Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men (Matt.9:1-8).

This a familiar story but one that should be revisited from time to time because it is so instructive.  There are several players in the story.  The central figure, of course, is Jesus and the other is an unnamed the paralytic, lying on a mat. Surrounding him are his friends who had faith for his healing, the religious authorities, and the crowds watching the action unfold.

The text says that Jesus came to his own town.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, but after beginning his public ministry took up residence in Capernaum (Matt.4:13). In this town he had recently healed the centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law. He had just arrived back in Capernaum after encountering the Gadarene demoniac who lived among the tombs.  Having delivered the man from a host of demons, he was invited to leave by the locals and had immediately returned to Capernaum.

When he arrived, the friends of a paralytic carried him to Jesus with an expectation of seeing their friend healed.  Jesus recognized there faith but said something that didn’t quite seem to fit the moment.  “Take heart son; your sins are forgiven.” Now, if I’m the guy on the mat I’m thinking, “Great, I wanted to walk but all I got was a some obscure statement about my sins being forgiven!  I wanted healing but all I got was theology. You guys grab my mat and let’s head to Starbucks.”

But, as always, Jesus had a deeper point.  Disease and debilitating physical conditions came to man because of sin. Disease was the symptom, sin was the ultimate cause and so sin was the greater issue.  Jesus dealt first with the cause.  How many times do we pray for people to be healed without first assessing their spiritual condition?  I am certain that healing is hindered in the bodies of many believer’s by infirmities in their souls – unforgiveness, bitterness, pride, unbelief, and so on.  Whenever possible it is always wise to do a spiritual scan of a person’s life before prayers for healing.  Jesus placed this man in a state of forgiveness before healing him.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul revealed to the church that some among them were sick because they had brought judgment on themselves by partaking of communion while they had been treating their spiritual family at Corinth in ungodly ways (1 Cor.11:30).  The illness was a wakeup call to repentance so that healing could then be experienced. Obviously, a prayer for healing without repentance first would be ineffective in those cases.

Sin and illness have long been connected in scripture.  Sometimes we’re ill simply because we are part of a fallen race living in a fallen environment. The fall came as a result of sin. At other times, our sin has opened us up to spirits of infirmity and disease because of our choices. The psalmist made the connection when he wrote, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases”(Ps.103:2-3). Again, the conjunction “and” often carries a causative connection.  The idea is that my diseases can be healed because my sins have been forgiven.

Does God ever heal before sins are forgiven?  Certainly, because the kindness of God calls men to repentance (see Rom.2:4).  Healing is a kindness. Jesus healed some who had not yet heard the gospel and warned others after they were healed to stop sinning lest something worse happen to them. For believers who know the call to righteousness and who have access to the blood of Christ, repentance most often should come first.  James counsels us to call the elders of the church whenever we are sick so that they can anoint us with oil and pray over us with faith.  He tells us that their prayer of faith will being healing and if we have sinned we will be forgiven. (see James 5:13-16).  The implication is that an ongoing, unrepented sin opened us up to some sickness or spirit of infirmity. Forgiveness was needed to open us up to healing.

As we move through the story, we also are reminded that words often need to be confirmed by actions or results even when the words are true.  Anyone can say, “Your sins are forgiven,” but what is the evidence of that?  Many people have “conversion experiences” so that the unusual experience they have when they come to faith confirms to them that God has truly accepted them and extended forgiveness.  Many others take their salvation by faith based on intellectual persuasion that they have done what God asked and, therefore, have received what he promised.

I find, however,  that more people with a “conversion experience” are solidly convinced of their salvation than those who chose to believe the truth without experience.   The man on the mat had just heard the words that he was forgiven, but I wonder how certain he was of that?  Jesus moved ahead, however, and acknowledged that it’s easy to say “Your sins are forgiven” because there is no concrete evidence to determine whether they have been forgiven or not. In essence, he says, “If I were to heal this lame man, would you be more likely to believe that he is also forgiven since the power to heal affirms my connection with the Father who also forgives? ”

When the man was healed, the crowds believed and I am certain that the lame man not only rejoiced in his healing but rejoiced with much greater certainty in his salvation.  It’s easy for the church to declare that someone has been saved and all their sins are forgiven.  But how many believers still struggle with some doubt about that because they cannot forgive themselves and still wonder if God has totally forgiven them?  Their certainty increases when they have a powerful experience with God.  That experience demonstrates his love for them on a very personal, individualized basis.  Suddenly they are no longer just a face in a crowd of those who were declared to be forgiven but that declaration of forgiveness has been delivered to them personally by the King. Of course, not all will believe even in the face of miracles. Religious leaders who have always denied the operation of miracles today will still discount what they have witnessed and call it “strange fire.” The crowds, however,  will come to faith.

In a world filled with words and outrageous claims, our words alone are easily discounted. Preach the gospel, offer forgiveness, and then release sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, pregnancy to the infertile, life to a splintered marriage, the tangible touch of God to the lonely, deliverance to the hopelessly oppressed, and the crowds will be in awe.  But more than that, the ones touched by God will be secure in the promise that not only are they healed but their sins have also been forgiven.  Be blessed today.  Go out there and heal someone.

“Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town” (Mt.10:11-14).

As Jesus was sending out the twelve to try out their wings apart from his presence, he gave them these instructions as part of a larger set.   To us, this passage may seem a bit strange.  What constitutes a worthy person?  What does it mean to give the house your greeting?  What is “your peace” that can be imparted and then retrieved?  To some degree this passage is confusing to most of us because of cultural contexts that we are unfamiliar with.  To some degree it is because of a spiritual context that we are unfamiliar with.

Luke’s version of what Jesus said can be helpful.  Luke records the instructions Jesus gave to the twelve this way “Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.        Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house” (Lk.10:4-7).

