Koinonia

"I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ."

~Philemon 1:6

A couple days ago I was praying in the spirit and kept hearing a distinct word: koinonia.  I thought it sounded familiar, and soon enough, the Holy Spirit began bringing me teachings and explanations of the term.  That was enough to make me realize that I'd already been living out the concept of koinonia recently in my own life.  Cool!

God wants us to live by this faith and with this word written on our hearts:  

"On earth as it is in Heaven".  

He wants us to experience Him and talk to Him, and then attract others into this blissful realm.  When Yahshua was transfigured on the Mount and talked with Moses and Elijah, He pulled others right into the Heavenly realms with Him.  Peter and John and James were included in this glory, even though it was almost too much for them.  

Heaven has to get out somehow - why not through you?  Once you're there, and only once you're there, can you freely give.  Only then can we talk to others within the confines of Yah's Heavenly Kingdom. Others can learn from us, and we can learn from others!  Contentment is key to pure communication.   If we rely on the contentment of God, than we can be content to flow out to others.  There's an attraction to God within somebody.  This is a fruit that can't help but be fruitful: the fruit of love.  Here's what Francois du Toit has to say about it:

"The Koinonia (communication) of our faith is ignited by the acknowledging of every good thing that is in us in Christ!"


Heavenly Father, let the cry of our hearts be for us to experience more of Your Love, and for us to love You back in turn.  Increase the hunger of our spirits within us and the calling out of our souls.  Let Your presence in us draw us to the right people in the right places at just the right time.  Let us always be a magnification of Your Love, and stretch us and mold us to conform to Your glory.  Draw us to friends who can stretch us and teach us new things, and let us live and talk and think in the light of Your Presence. Make us like you, Lord, and teach us something new today.  

A Peculiar People

God was showing me some interesting stuff today.  It's been hard to represent Christ here in Maine, and that has affected a lack of boldness on my part.  But the Holy Spirit's been showing me a way out: humor.

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light"

1 Peter 2:9

See, as a Christian, it's OK to be different.  We are supposed to be different!  And once we realize that death to self has already occurred (Col. 3:3) and get past the fears induced by self-preservation (which is really just rooted in selfishness), it becomes FUN to be different!

It's nice to know that we're chosen, but how do we react to this truth?  The second half of the above verse says that God's purpose in election is this:

...that we should hew forth the praises of Him who called us into true life.  

No matter where we are or who we're around, we're called to proclaim His goodness, His Marvelous Light.  We're called to appear to others as different, as strange, as unorthodox, as weird, as peculiar! You can expect that not everyone will understand you (John 1:5)-- but that's OK!

God was showing me today that it's fun to break free from societal norms.  It's fun to have Him put you on display (1 Cor. 4:9).  It's fun to be made a spectacle and object of attention that emanates otherworldly. It's basically like living out inside joke that just you and the Holy Spirit are in on. Doesn't that sound fun?

The key to realizing all this is union with Messiah (John 15:2 and context).  We were made for more than an average life; we were made for more than superficial material gain or arbitrarily scheduled schedules.  The Holy Spirit cannot be contained by our own purposes or plans (Isaiah 55:9).  The Holy Spirit delights in being radical (Proverbs 8:31), and so can you!  

Obligations

"Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do..."

~Romans 8:12

Today I've been looking over my own life and realizing that I do more things than I should under the power of obligation.  Meaning I feel obligated to do mundane, day to day stuff...instead of feeling freedom, I've been feeling pressured to compulsively perform.

The truth in Christ though, is that there is no obligatory work.  There is no obligation to sin and mess up; you've been set free from sin!  You don't have to do it anymore.  Sin is not your nature.  Why not?  Well, look at the preceding verses and you'll see that it's because Christ is in you.  And His work in you overcame the world and all of it's sin along with it.

The only obligatory work we need to do is believe.  We must believe at all times; we must not fall out of faith.   Paul instructed the Corinthians to inspect themselves, by their fruit, to determine if they really believed.  Having the faith of God is important.  It's His faith that binds us together and raises us with Him.

