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Remember that Satan will always be trying to kill your dream and your purpose. We see in Genesis 37:18-20 that Joseph's brothers did not like his dream and planned to kill him. His dream stayed under attack even in Egypt. He had one delay after another, one discouragement after another. The enemy wants us to stop believing in our dream.
So how do we keep our dream alive? 2) Be committed to relationships. There is a real need for integrity and loyalty. We have to commit to the people that God puts in our lives. We cannot just use people for our own benefit and then leave them when there is nothing in it for us.
3) Be committed to the Vision.
We live in a day and time where the lines between right and wrong
are so blurred. People justify their actions with the right to be
happy. We have freedom and liberty to move within the boundaries of
God's Word. Stay committed and do not become sidetracked.
Our first tool to effective, fervent prayer is to get focused! Matthew 6:6 says, "When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, pray to your Father in the secret place." Get away from all the many distractions, noise, and busyness. Take time to get your thoughts together, be still, and think about the greatness of God. Prayer is our expression of our dependency on Him. Begin your prayer time with worship! "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." God is greater than our enemies, our problems, and our sickness. Confess your weakness and struggles, confess your sins. When we see ourselves in the light of God's greatness, we realize how much we need His help. Then you are ready to make your requests known.
Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by
prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God." Supplication has three meanings: intercede,
petition, and brood (emotional attachment and deep passion). You
begin to desire the will of God so much it becomes an emotional
experience. Secure your promises...ALL of God's promises are for
you. End by giving thanks! Thank Him before you see the answer. That
says that you believe that He has heard your prayers. Live in
expectation of the answer.
They realized that all the things he did was the result of the time spent in prayer. The church's power and success must also come from our dedication to prayer. The one thing we need to ask the Father for and dig out of the Bible is, "Lord, teach me to effectively pray," not just reciting a lot of familiar phrases. Jesus would go somewhere early in the mornings to get alone with just Him and the Father and pray. There, he would receive directions and power. The reason Jesus did so many powerful things so quickly is because of the many hours spent with the Father. God will reveal to us in prayer what He has already done in the spirit. Prayer is seeking the will of God and speaking it to pass. We can align ourselves with what God is wanting to do in our lives.
Jesus told the disciples to pray like this: Our Father who is in
Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done
here on earth, even as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread. Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the
kingdom, power, and glory forever!
Ephesians 6:12 says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." The legal authority the devil has over man that enables him to hold us bound is called "principality". A stronghold is a mindset that is impregnated with hopelessness that causes a person to accept as unchangeable something in their lives, even though they know it goes contrary to the will of God. Satan has used everything from music to movies, from fear to rejection, to set up strongholds in people's minds. Depression, drugs, alcohol, and sex addictions are not what people are bound with. These are only the manifestations of a deeper bondage in their mind. It is within our minds that the devil has bound us into thinking that this is the way it is and there is nothing that can be done.
There are three areas where the enemy sets up strongholds in our
lives: lust of the flesh, lust of our eyes, and the pride of life. A
person becomes bound by yielding to these traps. But God allows us
to come to a place of brokenness. As long as we hold on to our
pride, we will stay in our mess. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God."
"Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil." Luke 4:1-2 It was a fast, but Luke just said it was to be tempted by the devil for the whole fast. If you have done anything to draw closer to God, guess what? The HEAT is on! The good news is that it's not only up to us. If you will draw near to God, He will draw near to you. It's not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit. It is not what I can do...it is my making the effort and God doing the rest. One of the characteristics of maturity is self-discipline. It's not longer about you anymore. You discipline yourself, you do not have to be disciplined. Fasting is a form of self-discipline. Once you make up your mind, you make enemies. The enemy is never going to give up, he has to be defeated. We cannot give up or else we will be defeated. Satan will do everything in his power to hinder or distract. Our reward is greater than the price.
After 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus was anointed to begin his
ministry. He was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, He has
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives and recover sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who
are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
"If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you." ABIDE - means to live or inhabit. We cannot have powerful prayer lives and be anointed to do great things by only visiting occasionally. People want to know what God's will is for their lives. God wants your life to change your world. But the enemy wants to distract you so you cannot be what God intends for you to be. They key to bearing much fruit is your relationship with God. You cannot be at your best without abiding in Him! People get way off track when they are not doing what they were born and saved to do. James 4:1-3, "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from the desires for pleasure that war in your members? Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures."
It is not enough to have all the external disciplines without the
fruitful heart. God allows things to come in our lives to challenge
us to bear more fruit. Everyday opportunity knocks, we have to have
our eyes and our hearts open to let God use us to help others. It's
about laying down your life for another. Do not be so wrapped up in
yourself that you cannot help someone else.
