Lord. We can actually take on a spirit of false burden that will just weight us down. There are so many things that we are tempted to focus on, as the enemy knows how to make us ineffective. Our power comes as we draw near to the Lord and His Holy Spirit and find out what He desires to do. He empowers us to do what He asks. With all the other junk, we are walking in our own intellect or understanding. We must remember that God's ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours are. In order to tap in to His, we must do as it says in 2 Cor 10:5. We must cast down the imaginations and bring our thoughts captive to His knowledge. If we will learn to do this, we will experience His power and anointing to accomplish what He chooses to do through us.

Mr 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

I had an experience with a friend of mine that really brings this home. He had lived with his mother for years. He was helping her, as she couldn't do much anymore. He had a brother and two sisters but they never helped with what was needed. He couldn't understand why they wouldn't help and felt the pressure to do things, but had no resources to do them. He got very frustrated and upset often. Finally one day the Holy Spirit revealed that he was carrying a false burden. God delivered him of it. Once the burden was gone and the weight of him feeling like all was his responsibility was lifted, his family started helping. See, when we take on these things and carry them, God can't. We must release everything to Him. He is the burden bearer. My friend now walks free in the Spirit and God is using him mightily. This could never happen before as his focus was on the wrong things.

We must learn to walk single-minded. It becomes only about what the Lord wants, not about what we want. God does not need our help or us in control religiously, he just needs us to walk in obedience to what the Holy Spirit requests.

Isaiah 30:31, says that when we walk trusting in the flesh or in man, other than trusting the Holy Spirit, that we are in rebellion. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Witchcraft is mind control. When our mind and we is trying to run things, we are in rebellion and witchcraft. We must learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and make this a sole priority if we are to please God. Scripture also states that those in the flesh (their carnal mind) cannot please God.

Bottom line, we must not get our focus on minor things and make them a major thing. God has someone to take care of the things that He has not called us in particular and anointed us to deal with. Zech 4:6...seems to be my favorite verse. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." If we can just learn to become intimate with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to be in control, we would be much more fruitful in our walk with Him. Somehow we have had things backwards. We want God to do for us what we want, instead of us finding out and doing what He wants. Mathew 6:33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things will be added.

It has to be His will and desires first. That is what pleases Him.

37. More Love, More Power

Some time ago, the Holy Spirit gave me this message to share with a group I fellowship with on Monday nights. The beginning of this message seemed to start as we sang the song in the group called More love, more power. As I worshipped the Lord with this song, His presence came intensely and I was nearly slain in the Spirit as I sang. Later, as I was worshipping the Lord at home, I sensed that He wanted to talk to me. His presence was so intense, I could not even speak, only write down what He said to me. At the end of what He told me, I was finally able to ask Him what He wanted to do in our group. He told me, more love, more power. This article is based on what He shared with me.

In 1 Corinthians 13 we read:

1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

8. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

We are in a time that we desire to see and experience God's power manifesting through us to bring change to people around us that are struggling and hurting. God desires to pour out His spirit upon us in power. Yet, if we are not changed we will pollute the gifts. Notice the words above say without charity (love) nothing will profit us. The greatest power that exists is God. God is love (1 John 4:8). Love covers a multitude of sin. Love never fails. If we have God, we have love, and as a result we have power. The problem is that we seek the power not the one that gives it. We seek the healing, not the healer. We seek the deliverance, just not the deliverer. We seek the provision, not the provider. We seek the comfort, not the Comforter. God desires to have an intimate relationship with each one of us. For that to happen, we must die. He that loses his life shall find it (Mathew 10:39). This has a cost of course. It costs us everything, our carnal life. Once we become intimate with the Lord through the Holy Spirit, we will have all of the power we need to do what He asks us to do. Jesus did what He saw the Father do not what He wanted to do. Jesus said that He and His Father were one (John 10:30). If Jesus and the Father are one, and Jesus dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, then we also can become one with the Father as we learn to lose our life in Him. If our desire and focus would change to become one with the Father and have the intimate relationship with Him that He desires, we would see all of the power that we could handle flowing through us.

The gifts of the Spirit are glorious to have; yet they do not require us to become intimate with the Holy Spirit except for the time they manifest through an anointing. God wants us to become intimate with Him all of the time, not just when we get anointed. Just as the disciples sat at the feet of Jesus and had intimate two-sided talks with each other, God desires for us to have the same. This is why we have been given the Holy Spirit, to carry on a personal relationship with the Father as Jesus did. God looks deeper than we do. We seem to want the gifts at times more than we want Him. If we would develop an intimate relationship with Him, He would give to us whatever gift is needed to accomplish what He requests us to do. An intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit will produce the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.

I have watched a friend of mine that has been on a quest to become intimate with Jesus. I have watched her change drastically. She is being filled with such love where she was once struggling with being religious. She has become a prayer warrior and intercessor. She is seeing answers to her prayers quickly as people are changing that God has shown her how to pray for. She has found a great anointing and become powerful in the work of the ministry. This happened because she sought intimacy more than the gifts. She sought Him more than what He does. She is a testimony of the great things that can happen when we seek intimacy with the Lord first and foremost.

God desires to fill us with more love and more power. To have more power, we first need to have more love, the greatest power there is, God. I pray that this article may help someone to have a focus change and find the intimacy with the Lord that He desires for us to have. More power will come as a result.

38. Offences-Retain or Remit?

John 20:23 Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. KJV

John 20:23 If you remit the sins of any persons, they remain remitted to them. If you bind fast the sins of any, they remain bound." WEY

Luke 7:

47. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

48. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Mathew 9:1

1 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.

2 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemeth.

4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

Lu 5:24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the one that was sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.

Ga 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

John 16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

2Co 2:10 To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;

Ac 24:16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

1Co 10:32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

2Co 6:3 Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed:

Jesus has the power to forgive sin. In Mathew 9 we read that Jesus forgave the man with palsy his sins. The man was then healed. The account does not say that the man asked for forgiveness. Jesus acted as a result of the faith of those who brought the sick man to him. Jesus still forgives sin, but now does it through us. If we are crucified with Christ and it is Him living in us, then Jesus will forgive people's sin through us. We are told that whosoever's sin that we remit is remitted. And whosoever's sin we retain is retained. The words remit and retain have these Greek meanings.