The only obligation we have is to enter His rest.  Many Christians miss this -- the book of Hebrews says that so did the Ancient Israelites.  And until we really believe, there will be warfare, there will be ups and down, and there will be very difficult points.  It's in focusing on Him that these kinds of battles are won.

"...For if you live according to flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

~Romans 8:13

The only way to stay in belief is to remain in the Spirit.  If you set up your tent with God, if you give Him your heart, He'll give you His feelings towards you and inspire you to trust Him.  It's the Holy Spirit who inspires belief and points us towards Yahshua, the Son of God.

When we believe, we pave the way for the reality of God to become greater, in our lives, than anything else.  Our activities get drowned out.  Our attentions and distractions get forgotten.  Our obligations get burned away.  We don't have to do a thing but believe in what Messiah's done!

This is a belief that will make you joyful and give you energy.  It will quicken and electrify your physical bodies.  It will cause you to do stuff because you want to...not because you're scared of man. There will be no fears and no thoughts of feelings in the things you do, because you've made God the most important thing.

The only obligation we have is to live for God.  And living for God flows out of belief in His goodness and love!  The only fight we fight is the fight of faith.  And when faith comes, we are no longer supervised and micromanaged by the law.  We are free to do everything, or free to do nothing! The nature of self-worth through what you're doing will be gone; you'll be set free from yourself.  It feels good to follow God; it feels good to have a light burden and have Hims simplify your life.

Faith and Trust

Faith sees the future as a moment of God's action seamlessly being woven into the present.  Faith is a past tense thing.  Faith is believing that God is going to catch you up to where He eventually has you.

But really, faith is trust!  Faith and trust go hand in hand.  Trust overcomes fear and insecurity. Trust acknowledges our Heavenly Father's goodness in all things.  Trust allows the Comforter to do one of His many jobs and comfort us!  Below is an excerpt on this subject by Smith Wigglesworth:


"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:23, 24)

These are days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God. God has designed that the just shall live by faith. Any man can be changed by faith, no matter how he may be fettered. I know that God's word is sufficient. One word from Him can change a nation. His word is from everlasting to everlasting. It is through the entrance of this everlasting Word, this incorruptible seed, that we are born again, and come into this wonderful salvation. Man cannot live by bread alone, but must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is the food of faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

Everywhere men are trying to discredit the Bible and take from it all the miraculous. One preacher says, "Well, you know, Jesus arranged beforehand to have that colt tied where it was, and for the men to say just what they did." I tell you God can arrange everything without going near. He can plan for you, and when He plans for you, all is peace. All things are possible if you will believe.

Forgetting the Gospel?

"Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to Yahweh  your Elohim, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity."

~Joel 2:13

I've been thinking about the term "dying daily" recently (1 Cor. 15:31).  And I think it means something subtly different than what many Christians assume.

"But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation."              ~Colossians 1:22

The truth in Messiah is that we've already died, once and for all.  You died with Christ -- thus, there is no more dying to do! The Holy Spirit already cleansed you, sanctified you, and gave you the seal of Resurrection life (Ephesians 1:13).  What Jesus did was enough.  So I don't think Paul was talking about constantly spiritually 'killing' oneself, again and again and again.  He wasn't saying that we must obsessively purge ourselves from each and every sin.  No...Dying daily is about remembrance.

Martin Luther (supposedly?) said, "we need to hear the gospel everyday because we forget it everyday".  And it's true!  The good news is almost too good to be true. It's almost unbelievable, and it would be, without the power of the Spirit drawing us in (John 6:44).  Even after belief, our minds must be continually renewed (Romans 12:2).  The Gospel can be hard to get a grasp on!

If you're stressed out, if you are anxious, it's ultimately because you've had a short term crisis in faith. Perfect peace have they that love Yah's law (Psalm 119:165).  That's the law of love, which you are currently living under (Romans 8:2)! If you are not being in peace, it's because of unbelief.

