Spiritual Warfare

I've been in prayer a lot the last few days.  When things seem hard, I wonder what type of spiritual warfare I should be fighting.  Offenses and woundings will come.  We've had bucket-loads of pain in our lives.  When we thought things might go better, trials seem to come at us from another direction.  So, I prayed, Lord, what would make a difference? Here is the scripture the Lord led me to read;

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;… " (Phil 1:9-10)

People who hurt us need to be healed and brought to the love of God. I have varying degrees of energy in my prayers for them. Some people are easy to pray for because I love them. Love is necessary for the “real knowledge and discernment” to inform my prayers.  For others, my prayers are tepid because of past offences.  Ineffective prayers lack a sincere partnership with God. Eventually, it becomes obvious that our prayers may go nowhere near God’s throne unless we love the person or circumstances we pray for. If our relationship with God is suffering because we do not want to love our enemy, then how do we pray and expect Him to answer?

In Christ we have a gift called "grace" whereby we might overcome our pain, anger, and bitterness . . . and be healed.  But if we want to dwell on bitterness, we will turn cold towards those who have caused us the pain, and we eventually will have a "hard heart" towards them.  And, this is the strategy of satan; to make us ineffective in prayer and in action by causing our hearts to not care about the people who have hurt us . . . people whom we will one day will need to pray earnestly for in their hour of need.

Last night I saw a glimpse of strategy for the kind of prayer that wins spiritual wars.  It's not our strategy; there is God's, and satan's.  If I forgive the one who hurt me and love him, not only am I an effective person to be praying for him in his time of need, but my prayers have the fragrance of Christ on them. 

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;” (2 Cor 2:14-15).

God’s strategy is realized when we are willing to pray and forgive, which causes us to have victory against satan. If we want to see the power of heaven unleashed onto earth, we need to pray with the incense, or fragrance of Christ’s nature on our lives.

“The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God's people, went up before God from the angel's hand.” (Rev 8:4)

 If I am offended or angry at a brother and do not resolve those negative emotions, I become ineffective in praying for him, even if that's what God has appointed me to do.  And because of anger and bitterness, I lose my spiritual battle.

The scripture in Philippians 1:9-10 (see above) points out the value of Love.  Love allows us to know how to approve God's will, which is very important in prayer.  When our actions come from love we will be sincere, and blameless.  Love has that much power. And when we know and agree with, or approve God’s will and pray according to it, we will win spiritual battles. The love causes the knowing, and the knowledge, when prayed, brings the victory.

I think it is a sign that, when satan attacks us, God is partnering with us on an awesome victory wrought through prayer and blessing. We will determine which way that battle goes by deciding to love, or to be angry and bitter.  Let us press into God today for the grace that will enable us to love during difficult times, and for knowledge of His will so that we will win our spiritual warfare.  Amen.

The City of God

Almost 10 years ago I had a dream about those who enter the City of God by faith, and those who do not.  Before I share the dream I want to write these verses down for you.  

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of the living God.  You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.  You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and tho the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." (Heb 12:22-24)

These verses describe the spiritual life we come to, by faith, when we come to God through Jesus His Son. Also we read that God's followers in the Old Testament were "longing for a better country -- a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a City for them." (Heb 11:16). Both sets of verses let us know that there is a City of God prepared for those who long to abide with God, and that we come to the City by faith.  

The dream I want to share with you has a warning in it, but also shows the City of God.  Here it is:

I dreamt I was on a space craft with other people.  Right away there was a fire in the right engine, and no one could get off.  One lady said “Wouldn’t you know this would happen!”  I had an understanding that the fire was due to another girl’s carelessness.

I could then see the space craft from the outside, with its engine on fire, falling.  It landed in the front of a long line of cars, some dating back to the 1950’s, which were orbiting around the City of God.  I could see the City, with its lights on in the darkness.  A man came out from the City, flying without any plane.  He got a child from one of the cars in the orbit line and took him back to the City.  I could see other people from the City fly out towards the orbiting cars in the same way.  The space craft’s fire had gone out and its people didn’t burn up.  It remained in line as if the newest in a long line of vehicles orbiting the City.  End

Interpretation – Space craft – a large ministry, with power

Careless lady who started the fire – foolish virgin

Cars – individual ministries

Old cars dating back to the 50’s – a past generation

Orbiting – seeing and being attracted to, but not entering in

City – City of God

Man from the City – a person with faith for flying.  Sees those who are appointed to the City and takes them there.

Word of the Lord –"It only takes one foolish person to put a ministry which is headed for God’s glory in orbit, to remain there indefinitely.  All the wise planning of its leaders and the skills of those men and women of faith which enable the ministry to fly towards My City can be scuttled by one foolish person.  I have given the mission of going to the City to many ministries which have failed.  Indeed, if this generation had not seen some men and women who had landed in My City, there would be no one who would take it’s tales of glory back to the rest of My people in order that they might have the faith to join them there. 

I am separating the foolish virgins from the wise so that I will have a people who will see and enter in.  A man or woman who longs for Me will see that I am worth more than all the pleasures of the world.  Those who seek to abide in Me will enter in.  Amen"

dream about terrorists from 10/21/2003

Sometimes the Lord reveals things too great for our understanding.  12 years ago the Lord gave me a dream about terrorists.  Our news has been full of events detailing the many different groups of these men, and today the Lord asked me to share the letter I sent President Bush October of 2003.  It is as follows;

On 10/21/03 I received the following dream:

I was hearing someone speak, as if in a documentary.  He said there were different kinds of terrorists.  The show that he was filming that day was about terrorists in Israel.  He showed 2 men; one in battle fatigues and one with a white turban on his head.  They were setting up a big sniper gun on a stand in some green bushes, high above a walkway for pedestrians.   The bushes along the walkway were continuous, and in bloom.  I stood behind the direction the gunmen were aiming in, and cleared out a safe place on the pathway below them, hoping the bushes gave me cover.  Someone said I wouldn’t be safe there. Thinking that the one speaking this meant the gunmen would soon spot me, I crawled forward in the direction the terrorists were shooting, clearing leaves out and keeping down as I traveled along the blooming bushes, which were like a thick hedge.  Bullets could be heard zinging overhead.  I kept crawling along.  

Then the scene changed, and I heard 2 men talking, saying “This one is an Africaaner” as they stood at the end of the road under trees, describing an overhead vine as they touched it.  The scene was as if the documentary had changed it’s focus to the kinds of trees and flowers there, and the terrorists were forgotten.  We seemed to be in a forested area at the end of the walkway I had been on.

In prayer for the interpretation of this dream I felt impressed that the “Africaaner” was from or in South Africa, and was the man behind the terrorists in Israel.  The vine is symbolic of his communication with them.  The flowering bush is you, president Bush.  It is your season, and you are in bloom.  You have been a hedge of protection along the boarder of Israel.

I continue to pray for our country and you, president Bush.  My hope is that we as a nation are safe.  May God give you and your staff wisdom and protection.

This is the end of the dream and the short interpretation I sent to President Bush. There are still many unknowns about the terrorists, but may the Lord protect His people and bring to justice those who do evil.  Please pray continually for this war to end.  And, if there be a perpetrator in or from South Africa, may he be found.  Amen.