Allowing Faith to Work in Your Life

What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen”. Simply said, faith is the substance in the now of the things you do not have as of yet. Faith is a living force that without, we can not please God, but with it, all things are possible. So how do we get this kind of faith?

First, you must recognize and believe God’s promises. Then we must receive the faith He promises and act upon them, “for faith without works is dead”. Romans 12:3 says, “that God gave all of us a measure of faith”. Why? God wanted to ensure that each of us was given the ability to say ‘yes’ to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. For those of us who accept, a new nature becomes active in our life, giving us the ability to believe everything God promises in His Word. These promises are the very foundation and strength of our faith. Romans 12:2 says “be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”. The foundation of our walk is the Word of God. It is the ultimate authority in our life, and the anchor or rock that keeps us living within the privileges and rights given us by God.

In Romans 1:17, we find out that God does not only reveal Jesus through the Word, but He reveals us, the believer, to ourselves. It is only through this faith that we can comprehend what the Word has said about us. It is only through this faith that we are transformed into a new nature that is in line with the righteousness of God. The Bible says that if we behold the glory of the Lord with eyes of faith and appreciation for what He did on Calvary, then we are going to be changed from glory to glory, that is, not only is our identity going to change, but the level of our faith will also change.

This faith will not work however, unless we have a revelation of it. That means that as we grow in the Word, we grow in the faith of the Son of God, thus allowing a greater measure of faith to be applied in our life. As we invest in our spirit man, putting into motion the divine truths of God, feeding on the Word and partaking of its divine substance, our minds will be transformed. As He lives in us, it will be us living by His faith. Our identity will be His life. Our labor will be His power.

Romans 10:17 says that “…faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.” Hearing the Word does not just come by studying, for when you study you are only sowing the seed. Faith is also imparted to us through prayer, for it is when you pray you water the seed of your studies. Romans 10:8 says that “the Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming”. Paul tells us that the Word dwells in our heart and mouth. It is the Spirit of faith, the very power of God calling us to speak what we believe. The Bible tells us that “with the heart, men believe unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation”. In order to overcome the world and have the faith that prevails, we must guard the dwelling place of this God given faith – the heart. Remember that in the heart of a man, the mind, will and emotions are found.

Our enemy, the devil, knows these very things. He knows when you do not have confidence in God. He attempts to trouble our hearts because if he can trouble the heart, he can affect our thoughts. Have you ever heard that an idle mind is the devil’s playground? Ever wonder why that is? It is our thoughts that directly affect our heart and whatever fills the heart, will ultimately affect the very words of our mouth. What does the mouth have to do with faith? The Bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. When you speak against God’s Word, you are putting limits on God and stopping His ability to work in your life. The Bible tells us that we know a tree by its fruit. Proverb 13:3-4 says we should guard our mouth in order to keep our life. Why is that? When we allow our mouth to produce the fruits of our heart, we break the hedge of protection God gave us, providing the enemy access to us.

So how do we deal with the devil? Don’t give the devil a place. Only talk of the things of God. Stand upon the foundation of God’s promises. Confess them with your mouth. As you walk in harmony and unity with God, your faith will grow. When that kind of divine faith is in motion, things happen, allowing faith to work in your life.

The Importance of Renewing Your Mind

One of the greatest challenges for Christians today is knowing who they are in Christ. We are told how to become saved, but more often than not, we seldom are given the tools needed to become who God truly called us to be. As a result, we walk through life never reaching our fullest potential in Christ. Hope is not lost though, as we possess the key to walking a life with Christ in the renewing of our minds. So why is renewing our mind vital to our walk?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. On the sixth day, God created mankind in his image and after His likeness. Made in all perfection, the first man, Adam, was given dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle, and over all the wild beasts that move upon the earth. Mankind and God enjoyed perfect communion together. So what happened? Man fell from God’s grace as a result of rebellion against God’s command and there life as we know it truly begins.

God made Adam as a triune being consisting of a Spirit, a soul and a body. When Adam sinned against God, he died in the spiritual sense. The Spirit, the soul and the body were no longer aligned with God’s Word. That’s important as the three parts must be in agreement with each other in order to walk in the fullness of God’s power and authority. The Bible says that a house divided against itself will never stand (Matthew 12:25). Adam’s choice to sin against God divided the triune against itself. No longer was Adam alive in God, as His spirit died. No longer was his soul (mind, will and emotions) pure in thought. The god of this world had blinded him and in so doing contaminated the whole human race that was to come. The good news however, is God had a plan. So what was God’s plan?

The Bible tells us that God sent His Son, Jesus to earth. How do we know? John 1:14 says that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. That’s right! Jesus, the Living Word, was among us shedding “the true light which lighted every man who came into the world” (John 1:9). So why was His presence a key to our future? Jesus walked the earth for a time spreading the good news. As He did so, he drew many to him through His teachings, signs and wonders, but His message was not received by all, in fact, many rejected Him and all He came to offer them. No matter what ran through the minds of the people however, God had a plan and Jesus would be the key to the very future that lay ahead for all mankind. Knowing no sin Himself, Jesus was sacrificed upon the cross, taking upon Himself the very sins of the world.

Let’s not stop here, for it is real easy to underplay the tone that His death served. The shedding of Jesus’ blood played a significant role in our salvation. Leviticus 17:11 says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood”. Jesus’ blood became the key to our life. In what way? When Jesus was nailed to the cross, He took upon Himself our sins. Immediately, His spirit was separated from God. Jesus sacrificed His Spirit and soul for our spirit and soul, but His sacrifice didn’t stop there. Jesus also died a physical death, thus sacrificing His body for our body. As He hung upon the cross and died, we hung upon the cross with Him dying to our old nature. When He was buried, our old nature was buried with Him and when He rose to the right hand of God, we were raised along with Him. That’s right! We are no longer slaves to our old nature, but have now donned upon us the new nature – His nature, His mind and His life.

It’s important to understand that when we accept Christ, the Spirit part of our being is instantaneously born again. What’s so important about our spirit man? It is the part of us that communicates with the spiritual realm of God and is instantly changed. Keep in mind that though our spirit instantly changes, our soul does not. Our souls must grow to spiritual maturity. So how do we get to that place of spiritual maturity? God’s Word must reach beyond our spirit. It must go beyond the initial hearing that comes when we receive Christ. Spiritual maturity is a gradual process of growth that comes about through the receiving and adhering to, the obeying of and the agreeing with the Word of God. In order for understanding to benefit us rationally, the Word must make it out of the Spirit and be welcomed into our mind, will and emotions which is contained within the confines of our soul.

Remember, our soul is a living person (Ephesians 4:23) and belongs to God (Ezekiel 18:4). In order to renew ourselves, the Holy Spirit must shine conviction upon our unsaved spirit so that the unsaved soul, where the thoughts, words, light, nature, and fruit of the Spirit abide, can be convicted and renewed. The Bible tells us that the natural man (Romans 12:2) must die daily. By making a willful choice to remember that he has to be changed, he chooses to change of his thoughts and bring them in line with the Word of God. By doing so, he allows the power of the Spirit and the Word of God to reach his mind. It is God’s desire that our soul yield to His Word so that it can go into man’s spirit and soul and fill it with rational, spiritual, godly reasoning. The Word is living and possesses power to change. God wants His Word to enter into our spirit so that it will move into our mind, senses and understanding to cause the divine wisdom to become rational understanding.

If our mind is not renewed, we can’t walk in the authority (2 Corinthians 4:3-7) as we will lack the power required to uproot the presumptuous thoughts that enter into it. It is important that what runs through our soul is pure and in line with God’s Word (Matthew 12:33-37) as each soul God created was created with a sovereignty and with an ability to determine its destiny (Ezekiel 18:4). I choose to walk in my destiny, serving God to the fullest and the first step to that path is renewing my mind. Will you walk with me? The choice is yours.

Walk Your Way Out of Your Wilderness

Deuteronomy is a book written to instruct the new generation of Israelites emerging from the wilderness.   In Deuteronomy 1:6, God tells His people, “you have dwelt long enough on this mountain:.  The children of Israel had wandered around for almost 38 years searching for the promised land. Now encamped on Mount Horeb, they receive this message.  What does it mean?  Why is it significant?  For 38 years, the blessing of the promised land never manifested.  Day after day, month after month, year after year, nothing but endless wandering came about. Each day ended like the one before it.  Have you ever felt that all your efforts in life were in vain? Have you ever felt like you were spinning your wheels and getting nowhere fast?  Though the Bible never actually describes what the children of Israel were thinking and experiencing during this 38 year journey, we can probably guess with accuracy as we could imagine ourselves in their shoes.  It’s not too hard to reenact what was going through their mind.  What we need to do though is look at the “why” of this whole thing.  Why were they experiencing all this?  To answer that question, we would have to turn back the hands of time, to the place this whole story began.

Close your eyes and paint a picture on the canvas of your mind.  The place is Egypt. The circumstance is slavery.  At this time, the children of Israel are slaves.   They are treated inhumanely and cruelty.  Life is hard.  Each day, life is more miserable than the day before.  Like a child screaming for the attention of their mother.  God’s children cry out to Him. Their  cries reach His ears.  His heart feels the pain and agony of His children.  Unbeknownst to His children, God already had a plan and it was about to unfold.  On the scene comes His man, Moses.  With God’s guidance and care, Moses leads the children out of bondage.  God show His power and mighty hand at work, and His children are eyewitnesses as the plot and plan unfolds before their very eyes.  The children are released into the able hand of their leader, Moses.  This is where the plight begins.

As the children make their way out of Egypt, they find that life has dealt them a number of challenges.  They that held them in bondage are now in hot pursuit for their return.  Without hesitation, the children forget all that happen and fear.  God moves, parts the sea, ensures their safe crossing, ensures their enemies’ death and provides for their needs.  They rejoice, but even that is short lived.  Every challenge that arose only brought about fear, doubt, unbelief, discontent and more.  Where was their faith in the God who brought them through the impossible?  Where were the memories?  Had they forgotten already?  Over and over God made a way. Over and over the children responded the same.  But when is enough, enough?  How many times did God have to prove Himself before the children believed, trusted, and had confidence in Him? God draws the ine and their journey begins.

By the time Moses delivers God message to the second generation, the unbelievers have all died off, that is all but Caleb and Joshua.  Moses must teach this new generation God’s commands.  He must show these people how the previous generation erred in their behavior and thinking.  How does He do that?  Moses reenacts the journey; he plays the movie in their minds and as they watch he points out where they went wrong.  Ok, what that have to do with us?

Have you ever felt that you have been stuck at a point in your life for too long?  Do you feel that life is racing by you and still your situation hasn’t changed much?  Well, that’s where the children of Israel were.  They encamped on a mountain waiting for God to take them to the next place, just as we are.  Our mountain is our challenges we face. Just as God led them from the mountain to the promised land, He has to lead us from our situations into our solutions.  Just as the children of Israel had to travel through the great and terrible wilderness, so we have to travel through some very trying times, tests and trials.  How long we stay depends on us. for the children of Israel, their attitudes determined the outcome.  Ten times trials came.  Ten times, they forgot. Ten times they complained, mumbled, grumbled, moaned, groaned, and provoked God to anger.  Finally God drew the line and withheld the promised land from the unbelieving generation.  God in His mercy, allowed the new generation, Joshua and Caleb to receive the covenant promise.  We are no different than the children of Israel.  How many times has God brought us through trying times? How many times has God made a way out of no way?  How many times has God provided, healed, taught, protected, guided, comforted, loved and forgiven us?  Yet at the first sign of trouble we panic, worry, lose faith and more.  We mumble, grumble, complain, moan and groan.  We question and even at times refuse to see past what our human minds can control and rationalize through.  Where is our faith?  Where is our trust?

We control our minds – what enters and what stays.  As long as we rest upon our human side, we have no hope of seeing anything but despair and failure.  We stay in our wilderness place, roaming from place to place in search of the promised land.  We allow the enemy to feed our mind with lies and deception, and we believe.  We allow these lies to take root and ultimately we choose to remain where we are instead of allowing ourselves to walk through the storm to the promise.  Are you wandering in the wilderness of life bogged down with fear, doubt, and unbelief?  Has your way of thinking kept you from being led into the promised land?  Every man has a choice of what to feed their mind. Will your choice be to walk out of your wilderness? Take the chance.  Allow God to lead you into all He promised, that is, your promised land.

What You See Isn’t What You Get (Nbrs 14:5-24)

How many times have we let our eyes gauge our situations?  How many times have we allowed our human mind to reason through our trials?  When we walked in the world without the knowledge of God, we often face challenges in our lives too overwhelming for us to handle.  As a result, we’d worry and stress over the possible outcomes and how we would fair.  We never knew what would happen from one moment to the next.  Our lives would be overcome with fear, doubt, negative thoughts and the like.  Then one day, God reveals Himself to us. We accept His invitation to be Lord over our life.  Over time, He proves Himself to us, bringing us out of our trials, providing four our every need, performing miracles and more. Things seem to be going well in the early stages our our relationship, but how many of you know that as we grow and mature in God, He expects us to exercise our faith more?  The trials increase. From our perspective, our life takes a turn for the worse.  Here is where we should look back upon our past and remember all God has done.  Here is where we should trust and believe.  Her is where we should stand confidently and firmly in the midst of our storms, yet, for most, here is where life falls apart.  We allow our human nature to take over our reasoning of our human hearts and minds.  Trust and faith take a leap out the proverbial window.  Struggles take hold.  We forget all we experience, all we witnessed, and all we learned and reach back into our nature and react accordingly.  Many of us give up long before the trials end, forgetting the truth of God’s promises and losing sight of the important fact of Who’s in control.

This is where our studies begin.  In Numbers 14, the children of Israel are right in this exact spot.  They had experienced miracle after miracle, received promise after promise, and lived with God like no other people, yet after all this, they still reverted back to unbelief and every situation arose.  Though God had brought them out of bondage, saved them from death and destruction, and provided for their every need, they still weren’t satisfied.  In Chapter 14, the people of Israel are responding to the news reports they had just received from the scouts.  It is said, that the initial response of a person is usually the most accurate indication of that person’s heart.

All but the last two of the scouts returned with a negative report.  As the people listened intent, they began to fear all that lay ahead.  Instinctively and immediately, they respond with complaints and accusations of their leaders.  Their reaction indicated that they had no memory of their freedom from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the events of the Egyptian pursuit, the provisions of water, manna and meat or anything else God had done for them.  Seeing their response and knowing God’s mind, Moses and Aaron fall on their faces on their behalf, interceding before God for  their lives.  While they are doing this, Caleb and Joshua stand to be recognized.  They top participated in scouting this land, but their report differed drastically from that of the scouting party.  They see the land through their eyes of faith and trust in God’s promises and past performances.  They remind the people of that very thing, though their report was disregarded.  Displeased, God’s wrath is about to be loosed upon this unbelieving race.  Fortunately, Moses comes to the rescue.  With humility and reverence, He intercedes before the Creator on behalf of the people, pointing out how God’s plan of destruction would be perceived to the surrounding nations who had already heard of His might.  As a result, God spares the people, but rescinds His promise to those in unbelief.  Only Joshua and Caleb would inherit the land.

What you see isn’t what you get! When we look through our human eyes we can only see failure, defeat, death, hopelessness and the like.  Without the Spirit of faith, without the provision of God, we can only reap the fruit of despair and all it brings.  What you see isn’t what you get when God is involved.  With God, we are given spiritual eyes to see our situations in a different light.  What was once impossible now becomes possible.  Our spiritual eyes accept that we are nothing apart from God.  The worst situations with no solutions, now become situations with possibles.  What you see isn’t what you get!

Instead of complaining, begin praying.  Humbling yourself, cast your problems upon the Lord, then look at the situation through your spiritual eyes as the result come about.  Had the people looked at the land through their spiritual eyes, they would have seen a land without the obstacles.  God would have done as before and opened up the door of opportunities and rained down blessings and provisions.

Pregnant with a Purpose

As I read and reread these verses, I notice that not much was said about Abraham prior to God telling him to go from the land, yet verse one says, “the Lord said to Abram”. That one statement started speaking to me almost immediately. Why? Well, as I look back at my life with God, I realized that I didn’t recognize God’s voice, much less understand what He was telling me, yet Abraham was spoken to and obeyed, that is, he recognized and understood God’s voice. This alone tells me that though he came from a pagan land, he had a relationship with God. Abraham had to have reached a deeper and fuller level of maturity and knowledge with God than most. He was no longer a baby in God. To receive a blessing of this magnitude, to be initially mentioned at this point in his life indicates that self sacrifice, obedience, submission, spiritual transformation had to take place some time over the previous 75 years of his life. Though God doesn’t reveal to us the life of Abraham prior to now, it isn’t too hard to see that a process had taken place and Abraham was now ready to fulfill God’s purpose for his life. This point was the start of that purpose and a test of his training.

There is alot said in these seven verses. God commanded, Abraham exercised in faith and chose. God promised, Abraham exercised faith and believed. God waited, Abraham exercised faith and obedience, and went. God appeared and promised, Abraham in faith responded with heart felt worship. As you can see, at no time did God reveal the entire plan to Abraham. It was a step-by-step revelation, with each step being the trigger point for the next, each step serving as the mechanism for growth in faith.

These verses also show me something about God. God told Abraham to move away from his relatives, yet he took his nephew, Lot, with him. Though Scripture tells us of all the challenges that arise as a result of this disobedience, God still speaks blessings upon Abraham. This shows the deep love God has for us. Even though God is a just and righteous God, He blessed Abraham in the midst of disobedience. He did not take away the repercussions or events that resulted from that disobedience. The seed that was sown in disobedience was the seed that was reaped in the challenges arising from his wrong choice. Abraham received the blessing God promised. Unselfishly and out of love, the first response showed Abraham’s true character and heart’s condition. Abraham humbled himself by recognizing God first and foremost in all he received. He put God first before anything and anyone. A true disciple recognizes his master before himself.

Let’s go back to Genesis 6:1-7 and see a similar trend by looking at the Lord’s call to Noah.

Again we another of God’s chosen brought to the forefront.  Before Noah is approached to build the ark, nothing is mentioned about him except his brief genealogy.  We don’t know anything about him prior to that time, however, the same thing can be said about Noah as was said about Abraham previously.  For God to have commissioned Noah to accomplish the great task of building an ark, he would have had to reach some level in the maturity in faith and intimacy in God.  Every Christian must be prepared for the task he has been called for.  Preparation takes time.  Over time, trials come to make us spiritually strong.  As we grow spiritually, we eventually reach a point where we are deemed ready to assume our position.  This is where Noah is.

From the time of the fall of Adam, the human race continued its downward spiral.  Every heart had reached the very pit of depravity, except that of Noah.  Evil has a tendency to contaminate and spread rapidly.  Spreading in epidemic proportions, all mankind became infected except one, Noah.  To be identified as righteous at this point was a feat that Noah reached.  From the Scriptures, I can see that life began with distinction.  This is shown by the Words, “the Sons of God” and “the daughters of man”.  This distinction is important in gaining insight to the condition of man’s heart and motives, and the condition of the world at that particular point in time.  It also shows us the effects that people can have upon one another.  The use of “the sons of God” and “the daughters of man” tells us that there were two kinds of hearts – those serving God and those serving Satan.  Alone, one group brought hope, that is, in its purest form they focused on One.  Like a deadly infectious disease, the complacent minds of the holy one subtly allowed themselves to be infected by the things of the world.  Like a lion on the prowl, their minds became prey and the purity of heart they had once possessed became polluted with the evil tendency of satan’s servants, attitudes and ways.  What once distinguished these groups from each other, now became the thing that identified them as one entity.  Evil had now taken root in the hearts of all except one, Noah.  Hope for the future lay in the heart of this man and through that one man, life was preserved.

As a christian, we must keep guard over our hearts. Our environment has a way of polluting all it touches, hence, your warning – keep guard, be alert.  As we grow in God, God will ask us to go away from this land, that is, go away from those of evil influence. Now I can see why God removed us like He did, only exposing us to what He knew we could handle without becoming contaminated, without becoming infected.

Abraham and Noah were pregnant with a purpose.  Just as a fetus grows in the womb of a woman, developing into a distinct unique individual, so also does a Christian.  The fetus begins with a single egg merging with a sperm.  The joining of the two bring about creation.  With each minute of time that passes, development and growth take place.  The organism begins to take on a life of its own.  The essential elements of development form.  The organism now becomes an individual.  Development continues up to the point where the fetus can survive outside the protected environment.  All the vital elements required to survive have basically developed.  At this point, the mother gives birth and the process of maturity begins.

We Christians develop much the same way.  We are the egg, God is the sperm. We were released into society and through the unction of the spirit, we were joined or united with God.  As God merges His DNA with ours, spiritual development occurs.  God’s DNA determines or sets our purpose.  As development takes place, our vital organs are brought to maturity – our hearts and minds accept in faith, our eyes spiritually see, our ears spiritually hear, the Spirit of God within us begins to beat harmoniously with ours.  We begin to take on a life, that is, we begin to walk in the image of our Creator.  When we have reached full term, we are birthed into our purpose, that is, the purpose we were predestined to by God.

Heavenly Identity

It has always been God’s intent for man to have an intimate relationship with Him. This relationship began with Adam and Eve. Though the Bible does not tell us how long Adam communed with God before Satan slithered his way into the lives of God’s first man and woman, we know that they spiritually died to God resulting in all men sharing that same separation. Hope wasn’t lost however. God sent, Jesus, the second Adam who knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5:18, says that through Him we were given the opportunity to be reconciled to God, who knew that He was not only going to give Jesus for us, but knew He was going to be able to reach and change us through this reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells is that if we be risen in Christ Jesus, we rose as a different person then when we died, that is, different in quality. We are not who we use to be. Through an act of faith, we were saved by grace, putting to death the old nature in order that we might allow Jesus to live within us. To reap the full benefits of our salvation however, we must put on our new nature, allowing our minds to be transformed by the Word of God (Romans 12:2). How do we do that? We find out who we are in Christ by studying and meditating on God’s Word and then changing the way we think and speak in relationship to who we are. The more we allow the Spirit of the Word to manifest in our lives, the more we become the byproduct of our thoughts, words and actions. This however, is not a one time process, it is a daily commitment. By transforming our minds daily, we are enabled to walk in our heavenly authority. As our hearts are illuminated by God’s Word, we will learn what kind of access we have to Him.

When we died and were raised with Jesus, we became a new man. That new man took on the image of Jesus in every way. The old person we were died to Him. That means we have the same power and authority Jesus has, but most of us fail to realize that because the enemy has made it his mission to ensure we never fully understand or receive that point. He blinds us with thoughts of inadequacy, fills our minds with lies, condemnation, fear and doubt, tells us what we can’t do. In this state, our faith is weakened. In this weakened state of faith, we struggle to keep the enemy at bay. We must learn to silence the enemy the minute the onslaught of negative thoughts arise in our mind. Speak the promises of God out loud. As we do, we become what we speak, “for our mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart”.

2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us “we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors”. For this reason, it is important for us to have the new qualities and nature living in us so as to bring us to spiritual maturity, the place where only the Word of God exists in us. To do this, we must rid ourselves of views contrary to God’s Word. In taking on the new nature, we must recognize that we are no longer sinners. 2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us that God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. It adds that God gives us the precious promise to pardon our sin. Sin is alive and was given right to enter the world by Adam, but the same sin was broken and defeated by Jesus. Jesus is the Word. By always walking in agreement with God’s Word, in faith, we open our heart up to Jesus (Ephesians 3:17), allowing the power of God to flow through us while giving us the ability to enforce his every Word.

It is this faith that gives us confidence that we are the righteous and holy ones of God. As we earnestly seek Him, He promises to reward us as we walk into the purpose to which He has called us. As we grow in mind and soul with Jesus, we will begin to see the awesome power of God manifest right before our eyes and the eyes of the world. God has called each of us to go into all the world and preach the good new to all creation (Mark 16:15). As we serve and grow, God will entrust us with more, taking us to new dimensions.

Knowing Your Enemy

Any soldier knows that to be successful in any battle, they must know their enemy in and out. What we as Christians fail to see, is that we are all soldiers for God. It is important to know who our enemy is, for without that knowledge how can we fight against him? The Bible tells us that the devil is prowling like a lion seeking who he may devour. I don’t know about you, but everyday is a challenge and those challenges take on many forms. For this reason, I decided it’s high time to get to know our enemy and his fallen angels. 

Let’s turn to 1 Timothy 4:1, “Now the Spirit says expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, following after misleading spirits and doctrines of devils.”

We live in the latter times where devils and demons are battling for control of our souls.  What most of fail to realize is what position we have in Christ, making it easier for us to be misled by the enemy. 

