When you are engaged in spiritual warfare, the word of God is essential. It is essential not only for discerning God’s will in a matter, but it is also a weapon to be used directly against the enemy. When confronting the enemy who is harassing, tempting, or afflicting you or someone else, the word of God is powerful. It is powerful because his word carries authority and authority directs power.

When describing the armor of God, Paul tells us that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph.6:17). The word translated as sword is a word that means a knife or a dagger rather than a large sword. That word suggests spiritual warfare in two contexts. The first context is hand-to-hand combat when the enemy is close and within reach. Spiritual warfare is often that way when the enemy is standing right in front of us as we minister deliverance to someone or when he is harassing us in our bedroom at three in the morning.   The second context can be understood as a moment when we use a knife or a dagger to dislodge an arrow or some shrapnel that has been fired at us by the enemy and has lodged in us…such as a fiery dart of the enemy.

The first context is battle. In the spiritual realm authority is critical. That’s why we are reminded over and over in the New Testament that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and that he has a name that is above every name. In the context of battle, the word of God becomes a weapon because the word of God must be enforced by the army of heaven. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb.4:12). In the book of Revelation, John describes a vision of Jesus and says, “In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword” (Rev.1:16). That picture of Jesus establishes him as one with great power and authority. His words leave his lips as a sword with power to destroy.   In the book of Hosea, God told Israel, “Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you” (Hosea 6:5). Words direct the power and judgments of heaven so that when used as a weapon against the enemy, they can inflict harm.

In the wilderness temptation recorded in Matthew 4, Satan came to Jesus to tempt him in face-to-face, hand-to-hand combat. The devil always shows up when our strength (spiritual, emotional, or physical) is somehow depleted. Satan approached Jesus after forty days of solitude and fasting. His energy levels were low and he had been without the encouragement of friends or family for over a month. Satan, believing Jesus to be extremely vulnerable, came to tempt him as he did the First Adam.

Jesus fought back with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Jesus quoted scripture in response to every temptation of the enemy. I don’t believe Satan left Jesus only because he thought it was pointless to continue to tempt him. That was undoubtedly part of it, but I also believe the word of God inflicts pain on the enemy as a knife or dagger thrust. One thrust will typically not dispatch the enemy but several will leave him bloody and wounded and ready to run.

The words of believers carry authority and power. How else could the commands of God’s people bring healing and deliverance or even raise the dead? In the spiritual realm, our words have substance and weight. If our words have substance, how much more do the very words of God spoken from our lips carry weight? God spoke through Isaiah saying, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). Whether God’s word goes out through his lips or through ours, it will still fulfill its purpose.

Again, we are told that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. I believe when we declare that word with faith and conviction it cuts and bruises the enemy. When we are confronting the enemy, declaring appropriate scripture has a powerful affect that afflicts and torments the demonic. We should store up his word in our heart as much as possible and whip it out every time we encounter the enemy.

The second context of using the knife or dagger, which is the word of God, is when our faith, our joy, or our purpose has been wounded by a blow from the enemy. The fiery darts of the enemy (Eph. 6:16) that are extinguished by the shield of faith are undoubtedly lies that slip past our defenses – accusation, discouragement, weakness, etc. The word of God, then, reassures us and re-establishes our faith as we go back to the promises and the character of God. Each promise in the word digs out a piece of shrapnel or cleans out a wound left by the enemy. The word then can be wielded as a weapon against the enemy or as a scalpel useful for healing.

In the heat of battle or in a moment of treating wounds, declaring scripture strengthens our own faith in the moment while it weakens the enemy and torments him. Demons do not always depart with the first command. If a stronghold exists, you may have to “assault the walls of the enemy’s fortress” more than once with numerous commands. Declaring the word of God over that person or over a situation takes big chunks out of the bunkers of the enemy.

I remember one of our Freedom Weekends when a young woman was manifesting severely with a spirit of witchcraft. Her eyes were rolling back in her head, the spirit was growling at us, telling us that he hated us and that she belonged to him. We were commanding and he was resisting. It seemed like a stalemate until one of our team members was prompted by the Spirit to read Psalm 91 over the young woman, personalizing it with her name. As the word of God was read, the demon departed. The sword of the Spirit had its way.

Every believer should have a catalogue of scriptures on hand to wield against the enemy: scriptures that declare who Christ is, who we are in Christ, the defeat of Satan, the victory of the church, God’s willingness to heal and set captives free, and scriptures that defeat fear and temptation of every kind. As believers, our own words carry authority but the very words of God from our lips, carry even more power and authority with which to defeat and torment the enemy. Make a list, memorize them, and keep them handy.   We live in a dangerous world. Don’t leave home without your sword and remember, it’s always open carry.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul penned the lines above in his opening statements. The apostle had a great affection for the church there and he wrote with an almost sentimental tone that we don’t always get from Paul. “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart” (Phil.1:7). Paul is proud of this little church and writes, perhaps, the most positive letter in all of scripture to them. His heart for them is that their love for God and for others might abound more and more. Paul often speaks of that quality. He knows that abounding love will be a work of the Spirit on our lives because the natural man only loves those who loves him first and benefits him. He writes a whole chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13. But here he adds a couple of interesting qualifiers.

