Posts Tagged ‘prayer’

You are Powerful Over the Enemy

Wednesday, October 18th, 2017

you-are-powerful-over-the-enemy

You are powerful over the enemy. 1 John 4:4 ESV says “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

When Jesus was on the earth, He gave His followers power over the demonic realm. Any Christian has more power than an evil spirit, because the Spirit of the Living God is inside of us! “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” Luke 10:17 ESV

Jesus said we would do greater works than He did: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12 ESV Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised to send His Spirit to reside in us, and He would never leave us nor forsake us.

Because Christians don’t know the authority they have in Christ, they allow the enemy to torment them, lead them into sin, and deceive them. The primary gateway for the enemy is your mind, but he also works through your emotions. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 The key in that verse is to submit or yield to God at all times. Open to Jesus and allow Him to lead you. He will give you supernatural strength to get through your situation.

painting-angel

One day last summer, I was allowing the enemy to discourage me because of my unresolved circumstances. I had no energy whatsoever, and my daughter was wondering if I was going to get out of bed. I felt that I didn’t have enough strength to continue going through the motions of life. No, I was not suicidal. I just had nothing left. I had metaphorically splatted to the floor after giving everything I had, and I’ve lived this way for a couple of years.

The phone rang, and it was my husband. He said that there was a work picnic today, and I was expected to attend with the kids. Plus, I always brought banana bread for his boss. I looked at the clock and there was only one hour before I had to leave. I hadn’t showered. I had no energy. I cried out, “Jesus, please give me the strength to live through another day.”

powerful-over-enemy

Fortunately I saw three soft bananas on the counter. The odds of that happening are slim, because if we buy bananas, they all get eaten right away unless we were planning to make banana bread, and we weren’t. I would not have had time to go to the grocery store to buy bananas. I found my son who I’ve trained to make banana bread, and he got started on it while I jumped in the shower.

I arrived at the work party with my kids at the correct time, and I had supernatural strength to be the life of the party. This is impossible. But God strengthened me. I didn’t have swollen eyes from crying. I looked normal and full of life. That’s because Jesus is my life.

Over and over, God has gotten me through so many difficult situations, and I know He will get me through this one. I will ask God each day what He wants me to do, and I will do it.

Don’t forget, you are powerful over the enemy. Don’t let him discourage you!

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!

You are an Overcomer

Monday, October 16th, 2017

you-are-an-overcomer

You are an overcomer! No matter what you are going through, you will overcome it. You will make it through to the other side of this trial. You will not be inside of this trial forever.

“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job 23:10 NIV Every believer will get through the situation that they are in because they have the presence of the living God. When we come out of the furnace, we will be gold!

But how will we overcome?

“And they overcame him (1) because of the blood of the Lamb and (2) because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” Revelation 12:11 NASB

(1) Notice that we will overcome the enemy and get through any situation because of what Christ did on the cross to purchase our victory:

  • “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 15:57 ESV
  • “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:15 NIV

(2) Notice also that the word of our testimony will get us through the hard situation. God’s faithfulness to us in the past (or if we are a new believer, His faithfulness even in the Scriptures throughout history) will show us that because God got us through difficult situations in the past, He will do so again.

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For example, God healed me from a brutality and enabled me to disarm even the memory of it so I can think about it without any pain or sorrow. God has transformed it into depth of character in my own life that has caused me to be the Christian speaker and author that I am today. I am able to minister in ways that would have been impossible aside from me having gone through the difficult times.

When I thought my one-year-old daughter had stopped breathing and that she would be dead, I learned to release her to God. Years later when she went through open spine surgery, I was a stronger woman. Even though I didn’t want her to die, I opened my hands easily to God this time and was able to be a rock to my husband, who was going through the experience of releasing her for the first time.

overcomer

When my husband went through spinal surgery one year later, I could release him to God, although it was even more scary because my livelihood and entire life with him would be altered if I lost him. I was so glad and grateful when he made it through the surgery, and God gave him back to me. You see, I had practice in releasing all things to God, so I no longer had the rage in my spirit against God that I had when God almost took my baby away ten years earlier. I had learned to trust God, even if the outcome was not what I wanted.

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So today I want you to know that you will make it to the other side of your trial. That you will be gold. That any good things in you will be expanded. A small amount of endurance yields a harvest of a huge amount of endurance. You can be complete, lacking nothing on the other side of the trial (James 1:4).

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37 ESV

Don’t forget, you are an overcomer!

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!

You are a New Creation

Sunday, October 15th, 2017

you-are-a-new-creation

You are a new creation! “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

At the point of salvation, Christ comes to reside in you. Instead of being dead in your sins, you are made alive in Christ (Colossians 2:13). God transfers us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13).

