Use Faith Like a Shield!

Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one (Ephesians 6:16).

 

It’s the shield of faith that quenches all the fiery darts that the enemy throws at you. We need to remind ourselves regularly that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the dark hosts of Satan. He has a legal right to rule over the unsaved and will also assert his influence over believers who don’t know and act on the Word. Jesus has given us authority over them!

Satan has the ability to put a thought in your mind and place a feeling on your body. But he can’t touch you if make a decision to live by the Word! When thoughts come that disagree with the Word, refuse to think them. When feelings come that disagree with the Word, don’t live by them. Our authority over Satan and his emissaries comes by walking by faith in the Word of God.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus responded over and over again with it is written. And that’s the way we’re to deal with the devil today.

When thoughts of doubt and fear come, respond with it is written. When feelings of sickness attack, respond with it is written. When circumstances seem unrelenting and defeat seems inevitable, respond with it is written!

The victory that overcomes the world is our faith. And faith is acting on and speaking the Word of God in the face of negative circumstances. Act on God’s Word in every area of life today. Refuse to dwell on the negative thoughts that come. Act on God’s Word in spite of feelings that tell you you’re not going to make it. Greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world! Remember that all things are possible with God, and all things are possible to him who believes!

 

3 Hindrances to Receiving Healing

It is the will of God for every believer to walk in Divine health. Provision for our healing and health are included in our redemption in Christ. The same faith that saves also heals! The Father forgives all of our sins and heals all of our diseases (Psalm 103:3).

 

Though the Father has provided salvation for all, it is not an automatic guarantee. Personal faith must be exercised in the sacrifice of Jesus for a person to experience salvation. In the same way, person faith must be exercised for an individual believer to receive healing and walk in the health that Jesus desires that they have.

 If a believer is sick and fails to receive healing, there are three main reasons: Lack of knowledge, weak faith, or disobedience.

  

The first reason is lack of knowledge. Most Christians are in this category. They go to church week after week, but never hear about the provision of healing that Jesus makes available in the salvation package. Hosea said My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Rare is the believer that can maintain steadfast faith for healing if they do not receive the teaching of scripture that enforces and produces faith. I encourage a person not to attend a church that does not preach and teach Divine healing. If they do, they will lack the faith and knowledge to act on that is necessary to receive healing.

The second reason a believer may fail to receive healing is weak faith. Faith is like a muscle. We all have the same number of muscles in our bodies at birth. Through regular exercise a muscle can be built up and strengthened. Some folk have muscles that can lift heavy weight while others have allowed theirs through lack of use to atrophy. Faith for healing must be built up regularly through meditating on scriptures about healing and by exercising that faith when attacked with physical symptoms.

 If the physical attack of sickness or disease is stronger or heavier than your individual faith can deal with, then you may not be able to receive the healing. And that’s where a lot of people are in their faith life. They wait until a huge crisis comes before building up their faith in the word, and then they find that they don’t measure up in faith to the size of the attack they find themselves up against! I personally take time just about every day to meditate on scripture that promise healing and health. And then I exercise faith against every small physical attack that comes against my body. This keeps my personal faith strong.

 

The third reason a believer may not receive healing is their personal disobedience. Isaiah 1:19-20 reads: If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. We can receive God’s best only if we are walking in His will for our lives. There is a God purpose for every life. It is not possible to walk in health and be able to ward off the enemy’s attacks while living in known disobedience to God. Let me give you one example.

 

Years ago while pastoring a church I pioneered in a small city I got a call late one night from the wife of a faithful church member. Her husband had been rushed to the emergency room of a hospital and was unconscious with a hemorrhage in a blood vessel in the back of his neck and the base of his brain.

As I entered the room she asked me to please pray for her husband to be healed and raised up. I laid my hands on him and as I asked the Lord to heal Him, I felt a sudden restraint. I felt within that I should not do this, as though the Lord wanted me to stop praying. This happened several times as I tried to pray for his healing.