All it takes to get your peace back is to rest and remember.  It's critical that we are always remembering the gospel.  In the Old Testament, Yahweh commanded Joshua and fellow Israelites to set up memorial stones after having passed through the Jordan (Joshua 4).  Symbolically speaking, they had just been baptized.  They'd just entered into the Promise (Hebrews 4:8).

They had arrived.   Yet the good news is -- so have you! And your conversion experience has been far more glorious (2 Cor. 4). Christ is the stone that commemorates your arrival into the Kingdom (Matthew 21:42). But to live in the bliss of this truth, belief and contemplation is required.

There is a violence that comes with believing (Matthew 11:12).  There is a necessity to tear and to rend your heart; to return to the truth.  There is a putting off of the old and a welcoming of the new.  There is a dying to oneself -- but only in the sense of remembering that you've already been reborn and made new! Belief will always produce tangible results.

Peace I Give to You

"Peace I leaue with you, my peace I geue vnto you. Not as the world geueth, geue I vnto you. Let not youre hertes be greued, nether feare."       ~Yahshua (John 14:27)

Jesus has given you peace.  But have you received it?  Have you accepted His peace into your reality?  Did you feel peaceful reading this almost unreadable 1540 'Great Bible' Miles Coverdale edition?  You certainly can.  All it takes is a little faith.

Yahweh wants us to have peace like a river, peace like the ocean, peace like He has.  He wants you to have peace all the time.  He wants you to have so much peace it's impossible.

God was speaking to me about this today.  His truth is that there has not, is not, and will not been a valid reason to lose peace.  Nothing is so important as to make you break the faith (Romans 11:20).  That's really what the loss of peace implies -- it's a temporary loss of belief.  The two go hand in hand.  God is bigger than your problems!

Peace is also tied in with patience.  Peace recognizes and rest in the truth that Yahweh is not slow in keeping His promises (2 Peter 3:9).  The battle is His (2 Chron. 20:15), and when it comes, you'll win with Him.  Belief is peace.

On Keeping the Sabbath: A Restful Life

"So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of Yahweh. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as Yahweh did from His..."       ~Hebrews 4:11

The Holy Book says that there is a rest that remains.  What is this?  It's something different than the Old Testament's Sabbath Day commandments.  It's something that rendered the Old obsolete.  It's a Rest that transcends practical judgement, because God wants to have our hearts (2 Cor. 5:16).  Rest is a state of being that remains.

Why did God rest from His works?  Because Jesus was telling the truth when He cried out on the cross: "IT IS FINISHED" (John 19:30).  And If God is still resting, content with the fulfillment of His Redeeming plan, then we should follow His example and rest too!

"...Let us make every effort, therefore, to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience."      ~Hebrews 4:12

Entering God's rest, truly, constantly and unconditionally keeping it, may take a lot of effort.  It may take a lot of faith.  But what are we, that we could have "a lot" of anything?  What are we, that Yahweh is mindful of us (Psalms 8:4)?  Remember that it's His Work that gets us there, and not our own.  Apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5).

Our only work, our "every effort", should only be made concerning our belief.  That's the work that God expects, demands from us.  Are we really believing?  Hopefully so --cause that's all that Yahshua wants (John 6:29).  Everything else will flow out from that -- the rest is up to you.  Faith + trust = Rest.

Now, I'm not contradicting my previous post on the Sabbath.  The commandment has been good, and it continues to be good (Romans 7:12).  Keeping a physical Sabbath may well just be an intermediate tool; a way to ensure that we are doing everything that day with intention and joy.  It might serve as a wonderful stepping stone that helps you grasp the spiritual symbolism involved.  The Sabbath provokes internal inspection...are we doing things out of obligation, or are we seeing our time as being redeemed by God?  Don't be enslaved by your own business (Gal. 5:1). That's not God's best for you.  I think observing a Sabbath that excludes any compulsive act (2 Cor. 9:7) is a great idea.

