Kathy — If we pray out of our opinions and judgments rather than the heart of God, we can bring ourselves under judgment rather than blessing. Also, we position ourselves for discouragement and unbelief because our prayers are hindered as Js.4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives.” (NAS)
Is the real need of this nation a great politician or a real church? Politicians would hardly ever get a mention in the news media if the church was being and doing everything Jesus was and did when He was on earth. One of the major factors that got Jesus crucified was that He was getting more press than Caesar. People were following and clamoring after Jesus because of His acts which so effectively represented the Father. When Jesus confronted and contradicted darkness through redemptive acts it got the nation’s attention. After consistently revealing the Father in this manner, there was a snowballing effort to make Jesus king. Simply put, Jesus was more representative of life and productivity than was Caesar with all his financial resources and all his millions of citizens. Needs were met and problems solved that Caesar had no capacity for.
Kathy — How do we fight for a corporate cause when we are fighting to survive individually? First, we must take hope that God has positioned gifts and strengths geographically and relationally for corporate wars ahead of time, and we must believe corporate agreement will defeat customized weapons as well as enemies with tenure that are attempting to protect ungodly strongholds. Secondly, we have to be confident that being the target does not mean we have to just take a right hook and then wait helplessly for a left jab every time the enemy gets upset. We are not a victim nor a God-authorized target. Once that is settled in us we can fight with confidence and win through time and perseverance. Heb.3:14, Msg — “If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.”
Preferred Government — Nebuchanezar was in office for an unlimited term. Nebuchanezar is the one who took the choicest of Israel’s future and enslaved them for the purpose of culturizing them to the values of Babylon. In spite of that fact the Hebrews Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego triumphed and impacted the culture of Babylon with the precepts of Jehovah. (Let us not forget that much prayer was the habit of Daniel.) Saul was in office for an unlimited term. Saul is the one who attempted to murder the future of Israel’s government. In spite of that fact David triumphed. Saul was actually used as a catalyst to join the tribes of the nation to David and see that he was seated on the throne. (Remember: David is an Old Testament type of the New Testament Christ) After being under Saul’s government, Israel much preferred the government of David (NT Christ) over the government of Saul (Heb.: “desired”). He who was so desired became so undesired. (Let us not forget that much worship was the habit of David.)
Kathy — Warfare and Tipping Points — In the old western movies, when the town was too conditioned to the reign of an old foe, the lone sheriff (governmental agent) had to fight him alone. The governmental agent, (the God-appointee to the situation), moved forward and equipped them through example, inspiration and direction. Then “the few” stepped up to unify and finally brought the tipping point. The eventual key to victory was when enough of the townspeople and landowners decided to defy evil and stood together. However, realistically, the tipping point can take a long time to develop because victims are so conditioned to corruption or fear of bucking it. During the time it takes to unify a corporate tipping point, unfortunately, the government agent more often than not becomes the target of rulers of darkness who hold tenure. While being targeted by the enemy, there will be attacks on relationships, circumstances and health to the point that it can seem like the real challenge is keeping the governmental agents ALIVE for the mandate! Rom.12:11-12, The Message — “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.”
As the people of God assemble today, may they realize that they have been elected to an unlimited term of office. May they rejoice in God their Savior Who has elected them to be defended and to provide justice in their behalf. “And will not [our just] God defend and avenge His elect [His chosen ones] who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay [in providing justice] on their behalf?” (Lk.18:7, Amp)
In spite of some past inferences we might have heard concerning prayer, God is not a celestial bellboy waiting in an anteroom for us to ring a bell to do what we require. Rather, in prayer, we partner with God for His purposes in our lives and in this earth. Jesus went apart from the crowd to pray so that He might find how to partner with His Father so He could glorify Him. Jn.12:27, (The Passion Translation) — “Even though I am torn within, and my soul is in turmoil, I will not ask the Father to rescue me from this hour of trial. For I have come to fulfill my purpose—to offer myself to God.”
Kathy—When we are in a hard place the first decision we have to make is to trust God or harden our hearts & handle things our own way. The only recourse you have if you don’t trust God is to take control of the situation. Control is about ME, my feelings, my rights, and my desires. To trust God we must embrace the truth about His character and His ways consistently until belief is consistent in us. Prov.3:5-6, KJV — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
Martin Luther said that prayer is not overcoming the reluctance of God but it is laying hold of the willingness of God. Why didn’t he say “finding the willingness of God”? There is a lot more in laying hold than in finding. You may find gold, but you have not laid hold of it until you have dug. Let us dig in and find His willingness. Js.5:17, TPT — “Elijah was a man with human frailties, just like all of us, but he prayed and received supernatural answers. He actually shut the heavens over the land so there would be no rain for three and a half years!”
