John 14:26 NASB, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name, HE WILL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS
2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT be with you all.
Let's take a look at the Holy Spirit for a few minutes. In Genesis 1:2, we are told that the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters as God began creating the universe. Then, AS GOD SPOKE, the Holy Spirit, with unequaled wisdom and power, created what God spoke.
Who on this earth is smarter that the Holy Spirit, also rightfully called the Spirit of God? Is there ANYTHING or ANYONE more powerful or more intelligent than He is. We think nothing of trusting our car to a skilled mechanic. We trust our bodies to a skilled physician. It should only be natural for us to consult (or fellowship) with the greatest source of knowledge and wisdom there ever was, the Holy Spirit.
Read John 14:26 again. Jesus said that this Helper, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things. He will teach you how to be successful. He will teach you how to be rich. He will teach you how to raise your children, how to enrich your marriage, how to get promoted, how to build a church, how to flow in the anointing.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:6 to go into your prayer closet and pray. Why? Because it is more important for you to fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It is imperative for you to talk to Him one on one as well as listen to what He would have to say to you. There are things that the Holy Spirit would like to share with each of us individually that He cannot share with us as we listen to someone ministering the Word. While I agree that listening to anointed preaching and teaching is necessary, I am, also, adamant about being alone, one-on-one with the Holy Spirit. Each Christian should spend more time alone with the Holy Spirit than they do listening to their pastor and worship team each week.
Why? Because the Holy Spirit knows you more than your pastor does. As you get into the habit of listening to Him, you will find out that He knows more about you than you do yourself. There are things He would like to say to you that your Pastor/teacher can't. There are ways that He wants to encourage you that the Shepherd of the flock doesn't have the time to do. Although you can sense His presence in a church service, the Holy Spirit desires to reveal Himself to you in a deeper and more personal way than any pastor could ever do.
Fellowship with the Holy Spirit hones our Godly skills just like football practice does to a successful football team. When the day comes for us to meet face-to-face with our adversary, those times of fellowship with the power that created the universe will pay off.
Monday, April 29, 2019
Saturday, April 27, 2019
A Prayer Warrior's First Prerequisite
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.
The very first thing in becoming a real prayer warrior is that you must be absolutely convinced that God is God and no one else is. Neither political party is. World leaders are not. Your pastor, Sunday School teacher, spouse, kids or your boss certainly are not.
Although some of these might exercise authority over you, the one that exercises authority over all things is God Almighty and Him Alone. How did God feel about Pharaoh exercising ungodly authority over the Hebrew children? God put up with it until it was time to redeem His promise to Abraham.
Understand this. It is EXTREMELY important for anyone who wants to be an effective prayer warrior to fully understand the heart and mind of God. God could have, but He didn't, just snatch 2.5 million people out of Egypt and transplant them into the promised land. God gave Pharaoh the opportunity to bless His people or not. Pharaoh chose not to. He chose to curse God's people. In essence, Pharaoh tried to destroy God's people.
In return, God didn't bring His people out until He had unleashed His wrath on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. If you will study it out, the ten plagues were direct slaps at Egypt's ten main gods. By the time God was through, Egypt's crops, their herds, their houses, and their firstborn sons were destroyed in a way that let them know that a supernatural force had freed the children of Israel. And, as if that wasn't enough, the entire army of Egypt was destroyed by a totally supernatural act.
You start becoming a prayer warrior by understanding that it is NOT God's will for you, or your children down to a thousand generations (Dt 7:9) to be enslaved by demonic forces. He has said He would bless. His angels will encamp around you. The powers of hell cannot prevail against you.
You start becoming a prayer warrior when you realize that He is God and no one else is. He loves you in away that nobody else can (John 3:16). He watches over you (Psalm 121:5-8). Not one hair on your head will perish without Him seeing it (Luke 21:18).
You start when you begin to realize that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. He becomes more important to you than what you are going through. Because, prayer warrior, you are strengthened by the knowledge that God's answer to your situation will bring you more joy than the sorrow you are experiencing right now.
The very first thing in becoming a real prayer warrior is that you must be absolutely convinced that God is God and no one else is. Neither political party is. World leaders are not. Your pastor, Sunday School teacher, spouse, kids or your boss certainly are not.