Paul said that he wanted their love to abound more and more but also to be guided by knowledge and a depth of insight. In essence, Paul wants us not only to love, but to love wisely. What Paul prays for this church to receive, we should pray for ourselves as well. First of all, we should pray that the Spirit of God would increase our love. Jesus said that the two great commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors. He would say that all of the Law and the Prophets hung on those two commands. If you think about it, the entire Bible is simply a set of instructions teaching us how to love God and how to love others. John tells us that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8) and although a number of other attributes describe God in scripture, love seems to be his paramount and most striking quality.

If you scan the Old Testament to see what endures forever, that phrase comes up a frequently. We are told that God’s throne endures forever; his name endures forever; his works endure forever; his word endures forever; and his righteousness endures forever. But the descriptor that is quoted dozens of time more often that the ones just mentioned is his love endures forever. Everything else flows out of that. God is good because he loves. God is merciful because he loves. God hates sin, because he loves and sin destroys the people he loves. Jesus himself defined his mission by love. Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend. The cross was the ultimate act of love and God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…to redeem us from the universal mess we are in.

If we are to become like the Father and like the Son, then we must grow in love to the point that we abound in it so that it drips off of us wherever we go and saturates our environment. But Paul attaches the conditions of knowledge and insight that are to guide our expressions of love. Knowledge, in this context, is the knowledge of God – his character, his will, and his ways. Insight is seeing to the heart of a matter.

Love can be misunderstood and misdirected. Biblically, love (agape) is not a feeling or the idea of doing everything we can to make someone happy. It is not just a heart that goes out to others. Instead, it is a constant decision to always act in the best interests of another person. That may include saying no, applying discipline, or a little loving confrontation at times. In our present church culture, love has, in many ways, been redefined to mean tolerant, non-judgmental, and accepting of everything and every lifestyle. The knowledge of God informs me that I can love a person without tolerating a sin that will eventually destroy him or her and infect others on the way. Depth of insight is spiritual discernment that helps me see to the heart of a matter so that I can apply love in constructive ways that touch the deepest need or issue rather than living like a permissive parent who never says no to the demands of immature believers.

Not only is my insight for understanding people and situations around me, but it is also for me to discover which things are best, so that I can live a pure and blameless life. Scripture often tells us that our guide for living should not be simply avoiding sin or staying away from bad things. That is certainly a start, but in numerous contexts we are told that our goal is to always discern and choose what is best – not just good, acceptable, or tolerable – but best.

God wants the best for his children. If you are investing for retirement, you are not looking for average investments or adequate mutual funds, you are looking for the best – the funds that are most stable and that pay the best dividends year after year. God want his children to invest in the things of life that pay the best dividends in heaven. Paul says that the fruit of love guided by knowledge and insight is righteousness. Righteousness is where true freedom is found because it means we have mastered the flesh and the enemy has no claim on us whatsoever. We are aligned with the Father in every part of our life. When we walk in righteousness, we constantly sow to the Spirit and we reap life in everything we do (Gal.6:8).

So, we find that increasing love directed by knowledge and a depth of insight is the door to increase – more of God, more of Jesus, more of the Spirit, more effective ministry, more righteousness, more freedom, and greater harvests. Paul prayed for God to grant that to the believers in Philippi. We should do the same. Paul offered a similar prayer for the church at Ephesus where he prayed that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so they might know him better (Eph.1:7). I encourage you to add both of those prayers to your heavenly requests as well. It is God’s will for us to request those things and he is glad to give when we are hungry enough to ask. Be blessed today and may you abound more and more in love in knowledge and depth of insight.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 1 Corinthians 6:2-3

Whenever we engage in spiritual warfare we must first remember who Christ is and who we are in him. Everything else rests on that foundation. In the New Testament, we are told that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that he has all authority in heaven and on earth, that he has a name that is above every name, and so forth. We cannot enter into spiritual warfare with an expectation of winning if we do not already know that Jesus has already won the victory and that we are only enforcing what has already been determined. As many have said, we are not fighting for victory, but from victory.

The battles we fight in the spiritual realm today are parallel to the battles Israel fought when entering the Promise Land. The land had already been promised to the descendants of Abraham. In essence, God had already deeded the land to his people. It was his to give and he had given it. His people had a legal right to the land they were about to take. Suddenly, those who had been inhabiting the land were trespassers and Israel’s first task was to evict those who no longer had any claim to the property that was the inheritance of God’s people.

The irony of God’s gift to his people was that although it had already been given to them, they still had to take possession of what had been given. I know men and women who have been given land by parents or grandparents with an expectation that they would live on it someday and, perhaps, raise crops or herds on it. Sometimes the land had been developed but at other times it had not. The land belonged to them but they still faced the daunting task of clearing rocks, brush, and acres of mesquite trees. Wells had to be dug and fences erected. Unwanted critters had to be dispatched and others tamed. Hindrances to life and productivity had to be removed. Enemies, in all their forms, had to be uprooted and removed.

Israel faced the same dilemma, but instead of rocks, trees, and brush they were called to remove hardened enemies who lived in walled cities and who had experience with war. Some of them were “goliath-like” in size and temperament. And yet, the Lord promised to go before them and guarantee the victory if they would step out in faith and obedience. God was asking them to fight from victory rather than striving for victory. Israel failed to take the Promise Land when they first came to the Jordan River because they continued to believe that they had to fight in their own strength. They were not convinced that God would be strong and victorious for them. Israel still had the identity of slaves rather than sons of God. They still anticipated that the God who had defeated Pharaoh with plagues and ocean water would abandon them in the face of inferior forces.

