Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.” Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” (2 Kings 13:13-19)

This is a unique section of scripture because it is an account of one of the last prophetic declarations of the great prophet Elisha. Elisha was an intern of Elijah and at the departure of Elijah into heaven, Elisha received twice the anointing or spirit that his teacher had walked in. Elisha was a powerful prophet but was not destined to be taken up to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1) as his predecessor was, but would simply die of an undisclosed illness. Jehoash, the king of Israel mentioned in this section, was not a particularly godly king but came to Elisha anyway after hearing of his illness. From the context, we can infer that Jehoash had a concern about going to war against Aram (Syria) and had probably come to inquire of the Lord before going to battle.  Even in the grip of his illness, Elisha heard from the Lord and apparently had a heart for Israel even though the nation had been in rebellion against God during most of Elisha’s tenure.

At the coming of the king, Elisha instructed him to take a bow and some arrows and shoot an arrow out the east window. Elisha placed his hands on the king’s hands to symbolize the promise that God would strengthen Jehoash’s hands in battle. This was a prophetic act symbolizing a military victory over Aram. In a sense it was like Moses raising his staff over the Red Sea symbolizing authority over the waters – God’s authority working through his representative.

After Jehoash fired the arrow, Elisha declared that Jehoash would completely destroy the Arameans in an upcoming battle. He then gave the king a handful of arrows and instructed him to strike the ground with the arrows. The better translation is that he was instructed to shoot the arrows into the ground as he had shot the first arrow through the window. Jehoash shot three arrows into the ground and stopped. Elisha was angry saying that he should have shot more arrows because he established his own destiny with the number of shots. More arrows would have brought more victories for him and for Israel.

At first glance, I’m puzzled by Elisha’s anger. He didn’t tell the king how many arrows to shoot into the ground or clearly why he was doing so. However, the king knew the first arrow was a sign of one victory and could have deduced that more arrows meant more victories. My guess is that he still had arrows in his hand when he stopped shooting. Either his faith or his passion for victory or both fell short.

I wonder how often we stop short of God’s promises either because our faith won’t imagine more or because we are content with a little rather than battling for all that God is willing to give us. I have learned through the years that most prophecies and promises are conditional on our response. If God tells us he will do great things through us, the condition is that we prepare ourselves for great things and risk doing more than we thought we could. If he promises to move mountains do we settle for an anthill because our faith can’t imagine the mountain or because our part in moving that mountain seems too hard or too long?

Jude challenges us to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude3). I once thought of that as a call to defend pure doctrine. I’m sure that contending may include teaching the truth in the face of opposition but I have also come to believe that it includes contending for the promises imbedded in our faith. Jacob had to wrestle with an angel for an entire night to get the blessing he was seeking. We need to endure in faith, prayer and action refusing to settle for less than the promise implies – for healing, for a nation, for salvations, or for a marriage. God wants us to shoot until all the arrows are gone.

Sometimes I wonder if God is bored because his children ask and settle for ordinary things rather than the extraordinary. Paul tells us that God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine (Eph.3:20) and so I’m confident that he wants to do that. A strong man who can bench press 360 pounds wants to be challenged to do that and even more. To ask him to bench only 100 pounds is boring and even insulting. We need to ask for more. We need to ask for the impossible rather than the probable. We need to hear the promise or own true prophecy and then shoot every arrow, launch every prayer, and believe the word until we hold the promise in our hands. Don’t give up, don’t give in, don’t settle. Contend.

At Mid-Cities we end every service with a time of ministry at the front of the sanctuary. Pastors, elders, group leaders, and other mature believers stand at the front and pray for whoever comes forward while others are dismissed. On occasion, we invite people to come forward to pray for specific things – healing, spiritual gifts, reconciliation, etc. This morning we prayed for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In general, the baptism of the Spirit is the release of power in the life of a believer for greater intimacy with the Father and for the release and empowerment of spiritual gifts. As I prayed for people to receive a fresh filling of the Spirit this morning, I realized that I was judging what was happening by sight rather than by faith. Paul corrects this human tendency when he says, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor.5:7).

Many of us fall into the trap of judging what is happening in the spiritual realm by what we see happening in the physical realm. It’s not that the spiritual realm does not manifest in the physical realm because it often does – but not always and maybe less than we think. For instance, how many of us have prayed for healing for two or three minutes (I know… it seemed longer), and when we saw no improvement we walked away believing that God did not answer our prayer. As soon as we had that thought, our faith for healing dissipated.