In the first century in middle-eastern cultures it was traditional to declare a blessing over a house as you entered.  That blessing was “Peace to this house.”  The idea of peace to the Jew was that of “shalom.”  Shalom didn’t simply mean the absence of conflict but rather the presence of God’s goodness, health, provision, joy, as well as peace with your neighbors.  It was as if the word “shalom” contained all the blessings God had promised those who would follow him faithfully. A quick reading of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 will give you a sense of that.  In that text, Jehovah lists a number of blessings and declares, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all of his commands…all these blessings will come upon you and accompany you.”  To declare a blessing over a house was a simply prayer asking the Lord to establish “shalom” over the house.

In the days of David, after a failed attempt to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem because David and the priests had not followed the prescribed way to transport the ark, a man named Obed-Edom was assigned as a caretaker of the ark and it was left at his house.  After Uzzah had touched the ark irreverently during transport, he had died immediately so I assume Obed-Edom did not sleep well for a number of evenings after finding ark left in his living room.  However, because of the presence of God in the man’s house and because the man had reverence for God, he was greatly blessed. “Now King David was told, ‘The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and everything he has because of the ark of God’” (2 Sam.6:12).  After hearing that, David found a way to move the ark the Jerusalem.  I believe shalom settled over the house of Obed-Edom and the result was constant blessing in all kinds of ways for those who lived there.

It was a gracious sentiment then for a Jew to enter a house and wish for God’s blessings to be poured out over the house. However, Jesus takes the idea to a very different level.  He says that first of all the when the apostles entered a house where they would stay while ministering in a village, they were to “let their peace rest on him” if he were a worthy man – a good man, a reverent man, and a man of faith. If he were not a good man of faith, then they should leave and take their “shalom” with them.

This giving and taking of peace goes beyond a sentiment or a prayer.  It implies that the apostles had been given authority to bestow the blessings of heaven or to take them away. It seems to parallel Jesus’s words, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt.16:19).

My point here is that we still do not understand the level of authority that Jesus has delegated to us. The apostles had the capacity to assess a man’s heart through the leading of the Spirit and if they declared shalom over the house where they were staying, God would honor that declaration with blessings. If they removed shalom by some declaration or by shaking the dust off their sandals then he honored that declaration as well.

How often do we mindlessly say, “God bless you” with little expectation or little faith that he will? What if we believed that we had been given authority to actually, literally direct blessings from heaven onto a person, a household, or a business and that God would honor our direction.  That would mean that we had been given a stewardship of those blessings (the riches of heaven) and that they were to be thoughtfully directed toward people who would use the blessings in godly ways (the worthy person).

I believe that we still the delegated authority to do just that when we speak shalom (peace) over a house or a person with faith and with thoughtfulness.  We are told, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.         If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pet.4:10-11).

Speaking blessings is certainly a very real and profound way of administering God’s grace.  “Administering” does not mean to give away God’s grace randomly but as a steward would dispense resources of the master in thoughtful ways as the Master himself would do.  Some of that administration of grace was to be done by speaking and as one speaking the very words of God – which means speaking thoughtfully, intentionally, with authority, and with the expectation that those words will fulfill their purpose because they have been spoken as the very words of God by the Spirit’s direction.

Think about that today.  Meditate.  Think about who you are in Christ and the authority you have as his representative.  As you go through your day, ask the Spirit to direct you to people who need the shalom that already rests upon you and then bless them in the name of Jesus with faith that God is actually going to do so in some real, tangible way because you spoke the blessing.

So…be blessed today by declaring the blessing of peace over a worthy person!  Have fun.

There are many things we get wrong because we are viewing them from the wrong perspective.  It’s like the old saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.”  I’m really not certain what that old saying means but I think it’s the idea that sometimes we miss the big picture because we are caught up in the details.  Our spiritual life can be affected by working from the wrong perspective as well.  Sometimes we serve God like beggars rather than sons and daughters of the royal household. From that perspective, we get lost in worry about whether God will provide rather than living in anticipation of how he will provide.

One of our great struggles in prayer is the notion that prayer is about getting God to do what we want him to do.  Our perspective is that we set God’s agenda for our life and then try to persuade him to fulfill that agenda. That is not what Jesus modeled for us.  Jesus taught us to look for what the Father is doing and then join him in the heavenly agenda. “Jesus gave them this answer: I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does’” (Jn.5:19)

Jesus lived with the idea that the Father was the initiator of his daily assignments. Basically he asked God to show him what the agenda was for him that day and then he lived it out.  Much of what the Father directed Jesus to do wasn’t always logical from an earthly point of view.  How many times did Jesus leave the crowds clamoring for more when, from our perspective, he should have stayed while demand for the message was high.  Certainly, confronting the religious establishment wasn’t the way to grow the church; it got him crucified.  Jesus spent his days hanging out with sinners, sick people, the demonized, and the despised.  Our wisdom would have directed us to spend our days building relationships with the rich, the powerful and the influential in order to resource the preaching of the gospel.  My point is that God’s agenda for our days might and probably would look very different from our own blueprint for the next twenty-four hours.

I know theologically we agree with Jesus but practically we (I include myself) still tend to default back to bringing our plans to the Father and asking him to fund what we have imagined. Graham Cooke speaks to this perspective when he says, “Prayer, in its simplest form, is finding out what God wants to do and then asking Him to do it. When we don’t listen before we pray we end up presenting God with options instead of a request. We’ll pray whatever comes to mind instead of entering into communion with Him. Our internal, clamoring agenda gives God a multiple choice prayer…Prayer is praying with God not to God. It is praying with the answer, not to try and find one” (Graham Cooke, Approaching the Heart of Prophecy, p. 103).

If our perspective on prayer was trying to discern the heart and will of God and then asking him to do what he already had in mind, we would be much more like Jesus.  Our goal would be to fulfill his will on earth rather than our own.  I’m not saying that we pray for evil things, we may pray for many good things but those things may not be in sync with God’s purposes for a person, a specific situation,  or even for ourselves.