We can also drift into that same mindset, thinking that God may or may not be there for us when we face the enemy. We can drift into the mindset that although God gave us the victory yesterday, we are not sure that he will do the same today. We know we are in that place when we pray or command out of a sense of hoping that God will come through rather than operating in a firm expectation that he will come through. We know we are in that place when we feel that we are facing the enemy in our own strength and skills rather than in the strength and authority of the Commander of the Armies of Heaven.

We are not slaves. We are not servants. We are sons and daughters of a God who does not change, does not abandon, does not sleep, and who never loses. We may exercise the power and authority of heaven because of who we are in Christ. It is not about our righteousness, our wisdom, or our performance. We are who we are because God has placed us in a position of favor, authority, and rule because of what Jesus had done.

What we need to remember is that we have exceptional standing with the God of Creation. We are sons and daughters, friends of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, co-heirs with Christ, ambassadors of heaven, appointed and anointed, seated with Christ in heavenly realms, and so forth. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6 that we have such standing that we will sit with Christ, judging both the world and angels, when the curtain comes down on this age.

When we begin to clear the spiritual land that God has given us, we need to spend a moment remembering who our Lord is and his immense, infinite power that he is always willing to wield on our behalf. We also need to remember who we are in Christ. We need to remember that because of a cross and an empty tomb, the victory has already been won and both the Father and Son have agreed to go into battle with us because they will never leave us or forsake us in any circumstance. The Spirit goes with us as well because he lives in us.

As we remind ourselves of who Jesus is and who we are in him, we should also remind the enemy of those two things as well before we pray, declare, or command.   Our confidence in both creates fear in the enemy. If we doubt who we are, the enemy is emboldened. Who we are does not change from day to day based on our spiritual performance that day. We are who we are in Christ. Even on bad days, our position allows us to call on the power of heaven to destroy the works of the devil because the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the best hell can offer. As you pray for healings, command spirits to depart, or declare God’s promises over “impossible situations,” take a moment to remember who you are. You are one of God’s chosen, who will judge the world and even angels and, through Christ, you are to exercise that authority even now. Be blessed today and know who you are.

We need to pay attention to our words because our words are windows into our hearts. Our words expose our deepest thoughts – especially those words spoken under stress. Jesus told his disciples, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Mt.15:18-19). He also declared, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Lk.6:45).

In our unguarded moments, our words give us away. The words we speak, when we feel threatened or angry, expose thoughts and beliefs deep in our hearts. How many of us have spoken something hurtful, sinful, or unbelieving only to say later, “I don’t know where that came from, that’s not who I am?” I have certainly said that at times but, the truth is, the words came from part of who I am. To be sure, we are flesh and spirit, the new man and the old man, the spiritual man and the natural man. To be sure, the flesh wars against the spirit (see Romans 7), but our goal is to bring everything within us into alignment with the Father’s ways and the Father’s will.

Our words reveal places of misalignment in our hearts. Our words are clear indicators of areas that need the work of the Spirit and our cooperative efforts. Remember, unattended misalignment gives the devil entry into our thought life. Our words are a road map to the places in our spiritual walls that need repair. Pay attention to your words and don’t dismiss those that are misaligned as meaningless. Our words are symptomatic. They reveal spiritual health or spiritual weakness. A wise person will be encouraged by the health that he or she discovers and will take action on the areas of spiritual infirmity that are indicated.

Anything we speak that is contrary to or misaligned with God’s word, values, or priorities gives the enemy a place to slip into our lives and create havoc. The principal is illustrated in Paul’s letter to Ephesus where he counsels, “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Eph.4:26-27). Anger is a work of the flesh characterized in Galatians 5:20 as hatred, discord, rage, and dissensions. Paul allows that we may become angry and not sin. Anger is a very human emotion and even God is said to become angry at times (his being a righteous anger). However, when we hold on to our anger, nurture it, or refuse to forgive, then we are moving into the arena of sin.

The original word translated as foothold is topos. It means a place, a territory, or even a sanctuary. It was used of sacred places, including the high places where false gods and demons were worshipped. When we nurture our anger we give Satan a place, a sanctuary, or some territory in our lives. In the same way, words spoken frequently that are aligned with Satan rather than with the Father, can give Satan a foothold as well. Eventually, a foothold will become a stronghold and Satan will wield tremendous influence in some part of our lives because he will strongly influence our thinking in that area. Our words will reveal that influence but it may take others to point out how misaligned we are in that slice of our life because the Satan is a master deceiver.

A wise person, then, will monitor his speech and ask others to alert him to speech that is misaligned with God’s truth.  Our words are symptoms of something in our heart that may need to be touched by the grace and healing power of God or that may need the balm of repentance.  They are great indicators of spiritual and emotional health or a lack of health and, like blood pressure, need to be checked on a regular basis.  Remember, the tongue has the power of life or death.  Choose life.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom…Colossians 3:15-16

Peace is a central concept in the New Testament. It is such a mark of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus left us his peace as our inheritance. The world is in need of peace. Most of the people I know, including believers, are in need of peace. We all are in need of peace. The Greek word for peace is eirene. In the New Testament it is the equivalent of the Hebrew concept of shalom which can be defined as prosperity of body, soul, and spirit. Biblical peace is the idea of an inner tranquility that nurtures every other part of our life – our health, our relationships, and our work. We all hunger for peace, but the question is how do we attain that peace.