We judged the effectiveness of our prayer by what we did not see in the natural rather than by the promises of God in the spiritual realm. Interestingly, I have heard ministers with very effective healing ministries say that 50% of the people they pray for are not healed immediately but that the healing manifests 48 to 72 hours later.  Since that is true, we should continue to have faith for healing simply because we have asked according to the promises of God. How often have we quit praying for a healing, a salvation, provision, or a mate simply because we haven’t seen anything in the natural realm that looks like what we imagined God’s answer to our prayer would look like.

Naaman is the classic example. You remember he was the commander of the army of Aram. We are told that he was a great man but he had leprosy.   His Jewish servant girl told him of Elisha and promised that the prophet of her God could heal her master. Naaman took his servants and wealth and departed to meet this prophet and pay him for a word or a prayer of healing. When he arrived at Elisha’s house, Elisha sent his servant out to tell Naaman to go dip in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed. Instead of rushing off to the river, the text tells us, “But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy” (2 Kings 5:11). Finally, his servants convinced him to go dip in the Jordan and after he had done so, his leprosy was totally cured. Because he didn’t see what he expected in the natural realm, he nearly missed what God had provided in the spiritual realm.

As I was praying for people to receive the baptism of the Spirit this morning, I realized I was looking for manifestations of the Spirit – heat, electricity, people going weak in the knees, or spontaneously beginning to speak in tongues. The people I prayed for did not report any of those experiences and yet my faith should declare that they did receive a filling of the Spirit because God promises that he will not withhold his Spirit from those who ask (Lk.11:13). The upgrade will eventually manifest in the natural because the Spirit impacts the natural but, like healing, it may manifest in a process rather than as an immediate event.

One writer, whose name I can’t recall, explained that when a gift of healing is manifested, a process of healing is released that may take hours or days to fully manifest. The gift of miracles is seen when a sick or disabled person receives their healing immediately. If we are not careful, we will quickly loose faith for the process of healing if healing does not manifest as a miracle.

Whether we are praying for healing, salvation, provision, direction, or revival we must maintain faith based on the promises of God rather than clear manifestations of answered prayer in the natural. God is often working in the spiritual realm, marshaling everything needed for the answered prayer and when it is released the answer comes quickly and powerfully, but until that moment it will not be apparent in the natural. So…keep the faith. When we believe God more than we believe our eyes, our eyes will eventually see much more than we ever anticipated. Blessings in Him.

I attended a fundraiser last night for China Aid in Midland, Texas. China Aid is a faith-based organization that works to overcome human rights abuses in China – especially in the area of religious freedom where thousands of Christians and pastors are still being persecuted and imprisoned for their faith. Bob Fu, a remarkable man and advocate for Chinese believers, is the director of China Aid. He was imprisoned for his faith in China and he and his wife Heidi eventually fled to the U.S. to keep from being “re-educated” again in Chinese labor camps. I have made two visits to China to minister to house church pastors and Christian human rights attorneys and have personally seen the faith and passion of these believers. I met numerous believers who had already been arrested and tortured by security police. Others know that possibility exists for them.   Each one expects to be arrested some day and, perhaps, tortured and imprisoned for their faith and yet they continue to serve Jesus and declare his name. For the Chinese believer there is a real cost of discipleship.

We have seen the cost of discipleship in the Middle East over the past few months as Isis has beheaded, burned, drowned and shot the faithful in Christ and we are beginning to feel the early pangs of persecution even in America. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor who stood against the Nazi’s in WWII and was executed for doing so, said that salvation may be free but it is also costly. There is always a cost to true faith even if the believer is not undergoing persecution. I remember Bill Johnson talking about people who wanted him to pray and give them an impartation for a gift of healing. Some would come and say, “I want twice the anointing you have!” and his reply would be, “So do I. But you haven’t paid the price I have.” He wasn’t saying that we earn our salvation or even spiritual gifts – otherwise they wouldn’t be gifts. What he was saying is that God feeds the hungry not the satisfied and he had expressed his hunger in countless hours of prayers and crying out to God for the anointing he has received.

The danger for most of us Americans is that our faith has been easy and, for most of us, life has been easy compared to the rest of the world. We tend to want everything to be quick and painless. I know that’s my preference, but coming to God has always required a sacrifice and though Christ is our sacrifice there still remains a spirit of sacrifice in our faith. In the life of King David there came a time when he was in need of offering a sacrifice for the nation.

“Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.” But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing” (1Chron.21:23-24). Study, prayer, fasting, serving, giving and being inconvenienced for the gospel reflect a heart of sacrifice that is willing to respond to the cross with a willingness to pay a price for whatever has been freely given – our gift to God in response to his greatest gift.

As we scan the world and see the price the faithful are paying, we need to steel ourselves and be willing to pay a price for heavenly treasures as well. I’m not sure what it will cost us but I know that true discipleship and a powerful anointing of the Spirit will require effort and perseverance on our part. May we be willing to join all those who have gone before us who were willing to give it all for the sake of the cross. Pray a little longer, study a little more, take some risks for Jesus, give generously, miss a meal, above all be inconvenienced for the needs of others and…be blessed in Him.

He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever –Jn. 14:16

This is a rewrite of a blog I wrote months ago but I sense that God is wanting me to revisit the theme. For most of my years in ministry, I functioned as one of the primary pastors in my church that provided counseling for members as well as for other believers from the community. I typically saw problems that you would encounter in any counseling practice – chronic depression, anxiety, anger, shame, addictions, gender confusion, eating disorders, and marriages on the brink of dissolving. Most of these individuals had been Christians for years. The huge red flag should have been that our people, after following Jesus for years, looked very little different from those living in the world who did not know Jesus. They were saved but their lives had not been transformed.

As I met with individuals, I gave them a little insight into their troubles and a couple of exercises to do at home, prayed over them, and sent them on their way. I would see them again the next week and hoped for a little progress. Typically, little or no progress had been made and we would march around the same mountain again. We would work until some identifiable progress had been made and I would release them. I would likely see them again in six months. I had taken graduate courses in Marriage and Family counseling and went to top-notch workshops offered by both secular and Christian counselors. Other than an opening prayer, I heard essentially the same strategies for counseling.

However, as the years passed something kept eating at me. When I read the New Testament, I never got the sense that the church in Jerusalem (or anywhere else) offered counseling from leaders who went to the world’s universities for training nor did the writers of the N.T. encourage believers to work hard to “manage their issues. ” Instead they commanded them to rid themselves of those things. More strikingly, there was no sense that followers of Jesus took months and years of meeting with a local pastor or a therapist to experience healing and significant life change.

What I did see was the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Christ healing bodies, hearts, and lives. I saw once broke and even perverse sinners transformed and walking in a holiness that stood out from the world…and it didn’t take a lifetime. Paul clearly expected the church to be the place where the wisdom and power of heaven would reside and where the Holy Spirit would unravel the knots of a believer’s past while drawing the poison out of long-standing wounds. There was no hint that the church would go to the world for help but that the world would come to the church. Yet I (and other Christian counselors) tended to call secular training with an opening prayer Christian counseling. Even Christian colleges offered essentially the same training in counseling and therapy that unbelieving universities offered.

I am not denying that secular counseling can help. But what I am saying is that there is power and transformation available from God’s Spirit that secular counseling cannot touch. Paul is clear that the real battle for the hearts and minds of people rests in the spiritual realm where only divine weapons have impact. The N.T. church seemed to rely much more on encounters with the Holy Spirit and the powerful exercise of spiritual gifts to heal and change those who followed Jesus than wisdom the world might offer.  As those who will “judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:3) and who have the Counselor of Heaven residing within us, we should have much more to offer than secular therapists.

Once I began to allow the power of the kingdom of heaven to invade the counseling room and began to be a catalyst for encounters with God, I began to see the radical life change that I saw on the pages of the gospels. Once I began to speak God’s truth over situations I began to see Christians delivered from anger, fear, depression, addictions, eating disorders, and sexual brokenness in hours or weeks rather than months and years. I saw marriages on the brink of divorce begin to thrive because the Holy Spirit changed hearts rather than people simply changing behaviors. I must admit that when the power of God brings the transformation rather than my “amazing counseling skills” I feel much less significant in the process. In those moments I am no longer the dispenser of wisdom, the Holy Spirit is. But then, I get to see radical change rather than miniscule progress.

