Rom.12:2 "and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
Wanna wake a giant? You need to be transformed to do this job! One of the ways we to wake up this 'sleeping giant' is to fight against a worldly mindset. What is that? Well, when I think of a worldly mindset I think of something that is humanistic, carnal, self-centered ( or self-focused) - and THAT is not a mind that is SET on the things of God. How do we get a mind that's set on God? I don't believe that you can break a worldly mindset with just one thing...or with just one prayer. I do believe tho, that we can be free of a worldly mindset by practising prayer more, reading the Bible more, sharing our testimony with others ( testimonies that glorify GOD and what HE has done in our life)..and DOING the gospel. What's that? It's simple..it's what Jesus told his disciples ' go out into all the world and teach them what I have taught/shown you - to heal the sick, preach the gospel ' etc.! Every time we step into authentic Kingdom stuff, we break down that worldly mindset!
Jesus did the same thing - ever noticed that? He was sent into a religious world that had very narrow views on things. He broke that mindset by praying, preaching and doing!
It doesn't really matter if someone believes God heals, if they witness a sick person BEING healed! That miracle can breakthrough an unbelieving heart and break a mindset! Two miracles for the price of one. Two miracles that could happen through your simple obedience - go and pray!
BUT...we cannot break the mindsets of those around us, until we break our own mindsets. Again, the way to do it is to practise being in His presence, learning to hear His voice and obeying. Praying more - especially when he tells us too. Reading the Word more - so we know WHO we are praying to and how to pray. Being willing to share our stories! People can argue doctrine and theology, but they can't argue your experience - it's just that, YOURS!
So, wanna wake a giant? Break a mindset first!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Sad statistic
I just received an email today that said the newest stats say that 60% of pastors or those in church leadership, are caught up in some form of addiction to pornography! That broke my heart! How can we expect the Church to be effective if our leaders have been taken captive by sin? Worse yet, how they help set the captives free, when they are in bondage? Seriously...one prisoner can not loose another prisoner!
While we all ache for revival....we need to realise that it requires at return to holiness and righteousness. When it comes, there will be not only conviction of sin...but I believe that there will be exposure of sin too. God is merciful...and He, in his mercy will offer a way of escape BUT eventually there will be a time when in order to answer the cries for revival, that He will have to expose those things that are hindering our prayers!
So..while we pray for the Sleeping Giant to awaken....we'd better take stock in our lives of any places we've compromised with sin. I do not intend for people to become fearful...or become the Holy Spirit police regarding other people and their decision. I do intend to remind us, as prayer people, that we need to keep our hearts pure too...our thoughts...our actions in line with His heart for this world, so that our prayer will not only be fervent, but effective!
While we all ache for revival....we need to realise that it requires at return to holiness and righteousness. When it comes, there will be not only conviction of sin...but I believe that there will be exposure of sin too. God is merciful...and He, in his mercy will offer a way of escape BUT eventually there will be a time when in order to answer the cries for revival, that He will have to expose those things that are hindering our prayers!
So..while we pray for the Sleeping Giant to awaken....we'd better take stock in our lives of any places we've compromised with sin. I do not intend for people to become fearful...or become the Holy Spirit police regarding other people and their decision. I do intend to remind us, as prayer people, that we need to keep our hearts pure too...our thoughts...our actions in line with His heart for this world, so that our prayer will not only be fervent, but effective!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Prayer Meetings...
So, we want to get this Sleeping Giant awake.
But what are we doing, that seems to be keeping 'it' alseep? Why haven't we been able to wake this giant up? Here's some thoughts on that question.
Could it be, that as much as we all profess to want to wake prayer up in our churches, and our cities, I have to ask first..how is our personal prayer life? You can't 'wake up' in others, what is still asleep in you!
Also, many times we go about our daily Christian walk, with unresolved differences, offenses, or down right rebellion, in our own hearts, and yet, we think that those things are not hindering the release of prayer in us, and around us. Not true!
Lastly, do we want to wake up people to pray 'our' way? Or are we seriously wanting God to wake us up to the prayer He is calling His people to. Will be be willing to change our way, or our favorite style of prayer, to learn a new one? Will we embrace something that is out of our comfort zone? Or will we judge others because they pray one way, and we pray another?
James 4: 2-3 Tells us to be aware of having wrong desires. It speaks to us about lusting, fighting and coveting. It goes on to say that we aren't getting what we pray for because we are praying from wrong motives, and wrong objectives. We pray to satisfy our own pleasure, our own flesh. It is saying, that our prayers are selfish. Ouch!!
