Prayer
Father, we thank You for Jesus and for Your Mighty Holy Spirit.
We know that we stand fast in Your Kingdom, sealed by the Blood of Jesus Christ as Your children.
The Blood witnessing upon the Mercy Seat of God to our salvation AND our deliverance out of the power of darkness!
We are so thankful for Your Word.
We are so thankful for the wonderful Holy Spirit, who is our counsellor, and our teacher and guide, our helper and our friend. He is the one that sticks closer than a brother.
Holy Spirit, You are the one who will reveal all truth, the very secrets of God. Thank You for being in our midst today as the teacher and the comforter. You are the one who will break every bondage by Your precious anointing…the power that created the universe.
Lord, You have birthed each and every one of us into Your Kingdom intentionally and it is clearly been stated that the work You have begun in us, You will surely bring to completion!
I thank You for the anointing of Your Holy Spirit to teach this word and the power to know that no matter what any human being has been involved with…that by the power of Your Spirit, every demonic bondage will be broken over their lives and the liberty of the Spirit of God will prevail in this place today in Jesus Mighty name!
Thank You that You are progressively leading Your children into freedom. I thank You that this teaching will establish them and that You will impart life through it. I ask that You would make it relevant to every life, milk for the babes and meat for the mature.
Make each one aware of the power and the presence of God in his or her own life.
Thank You for opening every spiritual ear and for giving understanding and that not one Word of God will be lost in Jesus name!
Satan, I will not permit any outcry, any manifestation of yours to distract or steal any Word. I forbid any Principality or power, ruler of the darkness of this world, spiritual hosts of wickedness and any of Your cohorts to enter into this place and to bring in anything from the power of darkness in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I break every stronghold over every mind. Strongholds of prejudice, suspicion and intellectualism and every evil destructive lie of the enemy that has brought us into captivity…instead, I command every thought to come into captivity to the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!
This week on Monday night, the Evangelism team had an encounter evening with the Holy Spirit…His subject…the Spirit led sons of God. It was humbling and moving and inspiring…
My question to you today is…what is the Holy Spirit saying to you? Where is He leading you?
The enemy wants nothing more than to see us become satisfied with a natural, carnal life…
We have become happy with little victories, like a parking spot but when something comes our way that requires us to take up our armour and fight…what do we do?
What lifelines are we depending on? Phone a friend?
Get an audience participation?
I watched a movie once where a soldier was shot down by the enemy. He was supposed to warn the army that the enemy was getting close. The soldier sits up and weakly blows the trumpet and is shot again. He sits up once more and blows his trumpet and gets shot again. The soldier refused to die even though, according to the script, he was supposed to die after the first shot.
Well sometimes I think that we as Christians see ourselves like this…getting blasted by the devil BUT we arise…yet again…to weakly blow our trumpet. We refuse to give in.
And the fact that we refuse to give in is good! Do you agree? BUT…
The problem that I have with this picture is that the Christian seems to be struggling to remain upright and is constantly defending and the demons seem to have the upper hand and are constantly attacking.
It gives the impression that demons were not defeated – BUT THEY WERE!
It gives the impression that Christians have no authority – BUT THEY DO!
Are there trials and tribulations? A loud resounding YES!
Do we have the victory? YES! However, it doesn’t always come packaged the way that we expect…and because it doesn’t look like or happen as we expect…like Peter, we give up and go fishing…
Was Jesus the Messiah? YES! Did He come as the conquering King…?
YES! He just wasn’t packaged the way that they expected but in fact the victory that He came to achieve all by Himself was far, far, FAR greater than anybody understood… at first.
They expected Him to deliver them from Rome… one single enemy.
He came to deliver not just them but the entire world from the unseen enemy that was controlling the whole world!
The unseen enemy however, had been waiting for millennia for the One who would crush his head and when One appeared that fit the bill, he scrambled to try and SNUFF HIM OUT!
The image conscious and power hungry religious leaders were motivated by a spirit of jealousy and pride (now, where have we seen that before?) to try and eliminate what Jesus was preaching and demonstrating, mainly, that “The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand”…in fact in their midst.