We all know the story of Adam, but there is so much to his story that we overlook.  God created Adam in his image, after His own likeness.  The Bible says, that God is Spirit and we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.  So that means we are Spirit also.  Deep within us we have a spirit man that Christ occupies when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior.  Have you ever wondered why it is that we have so many struggles to walk like Him?    The Bible tells us that upon man’s creation, God gave him dominion over the earth, the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle, and the wild beasts that move upon it.  That means that God gave a man made of flesh to have dominion.  When Adam sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, he became spiritually separated from God, impacting mankind forever.  That, however, wasn’t the only impact Adam’s sin had upon man.  When the enemy lured God’s first creation to sin, he wrested man dominion over all that God had ordained.  Through one man’s sin, all mankind was condemned and through one man’s obedience, all were made righteous.  This is important to our study, as this one point is the key to fighting the devil and his fallen angels.

When man was created by God, he was created in a physical body.  Man is made up of three parts: the body, the soul and the spirit.  That physical body contains the spirit man and soul.  The Spirit and the Soul are housed within our hearts.  When we accept Christ, God’s Spirit immediately inhabits the Spirit of our bodies.  There we are the image of Christ.  So what’s the problem?  We are made up of more than a Spirit, we are also made up of a soul which possesses the mind, will and emotions.  This soul is the rational thinking man within us, the part the devil seeks to destroy.  This part is not instantly holy and righteous, as it has to be allowed to be influenced by the Spirit man inside us. 

Most of us don’t fully relinquish our minds to the Spirit of the Word of God.  We hold on to its every thought, not knowing or being aware that many of the thoughts we hold on to are implanted there by the enemy.  If the enemy can get us to dwell upon those thoughts, he is able to direct our word and actions.  If we dwell upon those thoughts long enough, we become what we think as evidenced by the words that come from our mouth.  Now the mouth has power to create, so what we speak out, is what we reap in our life.  When we speak out our negative thoughts, we unknowingly invite the enemy into our lives to wreak havoc.  The key to our overcoming the enemy is allow the spirit man within us to align our thoughts up with the Word of God.  Our thoughts will then carry over to our words.  When we speak the words of God, they will affect our soul and reach through us to the outside and affect our surroundings.  Let me say this one more time – the spirit and the soul must be aligned for us to reap the benefits of our Salvation to the fullest and to be empowered to overcome the enemy seeking to kill, steal and destroy.

So what significance did Jesus have for us?  When Jesus died upon the cross, we died with him.  Just as Adam experience a spiritual separation from God, so Jesus experienced the same separation as God turned his face from Him.  When Jesus was buried in the grave, we also were buried in the grave.  Just as Adam experienced a physical death, Jesus also experienced the same kind of death.  When Jesus went to hell for three days, He took upon  Himself the penalty we would pay in the day of judgment.  The good news though, is Jesus didn’t stay down for long.  In three days, He was raised to the right hand of the throne, where the Bible says we also were raised and now sit.

So what does that mean to us?  When we died and were raised with Jesus, we became a new man.  That new man took on the image of Jesus in every way.  The old person we were died to Him.  That means we have the same power and authority Jesus has, but most of us fail to realize that because the enemy has made it his mission to ensure we never fully understand or receive that point.  He blinds us with thoughts of inadequacy, fills our minds with lies, tells us what we can’t do, fills our minds with condemnation, fear, doubt and more. In this state, our faith is weakened.  In the weakened state, we struggle to keep the enemy at bay.  We must learn to silence the enemy the minute the onslaught of negative thoughts arise in our mind.  Speak the promises of God out loud.  As we do, we become what we speak, “for the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart”.   Remember the heart is where the spirit and soul dwell.

This means that we are going to come into a confrontation; we are going to run into opposition of the devil when we live for God. The Bible tells us to fight the good fight of faith. We are living in the last days and the devil has intensified his power. As a result of seducing spirits, men are departing from the faith. God gave the faith of the gospel to be kept by us. He gave the doctrines of the gospel to be guarded by us. It’s easy to identify evil when it’s coming from a mosque, but it’s not so easy to identify the doctrine of devils when it is taught from a pulpit in the church.

The key point to remember is that the enemy has no power, except that which we give Him.  He doesn’t want us to know that and as long as we stay blinded, he is empowered to bring havoc upon our lives. We are duped to believe that he has a god given right to operate the way he is operating. 

So who is this enemy, where did he come from?

Let’s read Ezekial 28:13-19 and find out who it is we are fighting against and  what the devil gains by lying?  To get to the root of the answers to these questions, we must build our doctrines and thoughts upon the Word of God.  So let’s see what God’s Word has to say…

“You have been in Eden, the garden of God; you were decked with every precious stone, the sardius, the topaz, and the emerald, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire and the pearls; and you have filled your treasuries with gold and your chests with precious stones; you had all of these things from the day you were created.  You were with the anointed cherub that shelters; and I have set you on the holy mountain of God; and you were safe in the midst of the stones of fire.  You were perfect in your ways, from the day that you were created till iniquity was found in you. By the multitude of your merchandise you have filled the land with iniquity and you have sinned; therefore I will cast you from this mountain of God; and I will destroy you, O sheltering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.  Since your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, now your wisdom and your beauty are corrupted; I will cast you to the ground before kings, that you may be a spectacle before them.  By the multitude of your frauds, by the iniquity of your traffic, you have defiled your sanctuary; therfore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of you, and it shall devour you, and I will reduce you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all those who see you.”

Though the opinions of man vary as to who created the devil, the Bible is quite clear.  GOD DID NOT CREATE SATAN!!  God creates only that which is good.  These verses tell us that God created a high, beautiful, brilliant, powerful, angelic being full of holiness, full of the nature that belongs to the people of God.  The book of Job tells us that when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan also came.  It is pretty clear that Satan was not classified as a “son of God”, indicating that he had fallen from God’s grace.  It is also clear in these verses, that God is putting the blame on the devil for being what the devil has become and done.  God is exempt from and takes no responsibility for what His enemy has become.

Ezekial 28:14 tells us this cherub was perfect in all his ways.  John 8:44 says that the devil did not continue to dwell in the truth.  In the beginning, Lucifer was an angel of truth, but he did not continue in truth; he fell from the truth.  That is why he so good at lying.  He was perfect until iniquity was found in him.  The  next verse tells us that the devil was filled with violence and sinned.  God has nothing to do with sin! In this holy place and in the holy angels, something happened to Lucifer to cause him to be filled with violence and to sin, for iniquity to be found in him.  This verse tells us that it was because of the multitude of his merchandise.  Evidently the enemy before he was the enemy had a high ranking place in the heavenly realm and was involved in some kind of trade/order giving.  He was one of the three archangels of God.  He had angelic hosts under his rulership and dominion (Rev 12:4).  He’s an orator.  Because of the abundance that he had, the Bible says he was filled with violence.  He plotted to take spiritual, violent action against God and his angels for this reason.  Obviously he was not satisfied with what he had and felt that what God had belonged to Him (Isaiah 14).

When Lucifer lifted his heart up and corrupted his wisdom, many things happened.  Iniquity was found in him.  He was filled with violence,  and his heart was corrupted.  The Bible further tells us that Lucifer defiled his own sanctuaries indicating there were many sanctuaries.  For this to be, had had to be high ranking.  How did he defile it?  “By the multitudes of his iniquities of thy traffic”.  Obviously, angels were going in and out of his sanctuaries, meetings were being held, sermons were probably being preached to get these angels to get involved with him and follow him to overthrow God.  Up to now, God is not involved, but believe me judgment is justified.  The fall of Lucifer did not come when God cast him out of heaven, it came when Satan’s heart went astray and became rebellious.  When he fell, he fell from the purpose God created him for.

Knowing your enemy is a key to your successful walk with God.  Changing your thought patterns by saturating your mind with the Word of God is your weapon.  Be a doer and a hearer of the Word, and faithfully stand upon the promises of God, knowing you have the power and authority to overcome the wiles of the devil when your spirit, body and soul are aligned in the Word of God.

David and the Dwarf – A Study of David – Part 4

The most famous battle in the Old Testament was not fought between two armies, but between two people.  It was the battle in the Valley of Elah between David and Goliath.  Before however, we look at this battle, let’s look at something that occurred prior to that battle (1 Samuel 16:7) when the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

We are just like Samuel, looking at the surface appearance of a person when making judgment to what kind of person one is.  If God’s statement ever applied, it applied in the story of this battle, as Goliath had all the things that would normally impress and intimidate.  But don’t underestimate David.  In this instance, David had been given the ability to see as God always sees, and was neither impressed or intimidated by the mountain of a man standing before him.

Now let’s take a look at the battleground (1 Samuel 17:1-3). The valley of Elah was not a narrow ravine, but more like a vast canyon.  The area was probably about a mile wide, opening wider toward the mouth of the canyon.  At the bottom of the ravine between the slopes, was the streambed where David found the stones for his sling.  To one side there was a great slope a half mile or more in size,  Opposite was another vast slope of another half mile, stretching a full mile across.  Camped on one slope was the army of Israel and on the other, the army of the Philistines.

Now let’s consider the major players of this story.  First, there was Goliath, whose size and appearance were so impressive that the Bible describes him in detail as (1 Samuel 17:4), “then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.” Goliath was somewhere near 9′ 9″ tall…an enormous man.  But is wasn’t just his size.

1 Samuel 17:5-7 says that Goliath was wearing a coat of mail.  Underneath was a heavy canvaslike undergarment interlaced with overlapping ringlets of bronze.  This coat of mail went from shoulder to kneww, covering and protecting against the enemy’s weapons.  Body armor of such material and size weighed five thousand shekels of bronze or between 175-200 pounds.  That was the armor alone, but Goliath also wore a bronze helmet and leggings (greaves) to protect his shins, not to mention, he carrieda bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.  The head of his spear alone weighed six hundred shekels of iron or about 20-25 pounds.  The written account also says that he had a “shield carrier” who walked before him.  This shield carrier was designed to protect his body from the enemy’s arrows and was the size of a full grown man.  So in addition to the body armor, Goliath had a man running in front of him, carrying a man-size shield as double protection.  Pause a moment and allow your mind to picture such an imposing sight.  Imagine how frightening it would be to take on a giant of this size protected by this amount of armor.  Clearly, the odds are stacked against anyone foolish enough to face him in battle.

Notice what this mountain of a giant did.  1 Samuel 17:8-9, “He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to draw up in battle array?  Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.  If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.” What Goliath did was common in those days, that is, a representative battle, one-on-one fight.  He would represent the Philistines and whoever Israel chose would represent the Israelite army.  Whoever won, his army won.  Goliath didnt issue the challenge one time, his challenge went on for forty days, both morning and evening.  Each time, he flaunted his size and strength, spewing challenges to anyone who would take him on. Isn’t that how the giants of our circumstances and emotions attack us.  They don’t just come once, they attack repeatedly and consistently day after day, relentlessly trying to intimidate.  They come in all forms – people, pressures, worry, fear and more.   Some hammer on your heart, some yelling across the ravine in your own personal valley.  What are you to do?  The story of David will set a pattern for us to follow, so let’s go back to where we left off and see what happened as the battle unfolds before our very eyes.

About 10-15 miles away, David is out keeping sheep.  He’s too young to fight in the army.  What did he know?  David’s father, concerned about his three oldest sons who now fought in Saul’s army.  Unable to make the trip for himself, Jesse sends David to check on them (1 Samuel 17:17-18).  David arises early and sets out to do as his father had asked.  Try to imagine what must have been going through David’s mind as he came over the top of the last rise and saw the enemy spread out below him.  Then as he gets to the edge of the Israelite camp, he sees the troops heading out for battle and hears the war cry. You can tell he is excited and wants to watch, wouldn’t anyone?

(1 Samuel 17:22-23) Picture this for a moment… David is standing there talking to his three brothers, when all of a sudden he hears this loud cry from across the ravine.  Suddenly everyone around him is rushing to the rear and climbing into their tents (1 Samuel 17:24)”.  As he looks across the ravine, he sees Goliath fully girded in armor, cursing the God of Israel.  He must have been livid.  Can you imagine the thoughts running through his mind?

Unlike any other, David saw the present through seeing the hindsight and he wasn’t impressed or intimidated.  1 Samuel 17:26-27 tells us that David asks the men standing by him, what will be done for the man who kills Goliath and takes away the reproach of Israel?  Remember, Saul had given the men an incentive for killing Goliath, but the problem was no one, but himself, was qualified to fight.  Can you see Saul now?  Standing head and shoulder above everybody else, he, their leader, cowers away, but not without a plan for someone else to do his dirty work.

The incentives were more than any one man could imagine, but I want you to notice something – Goliath’s position on this particular day. The Bible tells us that he stood shouting to the ranks of Israel, but look at what is said on the day David arrives, (1 Samuel 17:25), “have you seen this man who is coming up?” That’s right, Goliath has now crossed the ravine at the base of the vally and is coming up Israel’s side.  You see, if you tolerate a Goliath, he’ll take over your territory.  He’ll move into your camp.  He’ll take over your thoughts that normally ought to be on God.  That’s why you can’t affort to tolerate giants, you kill them.

Now let’s look at what happens next.  It’s what Christians often go through during a time of standing by faith, they get flak and it often comes from members of their own family, in this case, David’s brother, Eliab (1 Samuel 27:28).  Don’t forget who Eliab is – he is the son of Jesse who first walked into the house and Samuel thought was king.  Eliab couldn’t have been too happy to see his younger brother chosen to be king, much less be blessed above him, the oldest.  Taken that, he attacks David’s motives and proceeds to humiliate David. Now an average person probably would have punched his brother’s lights out, but instead David ignores him and continues his line of questioning. David knew who to fight and who to leave alone.  Like David we need to choose our battles wisely.  Know who your real enemy is.

When Saul hears about the questions David is asking and the comments he is making, he sends for David (1 Samuel 17:32-33).  Now remember, King Saul is the guy who doesn’t want to fight, but he won’t admit it.  Looking at this small puny child standing before him, he proceeds to tell David that he had bit off more than he could chew, but how many of you know that when God is on your side, size and experience play no role in successfully bringing down any giant.

David is not phased by Saul’s doubt.  Before him, he sees no situation to huge for the Lord to deliver him from.  David didn’t focus on the defeats and failures of his life, he looked at the successes that God had brought him through.  Saul finally accepts David’s request and proceeds to prepare him for battle.  Must have been a funny site to see Saul dressing little David in his armor.  David, however is unable to handle the weapons made for Saul.  What may have worked for Saul, in this case, wouldn’t have worked for David.  Have you ever noticed how we always try to put our armor on someone else or put someone else’s armor on ourselves?  That’s not the way to do battle. God provides each of us our own unique armor to overcome the battles of life.

So here’s David, stripped down to his own simple garments and armed with his own simple shepherd weapons – his sling and his staff – ready to do battle. The beautiful thing about this story is that it’s a perfect example of how God operates.  He magnifies His name when we are weak.  We don’t have to be eloquent, strong or handsome.  We don’t have to be brilliant or have all the answers to be blessed of God.  He honors our faith.  All He asks is that we trust Him, stand before Him in integrity and faith, and He’ll win the battles.  God is just waiting for his moment.

The odds were against David. After picking up the stones, he approaches the giant Philistine warrior with a smile (1 Samuel 17:41-46).  Just imagine it – David stood before this mountain size rock of a man, unintimidated!

Intimidation is one of our major battles in life when we face the giants before us.  We get tongue tied, confused and even forget to pray.  We focus on the odds against us, forgetting who we represent, standing there with our knees knocking.  David’s eyes weren’t on the giant.  Intimidation played no part in his life,  His eyes were on God.  With invincible confidence, he turns the battle over to God.  David lived by a very simple rule – “nothing to prove, nothing to lose”.  He didn’t try to impress anyone, he just ran to meet Goliath.  In the final moments, he readies his sling and with a whoosh, it’s all over.  The stone flies through the air and lodges in the skull of the giant, and there he falls to his death.  The Philistines didn’t wait around after that, their champion was dead.   Out of this battle, the real truth emerged, evident to the troops on both sides of the valley – Goliath was the dwarf and David was the giant.

Winning victories is extremely significant.  Remember them! God doesn’t waste victories.  When He pulls something off that only He can do, He tells us to not forget them.  Four lessons emerge from this battle between David and Goliath.

1) Facing giants is an intimidating experience.  We can look at David’s bravery and victory with perfect hindsight, knowing that God is greater than any giant we face.

2) Doing battle is a lonely experience.  No one can fight for you.  It is on the lonely battlefield that you learn to trust God.

3) Trusting God is a stabilizing experience.  David brought down Goliath with the first stone.  His aim was true and didn’t miss the mark.  He was stabilized by his trust in God.  If you try to tackle your giants in the flesh, you cannot get it done; you’ll lose.

4) Winning victories is a memorable experience.

I dont know what your intimidating giant is today, but God is saying to you right now, “All I ask of you is five small stones and a sling of faith.  I’ll take it from there.  You don’t have to wear somebody else’s armor.  You just trust Me and I’ll strip you down to nothing but faith, accomplishing a victory where I’ll get the glory.  But as for you…trust Me.”  It is God’s love for us that causes Him to bring us to an end of our own strength.  He sees our need to trust Him and His love is so great that He will not let us live another day without turning over our arms to Him, our fears, our worries, even our confusion, so that nothing becomes more significant to us than our Father.  Never, ever forget it: THE BATTLE IS THE LORDS!!!

Soft Music for a Hard Heart – A Study of David – Part 3

Regardless of who we are, music seems to be the very thing that soothes the soul.  Music dates back to the times of Jubal (Genesis 4:21) and is spoken of throughout the book of Psalms.

The Bible says that “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him (1 Samuel 16:14-15)”.  The Bible doesn’t tell us why God allowed the evil spirit to terrorize Saul, but we can assume that God wasn’t too pleased that he had walked against His will.  Can you imagine Saul’s struggle?  Saul only struggled with an inward feeling of depression at the rejection announced to him, but he felt melancholy, insane and without peace.  The evil spirit stirred up feelings, ideas, imaginations, and thoughts within his soul that drove him to the point of madness.  No one around Saul knew what was happening within Saul’s soul, but they realized he needed help and boldly suggested that to him (1 Samuel 16:16-17).

In Biblical times, music was thought to soothe passions, heal mental diseases and even hold riots in check.  It is interesting how God used these beliefs to set the stage for David.  Someone happens to hear that Saul is looking for a musician and the door now opens for David to come on scene (1 Samuel 16:18).  Wow! what a resume! This verse describes David as a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, prudent at speech, handsome and the Lord was with him.

David didn’t know it, but he was getting ready to enter boot camp on the road to becoming a king.  David had to be all God said he was as he never once pulled rank on Saul, never one became jealous or envious of the king’s position, he was truly anointed to let the Lord open all the doors to his future.  David was a man after God’s own heart.  When David walked into the king’s presence, Saul had no idea that he would someday replace him on the throne.  David did what God had called him to do.  With a servant’s heart, he tended to Saul, becoming his armor bearer.  The Bible tells us that Saul came to love David because “it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hands; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him (1 Samuel 16:23)”. Can you picture Saul lying on his bed or pacing like a caged animal, writhing from the madness raging within him and there in the corner David sits playing his harp, maybe even singing?

God was definitely with David whose music would not only soothe the soul of a king, but would someday fill the pages of Scripture in the written Word.  The king not  only found relief from his torment, but he found love in his heart for the young shepherd boy whose music touched his soul.

Like David, a spirit filled saint is a song-filled saint.  God’s antenna is always attuned to the praises of his saints.  Never mind how beautiful or pitiful you may sound. Sing out! Sing Loud!, making melodies with your heart to the King of Kings, the Lord your God. If you listen closely, you may even hear the angelic hosts answering back.

Soft music for a hard heart is what David provided Saul.  That’s the soul music that Christ provides and that’s the place we must begin.  He died, was buried, rose from the dead and was resurrected that we may have life and a desire to live a positive, fulfilling life free from depression and despair.  He is our Shepherd and we are his sheep, needing the music of His Voice.  We can rejoice and exult in God together.

A Nobody, Nobody Noticed – A Study of David – Part 2

Who was this man Saul?  What did the people see in him?  This Saul was a real piece of work.  Shortly after becoming king, the people would see the real person Saul was inside.  His actions and decisions soon revealed that he was a selfish, angry, hateful, mean-spirited man.  Later in his rule, something snapped in his mind.  He lost touch with reality, proving himself unqualified for the throne.  So what happened?

Not long after Saul began his reign, Samuel caught him in three serious acts of disobedience: first Saul made a terrible decision (1 Samuel 13); then he made a rash vow against his own son (1 Samuel 14); and finally, he openly disobeyed God (1 Samuel 15).   Samuel confronts Saul and much to his dismay, Saul tries to rationalize his actions, later pleading his guilt.  Saul in attempts to maintain his image before the people, begs Samuel to return with him to worship the Lord.  Samuel not buying it for a minute, delivers a straight-from-the-shoulder jab that Saul would never forget (1 Samuel 15:26-30). Though Samuel finally agreed to return with Saul, he never saw him again after this (1 Samuel 15:35).  The tragedy is Saul never, ever fully repented of his sin.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though.  Samuel is beginning to feel the pressure.  The people have elected Saul, but he is no longer qualified for the throne.  What were the people to do?  Israel was surrounded by enemies, so they needed someone to lead the nation, but who?  No one knew but God.  How many of you know that long before the problem arises, God is already behind the scenes working it out.  Just because man fails, changes, or dies, does not mean that God fails, changes or dies.  Isaiah 65:24 tells us that before we call, He will answer, and while we are speaking, He will hear.  Nothing is a surprise to God.  He knows exactly what He’s going to do and nothing we do can restrain His bringing it to pass.

In 1 Samuel 16:1, God tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem to find the man He had chosen to replace Saul.  Unfortunately, Samuel in his shaken state, had taken his eyes off God and now appears to be panic-stricken as he realizes he is to return to the very place where the murderous Saul lived. Without answering Samuel’s question, God tells Samuel what to do (1 Samuel 16:2-3).  What of David? David knows nothing of God’s plan.  For him, it was just like any other morning.  Little did he know that his life would never be the same again, but the beautiful thing about this adventure called faith is that we can count on Him never to lead us astray.  God knows exactly where He is taking us.  Our only job is to obey, to live in close fellowship with God as we walk our earthly path.  In the process of that simple arrangement, God engages us in His eternal plan. So what happens next?

1 Samuel 16:4 tells us Samuel did what the Lord said.   Samuel takes the sacrifice to the house of Jesse.  The elders of the city see the prophet approaching and go to greet him in fear, their minds wondering why he has come.   In preparation of what was to come, Jesse and his sons are instructed to consecrate themselves in preparation of the sacrifice. Unaware of why Samuel was there, Jesse and his sons gather together before the prophet, each of them looking at him and he looking at them.  As he looked upon them, he must have wondered which of the sons would be chosen, as each looked fit for the throne.  The Lord tells Samuel to not judge the appearance of these men from the outside as mere mortal do, for all these before him were rejected. God tells him that it is the heart of the man that He uses to judge each man’s worthiness.  Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to see into a man’s heart and know what is there, so we have to look to Him to give us, with our limited focus, that kind of discernment.

Isn’t it ironic that Jesse didn’t even have his youngest son in the room.  Why not?  Like most parents, Jesse reveals two very common mistakes parents make. First, Jesse didn’t have an equal appreciation for all his children and second, he failed to cultivate a mutual self respect among them.  Jesse saw his youngest as nothing more than the one who tended the sheep.  Man forgets…God remembers.  You see, Samuel, with God’s help, now has the proper perspective and instructs Jesse to bring his youngest son to him.  Oh, how important it is to see beyond the obvious.  That’s the kind of vision that Samuel, with God’s help, finally demonstrates at this point. Now, remember David is out tending his father’s sheep when he is called to come before the prophet.  Can you imagine how he looked and smelled as the prophet hobbles to him and pours the oil upon his head?  What did David do afterwards? Humbly, David returns to his flock.

When you have a heart like David’s, that’s what you do. It made no difference that Samuel had anointed his head with oil.  He made no big to do about it.  He expected no special treatment.  He had a job and he was going to faithfully do it, always keeping his ear sensitive to the whisper of God’s voice.

There are three lessons to learn from this study.

First, God’s solutions are often strange and simple, so be open.  God is not complexed or complicated.  Stay open to His strange yet simple solutions.

Second, God’s promotions are usually sudden and surprising, so be ready.  When you least expect it, it will come.  God watches you as you faithfully carry out your tasks and will call you at a moment to carry out a job.

Third, God’s selections are always sovereign and sure, so be sensitive.

If you and I had been Jews living in the year 1020 BC, the same could have happened.  All of our attention would have been focused upon a man named Saul, the first king of Israel.  He was the focal point of the Jewish world at that time.  He was taking the country by storm.  Meanwhile, a “nobody” was keeping the sheep for his father on the Judean hillsides near the hamlet of Bethlehem.  A little boy named David whom nobody noticed..except God.