Finally I asked his wife if I could talk to her privately. I told her what happened and she related to me that several weeks earlier the doctor had told her husband that if he loved his family and wanted to live, he must immediately stop smoking. Her husband knew he should, but just didn’t do it. He knew that the Lord wanted him to quit. He knew that smoking wasn’t good for him, but persisted. The smoking had weakened his blood vessel walls and brought about a hemorrhage.

I watched as his five family members gathered around his bed and he took his last breath later that night. His personal disobedience to the Father had cost this wonderful man that I knew and loved his physical life. I could give you many illustrations of this kind of thing happening to people.

It’s important for us to walk in the will of God for our lives in general as to life direction, and also in specifics as the Lord talks to us about what we do with our bodies. If we ignore Him or disobey, it could shorten our life.

Take time daily to meditate on the word and feed your faith about healing. Attend a good church that teaches the word concerning healing. Exercise your faith in small things. Walk in obedience to the will of the Father for your life and for your person. Health and healing belong to you. Walk in it!

Use Your Authority in Christ!

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions[demonic forces], and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19).

Adam’s sin gave Satan a temporary control over humanity and over the earth in general. Since that time he has become skilled in his killing, stealing, and destroying tactics (John 10:10). Romans 5 tells us that death reigned from Adam to Moses, indicating that there was a lessening of that reign when the law of Moses was established among those in covenant with God.

 

Under the Old Covenant sin was atoned or covered by the application of blood from a sacrificial animal to the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies where the presence of God dwelt. This atoning of sin severely limited Satan’s reign over God’s Old Covenant people. The problem with the Old Covenant was their rebellion to the will of God by wandering off into idolatry and gross personal sin. Humans are sinful to the core. So this Old Covenant was flawed because of sin and the wandering heart of man.

Jesus through the new birth gives us a new heart! We’re new creatures in Christ! The nature of sin is replaced by the nature of God in the heart of the believer! And Jesus captured Satan’s Adam given authority over man when He rose from the dead! That authority over Satan has been given to us, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The demonic forces that have terrorized men for thousands of years are afraid of believers understanding and walking in their authority in Christ. Their scheme now is two-fold.

 

First, they want to keep Christians ignorant of their position and authority in Christ by watering down what churches teach with man-made traditions. This makes void personal spiritual authority over Satan in the average church going believer. Because they never hear their rights and privileges in Christ preached, most believers are unaware of what they can do to hinder Satan’s kingdom. Hosea said my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Make sure you go to a church that strongly proclaims what Jesus did for us in His death and resurrection!

  

Secondly, if a believer knows about his personal spiritual authority over Satan, then the enemy schemes to push that believer to walk in the flesh. This will cancel the authority that believer has over him. Strife discord, disunity, unforgiveness, and lack of holy living are tools the enemy uses to keep an informed believer neutral in spiritual authority over him.

So the key to our walking in our God given authority is to feed our faith on the truths of who we are in Christ and on our position and standing before God in Him. And then make a choice to walk in the spirit by walking in love and by choosing to be a doer of the word.

Keep short accounts with the Father. Confess your sin when you miss it. The moment you mess up, fess up! Feed your faith daily on who you are in Christ Jesus. Pray the prayer of faith for yourself and your family. Believe you receive answers when you pray even when it seems as though the prayer isn’t answered.

Pray on behalf of others. Take their needs before the Father and ask Him in specific ways to meet them. Take time daily to pray in the spirit. If you do these things, demon forces will fear the Jesus in you. And you’ll live in the cubicle of the Father’s care while living in a fallen world.

A Key to Strong Faith is Opening Your Heart to the Father

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You (Psalm 139:1-12).

 

Part of walking by faith walk is maintaining a positive confession while waiting for the manifestation of answered prayer. Faith is always released from your heart with words. So saying what you believe is all important to having effective faith.

 

But the other side of the coin is that we are human and life brings disappointments and frustrations along emotional hurt and pain. Just the way we’re wired we sometimes need a place to vent these things and sort out our thoughts. And I have found that the best place to do this is in the presence of the Father.