Our first objection to that way of thinking is that if God already has in mind what he wants to do then why pray at all.  The answer, once again, is found in God’s desire for partnership.  There are many things he wants to do that he will not do until his people pray.  Since we have been given authority on the earth, God honors our authority and does not disempower us by doing what he wants without our involvement or consent. Authority flows from the top down even in a family and when we align our prayers with the Father’s plans we will see much more fruit.

So then how do we know what the Father wants us to pray about?  Many things are constants revealed in the word of God.  We are told to pray for those in authority and to pray for peace.  Paul tells us a number of things for which he constantly prayed – boldness to preach the gospel, the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, an increase in love, healing for the sick, etc. Those things are always on God’s agenda.  But then we should exam the unselfish desires of our heart.  Have we begun to carry a burden for someone or someplace or some ministry?  God may have well placed on your heart what was already on his heart.  Circumstances often seem to point us to a place where God is already working but is the Spirit provoking us to pray for that or involve ourselves in a situation?

We cannot minister to everyone we encounter in a day or involve ourselves in every opportunity that we hear about.  We can quickly eliminate some things as being ungodly but many things would not be wrong.  We will still need God to direct us to the opportunities appointed to us.  Some plant, some water, and God gives the increase.  We need to know what our role is.  The best way to know is to hear a fresh word from God.  Learning to listen, then pray, then listen, then pray is a tough discipline in this “run and gun” world, but I believe it is what Jesus did on those nights when he went off by himself to pray.

When I think about praying for God’s agenda rather than my own and avoiding selfish prayers, my flesh cries out, “Yeah, but what about me?” When I say that, I discover a lack of trust in me toward the Father.  I somehow don’t quite believe that the desires of his heart for me as well as the rest of the world will bring me joy and meet my needs in better ways than I could ever imagine.  I don’t quite believe that his timetable for me is really suitable.  I don’t quite believe that he is interested in the deepest needs of my being.  I’m afraid that when everyone else’s needs have been met through my service, my own needs will be left undone.  But then I need to go back and read the Spirit’s definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13 and remember that God is love.  All of those qualities of love spelled out in that chapter must be how God feels about you and me and in that character I am assured that God not only wants what’s best for me but also knows what’s best for me.

Maybe we just need to test the waters by asking God what he would have us pray about today or do today and trust that it will lead to blessing and happiness.  Maybe we should just try it for 90 days to see how life flows for us and to see how our relationship with the Father flows.  It’s all a matter of perspective. Is real fulfillment going to be found in God propping up my desires or will it be found in me fulfilling his plans?  With all that he had to do, Jesus never seemed to hurry, worry, or be overwhelmed by life.  That sounds really good. His secret was simply doing what God had for him to do each day and receiving what God had already designated as his.  Trust is the perspective we are looking for and it only comes through experiencing the goodness of God when we are in the center of his will.

Be blessed today.

I enjoy playing golf.  I have given up being great at the game and have learned to live with rounds in which I make some good to great shots punctuated by several disaster holes.  Guys who play like me measure whether it was a good or bad round by the number of balls lost over eighteen holes rather than stroke count.  But you get a few hours away from your normal routine, time with friends, a bit of exercise, and trees and water which are rare in West Texas.  I don’t get to play as much as I would like but have played enough to understand some of the nuances of the game and enough to hit some fun shots, some good shots and enough puts to keep me coming back.

I have also talked to a number of guys who played once or twice and didn’t play well so they decided that golf was a stupid game played by non-athletes and chose never to venture on a course again.  They simply sneer and look with disdain as they drive by the golf courses in their neck of the woods.  I have talked to a number of individuals who have approached Christianity in the same way.  They tried some church, some God, and some prayer for a short while and didn’t really enjoy it or get the point of it.  They entered with great expectations of something that they didn’t experience, tried to live by the rules, and prayed a little before tendering their resignation.  I talk to others who are still in the game but attend out of obligation or to please a spouse but simply endure church services and clear out as quickly as possible after the closing prayer.  They tried reading the Bible for a while but couldn’t understand it or got nothing out of it so they laid that aside.  Now they attend but have no passion or excitement about their faith.

Here’s the thing.  Many things are boring if you never get past the initial learning curve or risk playing badly until you can play well.  Here in the desert I have actually known a number of men and women who are scuba divers.  They qualify by taking classroom instruction and then by demonstrating their ability to use the equipment by sitting on the bottom of a swimming pool and breathing for a given number of minutes.  At that level of involvement, it is simply boring and expensive.  My guess is that if you never tried scuba diving in a more adventuresome environment you would soon give it up. It’s the folks that get into deeper waters in unknown locations with the possibility of encountering a shark that see colors and life forms others have never imagined.  These are the folks that get hooked and feel like there is nothing like it in the world. The swimming pool sitters have learned a few basics but have never really experienced true scuba diving.  Both in golf and scuba, it is also wise to get someone with a great deal of experience to coach you past the initial learning curve and then to take you to a level of diving or playing that is so rich that you develop a passion for it.

Living for Jesus is every bit that way.  Many people never get past the initial learning curve of attending church, reading a daily devotional, or being asked to give financially to support the ministries in their local church.  I’m amazed at how many believers never get past that point in their faith.  They are the equivalent of swimming pool sitters who thought there was going to be more but are about to decide that this Christianity business is boring and expensive.  This is especially true for those who have never experienced a supernatural move of God in their life.

But what if they decided that there must be something compelling about a faith that has thrived for 2000 years and is the largest faith group on the planet; that there must be something compelling about a faith that thousands have died for and been imprisoned for over the centuries; that there must be something compelling about this life when you hear pro athletes say that their faith is more important to them than their high profile careers with thousands of fans shouting for them every week.