The good news of the kingdom of God is that Jesus has come to heal the brokenhearted and set captives free. He wants to release His power into the lives of his children for every circumstance. The Holy Spirit is an amazing counselor full of not only wisdom but also power.   Until a greater portion of the church discovers that, many committed believers who love Jesus will continue to walk for years with a relational limp and a broken heart – never living up to the dream their Father has for them. That is not God’s will for his church. The bride of Christ is meant to be shining, glorious, and powerful. Lets not settle for less. The world needs us and it needs us to be the distributors of God’s power on this planet. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Cor.4:20).

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner. (Luke 7:37-39)

This is one of the most poignant scenes in the ministry of Jesus and it clearly contrasts the heart of religion and the heart of love. In the days of Jesus, when notable individuals visited a town and were invited to a prominent persons home, the villagers were typically welcomed to come and sit around the perimeter of the courtyard and listen to their conversations. Undoubtedly, most seats were reserved for close friends and family of the host but others could, perhaps, hang around the perimeter if they remained quiet and “invisible.”

On this particular evening, one of the “others” broke all protocol and eased her way through the onlookers to the very feet of the notable visitor. I’m sure that both social tension and eyebrows rose as she did so. First of all, this was a woman and women were not welcome to assert themselves in Jewish culture in the first century. More importantly, this presumptuous woman was notoriously known for her sin and certainly did not inhabit the social circles of Simon the Pharisee. It must have been an incredibly awkward moment for the host who had scored a social coup by having this young, controversial, miracle-working Rabbi accept his invitation to dinner. But now, this loose, very unwelcome woman was in the spotlight rather than Simon. More than that, she was making a scene with her sobbing and her theatrics – pouring perfume on the feet of Simon’s guest and wiping is feet with her hair. I’m surprised that Simon didn’t have his servants escort her off the premises but, perhaps, he saw this as a kind of test for Jesus. How would he deal with this breach of etiquette? If he truly were a prophet would he not know that this woman was a blatant sinner and rebuke her before all the righteous gathered in the courtyard?

And what of Jesus? If I had been him I would have found the moment even more awkward with this woman weeping, pouring expensive perfume on is feet, and wiping his feet with her hair with everyone looking on and wondering how these two might be connected – wondering if there were some revelation of scandal in this moment. I’m sure that for her sake and for the sake of everyone there I would have invited her to meet at a better time in a more appropriate setting. But not Jesus. While she is pouring, weeping, and wiping he simply tells a story that justifies the sinful woman and condemns the righteous Pharisee while calmly accepting her worship and repentance. It is likely that only two people in the whole courtyard were not embarrassed – Jesus, the healer of broken hearts, and this broken woman who had come to the Rabbi with a true sense of desperation about her life.

The religious condemned her and rejected her while the creator of the universe and the sinless second Adam embraced her. The religious focused on who she had been while Jesus focused on who she could be. The religious defined her by her sin and wanted nothing to do with her while Jesus saw her sin as the symptoms of a shattered soul and chose to do something about it. If the religious had ruled the moment, this woman would have disappeared into the night carrying an unbearable load of guilt and rejection convinced all the more that God hated her. Jesus showed a different heart and I believe it transformed her life.

The last look at this woman we get through Luke’s gospel ends with Jesus saying, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Lk.7:50). John, however, may open the door for us a little wider when he speaks of Mary in his gospel. In John’s gospel, Mary has a high profile and is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. These three seem to have been very close friends of the Rabbi. You’ll remember that in the 11^th chapter of John, Jesus stood outside the sealed tomb of Lazarus and commanded him to come forth, performing the most notable miracle in his three-year ministry. In the beginning of that particular account we are told, “This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair” (Jn.11:2).

Some scholars do not believe that the woman of Luke 11 is the Mary who played such a prominent role in the life and ministry of Jesus, but I see no contradictions. She, who had been forgiven much, loved much. I believe love took a broken, sinful woman and restored her hope, her dignity, and her family. I believe love took a nameless woman without purpose for her life and gave her an eternal purpose and a name remembered for more than two millennia now. No wonder she was so attached to this distributor of God’s love and sat at his feet while her sister rattled the pots and pans. No wonder she believed that Jesus could give life to her brother since he had already given life to her.