  

You’ll find David in the Psalms venting his heart-felt frustrations to the Lord over and over again. Instead of stuffing his emotions, he let them go in a safe place. That safe place for all of us is in our closet in the Father’s presence.

  

Over the years in my life as circumstances have brought disappointment and frustration, I’ve learned to run the Father and tell Him everything, the good, the bad, and the otherwise. He understands our deepest thoughts and reasonings, and knows why we do what we do. He is the only person in the universe that knows us to the core of our being.

  

Taking time to get comfortable enough in His presence to pour out all your motives and thoughts will be one of the most worthwhile things you’ll ever do. Pouring your heart out to the Father is like a pressure valve being release from within.

 

I’ve learned to tell the Father every single thing I think and feel about a situation and why I feel that way. Then I just let His word minister to me. I ask Him to help me overcome the issue and give Him permission to speak into my life. He won’t unless you invite Him to. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:8). Since He already knows everything about everything, why hide?

 

The more honest you are with the Father, the freer you will become. And the easier it will be to really be yourself with others. Faith will become a heartfelt process if you’ll spend time with the Father and talk to Him about life’s challenges and how you think about them. Afterwards, when you leave His presence and make a confession of faith, your intimate relationship with the Father will boost your faith and you’ll rise above the circumstance, carefree and joy filled.

 

In this context, the confession of faith that comes from heartfelt words will defeat the circumstance and bring you personal victory every time!

 

Make Yourself Available for God to Change You From the Inside Out

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:11).

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful

(1 Corinthians 14:14). For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding] (1 Corinthians 14:2 – Amplified).

 

Learning to overcome wrong thinking and wrong responses to life is one our greatest challenges as a believer. The New Birth transforms my spirit, but my soul and my body have been so enmeshed into sinful thoughts, motives, emotions, and response patterns that it’s difficult for me to see and understand them all.

 

So, we know things from the scriptures with our head. We know what we should do, but often end up doing the opposite. Paul said it this way in Romans 7: 15-17:

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Here is a key to being freed from wrong thinking and responses in the various areas of life. Take some time to get alone with God in the Word and just read it real slowly. Go to scriptures that deal with relationships, motives, and responses. I suggest Romans 12, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, and 1 Peter 3 for starters. Read slowly going over each word carefully and asking yourself; Do I do that? Is there something that I need to put into practice here? Is there something that I need to stop? Is there some motive within me that needs to be changed? Is there a promise here that I need to act on? The key is going slowly and taking your time.

Then afterwards, take some time to pray in the spirit, in other tongues. Ask the Lord as you pray to unseat any wrong underlying patterns of thinking in your life that cause hurtful responses to others. Remember that your spirit knows things about your life that your mind doesn’t know. When you’re praying in tongues, you’re often praying out issues in your own life that need changing.

We have the same issues to deal with in life that all people face. But we have a loving Father and a loving Holy Spirit within us that are ready and willing to help us work through the issues and challenges that we face in our personal lives.

Give God a chance to work in your personal life by spending time as I mentioned in the Word, and by taking time to pray in other tongues. After a while, thoughts will come up from your spirit person that will reveal areas of needed change. The Lord will then quicken you and enable you to deal with things that may have bothered you for years. We have a Divine helper within us who is longing for us to work with Him to bring in us needed change. Let’s give Him opportunity to work!

Steps to Breaking a Bad Habit and Forming a Good One in Its Place

But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come (1 Timothy 4:7-8).

Godliness produces change that impacts life right now! Phillips translation of the latter part of verse 7 above reads: take time and trouble to keep yourselves spiritually fit. The New American Standard Bible of the same verse reads: On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

 

The Word of God will have an impact on your personal daily habits if you’ll take the time and trouble to get into the Word and let the Word get into you! God gave us the capacity of habit to keep life from being difficult.