God’s Heart, God’s Man, God’s Ways – The Study of David – Part 1

David is the only one in all of Scripture to be called “a man after God’s own heart”.  His name is mentioned more than any other Old Testament character in the pages of the New Testament. As a poet, musician, courageous warrior, and national statesment, David distinguished himself as one of God’s greatest men. In battle, he modeled invincible confidence. In decisions, he judged with wisdom and equity. In loneliness, he wrote with transparent vulnerability and quiet trust.  In friendship, he was loyal to the end. Whether a humble shepherd boy or an obscure musician before King Saul, he remained faithful and trustworthy. Even in his promotion to the highest position in the land, David modeled integrity and humility.  What a man of God! But, as we shall see, David (like us) was anything but perfect.  Having earned the public’s trust and respect, he forfeits it all a brief season of sensual pleasure.  Then, as the consequences kick in, we discover another side of the man’s makeup – lustfulness as a husband, weakness as a father, and partiality as a leader.  It’s all there, written for all to learn, preserved for all to remember.  A great man, though far from perfect, nevertheless lived a life with strength worth emulating.  Since our world is desperately in need of models worth following, here is one deserving of our time and attention: David, a man of passion and destiny.

Over the next few weeks, we will study David’s life within the pages of God’s Word.  There the true man will be revealed.  Let’s begin.

On the surface there seemed to be nothing about David that would have impressed.  David looked like any other Jewish boy. Though the Bible describes David in 1 Samuel 16:12 as ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features, nothing about his outward appearance seemed to set him apart in any way.  How many of you know that the Lord did not look at the things men looked at, when choosing His man, David? To man, David was but a mere shepherd and young at that.  Not even his Father, Jesse, thought of David as the Bible tells us that even after seven of Jesse’s sons had passed before Samuel, he still asked, “Are these all the sons you have?” Can you picture this scene, as Jesse stood scratching his head when he suddenly remembers that there is still one sons remaining?  With that being said, Samuel requests David’s presence and suddenly a young nobody becomes a somebody, but before we get to David the king of Israel, we need to go back about forty years and get a sense of history and background, so we can appreciate the world he which he lived.

David lived during a time when the people’s hearts had drifted far from God.  Eli and his wicked were gone. Eli’s chosen successor, Samuel, the last of God’s judges, old in years, appoints his sons as judges over Israel.  What a mistake!  The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 8:1-3 that his sons did not walk as their father, turning aside after dishonest gain, taking bribes and perversing justice. Disillusioned, desperate and wanting to be like their neighbors, the people demand a king (1 Samuel 8:5-8).  How many of your know that wanting to be like everyone else isn’t always the best thing.

Grieved by the people’s demand, Samuel takes it God in prayer and He gives them exactly what they wanted, but not without a warning.  Stubbornly they listen and against God’s desires they select a king.  The man they chose was Saul.  The Bible describes him as tall, dark, and handsome man.  He comes on the scene mightily, sweeping the people off their feet.  In the beginning stages of his reign, Saul was a humble man, with the ability to rally the people around any cause.  But guess what happened?  Before long, Saul became thin skinned, hot tempered and given to seasons of depression.  So much for the man who was suppose to be the people’s choice.

David was born ten years after Saul became king. Wow, what a time to be born! The people’s hearts had drifted away from God and to make matters worse, they were now disillusioned with the leader they had chosen.  What were they to do with the king they had chosen now that he wasn’t walking with God?  Can you imagine what they were feeling?  Yet, God in love, doesn’t abandon them.  Through Samuel, He intervenes. The Bible tells us (1 Samuel 13:13-14) that Samuel confronts Saul about it and tells him that God has appointed a new king who is a man after His own heart.

Have you ever asked yourself what kind of people does God choose to use?  To determine that we need to look first at 1 Corinthians 1.  This passage tells us that God also has chosen the world’s insignificant and despised people and nobodies in order to bring to nothing those who amount to something, so that nobody may boast in the presence of God (1 Corinthians 1:28-29).  That’s a principle we tend to forget.  When we look for people to admire, we usually choose them because of the they do to dazzle us.  We want the best and the brightest, but that’s not the way God makes His choices.  When God scans the earth for potential leaders, He is searching for men and women like you and me, and like David.  So what did He see in David, what qualities did this mere man have that caught God’s eye?

The first quality God saw in David was spirituality.  The Bible says that the sought our a man after His own heart.  What does that mean?  It seems to me that this is telling us that God wanted someone whose life was in harmony with God.  When you are deeply spiritual, your heart is sensitive to the things of God (2 Chronicles 16:9).  What is God looking for?  He is looking for a person whose heart is completely His, meaning there are no lock doors, nothing swept under the rug.

The second quality God saw in David was humility.  God saw David’s heart and knew that it completely belonged to Him.  David had a servant’s heart, the very thing God was looking for.  God didn’t want a person with a slick public image.  He wanted a man with character, humble and willing enough to assume His divine character. He didn’t need a man with charisma, size or even an impressive track record.  He wanted a person whose heart was spiritually walking with him in humility.  When you have a servant’s heart, you’re humble.  You do what you are told.  You don’t rebel, respecting those appointed over you.  A servant doesn’t care who gets the glory.  Their goal is to make the person he serves look better, ensuring they don’t fail.  Isnt that exactly how David was?

The third quality David had was integrity (Psalm 78:71-72).  God is not looking for magnificent specimens of humanity.  He is looking for deeply spiritual, genuinely humble and honest to the core servants who have integrity.   Integrity is what you are when nobody’s looking. It means bone deep honest.

How did God train David for the leadership role?  His training ground was lonely, obscure, monotonous, and real.  First God trained David in solitude.  He needed to learn life’s major lessons alone before he could be trusted with responsibilities and rewards before the public.  Solitude has nurturing qualities all its own.  Second, David grew up in obscurity.  Men and women of God, servant leaders in the making are first unknown, unseen, unappreciated and unapplauded.  In the relentless demands of obscurity, character is built.  Those who first accept the silence of obscurity are best qualified to handle the applause of popularity.  The third training ground is monotony.  That’s being faithful in the menial, insignificant, routine, regular, unexciting, uneventful, daily tasks of life.  Life without a break…without the wine and roses, just dull and plain. The fourth training ground is reality. Up until now you might have the feeling that despite the solitude, obscurity and monotony, David was just sitting out on some hilltop in a mystical haze, composing a great piece of music or relaxing in the pastures.  That is the farthest thing from the truth.  In 1 Samuel 17:34-35, David is standing by Saul, as the great giant Goliath spews his challenges to the Israel Army.  Remember Saul, that great big, tall guy?  Here he stands shaking in his boots and hiding from Goliath.  Without a moment of hesitation, David responds to Goliath’s threat.   Where did he get the courage?  He learned it during the times he was all alone with God. From David’s perspective, if he overcame the strength of a bear and lion, Goliath would be of no greater challenge as long as God was with Him.

There are so many things we can learn from David’s life.  First, it’s in the little things and in the lonely places that we prove ourselves capable of the big things.  To become a person with a large vision, you must cultivate the habit of doing the small things well.   The test of your life is how well you do when there’s nobody to check on you, when nobody is looking.  Second, when God develops our inner qualities, He’s never in a hurry.  The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime.  When God develops character, He works on it throughout a life time.  He’s never in a hurry.

6 Ways to Pray

1. Aspirations.  A strong aspiration and desire to pray will create the proper climate for effective intercession. (2 Corithians 7:7, Matthew 5:6)

2.  Fervency.  Fervency changed Elijah’s situation, suspended natural laws, and brought about supernatural miracles through prayer. (James 5:16-18)

3. Perseverance. On some items, there will be instant results as we pray, while answers for other requests might take time. However, Scripture talks about persevering and enduring until the answer comes, learning to add patience to our faith. (Ephesians 6:18, Hebrews 6:12)

4. Intercession.  Addresses the pray-er needs, assists in intercession for other.  True pray-ers know the importance of standing in the gap between God and others until the result comes.

5. Praying in tongues. (Jude 20 Amp, Ephesians 6:18)

6. Choose a comfortable posture: Kneeling, sitting, standing, prostrating

Six Kinds of Prayer

1) Intercession is standing in the gap to reconcile a supplier with the needy.  It is learning to bear up people, places, or situations in prayer.  (Isaiah 59:16)

2) Faith.  The prayer of faith is asking God to intervene in a situation. It is urgent and therefore comes up when an immediate result is desired (James 5:15)

3) Consecration. The prayer of consecration is offered when the believer needs to know or do the will of God. At such times, the expressions “if it be thy will” or “let they will be done” become appropriate (Matthew 26:39)

4) Petition. The prayer of petition is often called supplication in Scripture.  It gives the believer the opportunity to petition God until the answer comes.  While the prayer of faith is prayed once and requires immediate response, the prayer of petition may be presented several times, either an oral or written request (1 Timothy 2:1-4)

5) Praise. Praise if a form of prayer.  It is praising the supplier without focusing on the need (Jeremiah 32:17)

6) Agreement. When at least two or three people band together in the name of Jesus to request a thing from God, God promises to grant it. The power of this prayer is in the quality of agreement and the strength of unity among those who are praying (Matthew 18:19-20)

Eternal Communion – The Ark of the Covenant – Prayer – Conclusion

Let’s look more closely at the ark.  Instead of focusing on its construction, I would like to talk about what it symbolizes in being a third dimension intercessor.  I believe, the ark represents the human heart – the deepest, most intimate part of who you are, and the place where the glory of God can take up residence and transform everything around you. 

As with all the other elements in the tabernacle and its furniture, God gave specific instructions to Moses for the construction of the ark of the covenant. Exodus 25:10-16 says, “They shall make an ark of acacia wood: two and half cubits long, a cubit and a half  wide, and a cubit and a half high.  You shall overlay the ark with pure gold, inside and out, and make a gold crown, a rim or border, around its top.  You shall cast four golden rings and attach them to the four corners of it, two rings on either side.  You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And put the poles through the rings on the ark’s sides, by which to carry it.  The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it [that the ark be not touched]. And you shall put inside the ark the Testimony [the Ten Commandments] which I will give you”

Foreknowing that a believer’s body would ultimately house the Holy Spirit, God demonstrated that He didn’t need to create something to house an enormous seat of power.  Remember, the human heart is so powerful that it forms, develops, and starts beating in a fetus before the brain develops.  It’s the organ in your body that doesn’t have to obey the brain.  In fact, the heart keeps beating long after the brain is dead.  Interesting thing, the measurements of the cherubim on the mercy seat are similar to the measurements of the human chest cavity.  Your heart – the head of your temple – can hold tremendous power, which is imparted directly from heaven in third dimensional, threshing floor prayer.

The ark was overlaid with solid gold on the inside and outside, which represents the perfected union of God and man.  Let’s look quickly at the three elements that were placed within the ark:

1) The testimonial tablets (Exodus 24:12) which represents the perfected Word of God manifested in your life.

2) Aaron’s rod which budded as a symbol against rebellion to God-given authority (Numbers 17:8-10)

3) An omer of manna which represents supernatural provision and freedom from bondage (Exodus 16:32-34)

When these three elements were maintained inside the ark, it housed the glory of God.  Without them present, the ark became just another empty gold box.  When the testimonial tablets were missing, the “empty” ark could not be kept in the tabernacle.  Do you see what God is telling you? We must also come to understand that in order for us to walk in the perfected power of God, these same elements must be present and remain:

1. There must be a manifestation of the Word, not just sitting in my heart, but operative in my everyday lifestyle.  My life must come to a place where I am no longer failing every test and being defeated on every hand.  I must have testimonies. 

2.  Just like Aaron’s rod budding, I must be able to not just stand against that which rebels against God, but in everything I am, I must come to a place that whatever decision God makes for me, my answer is, “Yes, Lord, Thy will be done”.  I must be willing and obedient to His every command, and Aarons budding rod is there to remind me that if I choose at any given time to walk in rebellion, I will end up walking out a penalty.

3.  My omer of manna represents the fact that I have come to trust the Lord, not the man, for everything I need…therefore freeing me from the bondage of worry and fear.  My experience during my time in the wilderness brought me to a place where I know without a shadow of a doubt that my God will supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory, therefore freeing me from leaning on the arms of flesh.

If your heart is not perfected through the process of these elements, you will not be able to come into the most holy place of His glory! An empty heart can not dwell in the secret place. Let’s review.  The work of the sacrifices is done in the outer court, and the holy place contains the workings of the sanctuary.  But when  you pass through the veil into the most holy place, the work of the flesh ceases and the work of the heart of God begins. It is there that you will begin to see what God is doing, over and above hearing His voice.  Every time God is preparing to do something that is going to change the course of your life and surroundings, He will show it to you before hand.  This is why some things cannot be spoken, because the devil would try to take them. Satan will come along and give you another “word” to confuse your sense of direction – but on this level it becomes a little more difficult for him to confuse your vision.  He can’t tell you what you didn’t see in the depths of your spirit man.

One of the best ways to recognize a true vision from God is that it should not make any sense to your natural mind.  It should look like something you couldn’t possibly do. It’s too big for your mind to handle. It costs too much… it would be impossible to accomplish.  It’s not your level or grade in the Spirit.  If a vision doesn’t scare your flesh to death, then it most likely didn’t come from God.  It should be so awesome that it should look as if you don’t have what it takes to walk out this vision, nevertheless, your spirit says, “I’m going to do it anyway.”

Have you ever seen people praising God and then just fall to the floor without anyone touching them?  When you tap into the third realm, your body automatically yields into a prostrate position under the weight of His glory.  Something inside is helping you to understand that you are in the presence of the Spirit whom  you are not worthy to see.  When you encounter the glory of this realm, the flesh profits nothing.  Your spirit can only commune with the Spirit of the Lord as you lie prostrate at His feet. The more you come to God with a pure heart, the more He will take you to new levels and fresh, exciting experiences through your walk of prayer.  If you are ready to find God beyond religion, denominationalism or anything you have ever experienced – He is calling for you.  Let God lead you through His patter of prayer all the way into His presence behind the veil…because that’s where the impossible is not only the possible – it becomes reality.

The Power of Intercession – Entering the Most Holy Place – Prayer – Part 14

You are about to enter into the most sacred part of the tabernacle. Before God will allow you to operate in the faith that brings results through effectual prayer and intercession, there are foundational requirements for every intercessor that you must satisfy in your life.  Now let’s look straight ahead at the divine entrance through the veil. There you will see the golden altar of incense.  Because the golden altar of incense was centered in the tabernacle structure, it was the nearest piece of furniture to the divine presence of God behind the veil.  It represented the heart of the tabernacle service.  Anyone could come into the outer court and wash at the brazen laver before sacrificing at the brazen altar, but only the lower priests and the high priest were allowed to serve in the holy place amidst the table of shewbread, the golden candlestick and the golden altar.  And only the high priest could enter into the most holy place.

God administers a tremendous warning in Scripture to those who are not spiritually qualified to minister in intercession and prayer. We must carefully guard against mixing the wrong ingredients into worship.  The sacred ingredients of the holy incense were carefully measured in the right quantity and blended together according to the instruction of the Lord before they were beaten into the fine powder.  When this holy mixture was sprinkled onto the hot coals in the golden altar, it released a sweet fragrance into the atmosphere that permeated the entire holy place.

When you are a true intercessor – a believer who prays, intercedes, and worships at home, at work, in church or wherever you may be, anyone who comes into your presence should be able to feel the presence of God upon you.  There should be a sweet odor of prayer and worship wherever you go.

In 2 Chronicles 26, we find the story of King Uzziah.  As an intercessor, it is important that you understand the nature of this king, for he defied the law of God concerning the altar of incense.  In the early years of his reign, King Uzziah had a relationship with God.  He began his reign correctly under the spiritual covering of the prophet Zechariah. In his early years, King Uzziah yearned for and sought after the Lord, and God prospered him.  Then his situation started to turn.  Uzziah was able to defeat many of the cities of Israel’s enemy the Philistines.  God helped him to be successful and his fame spread abroad.  He developed an extremely strong and capable combat army of more than three hundred thousand men.  He became famous throughout the land, but King Uzziah went from being classified as a person who sought after and yearned for the Lord to becoming a famous man known for his great success.  As his fame became widespread, he began to trust in the strength of his own abilities.  This attitude is extremely dangerous. When pride and arrogance takes over, a haughty spirit follows close behind – which means this person won’t receive correction.  King Uzziah stormed by the brazen laver, ignored the brazen altar and went straight to the holy place. He ignored the table of shewbread and the golden candlestick, which means that he gave no recognition to the Word of God or to the Holy Spirit.  His life was no longer beaten and pressed out.  Pride entered in, and the workings of the flesh were fully manifested in him. Disregarding his degraded spiritual condition, he went inside the holy place straight to the golden altar of incense.  Look what started to play out in verses 17-20. You will not get any credit in heaven for entering into the presence of God illegally.  The true sign of a person who has ignored the prerequisites God established for a true intercessor is this: when correction comes, that person becomes angry and that’s a dangerous place to be with God.

An intercessor starts out seeking God and going forth in Him. That happens long before anyone recognizes the anointing on that person’s life.  Before anyone recognizes your talents or giftings, you begin on your face seeking after God. You yearn after God, panting after Him, but something happens when the fame of becoming an intercessor gets out, and people see the anointing of God on your life. They begin to seek you out.  When that happens, you must be careful not to step over into pride and lose credit with God.

As an intercessor, it is essential that you understand the power of the golden altar of incense.  It must not be disregarded or mishandled.  We must spend quality time at the golden altar to achieve the right mixture of prayers, intercession and worship before God.  We cannot rush into the holy place and expect instant anointing to be given to us on our terms! Each ingredient in the holy incense undergoes a specific process before it is ready to be added to the incense mixture in a specific amount.  For the anointing to be authentic, it must be God’s mixture.

The Golden Altar of Incense – Prayer – Part 13

This third and central piece of furniture in the holy place is the only element capable of ushering you into the divine presence of God. Now you are ready to experience the power of intercession.

Let’s study the definition of the word intercession.  The prefix inter- means, “between, among, mutually, reciprocally”.  The word cession is defined as “the act of ceding”. To cede means “to yield or formally surrender to another, to grant or transfer as by will [meaning the will of God].”  When you become an intercessor, you “stand between and among, you intermarry, you interweave on behalf of another person”. You actually stand between what a person needs and his/her answer from God.  While you are standing there, you act as the point of contact that causes Satan to yield or surrender to the will of God.  You act as one who grants or transfers according to God;s will.  When you become an intercessor, you stand in the gap for somebody else, and you don’t come out of that place until the enemy has fully surrendered that ground and given up that territory to you.

The word intercession is defined as, “an act or instance of interceding, an interposing or pleading on behalf of another person, a prayer to God on behalf of another”.  Another meaning for intercession is to impinge, which means, “to encroach, infringe, to impinge on another’s rights, to strike, to collide, to light; have an effect, ideas that impinge upon or affect the imagination”.  Your prayers infringe upon the enemy; they strike and begin to collide with the enemy.  This makes an eternal impression and a powerful effect against the workings of Satan.

Another root word, encroach, means “to advance beyond established or proper limits, making gradual inroads to trespass upon the property, domain or rights of another, especially gradually or stealthily.” This means that when I begin to intercede and pray on someone’s behalf, I advance beyond the established proper limits. The enemy thinks that it is proper (perfectly understandable and something he expects us to do) for believers to pray from the outer court.  To do so simply tells him that we accept what he is trying to do.  When we go beyond the outer court into the holy place and then behind the veil to our final position in the presence of the Lord, Satan’s works are no longer acceptable to us.

Another root word is importunity, which means “an importunate solicitation or demand”. To be importune means “to urge or press with excessive persistence, to trouble, to annoy, to make urgent or persistent solicitations”.  When you are a true intercessor, you pray without ceasing – at all times.

Now you are ready to pray in the third realm. As you stand at the golden altar of incense, you are just one step away from a threshing floor experience.  In Exodus 30:1-11, God gave Moses instructions concerning the altar of incense.  There was a significant difference between the construction of the golden altar of incense and the brazen altar.  The brazen altar was made from bronze and wood, but the golden altar was made from shittim wood and overlaid with gold. One of the most notable qualities about the golden altar was that that it was positioned in the center, so it sat in the heart of the holy place.  This correlates to intercession being the heart of God.  Whatever comes from the golden altar must come from you heart.  The condition of your heart can also hinder you from having an intimate relationship with God.

The purpose of the golden altar was threefold: prayer, intercession and worship.  The fire on the golden altar was never suppose to go out. After both altars were lit supernaturally, the priests kept the fires burning continually, taking coals off the brazen altar daily and using them to keep the fire kindled at the golden altar, representing that the fire in our worship, intercession and prayer – though it is rekindled by our ongoing sacrifice -  must come directly from God. It also represents who Jesus Christ is for us – and who we must become for others.

Like the table of shewbread, the golden altar was also made of shittim wood overlaid with gold.  Here again we see a blending of humanity with the deity of God.  The brazen altar, which was structured of shittim wood overlaid with bronze, had limitations because the covering wasn’t pure gold.  If you spiritually embrace only the brazen altar, you will be limited to that level of an experience with God, one based on the limitations of humanity.  But if you embrace the golden altar which was constructed of wood overlaid with gold (symbolizing the deity of God), your prayers, intercession and worship will be strengthened by the supernatural deity of God.

The golden altar was constructed to be three fee in height which corresponded to the height of the ark of the covenant.  In practice, this means that when you worship at the golden altar, that piece of furniture brings you to the level where you can commune with God according to His divine pattern.

The holy incense that burned continually upon the coals of the golden altar was made up of several ingredients.  This divine mixture of “pure and holy” ingredients symbolized our prayers, intercession and worship – ignited by our sacrifice – giving us entrance into the third realm, the divine presence and revelation of God, behind the veil from the mercy seat.

There were four ingredients used to create the holy incense (Exodus 30:34-35).

The first spice in the holy incense was stacte, a resin that would ooze spontaneously out of the storax tree.  By revelation, I believe this means that our prayers, worship, and intercession must not be programmed.  They must emerge spontaneously at the direction of the Spirit of God.   Stacte must be a part of your prayers, intercession and worship because God needs for you to be instantly obedient to His voice and promptings.

The second spice that was part of the holy incense was onycha which was extracted from the shellfish that lived in the depths of the Red Sea.  The revelation of this means you must have depth in your worship.  Your level of prayers, intercession, and worship unto God must come from a depth in the Spirit. You must be able to leave the surface of what has already been done to tap into a realm of new experiences that flow from the heartbeat of God. The onycha anointing also means that God will require you to think more deeply about prayers you pray than to constantly repeat Jesus’ model prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).  When you are in front of the golden altar of incense, the deep things of the Spirit of God will call forth the deep that is within you (Psalm 42:7).

The third spice was galbanum, a pungent resin that could only be acquired by breaking or splitting the branch of a tree.  The word pungent means, “affecting the organs of taste or smell with a sharp acrid sensation”.  In other words, it was a bitter ingredient, not all pleasant to the senses. As an intercessor, there will be times when you go through galbanum experiences.  Yet during difficult seasons and manifestations, you must come to a place where you can declare, “though I am having a bitter experience, I’m still going to stay in position of prayer, intercession and worship.” As you serve at the golden altar of incense, God will begin to train you in order to help you understand that everything in your life is not always going to run smoothly.  But in the midst of these galbanum experiences, you must learn how to keep offering up prayers, intercession, and worship unto God from a deep place in your spirit.

The fourth and final spice that was added to the holy incense was frankincense, a resin that was collected early in the morning from the Boswellia tree (Psalm 63:1-2).  When you seek the Lord from the ingredient of frankincense, you are seeking Him early – which doesn’t necessarily mean a time of day.  This precious resin is collected early in the morning because it readily flows out at that time.  You must seek God early in the morning.  In the holy place, it becomes your way of life to seek Him early.  When you do this, there will always be a ready flow of His Spirit.  You will have a consistent flow of His anointing.

After blending the four elements together, one final element was used to temper them all (Exodus 30:35), salt.  The Bible says we are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13).  You are the key element that brings it all together at the golden altar.  You have to make prayer, intercession and worship a personal priority.  You have to invest yourself into this divine process completely.

At this point you are just a heartbeat away from a threshing floor experience behind the veil.

The Golden Candlestick (The Holy Place) – Prayer – Part 13

The golden candlestick or menorah (Exodus 25:31-40) represents light and illumination, so it symbolizes divine understanding of the Word, the next level of insight and revelation where Word and Spirit are one.  At this point, you are becoming able to see and apply the Word whenever and wherever it is needed.

The menorah was made of solid gold.  There was no wood in this piece of furniture and there were no measurements given.  Since there was no wood, humanity wasn’t represented in the candlestick.  The function of the candlestick and what it symbolized has nothing to do with humanity.

In studying Jewish culture, it is said that when God instructed Moses to make the menorah, Moses lamented because the dimensions, details, and curves of the candlestick were impossible for him to envision.  So God showed him a menorah of fire and eventually instructed him to throw the stem into the fire from which the completed menorah emerged.  Moses didn’t have the tools to create the menorah according to God’s specification, so God formed it supernaturally.  This leaves us with the understanding that when you embrace the menorah, you have come to the place where God begins to perform everything He reveals to you in prayer.  You receive the illumination and God does the work.  This means there are no limitations as you embrace the element.  You have access to the mind of the Spirit and are able to discern the deep things of God.

The menorah had a stem (representing God) and six branches (representing the number of man, the church, which was born out of Him) (John 15:5).  The golden candlestick helps us to see that Jesus is the vine (stem) and we are the branches (six candles) coming out of Him (John 15:6). An intercessor who disconnects from the vine goes back to the outer court.  By illumination of the candlestick, the only thing you are going to ask for in intercession is the will of God because in this realm, His will is the only thing you desire.