If you are that person who has found no passion for your faith or who is wondering why people even “play this stupid game,” I would encourage you to try some deeper experiences in Christianity for a while.  Find someone experienced in the faith who has had a number of supernatural encounters with God and the enemy.  Ask them to take you past the initial learning curve of the faith and to take you into deeper waters.  Ask them to show you how to use divine weapons to wage a war against unseen but very real enemies and then go out and face those enemies.   Ask them to take you for a faith walk where there is real risk and this life won’t seem trivial or boring anymore. Go on a mission where comfort isn’t the goal but real stretching for your faith.  Go out on the streets and pray for people you never met.  Share your faith with lost people or spend a weekend doing prison ministry.  Put yourself in a place where you need a supernatural God to show up and do supernatural things.

When you have chosen to “up” your game and venture into “shark-laden waters” your spiritual adrenalin will increase your heart beat for the things of God and you will find a passion for your life again.  If you are bored with your faith, perhaps it is because you haven’t learned spiritual skills well enough to enjoy God and the challenges he puts before you.  Perhaps it’s because you have strapped on the tanks and the facemask but haven’t ventured out of the swimming pool yet to experience the thrill of the oceans.  I hope you will and I hope you will begin today.  Jesus is always inviting us to step out of the boat because that is where the joy is.  Be blessed today and decide to go for more.  You really will be glad you did.

“I am the Lord who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself…who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers…” (Isa.44:24-26).

Most of us are familiar with the concept of prophetic words.  God puts his words on the lips of his prophets and as they declare those words they release the activities of God to bring about those prophetic declarations.  Jeremiah is the perfect example of that dynamic.  “Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  See today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant’” (Jer.1:9-10). Jeremiah never led an army or launched a war through the power of politics.  He tore down and built up by declaring the words God had given him.  Like a starter firing the gun to release the runners in a race, the prophet releases the power of heaven we he/she declares the words of God.

God frequently works in partnership with his people.  He could do all things by himself but chooses to work with us and through us.  Prophetic words are really his words going forth from our lips and, like prayers, it is possible that some things are not released because we have not spoken what God has put on our hearts or lips.

Many prophetic words are also conditional. A prophet will say what God will do if we are willing to respond to the word or what he will do if we don’t respond. When Jonah preached to Nineveh that judgment would come in forty days, it was a word that also presented the option of repentance.  Nineveh did repent and God withheld judgment.  In the New Testament church, when a prophetic word declares that God will use a person mightily in a certain area, the condition is that the individual must be willing to prepare for that moment and be willing to serve in that arena for the prophecy to be fulfilled.  The prophecy is conditional – God will do this if you will do that. Again, God often works through partnership with his people and we determine by our choices how much of God’s will on the earth is released and becomes a reality.

There are also prophetic acts that release God’s activities on the earth.  One such moment is recorded between the prophet Elisha and the king of Israel. “He said, “Open the window toward the east,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” And he shot. And he said, “The Lord’s arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Aram; for you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have destroyed them.” Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” and he struck it three times and stopped. So the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times” (2 Kings 13:17-19).  In this case, the king of Israel performed his own prophetic act and his lack of zeal or faith drew less form heaven than God was willing to give.

Anointing someone with oil can also be a prophetic act.  “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power” (I Sa. 16:13). Pouring oil on a king, a prophet, or a priest that God has chosen is certainly a sign that God has selected that person for an office or mission but I believe it is also a prophetic act that releases the Holy Spirit into that person’s life. In each instance, the appointing required an anointing with the Spirit for them to successfully fulfill the role that God had given them.  Does God ever give his Spirit to someone without anointing him/her with oil?  Yes, of course, but at other times anointing releases the power of heaven (the Holy Spirit) over the one who is in need of the Spirit.  The laying on of hands can be a similar prophetic act that releases or imparts authority, spiritual gifts, or the Spirit himself into a person’s life.

I believe it is the same for healing.  Mark tells us that the apostles anointed many people with oil and healed them (see Mark 6:13).  James tells the church to call the elders whenever someone is sick so that the elders can anoint the sick with oil in the name of Jesus and offer a prayer of faith which will bring healing (see Ja. 5:14).  I believe the oil is a prophetic act releasing the power of the Spirit in that person’s body for healing.  We need to take note that that prophetic acts are not incantations but are done in faith that God will fulfill what is indicated by that act.

The church today often simply goes through the motions of “sacraments” without believing that God is doing anything as a result.  And yet the Bible is full of prophetic acts that release the activities of God over a nation or a person. In the New Testament we are instructed to anoint with oil, lay hands on people, baptize in water, and take bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper.  I believe that each of these are not just symbols of a truth but are also prophetic acts that combined with faith will release the power of heaven into a situation or a person’s life.

Churches often neglect or minimize these “acts” thinking that they are simply symbols rather than prophetic acts releasing the power of God into someone’s life.  Water baptism certainly symbolizes rebirth, resurrection, cleansing, etc. but what if it not only symbolizes those things but also releases the power of God for those things. As we take the communion bread we often say. “The body of Christ broken for you.” We are also told “by his stripes we have been healed.”  The broken body of Christ has purchased healing for believers.  Does the taking of bread in faith constitute a prophetic act that releases healing over God’s people?  If so, we might want to take communion more than once a quarter. Does the cup that represents the blood of Christ release other things over the children of God?  I will leave that for you to think about.  Again…it is all by faith in what Jesus had done but God has always waited on his people to declare, pray, or act before releasing miracles and the power of his Spirit into situations.  Maybe we should give more thought to that partnership.

Be blessed today and declare the words of God over those things that need his Spirit.

I was thinking today about our propensity to hide our sins and failures. It’s quite human to do so.  In a sense we come by it honestly.  Adam and Eve responded in the same way immediately following the first sin.  As soon as they had eaten fruit from the forbidden tree, their first response was to cover their shame with fig leaves, then to hide from God, and then to blame others for their actions.  It was a bit ambitious to think that they could hide from the God of creation who had made everything they saw and had fashioned them by hand. And it wasn’t like they could slip away in the crowd because there was no crowd – but shame and fear easily distort our judgment…even the best of us.