The passage above from Paul’s letter to the Colossians gives us a hint. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. The word translated as “rule” is interesting. It is an athletic term that means to sit as an umpire and to judge what is within the rules and what is an infraction of the rules. The peace of Jesus is to umpire our thoughts and our actions. His peace should direct our thoughts, our decisions, and our actions. His peace should let us know when we are within God’s will and when we are beginning to stray from his will. Paul goes on to say that we should let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly as well.

The peace of Christ is peace that belongs to Christ. In John 14, Jesus gives us his peace or, at least, makes it available to us. What was the secret to the peace that Jesus maintained in the face of his massive stressors: the daily density of his disciples, the demand of the crowds on his time and energy, the opposition of the Pharisees, the cross that had to always nibble at the edge of his thoughts, and the demand to remain sinless in the face of constant temptations from the enemy?

In the midst of demands and opposition, Jesus seemed to navigate it all with an absence of anxiety and a constant confidence in the outcomes of heaven in his life. All of that undoubtedly flowed from his relationship with the Father and from his Father’s words stored up in his heart. How often did Jesus quote scripture to quickly and simply settle an issue?

I believe that the peace or inner tranquility that was his came from an absence of internal conflict. He had settled it in his heart long before he spoke the words, “Your will be done, not mine.” When Paul instructs us to “let the words of Christ dwell in us richly,” he gives us a clear step to the peace we seek. The word translated as “richly” means both abundantly and extremely. The Word is to live in us, be active in us, and to have power and life within us – not minimally but abundantly, not moderately but extremely. We are to give the Word of God lordship over our thoughts and decisions.

I believe that the heart of Jesus was so aligned with the Father than no internal debate ever broke out about what to do in any given situation and no debate ever broke out about which of the promises of God were true for him and to what degree. Our doubt about those things, create worry and uncertainty in our lives and rob us of peace. Jesus said that his peace is available to every believer. His peace comes from an extreme commitment to doing it God’s way without question and without hesitation.

When we have that commitment within us, the Spirit of God will direct us.   When Paul tells us to let the peace of Jesus Christ rule or umpire in our hearts, two things are implied. One is that whenever I have internal conflict about a thought or a decision, the Holy Spirit will give me peace when I have settled on the one most aligned with the Father. The experience of peace in my heart becomes an umpire that directs me to play within the mindset of heaven. Secondly, I also am to pursue peace in my heart and in my relationships because that is the atmosphere of heaven. When I am at peace in my heart and relationships, I can hear God most clearly.

When I am aligned with the Father, I can have perfect confidence that he hears every prayer and will care for me in every circumstance. When I am sold out to his Word, I obey his words. When I obey his words, I test them and find that they are true. When I find that they are true I have confidence in all of his Word and all of his promises for me. Then I know that he will be my sword and my shield; he will supply all my needs; he will go before me into battle; he will never leave me alone; and his love for me is unfailing. If I am confident of those things, I have no need to worry. I have peace.

Jesus had perfect confidence in all those things. Therefore, he had a peace that passes human understanding and he offers us the same peace. In one sense peace is a gift from God and a fruit of the Spirit. As a gift it is not something I can conjure up in my own heart in any lasting way. On the other hand, we have a part in receiving that peace. Peace rests on a foundation of single-minded devotion to the Lord and an unshakable trust in his promises for each of us. Seeking God’s peace through constant alignment with him, letting the Spirit guide us as his peace points us to God’s will and his ways for our lives, and letting the word of Christ dwell in us abundantly and extremely are all foundational to the peace we are seeking. Those are things we can pursue through obedience to the Spirit, study in the scriptures, and obedience to his Word.

Jesus had made all this possible for us because he is our peace. He has made peace between us and the Father. He has restored our relationship with the Father and we can rest in that relationship. We all want peace. Even Miss America contestants want “world peace.” But the truth is that there will be no peace without Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Peace will come when every man knows Jesus. Our personal peace will increase, as we know him better. Blessings today and shalom.

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you are probably interested in increase – more of the Spirit, greater expressions of your spiritual gifts, and more kingdom power operating in your life. All those are legitimate desires if we want them in order to be more effective in representing Jesus on the earth. If you desire an increase, then you are probably praying for the increase and pursuing it through books, conferences, and hanging around men and women who operate in the gifts you want to develop. You are probably going after impartations of the gift as well. Praying for increase tracks with Paul’s injunction to “eagerly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor.14:1). In order for us to receive the increase we desire, we need to make sure that we have dealt with any hindrances in our lives that may be inhibiting that increase.Let’s consider a few so that each of us can perform a spiritual CT scan to see if something needs to be dealt with.

First of all, in his extensive writings on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, Paul discussed the need to be motivated by love and a desire to build up the body of Christ. As you read Paul’s entire letter, it’s easy to see that the church at Corinth was extremely spiritually immature. They were exercising all the spiritual gifts in impressive ways but, apparently, the motive of many was self-serving: celebrity status, power, a sense of spiritual superiority, and so forth. Paul was quick to condemn any sense of spiritual elitism in the church or self-promotion, along with divisions and confusion in the church prompted by wrong motives in the exercise of spiritual gifts.