The branches of the candlestick have the same decorations as the stem, a design that was beaten and shaped by fire.  This design represents the attributes that Jesus gave the church when we were birthed out from Him.

Jesus gave us His glory (Matthew 5:14). Part of being this light to the world is reflecting His image, symbolized by the fine gold that was beaten for the candlestick until it was smooth and reflective.  The design on the candlestick was comprised of almonds and flowers which again was beaten and burned into the menorah by fire.  The almond on Aaron’s rod was the first branch to bud and blossom, bring forth fruit to the nations of Israel (Num 17:8). This speaks of the everlasting resurrection.  As you embrace the work of the menorah, God will make sure to burn the image of the almond into your life. When the image of the almond is in your spirit, it doesn’t matter how many tests you endure or how many trials you go through, you have eternal “getting up power”.  You have life and can speak life into any situation.

The flower represents everlasting beauty.  If people cannot see the beauty of Christ when they look at you, if they cannot experience the sweet anointing of the Holy Spirit, if there’s nothing about your person that others desire, then the image of the flower isnt apparent in your life.

One final aspect of the golden candlestick is the fact that it was lit by the coals from the brazen altar.  The fire of God that lit the altar originally came from glory in the third realm, lighting the golden altar of incense and then the brazen altar.  By revelation this means that if there has never been any sacrifice in your life, and if you fail to willingly put yourself on the altar of sacrifice daily, then there will be no fire to light the golden candlestick in your life.  There will be no reflection of God’s character for others to see.

The fire on the brazen altar will go out unless you continue to sacrifice to put your flesh and your will on the altar of sacrifice.  If this sacrificial fire goes out, the fires of illumination on the golden candlestick will subsequently be extinguished.  Even worse, the coals of the golden altar of incense will smolder and die.

Sacrifice is a vital element. Saying yes to God in your mind and in your spirit continually adds wood to the brazen altar and makes it possible to receive illumination in the holy place, making it easy to worship Him at the altar of incense.  Personal sacrifice safeguards your understanding of what God desires to do in the lives of the people for whom you are praying.  Sacrifice lights the way to prayer.

The golden menorah was crafted of the finest solid gold.  The almond shape represented the resurrected power and the image of the flower represented everlasting beauty.  This means when we go into intercession and the enemy starts shooting fiery darts at you, your love does not change, your joy isn’t hindered, your peace keeps flowing like a river, and your long suffering/temperance kick in as you carry the burden of the Lord. When you reach the golden lamp stand you will have a solid gold encounter with God.

You may wonder what kept the menorah lit.  God instructed Aaron and his sons to keep the lamp stand filled with pure olive oil (Exodus 27:20-21).  The pure oil of crushed olives symbolizes the anointing of the Holy Spirit. When you look into the process they used to make this olive oil, it speaks strongly of the threshing process.  Basically, as the olive grows to maturity, the early fruit falls to the ground.  Then at harvest time, they beat the trees with long sticks to yield the rest of the crop, and then gather all the olives off the ground.  Then the oil was pressed out by crushing the olives in the hollow of a stone or by treading on them by foot.  When the olives were first pressed, two different lots of oil would come forth.  The first press was called extra virgin olive oil, meaning in its purest state.  This was the oil that was used to keep the golden candlestick burning.

When you go to the point of wanting to be used by God, we must receive the anointing of the pure olive oil that illuminates.  This goes beyond just having fire or intensity because the menorah will stay lit continually only if it is filled with the oil of the anointing.

One final aspect is related to the golden candlestick (Acts 2:1-4). As an intercessor, you need the oil of the spirit on a daily basis.  This means that it is an absolute necessity for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit as the disciples were on the Day of Pentecost. Without that infilling, there will be no supernatural utterances from heaven in your prayer closet. Since oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit and oil had to be refilled in the candlestick twice daily to keep the holy place illuminated, there is a strong emphasis on the vital role this experience hold in an intercessor’s life.

The Table of ShewBread (the Holy Place) – Prayer – Part 12

Now let’s look at the contents of the holy place.

When you enter the holy place, to the right you will find the table of shewbread. This table was constructed of shittim (Acacia) wood and overlaid with gold. Shittim wood was incorruptible.  It was the same wood they used to construct the ark of the covenant.  It would stand up against storms, heat or severe conditions. The fact that it was overlaid with gold means that it represents humanity (wood) covered by the deity of Jesus (gold).  The table of shewbread also represents the Word of God.  It was inlaid with a crown which symbolized the crown of kingship.  Twelve loaves of specially baked bread were on the table at all times. These loaves were baked on Friday and replaced every Sabbath – and they miraculously remained as hot and fresh on the Sabbath day as when they were first baked.  At the end of seven days, when the loaves were replaced, they were still fresh enough to be divided among the priests. The crown spoke of a king’s responsibility to provide for the safety and prosperity of the nation.  As an intercessor, the shewbread represents that you can receive a fresh word from God daily.  The people for whom you intercede will prosper as the King of the universe sends heavenly provision through you by way of prayer, making it vital for you to read His Word daily.

As an intercessor, you must have an unlimited resource of the Bread of Life from heaven present within you as you perform the service of the Lord at the table of shewbread.  (Matthew 26:26-28) The brazen laver gives you new life as it washes you through the power of the Word.  Then when you enter the holy place, the shewbread becomes the bread of maintenance as you begin to eat the Word of God (John 6:53-57). As an intercessor you must eat of Christ to become like Him and be prepared to battle in the heavenly realm.  You have to digest the Word regularly to maintain a transformed lifestyle.  THe shewbread is your strength.   It is the table of shewbread where the intercessor must embrace and partake of the Word of God because this is where the Word becomes your sword.  Not only do you gain strength at this table, but you also forge (sharpen) your supernatural weapon.  This is the place where the Word turns into power as the Lord gives you permission to use the Word on behalf of someone else.  Now that you are in the holy place, you have entered the realm of divine illumination – the place where you are justified and qualified to pray on behalf of others.

The Holy Place – Prayer – Part 11

As you prepare to enter the holy place, having been washed, dressed, anointed, and consecrated, you must remember that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him”.  You must remember that you came into the outer court through the gate of His finished work.  He became the way for you to see your true reflection in the brazen laver and to sacrifice your will on the brazen altar.  Now at the door of the tabernacle, you are about to enter the realm of intercession.  You have come into a deeper walk with the Lord under the new anointing He has poured upon your life.

But as I said earlier, at this new level you must approach the Father by way of Jesus Christ.  The door has the same four colors that were in the gate: white, blue, purple and scarlet. But now, they have taken on a deeper meaning.  Let’s see how this applies in your daily walk.  According to 1 Corinthians 1:30 and Revelation 19:7-8, the white, fine-twined linen speaks of the Lord, who has become your righteousness.  His righteousness can now be clearly seen in you by others.  It is the foundation and assurance of victory for every burden you receive from God in Prayer.  Blue (turquoise), the color of heaven, speaks of Jesus as the second man, the Lord from Heaven.  He was revealed to you at the gate, and now He’s being manifested in you daily as the living Word.  When people see you standing at the door of the tabernacle, they will begin to see the kingdom and will of God being validated in the earth through you.

Purple is the color of kingship which means you can be clearly identified as an ambassador of the royal family of Jesus Christ.  When people see you in the natural, they see you beyond your title, gender or nationality, all the way to your biblical roots.  Principalities and powers in the Spirit realm will also begin to recognize your heritage and bow to your royal lineage.

The last color is scarlet which speaks of a sacrificial blood that Jesus shed for you to be saved and come into a deeper relationship with Him.  It also signifies that the battle has already been fought and won for you in the Spirit realm.  Now as you begin to make intercession, fully clothed in your priestly garments, you will be able to experience the blood of Jesus going before you and setting the captives free.

In the Holy place, the realm of total truth, God requires that the grace of His Son be made manifest in you. Why? This door, the first veil of the tabernacle was not merely an entrance to an enclosed space.  This door shut out common (natural) men.  Most importantly, it was the only passageway that led to the manifest presence of God on the threshing floor.

Are you ready to enter His marvelous light? Eternal light is your final destination.  Now you must walk knowing that you have come out of the outer court where the light is only temporary.  As an intercessor, the works of Christ must progressively be revealed in and through you.  You can never go back.  As you prepare to enter the holy place, know that you will begin to operate in the supernatural light as you learn to pick up the burden of the Lord.  Remember, God hasn’t called you into the marvelous light just for you to sit there and gaze or to be afraid on this new level and run back to the comfort zone of the outer court.  There is a divine purpose for you and grace to meet every need just beyond that door.

There are two reasons why priests entered the holy place.  The first was to perform the service of the Lord. In performing the temple service, they made sure to replace the shewbread regularly which represented the Word of God.  They kept the menorah filled with olive oil which represented the light of the Lord and the oil of the anointing.  They also kept a constant fire burning on the altar of incense representing the place of worship and total surrender, ensuring that the glory of the Lord was maintained in that whole area.

The second reason they entered was to lay prostrate before God in prayer.  Both purposes speak of a higher degree of separation and devotion to God.  The golden altar represents a place, time, and position in prayer where you are separated from everybody else. Once you have gone through all the stages of altar – you will be able to experience the oil of the anointing.  The Word of the Lord will become alive to you at the golden altar and true worship will begin to rise out of your spirit.

This is your place of separation.  This is also why prayer can be practiced anywhere.  This is how we know that we are on our way to the threshing floor because separation is the heart of the threshing process. To thresh means “to separate grain or seeds from straw by beating the stems and husks”.  The divine threshing process actually begins when you enter the gate to the outer court in prayer.  Then the process of personal repentance in the outer court separates you from a life of sin into a life of obedience to God.  Now that you have moved into the holy place, the separation continues as you begin to live within His purpose.  Each piece of the tabernacle furniture deepens your intercessory experience.

The furniture inside the holy place was positioned with the table of shewbread to the north, the golden candlestick to the south, and the golden altar of incense to the west of the outer elements.

The Tabernacle Coverings – Prayer – Part 10

As God brings you into the holy place, you must become aware of the tabernacle furniture and how each element relates to you in prayer.  This will be the next part of your learning process, but there is a very important thing you must understand – God will never call you to intercede on behalf of the saints and into battle against the hands of the enemy without protecting and covering  you.

The outer court is open to the winds, storms, and other weather conditions that may blow your way as you learn to submit your life to God.  However, once you walk into the holy place, you are covered.  As we study about each covering, you will see a definite connection to the priestly garments.  God makes a strong point about the garments and the coverings.

Let’s start by looking more closely at the tabernacle.  It has two sections, the holy place and the most holy place.  God originally established the tabernacle through Moses so there would be a place for His presence to rest among His people (Exodus 25:8).  Do you think the enemy could remain anywhere that God has chosen to rest? Absolutely not! The presence of God will cover you as you make intercession – as long as you remain properly clothed, so don’t fall back into the outer court living!

If you were to stand back just before entering into the holy place, and then look up and around, you would see that the holy place and the most holy place were parts of the tabernacle structure that required covering.  Exodus 26:1-14 lists the four layered tabernacle coverings.

The first tabernacle curtain was woven of white “fine twined linen” and three different colors of wool: turquoise, purple and scarlet. This layer of covering was classified as “the tabernacle” and was made from the same basic material that was used to weave the priestly ephod in Exodus 28:6.  The difference between the two can be seen in the fact that the ephod had a gold strand of thread woven in with each of the other four threads, and the tabernacle curtains did not.  The curtains had four, not five, threads that were woven together into an ornate pattern of cherubim, as well as figures of the lion, eagle, and ox, which could be seen on either side of the fabric.

Here in the design of the curtains we once again see the colors of the finished work of Christ, which laid the foundation for the tabernacle coverings.  The first fabric mentioned is the white linen which speaks of the garments of righteousness and salvation that have been given to the saints (Isaiah 61:1-3, 10).

The first covering of the tabernacle in Exodus 26:1 displays not only the four workings of Christ through its colors, but also the images of the cherubim, the lion, the eagle and the ox (Ezekial 1:4-10, Revelation 4:7).  The images of the lion, eagle, and bull correspond to one of the colors in the workings of Christ, and e4ach of these images has significance in prayer.  The is why they were intricately woven into the design of this first (foundational) covering.

Cherubim are very different from angels.  God commanded that cherubim be woven into the fabric because they are a manifestation of everything He is.  Angels work on behalf of God in the service of humanity. Cherubim live around the throne of God, exalting Him continually and reflecting His glory.  The cherubim embroidered on the tabernacle curtains represent the inwrought work of cherubim who cover you in intercessory prayer and manifest the intricate workings and operation of the Holy Spirit on behalf of the Father and the Son.  As you pray, the cherubim remind you of the life, ministry, death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

The image of the lion corresponds to purple in the workings of Christ.  It speaks of the righteousness that has been imputed to you as part of the royal priesthood.  The lion reminds you of your royal lineage and lets you know that you are now operating in authority that transformed you in the outer court.  Because of this you can come boldly to the throne of grace.

The eagle corresponds with blue.  It reminds you that God enables your spirit to touch Him in the heavenly realm.  Blue speaks of operating in the supernatural. When you see the eagle, you are assured that God will mount you up on His wings and show you the mysteries of heaven so that you can bring His kingdom to the earthly realm.

The image of the ox (bull) corresponds to red.  Bullocks were sacrificed for the sins of the high priest or the nation.  This image represents that you are to remain broken before the Lord so that you can receive and carry His intercessory burdens for the church.  A bull charges toward death, so as the Holy Spirit leads you to your final position in prayer at the threshing floor, your spirit will charge toward God knowing that no flesh can see His face and live.

When you walk into the holy place clothed in your priestly garments, a powerful divine match takes place in the heavenlies.  Identifying with the colors and images in the first tabernacle covering identifies you with all the workings of Jesus Christ.

The second layer of covering over the tabernacle was made from black goat’s hair (Exodus 26:7). This layer of the curtains, classified as the “tent” was placed on top of the first covering.  Goats were used to atone for the sins of individuals, from rulers to common people.  This means as a intercessor, you will receive the grace to carry the burden of the Lord for anyone, anywhere, at any time – without becoming offended or affected by the person’s sin. Since the black goat’s hair was laid directly on top of the first tabernacle curtain, it assures you that your sins have been covered; for this reason you should not allow the enemy to remind you constantly of what you used to be.

The third tabernacle covering (Exodus 26:14) is made from ram’s skin dyed red and it was one of the final two layers, which were referred to as “covers”.  The ram was used in guilt offerings.  In addition, two rams were part of the sacrifices presented to Aaron and his sons when they were inaugurated (Exodus 29:15-28).  After sacrificing the first ram as an elevation offering to God, the second sacrificial ram was called “the ram of perfection”.  Every aspect of the ram is powerful. The ram is a sacrifice, a substitute, provision for our table, and a symbol of consecration for divine service.  It confirms and completes the divine pattern.  This represents that you can have perfect victory in prayer as you depend upon the Lord and upon those things that He already established in heaven and in the earth.  Finally through this ram skin covering, God speaks to you from Isaiah 1:18. Remember this when you are entering into intercession.

The fourth and final tabernacle covering was made of badger’s skin (dolphin or porpoise in the Amplified – Exodus 26:14).  This layer was the final cover that provided overall protection for each of the other layers.  The badger skins were considered strong enough to protect every other layer of the tabernacle against heat, storms and dirt.  Nothing could penetrate that skin.  When the badger skin was laid over the tabernacle, it didn’t matter what the weather was like outside – the glory still remained on the inside.  This is a final confirmation that as you guard your garments and make intercession, you will be protected from any outside onslaught of the devil.  The badger’s skin was actually a transitional covering, used not only when the tabernacle was resting in one place, but also while it was being move to a new location.  While you are learning how to move in the things of God and discovering the realm of the supernatural, you must trust that the badger’s skin is there to protect you against the wiles of the enemy – because supernatural experiences can be difficult to comprehend.

There is one final aspect about the tabernacle coverings that really minister to me.  Specific measurements are given for the first two coverings, the linen embroidered curtain and the black goat’s skin.  However, when we read about the skins of the ram and the badger, there are no measurements.  There are no measurements because Christ’s sacrifice cannot be measured.  His divine substitution on your behalf cannot be measured.  His ability to consecrate you in His presence can not be measure.  And finally, His divine protection against the wiles of the enemy cannot be measured.

The price has already been paid for you.  The work has already been done. You have come through the gate, which made the way for you in the outer court.  You are fully clothed.  Now that you have walked through the door of the tabernacle, which is the truth – you are fully covered to become an effectual intercessor.

Now it is time to go deeper into the tabernacle.  It’s time to go one step closer to your final position in prayer on the threshing floor.  So stay tune for Part 11 – The Holy Place.

The Holy Anointing Oil – Prayer – Part 9

Now that you are completely dressed for battle, you understand the requirements of how you are to be dressed so that you can be guaranteed of consistent victories in your times of prayer.  You now understand that the Lord not only desires for you to know who He is, but He also wants you to understand every level and every position that you are in when you are entering into His presence.

God desires that you not be confused about your posture in prayer, your place in prayer, and your garments of prayer.  Knowing this, we will move on to one of the most vital elements in the tabernacle – the holy anointing oil.  Since God is a God of detail, He specifically had Moses institute men into the office of becoming Apothecaries who were required by the Lord to become the oil makers for the tabernacle.  He also required that olive oil was used to anoint the tabernacle elements and priests (Exodus 30:24)

The olive oil used to keep the menorah lit continually was made by crushing the olive branch in order to squeeze out the oil.  Other components and ingredients were added to this oil to create a holy anointing oil to anoint the tabernacle and its elements, as well as, to anoint Aaron and his sons.  Each ingredient of this fragrant oil represents a different characteristic of the release of God’s power.

This oil represents the illumination of the Lord from His tabernacle in you – His intercessor.  This oil is necessary wherever the Lord requires you to call on His divine presence – whether He sends you to a hospital to pray for a sick person, to pray for someone who has been incarcerated, to go to a mental institution to pray for someone in need, or if He leads you to have a one-on-one counseling session with an individual who is disturbed.  Whenever you feel the unction to pray and bring someone into the holy place, you will need the holy anointing oil.

As you read you will understand why the Lord requires that we use the anointing oil.  You will learn why these ingredients are important if you are going to be an effectual intercessor and experience quality times of prayer in the divine presence.  As we look back to Moses’ inauguration of Aaron and his sons, it is important to understand that after Aaron and his sons were washed and received their new priestly garments, Moses anointed them with the holy anointing oil.  Then after their seventh day of consecration, fire came down from heaven as they participated in their first priestly service.

As you submit yourself daily to being a living tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, every element in your tabernacle is anointed.  You have passed through the Beautiful Gate by accepting Christ as your personal Savior.  You consistently come to receive the Word by washing at the brazen laver.  You now have the brazen altar within you where you have submitted your will to the Lord.  Now…you are ready to move into the next step of the pattern.

As you prepare to enter into the holy place, you can take that fragrant oil and anoint yourself.  Now you can go in and complete the pattern of the Lord in prayer on behalf of somebody else – and that’s when according to scripture the fire will come down from heaven upon your sacrifice.

In Exodus 28:41, God tells Moses to clothe them, anoint them, ordain them and sanctify them and afterwards, “they would be able to serve Me as priests”.  Leviticus 8:1-30  tells us that after washing and dressing Aaron for service, Moses anointed the tabernacle and then poured oil over Aaron’s head.  After this, he clothed Aaron’s sons in their garments, sacrificed a bull and a ram, and sprinkled the blood and anointing oil upon them.

The oil used for anointing Aaron and his sons is very important.  There is a significance in every ingredient that went into the holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:22-30).  God instructed that the best spices were necessary because an impure mixture would hinder the anointing.

The first ingredient listed in the anointing oil was 500 shekels of liquid myrrh.  For women in Bible days, myrrh was a purifier and an embalming fluid.  God was saying, “Not only do I have to purify your anointing, but I also have to embalm what I put to death so that when you see it again in the realm of the Spirit it wont affect you”.  Myrrh represents our need to be purified for service to God.

The second ingredient was 250 shekels of sweet cinnamon.  This speaks of our attitude and how we treat others.  Have you ever known people who were filled with the Holy Spirit yet were as mean as snakes? They are missing an essential ingredient of the anointing.  Let me ask, “How do you handle yourself when people do not treat you right? Would the ingredient of sweet cinnamon still be apparent in your life?  Ministry is for mature believers, those who have been blood washed, purified, sanctified, and broken under the anointing! Otherwise, your ministry would never survive. Be honest with yourself, there are people in your surroundings right now whom you do not care to speak to. You have to realize that the only way you can be anointed with the sacred oil is to be lied about, talked about, and mistreated.  The very person to whom you are not speaking is your anointing! Sweet cinnamon is an essential part of the anointing…because it represents your attitude and response to others.

The third ingredient was 250 shekels of sweet calamus.  Calamus is also known as “reed grass”.  It thrives on the banks of rivers, growing consistently regardless of age.  It represents the maturity you must develop to be prepared to be an intercessor.  This is another ingredient that sweetens the anointing oil because when we come through the outer court and are about to enter the purpose of God in the holy place, the enemy tries to target us like never before.  So to help us guard our garments, God gives us a double portion anointing of sweetness and maturity – far beyond the normal measure that we see and experience in the natural realm.  Unless you have been anointed with the sweet calamus of spiritual maturity, God will be unable to plant you in the midst of a mess that needs your intercession.  If the sweet calamus of maturity is not a piece of your anointing, you will be unable to grow as you encounter each piece of furniture inside the holy place.  In fact, you won’t be able to get into the door!  If you don’t have sweet calamus as part of your intercessory anointing, you will become stagnant in prayer and won’t be able to go to deeper realms in the spirit.

The final ingredient in the holy anointing oil was 500 shekels of cassia which they added to the mixture in equal proportions to the amount of myrrh.  Cassia is likely to have come from a plant that’s related to cinnamon.  Cassia had to be ground into a powder before being blended into the liquid myrrh along with the other ingredients. This spice symbolized the completion of your anointing.  It shows that everything you have received from the river of the Holy Spirit in prayer has formed the foundation for you anointing.  Cassia represents the fact that people don’t see you anymore, your form, your style of ministry, your personality, and your emotions have all been crushed to be blended into the sweet smelling savor of the divine presence within you.  When you are anointed with cassia, you have learned to walk in the Spirit – to live, move and have your being in God.

When God anoints you with the holy anointing oil, it confirms that He has brought you through the necessary channels so the enemy cannot hinder the assignment God has ordained for you to fulfill in the holy place.  Finally you are preparing to enter the holy place and approach the altar of incense where true intercession is made.  Soon you will enter into the divine presence of God.  You are being anointed to approach the altar of incense – representing power, authority, and kingship – with the right spirit and the right ingredients.  You’ve walked through salvation, strength, and power into a deeper level of the anointing.  You are no longer in the place where you need salvation. You are now in the place where you are getting ready to fight on someone else’s behalf.  You are taking the power and authority in the Spirit realm where you will be in a position to rule and govern what happens in another person’s life – and all of this happen at the golden altar.

Remember, if you fail to guard your garments, you can give place to the devil.  When you have holes in your armor, you become vulnerable to the enemy’s devices. So stay properly dressed and the oil of the anointing will equip you to serve faithfully in the holy place of prayer.  (www.oilofthespirit.com)

Adopting A New Heavenly Perspective

Ask yourself what is it you want out of life.  Take a look at where you stand.  Is your life where you desire it to be?  Are you headed in a direction that you truly want to go or are you settling for things as they come?  Have you ever said to yourself, “Lord, why me?” or “How long Lord?”

I know exactly how you feel; as I have asked myself the same things so many times that I have lost count.  My life had in no way turned out how I thought it would. It wasn’t until God started speaking to me that I began to see that I was the solution to my circumstances.  So what was I doing so wrong?  I read my Word, I went to church, I even tried conducting myself more Christianly, yet, I saw nothing changing or happening.  Life for the most part was exactly as it always had been.

This inspired me to write to those out there who may be feeling like me, who are looking for answers, who are looking for direction, and who are looking for God.  Do you want more out of life than possessions and money?  Are you looking for a spiritual intimacy with our Lord and Savior?  Are you hungry to know and grow close to Him?  Are you searching for answers that are nowhere to be found? Have you prayed and prayed only to find that the prayers seemed to land on God’s deaf ears?  Have you ever wondered if God was even listening to your cries?

Everyday the enemy bombards our minds with thoughts and our lives with circumstances.  Where does it all end?  One day we are up, the next we are down.  One day life seems peaceful, the next it is in total chaos.  Do you ever feel like you are on an emotional roller coaster, never knowing what the next minute will bring?  I found that in times like these, we are the product of our thoughts.  What we think, usually is what we speak, feel, hear, act and more.   Don’t you feel sometimes that to think right thoughts is as difficult to do as counting the grains of sand on a beach?  Soon as you think you are under control, something else just seems to take you over the edge, making things only worse?

