As most every Christian knows, a revival (greater than one ever seen before) is desperately needed in America today! As many Christians fervently are praying for that revival to outbreak today. Along with others I am sure, I admit that I have been praying for God to show me exactly what is needed from us to see the kinds of firery revivals that are sparked by soul grabbing prophecy and miraculous healings that the Holy Spirit can pour on us so that God gets the attention of people worldwide. Along with that attention will come the praise, glory, and honor due to only God on such a massive scale that we in America and other countries alike have denied our Heavenly Father for too long! (I say what is needed or required of us because the lack of these long lasting revivals coloured by attention grabbing signs and wonders are not hard to find here in America because of God...rather He is waiting for us.)
My common sense answers to why we are not experiencing the types of miraculous healings on such a regular basis as were experienced in Christ's time are:
1) We let our desires for materialism outweigh our desires for our Heavenly Father's will to be done
2) We have faith in our minds, but struggle to have faith in our hearts
3) We pray in our own selfish desires instead of in God's will
4) We spend too much time talking in our prayer life and not listening
5) We have such a hard time fully believing God's grace for our lives that we do not feel worthy
to pray with a sense of expectation.
.....This list can go on and on, but that would be depressing to a degree. It also does not answer my question of what is needed from us to change these things. As we have always been taught, there is a long list of things we should not do; as well as a lengthy list of what we should do. But as I am growing in my relationship with God, I have realized that we make it a lot more difficult than it has to be! This brings me back to my original question : What is needed from us to unleash the upcoming revival that will change not only America but this world? What will put a fear of God back in the lives of many who no longer even think much at all about God?
Then a word came to me....DUNAMIS. And I said do what? But sure enough, as I turned through those obscure channels where you can find several 24 - 7 Christian channels, there it was...DUNAMIS.
Apparently Dunamis is a greek word with a few meanings. Two of which are "to be excellent of soul" and "the power given to perform miraculous healings."
Okay, this is an awesome start, but how do I find this dunamis or shall I say achieve dunamis? According to this teaching by a Pastor and researcher Sid Roth, one has to have your "soul wounds" healed and then the greek word dunamis (from our helper the Holy spirit) can come into us through the blood shed by Christ on the cross, along with Christ's resurrection power. Your soul wounds that remain without healing are what contributes to a lackluster prayer life.
According to this Tim Roth, one of the largest soul wounds inflicting the church today is the wound of offense...Simply put, holding onto something someone has done to offend you. Not only does this cripple your own prayer life, but also can cripple a church too (as I am sure many Pastors would attest to.) By holding onto an offense, you are therefore holding onto unforgiveness. As it is stated in the bible, you cannot be forgiven if you do not forgive others. If you cannot be forgiven, you cannot enter Heaven. So if that is where many of us are at (whether we realize it or not) then how can we possibly expect to have the Holy Spirit operate in us strongly enough to see true long lasting revivals and everyday miracles in a prayer life I believe God desires for us to have. Not just for us to experience His power and blessings, but so that the world can see His power alive and well today....so He can have the glory, honor, and praise He deserves. (Instead of the mockery, doubt, and rejection He currently gets.) Also with this type of movement people will experience lasting change and take back the power over the enemy that God has given us. The power over sickness, anger, bitterness, unforgeness, disease, etc!
In closing, I have decided to begin to pray something along the lines of: Dear Heavenly Father,
along with the sins I am aware of, please also remove any sin of offense that I may be holding onto. Thank You for Your atonement and washing away my sins including any offense my heart harbors and replace those areas with Your ressurection power and help me to become excellent of soul.
Other prayers and meditation are also needed daily, but by sincerely praying this I believe we will start to see the awesome move of God that many of us yearn for. Even though a wealthy nation full of materialism like ours has more to overcome than 3rd world nations that see this mighty move of God on a much more regular basis. I believe that by us overcoming more obstacles to get there, the power of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will be that much stronger!
ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT GOD IS ABOUT TO DO?
Monday, September 17, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
"Choose Well"
For the past week to week and a half, I have had a "heavy feeling" on my heart. During this time, one of my cousins passed away from a substance overdose. As a result, a flood of emotions have gone through me as well as a deep pain for his immediate family. I have been flooded with memories of my own past substance abuse problems. Those were very dark days. It is really a miracle that I am even still alive. Which naturally brings forth the question of why are some of us rescued while others never experience the joy of breaking free from the chains of addiction? These are questions without answers in this lifetime.
Then in church this past Sunday, Pastor Tim (at Gospel Temple Worship Center) shared an internet video that he came across the prior week. My Pastor said he has never used an internet video for a message on Sunday before, however, he felt God was leading him to do so with this one. In this video a Pastor at a church with 10,000 members shared his heart's pain over his son's drug abuse addiction. This was an absolutely heart wrenching story of a child who decided to experiment with drugs only to find too little too late that he no longer has control...the drugs are now in control of him!
