Month: November 2020

We must first understand that whatever you’re facing in life, that the battle belongs to the Lord…

In learning to fight GOD’s battles GOD’s way, we must learn and practice each day casting our cares upon Him, because as our shepherd He cares for us:

1 Peter 5:5-11
The Passion Translation (TPT)

5 In the same way, the younger ones should willingly support the leadership of the elders. In every relationship, each of you must wrap around yourself the apron of a humble servant. Because:

God resists you when you are proud
but multiplies grace and favor when you are humble.

Humility and Faith
6 If you bow low in God’s awesome presence, he will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in his hands.

7 Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you.

8 Be well balanced and always alert, because your enemy, the devil, roams around incessantly, like a roaring lion looking for its prey to devour.

9 Take a decisive stand against him and resist his every attack with strong, vigorous faith.

For you know that your believing brothers and sisters around the world are experiencing the same kinds of troubles you endure.

10 And then, after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, who has called you to share in his eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever.

Yes, he will set you firmly in place and build you up.

11 And he has all the power needed to do this—forever! Amen.
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You see this is the way it works, if we are in the fold of Christ (as a covenant child of GOD) and if Jesus is our Shepherd (á la Psalm 23), then WHATEVER is coming against us MUST first go through our Good Shepherd; and thus the battles we face in life belong to Jesus!

What does the Bible say about the battle belonging to the Lord?

Jesus is our Good Shepherd
Psalm 23 is the best known and most beloved psalm in the collection.

Surprisingly, it casts humanity as sheep—stupid, helpless sheep. But the long-lasting appeal of Psalm 23 is a direct result of that casting because the imagery is both soothing and accessible.

When he was a boy, King David was a shepherd watching his father’s flocks in the hills around Bethlehem.

In those days, too, it was common to refer to kings in the Near East as shepherds; but not all shepherd-kings cared for their sheep.

Though David tried to shepherd his people well, he knew the truth: that the Lord is the true Shepherd.

In John 10:11 Jesus makes a bold claim. He declares that He is the good shepherd.

Immediately His disciples detected the resonance of Psalm 23 in His words. Those of us who follow Jesus today come to know Him as that gentle but strong shepherd who guides us through life if we will follow Him.

Psalm 23:1-6
The Passion Translation (TPT)

The Good Shepherd
1 The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd.
I always have more than enough.

2 He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love.
His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss.

3 That’s where he restores and revives my life.
He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure
and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness
so that I can bring honor to his name.

4 Lord, even when your path takes me through
the valley of deepest darkness,
fear will never conquer me, for you already have!

You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way.
Your authority is my strength and my peace.

The comfort of your love takes away my fear.
I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.

5 You become my delicious feast
even when my enemies dare to fight.

You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit;
you give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows.

6 So why would I fear the future?
For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life.

Then afterward, when my life is through,
I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!
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GOD gives us the power to remove those obstacles that the enemy places in our path, in order to discourage us and cause us to want to quit; but we must have confidence that GOD will do what He says.

To gain this confidence the mettle of our faith must be tested and stretched, and the only way that can happen is by our learning to walk in this GOD given power and peace, as a way of life, through the process of having our life crushed in the crucible of life and our faith tested in the refiners fire.

November 3

Faith Food Devotions

WHAT I SAY
by Kenneth E. Hagin

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; HE SHALL HAVE WHATSOEVER HE SAITH.”
—Mark 11:23

Let’s examine what Jesus said in today’s text:

“…and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe (that is, believe in his heart) that those things which he saith shall come to pass…”

Those things that you say are your words – your confessions – and those words give you power over demons, disease, and circumstances.

What is it Jesus says you shall have?

What you believe for?

No. Many people think, If I believe strongly enough, it will come to pass. But at the same time, they are talking unbelief, so what they are asking for cannot come to pass!

Jesus did not say, “He shall have whatsoever he BELIEVETH;” He said, “…he shall have whatsoever he SAITH.”

For you do receive what you say. If you’re not satisfied with what you have in life, then check up on what you are saying – what you are confessing.

All you have and all you are today is a result of what you believed and said yesterday!

Confession: I believe in my heart. I believe in my words.

Source: Faith Food Devotions by Kenneth E. Hagin.

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America is in a spiritual battle for our very survival…

And so this is why we pray.

“Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.”
— Charles Spurgeon

“God has of his own motion placed himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated himself to answer the prayers of men.

He has ordained prayer as a means whereby he will do things through men as they pray, which he would not otherwise do.

If prayer puts God to work on earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world’s affairs, and prevents him from working.

The driving power, the conquering force in God’s cause, is God himself.

‘Call on me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which though knowest not,’ is God’s challenge to prayer.

Prayer puts God in full force into God’s work.”
— E.M. Bounds

As stated in Amos 3:7, “GOD still today does nothing unless He first speaks through His servants the prophets.”