The Bible tells us in Colossians 3:1 that we are to seek or set our minds on the things above.  You might ask yourself, how do I do that when it seems the events of life come at you fast and furiously.  Who has time to think, when reacting is all you can do?  Have you ever thought that this is the very place the enemy wants you to be?  The enemy has studied you your entire life, knowing your every fear, your every insecurity, your every doubt, and more. Taking all he has learned about you, he uses your mind as his battlefield.  To overcome his fiery darts, we must train our minds to think differently.  How do we do that, with all that is happening?

The Bible tells us that we have been raised in Christ, so we must trust that when we rose as a different person that old self died.  This is the key to our walk with Christ because if we want to bring the kingdom and power of God into our lives, we have to have a heavenly perspective, that is, we have to come at the enemy and world from a superior position of authority.  To do that we must seek the things of God, set our minds on them, meditate upon our position, identity and nature in God.  The more we do this, the closer we become to Him, the greater His power and authority manifests in us.  God intends for us to do something because we have been raised.  Remember, we are not who we used to be.  In order to experience the victory Jesus died for, we have to start thinking, meditating and speaking in relationship to who we are.  We have to operate like a person of authority, seeing ourselves from the Biblical perspective as one seated with Christ at the right hand of God.  It is not enough for us to read God’s Word; we must be God’s Word.

Now most people look to the cross as the end, but really the cross is not the end, it is the beginning.  I thank God for the cross, but I also thank God for the burial for without the burial there would be no death to the old self.  Even better yet, I thank God for the resurrection, for without the resurrection there is not a new identity that can live on the inside of us.  We have been given the Holy Spirit and it is through His power that we have the ability to open every dimension of our lives to the supernatural embodiment of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The more we allow the Spirit to manifest in our lives, the more the influence of God will have on our thoughts and circumstances, causing us to become a recipient of whatever we are thinking on.

It is only through knowing God’s Word that we learn about the new man we have become.  The more we know, the more we grow.  If we are diligent in our studies, we will continue to rise above the place we are, reaping the benefits of that new person.  We must go to Christ in our thoughts and in our meditations. Then and only then can we receive from Christ all He has already given us in our new identity. Change the way you think and you change the way you live.  Adopt a new heavenly perspective and exercise the authority given to you by Christ to defeat the enemy and the influence he has on your circumstances.  You are what you think…. You become what you think….  You do what you think….  So what are you thinking?????

The Garments of Completion – Prayer – Part 8

God is a God of great details, helping us to understand that in the midst of all that’s happening in our lives today, we can still come into His divine presence. To do this, we will study the priestly wardrobe and discover why God saw fit to have the priests dress a certain way.  When we understand this, we will also understand that it is not enough for the believer simply to attend church.  As God’s people, we must begin to become the church, especially if we are intercessors.

1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit because we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior.  If there is no priesthood functioning within us, we become people who attend church but have no righteousness.  As a result, we have no power or authority in our Christian experience.  When the priesthood is present in you, then your temple becomes operational. 

Let’s review.  We have already come through the gate and accepted the works of Christ.  We have repented of our sins and been washed at the brazen laver by God’s Word.  We have presented our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord at the brazen altar.  We are clothed with the robe of righteousness – the first garment we receive when we are adopted into the royal priesthood.  We will now take a look more closely at the additional priestly garments.

After clothing Aaron with the tunic of righteousness, Moses girded him with the sash (Leviticus 8:7).  It’s interesting to read that there were two belts in the garments of the high priest.  The first was worn over the tunic and second was part of the ephod.  Just as we are commanded to don our spiritual armor, we must also don the garments of intercession understanding that every part must be worn.  Omitting any piece of the garments would only weaken our spiritual defenses during intercessory.  The belt of truth was worn atop of the tunic of righteousness.  Unlike the belt of the ephod, it is invisible to the naked eye as it serves to girds your loins by holding the tunic together underneath the robe of blue.  Walking in righteousness plays a critical role in our walk with God as it forces us to embrace the truth as we wear the belt of truth. The belt symbolizes our readiness, to go to the world. When you gird up the loins of your mind with the truth of God’s word, you are able to stand in difficult situations for long periods of time because you have the ability to become creative and productive for God, receiving what the Word tells your mind that you can have. 

The next piece of clothing that Moses placed on Aaron was the blue robe, representing your position and authority in God.  This robe is very important to us.  Its colors are extremely significant to God in prayer because they were one of the ways that God chose to bring knowledge of Himself and the heavenly realm to the human race.  Blue represents God’s covering authority, as well as His divinity and grace.  Why are all these things important?  As you go into prayer with a firm hold on your walk of salvation, Satan can’t penetrate your robe of authority and stop what God is doing in your life, praying through instead of praying about.  Not only does the priestly robe give you God’s authority in prayer, but also it covers you while you pray, protecting you against the the devil getting a foothold in your spirit. 

Let’s move on.  Exodus 28:29-32 tells us that the neckband of the priestly robe Moses gave to Aaron was reinforced.  An extra band was woven around the neck opening to keep it from fraying or tearing. The neckband was so strong that if someone had tried to tear this robe off the high priest, it would have broken his neck.  Symbolically, your robe of authority has been so designed that it can never be torn from you.  Because it symbolizes the office of authority and divinity, the robe becomes the strength of your relationship with God in prayer.  Righteousness is your pathway and the belt of truth is what enables you to stand, but when you get into the presence of the Lord, the enemy can never shake the authority of God.  He cannot tear it away from you!

After receiving the robe of blue, the next garment Aaron received was the ephod representing the mediator Jesus Christ and His power to become a servant (Lev 8:7). According to Exodus 28:8, the ephod consisted of gold (deity), blue/turquoise (divinity), purple (the royal One), scarlet (servant and humanity) and white fine-twined linen.  The ephod had an attached belt to provide a second level of girding for intercessory prayer; this belt was able to be seen by others.  Before it was woven with the other colors, the gold cord had to be beaten out symbolizing the trials and tests you have overcome in order to get to this level.  When the Spirit of the Lord finds us girded, He responds by girding Himself to us – so that we can relax at His table.  We have a part to play in the process of prayer.  Our first step in the process is to surrender to God, walking in prayer until the Spirit of the Lord comes and takes over.  God girds Himself to us and begins to serve us, answering our prayers and ministering to us about what we have brought to Him.   Christ’s ephod helps you to serve others, especially those who are weak and of a lesser status – by His grace- to help the immature come to maturity. On the shoulders of the ephod are two onyx stones inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel placed in the order of their birthright.

The breastplate was the next piece of clothing Aaron receives in Leviticus 8:8.  This garment is vital to becoming an intercessor as inside the breastplate was a slip of parchment containing the divine name of God, represented by the Urim and Thummim (exodus 28:28-30).  Urim means “light” and Thummim means “completeness”.  The breastplate also represents people that you carry to God in prayer symbolized by the twelve precious stones.  This breastplate was worn upon the chest of the high priest indicating that he carried the people’s burden close to his heart as he served in the tabernacle. 

Now we are at the final piece of the garment, the miter, the headpiece.  The miter was like a hat, with one distinguishing feature – the holy crown. This was actually a golden plate that was tied to the front of the Miter (Exodus 28:36-38).  Its inscription read, “HOLY TO THE LORD”.  This symbolized that the nation of Israel was completely devoted to God and His service.  It also reminded the priest never to take holiness for granted as they carried out their duties.  At all times they were to conduct their lives worthy of His name. The miter helps you to watch and pray.  God fastens it to your head after He has put everything else in place, so that you will never forget to pray and live in a manner worthy of your call to be an intercessor.

 

 

Foundational Garment – Prayer – Part 7

In the Book of Exodus, God gave instructions to Moses regarding the constructions of the tabernacle, as well as, for the garments that Aaron and his sons were wearing when serving as priests.  Just as there is a spiritual significance to every detail of the tabernacle’s construction, there is also a spiritual significance in the making of the priestly garments, demonstrating that God never contradicts Himself as each harmonized with the materials and colors that God instructed Moses to use in the holy place and in the East Gate. Like the tabernacle, these garments represented a spirit of excellence that God desires to manifest in the lives of every believer, especially those who had been called to prayer.  You will see that by the time we are preparing to go into the holy place, the garments, structure and furniture in the holy place must all work together in order to bring about the successful results in prayer.

It is our responsibility, however, to maintain our righteousness after we have been washed in the Word and have willingly offered ourselves to God as a living sacrifice.  Understand, the Spirit and the Word always works together; they complement and complete each other. 

The Bible tells us in Matthew 18:18-19, “Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven.  Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven”.

Simply said, whatever we do as a kingdom of priests must originate from heaven.  We can’t live according to the world’s standards and expect to hear from God in prayer, and we definitely shouldn’t expect our prayer requests to be answered when we aren’t in agreement with God!

Here is where you must ask yourself, “Are you in harmony with God?  Are you walking according to the patterns God set in His Word?”  If you answer “no”, don’t expect to experience the glory of God.  By breaking or ignoring the patterns of conduct God has outlined in His Word, you are rejecting the works of Christ and ignoring His sacrifice on the cross.  Just as a tailor custom makes our garments according to a pattern, God has tailor made our spiritual prayer according to His measures and pattern.  You must properly clothe yourself spiritually if you ever expect to come into the presence of the most holy God.

The tabernacle in the Old Testament was built to God’s specification.  Since we are God’s tabernacle, we also are built to His specifications.  Psalm 127:1 says, “Except the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchmen wakes but in vain”.

Let’s start by reading God’s instructions to Moses with regards to the priesthood and the priestly garments.

Exodus 28:1-3 says, “From among the Israelites take your brother Aaron and his sons with him, that he may minister to Me in the priest’s office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.  And you shall make for Aaron your brother sacred garments [appointed official dress set apart for special holy services] for honor and for beauty. Tell all who are expert, whom I have endowed with skill and good judgment, that they shall make Aaron’s garments to sanctify him for My priesthood.”

In telling Moses to “take Aaron and his sons with him“, God indicated that the chosen priests had to be sons of God before serving in the office of the priests.  Aaron symbolized the office of the high priests and his sons represent the lower priestly office.  Matthew 22:14 says, “Many were called…but few were chosen“. The path of obedience requires us to enter through the gate, wash at the laver and sacrifice at the altar according to God’s pattern of prayer.   This path prepares us to be clothed for victory in intercessory prayer.

John 5:23-24 tells us that “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, Who has sent Him.  I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life”

The priestly garments represent everything we do after we enter the holy place.

The foundational garment, the tunic of righteousness, represents the righteousness of God.  It is the reason every other piece of priestly clothing can fulfill its purpose.  Let’s look at how this garment was made:

Exodus 28:39-43 says, “And you shall weave the long and sleeved tunic of checkerwork of fine linen or silk and make a turban of fine linen or silk; and you shall make a girdle, the work of the embroiderer.  For Aaron’s sons you shall make long and sleeved tunics and belts or sashes and caps, for glory and honor and beauty.  And you shall put them on Aaron your brother and his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain and sanctify them [set them apart for God], that they may serve Me as priests.  You shall make for them [white] linen trunks to cover their naked flesh, reaching from the waist to the thighs.  And they shall be on Aaron and his sons when they go into the Tent of Meeting or when they come near to the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bring iniquity upon themselves and die; it shall be a statute forever to Aaron and to his descendants after him.”

All priests wore white tunics, but only the high priest wore additional garments over his tunic.  Notice that the tunic is what allowed the priests to minister in the holy place; it allowed them to come before the presence of the Lord and not die.  The tunic was the first piece of clothing Moses placed upon Aaron.  This garment matched the wall that surrounded the outer court, as well as, the white linen thread that was part of the first tabernacle covering.

I believe God is saying that you must put on this tunic as the foundation of everything you do in prayer.  For you to be prepared to take up the burden of the Lord, your nakedness must be covered, just as the tunic and trousers covered Aaron and his sons.  It is vital that you learn to reject your human senses and to embrace the righteousness of God.  Your spiritual underclothing – the white linen trunks and tunic – helps you do this by keeping your nakedness covered, that is, your human nature without God.  When you come into the presence of the Lord, these white garments remind you that God doesn’t need anything sensual from you.  It is the tunic of righteousness that will help you to walk the path of obedience after you have washed at the laver and sacrificed at the altar.  Maintaining the righteousness of God in your life will initially be your biggest struggle in prayer. As you are clothed in your white linen tunic and trunks, it creates a match in the Spirit realm and an entrance into the second and third dimensions of prayer.

 

 

More on Revelation 2:8-11

Sometimes people aren’t what they appear to be and it is sad to say that more often than not, we don’t realize it until it is too late.  Have you ever had a person turn on you?

During the times here, there were many who did not truly support Christianity.  They looked righteous, they acted righteous, they outwardly appear righteous, but underneath they were the purest form of evil.  What appeared holy now becomes your worst nightmare, maybe even your death, as one Christian found.

Don’t be afraid though because God promises us that we will be rewarded for our persecution even unto death.  He assures us we will have life everlasting, never experiencing the pain of the second death, that is, life of the wicked reaping the reward of living in hell eternally.  All people will have to reap the seeds they sow in life, so be careful how you walk it.

God sees all and knows all.  He sees the hearts of all and has taken account of which Master we serve.  We live in a world currenly ruled by Satan, but we can happily know that we are not a part of it.  We are just passing through performing a work while here.

God told the believers in Smyrna that they would endure hardships for a time.  He assured them that this would pass and develop their character in the process.  Nothing endured would go unrewarded.  The God of resurrected life would reward us with an eternal crown if we just perservered, even unto death.
How much do you love God?  Enough to endure for?  Enough to suffer for?  Enough to die for?

Stand on His word, all He promises will manifest itself now and in the times to come.  Until then, stand firm on those promises.

Smyrna of Revelation

Smyrna, a large ancient city on the Western Coast of Asia Minor, at the head of a gulf which reaches thirty miles inland, was originally peopled by Lelages (Asiatics).  Standing upon a good harbor at the head of one of the chief highways to the interior; it became a great trading center and a chief port for the export trade.  Its streets were wide and paved.  It was celebrated for its schools of science and medicine, and for its handsome buildings.  On the slope of Mount Pagus was a theater.  In 23 AD, a temple was built in honor of Tiberius and his mother, and the golden street connecting the temples of Zeus and Cybele is said to have been the best in any ancient city.

Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna was martyred.  It seems the Jews were more antagonistic than the Romans to the spread of Christianity.  Smyrna suffered frequently from earthquakes. Modern Smyrna is the largest city in Asia Minor (50% Greek, 25% Mahammedans).  Even under the Turkish government, the city is progressive and is the capital of the Aiden vilayete (the home of the governor).  Several railroads follow the courses of the ancient routes into the distant interior.  In its harbors, ships from all parts may be seen.  The ancient harbor of Paul’s time has been filled in and there the modern bazaars stand.

West of Mount Pagus is the Ephesus gate and the Black Gate as the Turks call it.  The prosperity of Smyrna is not only due to the harbor and port of entry to the interior, but partly to the perfect climate of spring and autumn.  The winters are cold and summers hot.

Figs, grapes, velonia, opium, sponges, cotton and licorice root are the chief articles of trade.

Smyrna was well known as a city of great trade and wealth.  Their spiritual riches are set off by their outward poverty.  The persecution they underwent, was noticed by God.  In all their afflictions, he is afflicted and will repay to those who troubled them.  He knows the wickedness and the falsehood of their enemies, that is, those who pretend to be the only peculiar covenant people of God. Those assemblies which are set up in opposition to the truths of the gospel and which promote and propagate evil, these are the synagogues of Satan.  Satan presides over them, he works in them, his interests are served by them, he recieves horrid homage and honor from them.

God knew the future trials of His people and forewarns them.  Know that it is the devil that stirs up his instruments, wicked men, to persecute the people of God.  God shows how their suffering will be alleviated and limited.  First, they should be universal.  Second, they were not to be perpetual, but for a set time.  It should be an everlasting tribulation.  Third, it shoold be to try them, that their faith and patience and courage might be improved and found to be honorable.

More on Revelation 2:1-7

This letter addressed to the Church of Ephesus, one of the largest and most impressive cities in the Ancient world.  Ephesus was a political, religious and commercial center in Asia Minor.  The city played a significant role in the spread of Christianity.  The city was located at the mouth of the Cayster River and situated between the Meander River to the south and the Hermus River to the north.  The city itself had access to the river valleys ensuring prominence in the commercial industry.  This guarantee of prominence made it an ideal location for a church as its influence would not only reach out to those who lived and did business there, but also it would reach out to the four corners of the world. Wherever a man could travel, the people would see to it that the Word spread.  They were the carriers of the vital lifesaving message, passed from one subject to the next with little to no effort.  Each people willing to accept from its own, the new gossip, the epidemic would now spread in magnanimous proportions.

There was one potential problem problem that John mentions and warns against – the source of the message had to remain pure, that is, to continue to be Christlike and full of love, in order for the message to have its fullest impact.  Words without action yielded no fruit, that is, they had no impact.  Often we, as people, begin to lose sight of our true purpose.  We become entangled in rituals, rules and our own piety.  When we do so, what becomes important to us is the outward appearance, while underneath, the source of life is slowly dwindling away.  We forget the basic source of our power lies in the love we have for God.  We begin looking inward at ourselves, enforcing rules, regulations, walking blindly without love.  Love is the foundation of all God stands for.  It’s the foundation of our faith, the source of our relationships, the glue that holds everything together.  Without it, we remove ourselves from the vine, that which feeds, fuels, and maintains the true meaning of spiritual life.

The Ephesians lost sight of this principle.  Through John, God reminded them that though their intentions were pure and noteworthy, their lifeline was in danger of being lost.  All their work would be in vain if the love they had for God wasnt rekindled and made the motivational center of all they were accomplishing.

What good would our good work, trouble and endurance be to us and those around us, if it wasnt for the the heart?  When we forget to love our Father in Heaven, who are we performing these works for but ourselves?  What is gained from it all?  For out of routine, ritual actions, pride, self centeredness and egotism take root.  Instead of looking at how our actions will further the kingdom, we look at how we look and benefit from them.

Christ is in an intimate manner present and talking with His churches.  He knows and observes their state; He takes pleasure in them.  Though Christ is in heaven, He walks in the midst of the churches on earth, observing what is amiss in them and what it is they want.

The church is commended for their diligence in duty.  Christ keeps an account of every day’s work His servants do for Him. The church commended for their patience in suffering.  Ministers must have and exercise great patience.  There must be waiting patience, that when they have done the will of God, they may recieve the promise.  Their zeal was commended.  True zeal proceeds with discretion, none should be cast off till they be tried.

The rebuke given to the church – those that have much good in them may have much amiss in them. Jesus takes notice of both.  THe sin that the church charged this church was their decay in holy love and zeal.  They had lost the fervent degree of it. Christ is grieved and displeased with His people when He sees them grow remiss and cold toward Him.

Those that have lost their first love must compare their present with the former state and consider how much better it was with them than now; how much peace, strength, purity and pleasure they have lost by leaving their first love. They must repent. They must be inwardly greived and ashamed for their sin.  They must blame and shame themselves for it and humbly confess it in the sight of God, and judge and condemn themselves for it. They must return and do their first works.  They must begin again, go back step by step, till they come to the place where they took the first false step.

Ephesus of Revelation

Ephesus was the capital of the proconsular Asia.  Colonized from Athens, Ephesus was distinguished for the temple of Diana, which produced its wealth and prominence and for its theaters.  Many Jews took up their residence in this city, for it was here that the seed of the gospel was sown immediately after the Pentacost.  Located near the mouth of the Cayster River, three miles from the western coast of Asia Minor and opposite the island of Samos.   With its artificial harbor was accessible tot he largest ships, standing at the entrance of the valley which reaches far into the interior of Asia Minor and connected by highways with the chief cities of the province, Ephesus was the most easily accessible city in Asia, both by land and by sea.  It’s location favored its religion, politics and commercial development.

The city stood upon the sloping sides and at the base of two hills – Prion and Corresus, commanding a beautiful view.  The climate in Ephesus was exceptionally fine and the soil of the valley was unusually fertile.  Ephesus was a mixture of oriental and Greek culture.  It’s temple possessed valuable lands, controlled by the fishcries.  The priests were the bankers of its enormous revenues.  It was also a sanctuary for the criminal, for none might be arrested for any crime when within a bowshot of its walls.  There sprang up about the temple, a village in which the thieves, murderers and other criminals made their homes.  Not only did the temple bring vast numbers of pilgrims, it employed hosts of people apart from priests.  Among them were large numbers of artisans who manufactured images of the goddess Diana or shrines to sell to visiting strangers.  Paul was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana.  As the fame of his teachings were carried by the pilgrims, with decreasing faith in Diana, came in fewer numbers, the sales of the shrines of the goddess fell off.  Diana of the Ephesians was no longer great.

Ephesus became a Christian city in 341AD.  The city itself soon lost its importance and decreased in population.  In 1308, the Turks took possession of the little that remained in the city and departed or murdered its inhabitants.  The Cayster River overflowing it banks gradually covered the spot where the temple stood.

Reaping What You Sow, Rising Above the Occasion – 2 Samuel 12:15-23

Everyday, we as people pursue all the benefit life has to offer.  The more we receive, the more we want, sometimes wanting to the point of forsaking all things to get them.  God had called David to the throne sixteen years before he ever took it. The path leading to the throne was not an easy one for him.  Adversity was David’s lot.  Yet no matter the course, no matter the obstacles, David was never too proud to return to God in reconciliation and as a result he remained blessed, but no amount of repenting prevented David from reaping the seed of his actions. 

Though David sinned before God when his eyes looked in a direction outside the will of His Creator, God had blessed him with the kingship, blessed him with the respect of all who followed, lacking in nothing.  Yet like us all, within David’s heart, a thorn of lust took root in his heart.  Sin began to grow with only a thought.  The Bible tells us, “for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  The very seed in his heart now bore the fruit of his tree in his actions, deeds, and words.  The country was at war and while David’s forces fought for the lives of the people, David sat home.  Have you heard the old saying, “an idle mind is the devil’s playgound?” 

While his men fought, David remained home.  Relaxing up on the rooftop, David glances across the way and what do you think happened? David’s eye catches sight of the most beautiful of women.  It was all over for him now?  The devil had planted the seed of lust.  Here, a decision or choice had to be made.  Unfortunately, David chooses to give life to the seed by dwelling on the desires of his heart.  Just as a thorn pierces the very thing it touches, so too does the fleshly desires of this man affect others.

In his weakness, sin took root and began to grow.  David, however, knowingly pursued the very thing he knew wasnt his, for this prize belonged to another man.  Knowing that did not deter him though.  The seed of the sin was already growing in his heart and had begun to show up in his actions.  Blinded by his fleshly desires, he plans an innocent man’s death to have this man’s wife.  How many of you know that what’s done in the dark will eventually come out in the light?  David’s plan may have suceeded, but at who’s expense?  Who would know the better?  Do you know nothing is free?  Lives were lost that day! What value is a man’s life?  Had David considered the cost to achieve his end goal?  Everyday, many people attempt to achieve a goal, never considering the cost, much less consider how their actions may affect others.  David’s actions may have brought about the end goal, but the lives of Uriah and his own men were the means to David’s end.

Do you know for every action there is a consequence for that action?  Here sin brought about death to innocent lives not to mention David’s spiritual separation from God.  If David only knew what was to come.  Upon hearing of Uriah’s death and mourning, David takes Bathsheba as his wife.  She, already pregnant, later bears a son to the king, an heir to his throne, but not every blessing brings about good results.

David’s union was not blessed by God. Lives were wrongly lost to bring about this union. Though God’s judgment wasnt immediate, judgment was inevitable and imminent.  Nothing would stop what was about to come to pass.  Through judgment, God teaches David that there are consequences to every action.  What was meant to be a time of joy and blessing, now becomes a time of sadness and loss.  Though the child dies just as Nathan prophesies, David accepts God’s judgment. 

How would you react to God telling you that the death of your child is your judgment? What would be running through your mind as you watch judgment unfold?  Would your attitude change toward God?  Would you reject Him?  Would you accept the consequences of your actions and go on, or would you harden your heart toward God?

David sinned. He experienced the pain of his actions.  Yet he remained true to God, reconciling himself to the One Who gave him life. David didn’t let the consequences of his life change his heart toward serving God.  Will you like David rise above the occasion?  Will you look inside yourself placing blame where blame is due or would you blame God for your actions?  David recognized his sin, took responsibility for his actions, accepted God judgment and lifted his head to continue serve him.

The Place of Sacrifice – The Brazen Altar – Prayer Part 6

Once you have washed in the brazen laver, it is time to be purified at the brazen altar.  This is the second stage of our outer court step in God’s pattern of prayer.  The brazen altar is where you let go of your will and embrace everything the Lord wants to do in your life.

Let’s review: You have entered prayer through the gate of Jesus Christ with thanksgiving and praise for what He has done.  You have drawn near to God by moving through every distraction in the outer court.  You have submitted to the “washing of the Word” at the brazen laver, and now you know exactly what “manner of person” you are.  The transformation has begun.  You have come through “the way”” (the gate), but you are still in the outer court realm of prayer.  You have reached the “truth” level for your personal life, but your prayer experience isn’t fully matured; you still have to be broken before the Lord.