Take David, for instance, and his now famous transgression with Bathsheba.  I have no doubt that after their moment of passion they were both overcome with shame. I believe they were both godly people who fell in a moment of weakness.  Because of that, I believe shame overwhelmed them and they left when it was over vowing that it would never happened again.  But then Bathsheba discovered her pregnancy. Her husband Uriah had been in the field with David’s army for weeks or months. The palace servants knew they had been together – just chatting of course – but now her pregnancy would cement the case against them.  At first, overwhelmed with shame and remorse they are both now overcome by fear.

David and Bathsheba’s adultery carried the possibility of unthinkable consequences. The Law demanded death for all those who committed adultery.  In this case an unborn child would die as well.  Although it was unlikely that capital punishment would have been imposed in this case there would certainly be scandal. Uriah would, of course, divorce his beautiful wife. The army who laid their lives on the line for their king would all feel betrayed by a man who was stealing their wives while they camped in the fields at his command.  David was not just a political leader but a religious leader as well.  Now the man who wrote most of the worship hymnal for Israel and the man who danced before the Lord with all his might was an adulterer.  There was so much to lose if the adultery were discovered.

So fear leads to hiding and deception. David determined to bring Uriah home to report on the battle and David assumed that, while in Jerusalem, Uriah would spend the night with his wife. Later, everyone would assume the child was his. When he refused to be with his wife while his men were in the field, David set him up to be killed in battle.  A dead man could not disclose that he had not been with his wife on his short furlough to Jerusalem.  With Uriah dead, the secret sin was safe and life could go on with some serious regrets to deal with to be sure.  But … it was over.

However, it wasn’t over.  For those who serve God, unconfessed and unrepented sin does not stay hidden and does not go away.  There are two reasons for that. Either Satan will bring the sin into the light to destroy people, families, reputations, and ministries or God will bring the sin into the light so that it can be dealt with and so that reconciliation can occur between the sinner and a loving God.  Either way, the sin will be brought into the light.

In the meantime, a guilty conscience and fear of discovery will torment the one hiding the sin. Listen to David.  “When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity” (Ps.32:3-5).  David sat on the throne for nearly a year without acknowledging his sin.  When Nathan the prophet came to confront David, the child from the adulterous evening had already been born.

I’m sure because of all the imagined consequences if the sin were brought into the light, David had simply hoped it would all eventually just fade away. Undoubtedly Satan had already lit the fuse on rumors from palace servants and soldiers who had wondered about Uriah’s death.  David had tossed and turned for months and we can assume Bathsheba had done the same.  Then God sent Nathan to pry the confession out of David and in that moment David confessed and God forgave.  There were consequences for the sin in the natural realm but all was reconciled in the spiritual realm. Even after adultery and murder, God walked with David through the consequences of his son’s rebellion and the hard years to follow.

Sin separates us from God – not just in a legal sense but also in an emotional and relational sense. We hide from God in our own ways and seal ourselves off from others who might discover our sin or remind us of what we have done. Sin also separates us from ourselves as we either loathe ourselves for the sin or excuse the sin while constantly quenching the Holy Spirit who is bringing conviction.  If we stay in our chosen denial long enough our hearts may harden so that we can no longer feel the tug of God trying to draw us back.

Sin has its costs. The cost of unconfessed and unrepented sin, however, accumulates with interest. Although we hope it will all go away, it doesn’t and as I said before, our sin will be brought into the light either by Satan the destroyer or by God the redeemer. The wise course is to quickly acknowledge, confess, and repent of every sin.  God is our redeemer and deliverer and when we have “blown it big time” we need him more than ever.  Our attempts to hide our sin and deceive others will simply create distance between us and the one who can save.

In addition, my experience is that good people don’t expect us to be perfect but they do expect us to tell the truth when we have failed.  “Blowing it” reveals that I can be foolish but lying about my failure reveals that I can’t be trusted. Satan does his greatest work in the dark and our secrets give him power over us.  He is a tormentor and a blackmailer and out secret sins gives him a wide playing field.

We all sin and our usual first response is very human – cover up, hide, deny our responsibility.  We fear rejection and we fear unknown consequences. But as believers we should not give into the human response because that is the flesh.  We should respond as the Spirit directs – humbling ourselves, telling the truth, repenting, and trusting God with the consequences. The penalties and interest are much less when we keep short accounts with the Father and cut sin off at the legs by our confession. It’s in the secret places that Satan gets a foothold that may soon become a stronghold. Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  I believe the biblical principle is also that if we tell the truth, the truth will set us free.  Be blessed today by truth and don’t give into fear because fear is not from the Lord.

In the early pages of the gospel of Luke, Jesus had just been questions by disciples of John the Baptist.  John had sent them to ask Jesus if he were, in fact, the Messiah or if another was to come.  That moment gives us some insight into the ministry of prophets.  John was, according to Jesus, the greatest of the prophets and yet he was unsure of whom Jesus was. Paul says of New Testament prophets that “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (Jn.13:9).  Apparently that was true of Old Testament prophets as well.  They spoke the things that God put on their hearts and in their minds but often those prophecies were just bits and pieces of God’s overall canvas rather than the whole picture.  John had been confident at one time that Jesus was the Messiah but even John seemed to be looking for a powerful, political, and military savior of Israel rather than a suffering savior who would die on a cross.

But John had come in the spirit of Elijah and was the last in line of the great Old Testament prophets.  He had been sent to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming Messiah who was already among them.  Many of the Jews sensed the call of God to return to him and his ways and so submitted to John’s baptism as a sign of repentance and a need for spiritual cleansing.  Luke said, “All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.” (Luke 7:28-30).

The last phrase really catches my attention.  “But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purposes for them…” The religious elite and those who knew scripture best rejected God’s purposes in their life.  The evidence of that was that they had refused to be baptized by John because to do so was a confession of spiritual need and sin that cried out to be cleansed. Here is what we discover.  I n our relationship with God, the heart is more important than the head.  These were men who spent their lives in prayer, fasting, and study of the Torah.  But their study had not prepared their hearts for God’s Messiah.  Undoubtedly, they did not have the benefit of the Holy Spirit but the common people responded to John’s preaching while the religious elite did not.