Remit- to send forth, yield up, to expire

1c) to let go, let alone, let be

1c1) to disregard

1c2) to leave, not to discuss now, (a topic) 1c21) of teachers, writers and speakers

1c3) to omit, neglect

1d) to let go, give up a debt, forgive, to remit

1e) to give up, keep no longer

2) to permit, allow, not to hinder, to give up a thing to a person

3) to leave, go way from one

3a) in order to go to another place

3b) to depart from any one

3c) to depart from one and leave him to himself so that all mutual claims are abandoned

Retain- to take hold of, take, seize

2c1) to lay hands on one in order to get him into one's power

3) to hold

3a) to hold in the hand

3b) to hold fast, i.e. not discard or let go

The scripture says that the sins ye or we remit or retain. We can hold on to them or we can disregard them. Jesus forgives and disregards them. The devil holds on to them. When someone does something that is wrong or to us, we can either become offended or shake it off. If we take offence, we are not in Christ. We are in the flesh. Flesh will take things personal. The devil likes to get us into this mode, as we then cannot pray out of love for the person. Even the deeper reason is that we cannot remit their sin. Jesus in us will forgive the sin, which is a prelude to their cleansing.

(1Jo 1:9 states, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".) Notice that forgiveness comes before the cleansing. Forgiveness removes the legal ground for the enemy to hold a person in bondage. We through the spirit have the power to forgive sin. Why, because it is not us that is forgiving, it is Jesus in us forgiving. Once they are forgiven they can receive cleansing. You may say that we must first ask for forgiveness. Jesus forgave the man with palsy even though there is no recorded evidence that he asked for it. Jesus responded only to the faith of the ones that brought him, not the asking for forgiveness. Jesus desires us to be crucified so that he may live in and through us to forgive sins so that people may be cleansed. We cannot do this if we are offended at the person. Once again we can bind or loose a person by our actions or inactions.

This all is done though our prayers and authority to do warfare. I stood in proxy for a couple and asked God to forgive my sins, actually they were the couple's sins. This goes along with the scripture that states that we are to:

Galatians 6:

1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

2. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

What does Jesus say about the law? Mt 22:39 and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love then will bear another's burdens. We don't desire to be bound, so love does not desire for another to be bound, so love will bear another's burden. We must look upon others as we look upon our self. This is the law fulfilled.

I have already been told that man does not have the power to forgive another person's sins. I agreed. It is not by might or power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. If it is Christ living in us, then He does it by his spirit in and through us. If this were not true, then because Jesus is no longer walking on earth in His body, then forgiveness through Jesus would never take place. We are the members of His body if Christ is really dwelling in us. If we are really crucified with Christ and it is not us that lives, but Christ in us does, then who is the one doing things through us? He didn't stop loving. We sense God's love for others often. He didn't stop healing as we at times experience his healing power go through us for others. So why then would he not also forgive through us? It is what He does through the spirit in and through us. He, not us, does it.

I believe according to scripture that everything that Jesus did in His earthly body He desires and is willing to do through us if we will only allow the Holy Spirit to rule and reign. The only hindrance is us. When we cannot believe or when we are in control, Jesus cannot do many things that He would like to do. It is not I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me. His love will cover a multitude of sin. His love will do this, not ours. The real key is learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and coming into agreement with what He desires instead of asking the Holy Spirit to come into agreement with what we desire. There is a major difference. It is not about us, it is only and should be only about Him.

The Holy Spirit once told me this. What other people do is not your concern. Just do what I tell you and leave the rest to me. I see this as having a single minded focus. If we can keep our focus correct and not take things that people do so personal, we can walk in the spirit and see the Lord do many glorious things. But, it is a choice to do this. It is a choice to not get offended. It is a choice to allow Jesus through the Holy Spirit, to love, heal, deliver, and forgive through us.

39. Our Two Nature's

As a human being, our Creator has given us two natures. We have a carnal nature and a spiritual nature. Our walk on this earth is a choice as to which one we will allow to rule and follow. This article goes in to the meat of the Word that will help us to understand the differences and how to overcome. Jesus said that the truth would set us free, free indeed. Knowledge is power. The carnal man uses knowledge for self. The spiritual man uses knowledge to die to self, that he may find true life.

Galatians 5:

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Flesh- 4561 sarx sarx sarx (Greek translation from Online Bible lexicon)

AV-flesh 147, carnal 2, carnally minded \+ 5427 1, fleshly 1; 151

1. The sensuous nature of man, "the animal nature" without any suggestion of depravity with cravings which incite to sin

2. The flesh, denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God

If the flesh refers to our flesh as our outer covering, then the body in itself cannot sin. If we were dead yet the body is still here, it cannot sin by itself (James 2:26). The body cannot act independent on its own. The body only carries out what the mind tells it to do. Every action the body does is initiated by a thought. These thoughts come from the Holy Spirit, our spirit, or a demon spirit. Our mind is where we make a choice in what we choose to think on. Our mind is not designed to be a storage facility; it is just to be a place of decision. The word flesh is translated as our carnal, sensuous, earthly, human nature. It is our carnal mind. We are told to be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6). We are also told that the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7). And that they that are in the flesh cannot please Him (Romans 8:8). These works of the flesh (carnal mind) are against God and cannot please Him. This is our sin nature, the part that indulges in fleshly appetites. This is the area of man that the devil works on. He works on our senses. He worked on Eve's senses in the Garden of Eden, as this is where the demonic can and will gain an open door to enter. Consider these two statements. When we have a choice and are in control of whether or not we allow a thought of let's say of adultery, then we do not have a demonic adulterous spirit. On the other hand, if adultery controls us and no matter what we do this desire is continuous unless we give in to it, then we most likely have a spirit of adultery within us. The best way to know is does it control us or do we control it? We are told that to whom we yield ourselves servants to obey, we are a servant to indeed, whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness. (Ro 6:16). He that commits sin is of the devil (1 John 3:8). If we are yielding to sin, then we are yielding to the devil. If we are yielding to obedience unto righteousness, we are yielding our minds to right thinking. Being a servant means that we have a master. If our master is the devil then he is ruling or being our Lord in whatever area that we sin. If Jesus is our Lord, then our thoughts are into obedience to His thoughts, and we do not sin (give place to the devil). Many will say that these works are just the flesh without realizing what and where the real root of sin is. We all have a sin nature. It is our carnal mind. Yet as we yield and follow after the spiritual mind, we will not sin. Walk in the spirit and ye will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (the carnal mind) (Galatians 5:16). This is our only defense. God gave us a defense but we must chose to follow and obey the Holy Spirit to have victory over our fleshly carnal mind of whose nature is sin. The more Jesus increases, or the more we yield to the Holy Spirit, then the more we decrease, or die out to our carnal nature. Our nature becomes a spiritual nature, which then is pleasing to God.