Spiritual gifts are to be an expression of God’s love directed toward those to whom the gift is touching. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet. 4:10). Any other motive will hinder the exercise of the gift and God will certainly hesitate to give an increase. We should check our motives from time to time. I’m not saying that we should not experience some kind of personal fulfillment through the exercise of gifts. We should and will. But if your thoughts are constantly about others admiring your for your gifts, advancing in personal influence in your church, or experiencing financial gain though your gifts, then check your heart.

A second hindrance is found in giving into the desires of the flesh and giving those desires a higher priority than the priorities of the Spirit. Paul says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” (Gal. 5:16-17). Since our gifts operate as an extension of the Holy Spirit, anything in us that is in opposition to the Spirit will hinder the flow of the Spirit in our lives.

Very few of us have all of our actions, thoughts, or emotions fully submitted to Jesus. We tend to be spiritually mature in some areas of our lives while still giving in to the flesh in other areas.

Some of us operate well in mercy gifts but have no boldness to confront sin or share out faith. Some of us are great intercessors but have little compassion for the poor. Some of us have great leadership qualities while harboring a secret addiction. Others of us prophesy while our eating and health habits are out of control. Others lead amazing ministries in their church while their marriage is rotting at home. You get the picture.

Without condemning ourselves, we need to acknowledge areas of our lives in which we are not walking by the Spirit. Paul clearly says that if we walk by the Spirit we will not carry out the desire of the flesh. He doesn’t say that our fleshly desires will disappear, we just won’t give into them and their attraction will diminish overtime if our desires for the things of heaven are greater than the promptings of our flesh.

In order to surrender an unsubmitted part of our life to the Spirit, we need to acknowledge it first. The truth is that some of us are unaware of our unsubmitted parts or rationalize them as being spiritual in some way. A rude and critical person may frame those qualities as being honest and transparent. A stingy person may call his lack of generosity good stewardship of his God-given finances. A judgmental person may define that judgment as a “gift of discernment.” We can all have blind spots. David knew that so he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps.139:23-24) Ask God to show you any unsubmitted areas and ask your friends or spouse to tell you kindly, but honestly, what they see.

Once we have discovered an area of our life that is out of step with the Spirit, then we should search to see what the Word says about our thoughts or behaviors and then repent. Having done that we need to make transformation in that part of our life a point of prayer until we know we have matured in that area. Asking a few close friends to hold us accountable for change is typically needed as well.

A third step is to check to see if some demonic influence is keeping us out of step with the Spirit and, in doing so, limiting the increase we desire. Satan certainly doesn’t want you to have more of the Spirit, be more effective with your gifts, or walk in greater spiritual power. Many of us believe that if we are in church, serving in ministries, and even serving as leaders in the kingdom, we could not possibly be under the influence of a demon.

My experience is that leaders and spiritually gifted people are often under the influence of a spirit that has subtly gained entrance through the years and that is manifesting in subtle ways. A spirit of heaviness may simply be written off as stress and fatigue – for the last eighteen months. Many leaders struggle with discouragement, frustration, anger, nagging jealousies, lust, love for money, loneliness, condemnation, and so forth. A demonic spirit may well be the source. A wise believer and a mature believer, from time to time, should have someone who is experienced in deliverance check out the possibility that a spirit is hindering his/her walk.

As we seek more, we should be wise enough to stop occasionally to determine whether there may be something in our lives that is inhibiting the increase. A hunger for more is a positive spiritual quality but it is not the only condition for receiving more. Perfection is certainly not required but ignoring glaring issues in our lives is not the way to increase. There may be something we need to submit to Jesus before we can be good stewards of more gifts or greater anointing. Blessings in Him.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. Isaiah 61:3

In Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the Messiah, he refers to the people Jesus would someday heal and set free as mean and women who become “oaks of righteousness.” The figure brings to mind tall, powerful, and stately oaks that stand the test of time and withstand the strongest storms.   We all want to be that kind of believer.

This morning, in a men’s group I am part of, we began to discuss the concept of spiritual fruit in the kingdom and how certain trees and vines grow to produce more fruit. One of our men, who owns and operates his own landscape business, told us that certain trees, after germination, grow root systems for up to two years before the trunk begins to appear above the ground. Nutrients and stability come from the root system and without strength there, the tree will eventually fail. As a result, the tree gives all of its energy to growing down before it gives energy to growing up.

As a church that believes in the operation of all the spiritual gifts, it is not unusual to see new believers or believers who have just begun to experience the power of God get very excited and very focused on operating in those gifts. After all, there is nothing like being part of a miracle that God has just released into another person’s life. I think it is appropriate that new believers are hungry for the manifestations of God and want to experience more and more of his Spirit and his supernatural ways.

However, there is one caution that needs to be extended regarding the pursuit of such gifts or even the pursuit of bearing a great deal of fruit in the kingdom of God. The caution is that before we start operating abundantly in the gifts and before we start wanting to bear abundant fruit, we need to make sure that our roots go deep into the soil. Otherwise, the fruit that is produced quickly will wither just as quickly or the weight of the gifts will pull us over and uproot us in the midst of a strong storm.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he was quick to point out that they operated, as a church, in all the gifts of the Spirit. In Chapters 12-14, he began to mention those gifts specifically: prophecy, healings, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, words of knowledge, supernatural wisdom, and so forth. That’s pretty heady stuff for a young church.