That is the triumph of love over religion and relationship over ritual. Religion simply categorized this woman as a battered and worn relic of humanity ready for the trash heap. Jesus, however, saw her potential. He reclaimed her and repurposed her. He made her beautiful and useful while most of us would have simply walked by her like junk on the side of a road. I absolutely believe in love over religion but, if I’m honest, I drift away from love and into religion and judgment more often than I care to acknowledge – not just toward others but also toward myself. How often do I judge and reject my own heart, thoughts and actions as I compare them to some cold standard of acceptability rather than through the eyes of my Heavenly Father who never rejects but continues to repurpose me in my life. When I judge and reject myself, I reject others. When I receive God’s immeasurable love for me I tend to love others so much more. I’m betting Mary was a lover of broken people and my prayer is that I will also love as Jesus loves.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Lk.12:32-34).

In the context of describing God’s care and the uselessness of worry to his disciples, Jesus speaks the verses quoted above. He said that the Father had been pleased to give the kingdom to his followers. In the same way, the Father has been pleased to give the kingdom to us.   Many believers think of the kingdom as future. For them, the kingdom and the blessings of the kingdom are experienced only after the funeral or in the millennium when Jesus establishes his kingdom on the earth. The verb tenses Jesus used, however, were past tense. The Father had already given the kingdom and it was part of Christ’s rationale for a decision not to worry about how they would live.

In this section, Jesus describes kingdom economics. First of all, he reminds us that the kingdom has been given to us. That means that all the resources of the kingdom are available to us. As children of God and citizens of heaven, we have access to the storerooms of the kingdom – especially when we are on the King’s business and are trusting in him to provide.

Jesus counsels us to sell our possessions and give to the poor. That echoes his challenge to the rich young ruler who was moral and religious but who valued his possessions on earth more than those in heaven. He doesn’t say to sell all of our possessions but seems to be counseling us to sell much of what we have and give it away, especially the excess. This is a persistent theme throughout the gospels. When he sent out the twelve to preach, heal, and deliver he told them to take no money and nothing but the bare essentials. The lesson to be learned was that God would provide. Jesus taught us to pray each day for daily bread. Again, he seems to imply that in the kingdom, we don’t need to store up excess for the future but to use it for kingdom purposes today with faith that our Heavenly Father will provide what we need from the vaults of heaven each day.

Jesus goes on to instruct us to provide purses for ourselves (wallets) that will not wear out and a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted. We have a hand in providing this provision. I believe this teaching can include laying up rewards in heaven for eternal life, but in the context of not worrying about what we will eat, drink, or wear in this world he is talking about an account we can draw on now in this world. Jesus seems to be saying that as we freely give away what he has already given us, more resources will be placed in our account. The more we depend on the Father for provision rather than our own resources, the more goes into our account in heaven now. Biblically, it is hard for a rich man to enter heaven because the very nature of his riches tends to make him self-sufficient rather than Christ-sufficient.

It seems that from heaven’s perspective, a wise man will give enough to kingdom purposes that his situation will always force him to stay focused on God and his resources. That seems to create an “open heaven” for the children of God and his supernatural provision. Most of us have thrilled at stories of people on the brink of financial catastrophe who get the mysterious, anonymous check in the mail for exactly the amount they needed. Many of us would love to have that experience because we sense how faith building it would be. If we were honest, most of us would like to get the supernatural check so that we don’t have to dip into our savings or retirement. However, miracles typically occur only in the context of desperation or a practiced dependence on God. We’re not talking about desperation or dependence because we blew our paycheck in Vegas, but because we have used our resources for the kingdom of God or because we simply encountered a crisis that was out of our control.

In this passage, Jesus simply reminds us that there is no need to worry if we are faithfully serving the Father and are about our Father’s business. The kingdom has been given to us and the more we give away what God has been giving to us, the more he will funnel into our accounts so that we can give that away as well. I believe the principle goes beyond finances and includes our expenditure of time, energy, and gifts as well. What we give generously to God is rolled back into our account with interest so that we can draw on that account now. If we hold back a significant surplus for ourselves, we may not see the miracles we desire because we won’t need the miracles. Not only that, but after a while we may come to believe that we don’t even need God all that much.

Jesus gives wise counsel at the end of this text. Our heart will be focused on the place where we place our treasure. If a man has all his wealth in the stock market, he will check those stocks multiple times a day because his heart is there. If we want our hearts to be focused on God, then our treasure must be in his keeping not our own.

This passage challenges me and, perhaps, challenges you. Kingdom economics (kingdomnomics) stands the wisdom of the world on its head. But if we want to see the supernatural move of God in our lives, it may simply be a matter of economics.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. (Rom.8:26-27).