Works of the Flesh word translations from the Online Bible Lexicon

1. Adultery- have unlawful intercourse with another's wife

2. Fornication - illicit sexual intercourse

3. Uncleanness - the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living 1b1) of impure motives

4. Lasciviousness - unbridled lust, excess

5. Idolatry - the worship of false gods

6. Witchcraft - one who prepares or uses magical remedies, a drug, spell-giving potion, sorcerer

7. Hatred – enmity, cause of enmity

8. Variance - contention, strife

9. Emulations - an envious and contentious rivalry, jealousy

10. Wrath - passion, angry, heat, anger forthwith boiling up and soon subsiding again

11. Strife – contention, a self seeking pursuit, selfishness, or self-promotion

12. Seditions - dissension, division

13. Heresies - dissensions arising from diversity of opinions and aims

14. Envyings – ill-will, jealousy

15. Murders – slain or slaughter

16. Drunkenness- intoxication

17. Revellings – rioting

All these fruit come from the carnal nature of man. They are all self-seeking in nature. The spiritual nature has faith, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, meekness, temperance, etc (Galatians 5:22-24). The bottom line, as we are "in the spirit" these problems will not exist (Galatians 5:16). These are the fruit of the carnal nature, not the spiritual nature.

The demonic always works on our carnal nature. The demons cannot enter into our spiritual side. Their power is derived through our carnal sensual nature. They always work on our senses. When they come into us, they come in to our carnal area. Their goal is to gain control over an area in us and become a stronghold in our mind (2 Cor 10:4). The demonic in itself is powerless over us. Jesus took away the demonic spirit's power. The only way it gains power is if we feed it. We feed it by yielding to its suggestions and acting on them. It may start as a little speck of a demon spirit with no power, but after we keep allowing it to talk to us and we act out what it suggests, it can become a giant or a stronghold within us. At this stage it controls us. It is like an addiction, if you don't feed it you become miserable. The demons are pacified as we do what they want; they then will be quiet for a time. The problem is they will return that same sin sick desire over and over. They will bring other demons in as their goal is to bind you and hold you captive and in prison, spiritually. Their desire is to establish their kingdom in you. You will find that you seem to not have any control over them so you yield to them to quiet them down awhile. That of course seems the easy way to stop the problem except it is always only temporary. The permanent solution is admitting the problem and casting the spirit out. Many are so full of pride (which usually is a spirit also to keep them from admitting truth to be set free); they would rather just keep wrestling with the spirit rather than admit that they have a demonic spirit ruling them. We are told that we do not wrestle against flesh (the carnal mind) and blood, but against principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12). If we deal with the demonic spirits, our mind can then get back to a freedom of choice again. We will be free to reject or accept the devil's lies.

We are told to not use our freedom for an occasion to the flesh (Galatians 5:13). In other words, we will get tempted. Our senses will say this looks so good. Yet we will learn the price of giving in to the temptation. It will bring spiritual death in that area of our lives as it separates us from God's presence just as it did to Eve when she sinned. Good ways to determine if something is sin in Gods eyes is that when you yield to whatever it is and act upon it; does it take you out of God's presence? Do you feel separated from God? God is still in the Garden, as He didn't leave. He will never leave or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Sin causes us to leave God. Sin is taking a direction towards satan and his demons instead of staying and walking in the spirit with God. Sin therefore is making satan Lord of that area of us as we are serving him. We are told that whatever is not of faith is sin (Ro 14:23). Faith does not come from our carnal fleshly nature. It only comes from the Holy Spirit, as it is one of the fruit. This is why God said that they that are in the flesh cannot please Him (Ro 8:8). The conclusion then is this.

Walking in the carnal flesh cannot please God. It is enmity against God. The works of our flesh are selfish in nature. They are always doing things to please self. These works are the open doors for the enemy to come in and attack us and eventually control us with a stronghold of lies in our mind. Walking in the Spirit on the other hand, is always not about self, it is about others. If we research about love, we find that love is not self-pleasing. God is love, so when we walk in God's love it is no longer about us, it is about others. The bottom line is Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Ga 5:16). This alone is the walk that pleases God. This walk allows the fruit of the Holy Spirit to manifest through us. This is Jesus walking in us.

Our journey with Jesus is about dying out to self. Paul said that he dies daily (1 Cor 15:31). Paul was dying out to his fleshly carnal nature. Most of the struggles we face come as we are learning to not yield to our carnal nature but to our spiritual nature. We go down many roads and seem to need to get to the end of them to realize that what we really desire does not come from our fleshly lusts. Life comes only through the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives life (2 Cor 3:6). We find that our flesh produces no good thing. We find that as said in John 6:63, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." As we yield to the Spirit we realize that we have power over all of the enemy. The attacks that we use to face seem to be powerless against us. We learn how the enemy attacks and why, so when he comes with his temptations, we either just ignore them or say as Jesus, get thee behind me satan, thou savourest not the things that be of god but they that be of man (Mathew 16:23). We must learn that what Jesus said is true. Our carnal mind is against God. It becomes an offense to us just like it does to God. We have learned where true life comes from, the things of the Spirit of God only. If we have ever felt like a yo-yo this is why. Areas of us that have allowed the Holy Spirit to rule will produce good fruit. Those areas that we are still dying to, still produce the struggle and will not yield the fruit of the Spirit until they are crucified with Christ.

We all are on this journey. Some have more areas crucified than others do. Thank God that He does not wait till we are perfect to use us, but our life here on earth is a journey to find the one true God that produces real life in us. Just never give up. Just like a child that falls down and skins their knee and sits there and cries. They eventually get up and go again. We must do this spiritually also. God gave to us an advocate so when we sin we can be forgiven (1 John 1:9). That advocate is Jesus. If we will just learn to get back up quickly and not wallow in the pain or sin and then just run to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us, we will be back on course again. Just realize that we all sin. We all fail to walk in the Spirit. We all are learning. Little by little we learn to make choices that please God and not self. I pray that we learn these truths of the Word so when we fail we will not allow condemnation and all the guilt, but we will just repent and ask for forgiveness and keep going again and again till we find the sin no longer has power over us. The only way to win is to focus on walking in the Spirit. We must do the things that cause us to yield to the Holy Ghost. This is called prayer; worship in spirit and in truth, study of God's Word, and praying in the Spirit. If we will make this choice we will find new freedom and power in the Holy Ghost. This of course is a choice. Choose ye this day that ye will serve. It is our choice. We can walk in the Spirit as we choose to do so. It is a battle over our carnal nature, but we can win daily as we persevere.

Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Ga 5:16). We win if we choose too! Jesus gave to us everything to win!

Just a little side note:

Notice how Jesus gives us Grace to change. Knowing these truths should help us to give that same grace to others to change also. They are in the same battle that we are. Just because we have gained victory in one area that another hasn't, they may have gained victory in an area that we haven't.

40. Overcoming the World

Sometimes things happen in our lives that make us wonder how we are going to make it. The struggles seem so great. Lest just face it, sometimes people just bug us. We seem to be attacked on every front. Jesus has an answer for these times. Look at what He said about this.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

The word tribulation in the Greek text means:

afflicted(-tion), anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble

How can we be of good cheer with tribulations around us? We must be able to as Jesus said to do so. I have come to believe that what the Lord is doing in all of us is that He is causing us to die out to self. Self has problems dealing with so many things. Self is about self. It wants what it wants. The problem is that self is never satisfied. When tribulations come, self reacts from a selfish point of view. It gets upset when things don't go the way that it thinks they should. When people say or do things that are not real nice it gets offended, hurt, angry, resentful, etc. Self wants to protect self. It is more all about me.

Jesus said that He overcame this world. How did He do this? Did He do this by going back to Heaven? That can't be true as when He said these words He was still on earth. So then what is the key that He found? The Bible tells us that it is the spirit that gives to us life. Jesus had emptied himself of self. His desire and focus was to only please the Father and say and do what was shown and told to Him. Jesus walked in the spirit. Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever been in the presence of the Lord and sensed the Holy Spirit all around and in you? At that time was anything bothering you? Were you not at peace and content even though many problems existed all around you? Jesus said that "in Him we might have peace", This is overcoming the world. It is about being in Jesus. So many of us know that Jesus is in us, but are we really "in Him"? Being in His presence or walking in the spirit is the answer. Where the flesh is miserable, the spirit is at peace and can actually be of good cheer. The key is getting in Jesus. The key is allowing the Holy Spirit to reign instead of our flesh.

Ro 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

See what Paul said? Being spiritually minded is life and peace. When we allow the Holy Spirit to fill our minds and we walk with the mind of Christ, we also can be like Jesus and overcome this world. We can have peace and be of good cheer.

41. Pray It! Don't Say It!

All of our words according to God's Word tell us to edify or build up others. Sometimes it is so easy to say things when we see others doing some thing's which we may think are wrong.

God tells us that Love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8). Once we truly can understand God's love this will become much clearer to us. God's love is aware of the faults, but only focuses on the finished work. God sees us perfect through Jesus. So when we focus on another's fault, we are not walking in God's love. We are actually walking in agreement with the accuser of the brethren, the devil. The devil is critical, condemning, and judgmental.

Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. (KJV)

Edifying (Online Bible Greek translation) 3619 oikodomh oikodome oy-kod-om-ay'

AV-edifying 7, building 6, edification 4, wherewith (one) may edify 1; 18

1) (the act of) building, building up

2) metaph. edifying, edification

2a) the act of one who promotes another's growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness

3) a building (i.e. the thing built, edifice)

Eph 4:29 Let no unwholesome words ever pass your lips, but let all your words be good for benefiting others according to the need of the moment, so that they may be a means of blessing to the hearers. (Wey)

James 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren

An experience that I had a few years back really brought this home to me. I was talking with a friend on the telephone. God's presence was very intense. I am not sure what we were talking about, but the Lord sent His presence while we did. We then somehow started talking about a person. It wasn't edifying but was hashing over the wrongs that they were doing. God's presence immediately left us. It was like someone turned the light switch off. I recognized what had happened by the grace of God, and said we must quit talking this way. We repented and God's presence immediately came back. There are things that God will just not be a part of. This was one of them. Nowhere in scripture does it say that this is the fruit of God's Spirit. When we start talking about someone else, we give in to the enemy's ploys. God said that we are to not give place to the devil. It will cost us God's presence. The enemy working through us will also affect the people that we may be telling. It is one thing when we talk of another with a purpose of praying for the person, but talking about someone being critical or not edifying will get us into trouble. When we lose God's presence we lose everything. The key to us talking about someone is this, "If we can't pray it, then we should never say it".

42. Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Isaiah 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare yea the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

John 1:23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

We as children of God, have been raised up and made to sit in heavenly places with Christ. This is a positional place given to us by God because of what Jesus did for us. Often times we approach God from a position on earth, instead of a position given to us which is one of authority. God gave Adam dominion over the earth. Adam sinned and gave this dominion over to the devil. Once we are born again, we now have our dominion back, through the blood of Christ.

We are told to prepare the way of the Lord. God desires to pour out many blessings on His people. Scripturally these blessings were provided to us because of Jesus and His dying on the cross for our sin. Some of these promises are:

Ps 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

Mt 6:33 But seek yea first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

1 Cor 10:24 Let no one be forever seeking his own good, but let each seek that of his fellow man (Weymouth trans)

With our dominion, we are required to prepare the way of the Lord. Our dominion requires us to do battle with the enemy that Adam gave the world to. We must possess our land back from the devil. Although God desires to bless His people, there are hindrances in the spirit realm that God has given to us as born again believers to battle against. He gave us weapons and authority, though sadly much of the church has failed to take up their weapons and fight. They are still just crying out to God to do something. God already did it! He gave us power through His Holy Spirit to deal with all principalities and powers. We must use this power if we are going to see people set free and enter in to the blessings of God.

God gave to us the keys to the kingdom, just as He gave to Adam. Are we going to use them, or give them back over to the devil? The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. This is a spiritual battle that takes spiritual weapons to fight. As warriors, we can change homes, cities, states, and countries, through intercession and warfare.

