Dearest Saints,
As most of us know, we continue to come against more fierce attacks from the real enemy and his hosts (satan and the demonic forces) because they know their time is short (Rev 12:12). I have been receiving very encouraging emails and reports after we encourage one another to make the most of our God given authority to see His Work through us gets done. I find when we are more powerful in the Lord, it first starts with being submissive to Him in every area of our lives and putting quality time with Him. When we fail to invite Him to take total dominance and control (His perfect will) for us in our lives, we fail to see His power work through us. I don't really believe it is a matter of quantity time in as much as our quality time with Him. Our quality with Him is to allow Him to move within our heart, confess our desperate need of Him and gladly allowing His loving ways to dominate our lives.
I truly believe the power of God is released in our lives to the degree of the portion we submit our lives to Him. In Acts 19:13-18, you will notice that several people (sons of Sceva) who tried to take authority over a demon possessed person could not do it. In the reply of the powers of darkness, they spoke through this possessed man to tell them "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you"? (vs 15). I believe that these people may have been an example of Christians who lack Gods power because they fail to acknowledge God in as much as they should have, or possibly not submit to His authority to the degree they should be doing. Just like Christians who know that we are to forgive like He commands us to, but we end up making excuses. I believe we cannot use our God given authority effectively when we fail to give Him pre-eminance in our lives all because we do not invite Him as our LORD (to Lord it over our lives and be submissive to His laws of love). Again, I find it most essential that when we start our day, we need to spend that first moment of our day to get quiet with the Lord and tell Him how much you need Him, how much you appreciate Him and that you want to invite Him in every area of your life to help you to love others and be a blessing to one another. I can attest to the fact that if I don't spend that quality time with Him, I find myself in a "mess". I use quotations to put emphasis on what it is like to be a mess.
When we don't give Him our time and attention first, we can't expect to be used of Him as much as we should. I can tell you that when God works powerfully through me, it is definitely NOT because of any intellect or natural ability of my own, but spending quality time to be alone with Him and acknowledge His presence and our need of Him. I have gotten to the place where I know I cannot possibly move forward unless I allow Him to take authority over my life. God is the greatest "Gentleman" because He only moves mightily in our lives when we permit Him to do so. He will never push His way in to our lives. We need to open our hearts to invite Him to do His much needed work through us. When we do, we can use His authority in every area of our lives simply because we allow His power to work through us because we believe He loves us and wants us to invite Him in to every part of our lives. When we put ourselves in this submissive position for God to have us, I find His power works mightily through me and He is able to get me through the most trying circumstances and be much stronger in Him after going through the tough times.
The Lord gave me a wonderful revelation I would like to share with you. In the beginning, we see God as the Owner and Adam as the "manager" or "caretaker" of what God owns, because God tells Adam to tend the garden of which God owns. When I learn to submit my body, my family, my home, etc.. over to God, we can declare Him as the true "OWNER" of our lives, families, finances, circumstances and we are simply caretakers of what God really owns. However, Adam was told to tend the garden by working it and not just standing there passively doing nothing. Therefore, we are expected to manage all of our affairs by doing what we know to do and looking after our lives as God tells us to. When I picture a Manager who looks after the property of God and we see enemy trespassers on a property that says "NO TRESPASSING", we need to point our finger outward to command the enemy to depart off the premises because we DO NOT permit the enemy to have any activity on Gods property. Therefore, when we see the activity of strife, factions, sickness, diseases, etc in our lives, we can command these symptoms or circumstances to depart and bind them unto the Blood of Jesus. Again, when we don't look after our bodies the way we should, we often can't expect God to just bring a healing miracle when we neglect our responsibility. We need to do our part (by tending "our garden"). When we do our part, I believe we have Gods authority as managers to expect God to do His part as He is always faithful to do. As a manager would tell the evil one to depart (off the premises of Gods property of our lives), we need to speak against that evil spirit to depart because when we submit every part of our lives to God, we have His authority NOT to permit the enemy to co-exist with what we have given God to own in our lives. When Jesus taught His Disciples to pray, part of that prayer was "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" (Matt 6:10). We know that no strife, factions, divisions, sickness, diseases or the like exists in Heaven. Therefore, if we pray His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, if these don't exist in Heaven, then we shouldn't allow it to have any place in our lives on earth according to the prayer He taught us to pray.
When I walk around the property of my home or the place of worship where we gather and plead the Blood of Jesus and declare to the enemy to give him no legal right to enter these premises and tell the enemy he can NOT have any place in our lives, my family life has been at such greater peace. Therefore, when we commit our lives, body, family, finances and our Church that only God is to govern (because He purchased all of us with His shed Blood), we can claim His power and purposes to dwell in our midst and have total victory over the enemy who is considered an unwanted trespasser. When God has given us the authority in His Name over the enemy, we need to exercise that authority and we know we can rightfully exercise that authority in Righteousness when we do submit our "selves" to God who truly does own all things. I hope this richly blesses you as it has been to me to know who we are in Christ and exercise our God given inheritance to maintain Gods divine order to be most blessed to ourselves, our family members and our Church. May I encourage you to do things Gods way, because you will always see in the end that His Way is always the BEST WAY in order for us to live the most blessed life!
Will you consider buying my books in support of HelpingCopeThroughHope mission work in Zambia? You may go to my link below to observe.
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
The Heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork (Psalm 19:1).
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