THE BIG RESET!

GOOD NEWS! God has checkmated the enemy’s move in the present coronavirus crisis. The enemy’s plan was to release calamity on the earth, but God strategically incorporated this virus in His plan to bring forth transformation in the world!  The people of God have been in prayer, intercession and expectation for a big move of God for years, and God has now answered with the BIG RESET—the precursor to a great awakening and a great in-gathering of souls into the Kingdom of God. The world was going off the rails, on a trajectory toward destruction, running to and fro as the bible predicted in the book of Daniel. The emotional temperature in the world was at an ugly boiling point as the gods of this world gained in sphere and power. But God! God is using what the enemy planned for evil as a GLOBAL RESET.

In the present Global shutdown, bars have closed, sports has shut down, Disney world, recreation and entertainment has shut down; as a result, families are at home talking and eating together; people are quiet, the world is quiet, children are home safe, attitudes are changing, people are having compassion on others, we are coming together in a unity of heart and mind and people are praying and looking to God for answers. We are lovingly caught in the captivity of the Lord and the enemy is losing big time!!  During a recent time of Intercession, I saw a massive lion pacing restlessly with anticipation; the scripture that came to mind was Isaiah 42:13-17:

“The LORD will march out like a champion, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. \”For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant…I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”

I believe it is important that we take full advantage of this time God has given us to examine our lives, get rid of the non-essentials and recognize what is important.  In rest we will hear more clearly from God the strategies He wants to implement and the intercessory initiatives that will give birth to them. This is time to draw close to God and fine-tune our spiritual senses.

The entire chapter of Hebrew 12 is well worth studying at this time; in it God tells us not to take it lightly when we are disciplined by Him or grow weary under it—He disciplines those He loves as any loving father would. In verses 26-29, God warned us that He would shake everything that could be shaken; but we must take note His reasoning—it is for the removal of things that can be shaken, in order that the things that cannot be shaken might remain; that we may offer to Him acceptable worship with reverence and awe—He is a Consuming Fire and He will consume the sin out of our lives and ultimately out of the world!

God will be releasing prayer strategies to His people to bring us through this time—the term prayer strategy is simply the direction of how often to meet, in what manner we are to meet, who we are to meet with and the logistics of that, the theme of intercession, the way you we are to pray, whether in tongues or with revelation or both. This may be accompanied by symbolic action He may ask you to do; this may seem like something silly to you, but when done in obedience carries great power. He may give specific songs to worship to, some with banners or in dance and it may be accompanied by a time of fasting or not.

The Lord has given us a strategy to have three prayer thrusts once a month until May (See related word). Considering what is happening in the world at first I didn\’t think this was enough. As I am now forced to be at home, there is a quietness and a stillness in the atmosphere, and I believe that is by God’s design. God has been highlighting to me a principle in the strategy given to Joshua for Jericho. They had to march around the city in silence for seven days. On the seventh day they marched seven times then blew the trumpets. It seemed like a crazy thing to do, but they did it in obedience, power was released, and the walls fell! The part He is highlighting to me was the silence—they had to march in silence.

God is saying that as we wait before Him in quietness and in stillness, we are building up spiritual dunamis energy—an internal combustion that will explode and empower His move to BREAK OUT AND LAUNCH! I checked what internal combustion meant and found that: Internal-combustion engines are the most widely used power-generating devices currently in existence. It works by raising the temperature of a gas which then increases the pressure that makes it expand and blow. As we are still before the LORD, corporately waiting on Him during this time, in fasting and in prayer, we are building up a corporate internal combustion in the Body of Christ that will break us out into the greatest move of God of all time. There were a few words that I wrote last year in which God said to tell them, “Ready or not here I come!”  I believe that time has come!