This Pastor painted an all too familiar (spot on) picture of how drugs seem fun in the beginning. How Satan whispers in your ear that you can control this. One more time is not going to hurt anything. See...nothing "bad" happened. A few more times is okay. While all along Satan knows that it's that next use that is going to say SNAP...I'VE GOT YOU NOW SUCKER! Before you know it, you are "using" to wake up in the morning and get up and going, to function during the day, then to wind down to sleep at night. All of a sudden...your thoughts are not your own anymore!
This Pastor asked why is this happening to his son. Afterall, he was raised better than this. His son was brought up in church. In his words, "he was not reaping what he sowed into his son." While my heart absolutely broke for him and his situation, I wish I could tell him the one thing that comes back to me time and again when I have asked God very similar questions. I truthfully believe that since he has a growing church of over 10,000 members, God is obviously using him to further His Kingdom and therefore to do much against the dark, evil desires of Satan. While this is obviously what we should all aim to do, it comes with a price. If you are a real threat to Satan, you can expect Satan to attack you, your ministry, your family....anything that you hold dear to your heart. It is called spiritual warfare! To some this will seem like hocus pocus talk. However, the fact is that there is one God and angels, Satan and demons and us humans are caught in the middle. This is by God's design. However, there is no need to fear these things. "For greater is He who is in me, than he who is in the world." We have been given the "power over principalities of darkness." We just have to recognize these things for what they are.
In closing, I know that Satan has tried to kill me for quite some time. This actually lets me know that God has big things in store for me that the devil does NOT want to see come to fruition. I also know that as big of a heart as my cousin always had for others and the way he wanted to take away the pain of others...just imagine the damage he could have caused to Satan's plan if he could have overcome. This is why Satan fought him tooth and nail to make sure he never found freedom and true life in Jesus Christ. Just as I believe that satan wants to cripple that pastor's ministry by claiming his son's life and causing that Pastor to doubt the love and faithfulness of Christ. It's not rocket science. This is how satan works.
God has given you the freedom of choice. He wants you to choose to love and serve Him. Unlike Satan, He does not want to force you to do anything you do not want to do. You can either choose to believe these simple truths and grow in true freedom and happiness day by day. Or you can choose to believe this is nonsense. Either way, whether you realize it or not, you are choosing to serve one master or another. You ARE choosing God or Satan. Please....Choose well!
Then in church this past Sunday, Pastor Tim (at Gospel Temple Worship Center) shared an internet video that he came across the prior week. My Pastor said he has never used an internet video for a message on Sunday before, however, he felt God was leading him to do so with this one. In this video a Pastor at a church with 10,000 members shared his heart's pain over his son's drug abuse addiction. This was an absolutely heart wrenching story of a child who decided to experiment with drugs only to find too little too late that he no longer has control...the drugs are now in control of him!
This Pastor painted an all too familiar (spot on) picture of how drugs seem fun in the beginning. How Satan whispers in your ear that you can control this. One more time is not going to hurt anything. See...nothing "bad" happened. A few more times is okay. While all along Satan knows that it's that next use that is going to say SNAP...I'VE GOT YOU NOW SUCKER! Before you know it, you are "using" to wake up in the morning and get up and going, to function during the day, then to wind down to sleep at night. All of a sudden...your thoughts are not your own anymore!
This Pastor asked why is this happening to his son. Afterall, he was raised better than this. His son was brought up in church. In his words, "he was not reaping what he sowed into his son." While my heart absolutely broke for him and his situation, I wish I could tell him the one thing that comes back to me time and again when I have asked God very similar questions. I truthfully believe that since he has a growing church of over 10,000 members, God is obviously using him to further His Kingdom and therefore to do much against the dark, evil desires of Satan. While this is obviously what we should all aim to do, it comes with a price. If you are a real threat to Satan, you can expect Satan to attack you, your ministry, your family....anything that you hold dear to your heart. It is called spiritual warfare! To some this will seem like hocus pocus talk. However, the fact is that there is one God and angels, Satan and demons and us humans are caught in the middle. This is by God's design. However, there is no need to fear these things. "For greater is He who is in me, than he who is in the world." We have been given the "power over principalities of darkness." We just have to recognize these things for what they are.
In closing, I know that Satan has tried to kill me for quite some time. This actually lets me know that God has big things in store for me that the devil does NOT want to see come to fruition. I also know that as big of a heart as my cousin always had for others and the way he wanted to take away the pain of others...just imagine the damage he could have caused to Satan's plan if he could have overcome. This is why Satan fought him tooth and nail to make sure he never found freedom and true life in Jesus Christ. Just as I believe that satan wants to cripple that pastor's ministry by claiming his son's life and causing that Pastor to doubt the love and faithfulness of Christ. It's not rocket science. This is how satan works.
God has given you the freedom of choice. He wants you to choose to love and serve Him. Unlike Satan, He does not want to force you to do anything you do not want to do. You can either choose to believe these simple truths and grow in true freedom and happiness day by day. Or you can choose to believe this is nonsense. Either way, whether you realize it or not, you are choosing to serve one master or another. You ARE choosing God or Satan. Please....Choose well!
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