I can think of a couple of a couple of reasons. First of all, the religious system of the Jews did not meet the need of the people at all.  They had limited access to God because they were not priests.  The Law seemed like a burden the demanded much and delivered little for them. Their tithes supported a system that had little regard for the unschooled and the unwashed. Because they had little standing with the religious leaders they felt they had little standing with God.  They were in need of good news.

For the Pharisees, however, the Law and the religious system that supported the Law gave them status and a false sense of security about their salvation.  Doing all the right religious things and being schooled in Torah theology gave them the sense that God was pleased with them and honored them as much as they honored themselves.  They were wrong, of course, but that was their view of themselves and God.

Secondly, the Pharisees and experts in the Law were a self-righteous bunch.  Legalism, salvation based on our own merit, forces people to one of two positions. Either I give up all together because I’m overwhelmed with my personal sense of sin and failure or I convince myself that I am more righteous than most so my odds for getting into heaven are pretty good. The common people felt the wait and hopelessness of salvation based on personal merit.  Again they needed good news so when John began to hint that a new doorway to God was about to be opened, they were willing to listen.  The religious leaders, however, needed to protect their righteous persona so they could not submit to a baptism that was overtly for sinners.

The lesson is that self-righteousness and a commitment to the religious status quo will cause us to miss God’s purposes for our life.  God reveals his purposes to the desperate and the hungry. Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Scripture is clear that God has purposes for believers in general but specific and unique purpose for each believer.  “   For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.2:10). “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers^” (Rom.8:29).

When we are living out God’s purposes for our life, our lives have eternal significance.  We experience the pleasure and the power of God flowing through us as we fulfill those purposes.  Life seems abundant and exciting rather than tedious and boring. The problem with legalism and religious systems are that they are a treadmill with each day seeming much like the one before it.  Depending on God and stepping into his purposes each day is an adventure.  Have you ever noticed that the most extreme believers seem to have the most fun?  It is because they have pushed into God’s purposes more that most of us.

I believe the abundant life Jesus promises is tied up with the purposes God has ordained for our lives. Religion will not get us there but instead will blind us to those purposes. Self-righteousness and a need to be in control will also cause us to miss God’s directions. A commitment to a static faith and a spiritual status quo will also cause us to miss his purposes that, like his mercies, are new every morning.  Let me invite you to humbly ask God to show you his purposes for your life today and for faith to pursue those purposes. Those who hungered for a fresh touch, a fresh revelation, and rekindled relationship with the Father discovered his purposes for them in the days of John the Baptist. That same hunger will open up his purposes for us today.  Be blessed by going after your destiny in Christ.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head.  Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. (Ezek.33:2-7)

In the days of the Bible, cities and farmers needed watchmen.  A watchman was simply the “lookout” or sentry who was posted to give warning if danger approached. On walled cities, towers were built and those towers were manned by watchmen who would sound an alarm if the enemy approached or who would alert the gatekeepers that a messenger was approaching or that a company of men were returning from a mission.  In essence, the watchman was to discern whether the approaching figure(s) were friends or foes and he was to alert the city to that arrival.

In several places, God compares Ezekiel to a watchman who has been placed over Israel to sound the alarm if he sees judgment on the horizon. Judgment would often come in the form of invading armies, natural disasters, plagues, etc.  It was the prophet’s job to alert the people of impending disasters so that they might repent and avoid the judgment of God.

There were also towers built in fields, orchards or vineyards for watchmen who would survey the borders of the property to see if any thieves were coming to steal the crops or if any animals were coming into the fields who might damage the crops. If so, they sounded the alert so that the Master’s men could arise and protect the crops.

Dutch Sheets has some great insights about these watchmen.  “In seasons of harvest, there is a more urgent need for the “watchman,” as “the thief” is going to do all he can to steal it, keeping the greater portion.  It is little wonder that God has preceded the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever known – which is now happening – with the greatest prayer awakening in history.

The Lord of the Harvest is wise. I can assure you He has 24-hour sentries watching over the harvest.” (Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer, p. 255).

This is a day when the enemy is extremely active.  I believe that our nation’s leaders have released the demonic into our nation as never before by their attempts to drive God out of our schools, out of our military, out of courthouses, and out of our history.  They have passed laws against prayer and all kinds of expressions of Christianity in our culture while bowing to Islam, promoting abortion, and supporting the gay rights agenda.  In our conservative area of the country we have seen a spike in demonic activity of every kind and I have no doubt that there is more in other parts of our nation. This is a day when we need watchman who will protect the harvest and sound the alarm when an enemy approaches – not just for the nation but also for the church and for  individuals all around us.

There will be attacks from the inside and the outside that we must recognize and to which we must respond.  There will be individuals who work to destroy the nation, our families, and the church.  There will be those who wage a war on Christianity from the outside and those who wage a war from the inside by causing divisions and by teaching doctrines that do not line up with God’s truth. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (1 Tim.4:1-2).

Our American tradition has been to mind our own business and not to involve ourselves in the lives of others when we have not been invited.  We have carried that cultural mindset of individualism and self-sufficiency into the church we have labeled those who speak to others about their sin or who speak to others about questionable teachings as judgmental and intolerant.

However, God clearly tells us in Ezekiel that if we see a nation, a family or an individual rejecting God’s truth and God’s Son, then we must warn them or their blood will be on our hands. The church has set relatively quiet while millions of children have been aborted, while laws have been passed legalizing evil and restricting good, while God and prayer have been banned form our schools and then the nations wonders why children and teachers are being gunned down in those schools on a regular basis. If anyone suggests that natural disasters, a failing economy, flu epidemics, and terrorism are preliminary judgments from God on a nation once blessed by Him, they are labeled as religious quacks and extremists – even by other believers.  The truth is that if the church (and we as individuals who are the church) does not begin to sound the warning for the nation and for the people around us, God will hold us responsible in part for the destruction of both the nation and people.