The next question is...On what day? Should you observe Saturday, Sunday, the Jewish lunar calendar, or the lunar-solar calendar?  There are fringe groups out there who would claim that their approach to all this is the only way.  Who cares?  Paul called such topics "disputable matters" (Romans 14:1).

Like I said, there remains a Sabbath that transcends physicality.  God wants you to be so thankful for every moment, that even the hardest work you do is still purely Rest.  He wants you to pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  He wants you to carry such a heavy awareness of Him that any of your own efforts are blotted out by His monumental Light.

It's OK to be blinded by love.  Yahweh wants us to take our eyes off ourselves so we can enjoy Heavenly, blissful rest.

Just an Update: Rest

Back to the blog.  Vanessa and I have both been busy since my last post back in September!  She's working on a music video, and I'm trying to learn guitar, so I can play with her in the future.  Fun!

God's been teaching us to rest.  He's showing us that what we do doesn't really matter--at least not compared to what He did.  It's a fresh measure of grace.  He's showing us how to switch from a work mentality to a rest mentality.

"Yahshua answered:  this is the work of Elohim: to believe in the One He has sent"

John 6:29

That's the work of God!  See, the only work we do is having faith in His Son.  And at the point that we have faith, we can enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:1).  The only work we have to do is enter into the promised land, and since we're already there in God's eyes, all we have to do is believe it. Anyone who chooses to believe can live in Heaven on earth.  You have already arrived.

I'm not saying that life is easy or perfect.  I've had a very up and down last few months.  There have been times when I'm not joyful, when I don't feel like praying, or when I feel depressed.  And those things are unusual for me.  But the difference is that the pressure is off.

Yahweh has been luring me back in (Hosea 2:14).  Even though many days I haven't tried to 'press in' or pray in tongues all day, God is still there. He's speaking to me more clearly than ever, showing me things to come.  He's giving me beautiful dreams and visions.   

All this is not because of me.  All I've done is get bogged down in my weaknesses.  But God sees His Son in me.  I don't have to impress Him; I get to be impressed by Him!

The future is still bright.  It's brighter than ever!  Our hope is in His Glory--which is Christ in us. (Colossians 1:27)

From now on, I'll continue updating the blog.  Hopefully almost every day.  God's always doing something amazing, so I'll try to document some of that!

  

 

The Gift of Faith in Prayer, Part Four

How do we walk in the gift of faith? Well...

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"                          Romans 10:17

"...Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise."                John 5:19

"For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak."                                                 John 12:49

In order to operate in the gift of faith, we need to draw closer to the Lord.  We need to hear His will and act only based on that.  This is a trust thing!

God wants us to operate in the creative gift of faith.  This is a place of prophetic inspiration and declaration.  We pray according to His will on heaven, in order to see His will happen on earth!

The Gift of Faith in Prayer, Part Three!

God gives good gifts to us--liberally and without finding fault!  And He wants to give us the gift of faith to empower us to reach others for Him.

The gift of faith moves us to simple and restful prayers.  We need to realize the power of simply saying our Master's name!  As we do, the supernatural will just start to flow.

The Word says we prophecy in accordance with our measure of faith, and it is the same with healing prayer.  The more faith we have, the more we'll see, because our own unbelief can hinder God.  We can all acknowledge God's power, and as we do, the more we'll see His power at work.

It's for freedom that we've been set free.  We are free to eagerly desire the gift of faith.  Desire leads to the revelation that God's been holding out the blessings to us all along.

The Gift of Faith in Prayer, Part Two

God wants to give us enough faith to pray effectively.  God wants us to have enough of His faith to not hold back!

The gift of faith approaches when you just think about the Lord.  He's with you wherever you go!  All you need to do is step out on God's goodness.

Included are some examples of what it looks like to operate in different levels of faith.  Faith is resting in the assurance of God's will.