Mt 16:19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

2Co 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds ;)

God gave to us the keys. These keys not only will open up the mysteries of the kingdom, but they will unlock doors that have kept people in spiritual prisons. Keys must be used to be of any good. Laying them on the shelf does nothing. The key must be put into a lock and turned to open anything.

We are seated in heavenly places with Christ; have been given the keys to the kingdom; have been given authority over all the power of the enemy; so what are we going to do with it? We need to use our God given weapons to prepare the way of the Lord. We need to deal with the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness that are blocking the outpouring of God's Spirit to save, heal, deliver and provide. God has already blessed us yet we must use what He has given to us to possess it in the natural realm.

43. Spiritual Grave Clothes

Binding and Loosing

Mathew 16:19 And I will give unto thee the (1) keys of the kingdom of heaven: and (2) whatsoever thou shalt (3) bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and (2) whatsoever thou shalt (4) loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Greek Translation-Online Bible

(1) Keys-1) a key

1a) since the keeper of the keys has the power to open and to shut

1b) metaph. in the NT to denote power and authority of various kinds

(2) Whatsoever-

AV-which 418, whom 270, that 139, who 87, whose 52, what 40, that which 20, whereof 17, misc 346; 1389

1) who, which, what, that

(3) Bind- 1210

AV-bind 37, tie 4, knit 1, be in bonds 1, wind 1; 44

1) to bind tie, fasten

1a) to bind, fasten with chains, to throw into chains

1b) metaph.

1b3) to forbid, prohibit, declare to be illicit

(4) Loose-

AV-loose 27, break 5, unloose 3, destroy 2, dissolve 2, put off 1, melt 1, break up 1, break down 1; 43

1) to loose any person (or thing) tied or fastened

1a) bandages of the feet, the shoes,

1b) of a husband and wife joined together by the bond of matrimony

1c) of a single man, whether he has already had a wife or has not yet married

2) to loose one bound, i.e. to unbind, release from bonds, set free

2a) of one bound up (swathed in bandages)

2b) bound with chains (a prisoner), discharge from prison, let go

3) to loosen, undo, dissolve, anything bound, tied, or compacted together

3a) an assembly, i.e. to dismiss, break up

3b) laws, as having a binding force, are likened to bonds

3c) to annul, subvert

3d) to do away with, to deprive of authority, whether by precept or act

3e) to declare unlawful

3f) to loose what is compacted or built together, to break up, demolish, destroy

3g) to dissolve something coherent into parts, to destroy

3h) metaph., to overthrow, to do away with

The word "loose" is the same word that Jesus used when he told others to "loose" Lazarus from his grave clothes after he was brought forth from the tomb by being raised from the dead by Jesus.

Weymouth Translation

John 11:44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in cloths, and his face wrapped round with a towel. "Untie him," said Jesus, "and let him go free."

KJV Translation

John 11:44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with (1B) grave clothes: and his face was (2B) bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, (4) Loose him, and let him go.

(4) Loose-as pertains to John 11:44:

1) to loose any person (or thing) tied or fastened

1a) bandages of the feet, the shoes,

2) to loose one bound, i.e. to unbind, release from bonds, set free

2a) of one bound up (swathed in bandages)

2b) bound with chains (a prisoner), discharge from prison, let go

3) to loosen, undo, dissolve, anything bound, tied, or compacted together

3f) to loose what is compacted or built together, to break up, demolish, destroy

3g) to dissolve something coherent into parts, to destroy

3h) metaph., to overthrow, to do away with

(1B) Grave clothes-

1) A band, either for bed-girth, or for tying up a corpse after it has been swathed in linen

(2B) Bound

1) From a derivative of 1210-bind as listed above

When we "bind", we put "whatsoever" in chains and forbid, prohibit, or declare to be illicit the "whatsoever". This is usually used in connection with a demon spirit. Since the word does say "whatsoever", then this must be applicable to other things also.

The "whatsoever" can be a spirit when dealing with another person, but I am praying about how this works on our self as far as our will and desires. If this is effective in binding any ungodly desire that we may have, it may be a key to helping self get free from various desires that we may have that we can't seem to get rid of. Usually ungodly desires are just the character or the fruit of a demonic spirit.

When we "loose", we untie, or unwrap, set free, release from bonds, discharge from prison, let go, or do away with the spirit that has had a person bound.

Important Note: We have authority over spirits, not over people. Satan controls, God always gives free choice. We can bind the spirits in a person but to bind the person would be considered witchcraft prayers. We are to set people free, not bind them. We should not inflict our will or what we think someone else should be or do in spiritual warfare. If we will deal with the spirits, so that the person is not bound by demonic spirits, they then have a free choice to either accept Godly things or to reject them. Warfare allows a person the opportunity to see clearly and make a choice from there.

Jesus said this is the key to the kingdom of Heaven. A key "unlocks or locks a door". This is a spiritual door that as done will bring about changes in the natural. This is our authority in the Spirit over principalities and powers. Because Jesus said that He never knew the ones that cast out demons (See Mathew 7:22-23), this would have to mean that they did it in Jesus Name, yet by the flesh, not by the leading of the Holy Spirit. As a child of God we have been given this authority, yet it must needs to be led and anointed by the Holy Spirit.

Lazarus was alive once Jesus called him forth, yet he was still bound by grave clothes (those things that wraps a person that is dead for burial). He was alive, yet he still was bound by death. Jesus told others to loose him and let him go free. This is our authority to bind and loose. Jesus was telling us to use the keys of the kingdom and set at liberty them that were bound.

Another note is that just dealing with the spirit will not always set a person free. They need to see and gain some knowledge of the fact that a spirit is present and what they must or must not do to keep the door closed so that the spirit will not return. Without them gaining some knowledge, teaching or understanding they possibly could end up with seven other spirits which will make them worse than they were before they had the spirit cast out.(see Mathew 12:43-45).

What Opens the Door?

1. Sin

2. Disobedience

3. Lack of knowledge of what the Word of God says is truth

4. Unwillingness to follow the truth

Sin-An Open Door

James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When we sin, we enter into the devils camp. We know this as:

1 John 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus tells us that He forgives us when we ask, yet, what about the death that came upon us? Since the wages of sin is death, then it is possible to take on a spirit of death once we sin, as we gave the devil legal ground. Jesus forgives the act of sin, yet at times we must still deal with the wages of our sin, a spirit of death.