Freedom, healing, and power come to those who align themselves with God and who are obedient even when it brings threats and criticisms.  In the book of Acts, every time the apostles were censured for preaching Jesus, they would go out and begin to preach him again and God wound do move supernaturally in awesome ways through those who were not only warning people but announcing the unconditional love of God.  I believe our warnings should be voiced out of love and concern but also tempered with truth. America was never in as much danger from Germany, Japan, or nuclear Russia as we are right now from a culture that is working hard to reject God and his righteousness at every turn. We really do need to steel ourselves and begin to speak out with wisdom, concern, love for our enemies, and with articulation.  We have been appointed to be watchmen for the church first but also for a nation God has blessed in generations past.

Today, think about your role as protector, defender, and lookout for those you love, for the family of God and also for a world of people Jesus died for.  Ask Jesus who you need to speak to or where you need to speak out.  To whom much has been given, much is required.  God has saved us and blessed us so richly, but with that comes great responsibility to be salt and light, fresh water, and watchmen on the wall.  Be blessed.

Elijah was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament.  I say that because, Jesus declared that John the Baptist had come in the spirit of Elijah and was the one given the honor to announce the coming of Messiah.  When Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John it was Moses and Elijah who met with Jesus on that mountain (see Matt. 17:3).

Elijah simply appears in the pages of scripture in 1 Kings 17.  We know nothing of his parents, his tribe or his upbringing.  He simply appears in the days of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel who promoted idol worship in Israel and who ruled as tyrants.  Elijah seems to be the forerunner of John the Baptist in many ways.  He confronted Ahab about his sins as John confronted Herod. He seemed to live mostly in the desert and wore a garment of hair with a leather belt around his waist (2 Kings 1:8) which sounds very much like John the Baptist.  Elijah differs, however, in that he performed miracles and was provided for miraculously while we have no record of John the Baptist ever performing a miracle.

It was Elijah who declared that there would be no dew or rain in Israel for three and a half years except at hos own word. It was also Elijah who confronted 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah on the top of Mount Carmel.  He stood against then and King Ahab until Jehovah was proven to be the true God and the prophets of Baal destroyed.  He was then instructed to go pray for rain and after doing so God sent rain after the three and a half year drought in Israel.  By the way, if Ahab had ever killed Elijah before he prayed for rain it is possible that it would have never rained again in Israel because the drought was to be broken only by Elijah’s words.

As you read the 17^th and 18^th chapters of 1 Kings, Elijah appears to be the fearless, unshakeable man of God that we all want to be.  But something out of character occurs in chapter 19.  After the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, Ahab told Jezebel what had happened to her “pet priests.” After hearing about their destruction, Jezebel sent word to Elijah that she had taken a vow to kill him within the next 24 hours.

The text then reads,  “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep” (1 Kings 19:3-5).

What we see in Elijah is a spiritual reality that we all need to be aware of.  Often, after great spiritual victories, we become susceptible to fatigue and fear.  Think about it.  Elijah had just completed an amazing day of spiritual victory – confronting Ahab, calling down fire from heaven, destroying the prophets of Baal, and then ran a marathon (see 1 Kings 18:45) to Jezreel.  He did all of this in the power of the Spirit.  However, when the infinite Spirit of God works through the finite body and soul of a man, spiritual and physical fatigue often sets in.  Even Jesus experienced that in his body so that at times he would separate himself from the crowds to seek a quiet place, rest, and time with the Father.

To put it bluntly, put a fork in Elijah because he is done. Elijah is drained at the end of the day and when the threat from Jezebel is delivered, he just doesn’t have the energy or faith to go another round. We like Elijah need to know that we are often vulnerable to the enemy after great spiritual victories or even spiritual highs.  We especially experience that desire to flee when we thought the battle was over and another assault from the enemy suddenly appears.

We have an event called Freedom Weekend where our team will minister in prayer and deliverance to 60 to 70 people over a period of 4 or 5 hours.  At the end of the day, there is always a sense of thankfulness for what God has done and a sense of victory over the enemy.  But there always comes a moment when our team is “done” and no one wants to hear that someone needs a little more deliverance. Our team goes home fulfilled, excited, and tired. All they want is a warm meal and a warm bed.  We have also noticed that for the next week or two there is often a since of spiritual fatigue and almost a spiritual apathy that sets in.  We call this the “Elijah syndrome.” This is a time that we need to rest but also to be very wary of the enemy who wants to exploit that spiritual vulnerability.

Elijah ran away from more battles at the time but God cared for him along the way and was waiting for him when he arrived at Horeb and hid in a cave. Ultimately, Elijah needed a break from the battle; he needed sleep, food, rest, and some time alone.  He needed to hear the small, still voice of God to renew him.  If we try to analyze Elijah’s thoughts we sense that after his great victory of faith, he thought that Ahab and the world around him would change for the better.  Jezebel’s threat left him feeling as if his efforts for God had made no difference.  The enemy was still bold and enthroned and now he was in the crosshairs of, perhaps, the most wicked woman of her time or any time. However, Elijah has set in motion a sequence that would soon take both Ahab and Jezebel off the throne and out of this world.  He discovered that he was not alone in his love for God and righteousness, and he had won the praise of God which is the ultimate prize indeed.

In my last blog I spoke about being aware of the devil’s schemes and so I wanted to make you aware or to remind you of this natural spiritual let down that often occurs right after a mountaintop experience with God. When you have labored hard for a victory and have won the battle, be prepared to experience what Elijah experienced.  Elijah was disappointed in himself for his spiritual letdown but God cared for him and encouraged him until his spiritual energy was restored.  The letdown doesn’t always occur but it occurs often, so find a way to get some rest, spend a little time alone but get some people around you to pray and talk about the victory and to celebrate the win. Ask them to pray for you to be rejuvenated and spend quiet time listening to God. The enemy would love for you to get down on yourself because you suddenly don’t feel like the great man or woman of faith that you seemed to be 24 hours earlier.  He would love to accuse and condemn but just know that it is a natural cycle that even the greatest of prophets experienced and know that your passion and faith will return soon.