Although some of these might exercise authority over you, the one that exercises authority over all things is God Almighty and Him Alone. How did God feel about Pharaoh exercising ungodly authority over the Hebrew children? God put up with it until it was time to redeem His promise to Abraham.
Understand this. It is EXTREMELY important for anyone who wants to be an effective prayer warrior to fully understand the heart and mind of God. God could have, but He didn't, just snatch 2.5 million people out of Egypt and transplant them into the promised land. God gave Pharaoh the opportunity to bless His people or not. Pharaoh chose not to. He chose to curse God's people. In essence, Pharaoh tried to destroy God's people.
In return, God didn't bring His people out until He had unleashed His wrath on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. If you will study it out, the ten plagues were direct slaps at Egypt's ten main gods. By the time God was through, Egypt's crops, their herds, their houses, and their firstborn sons were destroyed in a way that let them know that a supernatural force had freed the children of Israel. And, as if that wasn't enough, the entire army of Egypt was destroyed by a totally supernatural act.
You start becoming a prayer warrior by understanding that it is NOT God's will for you, or your children down to a thousand generations (Dt 7:9) to be enslaved by demonic forces. He has said He would bless. His angels will encamp around you. The powers of hell cannot prevail against you.
You start becoming a prayer warrior when you realize that He is God and no one else is. He loves you in away that nobody else can (John 3:16). He watches over you (Psalm 121:5-8). Not one hair on your head will perish without Him seeing it (Luke 21:18).
You start when you begin to realize that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. He becomes more important to you than what you are going through. Because, prayer warrior, you are strengthened by the knowledge that God's answer to your situation will bring you more joy than the sorrow you are experiencing right now.
Friday, April 26, 2019
What is a REAL Prayer Warrior?
A REAL prayer warrior is one who takes 2 Corinthians 10:4 very seriously. The first five words of that verse is enough to kick a prayer warrior into high gear. It reads, 'The weapons of our WARFARE.'
It doesn't say the weapons of what I wish for. It doesn't say I really, really would like for something close to an answer to happen. (Here's the most irritating to me when I hear people doing it.) Going on and on and on as you tell God how bad the situation is. You know, like God is depending on you to be the earth's Christian version of Fox News. Please, if you are doing that stop it right now. God knows more about the problem than you do. AND, if you knew everything God knew about the problem you'd just go ahead and give up and quit.
Paul makes an astounding declaration about prayer that you have never heard preached before. Paul declares that prayer is a weapon. It is not a time of pleading. It is not a time of crying. It is not a time of moaning and groaning. It is not a time of being wishy-washy. It is not something that you do every now and then, like ten minutes before church.
One of the greatest soul winners, one of the greatest overcomers of adversity, one of the most prolific Gospel writers plainly tells his readers that WE HAVE WEAPONS WITH WHICH WE CONDUCT A WARFARE. This specific weapon is described in Ephesians 6:17 as being 'the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God'.
But this great weapon is useless to anyone who would want to use it IF you didn't come face to face with the fact that we ARE IN A WARFARE. Christians face battles but don't fight. Our children, our churches our nation are all going through turmoil but Christians don't realize that we are at war.
If a Christian DOES realize we are at war with satanic influences, he is never taught, trained, instructed or encouraged to fight. We are doing good just to hold on faithful unto the end. No where in the Word of God have we ever been told to just barely get along. Yet, preachers, pastors, and evangelists want to hit these big, wonderful information filled sermons that don't teach you how to be victorious through prayer.
Prayer is attack mode, not just I hope to get by mode. Prayer is taking back what the enemy stole and making him pay the penalty for stealing. Prayer is breaking the chains of sin in every form. Prayer is bringing hope into hopeless lives. Prayer is setting boundaries of the blood of Jesus that the enemy CANNOT cross. Prayer is obtaining the 'great and precious promises' of a loving and Almighty God. Prayer is becoming the 'MORE THAN A CONQUEROR' and teaching our children by example. And my favorite, prayer is 'IN YOUR FACE DEVIL, I WON'T TAKE NOTHIN' OFF YOU ANYMORE.'
Bookmark this page. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I'll be able to break down into easy encouraging steps how to be a powerhouse for God. But, first of all, you have to come to grips with the fact that this is war. I intend to fight and not lay down. And I fully intend to win, just like Jesus did and just like He said I could.
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