If we want to wake up this Sleeping Giant, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to refocus the way we come to God. He will give us 1. the right desire - intimacy with the Father and 2. the right motive - to glorify God and 3. the right objective - to do God's will!
Remember we want to pray with a pure heart. We want to pray with power. We want to pray with persistence.
But what are we doing, that seems to be keeping 'it' alseep? Why haven't we been able to wake this giant up? Here's some thoughts on that question.
Could it be, that as much as we all profess to want to wake prayer up in our churches, and our cities, I have to ask first..how is our personal prayer life? You can't 'wake up' in others, what is still asleep in you!
Also, many times we go about our daily Christian walk, with unresolved differences, offenses, or down right rebellion, in our own hearts, and yet, we think that those things are not hindering the release of prayer in us, and around us. Not true!
Lastly, do we want to wake up people to pray 'our' way? Or are we seriously wanting God to wake us up to the prayer He is calling His people to. Will be be willing to change our way, or our favorite style of prayer, to learn a new one? Will we embrace something that is out of our comfort zone? Or will we judge others because they pray one way, and we pray another?
James 4: 2-3 Tells us to be aware of having wrong desires. It speaks to us about lusting, fighting and coveting. It goes on to say that we aren't getting what we pray for because we are praying from wrong motives, and wrong objectives. We pray to satisfy our own pleasure, our own flesh. It is saying, that our prayers are selfish. Ouch!!
If we want to wake up this Sleeping Giant, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to refocus the way we come to God. He will give us 1. the right desire - intimacy with the Father and 2. the right motive - to glorify God and 3. the right objective - to do God's will!
Remember we want to pray with a pure heart. We want to pray with power. We want to pray with persistence.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Prayer...and the Jezebel Spirit
When I think about the "Sleeping Giant", what comes to mind is, what has put the giant to sleep? Weariness? Depression? Apathy? or was it drugged? The other day as I prayed about the sleeping giant, I got a picture from a childhood story - Snow White - and I saw a nice red juicy apple being given to the Giant. Have we been drugged? Lured into a sleep that is unnatural?
It might be something to think about because there is nothing that the Jezebel spirit fears more than prayer! Real prayer is simply praying what is on the mind of god. Strategic prayer coming into alignment with God's thoughts and praying specifically into those thoughts.
What we need to be aware of is praying our own agenda. There is NO power in that! True intercessory prayer is praying God's will - God's agenda. I call that 'pure prayer' and it will destroy the strategies of Jezebel and can help break her influence off men.
True intercessory prayer will stir people to repentance, and break Jezebel's influence. It will turn people's hearts away from sin, and bring true repentance and godliness. True fervent intercessory prayer causes hearts to change from pride and loftiness ( another Jezebel trait), to repentance and humility. Nothing brings a great death blow to a Jezebel spirit!!
We need to clean up our prayer groups, and the motives of our prayer groups, so we are not praying our own agenda's, but fervently seeking God's heart for each situation and praying HIS will - HIs heart!
" Father, forgive us for being tolerant of the Jezebel spirit. Open our eyes to the all its influence and tactics. We bind the stronghold it has on the minds of those in our lives, churches and communities, and we release the Spirit of God to expose all it's works. We pull down every stronghold and fortress this spirit has built up in the area in which we live. We choose to humble ourselves and walk before You with purity of heart and mind and a submissive spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen." * prayer by Steve Sampson from his book ' Confronting Jezebel'
It might be something to think about because there is nothing that the Jezebel spirit fears more than prayer! Real prayer is simply praying what is on the mind of god. Strategic prayer coming into alignment with God's thoughts and praying specifically into those thoughts.
What we need to be aware of is praying our own agenda. There is NO power in that! True intercessory prayer is praying God's will - God's agenda. I call that 'pure prayer' and it will destroy the strategies of Jezebel and can help break her influence off men.
True intercessory prayer will stir people to repentance, and break Jezebel's influence. It will turn people's hearts away from sin, and bring true repentance and godliness. True fervent intercessory prayer causes hearts to change from pride and loftiness ( another Jezebel trait), to repentance and humility. Nothing brings a great death blow to a Jezebel spirit!!
We need to clean up our prayer groups, and the motives of our prayer groups, so we are not praying our own agenda's, but fervently seeking God's heart for each situation and praying HIS will - HIs heart!
" Father, forgive us for being tolerant of the Jezebel spirit. Open our eyes to the all its influence and tactics. We bind the stronghold it has on the minds of those in our lives, churches and communities, and we release the Spirit of God to expose all it's works. We pull down every stronghold and fortress this spirit has built up in the area in which we live. We choose to humble ourselves and walk before You with purity of heart and mind and a submissive spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen." * prayer by Steve Sampson from his book ' Confronting Jezebel'
Friday, February 12, 2010
Why do we pray ??