The real problem for Corinth is stated in Chapter 3. “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men (1 Cor.3:1-3)?

Although the church at Corinth was producing impressive fruit above ground, the root systems were still extremely shallow. The weight of their fruit or gifts was more than their foundation could support. As a result, there were jealousies, divisions, cliques, arrogance, self-promotion, and confusion in the ranks. The tree was unhealthy and beginning to topple. Ultimately, Paul pointed out in Chapter 13 that the evidence of true spirituality was not to be found first in the exercise of spiritual gifts, but in the exercise of love.

If the analogy is true, then the question becomes, how do I develop a deep root system that provides both nourishment and stability. In practical terms, digging into the Word of God each day and hearing from him is crucial. Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We need to personally dig into the Word itself, not just books by our favorite author about the Word.

Secondly, we need to be familiar with the whole counsel of God, not just one thin slice of that pie. It’s easy to get excited about prophecy, end-times, healing, leadership, worship, or any other facet of God’s word and pursue only that, listen to sermons about only that, and hang out with others who talk about only that. The problem is that we can develop tunnel vision and stay ignorant about God’s will in all the other areas of life. We can be filled with knowledge about one narrow slice of our faith and have no wisdom, perspective, or character for the remainder of our Christian living. It’s like taking tons of vitamin C but never getting adequate amounts of all the other vitamins and minerals that you need for life. Get in the Word daily, chew on it, talk about it, and ask God about it as you read through entire books discovering God’s directives for a multitude of things.

In addition, putting down roots depends on staying in one place for a while – plugging into a church, serving there, getting to know people, and letting them speak into your life. Too many believers these days shop around…for years. They are spiritual drifters who never stay anywhere long enough to develop meaningful relationships with others. John goes so far as to tell us that if we don’t love the brothers, we can’t love God. If we don’t stay put, we can’t love the brothers – at least not in any substantial ways.

Ultimately, our roots have to go down in a relationship with Jesus. Prayer and obedience facilitate that relationship. Regular times in prayer, praise, and doing what he directs us to do – being doers of the word and not hearers only – deepens that relationship so that when the wind blows, we stand on solid ground rather than shifting sands.

My point in all this is to encourage you to seek the gifts but even more than that and before that, seek to be rooted deeply in the whole counsel of God and in a relationship to Jesus. I am convinced that God is even more concerned about the character and heart of Christ being formed in us than he is in us doing miracles in his name. There is no doubt that God desires fruit, but years of fruit bearing is only possible if your roots grow deep. Be blessed today and put energy into going deeper even before growing taller.

Healing continues to be a controversial subject in the church world. Many churches believe that healing gifts ceased to operate around the end of the first century while others believe that the Holy Spirit is in full operation today, depositing healing gifts in those who have faith for it. My church believes that God still heals through both prayers of faith and through gifts of healing as well. However, even in the most effective healing ministries around the world, some are healed while others are not. The question of “Why?” always surfaces in the face of that reality. Is it them or is it us or is it something else? Of course, we recognize that faith has a great part in healing prayer…sometimes it is the faith of those for whom we pray and sometimes it is our own faith as we pray. But then the question becomes, “How much faith is required for God to move?”

A look at the gospels gives no hard and fast formula for prayers that heal and prayers that don’t. We know that Jesus could not heal many in Nazareth because there was such little faith in the people for healing. “Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith” (Lk.6:4-6).

And yet, at other times he healed those who had very little idea, if any, of who he was. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda seemed to have no idea about the healing that was coming his way and yet he stood and walked after being an invalid for thirty-eight years (Jn.5). The man born blind, who was given sight in John 9, seems also to have had very little information about the man called Jesus. At times, Jesus responded to faith with a miracle and at other times he imparted faith through a miracle.

As we pray for people to be healed we notice that some who are healed have little understanding of healing and a minimal relationship with Jesus while other spiritually mature individuals who love Jesus and believe in his power to heal are not healed. There is still a great deal of mystery regarding healing and those who pray for it must be willing to live with that mystery. Many believers who want to see people healed,  hold back from praying because they fear their prayer will not bring healing and that the one they pray for will be damaged or offended when healing does not come. When we think that way, we are ultimately believing that our prayer is the determining factor in healing – was it bathed in enough faith, energized by enough fervency, constructed with all the “right” elements? When we reflect on the reality of healing we know it is the Holy Spirit’s decision, not ours, whether healing will flow through us to another and prayer formula’s or volume have little to do with that release. The standard biblical prayer seemed be, “Be healed in the name of Jesus.” So much for long and eloquent prayers attempting to call down God’s favor for healing.

There is one element in healing prayer, however, that deserves our consideration. That is the element of compassion for the one who is receiving prayer. Both the Old and New Testaments reveal God as a God of compassion (mercy, pity). If you chase the word “compassion” through a concordance, the O.T. references to compassion as a quality of God far outweigh the references to compassion as a quality of men. It’s almost as if that quality is such a godly quality that it is rare to find among men.As you track the references about compassion into the New Testament, we often find it attached to Jesus.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Mt.9:35-36)

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Mt.14:14).

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.” (Mt.15:32)

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him. (Mt.20:34)

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean.” (Mk.1:41).