What is an altar?  The word “altar” in the Hebrew means “a slaughter place”.  In the Greek, it’s called “a place of sacrifice”.  The brazen altar is the place where natural earthly things that hinder your walk with God are consumed by the fire of God.  It’s the place where you become a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1-3).  Everything within you that does not line up with God’s perfect will comes to an end at the brazen altar.  They are set on fire and consumed in the Spirit.

What does it mean to be set on fire and consumed in the Spirit?  This describes what it feels like after you become committed to a life of prayer, when the Lord allows you to be confronted with certain situations that will become the very trying of your faith. You must always remember that once you confess and declare that you believe the works of Christ and what He has done in your life, then every work of the Lord in your life shall be tried by fired (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

For example, gold jewelry is forged by being placed in the fire.  The goldsmith’s purpose for doing this is to draw the impurities and black tar particles to the surface.  Then  he pulls the gold out of the fire, scrapes off the impurities and foreign particles, and puts it back into the fire.  He does this repeatedly until he’s gotten to the deepest interior of the lump of gold.  During this process, everything that would cause this piece of jewelry not to shine, not to be declared as costly pure gold, is burned out so that the value of the gold increases.  God is doing the same purifying work in our lives.  When we allow God to put us “in the fire” we are cooperating with everything He is doing in us.  We are releasing every impurity that would hinder us from becoming a most valuable resource to Him and to His work.  When these impurities are burned out of us, nothing in prayer can be hindered – because the forging process strengthens us to carry the weight in the Spirit.  This makes us valuable instruments in His hands, not shallow believers.

God gave Moses very specific instructions for the construction of the altar in Exodus 27:1-8.  The altar was to be “five cubits square and three cubits high”  Five is the number of grace and three represents the Godhead.  When you go to the brazen altar, you are submitting to (proving) the work of the Godhead – and you will be transformed through His Word.  Jesus has already perfected the fire, meaning He has already tempered the flame to facilitate each and every person that will enter.  No two people go through the same trial.  No one goes through the same fire.  God tempers the flame so that it only burns up what He cannot use.  It will not consume the part of you that He desires to use.  Though the fire gets rid of the bad elements, it allows “that which remains” and “that which is good” to be formed and shaped until it adheres completely to His image.

God gave specific measurements for the altar.  “Make horns for it on its four corner; they shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze.  You shall make pots to take away its ashes, and shovels, basins, forks and firepans; make all its utensils of bronze.  Also make for it a grate, a network of bronze; and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners.  And you shall put it under the ledge of the altar, so that the net will extend halfway down the altar. And make the poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood overlaid with bronze.  The poles shall be put through the rings on the two sides of the altar, with which to carry it.  You shall make [the altar] hollow with slabs or planks; as shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.”

The brazen altar was made out of wood and then overlaid in bronze.  Wood represents humanity, and whenever humanity is involved, there are limitations.  Bronze symbolizes judgment, so the brazen altar is where God atoned for the limitations of man through the shedding of blood.  (Isaiah 53:5-7)  As you approach the altar of sacrifice, your ability to hold fast to your confession will be tested.  When you die to the flesh in prayer, the laver and altar enable you to rise up in the Spirit and walk into the holy place.  Sacrifice always comes before service.  Put yourself on the brazen altar and God will lead you to the second and third realms in prayer.  You won’t carry thoughts, ways and ideas to His throne – you will receive divine knowledge and revelation from Him as to how you should pray.  That is why you must go beyond outer court prayer.

The brazen altar was three cubits high, which symbolized the Godhead.  It also matched the height of the Ark of the Covenant, which rests behind the veil in the most holy place.  The base of the ark was two and a half cubits, but it extended to three cubits when they mounted the cherubim on top of the cover.   I believe this indicates that the glory of God will be equal to the sacrifice you make on the brazen altar.  If there’s no communion with God at the altar, you won’t have a match or connection in the most holy place.  To be effective in prayer, your sacrifice must measure up to the level of glory you want to experience with God in intercession.  Too many believers want great power with little or no sacrifice.  The danger comes when you think you are operating in the light of God, but in reality you are still functioning in natural light.  In the outer court, in natural light, daylight ends and night comes.  That means sometimes you are able to see your way, and sometimes you cant.  In the third realm, the light is supernatural.  It always shines because it comes from the glory of God.

The original flame that lit the brazen altar came directly from heaven! The Chumash states that the fire “went into the Holy of Holies and from there it went out to the Golden Altar and then to the Outer Altar, causing the incense and the sacrificial parts to go up in smoke.  Do you see the pattern?  In his first service for Israel, Aaron performed the sacrifices according to the pattern of prayer revealed to Moses. He followed Gods pattern and the Glory of God was revealed to all the people.  After this “day of obedience”, the priests were instructed that the “fire upon the altar shall be kept burning on it’ it shall not be allowed to go out (Lev 6:12). Each morning they were to burn wood on it and make a sacrifice.  From that day forward, wood, which represent humanity, kept the fire burning.  God requires us to lay ourselves on the brazen altar every day and say, “whatever doesnt please you, Lord, burn it up.  Consume my will, desires, emotions – anything that doesn’t line up with Your will”.  We are the wood that keeps God’s fire burning on the altar.

Even still, God doesn’t expect you to sacrifice without His help.  He provided for you by putting four horns on the corners of the brazen altar – which represent salvation, strength, and power! So when you lay on the altar of sacrifice, you receive salvation, strength, and power from Him to do His will.  Why?  Your flesh is being consumed in the fire of God, so it can’t hinder your prayer.  When you go into the holy place, you will be fully matured in prayer.

When the fire of purification is consuming your flesh (meaning when you are being challenged to walk in right standing with God in the midst of temptation), you must remember your salvation.  You must go back to the four works of Christ and learn to praise Him in the fire.   This also ties in to the four horns on the altar.  The number four represent the earth and its elements – the four winds and the four corners of the earth.  So Christ’s power to help you in prayer is unlimited! It extends to all four corners of the earth.

Jesus completed the pattern of prayer to help in time of need.  His sacrifice was great and can’t be ignored – we must embrace it.  We must be willing to go into the purifying fire of God with faith that Christ will help us.

The Place of Washing – The Brazen Laver – Prayer Part 5

I can’t tell you how many times I have read the Bible bypassing a lot of the scriptures that cover the genealogy and construction of the tabernacle.  To me, once read is enough as there wasn’t much I really saw that was important to me, yet years later, I find that the there was so much to learn about the tabernacle.  At first glance, you wouldn’t think so.  This study has so proven this way of thought wrong.  I can only pray that as we walk through each part, you will find that God hid away in these verses patterns for us to go by, even today.  Let’s continue where we left off.

If you remember from our last lesson, we have entered into the outer court, the place where the brazen laver and brazen altar.  Now prepare yourself for your journey through the outer court.  As you begin to walk through the outer court, you enter the brazen laver stage of God’s pattern of prayer. If you recall, you have passed through the gate that represents the works of Jesus Christ: His righteousness, divinity, kingship and sacrifice.  These four works of Christ allow you to enter His “courts” in prayer through expressing praise and thankfulness to God for what He has already done.  You have kept moving forward through the outer court, drawing ever nearer to God, becoming a reflection of Christ, Himself.  The brazen laver is the place of sanctification, where the Word of God cleanses and begins to prepare you to serve in your priestly function as an intercessor.  It is the first piece of furniture in the tabernacle and the first part of God’s nature that embraces your life.

Exodus 30:17-21 (NIV) says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die.  Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the Lord by fire, they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die.  This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generation to come.”

Exodus 38:8 (NIV) says, “They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.”

In these times, the priest were required to wash their hands and feet, indicating that prayer is not suppose to stay on the personal level.  By washing, the priest demonstrated their total devotion to God’s service.  So what does this have to do with you?  By receiving Christ you were given access to the outer court.  It is important that you dont stop at entering through the gate.  God wants you to keep moving forward.  Whether you want to realize it, God must take us to another level in prayer, the level that prepares us to pray for others.   Since prayer is not only a personal relationship with God, but also a ministry, you must be taught that washing at the laver prepares you to minister to yourself, to someone else or to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:26 says, “to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

So what does the Old Testament Washing at the laver have to do with us today.  We, as priests, don’t worship in a tabernacle the way the Levite priests did in ancient times, yet washing has an important significance in God’s pattern of prayer.  Washing at the laver is symbolic of our washing in God’s Word, which helps you to strip off the “old self” which is your flesh.  Until we wash at the brazen laver, we live “according to the desires of the flesh and are controlled by its unholy effects”.  In the outer court, we are still setting our minds on the things which gratify the flesh.  This is why you must wash.  Our sanctification at the brazen laver is accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit, our Life Giver.  God can’t use a fleshly intercessor.  There is no room for a flesh prayer.  You must wash at the laver to get cleansed and prepared for the next level of consecration.

Returning to the Bible, we find that the brazen laver was made of solid bronze, symbolizing God’s judgment – so it reminds us that He’s the final judge of whether we are spiritually clean.  It also reminds us that there’s a final judgment for those who reject the Word (John 3:18, Revelation 20:11-15). It is through the washing of the word that Jesus is able to begin transforming you into the image of God.  You can’t do this for yourself.  I believe that is why the laver had no recorded measurements and no wood in it’s construction.  The Word of God is absolutely unlimited in its ability to wash and cleanse you. Nothing is too deep within for the laver to reach, too far in your past to erase, or too distant in your future to control.  Its cleansing power is unlimited, so you can become exactly who God destined you to be in His kingdom.

In the Old Testament days, the mirrors that women used were made of bronze.  The brazen laver was constructed from the mirrors of the Israelite women.  I think it’s interesting and somewhat cute that women provided the mirrors, because the spirit of vanity is portrayed in women more than men.  It is almost as though God moved upon these women to surrender their vanity and overcome it.  To me, this represents a surrendering of what you think you look like to the Lord.  Do you really know what “manner of man” you are?

When the priests approached the brazen laver, he saw his reflection in the water and a second reflection in the basin.  There could be no mistake about how he looked.  When you go to the brazen laver in prayer, God shows you a true reflection of who you are.  By coming to Him, you are able to see your natural reflection and get a glimpse of what you are becoming as He imparts the Word into your life.  He’s beginning the process of “completing” your salvation (1Peter 2:1-5).  This is where you become conscious of doing the Word that God imparts to you from the basin – where you decide to start living for God and become a true reflection of Him, where you decide to rise up from your prayer and begin to live as you believe.    The Word helps you see yourself as you really are while it enables you to obey the revealed Word.

Many people hear the Word but fail to understand they need to do what it says.  They hang around in the outer court and then wander over to the brazen laver to wash – because everyone else is doing it, but when they can’t endure the washing, they run away from the laver to a place where they feel more comfortable.  No matter how far you run, you can’t escape the washing! If only you would wash at the laver, it would reveal the truth about who you really are by reflecting the Word into your heart.  Then you would understand that it isn’t that people are suppose to wash – we need to wash! We can’t go deeper in God until we are sanctified at the brazen laver.

Though you wash at the lever, you can not remain there.  You are still in the outer court level of praying, so the only person you will be able to pray for is yourself.  Remember that the outer court prayer focuses on self, your wrong doings, your limitations and failures, what you need to overcome and so on.  At this stage, it’s still about YOU.

As a matter of fact, the priests could not stay at the laver for very long each day before they started performing their priestly duties.  In other words, don’t resist God when He deals with areas of your life at the laver! Let the Word do a quick work in you.  You can’t afford to miss one day at the laver.

The Early Stages of Prayer – The Outer Court – Part 4

Now that we have accepted the works of Christ and are given access through the gate, we will enter into the outer court of the Tabernacle.  Since God is always moving and in transition, we too should be ever moving and always in transition.

As I stated before, the tabernacle of the Old Testament was a physical building, whereas the tabernacle of the New Testament resides in our hearts.  The Old Testament outer court was located just inside the Tabernacle East Gate.  We have a New Testament Outer Court, as well.  We are given access to it at our initial conversion, that is, after we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, as we recognize His four works – His righteousness, holiness, kingship and sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, the Outer Court area was open to the effects of the natural elements and lit by natural sunlight.  The Outer Court was the very place the people of Israel gathered to discuss their opinions about God and other things.  In the New Testament Outer Court, we are offered the eternal light of Christ through our salvation, but we haven’t yet received eternal revelation.  We are still under the influence of natural light, that is, the influence imposed by our worldly views and values.  Though we are saved, we are constantly being exposed to the world around us.  Staying around negative influences for too long will eventually hinder our pursuit of God. We all know that the longer we stay around a particular influence, the more we become what we hang around.  The conversations that take place in the Outer court will eventually begin to hinder our prayers.  Outer court pray-ers are inconsistent, praying whenever, crying out to God in emergencies when it looks like something terrible is going to happen, admiring God, but never coming into a relationship with Him. Outer Court pray-ers never pass through the courts into intercession because they don’t know God well enough to understand His heart and agonize for Him in prayer. Outer court pray-ers are focused on washing, cleansing, and material things because they are still in their own infant state of their spirituality.  Unsure of who they are in Christ, these natural believers spend more time praying for themselves than for others, understand however, God wants us to move from the natural into the supernatural.  To pass through this stage, we must force ourselves to move deeper through the court to the brazen laver and the brazen altar, the place where we begin to lay down our life for God, letting go of anything that is not His will.  This is where God begins to qualify us to serve in intercession.

God has prepared great things if we would only love and seek after Him with all our heart.  The outer court is just the beginning of our journey, but we must move through it to become His ambassador! Staying in the outer court prevents us from finding true intimacy with God.  In the outer court stage you see people who are crippled, sick and depressed in spite of your prayers for healing, deliverance and peace.  What’s wrong? You cant pray effectually in the outer court! You must mature in the spirit by surrendering yourself to God and then His power will begin to fuel your prayer.

God constructs plans by way of a pattern. If you want God to speak intimately with you, if you want to receive divine revelation and impartation from Him, you have to go to the third dimension of prayer, in the Most Holy Place. Though you are saved and in the outer court, God is calling you to a deeper level of prayer. Follow Him. Pass through every level, every piece of furniture in the tabernacle, to enter the third realm of intercession.  This is the level of intimacy with God where anyone whom He has qualified can enter and change the course of this world.   We don’t want to get stuck in the outer court, satisfied with just a glimpse, just an aroma of God’s glorious presence.  In the next lession, we are going to take a close look at the brazen laver and learn to move deeper in prayer through this experience of cleansing.

Revelation 2:8-11 The Church of Smyrna

The Church of Smyrna (100-312 AD) was a much persecuted church located in a wealthy city that had little time for Christians.  Located 25 miles north of Ephesus, Smyrna was nicknamed the “Port of Asia” because it had an excellent harbor on the Aegean Sea.  This church struggled against two hostile forces: a Jewish population strongly opposed to Christianity and a non-Jewish population that was loyal to Rome and supported emperor worship.  The commercial center of Asia Minor, it was on the direct trade route from India and Persia to Rome.  In the midst of adversity and great persecution, this church was a most faithful church.

Commendation: “I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich!

Condemnation: Not a Word!

Counsel: “do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days”

Challenge: “He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.”

They Smyrna period was probably the greatest time of persecution the Church of Christ ever known. Satan unleashed a violent attack on the church in effort to to obliterate it, for it became evident to him that the apostolic church, because of its faithful preaching of the gospel, had become a serious threat to his worldwide godless empire.  The more he persecuted the church during this period, the more the church overcame the one condemning characteristic of the apostolic age, that of having left its first love.  Not one word of condemnation was hurled by Christ at this church.  From this Satan learned a great secret: Persecution will not stamp out the Church of Christ!

As predicted by the Lord, Himself in verse 10, “you will suffer persecution for ten days”. The church age saw eight of the ten periods of persecution under the Roman emperors.

Nero (54-68 AD) beheaded Paul and crucified Peter; Domitian (81-96 AD) exiled John; Trajan (98-117 AD) burned Ignatius at the stake; Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) killed Justin Martyr; Severus (193-211AD); Maximinius (235-238 AD); Decius (249-251 AD); Valerian (253-260 AD); Aurelian (270-275 AD); Diocletian (284-305AD) led a violent attempt to destroy the Bible from the face of the earth.  During the second and third centuries this persecution age saw hundreds of Christians bought into the amphitheater of Rome to be fed to hungry lions while thousands of spectators cheered.  Many were crucified; others were covered with animal skins and tortured to death by wild dogs.  They covered with tar and set on fire to serve as torches.  They were boiled in oil and burned at the stake.  One church historian has estmated that during this period, five million Christians were martyred for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The Church of Smyrna was a thriving church as it reached its greatest numbers during this period.  This church distinguished itself by its production of many hand-copied manuscripts of the sacred scriptures and the translation of many scriptures into many languages.

The message of Christ to Smyrna is, “These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again”. It’s interesting to note that Christ introduces each message to the churches by reaching back to the vision of Himself in chapter one and picking out one of the characteristics of His nature.  To Smyrna He emphasizes His eternal nature, “the First and the Last”; His death for their sins – “I was dead”; His resurrection – “and behold I am alive forever and ever”.

The commendation of Christ is that He does not condemn it.  Christ’s commendation highlights three characteristics of the church: tribulation, poverty and affliction.

1) The Church of Smyrna was a Persecuted church.  “I know your afflictions “.

2) The Church of Smyrna was a poor church.  “and your poverty,” It appears that this church went through a severe period of financial persecution.  Smyrna was not only a trade city but also a city of guilds that closely regulated the craftsmen of the day, much as the unions do today.  Because of the intense hatred for Christians, when a man took a stand for Christ, his shop was boycotted or his employment was severed or some other means was used to limit his economic opportunity. Those Christians who were rich in this world’s goods went bankrupt.  Consequently, the church enjoyed few monetary assets. “ yet you are rich!” highlights a divine principle that, regardless of one’s economic state, knowing Jesus Christ brings wealth in this life and in the life to come! Many who are poor as a proverbial “church mouse” are rich in this life in the things money cannot buy: joy, peace, happiness, contentment, and eternal accomplishments.

3) The Church of Smyrna was an afflicted church.  “I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan”. This church was afflicted by false teachers who had claimed to be Jews but really were not.

Satan has his own religious faith.  He also has his churches called “synagogues of Satan”.  Any church that preaches a gospel other than the gospel of Christ is a synagogue of Satan regardless to what it is called.  Two basic heresies emanate from the synagogue of satan.  These heresies are a false doctrine of Christ and a mixing of law and grace.  Either people are confused about the personal diety of our Lord Jesus Christ, suggesting that though He was a good man, He was not the virgin born Son of God who lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, rose bodily from the grave, ascended physically into heaven and promised to return physically to this earth some day. Or they add to salvation “by grace through faith”, saying that in addition to believing on Jesus, we should also keep the Sabbath, observe certain rites and ceremonies, eat or not eat certain kinds of foods, etc. The church of Smyrna withstood these two teaching that are decieving many today.

Jesus counsels the church of Smyrna saying, “Do not be afraid” and “be faithful, even to the point of death”. Jesus predicted that they would suffer, telling them that the devil will put some in prison to test them, telling them some would suffer persecution for ten days. This is the same counsel given to every believer today.  When grace is needed, grace will be supplied.  When courage is needed, courage is supplied for we have the divine promise that our God is able to meet all our needs according to his glorious riches in Jesus Christ.

The Church of Smyrna is challenged to hear what the Spirit has to say and to overcome.  “He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death”. God’s people have His personal promise that they will never be hurt. The second death is that state when people who have died in unbelief are resurrected and cast alive into an eternal state of separation from God in the place called the lake of fire.  The second death need never to cause the child of God to fear, for it will have no power over them.

Revelation 2:1-7 The Church of Ephesus

I can’t tell you the number of times I have tried to make sense of the Book of Revelation, only to read it without full understanding.  The more revelation came, the hungrier I got to learn more.

Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelations  was written to the seven churches of Asia and the message it bears go beyond that time to the churches of today.  Each message to the seven churches consists of four parts: Christ’s divine commendation, condemnation, counsel and challenge.  Each part is just as vital today as it was in the day they were actually written.

Let’s begin by outlining each of the parts just discussed, then we will go into the scriptures and clarify the meaning more closely. Christ begins His message with this commendation: “I know your deeds, your hard work and perseverance.  I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, and that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endure hardships for my name, and have not grown weary…but you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolatians which I also hate.”

With all these praises, this church had a problem.  Christ’s seeing the problem, issues his condemnation saying, “Yet I hold this against you” You have forsaken your first love”

The best news was, Christ didnt leave the church hanging.  He told them the problem and he told them the solution.  In his attempts to bring this church back to order, He counsels them to “Remember the height from which you have fallen.  Repent and do the things you did at first.”

By obeying His command, the church is issued a challenge: “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God”

It is important to know a few things about Ephesus. Understanding the times and the history of this church will shed some light into your minds as to what the Ephesians were dealing with.  It will allow the reader to identify the obstacles and challenges faced by the members and angel of this church.

Ephesus is considered by the Bible scholars to have been one of the finest and largest churches (Apostolic, 33-100 AD) in the New Testament times.  It was begun by the Apostle Paul at the end of his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19-20).  Ephesus was the capital of Asia Minor, a center of land and sea trade, and along with Alexandria and Antioch in Syria, one of the three most influential cities in Eastern part of the Roman Empire.  The temple of Artemis, one of the ancient wonders of the world was located in this city, and a major industry was the manufacture of images of this goddess.

The name Ephesus means “desired one”.  The name is very fitting as this church was the most desirable of all the churches or church ages.  As a result of the large percentage of Jewish converts that made up the church, this church age was characterized by its fervent evangelism. Scripturally this is supported in Romans 10:18 which tells us that the voice of this church had gone out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world.  Romans 16:26 adds that the gospel was made known by the prophetic writings by the command of God, so that the nations might believe and obey Him.  Colossians 1:6 says the gospel has come to us all over the world, bearing fruit and growing.  Taken as a whole, we see that this church accomplished more widespread preaching of the gospel through the ministry of Jewish Christians than has ever been seen before.

There are many notable things to mention about this church.

1)  The church of Ephesus was a working church as scripture says, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance”.  The speaker in Revelation 2:2-7 is Jesus.  He is described here as walking in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands indicating that He is always available and has been given the power and authority over the every aspect of the churches and the angel over these churches.  This church was commended for its faithful works of Christian service.  No act of service is too small to escape the Savior’s notice.

2) The church of Ephesus was a separated church.  Scripture tells us that “I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men”. A true church is a church in the world, but not of the world. The members of this church refused to fraternize with loose Christians. They allowed themselves to be led by the unction of the Spirit to “watch out for those who cause division and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned.  Keep away form them (Rom 16:17).  This church was truly separated as it practiced discipline.

3) The Church of Ephesus was a pure church – “you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false”. Satan sowed weeds in the Lord’s wheat field immediately after the Pentacost. Some of these weeds disguised themselves as apostles and went about deceiving some of the early churches in their innocence.  However, those who truly looked to God were not decieved, as they tried the spirit of those claiming to be apostles.   Because of the devil’s semantic, we have to examine what people mean by the words them employ, as well as the words themselves.

4) The Church of Ephesus was an autonomous church – “you hate the practices of the Nicolatians which I also hate”. The word Nicolatians comes from two Greek words: nikos meaning “to conquer, overthrow” and laos meaning “the people, laity”. It seems that in the early days of the church the followers of Nicolati held two serious views.  They practiced sensuality by completely separating one’s spiritual and physical nature, thus giving themselves license to sin.  And they tried to establish an ecclesiastical order known as Nicolaitanism.  This is an unscriptural idea, which causes the local church to become enslaved by one man or a small group of men.

Though this church had many things that it was praised for, Christ saw beyond these to the core of the issue.  He states, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” There existed a problem so deep, that without immediate correction, the fate of this church was on the line.  Although basically faithful, it had unconsciously given into the natural tendency of letting even the most wonderful experience become commonplace. Although they loved the Lord, they had lost the spontaneous sparkle of their love for Him.  This has been illustrated many times in human experience by marriages that fall onto dangerous ground when the husband or wife begin taking each other for granted.  Honeymoon love erodes and becomes just routine married life.  As devastating as this is in marriage, it is many times worse in the relationship of an individual or a church with Christ.  The thrilling flush of new found conversion and experience with Jesus must be guarded by submission to the Holy Spirit all during  one’s Christian experience.  Most Christian lives consist of a “first love” experience, which develops into a routine walk of having “forsaken your first love”.

Christ counsels the Church of Ephesus to do three things:

1) “Remember the height from which you have fallen”. Christ sternly admonishes the believers of Ephesus to recall the faithfulness of their earlier years and take inventory of their spiritual life.

2) “Repent”. They are to turn back from their coldness and indifference to the vital relationship with Christ.

3) “Do the things you did at first”. Those who truly love Jesus, obey Him.  Often we who excuse our indulgence and lack of consecration only prove by our conduct that we do not love Jesus with all our heart., with all our soul, and with all our mind.  We who are unwilling to yield all our talents and capabilities to Jesus have a love problem, that is, we do not sufficiently love Christ.  It is safe to say that if our love for Christ is what it should be, no task is too great, no sacrifice too much for Him.