The Gift of Faith in Prayer, Part One

"And I will do whatever you ask for in my Name, so that the Father's glory will be shown through the Son. If you ask me for anything in my Name, I will do it."

John 14:13-14

We need to recognize the promise here.  We need our faith to be built up, or else we risk hindering the coming influxes of God's glory.  

God wants to give us increasing faith.  He wants to take us on from one level of trust to another.  We're free to step out in faith, and we're free to be released from the doubts of our own human logic.  

We don't need to be afraid to ask.  We need to be ready to ask, so that we can readily receive.  Whoever asks receives (Matthew 7:8).

As much as we decide to try, that's the extent we're going to see.  God takes pleasure out of bold prayers.  

Video Journal: God's Faith in Kids!

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 19:14

Recently God has been at work (well, I guess He's always been at work...) among kids.  We've been blessed to see several healing miracles in the last week, all because parents, children, and friends decided to come together and simply trust God.  All it takes is a little faith!  Jesus provided the substance for our healing some time ago....

"Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

You have ordained strength,

Because of Your enemies,

That You may silence the enemy and the avenger."

Psalm 8:2

Video Journal: Praying by Faith

"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words."                     ~Matthew 6:7

We're supposed to pray on earth as it is in heaven.  There's an assurance there!  If praying for others doesn't get you excited, then you're probably not praying by faith.  Heartfelt prayer shifts things on earth into the realities of heaven!  I think that's something to get excited about.

If we're praying by faith, we'll be more concerned with the aftereffects of our prayers than with the length of them.  We'll pray anticipating what God will do.  We'll say the words He wants us to say, and then know that we're praying for something that He's already set His heart on doing.  This is a place of resting in faith.

If we're praying by faith, we'll even try to shorten our prayers so that we can more quickly see God's answer!  Remember that God moved on behalf of Abraham even before his servant could even finish praying. (Gen. 24)  God knows the need.  If we pray by faith, we'll get out of the way as fast as possible and just let the Holy Spirit work!

*Note: this post is talking about prayer in the context of praying for others, particularly for healing, deliverance, salvation, etc.  There is a place for lengthy prayers--generally when you're praying in secret, praying for your own spiritual growth, or prophesying

Video Journal: Power in The Hands

"Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle."
Psalm 144:1

When God compels us to pray, we need to accept His gift of faith.  We need to accept His power. We need to expect His love, and we need to expect from that a powerful manifestation.

God taught David how to overcome with His hands, and God is just the same today. We need to accept that God has overcome, and to believe for His will to flow down onto the earth.  We need the Holy Spirit, the Ruach Elohim, to teach us how to pray. (Luke 11:1)

Our faith is just a mirror-image of God's faith.  God's faith is the substance!  And we can conceptualize that faith really is a force when we use our hands to pray.

When our hands become controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit, that's when God takes over.

Praying with your hands, whether scanning with them, pushing with them, circling with them--whatever God calls you to do--might feel weird at first.  It's different!  God is different.  But praying and warring with your hands is worth it, because it's our calling to demonstrate the faith of God in action.

Video Journal: Interceding by Faith

"Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up"  Luke 18:1

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints"                                      Ephesians 6:18

When we pray in the Spirit, we will have the spiritual realm in view.  God will give us insight and show us how to pray.  The insight God gives will make us on the alert.  The insight God gives will be exciting.

God will give you the mind of Christ.  He'll show you how to pray and intercede by faith, so you can partner with Him on behalf of others.

Realize that everything God says can be accepted by faith.  Everything God does needs to be accepted by faith! You can think of faith as the force that opens the door to the next thing God has for you.

If intercession isn't a privilege, then you're not doing it from a heavenly perspective, nor by faith.  It wasn't fun for me for the longest time.  Intercession becomes a joy when you're praying for others and feeling God's love for them.  That's what it's all about!