Understanding Spiritual Warfare

During these times it is important to know how to pray. Its time to fight God\’s way! There can be much misconception when it comes to spiritual realities. Greater knowledge and understanding of spiritual warfare are important features of the Christian walk that I believe God is saying is presently needed. My last article touched on the aspect of it that relates to heart issues, as all victory is founded on the principle in Jesus’ words, the prince of this world comes but he has nothing in Me! The enemy could find no place of agreement in Christ, and the same must be for us. The Lord has continued to put an urgency in my heart to write on this subject to equip His people for the times.

The Bible speaks much about this warfare and is our source for all understanding of the subject.  The scriptures refer to the Lord as The Lord of hosts two hundred and thirty-five times! The word hosts mean armies—He is the Lord of armies, both in Heaven and on earth. We were enlisted in the army of God when we got saved, and have a fierce enemy, whether we understood that or not.

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.” Ephesians 6:13 

At the core of spiritual warfare is understanding our identity as a son or daughter of God and standing in it. There are those who are called to lifestyle of prayer and have been given a strong gift in intercession, however all God’s people are called to prayer and live within this spiritual dynamic. Everyone is a part of the war weather they participate or not. Because we live in this atmosphere of warfare, to have a grasp of this subject is to everyone’s advantage.

Contrary to what some may think, spiritual warfare has some very basic Christian principles I would like to highlight. First, we begin by noting that the Bible is founded on the spiritual dynamic that God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit (Jn. 4:24). Angels are spiritual beings that serve God. Satan is a created spiritual being—an archangel that fell and is now the archenemy of God, and all humanity. Demons are spiritual beings that serve the devil and do his bidding, they hate humanity and their job description is to steal, kill and destroy every good thing God intends for His people and the world. The evidence of their activity can be seen in every sphere of society and they are especially targeting the children. It is therefore very important for every family to have a prayer strategy and teach the children to how to pray. Children should be secured in the truth of Jesus, and His great love and power toward them!

Do Demons have Power?

Every spiritual and physical entity is created and subject to the full sovereignty of God.  These created beings have power for two reasons: the first is that as God ordained judgment on all rebellion and disobedience from the very beginning, and demons have legal right to function in this environment of sin (Deut. 28). However, God has given humanity the right to choose their own course, “…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life…” (Deut. 30:19)

The second reason they appear to have power is that within the born again dynamic, though our spirits are fully regenerated, the Holy Spirit, takes the land of our souls through the process of sanctification and cleansing in order to remove all worldly mind-sets, demonic strongholds, effects of past trauma and ungodly beliefs.  Even as Christ has purchased the whole person with His blood, and owns us fully, we may not have given Him all our allegiance. He has given all of Himself, but He does not necessarily receive all of us! God also uses the process of sanctification or heart cleansing to train and build our spiritual muscles of faith in the understanding of His great power over all things, and as a consequence, our great authority in Him as sons of God (Col. 2:9-11).  During this process we learn to fight, we overcome the enemy of our souls and are healed—all oppression is driven from the land of our souls as we are continually filled by the Holy Spirit in greater and greater measure, as He occupies more of  us. Israel’s journey to the Promised land through the wilderness gives us a picture of this process—there they were built up in faith and learned to fight! They entered the Promised land as warriors with the Shout of a King among them!

What does Spiritual Warfare Entail?

Spiritual warfare is very different than warfare in the natural. Firstly, as Ephesians 6 stated our fight is with spiritual forces and not with people, and the weapons we fight with are not of this world—they are far more powerful!

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

The battleground ultimately is for the mind of man—for who we will serve and give our allegiance to.  When our obedience is complete and the Lordship of Christ is firmly established in our lives, we have great authority to demolish the enemy’s plans and schemes in our personal lives. And having overcome with our personal issues we can stand in a posture of obedience, in strength, in a corporate setting, to fight for our communities, cities and our nations. The principles for corporate warfare are the same for our personal lives so let’s look at the practicalities.

Practicalities of Corporate Warfare.

