Tag Archives: spiritual warfare

Be Careful What You Teach,

Posted on 11/09/2022 | Comments Off on Be Careful What You Teach,

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

All scripture is profitable for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, but not necessarily our interpretation or delivery of it. Handling the word of life without humility and the fear of the Lord can result in people being cut, hurt, offended, and deceived. It brings a reproach on Christ, discrediting His name, harming the Church, and devaluing His word.

The Bible says in James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. And yet the world is full of Bible teachers that do not rightly divide the word of truth. We should all realize that teachers of the word of God are held to a high level of accountability. A stricter judgment. Teachers should teach from the overflow of their intimate relationship with the Lord, for these are the only things they truly know. Accumulation of knowledge about the word of God is not the same as knowing the Word. A true teacher is not only anointed to teach, but also anointed to learn.

In the age of abundant information that we live in, it is easy to accumulate knowledge about God and reduce ourselves to just relaying information. Unless we put that knowledge into practice, we don’t know the truth we are trying to share. The common practice of merely sharing information results in teaching and preaching that lack spiritual authority with demonstration and power. Many try to compensate for this lack of authority and power by being funny and entertaining or by being dramatic and forceful in their delivery. These are poor substitutes.

We should keep in mind that the Word is a person. When we share the word with others, we are to share from our understanding of that person we gain from the relationship, not the knowledge we have accumulated about God through academic efforts. If we are not practicing what we know, we cannot teach it with the authority and power it deserves.

Obedience is God’s “love language.” It’s only the word we obey that we truly know. Jesus IS the word. If we do not obey Him, we not only don’t know Him. He said we don’t love Him.

John 14:23-24  Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

It is important to be doers of the word. Let’s make sure that is all we are teaching, not our own opinions, our denominational practices, or any other thing that does not bring forth life and liberty.

James 1:22 (NKJV) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

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I’m Dead I Reckon

Posted on 11/08/2022 | Comments Off on I’m Dead I Reckon

Romans 6:11 (NKJV) Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, what does it mean to “reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin?” Many translations render this phrase “consider yourself to be dead,” but what does that look like?

Another good word for “reckon” is “believe.” We must believe that we are dead to sin. But that is not the end of the verse. We must also reckon (believe) that we are alive to God in Christ Jesus. It means we need to stop judging and thinking of ourselves as “sinners” and start believing and thinking of ourselves as forgiven, redeemed sons and daughters of God. The problem is, thinking and believing do not change automatically; they are changed by what we continually look at and meditate on.

Without daily intimacy with the Lord and continual exposure to His living word, we will stay focused on our failures and shortcomings, never actually becoming all Jesus paid for us to be. Reading and hearing the word of God, fellowship with other believers, and listening to good preaching are all good things. However, nothing will transform us faster than spending time with God when no one else is looking. Intimacy is where the most extraordinary transformation takes place. It is where grace has its perfect work.

Intimacy with the Father builds faith, dispels doubt, and corrects wrong thinking. Beholding Him and His glory shapes our perspectives, confirming and strengthening our identity by changing how we see Him.

          The Bible says that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45 Matthew 12:33-37)

What is in our hearts and minds (believer and thinker) will eventually come out of our mouths, and that is the other thing that must change.

We will never be free from sin while allowing it to reside in our thought life and keeping it in our conversations.

We must not talk about how normal it is for us to sin. Saying things like, “We all sin, everybody sins, we are always going to sin,” strengthens a sin consciousness and reinforces the strongholds of wrong thinking and wrong believing.

There is a time and place to confess our sins and weaknesses to others for needed ministry, restoration, and accountability. However, filling our prayer life with wrong declarations of our sinful and unworthy nature is counterproductive and anti-finished work. That is not humility; it is blasphemy. He made us worthy.

Talking and thinking that way is “reckoning” ourselves alive to sin. It is saying in our hearts that sin still has power over us and therefore suggests that the finished work of Jesus did not accomplish anything.

Sin only has power over us when we empower it.

If we miss it and sin, run to God in prayer and declare.

“Lord, I thank you for your mercy. I am sorry; that is no longer who I am Lord. That is certainly not what You look like in me. Thank you for making me clean and transforming me into your image. Thank you for perfecting your work in me and bringing me to the place where this is not an issue anymore. I am so thankful that you don’t see me as dirty or unworthy. Thank you for redeeming me. I so appreciate your work in my life, thank you for Fathering me.”