When you're interceding with God, it's no longer a heavy burden.  Praying by faith produces tangible results.  If we as believers will just pray according to God's heart, then we'll see the faith of God shift things!  We'll see His hand line things up.  And most importantly, we'll see things on earth become as they are in Heaven.  We'll see the Kingdom of God surround our lives and situations.

Faith is A Force

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Hebrews 11:1

Faith changes things.  Faith is the Holy Spirit within us agreeing with God.  Any gift or blessing or victory that God wants to give us comes by faith.  Faith is what makes God's perfect will possible.  

Let's look into this verse a little bit, starting out with the first half of it:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for..."

There are things that all of us are hoping for that have not yet come to pass.  We've been hoping in God's promises, in His Logos and Rhema Word, and we haven't seen everything yet.  And that's okay--delays are OK--as long as we have faith!  Faith manifests the things that we've been hoping for.  Faith is as tangible as God's promises get, prior to their actual fulfillment.  And if faith is that tangible, if it's an actual substance, then we can see that our faith paves the way for God to act on our behalf.  Faith is a force that works in companionship with hope, bringing first spiritual substance and then physical substance into our lives.  Faith is a force that changes things.

"...the evidence of things not seen."

We need to remember that God is the One who can make something wonderful out of nothing.  We need to remember that things we are not yet seeing will soon be brought to us.  We need to remember that it is God who makes all things possible.  It's God who brings all His promised to pass.  And our faith need to acknowledge this.  Our faith needs to have God's foresight.  Our faith needs to produce actions, so that these actions can serve as proof--evidence-- of things yet to come.  

And if our faith is evidence of God's future purposes, then the way we live our lives today should be evidence of our faith.   Our faith will point to that future point in time when God does a miracle. Our faith will lead us to walk in a way that looks foolish to the outside world.  Our faith will probably even make us look foolish to other Christians!  Our faith should lead us to expect God to come through.   Our faith may lead us into 'dangerous' situations.

Before God comes through, our faith will be the only evidence that others can see of His future plans. In a sense, our faith will be prophetic, and our faith will be ahead of it's time. God chooses the foolish things to shame the wise--eventually!  In the meantime, however, others may try to shame us if we live according to a higher measure of faith.  Even then, it's up to us to provide the only evidence we can--our faith--of that coming moment when God fulfills our hopes.

If we have faith, we should have works.  Our faith and our actions should be in agreement!  Together, they will provide the initial evidence of God's plans.  Together, they will eventually provide the foundation for an amazing testimony.  When God comes through, and when others see that He rewarded our faith, that's when the foolish things shame the wise.  That's when true wisdom is--finally--proved right by her actions (Matthew 11:19).  That's when others can see that we partnered with the Lord.  That's when others can see that we were right act 'foolishly' and put all our faith in God.  

To quote Kenneth Copeland, faith is a force.  It is the force that brings us into alignment with God, and it is the force that makes something "on earth as it is in Heaven".  Faith is a force that heals and saves and delivers.  Faith is a force that encourages God to do something big.  

Video: Building Faith--It takes Positive Reinforcement!

Faith comes from hearing (Romans 10:17).  The more faith we have in God, the more equipped we are to have Him speak to us.  And the more equipped we are, the more He can give us the specifics (Mark 4:11)!

Each person sees (hears) in part, according to their measure of faith.  As we hear, we speak, and the inner witness of the Holy Spirit takes us onwards into specifics.  As faith is built, God's knowledge is revealed.  That's when words of knowledge, words of wisdom, words of prophecy flow.

I'm not aware of anyone who received more accurate words of knowledge than William Branham. Now, I do think he got off base, especially near the end of his life, when it came to his theology...but I believe he was a child of God who the Spirit used in amazing ways.

 


What an example of how faith makes a way for the prophetic to flow.  What an example of the Spirit of prophecy!  If more people in the body of Christ operated in even a fraction of this insight, I think we'd be making a lot more disciples.  Praise God!