There are more references, but you get the point. God – whether Father, Son or Spirit – is often moved to act on behalf of men by the quality of compassion. The word is also translated as mercy, pity, his heart went out to someone, etc. Suffering is not an academic subject to God. His heart is truly moved when he sees the suffering of his people. On numerous occasions those who were suffering asked for mercy or pity from Jesus for healing and deliverance and he healed and delivered.

What about our prayers for suffering people who need healing, deliverance, salvation, provision, and so forth? How often do we actually pray out of duty or approach people as if they were a spiritual project? At times, in an effort to grow in the grace of healing, some of us will pray to receive a word of knowledge from God about someone he wants to heal and when we get a leading we go into the community to find the person God has directed us to and we pray for their healing – usually at places like Lowes, Wal-Mart, or Starbucks (my preferred word of knowledge). But, if I’m honest, at times I have been more concerned about my prayer, me feelings, and seeing the healing than I am the actual suffering of the person.

I have talked a lot in this blog about power flowing through us as we align ourselves with God. I am convinced that before we pray, we need to spend a minute or two aligning our hearts with the heart of God for that person. If we believe that God prompts us to pray or puts people on our hearts for prayer, then it stands to reason that as we pray he wants our hearts to match his. We need to ask the Spirit to give us the compassion of Christ for the individual for whom we are about to pray. If fervency is a quality for answered prayer, then feeling God’s concern will generate that passion for the hurting person in our hearts.

Many of us who pray for a lot of people, including strangers, can pray simply as an expression of obedience or for the Father’s approval or to grow in our willingness to take risks. None of those motives are bad in themselves but the far greater motive is love and out of love flows compassion. I’m certain that matching the Father’s heart is a great key to seeing heaven move in response to our prayers or our commands. In the midst of Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts, including healings and miracles, he drops in a whole chapter about motivations for exercising those gifts. Of course, the motivation he called for was love (1 Cor.13). Before I pray, I need to check my heart to discern my motivation for praying. If it is not love or compassion for the hurting person standing before me, I’m sure I need to realign my heart with the Father’s.

My prayer for today is, “Father give me the eyes of Jesus to see people as you see them and the heart of Jesus to feel what you feel for them. Match my heart to yours and then give me the wisdom of heaven to know how to pray for the people you love so desperately.”

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:12-16

In the second chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, he spends a great deal of times underlining our essential need for the Holy Spirit. He begins the chapter recounting the decision he made after his disappointing stint in Athens (see Acts 17). While in Athens, Paul had rolled out his most eloquent arguments and debated with the philosophers on Mars Hill with little response. I’m certain that he spent a number of hours in soul searching and asking the Spirit why his strategy had so little effect. When he came to Corinth he had settled on an entirely different approach. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God…my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

In his two letters to the church at Corinth, he speaks of power at least 25 times. He always relates power to the Holy Spirit as did Jesus, who had instructed the first disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit.

There are numerous ways in which the Spirit enables us to serve God. In this text, Paul emphasizes our ability to comprehend God and his ways. First of all, he says, the Spirit gives us understanding. Paul had a miserable experience trying to reason with the “wise men” of Athens. Ultimately, what he was telling them made no sense to their intellectual leanings. Paul begins the section I quoted at the beginning of this blog by telling us that God gave us his Spirit so that we could understand the things God has given us. Spiritual understanding is critical to faith and without the Spirit, there is no spiritual understanding.

For those of us who believe, we often marvel that some of the brightest minds of our time consider the complexities of the universe and still walk away as atheists. Paul, who was a brilliant scholar himself, said, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). The word translated as “discerned” here means to make an appraisal, a judgment, or a right evaluation of something. In other words, without the Spirit of God in us, we cannot evaluate or judge truth accurately. So…don’t be surprised that university professors ridicule our faith.

It is not that spiritual things are not logical; it is just that spiritual logic is not the same as natural logic. When I was first studying to be a minister in a fellowship that did not accept the present- day ministry of the Holy Spirit, I was surrounded by very bright men who studied the scriptures daily. However, in an attempt to understand difficult passages, they applied Aristotelian logic to the scriptures. Their conclusions were inevitably legalistic. Think about it. They applied reasoning processes developed by pagan philosophers and applied them to truths of the Spirit and, I believe, consistently came away with false conclusions. If you don’t have the Spirit or don’t listen to the Spirit you cannot understand spiritual things. Spiritual logic turns natural logic on its head – the first shall be last, the least shall be greatest, the save your life you must lose it, and so on. To the man without the Spirit, those things sound naïve and foolish. To us they are cornerstone truths in the kingdom of God.

As Paul considered that truth, he put away his eloquent outlines that appealed to man’s wisdom and, instead, preached a simple gospel followed by demonstrations of the Spirit’s power. One of the great values of power in evangelism is that the power of the Spirit upsets the natural man’s paradigm – his way of understanding the world. When the rational or scientific man encounters the power of God in prophecy, healing, deliverance, raising the dead, walking on water, etc. his mindset cannot explain adequately what has happened and he experiences a paradigm shift – an openness to knew possibilities. Paul experienced that shift on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians while he was still known as Saul of Tarsus.