You won’t pray like that without a healthy understanding of who you are in Christ. Spend some time with Him alone today.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

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Restoring God’s Community

Posted on 11/07/2022 | Comments Off on Restoring God’s Community

Some of the most important relationships we have are with “the five-fold ministry gifts.” Every ministry gift teaches but has a different expression, function, and assignment. Still, they all have the same purpose: Equipping the saints for the work of ministry. When we do not have healthy relationships with the ministry gifts of Christ, we are hindered from being adequately equipped for God’s work.

All believers have within them a measure of the five-fold ministry gifts. Our relationship with other believers allows us to benefit from those giftings and is one source for equipping us. However, there are those among us whom God has ordained to stand in the “office” of the five-fold ministry. These leaders in the body of Christ are uniquely anointed to equip us in ways that others cannot. These believers are the gifts Christ has given us to prepare us, strengthen us, and equip us for spiritual warfare. We need some level of relationship with all five of these anointed gifts.

One of the reasons we don’t see the level of signs and wonders we see in the Bible is that we have moved away from God’s ordained structure of community. When God’s community is out of order, and we don’t have much-needed exposure to apostles, prophets, and evangelists, we become well equipped to teach and pastor but ill-equipped to function in kingdom authority. Without a relationship with all these five gifts, we will likely not be well equipped to represent the kingdom of God with demonstration and power.

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NKJV) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

For those hungry for God, we know in our hearts there is so much more power available to us than we are experiencing. The Church has been ill-equipped and powerless. Could this be from not understanding the function and importance of our relationships? Could this result from not understanding God’s plans for community and not holding to His original design? We must be exposed to all five ministry gifts because they equip us differently. 

It is no accident that many denominations no longer recognize the ministry of the apostle and prophet. Apostles and prophets help equip the church with power and prepare her for what is coming. The last thing the enemy wants is for his plans to be exposed in advance and for the Church to be equipped to foresee those plans and destroy his works.

Satan deceives the Church with denominational preferences, racial divisions, political differences, and doctrinal disagreements to keep us weak, ill-equipped, and ineffective. He attacks the body of Christ to damage the joints, straining and breaking relationships to cut off our supply of the Spirit. The unity of the faith is what the devil is trying to prevent. (Ephesians 4:13)

All relationships are meaningful, even the ones that challenge us. Every relationship is a gift, a garden, and an opportunity to sow and reap.

Remember this; The garden we sow into may not be the same garden we reap from. We are so interconnected as a body of believers that our prayers can affect the body of Christ on the other side of the planet. We are more connected than the molecules that make up water. It is crucial to nurture and protect every relationship, retaining our influence and connectivity by preferring the other parts and protecting the joints. (relationships)

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

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What Kind Of Disciples Are You Making?

Posted on 11/05/2022 | Comments Off on What Kind Of Disciples Are You Making?

          Our identity is not found in our gifting, our calling, or our vocation, but in our relationship with the Father. An apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher is not who we are, it is how we were created to serve. We find our identity in our loving relationship with the Father, not our gifting. If we don’t first find our identity in Him, we cannot effectively make disciples of Jesus.

          Disciples are made when people willingly follow you and your living example. What kind of example are you setting? What are you reproducing if you make disciples apart from intimacy with the Lord? Are you making disciples of Jesus, or disciples of a denomination? What are you trying to reproduce? Do we really need two or more like you?

Our priority should be a growing relationship with the Father. We should be cautious of having followers if there are any other priorities above that.

          A leader can easily get distracted from spending intimate time with the Lord. A common trap is to replace being alone with God and pursuing intimacy with the busyness of religious activity. Another pitfall is to allow our “quiet time” or “devotion time” with the Lord to become lifeless, where we go through the motions and never connect with God on an intimate level. We can read a daily chapter or two in our Bible, run through our laundry list of prayer requests, and never take time to be quiet and listen to the one we are talking to. I have been guilty of this myself. It is tragic to become religious in our devotion to God and call it a relationship.

            We can learn about God from reading and studying the Bible, but to honestly know Him, we must spend time with Him, commune with Him, and listen to Him.

          Jesus set a remarkable example. He only did what He saw the Father do. This mindset demands a lifestyle of watching and praying. It’s not always convenient or comfortable, but it is always necessary.

          If you read my biography, you can learn a lot about me, but you can’t honestly say that you know me. You may “feel like you know me,” but to honestly know me, you must spend time with me, ask me questions, listen to my responses, and spend time with me. It is the same with God.

          Reading the Bible takes on new dimensions when intimacy becomes a lifestyle. The word of God bears much more fruit in our lives. We begin to view His written word through the lens of His divine nature; we see it with an unveiled face and a heart of love that makes us more sensitive to His spoken word.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

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