After salvation, you are no longer rotten. Many songs we sing give the false impression that Christians are rotten to the core and continuously sin. This is simply not the case. 1 John says that if we continuously sin, we are not saved. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” 1 John 3:9 NIV

At salvation, the core of our being is CHANGED and we WANT to please God. We accidentally sin because of our flesh, but we repent as soon as we discover that we have sinned.

Romans 7:15-24 describes the struggle we have with doing what we don’t want to be doing because our bodies are instinctively selfish because of built-in self preservation and wanting to pamper ourselves and have comfortable lives full of pleasure. We instinctively go after the things of the world as long as we don’t have our greatest delight in Jesus. If we delight in Christ more than anything else, it’s easy to walk by the Spirit. All you do is yield and abide. It’s not self-effort. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. That means we don’t feel the burden, if it’s light. Yielding feels fresh and full of oxygen and freedom. It feels clean and refreshing.

painting-flowers

If you have asked God what sins you have committed and opened your heart to Him in silence and listened, He has brought them to your mind. You have repented of them. You are clean. If you have no unconfessed sin, you are holy. God commands us over and over again to be holy. “Be ye holy, even as I the Lord your God am holy,” says the book of Leviticus over and over and over. Is God asking something impossible, and then suffocating us with condemnation and make us feel that it’s impossible to please God? That is not who God is!

God is not stupid, and what He asks us to do is possible. We can walk in holiness. If we accidentally sin, we feel bad right away because our connection with Jesus is blocked. The fruit of the flesh comes out, and our actions and words are ugly. It should be so weird when that happens that it’s obvious that we got disconnected from Jesus. All we do is confess our sins and renounce them, and we are immediately restored to God.

new-creation

The false doctrine of Christians continuously sinning has led to people being in chains and not overcoming. The church in the book of Romans thought they were still sinners after salvation, but Paul corrected this false doctrine by referring to believers as saints, not sinners. (Scriptures proving we are saints, not sinners: Daniel 7:21; Psalm 116:15; Acts 9:13, 26:10; Romans 1:7, 8:27, 15:31; 16:2, 16:15; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 6:1; 2 Corinthians 8:4, 9:1-2; Philippians 4:21-22; Colossians 1:12 & 26; Ephesians 5:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Peter 3:11; Revelation 13:7 & 10, 14:12, 16:6.) The old creation is gone, and the new creation (who is YOU) is from a different substance.

When Scripture says that all have sinned (Romans 3:23), it means that everyone has sinned. We were born into sin, and we were sinners (characterized by sin) before salvation. After salvation we accidentally sin, but that is not who we are any more:

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Romans 6:6-7

You are a new creation. Walk in holiness and freedom!

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!

You are Unique & Significant

Saturday, October 14th, 2017

you-are-unique

You are unique and significant. There is no one like you. God created you with a unique set of talents and strengths, and with the personality that you have. You have your own unique fingerprints and DNA. You have spent time studying certain topics and becoming good at some things that interest you. You have your own set of experiences and upbringing.

Our testimonies of what God has done in our lives are unique. Each brings glory to God in a significant way that no one else can.

You are significant in the lives of the people around you. If you are married, no one can minister to your spouse the way you can. If you have kids, you have an influence that no one else has. The people that you know: your mom, dad, sisters, brothers, relatives, and close friends—you have a unique ability to affect the lives of those people around you.

you-are-significant

God knew you even before you were born, and He designed you for a specific purpose:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you…” Jeremiah 1:5a NASB

Psalm 139 is full of glory to God for the uniqueness of how God formed our bodies and knew us before we were born. Everything about you—the way you look, your personality, your strengths and weaknesses—were put there by God and you are complete! You are beautiful just the way you are, and God intended for you to be YOU!

created-in-the-image-of-God

Even identical twins who grew up in the same home and have similar experiences have different personalities with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. They have their own thoughts, their hobbies, and their interests that are different than their twin. So each person is truly unique. You don’t have to force yourself to have a different personality. Release yourself from the expectations of the people around you, especially if you feel suffocated. Jesus brings life and oxygen into our lives, not heaviness and oppression.

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Don’t be afraid to be who God created you to be. Be confident in God’s love for you, in His acceptance of you, of His presence in your life. Let God strengthen you to make you what He intends you to be, to live out your full purpose. Don’t hide your head in the sand and think you have nothing to offer—God did not create garbage! Everything that God creates is good, and that includes the way you look, the talents that you have, and how God will use the experiences in your life to deepen your walk with Him.

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You are unique and significant!

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!