Seemingly, they succeeded…and with His death they thought His message was DEAD too…but they couldn’t have been more wrong. The victory He had come to achieve was completely successful.
A number of years later, Stephen, a man full of the Spirit, was preaching that “The Kingdom of heaven was at hand” and he did great wonders and signs among the people and when certain men who tried to dispute with Stephen failed, they stirred up the people, seized him and brought him before the council.
The council looked at him and saw the face of an angel but upon hearing his discourse they were cut to the heart and they gnashed their teeth at him. Stephen being filled with the Spirit looked up and saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
That made them angry and so they took him and cast him out of the city and stoned him to death. Just before he died, Stephen knelt down and asked God not to charge them with this sin.
The anointing of God was upon him…he presented to those around him…Christ in him, the hope of glory!
He was strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Seemingly, the enemy had succeeded and the message was stopped…but was it? NO!!! Why? A young man stood by watching and his name was Paul.
Fast forward now to the life of the Apostle Paul. Full of the Spirit, he has been travelling far and wide, and he too, has been proclaiming and demonstrating that “the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand” and now Paul becomes a threat to the defeated unseen enemy who uses the same means to stir up religious leaders of Paul’s day.
Paul finds himself imprisoned in Rome for 2 years. Seemingly, the leaders succeeded in stopping the spreading of the gospel but… did they?
It was during this time that Paul wrote the four epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon). It also gave Paul the opportunity and the time to preach “The Kingdom of God” and to teach all things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ to all those who came to hear him (Acts 28:30-31). Paul was strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!
Today Christians worldwide are being trained by the Holy Spirit using those same epistles that Paul wrote in prison!
At that time, they never realized that all of Rome would be impacted by those who came to Christ through the ministry of a prisoner…a prisoner of the gospel.
Years later, Christians became a threat to those in Rome and so ONCE AGAIN a defeated unseen enemy does all he can to destroy these Christians.
Many early Christians were persecuted, tortured and sentenced to terrible deaths.
The Colosseum became synonymous with the Christian Martyrs who died in its bloody arena. These Martyrs would sing songs of worship as they died.
The Kingdom of heaven was at hand and they were strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!
Seemingly, however, the power of Rome succeeded in crushing Christianity…BUT Today, the power of Rome is no more. The once popular Colosseum is nothing but a ruin and hanging in the place where the Roman Emperors sat, hangs a Cross – a powerful tribute to a seemingly lowly carpenter who never even came to Rome.
The gospel of the Kingdom continues to be preached all over the world. NOTHING can stop the victory of Christ!
What does that mean to you and I?
It’s our turn…to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!
No matter what is coming your way as long as you understand that nothing can stop the plan of God then you too will be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!
We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
The answer lies not in ourselves, but in a divine and unbeatable defence: the armour of God. Ephesians 6:10-20 starts off like this…
Be strong in the Lord and in power of His might! (How do I do that?) By putting on the full armour of God (why?) that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (the unseen, defeated foe).
Everything that happened in these lives came because of the Gospel of the Kingdom. The devil tried to stop them from living in and experiencing the dominion of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God has come though and nothing can stop The King from having His full impact on your life!
Ephesians goes on to say: We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
By far, the greatest attacks that we all face is through flesh and blood…SEEMINGLY!
Do not ENGAGE! Do not even let your emotions get involved! INSTEAD, ask yourself what
is the devil trying to do with this situation?
Take every thought captive AND PRAY! Not for retribution…pray for salvation for the very ones that the devil wants to use. They are simply pawns that the devil is using to get to you!
If you simply react…you lose! Secondly, do not spread the message, tell the story or share your anger, disgust or whatever! The bible says, “You shall declare a thing and it shall be established”.
You will be the very one that the devil is using to defeat you! Your own words will be destroying your own life!
What then? Well what does the Word say?
Stand therefore, (how?) having girded your waist with truth, (guard your heart and do not sin) having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one.
And take the helmet of salvation (take authority over what thoughts you dwell on…only dwell on the Truth of the Word) and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication IN THE SPIRIT, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Having done all…stand! What does that mean???
It means Advance and hold!