Even as Christians, I believe we have missed part of the implications of what Paul has told us in this text. The amazing truth he gives us is that we have the mind of Christ – the mind through which the universe was created. Too often, we limit spiritual understanding to theology rather than all understanding that comes from the mind of Christ. What if we believed that the cure to cancer was available to us because we are tapped into the mind of Christ who understands perfectly everything from the forces that created the universe to sub-atomic physics as well as the cellular structure and genetics of the human body? God cares about our health as well as our salvation. He cares about the suffering of men in this world as well as the world to come. Jesus said that his Spirit would lead us into all truth. We should be teaching ourselves and our children to ask God for spiritually creative pathways for music, art, literature, media, and architecture along with heavenly solutions to disease, world hunger, poverty, energy, and pollution. By restricting God’s truth to theology only, we have, in all likelihood, robbed the world of uncounted blessings.

The Holy Spirit is a game changer that opens us up to the very mind and heart of God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. His presence and power sets us apart from all people on earth. While some churches discourage any pursuit of the Holy Spirit and his power, we should be pursuing Him and all that He has with all of our hearts. It is the Spirit who gives us understanding and then empowers us to activate that understanding with the same power that raised Jesus from the grave. What a gift and what a privilege for those who believe in the Risen Lord. Make the most of his Spirit living in you today! Ask Him for answers to everything.

No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 54:17

For many of us, this is a familiar passage but, perhaps, one that we have not dug into very deeply. There is a two-part promise that comes to us as servants of the Lord that we often need to stand on. First of all, God promises that no (none, not any) weapon (weapon, instrument, possession, plan) forged (formed, fashioned, planned, designed) against us will prevail (prosper, cut through, force entry, succeed) if we are servants of the Lord (full time, not part time).

Since Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but rather against spiritual forces of wickedness, we can say that no weapon the devil forms against us and uses through people will prevail or be victorious in the long run. He is not saying that we will not face some battles and even get some cuts and bruises. He is saying that in the long run, the plans of the enemy to destroy us will not succeed if we continue to stand with the Lord.

Secondly, he declares that God will eventually refute every accusation that comes against us. These are connected thoughts and the second may actually be a clarification of the first. Satan is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev.12:10) and not only accuses us day and night before God, but also before men. Many of the weapons formed against us come as accusations, slander, condemnation, and so forth. Sometimes we experience those assaults through the lips of people around us. At other times, we hear them in our own thoughts. They are hurtful, discouraging, and damaging. They are fiery darts from the enemy. Search the scriptures and you will see that all those who served the Lord were, eventually, accused of ungodly motives and actions by their enemies. They were accused of being blasphemers and heretics, subverting governments, and being in league with the devil just for a start.

The promise is that we will refute the accusations made against us. But how will we refute them? Do we argue, make our case, or slander back? No. We trust God to vindicate us in the eyes of those around us. Jesus did not answer his accusers and he is our model (1 Peter 2:23).
As you search the Psalms, you see David frequently asking God to vindicate him but he rarely attempted to vindicate himself. There is an old saying that you should not try to defend yourself against slander because your enemies won’t believe it and your friends don’t need it. There is a great deal of truth in that.

How, then, do we refute words spoken against us? By continuing to live a godly life regardless of how others accuse us. Jesus went as far as commanding us to love our enemies who typically reflect the devil’s character as they accuse us day and night. He commands us to love our enemies by praying for them, speaking well of them when they speak evil of us, and doing good to them (Lk.6). Those actions keep the devil from getting a foothold in our own hearts. The promise is that, eventually, the people we care about will see Christ in us and see the devil in our accusers. If we give in and join them in the mudslinging, then people will eventually see the devil in us and that will hide the devil in them because he is a much more accomplished mudslinger than we can ever be.

To me, the most important part of the Isaiah passage is that protection and vindication are our heritage in the Lord. If that promise is true for the servants of God, how much more must it be true for his children?

Jesus said that in this world we will have trouble (Jn.16:33). Weapons, plans, and strategies will be formed against us. We will experience much of that warfare in the form of accusations and condemnation. Our part is to continue to stand with God, always take the high road, and trust in the Lord for vindication. If we fall into the trap of the devil by taking up his tactics in the fight or by receiving the condemnation he is spewing, then his weapons will have prevailed in our lives. But if we trust the Lord and his promises and continue to reflect the character of God, then our faith will quench the fiery darts of the enemy.

Standing with God in the face of unfounded accusations is hard. It typically takes endurance. If there is truth in the accusation, then we need to hear it, acknowledge it, and repent. David understood this principle. After his son Absalom conspired to take David’s kingdom, David and those close to him were leaving Jerusalem. A man name Shimei accused David of treachery against Saul’s household and was pelting David with stones. Abishai, one of David’s commanders came to him and offered to separate Shemei’s head from his body. David commanded Abishai to leave the man alone. Davis thought that, perhaps, God had prompted the man to say those things for there might be some truth that David needed to hear. If there was no truth in the accusations, then David believed that God would bless him for the abuse he was receiving without retaliation (2 Sam.16). The same spirit is found in Paul’s directives in Romans 12. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…Do not repay anyone evil for evil…but overcome evil with good” (Rom.12:14-21).

Satan’s primary strategy is to alienate us from God and to draw us into his camp. If we come into agreement with Satan in our heart or in our actions and remain there long, we give him a place in our lives.  When we stand with the Lord, believing that victory and vindication are part of our inheritance, then we will see the power of the enemy fade and the promises of the Father prevail. Then…no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Be blessed today by blessing those who curse you! By the way, you will probably have to ask Jesus for the grace to do so.