I make a point in my ministry of ensuring that believers are aware of the very real battle we are in against the enemy of our souls, the devil, and encouraging them to take authority over him in their lives. I also stress the fact that they must be right with God in order to battle successfully. Why? Because engaging in spiritual warfare puts us in a very vulnerable position if there is anything in us that can open us up to the devil's attacks. For this reason, it is crucial for us to root out any strongholds that may be keeping us in bondage. Four of the most common strongholds are pride, offense, rejection, and control. The difficulty we face in dealing with them is that we often don't realize we have them. People in bondage typically don't know they are in bondage.
With the deluge of news reporting instances of scandals and abuse committed by lead pastors, I thought it necessary to balance this by showing how shepherds (pastors) are also occasionally abused by the sheep (church members). (To be clear, this fact does not justify any scandalous behavior by spiritual leaders.) Over the past five decades, the overwhelming majority of pastors I have worked with have been sincere Christ followers who have paid an enormous price and suffered much while walking out their sacred calling. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, will target lead pastors since he knows that when the shepherd is struck, the sheep will scatter (Zech. 13:7).
Get tapped into the creative nature of God! One of the most powerful things to think about is that we are created in the image and likeness of God. This is what sets man apart from every other living creature. As we are yielded to His Spirit there is amazing potential for what can be released through our lives. In the beginning God CREATED the heavens and the earth. Then we see that the earth was without form - darkness being over the face of the deep.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV Fear is a spirit and not always an emotion. You can be afraid of something without having the spirit of fear. The spirit of fear causes you to overreact. You can be afraid of things like spiders, roller coasters or scary movies. The spirit of fear takes a normal fear and elevates it. The goal is to get you out of faith. It gets you to pull back from trusting God and others. The keys to recognizing this are that you are short-tempered, get stressed and start to doubt the Lord. This is not what Jesus has in mind for us.
Years ago, I heard a message by Lou Engle that had a great impact on my heart, especially the "intercessor" part of my heart. Today, I revisited that explosive and impactful impartation. What I have gleaned from it, is not just for me, but for a remnant of believers. We are in a season where God is about to cause the dreams that He has placed within us to break forth & explode! Lou's message introduced me to the word "Ekballo" and the beautiful relationship between Ekballo & discovering & living the Dreams, (the books & scrolls) that God wrote about us & put within us.
Some people would question the wisdom of God, but He allowed me to be a free spirit for many years, until my mid 20s. I am so glad He did it that way. I would have been pro-abortion, not to the degree I see going on tonight, but I was after MY own freedom. Little kids want their freedom too, and they have to learn to govern themselves, or they will be potentially harmed. But good parents, and not everyone has them, teach their children to be careful, smart and wise.
What do you do when prophetic ministry goes wrong? How do you get your peace back and start again when you feel embarrassed and broken? Are there warning signs you can see beforehand and prepare yourself? Not long ago, I got invited to a presidential ball. It was a grand event with dignitaries, great food, music, and all the things that go along with an occasion like that. I felt honored to be invited. Sensing the Lord might have had a reason for me being there, I was open and pliable, listening to the Holy Spirit.
When you feel spiritually dry, the enemy tries to push your emotional buttons. Spiritual dryness can cause you to give in and come into agreement with vain imaginations and familiar spirits. How you manage your emotional response when your buttons are pushed will determine the path you take. The truth is the enemy will always use your past against you. His philosophy is that "if it worked once, it could work again." But the more you walk in the Spirit when you are emotionally charged, the more you will be spiritually refreshed.
Let's read I Peter 2:24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." The WORD says you were healed. Sickness is a curse of the law, and Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us...." Matthew 8:17 says, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." He took your infirmities and bare your sicknesses. Learn to read the scriptures with a personal identification.
If you feel like you had some momentum and began stepping into a new season when, all of a sudden, you felt halted, this Word is for you. It's like you're in a holding pattern, and things have not been progressing. God gave me an image of a pool. This pool, like many, had a couple of steps into the water with progressive depth on each step. After that, the pool gradually sloped down and deepened from one end to the other. You have felt a call to "come deeper," but you have not seen any more "steps" appearing in the natural to do so. God says the way into the deep is simply continuing to move forward. Just like the pool vision, you can't see visible steps ahead of you, and you think that because the Lord worked through big steps in the last season that it will look the same.