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they

might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Even though we have received forgiveness from our sin, sometimes we still have not entered into life abundant. The devil kills, steals and destroys. If this is going on then we most certainly are not living in life abundant. The word "abundant" means beyond measure or exceedingly abundantly above. We think maybe that a spirit of death could never have a hold over us, yet if we are not experiencing life abundant, it is possible. Revelation by the Holy Spirit would need to come to know if this was a root source of our snares of prevention. Let's look at what David in the psalms had to say.

Psalms 18:

4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.

David had a fear of man. Fear takes away love, power, and our sound mind. When fear is in control we are snared.

David was physically alive or he could not have written this. He was alive yet the sorrows of death were upon him because of his fear and the snares of death prevented him. David was bound by a spirit of death. Our wages or payment for our sin is death, not life. David's sin was apparently the fear of man which caused him to battle with a spirit of death. When we are walking in fear, we cannot walk in faith. Everything that is not of faith is sin.

Romans 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Can we see now the open door that we all give to the enemy? When we are not walking by faith, we are walking in sin. Sin leaves an open door for the enemy to put upon us a spirit of death.

We are told that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Also, if any man says that he has not sinned, we make God a liar.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Why Jesus Came

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Isaiah 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Jesus in us still desires to do the same thing; set people free that they may enter into life abundant {beyond measure, exceedingly abundantly above all that they may ask or think (Ephesians 3:20) (John 10:10)}. This is accomplished by our using the authority in the spirit to bind the spirits and to loose people from the spiritual grave clothes of death so that they will be set free to follow and do whatever the Lord would have them to do.

Scripture does say however that there must first be a willing mind. If a person wants the sin or the spirit, it is rather useless to try to deal with it. If the person is crying out to be set free then spiritual warfare is appropriate. Spiritual warfare needs to be led of the Holy Spirit, not our own desire or will.

44. The Great Deception

Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Mt 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Mr 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul

Luke 4:

5. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

6. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

1Co 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

1Jo 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Mr 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Lu 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

We know that God is love. Without love we do not have God and are empty inside. God made it that way. God alone is love, nothing else. The devil tempted, or tried to tempt Jesus when he was forty days in the wilderness. He offered him the kingdoms of this world and everything if He would bow down and worship him. Had Jesus done this He would have bought into the deception that "things" are life. Jesus knew that only the Father was love, and was life. Many in this day have bought into this lie and deception. If I only have this or that I will be happy and have life. The enemy uses this to distract us from what really brings true life. When we give in to this belief it takes us from the Lord and from true love. We are told that the Spirit gives life. Nothing of this world gives life. It may make life more enjoyable to our flesh, but in and of itself it cannot produce true life. We are complete in Jesus alone. Completeness comes from God's love and His Spirit. This is the cake. The things of this world are only the icing. We can have all the things, and still be empty and dead inside. We can have Jesus and the Holy Spirit and be complete, no matter if we have anything of this world or not. The reason for this is because that we are a spirit and by our flesh we are never alive; it is only God's Spirit that will bring us true life. Anything else is a substitute and a deception from the enemy.

The devil knows that if he can get us to focus on things (mammon) that our focus will not be on the Lord. We are told that we cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. We must hate one or the other. We are also told that the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word. They choke out God. God said that He would take care of all of our needs if we would only serve Him. We cannot serve both. We are told in Mathew to take no thought of even food or clothing, which is getting real basic. If we desire to serve the Lord then we must divorce our self from things and the world, as there is no other way to truly find our destiny in God.

Are we going to buy the lie and seek after things or seek after God, the one that is life. The choice is ours. Our hearts can be filled with God's love or things. Only one will really satisfy the longing within us.

45. The Greatest Thing Is Love

1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity (love).

Charity: 26. αγαπη agape ag-ah'-pay; from 25; love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast: — (feast of) charity([-ably]), dear, love.

Have you ever been in love? Wasn't that the greatest thing that ever had happened to you? Wasn't there such joy and happiness and you felt so complete? Didn't you find a strength that you didn't know that you could have? I can think back of how being in love was so awesome. I felt like I was on the top of the world.

I remember the times that I was so in love with the Lord. I longed to worship and praise Him. I would raise my arms and worship and just get lost I His presence. Nothing else mattered. I remember the time that I went to a praise gathering in a coliseum. When I worshipped I didn't care who was around or who saw me. I just seemed to get lost in His presence. This was the most beautiful time that I ever had. Not knowing that I was being observed by pastors up on the platform, I was amazed at the end of the meeting that a pastor came down and told me that he had been so blessed just watching me worship the Lord. That was a real blessing to me that it touched someone. Yet I wasn't doing it for that reason. I was just in love with the Lord and wanted to show him with my whole heart.

Unfortunately, things creep in. Our focus changes and we seem to not even realize that it has. We get our focus on our health, on money, on problems, etc. When we are not feeling well or our body is sick or hurting we tend to focus on that. Once the Holy Spirit told me that He could heal anyone at any time or at any place, but why do it if they just go on doing the things that they want to do. I thought of this concerning others but I didn't realize that I was doing the same thing. I thought that all I wanted to do was to be used of Him, and have a few nice things. I wanted a mate and someone to love on this earth. Little did I realize that this was a lateral focus. Scripture says:

Mr 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Consider this. All of the things that mean something to us are actually the cares of this world. The ministry, the mate, the money, the material things and our health, are all the same. None of these will matter from an eternal perspective. All of these will pass away. The only eternal thing will be our love relationship with the Lord. God can use anyone in ministry. He spoke through a donkey didn't he? So we are not really important or that it is imperative that He uses us. He chooses to do so, but He does not have too. He is God and all powerful. He can pour out His Spirit any time He chooses and bring all of mankind to their knees in an instant. He is the one that adds to the church daily such as should be saved. He does it. He chooses to allow us to partner with Him but he is not limited to this partnership to get what He wants to do, done. The mate we will not have in Heaven. He uses the mate to show us what love is and how beautiful that it can be to love. Yet there is no marriage in Heaven. We will love only Him gladly. Of course the money and material things will all pass away as they will not be needed. The only thing that will matter will be our love relationship with Jesus.