Be blessed today in God’s care.

The New Testament writers are very clear that Satan lays traps and designs schemes against God’s people. We are not to be ignorant of his schemes (see 2 Cor.2:11) so it seems that we should give some thought to the processes by which Satan attempts to pick us off one by one.

I appreciate the way in which Graham Cooke describes one of Satan’s patterns so often used to take God’s people out of the game.  “ The Enemy’s strategy works on that same principle.  He is geared to make us feel dissatisfied with who we are.  He wants us to separate from God, the church, our friends, and any useful function we may adopt in furthering the kingdom. If he can get us to hate ourselves and tell our hearts that we are of no account and, as such, it doesn’t matter if we don’t go the meeting or pray or worship, then apathy will follow.  If we allow apathy into our lives then it will hold the door open to unbelief, condemnation, self-loathing, bitterness, anxiety, fear, misery and selfishness.  All these things spell passivity, a passive acceptance of life, and a demoralized outlook on the things of God.  The prophetic is geared to challenge this whole issue since it is based on the truth of God’s love, grace, kindness, and mercy.” (Graham Cooke, Approaching the Heart of Prophecy, p.50).

Notice the progressive nature of this scheme.  We become dissatisfied with ourselves and, after a while, come into agreement with Satan’s accusations that we are unlovable, unworthy, and incompetent.  As we begin to agree with him on those issues our self-image plummets and we begin to suspect that other people feel the same way about us.  Because of that, we begin to withdraw and isolate ourselves from the very people who love us and give our lives meaning. As we isolate ourselves our fruitfulness begins to wane. Since we are already feeling bad about ourselves we push back against any encouragement to re-engage and against any conviction from the Holy Spirit because we take it all as criticism and rejection.  As we numb our senses to avoid any more feelings of rejection, we slide into apathy and passivity which continues to alienate us from ourselves and isolate us from God and his people. Of course, throughout the entire process Satan is whispering how much God, the church, and our friends have let us down so that our misery is really all their fault.

Satan excels in placing us in mindsets and situations that create a downward spiral.  For instance, Christians who feel a great deal of rejection and who question their own worth and significance often seek to medicate the pain of their self-loathing through pornography.  The temporary rush of sexual fantasies or the endorphins released during the fantasy soon give way to a sense of shame and failure.  The sense of shame and failure depletes their self-image all the more, which increases their need for escape and the medicating effects of more porn, which then creates more shame.  The shame creates secrets. The addiction becomes a secret part of his/her life that is hidden by lies and deception which, in turn, undermine trust in a marriage relationship or family.  The broken trust then tends to alienate one spouse from another which usually leads to arguments, frustrations, withdrawal from church and isolations from friends. The cycle is self-perpetuating and can devastate not only the man or women caught in the cycle but those who love them as well.

Huge numbers of believers have been marginalized by these schemes and traps of the enemy.  The key is to understand the outcomes and the strategies and to take steps to short-circuit the strategy as early as possible in the process.  Not only should we short-circuit the process but also we should create safeguards in our lives to keep the enemy from even getting a foothold.  Let me recommend a few things.

1.An honest evaluation of our spiritual and emotional health.  This is the hardest step as those of us who struggle with self-worth try to avoid acknowledging any weaknesses or sins in our lives because we fear rejection if others were to find out.

2.Choose to have accountability partners in life with whom you will be ruthlessly honest about your struggles.  Give them permission to ask the hard questions and call you back to spiritually healthy dynamics in your life or when you start to withdraw or isolate yourself or begin to make excuses about diminishing spiritual practices and ministry involvement in your life.

3.Recognize areas of weakness and sin in your life and get to work on those areas while they are occasional struggles rather than something that is dominating your life.  Low self–esteem, anger, addictions, fear, compulsions, etc. are all life issues related to our brokenness and sin nature.  They will not get better without taking action both in the natural and spiritual realms.  Unhealed and unrepented, these issues will be open doors for the enemy to gain access to your life and your soul – first a foothold and then a stronghold.

4.When you recognize you are caught in a scheme of the enemy short-circuit his strategy by refusing to go the to the next level in the process.  Refuse to live a lie.  Refuse to withdraw and isolate yourself from church, friends, and family.  Face the shame by telling someone immediately so that the shame does not grow and give the enemy a more powerful stronghold.

If you know you struggle with your self-mage get help immediately by finding healing in the Lord, establishing your identity in Christ, gaining freedom from spirits of rejection, bondage, fear, and condemnation through deliverance, and by getting intercessors to pray with you until that issue is overcome.

5.Know that the longer you put off surrendering your struggle to the Lord and humbling yourself by getting help from the body of Christ, the harder it will be to find freedom and the more it will have cost you before you do.

Ask yourself:

•  Where will I be in five years if I do not get victory over the sin and brokenness in my life?
• What will it cost me to continue to hide and deny my struggles?
• What will it cost my family and my relationship with the Lord if I don’t deal with this now?
• What could my life look like if I found true freedom from my sin and brokenness?

We are not to be ignorant of the devil’s schemes and we must take action as soon as we sense we have stepped into his trap or have vulnerabilities that invite his presence.  Jesus has come to heal and set free and he is willing to do that for you. If we excuse or deny these struggles, we are making ourselves easy targets for enemy.  Jesus has purchased so much for you by his blood and the Father is so willing to gives those gifts to you, don’t let the enemy steal your life and your blessings.  Be wise.  Avoid the traps or at least call for help as soon as you feel the noose tightening around your ankle.  Be blessed and be wise today.  Tell someone the truth about whatever you have been hiding or denying.