Also, as the Apostle Paul admonishes us, in
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22:

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

So with the above Scriptures in mind, please listen to this prophetic word from the Lord, on this upcoming 2020 election:

The issues at hand are light against darkness issues, good against evil (see Isaiah 5:20); as the Bible instructs us, that our fight is NOT against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (see Ephesians 6:12).

These demonic spiritual powers of darkness and wickedness have, over the years, crept in and have established themselves as seats of power and strongholds, within our nation; as Christians have abdicated their GOD given position, as His occupational force in the Earth, to push back against these forces of evil.

This is done through our preaching of the Gospel’s message, which is GOD’s offer of forgiveness and reconciliation, which is being extended to all of the Earth’s inhabitants, and has been bought and paid for through the salvific and propitious work of Jesus Christ, on our behalf, on Calvary’s cross.

Our mission today is to occupy and exercise GOD’s dominion and righteousness, in the Earth, until He returns.

Luke 19:11-13
11 And as they heard these things, he (Jesus) added and spoke a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, OCCUPY (and carry on business in the Earth) until I come.
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As Watchmen on the Wall intercessors, as per Jesus’ instructions, we are to both WATCH and PRAY!

As Gideon’s 300, we are to keep our eyes on the horizon, watching to see what the enemy is doing; and as the Apostle Paul instructed us, in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should get an unfair advantage over us, let us not be ignorant of his devices (speaking of the enemy’s strategies and modus operandi).

As we learn God’s rules of engagement in spiritual warfare, this is the kind of mindset we need to have and maintain, that pushes back against these forces of evil.

It’s with our persistent prayers, in Earth, that lines up with GOD’s will in heaven, that the forces of evil in the earth will be overturned.

This is where the battle starts, on our knees, as we learn (as per 2 Chronicles 7:14) to humble ourselves and to pray, seeking God’s face and turning from our wicked ways.

We have to each stand transparent before our GOD, who sees all and knows all anyway, and repent – which means to change the way we think.

This is what I believe God is saying to us today, here in America, as we focus upon and learn the mind and will of GOD:

Isaiah 58:1-14
The Voice (VOICE)

1 Eternal One: Tell My people about their wrongdoing;
shout with a voice like a trumpet;
Hold nothing back: say this people of Jacob’s line and heritage
have failed to do what is right.

2 And yet they look for Me every day.
They pretend to want to learn what I teach,
As if they are indeed a nation good and true,
as if they hadn’t really turned their backs on My directives.

They even ask Me, as though they care,
about what I want them to be and do, as if they really want Me in their lives.

3 People: Why didn’t You notice how diligently we fasted before You?
We humbled ourselves with pious practices and You paid no attention.

Eternal One: I have to tell you, on those fasting days,
all you were really seeking was your own pleasure;

Besides you were busy defrauding people and abusing your workers.

4 Your kind of fasting is pointless, for it only leads to bitter quarrels,
contentious backbiting, and vicious fighting.You are not fasting today because you want Me to hear your voice.

5 What kind of a fast do I choose?

Is a true fast simply
some religious exercise for making a person feel miserable and woeful?Is it about how you bow your head (like a bent reed), how you dress (in sackcloth), and where you sit (in a bed of ashes)? Is this what you call a fast, a day the Eternal One finds good and proper?

6 No, what I want in a fast is this:
to liberate those tied down and held back by injustice, to lighten the load of those heavily burdened, to free the oppressed and shatter every type of oppression.

7 A fast for Me involves sharing your food with people who have none, giving those who are homeless a space in your home, Giving clothes to those who need them, and not neglecting your own family.

8 Then, oh then, your light will break out like the warm, golden rays of a rising sun;
in an instant, you will be healed.

Your rightness will precede and protect you;
the glory of the Eternal will follow and defend you.

9 Then when you do call out, “My God, Where are You?”The Eternal One will answer, “I am here, I am here.”

If you remove the yoke of oppression from the downtrodden among you,
stop accusing others, and do away with mean and inflammatory speech,

10 If you make sure that the hungry and oppressed have all that they need,
then your light will shine in the darkness,
And even your bleakest moments will be bright as a clear day.

11 The Eternal One will never leave you;
He will lead you in the way that you should go.

When you feel dried up and worthless,
God will nourish you and give you strength.

And you will grow like a garden lovingly tended;
you will be like a spring whose water never runs out.

12 You will discover there are people among your own
who can rebuild this broken-down city out of the ancient ruins;

You will firm up its ancient foundations.
And all around, others will call you
“Repairer of Broken Down Walls” and “Rebuilder of Livable Streets.”

13 Eternal One: If because of the Sabbath you set aside your own pursuits and pleasure,
and you honor the Sabbath and sanctify that day by leaving it to and for the Eternal—If you speak of Sabbath-delight but avoid speaking idle words, and refuse to get caught up and busy with your interests and concerns—

14 Then you will discover joy such as only the Eternal can give.
And I will raise you high and make your reach as wide as the earth,And you will live on all that I promised to Jacob, your ancestor, the heart of Israel.

The Eternal One said these very things.
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