The statement I made about Him being able to heal at any time now brings a new perspective at least to me. I was having major physical problems. I knew that the problem was not with God but was with me somehow. I couldn't figure out why He didn't heal me. He used this to show me where I had stopped worshiping and loving Him with all my heart. I had gotten focused on health, the need of a car, the need of money, the desire for a mate, and the desire to minister. Little to my knowledge these were all things that were choking out the Word and my worship and love for Him. Scripture says:

Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

I was always complete in Him when I was in worship and had fallen in love with Him. I had need of nothing else. I was happy and always enjoying His presence. The enemy as we know is very sly. Somehow my focus got on all those other things and took me away from my love and worship. It is not that these things do not have value, but if they take us away from our love of Him, then there is a problem. God is a jealous God. Even if we never have anything of this world, we can be complete. If you have ever really entered into worship, and had tears of joy running down your face as you were so in love with Him, then you would understand how awesome and beautiful that it really is. There is nothing of this world. There is nothing that the devil can provide. There is no mate or money or material thing that can ever even come close to the fulfillment that comes when we are in love with Jesus and worship Him.

At least for me, I have realized that I must do as this scripture says:

Re 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Many things just do not happen for us because of this.

Jer 5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

I was aware of this scripture but just couldn't figure out what my iniquity or sin was. Now I know. If my focus is not to,

De 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Then the Lord has reason and right to withhold anything from me.

Father, teach me how to fall in love with you once again. I desire to love you and worship you with all of my heart, soul, and might. I know that this is eternal and everything else will pass away. Forgive me where I have gotten sidetracked and allowed the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches to choke you out. I ask for your mercy and grace to get me back on track that I may be complete in you and become as Paul when he said that he learned to be content with or without. I realize now that my contentment will always be there no matter the circumstance or need as long as I keep my love relationship with you intact and always my priority. In Jesus name

Amen.

46. There is More!

As I was praying for the church in intercessory prayer I saw this in the Spirit. I saw first a stream of muddy water. Then I saw a spring of crystal clear sparkling water.

The Holy Spirit impressed on me that the church has been drinking muddy water. To many unfortunately it seems clean and pure because they have not known anything else. You could be in a room in a house and not be aware of a door that leads to another room. Yet, once you find and open the door, many things are visible that you had no idea were there and available. God has a stream of water of the Holy Spirit that is crystal clear and very pure. Just because we have never seen it does not mean that it does not exist. It is only our mindsets of limiting God that keep us from it. As long as we believe that what we have is all that there is, we never will see the pure water that God has available.

I then found myself reminding God of His word that states in Ac 2:17 "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." I then saw a mighty river and then dams that have tried to hold back the water. Religion and tradition of man have placed the dams. Our unbelief and our limiting the Holy Spirit have allowed them. This river was washing away these dams and entering places that have been wrongly protected. I then saw the river with houses floating down them. God's outpouring is going to wash away some houses that have not been built on the correct foundations. These houses are churches and people.

I would encourage whoever reads this to take all limits off of God. Allow yourself to be open to new things that you maybe have disallowed in the past. God wants to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. To some, this will be a time of rejoicing as their hearts have cried for this. Yet to many, it will be a time of struggle as they have never seen how awesome God is and when His Spirit is poured out, many "Norms" will be removed as people and churches are changed.

I would encourage everyone to press in and be open to what God desires to do. I remember the scripture that talked of when the master of the house came and found them sleeping. Read Mark 13:33-37.

There is more, so I pray you are awake when the Master comes.

47. There is More-Part 2

Luke 6:48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

In the original word some things stood out. One was that there was a flood coming. Two, was that some have allowed wrong protection.

For a flood to come, it must first rain. Rain is designed to cleanse and nourish. Being wrongly protected causes people to come in out of the rain so to speak. Just as fear will cause us to miss many things as we are scared that if we do this or that it will cause something negative to happen. Fear is a wrong protection. Religion and tradition are wrong protections. We can have a surface Christianity by living in the fear, religion, tradition, and even unbelief. It will keep us inside and out of the rain. The wrong protection then is the shelter that we are hiding under. The problem is that that once it rains for a long time, the ground becomes saturated and the water then flows on the surface. If we have only a surface walk with the Lord, we are going to be washed away in a flood. Also, if we are hiding under a shelter, we will not even be aware of the flood coming. It will take us by surprise. Being sensitive to what God is saying, is the right protection. He will talk to us and protect us if we are willing to listen.

God is causing it to rain. Unless we allow the rain to cleanse and nourish us in the Spirit, we will be in trouble when the floods come. God is giving us a chance to get cleansed and see clearly so that our roots are planted deep that we can stand. Yet, it is our choice. We can hold on to the wrong protections, and pay the price later. Luke 6:48 talks about one who digs deep. This means digging deep in the spirit of God. This means becoming intimate with Him instead of having a surface religion, instead of having a deep personal relationship with Him. Many Christians follow the Word, His orders, but do not really know Him. Knowing Him is the only protection that will work when the floods come.

I see many churches that desire a move of the Lord, yet won't do what is necessary to bring it about. Prayer and intercession must take place if a church is to get fresh manna from the Lord. Each church needs a battle plan to bring about their vision. Revelation comes through much prayer and seeking. Revelation comes with deep worship. The Holy Spirit once told me "Unless you minister to me, I can't minister to you or through you". Look in the Old Testament at the many times that God said, "My priest's minister to me". We must draw near to God first, as He will then draw near to us. We must also allow God to move in the way that He desires, which may be different from what we are accustomed too. We must stay open to what the Holy Spirit is saying that we can do things His way and not ours.

Do you want to see God move in your church? How bad do you want this to take place?

2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Unless we do things God's way by allowing the rain to wash away the garbage we have been under, and then allow the Holy Spirit to pray through us, we will never see our land healed.

In the book of Acts the disciples were smart in that even though they had a personal intimate relationship with Jesus before His death, they knew that they had to have power to do the things that their Master had said. They waited in the upper room until they were endued with power. They did not religiously walk out the Word in their flesh. They needed power, intimacy, and guidance. Why is it that we seem to think that we can follow the Lord without the same thing?

2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Unfortunately the church for the most part has been walking in this scripture with a form of godliness, but with no power. Power comes by waiting on the Lord until he endues and sends out. Religion leaves out the power of the Holy Spirit. It becomes us doing it, following orders, instead of it being He intimately working through us by His Holy Spirit.

When the rains come and saturate the ground, even the grand giant cedar tree falls. Like the cedar, when the rains come, many giant churches, ministries, and giants to man, will also fall. It is time to dig our roots deep that we may stand in the upcoming times and days ahead.