I believe that one of the greatest needs in the church today is encouragers. To be an encourager is to be a giver of hope and life. Romans 15:4 says, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope." Death and life are in the power of the tongue. There comes a time in our life when we have to stop being carried around and start carrying others. There are times when no one will encourage you and you have to pick yourself up. Our strength lies in our own encouragement, our hope. We have to remain strong in obeying God's Word and keep our trust in Him no matter what circumstances we face. We cannot speak good things if we are not full of good things. God will put people in our lives to mentor us, spiritual mothers and fathers. We need people who will speak the Word of God into our lives; people who will teach us and speak Truth into us. We need to be under the covering of someone who can lead us and not try to go about doing our own thing. Then we can begin to look for others that God wants us to mentor, lead, and cover. You must encourage yourself, encourage others, and be a mentor. Make it your goal to be an encourager and a source of HOPE.
Success does not come from creating a pleasant outward appearance, it comes from addressing issues on the inside and getting them right! My success or failure is contingent upon myself, not the things that happens to me. It is my internal condition, not my circumstances, that determines my success. It was not the few warriors from Ai that defeated Israel while their guard was down, it was the hidden things in the heart of the camp. Because God had given them Jericho so easily, they assumed they could handle Ai. They did not come to a full understanding of the failure. They could not understand why God would give them victory one day and abandon them the next. It was the hidden thing. They started out on someone else's faith and word, and not their own. YOU have to believe and get a Word from God yourself. People can only pray for you and encourage you. God does not want us to ignore sin, but to deal with it and cure the spiritual disease. His plan for our lives is victory and blessing. Our part is to just walk in His will and abide by His Word. Sin will affect more than just you, it will affect everyone around you including your loved ones and even for generations to come. There is hope, however, of recovery. Just because we have had a failure in the past, we cannot expect it to be the normal. God makes a way out and is ready to give us victory! "Don't be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you and rise and go up to Ai. See I have given into your hand the King of Ai, his people, his city and his land." (Jos 8:1)
What we must do to reach our world is to share with people how much God loves them. Fear God, yes, but even more importantly know that He loves you. Jesus said if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. We cannot truly serve God just because we are afraid or someone is making us. My prayer is that everyone would come to know and love God as I have learned to know and love Him. That only comes from spending time with Him. God is love. To know God is to know how to love people. The devil has us getting sidetracked and not loving people the way we need to love like Christ loved us. Take John 3:16 for example, He did not come to tell us all the things we are doing wrong and judge us for it, He came to love us with an unconditional love. God's motivation for everything is love. Man's motivation sometimes can be wrong; he may have selfish motives for the things he does. The enemy has so many obstacles placed in our path to tangle us up, so God simply tells us to stay away from these traps. God's love wants to make us free and KEEP us free from the devil's snares and traps. There are many addictions in this day and time that entice and trap people to keep them in bondage. However, there is a freedom in encountering the love of God. This freedom pleases God as we begin to develop faith in His love.
In every situation David faced, he met it by searching out the Word. James 1:22 says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." The Word deals with our issues. If we give ourselves to reading and studying the Word, we will outgrow some of the sin that trips us up. It is when we are slack at getting into the Word, that we so easily fall into sin. If we are seeking God's Word for ourselves, we don't have to rely on what other people tell us is wrong or right. It is God's Word that gives us strength. His Word gives us rest. When we are hurt by people, we can go to the Word and find comfort and grace. We can be renewed and strengthened daily. Study until the Word gets down inside your spirit, not a head knowledge, but a heart knowledge. Meditate on His Word. Don't just speed read through the scriptures, but stop and listen. Ask God what He is saying to you personally. Speak the Word. Psalm 119:13 says, "With my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in Your word." Don't rehearse the words of the enemy, speak to your mountain! Don't allow the enemy to steal your blessings by taking the Word away from you. Realize the importance of being full of the word.
Galatians 5:14-15 says, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another." Know who your enemy is! Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Be aware! The devil is always pulling out tricks that he thinks might work on us. When Satan comes, he will disguise himself. He will transform himself into an angel of light; don't fall for his trickery! Watch for people or distractions that may be used by Satan. If you have been blessed, be aware that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to steal your praise, your joy, and your peace. Satan wants to destroy your message and your miracle right after or just before your breakthrough. So we cannot run away and give up right on the verge of our new season. Listen to the voice of God, pray, stay in the Word, and never give up! Do not waste your time and do not miss your new season.
Leave your past in the past. You cannot let past experiences be what you base your future expectations on. If things went wrong or crazy last season, don't expect the same in this one. How can we talk about what God is doing if we are busy talking about what someone else did, or what happened in the past. Have expectancy for something new and exciting in your new season. What if I don't feel any different? You have to enter your new season by faith, receive the word, and begin to walk in it. The season of being needy and uncertain needs to be over. Live in constant expectancy, rather than being tempted to live in fear and doubt. Wake up each day saying, "today will be the best day of my life!" Don't let your mind go down the wrong roads. Remember who you are in Christ and how much He gave to save you. Believe for God to do something only He can do; stretch yourself. "You have not because you ask not."