This may or may not be a familiar verse to you but it is an incredibly important verse for every believer. In the first place, Paul acknowledges what most of us already know. There are times when we simply need help from the Spirit of God. He helps us in our weakness, our inability, or in our own lack of capacity to face a circumstance. There will be times when we simply don’t have what it takes in our own strength to overcome a temptation, understand a dilemma, or even know how to pray about an issue. When we get to such places, the Holy Spirit comes alongside and helps. Notice that “help” doesn’t mean that he does it for us, but rather he yokes up with us so that we can face a situation together. Believe me, he is pulling most of the weight.

In the context of needing a breakthrough in one of life’s dilemmas such as a martial crisis, a healing, a release from an addiction, or a financial crisis, sometimes we need help. I really like what Dutch Sheets has to say about such a moment in his “must-read” book, Intercessory Prayer. “Have you ever felt an inability in your prayer life to produce results? Have you ever come up against a “mountain” you couldn’t move? … The Lord says in this verse that one of the reasons we have this “inability to produce results” is because we don’t always know how to “pray as we should.” The word “should” here is a very important word. Dei is primarily a legal term meaning ‘that which is necessary, right or proper in the nature of a case; what one must do: that which is legally binding for someone.’ For example, Luke 18:1 tells us, ‘Men ought always to pray and never faint’ (KJV, emphasis added). The verse does not mean, ‘It would be a good idea to pray.’ It is declaring – ‘It is absolutely necessary-binding upon you-that you pray.’”

As you delve into this text, it suggests that we don’t always know what to pray for or how to pray to get the breakthrough we need or that someone else needs. Sometimes, we see the symptoms of a problem but we can’t discern the root-cause, which is really what we need to pray about. For instance, we may be praying for God to set someone free from an addiction but the addiction is the symptom, not the cause. The cause may be a deep sense of shame from a molestation experience as a child. Unless the shame is healed, the person will just find another addiction with which to medicate his or her pain. Maybe a person doesn’t need another job as much as he or she needs a work ethic so that they don’t keep finding themselves unemployed. Maybe we keep asking God to provide a spouse for a single friend when we should be praying for the spiritual growth of our friend so that he or she wouldn’t mess up any marriage God has arranged. In many cases, our prayers may be sincere but may not be on target.

The word “should” or “ought” also suggests that some legality may be an issue in the spiritual realm. Until that is dealt with or revealed by prayer, the enemy may still have a right to oppress the one for whom we are praying. We may not know what the legality is but the Spirit does. There may be curses connected to the sins of the person’s fathers that have come down from generation to generation or word curses that have been spoken over the individual. Maybe there was occult involvement as a child that the person has dismissed as trivial or doesn’t remember (Ouija boards, fortune telling, etc.).   That involvement may still give the enemy a place until these things are confessed, repented of, and renounced. These kinds of legalities operate in the spiritual realm and because we may be unaware of them, our prayers don’t touch them. At other times we are asked to pray for people but are given very little or no information about the prayer need. In all these cases, we don’t know how to pray as we should. What then? Ah…enter the Holy Spirit!!!

As we lift up people and circumstances we can simply ask the Spirit to show us what we need to pray about. A few months ago, a believer I’ll call Emily came into my office. She was suffering from an undefined sickness that was making her weaker and weaker. As we visited, she mentioned a sister who lived in another state who was in a Lesbian relationship with an older woman. Emily explained that she had met her sister’s significant other and that her sister’s friend seemed to feel very threatened by Emily. Through the Spirit, I sensed that the “friend” was a highly controlling woman who was, indeed, threatened by Emily’s influence in her sister’s life. Through some occult involvement she had placed a curse on Emily. When the curse was broken in the name of Jesus, Emily was set free and quickly regained her health. The “spiritual legality” had been taken care of.

At other times, we can yoke ourselves together with the Spirit and pray in the Spirit or in our prayer language (tongues), knowing that the Spirit is praying exactly the right things in the right ways through us. If we have prayed for months without breakthrough, we may simply be missing the target. Remember that the Spirit of God is ready and willing to show us how to pray (a Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:17) or to pray with us as we continue to seek a breakthrough. Don’t leave him out of the equation for he is very willing and very able to help us in our inabilities!