48. We Must Guard Unity

Once we realize the importance of unity, then we must be on guard. The devil works overtime to attempt to kill unity as he knows what happens when it exists. I once had a vision I guess while praying. I saw many people in a circle holding hands with their backs facing to the center of the circle. In the middle of the circle was the word "unity". The Holy Spirit was showing me that we must always be watching for anything that would disrupt or take away unity. If unity is demolished, then God's blessing and presence will disappear. We must always be on guard and become sensitive to the attacks the enemy throws to ward off them and protect unity. We can be right and still lose. Unity is much more important than who is right or wrong.

49. What the Devil Does Not Want You To Know

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

We talk often about the fruit of the spirit. We know the fruit of God's spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Galatians 5: 22 and 23). This is the fruit of a godly spirit. But what about the fruit of an ungodly spirit?

You may be one that believes that there are no demonic spirits or that they have no effect on a born again Christian. Well, have you ever experienced fear? Of course we all have. Is fear just a word or something else? The Word of God says this about fear:

2Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Notice what is said? Fear is called a spirit. It is not just a word. It is a spirit. Being that all spirits have fruit, what is the fruit of a spirit of fear? The answer is simple. The fruit is fear. The spirit of fear causes fear. But whose fear is it? It is not our fear, it is the spirits fear. The spirit is the one that is fearful. When we are attacked with fear, and notice I say attacked, the spirit of fear attempts to make us believe that (WE) are scared. It is not us that is fearful. It is the spirit that is fearful. Once we call it ours, then it has legal ground to become a part of us and reside in our body or mind. If we can but separate the spirit from us and just realize that it is not us, then we can gain victory over all fear. We have authority in Jesus name to deal with any demonic spirit. If it were just us, we find that in our flesh dwells no good thing and so we can't deliver our self. No good thing cannot fix no good thing. It is not by might or power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord. It is about His power and ability. If we can separate the fear from us and just know that it is a spirit and not us, deliverance comes fairly easy then.

Once we can realize that it is just a demonic spirit attacking us, we can take up our shield of faith and cause it to bounce off instead of penetrate. An example that I experienced years ago was I was on my way to a church service. All the sudden I got attacked with major fear. I thought to myself, wait a minute, why would I be afraid to go to church? I then remembered the scripture that God did not give me the spirit of fear. I just then said thank you devil as I recognize this as you, and I now know that I am to go to church. I could have allowed this to keep me from church by accepting the fruit of that spirit. Instead the Lord caused me to recognize that it was a spirit and not me. I had no reason in myself to fear going to church. That was ludicrous to think I was scared of church. Scared of getting into God's presence and receiving from Him? What is there to be scared of? A blessing? Peace and joy?

The point that I want to make here is the fear that hits you is not you. It is a spirit that God has given us power and authority over. We do not have to entertain the spirit. The devil is always a liar and deceiver. He tries to tell you that this is you. This is a lie and deception. If he can get you to believe this lie, then he can keep you bound with all kind of fears. I hope that this truth will set you free from all of your fears. We are men and women of faith, not fear.

50. Yield to the Anointing

Often times in the church or meeting, God will send His power, yet we fail to recognize the anointing or disallow it from being used. The Holy Spirit once showed me a picture of a meeting. Around the room were many people. God had chosen a person that He wanted to use. They had their hand up saying use me. We cry out to the Lord for His presence and power to come; yet we fail to realize that it will come through people. The Lord in the meeting had his hand up as the people were crying out for Him to come. He was saying, "Can I speak?". He was not allowed, as man wanted to be in control. The Lord then left without accomplishing what He wanted to do.

Man in control is a problem in the church. The control comes from many possible issues. It may come through pride, self-glory, insecurities, fear, unbelief, or distrust. I realize that a pastor or leader has a responsibility to protect the sheep, yet He also has a responsibility to feed them. A pastor or leader that is truly called of God, must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to flow through whomever He chooses. The pastor or leader is only what they are because God gifted or anointed them. It is not really them in leadership, or should not be. It must be the Holy Spirit. They are no different than anyone else without the anointing. God chooses who He wants to use and anoint. I have found for me at least that I do not care whom God uses, as long as He gets done what He chooses to do in the meeting. It is all about the Lord and His will, not about man. If we are truly crucified with Christ, it will be Jesus in us as pastor or leader of a meeting. Jesus did what He saw the Father do. He laid down His will and did only the will of the Father. We must do the same if Jesus is truly living and working through us. It is not our ministry. It is the ministry of Jesus through His Holy Spirit that gets things done God's way. We must learn to let go of what we want and allow the Holy Spirit to lead in whatever way and through whomever He chooses if we are to have a church that is powerful and accomplishing the will of the Lord. There may be an anointing to preach, teach, pray, exhort or other things. It is not about one person. We are to work as a team and even though we feel in leadership, we must allow the people to function in their gifting and anointing if we are to have a God kind of church or meeting. We must take the limits off of God that say it must be done a certain way or it must only be through me or the one I choose. God seems to rarely do things the way we think. He said that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours are, so we must learn to yield to the anointing in whomever God chooses to use. What we fail to realize is that when we don't allow God to use people that He anoints that we are saying "no" to God as we want our own way. This is rebellion and disobedience and can put us in dangerous territory, as we are actually in agreement with the enemy. Did not the devil want to exalt himself above God and be in control? Is that not what we are doing when we disallow the Holy Spirit free reign? We really need to look at our choices much closer. Our rebellion or disobedience will always cost us something. Obedience is better than sacrifice. We could sacrifice our health or life if not careful. God has things that He wants done and I don't want to be the one that stands in His way. God's will, will get done, with or without us. Are we going to agree with Him, or go our own way and pay the cost?

Books presently available on Smashwords by this author:

The Warrior Poet

Releasing God's Power in You

Pupper Tales

Colorful Truths Series

Can We Have the Mind of Christ?

The Chicken

The Fruit of the Spirit

Our Free Gift

Victory Over the Flesh

Do Miracles Still Happen?

Minister to Me

Peace in the Storm

Colorful Truths Volume 1, Volume 2

New Life Series

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Ministry In Poem Series

A total of 18 volumes

Please go to Smashwords and check for new releases or how to sample, view or make a purchase. Thanks for allowing me to share with you what the Lord has shared with me. May you be as blessed reading these as I was by the Lord in writing them.

Rick

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/believer