The challenge of Christ in the Church of Ephesus falls into two main division “Hear what the Spirit says” and “to him who conquers”.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sas to the churches” The statement implies three kinds of individuals.

1) Those without ears.  Christ refers to those who are not attuned to the Holy Spirit by the new birth – that is, those who have not been born again and thus are not anointed with the Holy Spirit. Consequently, they cannot hear the voice of God when He speaks.

2) Those who are dull of hearing.  Not all born again Christians are willing to hear the SPirit of God when He speaks.  This is a reference to those Christians who are in rebellion against the Spirit of God and His mastery of their lives – a most dangerous condition in which to live.

3) Those spiritual minded Christians who are willing to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes there is the promise of eternal life.  The Tree of Life of which those who overcome are given the opportunity to eat, is unquestionably the tree from which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat after their sin.  A symbol of eternal life, it is pictured as having a prominent place in the paradise of God that awaiths those who trust in Him.  Who are the overcomers?  1 John 5:4-5 give us the answer. “For everyone born of God overcomes the world”. Who is it that overcomes the world?  “Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God”

A Study of Revelation 1:9-18

Welcome back.  I hope you enjoyed our last study as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Well, let’s not dawdle on formalities and pick up where we left off.

Revelation 1:9 says, “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Now the Apostle John is one of the oldest living apostles at the time of this writing. He was probably one of the most esteemed saints of his day, yet here he identifies himself with the people.  Remember John suffered with the other members of the church during a time of great persecution by the Roman emperors.   How do we know?  The Bible tells us that John was exiled to the tiny island of Patmos, located in the Mediterranean Sea just off the mainland of Asia “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.  Isn’t it something?  This seasoned apostle stuck to His guns by refusing to compromise his faith and belief in Christ.

Revelation 1:10-11, “On the Lord’s Day, I was in the Spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches; to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis Philedelphia and Laodicea”.

“On the Lord’s day” is a reference to the fact that by the power of the Holy Spirit John was lifted in prophetic vision beyond the church age to the day of the Lord, the glorious appearing of Christ to the earth.   The seven churches are worthy of a closer look, but we will do that in our upcoming lessons.  For now, we will continue.

Revelation 1:12, “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.  And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

These golden lampstands are interpreted for us in Revelation 1:20 when Jesus told John that they were the seven churches.  These churches were uniquely selectd. A lampstand is a fitting symbol for the church for it was while Jesus was in the world that he was the Light of the world.  Though we give light, we do not originate light, just as a lampstand does not originate light, but gets its light from the oil or electricity generating through it, so the child of God is a means of light.  Christ is the light, but He uses the churches and the children of God in the churches as lampstands to convey that light.

There were ten characteristics of Christ envisioned by John.

Revelation 1:13, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man”, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet and with a golden sash around His chest.

Verse 13 indicates that this person was not unseemly to look at.  He was human in appearance and described as the “Son of Man”, a term used to describe Jesus.  Jesus was dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet.  This was typical of the long robes of the high priests in the ancient world.  He wore a golden sash around His chest symbolizing His strength and authority.

Revelation 1:14, “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.”

Verse 14 conveys the thought of antiquity and reminds of the vision of Daniel 7:9-13.  The whiteness of course also describes Jesus’ righteousness.  Verse 14 further describes Jesus’ eyes as blazing fire.  The Greek interpretation literally means, “His eyes shot like fire” indicating that Christ was indignant over the indifference of the churches.

Revelation 1:15 “His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.”

In Verse 15, “His feet like glowing bronze” speaks of judgment, reminding us of the brazen altar of the tabernacle where sin was judged.  “His voice like the sound of rushing waters” can be best describe by using an illustration of Niagara Falls.  When you come to the edge of the great falls, all the sounds are eliminated from your hearing as you are engulfed by the deafening roar of the turbulent waters.  In the day referred to here, all other voices will be stilled by the deafening, overpowering voice of Jesus to whom all the people will give heed, for they will be entering into their hour of judgment.

Revelation 1:16 “In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance”

The seven stars have already been interpreted to be the seven angels of the seven churches.   Ephesians 6 tells us that the Double edged sword is the Word of God.  Evidently the spoken word of Jesus will go forth as a sharp sword against which there will be no defense during judgment.    His face speaks of the divine nature of Christ as we are reminded in Matthew 17:2, of the transfiguration of Christ.

Revelation 1:17-18, “When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  Then he placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades”

Here we find John falling at Jesus’ feet as though dead, knocked cold by His glory.  Anyone truly in touch with the Spirit of God instinctively bows in adoration to Jesus.

Intimacy and Spiritual Maturity

Now one can’t have spiritual maturity without intimacy and yet the more spiritual maturity you have, the more intimate you become with God. It’s like a cycle once you get it working in your life.  We cannot grow up and be what God wants us to be without intimacy and we cant please Him if we remain baby christians all of our life.  It’s time to grow up.  You know what that means?  It means looking at our attitudes, our level of love, what degree of selfishness we walk in, what kind of fruit we are bearing in our life.  We are blessed to be a blessing.  God blesses us so that we can be a blessing.  He never gives us things so that we can enjoy it ourselves only.  Whatever He puts in our life, He wants us to share it with other people so that our life can affect other people.  We are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. What if salt has lost is flavor? What if the bulb has burned out?

God will bring you into the “close fellowship”.  In the new covenant, He comes to be in you and with you, not just with you.  It’s the Holy Spirit that brings us the presence of God, the Father and Jesus, the Son.  It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin when we’re about to something stupid. It’s the Holy Spirit that convinces us to do it right.  It’s the Holy Spirit who follows us around in our life trying to woo us into a relationship with God before we are saved. It was the Holy Spirit who had to follow you into all those places you shouldn’t have been.  We dare not forget about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to guid you into the path of truth.  “Everything the Father has is mine”, says Jesus.  That is what he meant when He said – “He will take what is Mine and transmit it to you.” Everything the Father has – power, wisdom, might, glory, peace, joy, righteousness, hope, love and more.  Everything that the Father has, Jesus said, “I paid the price, God gave it to Me and I got it to give it to you and I am sending the Holy Spirit to be with you always.  I will never leave you nor forsake you and He will spend your entire life trying to get to you what I died on the cross for you to have.” The Holy Spirit comes to reveal Christ to the unbeliever and in the believer.  The privilege of the believer, the distinguishing mark of a christian is to be able to fellowship with God. If you are a christian, you can not do that.  You can not have that close relationship with God because only He lives in believers.  He might be with somebody else to help them, trying to get them to listen, but He comes to live in us.  How much closer can you get than that?

The devil doesn’t care how much religion you have, it’s relationship he’s afraid of.  Jesus came against religion. The people He had the most problem with in His day was the religious crowd, the ones who followed all the rules and regulations and didn’t have anything going on inside.  Jesus said, “You tell everyone else what to do, but you wont lift a finger to do it yourself.”

When the mantle, the anointing comes, it turns us into another person.

Galatians 1: 15-16

God wants to reveal His Son within you. You are the home of God.  The Bible says in Ephesians, you are sealed in the Holy Ghost (persevered, kept for the day of final redemption).  It’s like your zipped locked in this anointing and there’s a sign on you that you cant see, but the devil sees it that says “Hands off, property of God“.  There are things in the Spirit, that cant be seen with our natural eye. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Galatians 4:19

God just doesn’t want to give us revelation about Christ, but He wants to reproduce Christ in us.  Here’s where it starts.  Having a revelation about Christ doesn’t cost anything.  It’s a grace gift, but when you start having Christ reproduced in you, now you are going to have decrease so that He can increase.  What kind of work had to be done in Paul’s life?  How long did it take him? How painful was it?  What did it cost him for him to get to the point where he said, “It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who died and gave Himself up?”  What had to go on in Paul’s life for him to say that?

For anyone that is going to be used by God, there is a price in some way, shape or form, and the greater you are going to be used by God, the greater the price.  To whom much is given, much is required.  As we do what Christ has call us to do, He ministers to us.  The Holy Spirit is a comforter, the same kind as Jesus.  He’s the “parakletos”. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ other self.  Jesus could only be in one place at one time, but the Holy Spirit can speak to everyone of you every morning when we wake up all over the world in different places.  He can lead and guide everyone of us no matter where we’re at, doing all kinds of different things because He’s not confined to a body.

His job is to reveal truth. Truth delivers us from deception.  He reveals truth to us about our present condition compared to the will of God. He transmits to us everything that God is.  In the God Head, there’s no competition.  They are all for each other all the time.  We need to get rid of the competition in our lives.  It’s one of the things that needs to be pruned off.  We don’t have to compete with other people and try to be like other people.  Each of the three Trinity persons, delights in honoring the other.  We need to learn how to live to give, not get.  When we live God’s way, He takes care of us.  The way we get promoted in life, is to help somebody else.

Isaiah 54: 17 says, “No weapon formed against me shall prospered every tongue that rises up against me in judgment, I will how to be in the wrong.” A true servant of the Lord is those in whom the true ideal servant of the Lord is reproduced.  What’s a true servant of the Lord? Those in who Jesus is reproduced. (Not just a revelation, but a reproduction).  Therefore, I cant claim that kind of protection in my life, if I am not working with the Holy Spirit to have spiritual maturity in my life.  See, we like to claim all the promises, but we don’t like the cross.  What is the cross?  Forget yourself, lose sight of your own interest. The cross we carry is not poverty and disease, or wretched circumstances in our lives.  Jesus died to help us with those things, not to give them to us.  The cross that we carry is to work with the Holy Spirit daily to live an unselfish life.  The high call of every believer is to walk in love.

We need to judge everything by the standard of love, because it is love, Himself, who lives in us.  IF Christ is in me, then love is in me. Love needs to grow up and be an adult.  What happens is when yo sow seeds in helping other people, God helps you.  What God makes happen for somebody else, God will make happen for you.

The Gate to the Outer Court – Prayer Part 3

Now we will study the pattern of prayer using the design set forth for the Old Testament Tabernacle.  It is important to note that each element of the tabernacle played a significant role in prayer.  As I mentioned, most readers have dismissed the tabernacle’s importance in today’s worship process, thinking that this structure only had significance to Moses and the children of Israel.  Oh, how wrong they are. This study will show that even the things of the Old Testament have an important lesson for our walk with God today.  Nothing should be dismissed or overlooked as we, who hunger to be close to God, journey to the very places He is.  Our study will focus on each part of the tabernacle.  As the mystery unfolds, you will begin to see God’s pattern unfold right before your very eyes, restoring your hunger for God.

Now we shall take a journey, looking at the design of the tabernacle again. Why?, because there is a process we must undergo to enter each of the three areas (outer court, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place) within the confines of the outer wall.  Coming before Him isn’t a quick and ready made process.  It is for this reason that I desire to walk slowly and thoroughly, studying each step of that process.  I pray the mystery will unfold before your eyes, sparking your interest to take that very walk yourself.  Now let’s journey.

tabernacle-picture3

The Bible tells us that the tabernacle was enclosed by a wall of pure, white linen cloth.  The color white was often used as a symbol of purity and righteousness.  Similarly, this white wall of linen was a reminder to the people of God’s righteousness.  As the people of Israel traveled around the outside wall to get to the only way in, they were reminded of His righteousness.  Now if you look at the diagram, you will see that the only way into the tabernacle was through the east gate. This fact alone plays has no meaning unless we paint a picture in your mind of the layout within the tabernacle.  If you were to look inside the tabernacle from above, the elements of the tabernacle were placed in such a way that it resembled a cross.  The gate itself was located at the foot of that cross.

Now that doesn’t mean much to anyone unless we understand something about the wall and the gate, itself. To do that, we must first understand something about ourselves.  What better way to do that than using the very words of the Apostle Paul.  In Ephesians 2: 11-18, Paul describes our human condition before Christ was crucified.  This is important as it explains where we are at the beginning stages of our tabernacle walk and study.  Let’s read.

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who were Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision (that done in the body by the hands of man), remember that at that time you were separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promises – without hope and without God in the world.”

Do you see it?  At this stage, we are outside the tabernacle wall.  We haven’t accepted Christ, as we are just now recognizing our own condition.  As we take a walk to the East Gate, we find that all the things of God are confined within that linen wall.  We are outside God’s circle, excluded in every way. Now that’s a bad place to be.  Let’s not stop here though because Paul also give us hope, as we shall soon see as we continue to read further.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death hostility.  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

Exodus 27:16 tells us that the entrance to the gate was a “curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and finely twisted white linen”. We must understand that God does not do anything by chance.  Every detail of the tabernacle had significance to those worshiping.  Nothing was selected by chance. The colors of the entrance curtains symbolized an attribute of our precious Savior.  White symbolized His righteousness and purity.  Blue represented Christ as the Heavenly One. Purples symbolized His kingship and royalty, while crimson reminded us of His sacrifice upon the Cross for our sins.  Let me paint a picture that will break this down further.

Jesus is the One who stands between the things of God and the world.  The Bible tells us in John 10:7 that He is the gate for the sheep.  It is here at the gate that Jesus begins His first act of intercession on our behalf.  As we approach the gate, He stands with His arms held wide saying, “I know you don’t know who I am because you are not saved, but all that stands behind me are the things of God.  You can have these things if you so choose.

A Perfect Pattern – Prayer Part 2

Remember that God is a sovereign God choosing to answer the prayers He pleases, regardless of the pattern exercised.  The Bible tells us in Exodus 33:19, “I will proclaim My Name in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”.  Though God chooses to answer according to His will, we should always keep in mind as we pray that we are seeking His counsel and will, not ours.  As we pray, we can be assured God is a merciful God and acts according to His will.  As we learn to properly position ourselves to hear from Him, we can have the confidence that He hears us and will answer.

Let me show you how good God is.  In Matthew 6:9-13, the Bible gives us Jesus’ model prayer.  I bet we have all read and know this prayer intimately, but have you have stopped and really looked at it.  I’m not just talking looking at the meaning of the words written.  I’m talking about the pattern it sets for us to follow.  I bet you hadn’t through about it that way.  Isn’t that just like us, we read for understanding and often miss an important piece of information along the way.  Ok, you are probably wondering what could have been missed, so let’s take a trip to the beginning, the first place the Bible teaches us about prayer.  Are you ready? Go to Matthew 6:9 and let’s read and see for ourselves, God’s pattern for prayer.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”

If we look closely at the passages, we will quickly see a patter unfold.  We will also quickly realize the difference between someone who just prays and the person called to be an Intercessor.

Jesus begins by acknowledging God for who He is.  “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name”. The prayer opens up with worship, acknowledging God as the King of the universe.

Jesus then acknowledges God’s kingdom.  “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”  Jesus is asking God to bring a portion of heaven down to man.  Let’s look a little closer.  By submitting to God that His will be done, Jesus is offering to do things according to God’s desires and not His own.  To be an effective intercessor, we must be will to give up what we want in order to do what pleases God.

Jesus then applies God’s Word.  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Jesus is the Bread of Life which is always fresh and full of power.  To be an effective intercessor, we must live and pray God’s word. As you do, God will sustain you.

Jesus then focuses His attention on God’s work.  “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”.  Jesus is asking God to keep Him from stumbling into traps set by the enemy, but He doesn’t stop there.  He further asks God to shelter Him from these attacks.  What we fail to realize, as we pray there is a place where we go in prayer where the enemy can not follow.  To be an effective intercessor, we must learn to reach that place so that we can focus on God and do His work.

Finally, Jesus recognizes God in all He does.  “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever”.  We must recognize and confess God in all we do.  In doing so, God will meet us right where we are.  There we will walk in His authority right here on earth.

Introduction to Prayer – Preparing to Come Into God’s Presence

Prayer is the only practice that no one religious denomination can claim credit for, as each one exercises it in their own worship activities.  However, prayer is the most misunderstood as most don’t truly understand all that is entailed.  We cry out to God in our anguish, expecting something to happen.  In my quest to draw near to God, I learned that prayer is a powerful weapon when done properly.  I’m sure just as I fumbled in ignorance, so do many others.  For this reason, I decided to thoroughly study prayer.  What better place to begin than where it all began – the Old Testament.  My objective is to teach any who want to know, how to enter into the Most Holy Place.  To illustrate this process, I will focus on the Old Testament Tabernacle.  Remember, this is the first place in history that God’s presence dwelled, so there’s no better place to being.

Now many read about the tabernacle, often breezing through the monotonous details of its construction and handling.  Many shrug off its importance feeling it only had significance to the Old Testament audiences. What we fail to realize, God never introduces anything to us without a purpose.  The purposes are long standing and apply even today.  For all who have a hunger to learn, who have a desire to get closer to God, this is a study for you; so I hope you will return to see the mysteries of prayer unfold before your eyes, as I break this study down over time.  Don’t miss it.

So lets begin this study by asking ourselves a thought provoking question.  Have you ever prayed to God and wondered if He was listening?  Better yet, have you ever wondered if you were even in His presence as you prayed?  Believe me, you’re not the only one with those concerns.  I know that your prayer life will surely change for the better as you learn to properly position yourself before God.  As in all things, there is a process.  This study will teach that process.  There will never be any doubt in your mind after that where you are when in prayer.  There will only be confidence that God is listening and will answer your request.  Now I hope you are hungry because I sure am.

I bet you are wondering why I chose to dissect the Old Testament Tabernacle to illustrate prayer.  God used the tabernacle to illustrate a pattern as to how we as believers should enter His presence.  The tabernacle, its elements, and the priestly garments have just as much of a significance today as they did then.  The priests of the Old Testament and those of the New Testament (which we are members of) enter the tabernacle and wear the same garments, except in a different sense.  These didn’t change; they are just transformed from the physical to the spiritual.  Our study will break down each element of the physical tabernacle and put it on a level we all can understand when equating it on a spiritual level.

It is God’s desire that we know when we have entered into His presence.  He doesn’t want us to wonder if He is hearing our prayer.  It is God’s desire for us to have no doubt in our mind as to whether there is something in our lives hindering our talks with Him.  This study will provide you a gage to determine where you are.  By studying the design of the tabernacle and priestly garments, we will be able to know where we are an dhow we are dressed spiritually.  God’s desire is that it is not a struggle for us to pray.

Why does God provide such a patter to follow?

Have you ever heard someone say, there are many ways to arrive at a solution?  Bet you didn’t give it much thought to its impact, as most times the methods used to arrive at a solution are transparent to us.  We only reap or see the benefits of the solution.  What happens when the pattern or process isn’t followed?  Let’s use something we can all visualize.  When we go to a tailor, he carefully measures our bodies, cuts the pattern according to those measurements, and sews the pieces together.  What happens when if he cuts the pattern to the wrong measurements?  It may look beautiful, but it would be of no use to you.  The same is true for God’s presence.  God has established a pattern for us to follow.  If we don’t follow that pattern, He is unable to fully participate in our prayers.

A Study of Revelation 1:1-8

Can you imagine a day when everything seems normal?  Then out of the blue, right in front of your very eyes, your friends, family, and even coworkers disappear right before your very eyes.  What would be running through your mind at that moment?  I can only imagine the theories that would arise in the minds of the people.  You’d have to admit, even you would feel alittle freaked by such a moment, but how many of you know that the Bible tells us that a time such as this will come.  Can you picture that moment in your mind?  Can you imagine the havoc that would arise as pilots of aircraft, drivers of cars and more disappear from behind the very wheels of the objects they operate?

How would you rationalize such a day as this?  Would you think aliens had landed, would you attribute it to the weapons of this world or would you remember the prophesies laid out in the Bible?  Regardless, it would probably take a moment for you to put it all together before you realize that maybe you are one of the very people left behind.  Maybe you are one that didnt believe in God at all, maybe you are one that played the role of a Christian, but … Well, what would you think if you were one who thought he was in good standing with God and then found yourself left behind after that day?  It would be a depressing and scary moment to say the least, not to mention it probably would be the most horrible of nightmares to live through. 

It was this thought that has motivated me to study the Book of Revelation.  Over the past few months, I have come to realize that people like ourselves are tired of the same old messages.  Some of us want alittle more.  Some of us are so hungry for God’s Word that nothing seems to satisfy that hunger inside.  So in efforts to feed that hunger, I pray this study will be as interesting to you as it is to me.   I hope that you will share this study and those to follow with others, as there are many out there like ourselves with the same craving.  What good is the Truth hidden?  Feel free to write comments adding your thoughts and revelation.  I welcome two way communication as I too am seeking a deeper knowledge into God’s Word.

My goal is to break each verse down, making the truth understandable to all.  We will look into the meanings of basic words and even address some of the symbolism addressed in the verses.  Have I caught your interest?  If so, let’s begin our study.

The Book of Revelation was written by the Apostle Paul while exiled to the Island of Patmos, a place where prisoners and the enemies of the State were incarcerated. His only crime – the testimony of Jesus. 

Revelation 1:1-3 says,  ”The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.  He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw – that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.  Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

The dictionary defines the word “revelation” as the unveiling of the divine mysteries of God.  The Greek word for “revelation” is “apokalypsis” translated, to show or expose to view.   So verse one can be translated to mean, “The unveiling of Jesus Christ which God gave “John” to show or expose to view to his servants “us” what must take in the future.  “God” made it known by sending His angel to John who bears witness all that he is shown in this vision.  The source of the revelation came from God through Jesus to the angel, who shows John, the messenger who finally conveys whats to come to us, the church.  The Bible tells us that whoever reads this, hears it and takes it to heart will be blessed.  Have you ever asked yourself why that is?

The Book of Revelation is an unveiling of the mysteries of God, the very events that are to unfold some time in our future.  WIll we be alive to see it?  Who knows, but this book gives us information that we can use to guage where we are in that picture, as you will see as we continue to study Revelation.  Needless to say, the Book of Revelation was written about 95AD.  That’s over two thousand years ago.  So what,  you say!  Think about this, part of Verse three tells us that “the time is near”.  Now if the time is near over two thousand years ago, do you want to take the chance of not being prepared for that very day when Christ raptures His people to Him?  I myself, don’t want to be one of those grieving for my lost loved one, much less be one of those left behind to see the Tribulation that will follow.  Do you?  I would rather prepare myself by learning what is to come.  Then, I can intelligently follow the world events and know with certainty whats to come.

Revelation 1:4-6 says, “John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father – to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen”

Why seven churches?  I can almost guarantee that there were more than seven churches that existed then and exist today.  Though I wont cover that piece yet, we will talk about it more as we progress into the Book of Revelation.  Just keep that question in the back of your mind for now.

Verse 4 begins with a greeting.  First, we must understand a few basic words – Grace and Peace.  Though Grace is God’s unmerited favor, it is also the Greek method of greeting.  Accordingly, Peace is the Hebrew method of Greeting.  The fact that John used both terms indicates that he was directing his dialogue to both Greeks and Hebrews, alike.  John begins these verses with a greeting from God, describing God in three ways, “who is, and who was, and who is to come”.  Interesting!  Let’s read this verse from a different perspective – “Greetings from the God of our Present, the God of our Past, and the God of our future” .  God is all encompassing here, but John doesnt stop here.  The Greeting also describes the Trinity by adding, “from the seven spirits” – HOLY SPIRIT and “from Jesus Christ” – the Son.  Greetings from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Now it’s interesting that John describes the spirit as “the seven spirits before His throne”.  There are not literally seven spirits.  In order to understand this, we must compare scripture with other scripture.  Isaiah 11:2 tells us, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him- the Spirit of Wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord”.  The seven spirits here identify the different ministries of the spirit and accordingly, describe the many attributes of our loving Father in Heaven.

Revelation 5 further tells us that all we need to know about God is revealed through Jesus, “the faithful eyewitness”, ”the firstborn from the dead”.  What exactly does that mean?  There were several instances in the Bible where many were brought back from the dead.  Whether the one bringing another back to life or the one being brought back to life, it must be recognized that all died physically at some point later in time.  Jesus, however, was the first to be raised from the dead and the first to eternally live.  That’s a powerful thing as it was Jesus who died that we may have life.  Now that is Good News, for the gifts Jesus offered, love and life, are not a universal experience, but a unique washing to those who personally call upon Him. 

This may be a place to take a moment to ask, have you personally called upon Him to be your Savior?  All of us have fallen short of perfection and it is only through our choice to call Him our Master that we have hope and a pathway to God.  We have just began our study of Revelation and soon, if you continue with me, you will find that a day will arrive when we will have to make a choice to live or die for that choice.  As we study, ask yourself if you would choose to miss the opportunity to be raptured with Christ or will you choose to prepare yourself to rise for an eternity of life in heaven.  No matter, as we unveil the mysteries of revelation, we will find that life after the rapture is a road none of us will desire to travel.  You decide for yourself, but until then lets continue our unveiling.