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith..."                    Romans 12:6

When The Power of God is Present

"And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them."      Luke 5:17

How does the power of God show up today?  It shows up when people are desperate.  It shows up when people turn their desperation into expectation.  It shows up when faith is activated and people expect the Holy Spirit to work miracles!

Ministry becomes so much easier when the power of the Lord is present to heal.  Everything is easier when the power of God is there!  The Spirit of love comes in, and things start happening.  Events start aligning.  People start aligning.  Ministry breaks out, and so does the miraculous.

I remember about a year ago, Vanessa and I were praying for a man with back pain.  We were right outside our favorite restaurant, and a few people were beginning to take notice.  The Lord healed this man pretty dramatically.  Wonderful!  And then another man, an easygoing catholic guy, came up.  He wanted to know what was going on.

And then this second guy remarked that he, too, had back pain.  Vanessa and I knew what to do.  Faith had already been activated!  So, the guy talks about his back hurting, and continues walking up to us.  When he got close, I asked him how he was feeling now.  He said all the pain was gone!  Nobody prayed for him.  See, Jesus was there all along.  The Holy Spirit had already set up shop among us.  The power of the Lord overshadowed us.  The power of the Lord was present to heal.

This is what we need today, and it needs to begin within the Church.  We as Christians need His power enveloping us! We as believers need to be ministered to!

Once we ourselves are within God's power, then we can minister out of it!  Those not yet saved need to be exposed to the power.  They need to be exposed to the manifest presence of Jesus.  Those not yet convicted will only be convicted when the power of the Lord is present.  They'll only be saved when the supernatural power of God begins to flow.  This is a place of ministry.  This is a place of love.  This is a place of being inhabited by the Holy Spirit.  We need to have the Spirit, and we need to have His power.  We need to have been so touched by Him that wherever we go, the power of the Lord is present to heal.


"...And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power"         1 Corinthians 2:4

Declarations Make A Way

A recent theme--declarations!  God says something, we believe it, and then we speak it.  Receive, believe, achieve!

There are two types of declarations I want to go into here.  We can declare things from the written word, or we can declare things from the spoken word.  Both types can be Spirit-filled and Spirit-led, but one usually requires more discernment than another.  Let's look at both.

1)  Written-Word Declarations

Here we recite something written in God's Word--we take a written promise and make it our own.  For example, I may say, 'I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus'.  This is truth, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21.  Believing the Word, and hearing and speaking it, is how we are sanctified.  We are sanctified by the truth! (John 17:17)

We can also declare scripture when we are tempted by the devil.  Remember, that's what Jesus did!  So the Word is for upliftment, but it's also for warfare--it's our sword and our weapon for battle.

2)  Spoken-word Declarations

These can be tricker.  We need ears to hear; we need our own spiritual ears to be closely attuned.  The voice of the Holy Spirit is worth listening for!  For example, today the Lord showed me the shield of faith, and prompted me to pray that over myself.  So I did.  Another example--I may hear the Spirit speak strength to my body.  What should my response be?  Well, probably to speak strength to myself.  That's where faith comes in!  If God said it, then I need to believe it.  Do I feel stronger?  Yes!  Because it is written!  The joy of the Lord is my strength.

We declare what God says first.  If God didn't set the precedent, our declarations probably won't work. Remember that Job's friends were wrong! We need to be in tune, discerning, and not presumptuous.  We need to value His voice.

Written-Word and spoken-word declarations go hand in hand!  They feed off of each other!  We can have the Bible confirmed by hearing His personal voice, and we can confirm our rhema words by testing them against scripture.   Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17), and hearing comes in many forms.

When we declare God's will, it looses the heavens.  It loosens angels and an empowerment of the Holy Spirit.  It loosens any blockages and binds any opposition.  God's will comes down unrestrained, on earth as it is in Heaven!  That's what declaring does!  It brings us up into God's reality.  It brings up our faith, and our faith takes us to a place where God really is.  Declarations make a way.