Effective warfare is not a matter of semantics or the tonality of our voice—whether we are loud or soft spoken, as we are all unique in our gift. It is not about how great we can pray, but rather about functioning, not in the flesh, but under the anointing of a humble, surrendered heart. I was once in a prayer meeting sitting beside a very soft spoken lady who was praying very quietly, as she prayed God showed me a picture of her in the spirit—it was as if she had a megaphone blasting out her prayer into the spiritual realm…the point being, no one is disqualified.  There are certain key features or spiritual weapons God has given us in our warfare to overcome the kingdom of darkness, that when applied in the dynamic God intended, will always take down the enemy, these are:

Union: The word declares that where we have union, the commanded blessing of God is then released (Ps.133). The word command is tsavah and means to send with a charge, give a command, set in order or send with a messenger. This makes it clear that unity is vital to effective warfare. There is a mystery in the principle of union and agreement that when in place, works to produce an explosion of dunamis supernatural power, having the potential to produce God-sized possibilities.   The shortest and most memorable word God has given me came to me in capital letters, He said: AGREE WITH ME!  When we agree with Him corporately, we are in union with each other and with Him—this dynamic produces dunamis power. The corporate sound that is released in this setting is a breaker sound that demolishes strongholds.

Faith: The word of God declares that faith is the victory that overcomes the world, that our fight is the fight of faith; that we have access by faith, we are strengthened by faith, the promise comes by faith. We are admonished to build up our faith as we are protected and shielded by faith. Ephesians 4:13 tells us that we are all growing up until we attain to unity in the faith. Unity of the faith is a unity of mind that is a oneness in conviction and belief in the Lordship, majesty, power, and fullness of authority of the Godhead. That kind of faith will overcome every obstacle and mountain in our path and will transform our world.

Peace: The peace of God that is His shalom is a powerful principle that drives out all fear, anxiety and distress.  It is a peace that surpasses all understanding. The Hebrew word shalom has so much more weight than simply the absence of strife; it means to be safe, healthy and prospering in life, it is from a root word that means to be safe in body, mind and estate, to be complete!  Peace is who Christ is! He is the Prince of Peace and darkness cannot dwell in the presence of His peace. We can all be filled and exuding this supernatural peace that dispels fear and is a key to effective intercession.

Compassion: The compassion and love of Christ is an important attribute that we are to each carry. Wherever Jesus is moved with compassion in Scripture we see a miracle take place. Compassion is the heart of God and the basis for miracles. Judgment can also be the compassion of God, as the word says that when the world is judged it learns righteousness (Is. 26:9). It is God moving to save us from ourselves.  However as with all the attributes of God there is the counterfeit—counterfeit grace, love and compassion, and the attempt made to sanctify sin and bless what God has cursed and is not blessing.

Speaking in Tongues: God has given us the powerful weapon of speaking in unknown tongues—prayer that is motivated and empowered by the holy Spirit. Praying in tongues personally and corporately is powerful as it releases revelation and spiritual insight into situations, and can produce signs and wonders, and is in itself a sign and a wonder! In spiritual warfare we are posturing ourselves before God and looking to Him for insight, revelation, keys to win the battle and direction in our intercession.   In spiritual warfare everyone contributes to the corporate spiritual dynamic. The synergy created becomes a force that is unstoppable.

The Word of God: Lastly, and most important is the Word of God. The Word of God has supernatural power and always accomplishes what God has purposed.  God created with the Word and it continues to have creative power when spoken by the Spirit through us. Hebrews 4:12 says that it is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. When unleashed by the Holy Spirit, it has the potential to demolish strongholds in the path of God’s will.

I was once in a prayer meeting for Israel and at the start of the meeting God gave me a word, however, it did not seem to fit what was being prayed, so I  held it and waited. At the right moment the Holy Spirit said “Now,” and I released it. When I spoke the word it seemed to be launched like a missile, and I knew by revelation, that the word had left the prayer room, crossed the ocean, and landed in Israel—somewhere in Israel freedom came that day! That is spiritual warfare!