Revelation 1: 7-8 says, “Look, he is coming in the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the people of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Did you get that???  All will see Him when He returns, even those who pierced Him upon the cross.  You’d think that this would be a time of joy, but these verses tell us that it will be a time of mourning.  Why?  Think about it.  There are many out there who have hardened their heart and refused to listen, many who are playing Christian, many who have rejected the invitation.  When Jesus returns, there will be no further chances for them, their destiny is sealed and they are bound for an eternity in hell.  That is a reason to mourn don’t you think?  We can look upon these verses in doom or we can take it’s very words as an opportunity to self check ourselves.  We can look upon these verses and ignore, or we can read, hear and take to heart their content, etching them upon our heart.  Wouldn’t you want to know what was going to happen before it happen so that you can watch and ready yourself for whatever is to come?  I would.  As I read these words, I can know what’s to come, prepare myself for that day and serve God to prepare others to receive Christ.  I think that this reason alone to study Revelation further.  How about you?

 

 

 

Psalm 91 – What’s the Secret?

No matter the person (rich or poor, learned or unlearned, young or old), God is no respect of person. The one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High is the person that places Him in constant confidence. He establishes himself in God by that full trust a home, a dwelling place, a mansion (dwelling in peace, resting, enduring, remaining with constancy)

Wow! Can you see it? Can you see the intimate and unrestrained communion? Every believer has the opportunity to make known to God his heart, his needs, his wishes, his thoughts, his feelings, his doubts, his fears, his sorrow, his joy.  The best part of it is God has admitted us, the chosen, into His secret place.  God permits it, desires it, teaches us that it is communion to which He calls us.  The secret of the Lord is with us who fear Him. What’s the secret? It is God’s mind revealed to us, His plans and His ways, His thoughts opened to us.  It is God’s wish that we know Him and by His word and by His Spirit He puts Himself before us.

God talks about a place secure from the storms of the world under the provision of His hand.  By dwelling here, by confidence in Him, we learn in all trouble to cleave to God only for help and provision.  We should not come to this secret place as visitors or guests, but as inhabitants to our own dwelling.

To abide means to lodge quietly and securely. The word “Shadow” symbolizes favor from the heat.  Abiding denotes a constant and continuous dwelling for the just in the assistance and protection of God. That help is a strong tower, a paternal home where we spend eternity with the best, wealthiest, and mightiest of parents.

Let’s see another great hope.  To walk in a shadow, one must walk very close to the companion. Can you imagine anything greater than walking in the constant presence of God? Ther is a condition though. We must dwell in this secret place in order to receive His promise of abiding under His shadow.  It’s important to remember that it is a promise given to us by God. If we knew it as such we can look upon it as a gift, a thing to be prayed for in faith as well sought for.  The Omnipotent Lord will shield those who dwell with Him, they shall remain under His care as guests under the protection of their host.  Those who commune with God are safe with Him, no evil can reach them, for the outstretched wings of His power and love cover them from all harm.  This protection is constant – the abide under it and it is all-sufficient, for it is the shadow of the Almighty, whose omnipotence will surely screen them from all attack.

Proverbs 1:7 – In the Beginning…The Wisdom of God

Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline”

There are many dark times in our life. Let me explain using something most can relate to. Thnk of an eclipse. In an eclipse, the moon comes between the earth and the sun, briefly hiding the sun and casting a shadow on the earth. Many times in our life, we let the things of life pass between us and God, the source of our light. When this happens, we have a brief period of darkness.

Now lets look at the things that are passing between us and God; let’s relate these things to the moon. The moon is a satelite that revolves around the earth. It has no source of water and no atmosphere. Simply said, there’s nothing to satisfy our thirst and no way to sustain life. Now let’s use this anology and instead make the moon a relationship that is not in the will of God. These relationships block the presence God and therefore support no life.  Just as the moon has zero gravity, these relationships have nothing to keep you steady or hold you firmly on the ground.

Go deeper in God…see His face…endure His season of processing by obeying whatever He reveals to your spirit. This tells God whether or not He can trust you with what you believe for your life. Sometimes God challenges your faith. When you draw close to the Lord and obey Him, He will bless your life according to what He’s destined for you to become. Dont think God wont use your bad experiences to bless your future.

God wants to bless us, but He has to be able to trust us. This means you must do what He has already given you the ability to do right now. God never asks you to give up something unless He already prepared something to take its place. Then you must be willing for Him to process you.  Seek His face and rist to the new level by obeying whatever God reveals for you to do.

God will always accomplish His purpose in our life through His Spirit. This means we have to process God’s revelation before we receive the anointing to live it. God is going to challenge us to grow in wisdom. We are in a season where God is allowing His people to tap into a realm of purification in our spirits. You must hear so that you can become instructed of God. God can wash you in wisdom by giving you information, revelation, and impartation.  Information informs you. Revelation allows you to discern the information on a deeper level. Impartation gives you the capacity to carry the revelations.

Ephesians 6:12 – Well Laid Plans

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

At birth, each of us has been assigned a familiar spirit whose task is to know everything about us – our likes and dislikes, our strengths and weaknesses, our vulnerabilities and more. Each piece of information gained is used to attack the very foundation of us. Each piece of information is used to keep us from walking into the light, that is, gaining and keeping our salvation. The enemy is slow to act and patient in his plan. He builds upon our insecurities, feeds on our fears, add fire to our anger and more. He enters onto the battlefield of our mine and wages war there. The Bible says that, “so a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. That’s right, we become what we think. We act out what we think. We speak our thoughts.

We have a choice – think good holy thoughts or give in to the destructive negative thoughts. We must choose to think holy.  We must use the weapons God has given us to fight against the darkness that tries to creep into our lives subtly. We must tear down the walls of our past and build upon the foundation of Salvation.  The enemy only has the power we give him.  He cannot enter our minds unless we allow him. He is subject to the authority of Jesus that lives in us. We need only to exercise that authority.  Knowledge is power.

2 Corinthians 2:10-11 – The Invitation

“If you forgive anyone anything, I too forgive that one; and what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sakes in the presence of Christ, to keep Satan from getting the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions.”

Corinth was the capital of Achaia (the southern half of present day Greece). The city was a flourishing trade center because of its seaport. With thousands of merchants and sailors disembarked there each year, it had developed a reputation as one of the most immoral cities in the ancient world.  Its many pagan temples encouraged the practice of sexual immorality along with idol worship.

Paul explains that it is time to forgive the man who had been punished by the church and had subsequently repented. The man needed forgiveness, acceptance and comfort. Satan would gain an advantage if they permanently separated this man from the congregation rather than forgiving and restoring him. Satan tries to harm the church by tempting it to discipline in an unforgiving way.

There are two invitations that can effect a person’s life permanently – the first is the invitation given by God and the second is the invitation given by Satan. Everyday Satan bombards our minds with thoughts, insecurities, arguments, theories, fears, doubts and more. He comes to us through deception. The things he presents look good to us because they appear to benefit us. What we find though is these things arent what they seem.

God invites us to join Him for eternity. The price is surrendering our will to Him, accepting Him as our Lord and Savior, and obedience to His Word. He has made this possible through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. Through Jesus’ death we were forgiven.

This verse shows us that human forgiveness should be like spiritual forgiveness. By each being the same, we can ensure Satan never gets a stronghold over us. The Bible tells us that we are not unaware of the tricks of the enemy. God makes available many tools to ensure we are knowledgeable of the enemies tactics, yet as people we are easily caught in his snare. Why is this? Disobedience, complacency, laziness, and even ignorance. We would rather live in the world enjoying the things in it. Which invitation will you accept?

Revelation 3:14-22 – Letter to the Church of Laodicea

 

Laodicea is a city in southwest Asia Minor on the ancient highway from Ephesus to Syria, ten miles west of Colossae and six miles south of Hieropolis.  Laodicea was well known for its wealth.  The extent of its wealth is illustrated by the fact that the city was rebuilt without the financial help from Rome after the disastrous earthquake of 60 A.D. Laodicea earned its wealth in the textile industry in the production of black wool and the banking industry.  It was also known for its medical school which concocted a spice nard for the treatment of ears and an eye salve.  The major weakness of Laodicea was its lack of a water supply. This need was met by bringing water six miles north from Dengii through a system of stone pipes. 

Laodicea was criticized by Jesus using imagery drawn from its daily life. First Jesus said Laodicea is neither cold (like the cold pure water of Colossae) nor hot (like the therapeutic springs of Hieropolis).  Laodicea is lukewarm and provides neither refreshment  for spiritually weary nor healing for the spiritually sick.  Despite their apparent spiritual wealth, the Laodiceans were claiming to have acquired both by their own efforts. In reality however, the Laodiceans, while they may have had material wealth, were spiritually poor, blind and naked.

According to Jesus, what Laodicea needed more than anything else was the true gold, white (not black) garments and eye salve that only Jesus could give. A true spiritual foundation is laid only in Christ, not human effort.  The letter of the risen Christ to the Church contains numerous allusions to the conditions in the city – a five mile long aqueduct supplied the city with tepid water that served as an image for “lukewarm” christianity.

The Laodicean’s claim to be rich and prosperous reflects their self reliant refusal of this city to accept Roman aid for rebuilding.  Their claims of prosperity, their description of their naked blindness and their identification with the eye salve symbolize the spiritual condition of the heart.

Deuteronomy 8:2 – Why am I here?

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way into the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart…He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…

The Bible tells us that we have three weapons – praise, prayer and the Word of God.  God led us into a time of trial, a time where we are in need of something to fill an emptiness we feel; a time of emotional unrest or complacency.  We exist there without a purpose, without desire and without drive.  During this time we struggle with things well beyond our abilities to fix. Why?

If we have the ability to overcome all things, we become self reliant, self centered, and selfish.  We, as people, tend to believe that it was through our own abilities that we are able to overcome.  In that process, God is lost.  In this passage, God gave the Israelites a specific amount of time to stay in their desert.  He even told us why they were there.  Funny thing is – God knew their heart and motives.  God gave the Israelites this time to allow them to see themselves for who they were.

Let’s think about the process of making steel.  As the heat is applied, the impurities surface.  They are then skimmed off leaving behind a stronger more pure metal.  Isnt it the same for us? We would never willingly walk into anything that would cause a negative feeling; that would hurt or cause us discomfort.  Yet, if you think about it, those hard times actually serve a purpose.

It is during our struggles that things, whether good or bad, surface within us.  This takes me back to something God said – a person has to see the problem before they can fix it.  If that problem never surfaces, it lays dormant only to surface at the wrong time.  God takes us to these places of trial to ciphen off the impurities within us, thereby making us stronger should the situation arise again.

Our trials are used to change us, to transform us into God’s likeness.  All these trials or situations, though they are uncomfortable and sometimes hurt, are to our benefit because they are what brings us closer to the image of God, while developing our trust and faith in the process.  During our time of trouble, our gaith grows; we become stronger. As we continue to follow God, we learn that praise, praer and the Word are the things we use to beat the enemy in his ploy.  As the enemy sees us drawing closer to God, he does whatever he can to cause us to stumble.  He uses our mind and the situations to convince us that God doesnt care, to convince us that God cant or wont do what He says, to convince us that because of our past mistakes that we are unworthy.  If the devil can do that, he has won the battle.  God, however, has given us the weapons of praise, prayer and worship to defeat the devil long before he gets us to that point.

Ephesians 6:10-18 now applies.  We must put on the full armor of God to prepare ourselves in this spiritual battle.  Just as a soldier puts on each piece of his gear to protect something vital from being harmed, we as Christians must put on the spiritual armor for the same reason. As I keep writing, I realize that the battle we fight begins in our mind.  Some of what is there began to take root when we were small.  The devil is cunning and patient.  He plants things in our mind slowly and subtly. Things begin to take root long before we realize we are out of control.  By the time we realize what is going on, the actions are natural to us, second nature, habit.

To begin to change, we must change the way we think.  Easier said than done when you think about how long you have been doing things wrong.  Picture this. A child enters a store and see something he wants.  He proceeds to put on a temper tantrum.  If the parent give into the childs ploy, the child learns that to receive what he wants he just has to act a fool.  If, on the other hand, the child is corrected and doesnt get his way, he learns to change his behavior. 

Our flesh is the child.  If we give into the flesh, we continue to do so later creating a habit hard to break, but if on the other hand, we deny that want, we break the habit and foster a change.  It all begins in the mind.  God has placed us in our situations to recognize ourselves for who we are, so that we can surrender ourselves to the only One who can bring about a change.  He also encourages us through our situations to persevere, thus being a living testimony for God to use as an instrument for another struggle through similar trials. The time spent in your desert has purpose, not to mention it lasts according to the time God has determined.  Walk through your storm, knowing that you are here with a purpose.

Romans 8:28-32

As I read Romans 8:28-32, I feel a message lies within these words.  I notice in many verses God always speaks in absolutes – using the words “all” and ”every”.  There is never a sense of partiality.  We know that in “ALL” things, God works for the “GOOD” of “THOSE” who “LOVE” Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  Seems that if we love God, it is because He has made it so.  So why are some called and others not?  Have we not all been hardhearted at one time or another?  What makes us different than any one else?  I hear the Spirit saying, “CHOICE”.  We who are called freely chose to love and believe in who God is.

Wow! Romans says we are predestined, called, justified and glorified.  All these words have a special meaning in that each is a “privilege” not a “right” to receive.  With that said, these words take on special meaning.  The dictionary defines the word “justified” as to declare as righteous, to erase away our sins.  What about glorified?  Worthy of all honor and praise.  I see how that applies to God, but how does that apply to us?  Do we deserve such a thing?  In itself, “NO”, but we do if we have been justified through the blood of Jesus.  So what differentiates being chosen and being called?  The Bible tells us that many have been called, but few have been chosen.  It is through the shedding of Jesus’ blood, we were justified, that is, forgiven of our sins.  As we were, we could never have stood before God, but bathed in His blood, we became perfect in His sight.

This verse keeps ringing in my mind – “and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him”.  You know if you are not careful, you could miss some of the meaning to this verse.  Let me explain.  When I read it the first time, I interpreted it to mean that no matter how bad the situation you were in, God would work it out to our benefit.  As I read, I began to learn that this verse also said that God would use everything in our lives to remake us and transform us into the likeness of Jesus. This tells me that this verse doesn’t stop at just working situations out to our benefit, but that situations in our life’s will be used to make us better in Christ.  This really gets me to thinking – no one will walk into a fire or should I say into an uncomfortable or hard situation. Our instinct is to stay where things are easy and safe.  Sort of like I was a few years ago.  I never would have volunteered to go to war.  Being cold, tired, overworked and now in a place where people want to kill you is not my idea of fun, yet this situation, if you really think about it brought out a lot of things in me such as faith, trust and a love of God.  I guess what I mean to say is – we can learn and grow to depend on God or we can let these things destroy us.

I feel like the secret to this faith walk is walking toward God and growing close to Him.  We all have a choice – life or die.  It’s funny because God always seems to push us outside our comfort zone.  It makes me think of a baby.  We as mothers know that the child must be burped frequently as they feed so that air doesn’t form in their bodies causing discomfort.  Doctors teach us that patting a child’s back works the air up, child burps, relief is achieved.  How does that compare to what I just said.  When God puts us into a position where we are outside our comfort zones, a place where we squirm and sweat, that’s when the ungodly things surface.  As these traits, characteristics, habits come to the surface, we learn we must deal with them by fixing them.  If things never become tough, these traits would never surface.  They would always be the root of our problem; they would always be the obstacle in our life that would keep us from walking forward.  Interesting, isn’t it!

Let’s take this a step further.  The first step to fixing a problem is to recognize you have a problem.  If the problem never surfaces, we never recognize it’s there and as a result we never fix it.  Have you noticed that problems never seem to surface until the situation begins to take a turn for the worse? Some of these problems are so deeply rooted in us that they are part of us.  To lose these things would be like losing what we feel is an integral part of our existence.  Most don’t realize until they struggle through the corrective process that things are so much better without it.  I think the devil’s goal is to convince us that we cant and don’t want to live without it. Convince us that we have to have it or we are less of a person than we are and the enemy has achieved his goal – “we never walk forward in God”.  It is so sad as I look back and see how much of my life was wasted thinking just like this.

The hardest part of this walk is just taking the first step.  I guess I am thankful because that is where God usually comes in.  Like a parent, God gives us a loving shove out the door.  We dont always accept it in th eway it was meant, but once we travel the road and look back, then we see it differently.

A War within Us! Fighting the Desires of Our Flesh

Today I want to talk about the flesh, that is, our carnal side, our sinful Nature; the side that desires to do all the things outside God’s will.  This is the beginning of all things, as it is the driving force to our actions, words and thoughts.  Webster defines flesh as the body distinct from the soul, all humankind.  Vines defines flesh as the weaker element in human nature, the “unregenerate state of men, the seat of sin in man, the natural attainment of ment”. Homan’s takes it a step further, “fallen human nature that is incapable of conforming to God’s holy expectation.  It is unaided human effort, mere human strength without the power of the Holy Spirit”.

Paul explains that our flesh and spirit are in conflict with each other within believers.  Ok, let’s think about all this holistically.  If our flesh is the side of us that is incapable of conforming to God’s holy expectation, that is, our effort without the power of the Holy Spirit and flesh/spirit are in conflict with each other, then we know that a war is always taking place inside us.  We all know the story of how sin entered into the world.  We all know that as a result of wrong choices, all humans are by nature sinful.  By nature means that w3e instictively, without thought, do wrong rather than good. Wrong being the desires to enjoy the worldly things, lust, money, pride, jealousy, anger and much more.

Our safe have, our way out comes in our acceptance of Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Our problem is, even with the indwelling of the Spirit of God within us, our sinful nature still exists within us.  It is only the Spirit that gives us the power to keep the sinful nature or natural tendancies at bay.  Like conditioning our bodies, we must condition our mind to give control over to the Spirit so that the natural tendancies of our flesh are kept in check.  Easy, right?  Not!

Life would be easy, if only we were in control, but other forces, unseen, are also hard at work setting up traps to keep us from succeeding.  If by nature we are sinful, then we must also know and understand how easy it is to give in to its desires. It is so much easier to give in to the ways of the world than to be something opposite our inborn traits.  Therefore, every moment of the day is a battle for us, a battle for our lives.  If you are anything like me, the battle is so great that often it appears hopeless to ever overcome its desires, its needs, it wants.  So what do we do about it?  How do we overcome? How do we be something we weren’t meant to be by nature? How do we win the battles raging within us?

The Bible says the Spirit is that power source that enables us to change that nature and conform to the will of God.  The hardest thing for us to do as Christians is to give up control of ourselves, let someone else to drive the train.  I find that though I desire to do right, doing wrong usually happens.  I find that though I try to do right, think the right thing, say the right thing – that it doesn’t take much to get led astray.  If my mind is distracted for one moment, all aspects of my intentions are affected.  When one proceeds the wrong way, it’s hard to stop the forward movement by turning around and going in the right direction.  In fact, you will find, the thought to go the right direction, usually doesn’t enter your mind until long after the damage is done.  If you are a Christian like me, the guilt or shame for ever traveling the wrong way begins to take root and grow.

Have you ever felt that your life is taking a nose dive, spiraling downward out of control and that you are powerless to change it.  I have and do.  So what do you do when that happens?  What do you do to regain control?  What do you do when reading the Bible or praying become to hard to do because guilt and shame keep you glued to your spot, unable to move forward? Do you ever feel that God wouldn’t listen? Have you felt too dirty with sin to approach God and ask Him for help?  I know just how you feel.

So let’s work through this together.

You know you are doing bad when you cant even trust yourself, your thoughts, your feelings, your intentions, to know if they are pure in heart.  Your heart cries out painfully for help to weave through all the confusion created as a result of your wrong choices, saying “Lord, intervene, take control before I destroy myself before I lose all I have spiritually gained.”

When these times hit and you are buried in a battle roaring within you, submerge yourself in God.  I find that when I am struggling, the only solution is running to the very One my flesh wants to avoid.  I pray, I praise in song, I study, but I seek God any way I know how.  Sounds funny, sound time consuming, sounds even stupid, but it works.  Open your Word and find God in the midst.  The more you seek, the more your spirit awakens and the easier it is to overcome the power of the flesh.  Know you are not alone.  Even the maturest of God’s Saints go through this very thing.

For as a Man Thinketh…

Mark 4:24 says, “Be careful what you are hearing.  The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.

We must hear and consider all we hear and learn.  We must take notice of the message we are to deliver, ensuring we are exact.  We must be cautious and on guard to prove that what’s heard is good.  Our ears should be deaf to evil counsel, while attentively, earnestly and devoutly hearing what is good.  Thoughts are very important.  They are powerful and have creative abilities.  If thoughts affect what we become, then it should be priority that we think right thoughts.   If our lives are in a state of chaos because of years of wrong thinking, then we must understand that our life will not just get straightened out until our mind does.  Be serious about tearing down the strongholds Satan has built in your mind.  Use your weapons of the Word, praise and prayer.

I keep bringing back this subject, not just for my benefit, but for others also.  We people, never think about our thoughts in this light.  We really dont think about how we accomplish things or by whose power we accomplish them.  We just do!  It isn’t until God takes hold in our lives that we begin to see things differently.  As we learn more about God, we realize that all we accomplish comes by Him.  We realize only through God revealing to us that our thoughts really play a major role in our actions and words.  That’s a big chunk to swallow because we must humble ourselves and accept these words – “we are what we think”.

If we take time out though and put these words to the test, we will find that they are more true than any of us would like to admit.  I did just that.  One day, out of sheer determination, I forced myself to think positively no matter the situation.  Almost immediately, people saw the change.  They couldn’t put their finger on what the change was, but hey saw something different.  Funny thing was, by changing my thoughts, I began walking in the light and that light began exposing the darkness around me.  Needless to say, exposing sn for what it was, wasn’t always received positively.

No, I didn’t purposely point out wrongs, that would have been wrong.  My walking right did the pointng for me.  My daughter could attest to that as she was one of the first to take notice and one of the first to be exposed and one of the first to become angry when it happened.  There was nothing she could say to defend her actions, she knew she was wrong, though I never said a word to expose her.  My walk revealed all she needed to know; God did the rest.  So you see, Proverbs 23:7 really holds true.  Try it for yourself.

No matter how bad the condition of your life and your mind, dont give up. Regain the territory the devil has stolen from you.  Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”. Simply said, keep on, keeping on.  Don’t be a quitter.  Don’t give up.  God is looking for people who will go all the way through with Him.  Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. WHen you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze”. Whatever you are experiencing, I encourage you to go through it and not give up.  The way God helps us make spiritual progress is by being with us to strengthen and encourage us “to keep on keeping on” in rough times.  It’s easy to quit, it takes faith to go on.

There were times I just wanted to give up.  I thank God that I didnt.  As I look back upon the mountains I climbed and the valleys I walked through, I realize and know that God saw me through it all.  Though I tired, God gave me strength and encouraged me to keep walking forward.  Yes, it was hard! Yes, it hurt, but oh, how I am stronger and better than before.  Each trial offered me a learning point, each trial makes me stronger in a particular area, each trial gave me some knowledge to offer someone else in a particular area.  I could have never helped another had I never experienced the pain of the situation first handed.  I was and am a living testimony for all to see, “if I can make it through and look at me now, then you can make it through too”.

Sometimes that alone brings a person to question, “how?” That opens the door for me to tell someone where God brought me from and how I got through.  Opportunity presents itself in all things, we just have to act on that opportunity rather than let it pass us by.  Opportunity can change our life as we see it now.  Keep moving forward.  There is much to learn.

Proverbs 23:7

Everything begins in our heart, the source of our emotions, our thoughts, our desires, all begin here.  Though our heart is not physically capable of thinking if we look at ourselves anatomically, the Word tells us that spiritually it has much power.   What is contained within its confines influences actions, thoughts, and words.  It is the source of what we become.  It is the part the devil seeks to poison.  It can be the source of our strength and success, or it can be our total destruction.

The Word tells us, “for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. Simply said, what flows through our heart, comes out in our mouth, our actions, and our minds.  God tells us in Colossians 3:1-2, to set our heart and mind on the things above.  That’s where most of us fall short.  It doesnt take much for us to lose focus, for us to take our eyes off of God.  God warns us in 1 Peter 5:8 when He tells us, “Be self controlled and alert.  Your enemy, the devil prowls like a roaming lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith.”

How do we resist him?  We resist him by fixing our eyes on Jesus. Vines defines fixing as steadfastly set, to make firm/solid/strong, to stand.  We must set and live according to the desires of the Spirit.  Let’s go back to 1 Peter 5:8 and look at the words “Self Control” and “alert”.  Control means to regulate, to exercise authority over or direct, therefore self-control is the means by which we regulate, direct, or exercise authority over ourselves, our actions, our thoughts, and our words.

You are probably thinking, “easier said than done”.  Well, that is the farthest thing from the truth.  We forget who lives in us and what power He possesses.  2 Corinthians 10:4-5 tells us that the weapons we fight with have the power to demolish strongholds, arguments and any pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.  We have the power to take into captivity every thought and make it obedient to God and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our problem is within Us.  We dont understand how to use that power when we fight.

We must be on our toes at all times.  The devil will take every opportunity he is given to destroy us right where we stand.  God’s Word tells us all we need to know to fight.  The problem is, we dont take the time to know God’s Word and therefore don’t arm ourselves with the weapons needed to defeat the enemy in his track.