Here's an interesting question eh?? Why do you pray?
We know that we are called to pray . We know that the Word tells us to fashion all our worries into prayers. We know that we are called to pray without ceasing. We know that we are to pray about everything.
So, why don't we pray? Why does an individual, or a church, or a city, not pray? Let's look at some of the reasons that cause people not to pray.
Let's look at the individual:
From the beginning we can see the tactics employed by the enemy ( thru a religious spirit I might add), are in the Garden of Eden. Satan comes to Adam and Eve and questions them about what God said to them, " Did God really say........" They became deceived into thinking that God could not have meant, what He said to them. By changing their understanding of what God said, the enemy convinced/persuaded them to question and eventually doubt God's word! They literally rejected what God said - believed it to be not true . They denied that they would die if they ate form the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Now remember, up until that point they didn't know 'death'....so the enemy probably used their innocence against them on that subject, but nevertheless, they chose to reject what they heard God say..and believe a more appealing deception.
Now..in this, the enemy succeeded not only in defiling their belief in God's word, but he also ruined their relationship with Him. Why? Well, they were no longer able to talk face to face with God.
Altho some people may not think the spirit used against them was specifically a religious spirit, let me explain why I believe it was. The same spirit that Satan used, closely parallels what the religious spirit uses today - it causes us to relate to and HEAR God differently than we should!
So, we know that from the beginning Satan has been working to rob God's people of not only hearing God's voice, but trusting in God's word to us! We pray and we learn to pray, so that we can once again learn to hear His voice...and obey. We pray because we are redeeming that relationship that was stolen from us through deception. We pray because we long to walk and talk with God our Father. We pray because we know that He still longs to speak to us, His children. He has plans and purposes, strategies and revelation that He is longing to show us, teach us, reveal to us. We pray because He longs to have that relationship of intimate conversation and 'relating' restored. Remember, that Jesus came SO THAT we could have relationship with the Father. Thru one man the intimate relationship with the Father was lost, and through one man, that same relationship is now restored - the way to the Father!
If we don't pray...we don't hear His voice...we don't know His heart. We will walk independent of Him - doing life according to what we think He wants, instead of the confident security of knowing that we have heard Him . If we don't pray, we are acting like Orphans - doing this life as fatherless children, who have to survive on their own. The truth is, the Word says He will not leave us a orphans, but will make us sons and daughters.
And true sons and daughters are in contact with their Father. They know His voice, His heart, His desires, His love for them. We pray because it means we have dialogue with Him who desires to share Himself with us.
So...knowing that....why would we not pray??
We know that we are called to pray . We know that the Word tells us to fashion all our worries into prayers. We know that we are called to pray without ceasing. We know that we are to pray about everything.
So, why don't we pray? Why does an individual, or a church, or a city, not pray? Let's look at some of the reasons that cause people not to pray.
Let's look at the individual:
From the beginning we can see the tactics employed by the enemy ( thru a religious spirit I might add), are in the Garden of Eden. Satan comes to Adam and Eve and questions them about what God said to them, " Did God really say........" They became deceived into thinking that God could not have meant, what He said to them. By changing their understanding of what God said, the enemy convinced/persuaded them to question and eventually doubt God's word! They literally rejected what God said - believed it to be not true . They denied that they would die if they ate form the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Now remember, up until that point they didn't know 'death'....so the enemy probably used their innocence against them on that subject, but nevertheless, they chose to reject what they heard God say..and believe a more appealing deception.
Now..in this, the enemy succeeded not only in defiling their belief in God's word, but he also ruined their relationship with Him. Why? Well, they were no longer able to talk face to face with God.
Altho some people may not think the spirit used against them was specifically a religious spirit, let me explain why I believe it was. The same spirit that Satan used, closely parallels what the religious spirit uses today - it causes us to relate to and HEAR God differently than we should!
So, we know that from the beginning Satan has been working to rob God's people of not only hearing God's voice, but trusting in God's word to us! We pray and we learn to pray, so that we can once again learn to hear His voice...and obey. We pray because we are redeeming that relationship that was stolen from us through deception. We pray because we long to walk and talk with God our Father. We pray because we know that He still longs to speak to us, His children. He has plans and purposes, strategies and revelation that He is longing to show us, teach us, reveal to us. We pray because He longs to have that relationship of intimate conversation and 'relating' restored. Remember, that Jesus came SO THAT we could have relationship with the Father. Thru one man the intimate relationship with the Father was lost, and through one man, that same relationship is now restored - the way to the Father!