A habit is something that is done so frequently that it can be performed without conscious thought. We all have personal daily habits that affect our routines throughout the day. We prepare for our day pretty much the same way each day after day. Many things in our occupation become routine and habitual. And our ways of relating to ourselves and others can become entrenched in habitual patterns of thought and response.

 

We also develop bad habits that harm us and those around us. These habits can keep us from God’s best. Here are some tips that will help you break a bad habit, be it a habit of thought, word, or action.

Breaking a habit is a three step process. The first step is to catch the habit after the fact. It’s becoming aware that you’re even doing something wrong! That’s where the Word comes into play. Find scriptures that deal with the area of life you’re challenged with, write them down and read them over and over again; that is, meditate on them. That will sensitize you to the need to change that area of life.

 

The second step to changing a habit is to catch yourself in the middle of it! Once the Word is in you, conviction to change comes. And breaking a habit takes time. Just keep catching yourself after the fact, and eventually you’ll begin to see what you’re doing that’s wrong right while you’re involved in it!

 

The third and last step to breaking a habit is to catch yourself just before you start to do it. This is all a process that may take weeks of time. Psychologists tell us it takes three to four week to begin forming new habits. So start the process and work yourself through it.

 

Habits are changed by replacement. Don’t concentrate on the negative, concentrate on filling yourself with the Word, and then making a choice to repent the moment you see that you’re violating God’s Word in your life. This works in any area: thoughts, verbal responses, emotions, or physical habits.

I’ve used this three step principle for years in my own life and can vouch for its effectiveness. I’ve changed colloquial expressions I’ve picked up from others, habits of gossip when I was first saved, mental traits of believing the worst of others, all sorts of wrong patterns of response to others, workaholic tendencies, perfectionist patterns, and all sorts of physical habits by using these three follow through principles.

Catch yourself and repent after the fact. Catch yourself and repent in the middle of a wrong action. Then you’ll catch yourself just before the engrained habit pushes you to action. That’s how the power of the Word can change you from the inside out. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Praying in the Spirit is Very Effective Praying!

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).

Praying in the spirit is one of the most effective ways that we can pray. It plugs us directly into the spirit realm where we can be efficient in praying out the purpose and will of God for people and circumstances.

 

Mental praying is limited to your scope of understanding of a situation. But praying in the spirit takes you into God’s understanding and all-knowing bout things. Then while you’re praying in the spirit words will often float up to your mind from your spirit. Speak those words out and you’ll sometimes receive the interpretation of what you’re praying.

 

As I’ve mentioned over the last couple of days, we believers are the only people on earth that have a legal, God-given right to exercise authority over Satan and his forces. This authority does no good unless it is put into practice by us. It does not work automatically. Many believers are bound by the enemy because no one told them that they are free from his control and shown them how to take their rightful place in Christ.

 

Knowing your authority gives you a certain prayer responsibility before the Father. He wants you to take that responsibility and use your authority to command Satan to loose his hold on men and women.

Praying with the spirit and with the understanding combined can make you a tool in the hands of the Father that is dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. Take time today to pray in the spirit.

 

Here’s some practical instruction. It takes time to get into the flow of prayer when praying in the spirit. John was “in the spirit” on the Lord ’s Day in Revelation 1:10. That means he became more sensitive to spiritual things than mental or natural things. It takes time to get there. For me, it used to take me over an hour of praying in the spirit to get sensitive to the spirit realm and calm my thoughts down. Now it takes me anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. Once you get to that place, it seems as though there is an easy flow of pray, and you can sense that the Spirit of God is working together with you. And in that place, your mind and spirit begin to work together to ask the Father’s intervention in the lives of people and in their circumstances.

The result for your own life is a deep penetrating peace and exquisite joy that is deep and almost beyond words. The result in others is changed lives. Take your place today and pray in the spirit and allow the Father to work with you to exercise authority over the work of the enemy. You’ll be glad you did.

Consistant Prayer

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:1-8 – NIV).