Difficulties that we go through in life sometimes may cause us to believe that we can no longer be His son anymore. You cannot allow things of this world, attacks from the enemy, or anyone you encounter convince you that you are anything BUT God's favorite child. God is desperately seeking those who will dwell in His presence constantly and not just visit there occasionally. Psalm 91:1 says, "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." When you are consistently dwelling in the secret place, He begins pouring out protection and provision over your life. You cannot allow any situation, thing, or person remove you from this covering. An example of such is the prodigal son. Jesus tells us about a prodigal son who left his father's covering and fled to a foreign land; he lost the father's protection and provision. We also read about Job, a righteous man who continued to serve God despite the devastation that was trying to distract him. Job was a man of God who constantly dwelled in the secret place. God is not waiting for an opportunity to disown us. Instead, he is waiting for an opportunity to embrace us! "His anger is but for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Now in my prosperity I said, 'I shall never be moved.'" Psalm 30:5-6
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What
determines your purpose for your life? It's your spiritual gift,
what God has put in your heart, your God-given abilities, your
personality, and your experiences. All of these things determine who
we are. Many people never realize their personal value. Material
things, jobs, houses, cars, popularity...none of these things give
you true value.
No
one ever dreams of becoming a failure or of just being average. But
it seems that as we get older we are less likely to dream big
dreams. D.L. Moody said, "If God is your partner, make your plans
big!" The fact is that if God gives you a dream and a desire in your
heart, it does not matter who agrees with you or not, you can be
what God says you can be.
James
5:13-18 is very clear about the power of prayer for the suffering
and sick. There is no question about God's ability to answer. But
often prayer is our last resort, rather than our first response. We
are living in a day when we need to get serious about our prayer
life. We are not going to find the help we need from any other
source.
If
you had one thing that you could wish for, what would it be? Of all
the things the disciples witnessed Jesus do, there was really only
one thing they asked Jesus to teach them. It was not to perform
miracles, heal the sick, or raise the dead. The one thing they saw
in Jesus that they wanted to learn for themselves, "Teach us, Lord,
to pray."
What
is Deliverance: to set free, to take and hand over to another, to
assist in giving birth, to send something to an intended target.
What does bound mean: to confine, restrain, or restrict; to put
under obligation; to wrap around or tie together; to take up and
hold.
There
are a lot of ideas about fasting, some right and some wrong. When
you make a move toward a greater commitment to God, the devil is not
going to just "go away". Why do we get surprised when the devil hits
us right after we get blessed?
A
lot of people try to play God like the lottery. They come and they
go, running hot and cold. They don't understand why they don't live
in absolute victory. They believe they can do as they please, take a
part of a few verses, make demands on Him, and think that He owes it
to them without question.
In
Joshua 1:5-9 God is telling Joshua that He will be with him just as
He was with Moses. Everything that God promised was not about Joshua
or Moses, it was for the nation of Israel and the world. Having
God's favor on your life is not a result of who you are, it is a
result of something much bigger than you. It's for people who are
not just living for themselves, but are living as a part of a much
bigger work.
Joshua
was one of twelve spies who went into Jericho. He and Caleb were the
only ones who gave a good report. The other ten talked everyone out
of going in and as a result of their fear, they were sent wandering
through the desert for forty years. You have to be careful who you
let speak into your life. You cannot let just anybody give you
advice. When Peter rebuked Jesus because He said He had to go to the
cross, Jesus told him, "You are mindful of the things of the flesh
and not the spirit."
When
I was young and growing up, my impression of church and God was a
little negative and unforgiving. Many people in my generation had
that opinion of church, so they just quit. Others, in an attempt to
keep God, went too far the other way. They dropped any standards or
expectations and excused everything with "grace".
There
are not a lot of guarantees in life, but the Lord gives us the
secret to a happy life and guaranteed blessings right in the middle
of His word. He stresses the blessings and promises of walking in
His Word and keeping it. Thousands of sermons are being preached,
but people are so caught up in this world we live in, that they
aren't implementing what they hear.
Paul
is reminding the church in Ephesians 6:10-13 that we are in a
struggle, a war. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places. The question is not do we wrestle or not, but who
we wrestle. There is no question that we are in a war. Life is at
times a struggle and a fight. One of the tricks of the devil is to
get us fighting and struggling with the wrong person. The enemy has
us battling each other, and building fences and walls to keep each
other out, when in fact it is not a flesh and blood battle, it is
spiritual warfare.
We
all shouted and celebrated last Sunday when we declared that we were
moving into a new season, and I believe everyone left there
encouraged and excited to see what God is going to do next. The
thing is, that with every season comes new responsibility "to the
degree that we have already attained," having passed from one grade
to another, one season to another. Are we going to be lazy or
distracted and let our season pass us by? You can't waste time
getting offended or hurt with people and miss your season. We have
to grow up and realize that nobody is perfect and God does not exist
to make the world suit us. A new season means change!
Many
people are not going through life the way that God intended for them
to. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the thoughts that I think
toward you,' says the Lord, 'thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you a future and a hope.'" There is so much more to God than
what most people experience. When you truly encounter God, you go
through a life-changing experience that transforms you forever. God
is on our side and desires for us to succeed and not fail. However,
we are required to dwell in the secret place with Him. As we begin
to dwell in His presence, we go from being a servant to being His
son.