If we don't pray...we don't hear His voice...we don't know His heart. We will walk independent of Him - doing life according to what we think He wants, instead of the confident security of knowing that we have heard Him . If we don't pray, we are acting like Orphans - doing this life as fatherless children, who have to survive on their own. The truth is, the Word says He will not leave us a orphans, but will make us sons and daughters.
And true sons and daughters are in contact with their Father. They know His voice, His heart, His desires, His love for them. We pray because it means we have dialogue with Him who desires to share Himself with us.
So...knowing that....why would we not pray??
Friday, October 2, 2009
Prayer....
One of the things we need to learn to be 'ok' with, as prayer people is that we won't necessarily get a burden for everything that comes along. We need to learn to stick to the sphere of our anointing.
We won't always share the same burden -passion with different intercessors. Remember, they are passionate about their prayer assignment. YOU will be passionate about yours! We cannot let the enemy cause us to fall into judging one another, or feeling judged. That will bring in a spirit of disunity and competition...and once we come into agreement with those two spirits, the results will be devastating for prayer!
Have you ever been in a prayer meeting, where they focus or burden is different than yours? Suddenly there is a call to pray ..and that particular group gets activated and begins to passionately pray. You, on the other hand, don't have a clue what they are praying about...and to be honest, you don't really care. You don't have burden for it. THAT very feeling/thought, now makes you feel guilty. 'What's wrong with me? Don't I care?!!"
The reality is, it's the Lord who gives us a burden to pray. If He wants you to carry a burden, He'll give you the passion to do so. We can't try and make ourselves pick up a burden that isn't ours.
I have a friend who absolutely gets passionate about praying for Israel. When she and her friends get together, they can pray for hours! God reveals and shows them things in their prayer time that fuels their fervor and devotion to pray for that nation. I used to sit in those meetings and feel guilty that I wasn't really being stirred, until I heard the Lord say, ' That's not your burden." Wow! That was so freeing... I simply needed to know where God is calling me to pray..and I found it! He has given me a passion and a burden to pray for our city.
You might not be an person who can prayer over a daily list for leaders in your church, your schools or your city or government. You might be a crisis intercessor who is called in respond to governmental kinds of emergencies . On the other hand, maybe you don't hear heaven's SOS's for leaders. That's okay!! You just need to know what place He is calling you to in prayer!
For me, it's been praying for the pastors and leaders in our city. I stopped trying to get every other intercessor to have my burden. I also stopped feeling guilty that I didn't have other intercessors assignments. I need to rejoice that they are praying..and manning their part on 'the wall' I need to realise that He's given me the anointing to stand with His prayer power, on behalf of the city He has set me in!
The important thing is to find your place and stick with it until the Lord gives you new orders!
We won't always share the same burden -passion with different intercessors. Remember, they are passionate about their prayer assignment. YOU will be passionate about yours! We cannot let the enemy cause us to fall into judging one another, or feeling judged. That will bring in a spirit of disunity and competition...and once we come into agreement with those two spirits, the results will be devastating for prayer!
Have you ever been in a prayer meeting, where they focus or burden is different than yours? Suddenly there is a call to pray ..and that particular group gets activated and begins to passionately pray. You, on the other hand, don't have a clue what they are praying about...and to be honest, you don't really care. You don't have burden for it. THAT very feeling/thought, now makes you feel guilty. 'What's wrong with me? Don't I care?!!"
The reality is, it's the Lord who gives us a burden to pray. If He wants you to carry a burden, He'll give you the passion to do so. We can't try and make ourselves pick up a burden that isn't ours.
I have a friend who absolutely gets passionate about praying for Israel. When she and her friends get together, they can pray for hours! God reveals and shows them things in their prayer time that fuels their fervor and devotion to pray for that nation. I used to sit in those meetings and feel guilty that I wasn't really being stirred, until I heard the Lord say, ' That's not your burden." Wow! That was so freeing... I simply needed to know where God is calling me to pray..and I found it! He has given me a passion and a burden to pray for our city.
You might not be an person who can prayer over a daily list for leaders in your church, your schools or your city or government. You might be a crisis intercessor who is called in respond to governmental kinds of emergencies . On the other hand, maybe you don't hear heaven's SOS's for leaders. That's okay!! You just need to know what place He is calling you to in prayer!
For me, it's been praying for the pastors and leaders in our city. I stopped trying to get every other intercessor to have my burden. I also stopped feeling guilty that I didn't have other intercessors assignments. I need to rejoice that they are praying..and manning their part on 'the wall' I need to realise that He's given me the anointing to stand with His prayer power, on behalf of the city He has set me in!
The important thing is to find your place and stick with it until the Lord gives you new orders!
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