 

Consistant prayer is necessary for God’s highest and best to be realized in the home, in the church, and in the world. Because Satan obtained a legal right to rule on earth until the lease that God gave Adam on the earth runs out at the return of Christ, we must labor together with God in prayer. There are no shortcuts. If we refuse to pray, Satan makes inroads into life and circumstance. Our prayers of faith give God a legal right to move into life’s circumstances.

 

Refuse to yield to the pressure of the busy and necessary at the expense of prayer. To see a need is to have a call to this prayer life. Satan fears committed believers more than anyone else in the whole world. We alone have the authority in the name of Jesus to bind his activity and to command him to desist in his maneuvers against the will and purpose of God worldwide.

 

The unjust judge in the parable above is the devil. He will not let go of his victims unless we assert constant pressure on him and his kingdom with our prayers, intercession, and faith. Don’t buy the lie that your praying is ineffective and is a waste of time. Don’t allow the busy to take the place of the important. To God, our prayer time is the most important time of our day. Our prayers loose His benevolent hands and allow Him to demonstrate His ability to those in need.

 

Be a laborer together with God today. Be one of those that the Father can count on to work with as He seeks to save those who are lost. Make plans for God to use you in prayer today!

Exercise Your Authority in Prayer

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18).

Our prayer life is more important than we often realize. John Wesley said: It seems as though God is limited by our prayer life; that He can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him to do it.

 

Adam’s original lease of dominion was transferred to Satan when Adam obeyed him, and Satan became at that time the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). You understand that God gave man authority and dominion over the earth when God created him (Genesis 1: 26-28). Satan gained a legal right to this authority when Adam chose to disobey God’s direct command. Since that time, the earth has been under Satan’s control. Jesus called Satan the prince (ruler) of this world in John 14:30. Satan is called the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2. John tells us that the whole world is under Satan’s power and control in 1 John 5:19.

During Jesus’ wilderness temptations, Satan offered Jesus the authority of the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would simply worship him. Satan told Jesus that the authority of the kingdom of the world was delivered to him. Who delivered authority over the earth to Satan? It was automatically transferred to Satan when Adam sinned.

Though God is sovereign overall, for a time limited period God had given some of His authority to Adam to rule over the earth under His providence. Now, Satan has a legal timed limited dominion over the earth since he obtained Adam’s original lease of dominion. This lease of dominion will end at the second coming of Christ.

 

Until then a thief has been let loose on this planet. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. His desire is to mar human life and to make the earth a place of rebellion to God instead of a place of peace and tranquility. This is a sobering fact.

 

The good news is that Jesus Christ conquered Satan when He became our sin, died, and then was raised from physical death. Jesus cancelled the authority Satan has over Christian’s lives! When Jesus was raised from the dead, He spoke to His disciples just before He was taken into heaven and said: All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). Jesus spoke that as the representative new creation man, the God -Man who is the first-born from the dead (See Colossians 1). Jesus is now head of a brand new race of people, the New Creation folk, the church.

When He said in Matthew 28:19, Go ye, He actually transferred His authority over Satan to the church. Now, the only people who can exercise authority over Satan are Christians who know their rights and privileges in Christ. That’s the reason we must exercise our rights in prayer, binding Satan from hindering people from receiving the gospel, and demanding that He leave us and our loved ones alone.

The Father desires to use us to pray and ask Him to manifest Himself in the earth. God is limited to the prayers of believers because of this lease of dominion being transferred to Satan by Adam when he sinned. Since the church is the only group on earth that can exercise authority over Satan, God must now work through the church for His will to be accomplished.

 

Our prayers untie God’s hands. Take time every day to pray in the spirit. Praying in the spirit is a way to pray the perfect will of God into manifestation, and a way to pray for things that you’re aren’t aware of that need God’s intervention (see Romans 8:26-27 and 1 Corinthians 14:2). Pray with your understanding about things you know about. The Father has promised answered prayer. Take time to call on His name today, and invite His purposes into your life circumstances and into the earth.