Kathy — Why is our trust in God sometimes in pieces? I think it is because of all the times it’s been shaken. I’m talking about every time that we followed our emotions through a trial and we “trusted” God to come through like we felt He should…. but He didn’t. Our trust was shaken if not shattered, not because He’s not trustworthy, but because He did not allow us to manipulate the situation or Him. Ps.18:2, TPT — “You’re as real to me as bedrock beneath my feet, like a castle on a cliff, my forever firm fortress, my mountain of hiding, my pathway of escape, my tower of rescue where none can reach me. My secret strength and shield around me, you are salvation’s ray of brightness shining on the hillside, always the champion of my cause.”
Start your own spiritual history. Lack or infirmity may be just about all the generational history you have. You be the one to break the cycle. You be the one who refuses to embrace that old history. Matt.16:19-”whatever you bind on earth.” It has already been done in the heavenlies. Start walking and talking it on the earth. Eph.1:19-20, TPT — “I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power 20 that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!”
Kathy — When you are mistreated or attacked or accused or scared or you step in the neighbor’s dog droppings in your own yard you might not deliberately think, “Back off God, I’ll handle this.” In fact, you’re not likely to think of dog droppings and God in the same thought! The point is that there’s no time to hear God when emotions erupt. That tells us that emotions are one of the big reasons that we harden our hearts. 2Pe1:6, Amp — “For this very reason, applying your diligence [to the divine promises, make every effort] in [exercising] your faith to, develop moral excellence, and in moral excellence, knowledge (insight, understanding), 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, steadfastness, and in your steadfastness, godliness.”
As the people of God assemble today and they sing out praises and worship and they hear the powerful Word of God taught, may they realize it is time to take yet another step. May each one take a step more in the direction the Lord has them headed in within their bent, their calling, their purpose. This is the season for stepping up to the next level of purpose and function in the Kingdom of God. Prov.3:5-6, Amp — “Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. 6 In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].”
We are celebrating Reformation Day! On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the Wittenberg Church door in Germany. What had been covered over by centuries of profitable and manipulative tradition, was exposed and the truth of God’s Word, the Gospel of salvation by grace (Eph.2:8), was made known. There is ONE Mediator between God and man, not a Mediator plus someone or some religious/ecclesiastical system (Heb.10:10). That Mediator, JESUS, alone was appointed by God to make atonement for the sins of men by His death. His atonement alone gives only Him authorization to be our Intercessor with God in our behalf. All persons (no matter race or creed) are to go directly to that Intercessor JESUS (Heb.7:25) and trust only in this Mediator alone. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1Tim.2:5).
Kathy — At God-intersections, when He reveals His doings, we witness not only His acts but also His might and love and faithfulness. Seeing beyond the “what” to the “who” He will most certainly stir us to worship and our worship is a sound of agreement from the earth regarding who He is in Heaven! I don’t know yet all that His breakthroughs have prepped and set in motion, but I believe we will recognize them as the Intervener intervening in the weeks to come.
Have a shoe that rubs your foot? If you limp in a certain way and with certain timing, it ain’t such a bad way to live. You can get by. But there is more to life than just getting by. You don’t have to learn to live with that shoe. We have only begun to scratch the surface of what God says we can do and have. “The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that they might have life more abundant.” (Jn10:10)
Kathy — The Israelites feared they could not keep foreigners and their devils and their darkness from invading just as today many believers can’t see how we can push back the darkness that is threatening our boundaries (and unfortunately we have had decades of dispensational teaching to back us not even trying). However, while there are devilish absurdities pushing all our boundaries, we do not have to bow to false god worshipers nor make their dreams come true. We dare not. Instead, we can renew our minds and align with our Father’s agenda so that I AM’s presence, power, ruling authority, governmental order, design and intent manifest and change our nation into an as in heaven condition. The Israelites didn’t mount up in mass and charge Goliath and take him down. It was David, just a remnant, that faced off with him and took him down. Many or few (1Sam.14:6), renewing our minds will position us to defeat darkness in our nation.
