Power of Knowing Your Enemy  

Key Scripture: “I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves.”  Matthew 5:44, The Message

Power Point: Love your enemies? That’s our battle plan to defeat the enemy? You've got to be kidding. I thought I could explain to the devil how bad things were for me and he would just apologize and stop attacking me. Actually no where in scripture can I find the words ,”Just talk to the devil. Tell him your sad story. Explain to him how bad things are and he will have mercy on you and stop his attacks.” If you’ve found that one, would you let me know?

One very important thing I have learned in my life, in fact, probably one of the top three things is this:  The enemy is not that person you are dealing with; The Enemy is the enemy!

Did you ever wonder why God says, “Bless your enemies?” That was really a hard one for me until He spoke that truth about the enemy into my life.

If the Enemy is indeed the “enemy", then he is trying to “steal, kill and destroy” from everyone he meets.  If that’s the case, then the person you are having the most problems with is a person who is losing their battle with him. That’s why God says, “Bless them.  Pray for grace in their lives so that THEY can defeat the enemy.”  If they are continually angry, or mean, or vindictive, or maybe just get on your last nerve, guess who’s in charge of their life? My prayer for my “enemies” is that God will send His Holy Spirit to them to bless them and lead them to an encounter with Him.” I’m so thankful for the corrective lenses that Papa God has given me to see them from His perspective.  Everything looks different from heavenly places.   Everything is different when you sit beside Him on the mercy seat. You pray with Mercy, from mercy, for mercy.

God does the work, and their lives are changed from that encounter. And so is yours.You no longer see people as an enemy. You KNOW that you KNOW that you KNOW that The Enemy is the enemy.

Your job is to withstand and resist the ENEMY, not that person. You may need to “withdraw” from them for a time and raise fervent prayers on their behalf, but you are never told to withstand and resist a person.  In Romans 14:19 Paul says, “Let us therefore, (because of Holy Spirit in us), pursue the things that make for peace and the things by which one may edify one another.” The ultimate outcome? God is glorified, and people see Jesus. Come on! Let’s try His strategy. I know it sounds crazy, but it just might work!

Power Talk: I will love my enemies.  I will bless them and not curse them. I will love my enemies. I will bless them and not curse them. I will…

I am SO blessed by your comments!

Power of Stepping OUT!

Key Scripture:  “With men this is impossible but with God all things are possible.”  Matthew 19:26

“Lord, if it’s You, command me to come to You on the water.  COME! Matthew 14:28,29

Power Point: About ten years or so ago, my prayer partner, extraordinaire, Julie and I really began to dip our toes in the water of the kingdom of God. We had begun to see and believe many of the things I share with you. Our hearts burned so brightly to be able to bring healing to others and so we began to do everything we could to make that happen. We read everything we could get our hands on and went everywhere we could to see people who had learned how to bring the kingdom of God here. One of our first big events was a conference held by Charisma magazine. It was amazing.  We had been placed on the prayer team and we were in that prayer room every minute we could manage. People were being healed as others prayed for them. It was an electric atmosphere that charged our hearts, and changed them forever.

When we returned home, I called my friend Rebekah.   She is a pastor’s wife and their family had been totally devastated for two years by her diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. I had spent many wonderful hours with her over the previous year, just introducing her to Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God (the little that I knew!) I called her a few days after we had gotten home, and in my excitement I shared every thing that had happened.  Suddenly, I realized there was dead silence on the other end of the phone. “What do you think we should do?” I asked. “Pray”, she responded.  I was at her house in 20 minutes.  First I had to call Julie and Donna and tell them to “PRAY!"

This is the funny part. I had no idea what I was doing. I grabbed my “Handbook for Healing” by Frances and Charles Hunter and took off in my car. When I arrived, I sat in the driveway, thumbing frantically through the book, trying to find out how to heal people of Fibromyalgia. As it happened of course, I didn’t need the book. I put on some music, sat with her on the floor and took her hands in mine. That’s pretty much all I did. She began to shake, I began to worry. I asked her what was happening and she said, “It’s going out the same way it came in.” And it did. She has never had another symptom.

He said, “Come!” I came. He did what He had wanted to do all along. And I got to watch!  I still get to watch. I love partnering with Holy Spirit, He does all the work and I just show up, reach out, and touch!

Power Talk:  When Jesus says, “Come!” I’m going! I don’t care if I get a little wet.  Why don’t you come too?  Come on!