In my last blog, we explored the concept of “confession” which I believe is a powerful weapon in the arsenal God has provided for his people. In its simplest form, confession means that I say what God has said about any issue and not only say it but also agree with it. If I confess sin, then I am saying what God has said about an unacceptable trait, thought, or behavior and, hopefully, am agreeing with him about that in my heart. The third area of confession is simply developing a practice of saying what God has said about others and myself in the Lord.

We all know how important it is for faith to be transferred from a person’s head to his heart. To believe something intellectually is not as powerful as believing that same truth at a heart level. Speaking (verbally confessing) a truth facilitates that transfer. Paul says, “       But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom.10:8-9). In this verse, Paul is encouraging us to confess our faith with our mouths rather than just holding it as an intellectual conviction in our minds. He also suggests that the act of doing so facilitates belief in our hearts.

In the Hebrew mind, there is often a causal connection between two things joined together with the conjunction and. For instance, if someone were to say, “I slipped on the ice and broke my wrist,” we would assume that the slipping contributed to the breaking. One helped to cause the other.   In the same way, confessing with my mouth has a connection with believing in my heart. One powerful tool for transforming a belief in my head to faith in my heart is verbally confessing God’s truth regarding any area of my life.

Most of us struggle with our self-image. The world and the enemy love to beat up on us and leave us feeling unworthy, useless, and condemned even as believers. That is not the message of Christ. Jesus came to redeem us and to makes us into something new. That is the essence of being born-again and being a new creation. The New Testament is filled with God’s declarations about who we are now that we are in Christ. Those declarations should form our new identity in Jesus. Phrases such as, “the righteousness of God, fully forgiven, acceptable, worthy, holy, friends of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, empowered, competent, ambassadors for Christ, kings and priests, etc. all apply to every believer. They are part of our new identity that needs to seep down from our heads into our hearts.

The Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Another way of saying that is, “We live up to whatever we believe about ourselves.” Verbally, declaring who we are in Christ, on a daily basis, is a powerful tool for transformation. Speaking the same things over one another (especially our children) is also very powerful. As we agree with God about who we are, those truths are eventually written on our hearts. When they are written there, our view of ourselves changes and when that changes we change.

There is also a prophetic aspect to our verbal confessions. Isaiah declares that when God’s word goes forth it always fulfills its purpose. God spoke and his words created the universe. We are made in his image. When we speak our words have creative power, especially when his words go forth from our lips. When we declare his truth over any situation, we release God’s power to make those truths a reality (on earth as it is in heaven) whether it is shaping our identity, releasing his promises in our lives, or establishing destiny over our marriage or our children.

Confession aligns us with Christ, revokes the enemy’s authority to oppress us, writes his truth on our hearts, and releases the power of prophetic words to shape our hearts and the future. We should exercise this divine weapon often. It is how your authority as a believer is expressed. God gave you authority so exercise it for his purposes in your own life and lives of others. Remember, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb.4:11). Use it against the enemy.

Confession is a divine weapon that can have powerful, effects when exercised consistently. We tend to think of confession as the confession of sins either to God or to one another. If you have a catholic background it will summon images of confession to the local priest. Confession can mean that but encompasses much more. According to Strong, the Greek word exomologeo can be translated as: to confess, to agree, to approve, to assure, to promise, to admit, to concede and, judicially, to make a statement, or in the legal sense to bear witness. It also includes making solemn statements of faith.

I think the easiest way to understand the concept of confession is to think of it as agreement with the truths of God. Literally, it means “to say the same as,” to agree with God”, or “to say what God says.”  As I’ve already mentioned, one aspect of confession regards our sins. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (Ja.5:16). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn.1:9). To confess our sins means that we agree with God that what we have done is wrong and that we acknowledge our culpability in the sin.

In Psalm 51, David confesses his adultery with Bathsheba. He makes no excuses and blames no one else for his choice. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge” (Ps.51:4). Notice that he takes full responsibility for his actions and declares that God’s standards are right and just. He confesses or agrees with God about what he has done. He agrees in his heart, not just with his words. A sincere confession is always woven in with godly sorrow. Confession of sin is a defensive weapon because a consistent practice of confession gives no place to the enemy to come in because we stand in agreement with God rather than Satan. Confession cancels any legal right Satan would have to oppress us and keeps any barriers from forming in our relationship with God.

There is another side to confession and that is standing in agreement with God about Jesus. To confess Christ is simply to say what God says about him. It is our way of declaring belief and belief is simply a conviction that what God has said about his Son is true. Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Mt.10:32-33). When we confess Jesus before men we agree with God about Jesus and we say so. We say what he has said.