Israel had never settled for the likes of Egyptian bondage before the time period of their oppression there but they eventually accepted their circumstances. And the resolve was passed on to those who came after them. They were so removed from the presence of God that they became afraid of His presence (Ex.20:18). Defeat and discouragement make you think backwards. But the Spirit of God can turn us around. 1Co.2:12, KJV — “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
Kathy — We seek first the Kingdom by looking to the King, the All-that’s-needed, Present-tense, Undefeatable I AM who is the core of “as it is in heaven”. After looking to Him we can see as He sees. Seeing from heaven to earth is a different dynamic than from earth to heaven. From heaven we look through His scope and see where the lines fall and should fall rather than looking up through the chaos and disorder of earth. From heaven to earth, His wisdom and intent override emotion and memories and experience and preferences and mis-beliefs and needs and longings and grief and impatience and fear that can distort our thinking.
We are built to anticipate. Each of us already has a pretty full plate of anticipation about the rest of the year. If we are honest, I believe we will admit that we are continually anticipating what is ahead whether we are anticipating good or bad, productive or nonproductive, desired or undesirable. It is quite difficult to anticipate the provision or intervention of God if we are not looking to God and His Word, if our anticipation capacity is already filled with the negative or the false. Ps.145:15 (NKJV) “The eyes of all look expectantly to You…” Ps.145:15 (NET) “Everything looks to you in ANTICIPATION…”
Kathy — We have to have our minds renewed to think like our Father. A renewed mind equips us to walk in dominion because we are enabled to discern both what’s going on and what to allow in earth that aligns with “as in heaven”. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray “Father, Your will be done on earth as in heaven”, who knew how much the answer to that prayer would extensively involve sons and daughters? We are all involved in this heaven-to-earth process, and our starting posture is looking to Him.
God’s Word, God’s promises, God’s covenant with His people have not become void or suspended or even diminished. “Incline your ear [submit and consent to the divine will] and come to Me; hear, and your soul will revive; and I will make an everlasting covenant or league with you, even the sure mercy (kindness, goodwill, and compassion) promised to David.” (Isa.55:3, Amp) Panic and/or despair are nothing but wasted thoughts and emotions. Those people who walk uprightly before their God will be kept in the shadow of the Almighty. “For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Ps.84:11, Amp) Jehovah (“self-Existent”) is still Jehovah and remains all that He has ever been and His Word is still good and cannot be changed. “God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.” (Matt.5:18, Msg)
Kathy — If devils show up on our “radar” (awareness, discernment), we can take that as time for a throw down! Eph. 6:12, says “we wrestle NOT against flesh and blood” opponents, but it doesn’t just say, “We wrestle not”! In fact, it gives us a loud list of what we are wrestling: authorities and powers of darkness, master spiritswho are world rulers of darkness and spirit forces of wickedness in the supernatural realm. Wrestling is about forcing an opponent to the ground. In spiritual battles, this will involve using un-carnal, God-sanctioned weapons. In wrestling, the right move is the right weapon. We have moves like effectual prayer or declaration or decree or unique obedience or gifts of the Spirit or laying on of hands, coming in the opposite spirit and corporate agreement. If the confrontation isn’t a quick “one shot, one kill” and it becomes a laborious, wearisome show-down, remember also that wrestling involves refusing to go down. Even if lion’s breath is in your face and melting your nose hairs, don’t go down in discouragement and despair. You are not wrestling to go down and end up as a lion’s lunch. Texans were inspired by their battle cry, “Remember the Alamo.” Sons of God can cry, “Remember Daniel’s Den!” That was an awesome as-it-is-in-heaven, throw-down moment of heaven coming to earth. When the wrestling match is won, we dispossess and displace the enemy, take back what they stole and bring heaven’s order into the chaos and dysfunction they caused.
Kathy — With renewed minds we can think like our Father. Being transformed means we go through metamorphosis that changes our nature from the inside out to enable us for purpose. Walking in purpose we prove, or discern and allow what is God’s order and design. So, if a toxic atmosphere moves in like a fog, we can sense it and counter it. For example, if there is another shooting massacre, even while the media is just beginning their frenzy, we take a stand in our living room and declare, “No more.” We can be confident that agreement between heaven and earth in that moment will give God access to stop a domino effect before the power of the air can affect another crazed mind to stage a shooting. If toxic air moves in and touches our awareness, that tells us those spirits are close enough that we should touch back. There’s no reason to allow devils to freely do what they come to do. They may have squeezed in through a legal loophole, but their illegal agenda can’t stand in a face-off with sons/daughters of God legislating according to ‘as it is in heaven’!
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