Declaring who Jesus is will always include a confession that he is our Lord and Savior. That confession declares our alignment and allegiance to Christ and declares not only to men but also to the spirit realm that we serve Jesus. That declaration establishes our authority in the spiritual realm as followers of Jesus and sons and daughters of the king. Just as law enforcement officers have to identify themselves by uniform or announcement before exercising their authority, we need to do the same before exercising authority in spiritual matters. If we do not belong to Jesus, we cannot operate (pray or command) in Jesus name. Our confession of who Jesus is and who he is to us is critical when we stand against the enemy.

Thirdly, confession of who we are in Christ and what he has done for us is a powerful weapon to keep the enemy at bay and to write God’s truth more deeply on our hearts. There is also a prophetic effect when we declare God’s word regarding ourselves, other believers, or our own children and families. Next time I want to really develop this important aspect of confession because it is so powerful and yet so neglected. Be blessed today.

But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow. (Exodus 8:22-23).

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor.6:14-18)

In Exodus 8, as God was in the process of delivering Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, he declared a distinction between his people and all others. Goshen was the region of Egypt where Jacob and his family had settled after they were invited to stay in Egypt because of Joseph’s service to Pharaoh. It was a fertile area of approximately 900 square miles on which one to two million Hebrews lived – first as farmers and ranchers and later as slaves. In the text above, God told Moses that from that point on, the plagues that were impacting Egypt would not touch Goshen nor his people living there. There were several reasons why God would treat them differently from all other tribes and nations. First of all, he chose Israel as a man would choose his bride. A man may treat women, in general, with kindness but he should do more for his wife and do it sooner than for anyone else. That is how God relates to his chosen people.

In the same vein, God treats his people differently because he has a unique relationship with them that is described by words such as bride, household, priesthood, sons and daughters, family, saints, chosen, and even friends. Those are words that describe intimate and even covenant relationships. In a sense, God may know all people, but he is not intimate with them nor does he consider them sons and daughters. In addition, God says that he will make a distinction between his people and all others because he is with them. God is with his people and his presence makes a difference. As they say…membership has privileges and we are members of Christ.

It is clear throughout the Bible that God makes a distinction between his people and all others but scripture also reminds us that we are to make a distinction as well. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians quoted above, he emphasizes the distinction again and draws a contrast between those who belong to the Father through Jesus and all others. Those distinctions are: righteousness vs. wickedness; light vs. darkness; Christ vs. Belial (Satan or a high ranking demon); believer vs. unbeliever; and the temple of God vs. idols. According to Paul, God still calls us to “come out from among them and be separate. Touch no unclean thing.”

In my experience, many Christians don’t see themselves as chosen and distinct from all other people. They don’t see themselves as different nor do they make much of an attempt to be different other than church attendance. God is not calling us to withdraw from society, move into the desert, and form monastic societies. He is not calling us to some form of ritual cleanliness.  What he is doing is calling us to be distinct – first in our own minds and, secondly, in our ways.

What we need is the “salmon anointing” (not a biblical term) that makes us a people who are always willing to swim against the current and the culture of the world rather than embracing it or compromising our faith in order to “fit in.” God has not commanded us to fit in but to be different – as different as night and day. Jesus said we should be “in the world” but not “of the world.”

Sometimes we want God to do supernatural stuff in our lives. But if we want God to “act like God” in our lives with miracles and blessings then we must “act like his people” and as sold out citizens of heaven rather than comfortable citizens of this world. How many “unclean” things do we touch in a day by choice – especially with our eyes and our ears? How often do we compromise our faith “just a little” at school or at the office in order to gain membership or standing with those who don’t know or don’t care about the Lord? How often do we forget that God is with us when we swim with the culture rather than against it?

A church that has forgotten who she is will be a powerless church. If we desire to see the power of God we must remember that power is not given until it is needed. It is not needed as long as we are “going with the flow.” When we remember who we are; when we see ourselves as distinct from all other people; when we push back against the world; when we get busy destroying the works of the devil; ands when we choose to swim upstream toward the source – then, power will be needed. When it is needed it will be released. So…let’s go for the salmon anointing. Let’s swim as hard we can against the current, reproduce ourselves, and encourage as many as possible to swim with us. Then he will be our God and we will be his people. Then we will be distinct from all other people.