Here are five reasons believers don't walk in the power and authority they have in Christ.
1. Sin. When we habitually sin, we come under Satan's authority, and he has legal rights over us until we repent. That is why Jesus said, "'The ruler of this world is coming, and has nothing on Me'" (John 14:30, NKJV). Jesus was without sin, so the devil could not get a foothold in His life.
James 5:16 declares, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." This verse points out that authority is given to the righteous. Carlos Annacondia, an Argentine evangelist, once told me that he believes God gave him more authority when he became ruthless about his sin and the sin in his family's life. read more
Without the symbolism it
would be difficult for you to know if your dreams were just dreams or a
dream from God. Below is a guide to interpreting some of the most common objects and symbols in dreams.
To decipher the meaning of objects and
symbols in the Bible, a principle of biblical interpretation called the
“law of first mention” can be used. It states that the first mention of
an object, number, color or symbol in the Bible sets up a pattern of
interpretation for it that holds true throughout the rest of Scripture.
Listed below are the verses where the symbolic words first appear. The
meaning or meanings provided for each symbol are based on the law of
first mention. Please understand—these may not be the only meanings.
You and I are living in a day when we need to be certain that God is directing our lives. We get His answers for the situations in our lives when the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, speaks into our spirits and transmits the "overcoming" victory of Jesus.
If you want to clearly hear the voice of the Lord, you must create an atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to talk to you. You must also develop your listening abilities so that you are able to distinguish among all the competing voices in the earth. This is essential for you to live a godly life—a life of victory. read more
Read this if you don't want your prayer life to become
mundane.
Everyone has a different preference when it comes to
prayer and how he or she feels is the best way to connect with God. The
important thing is that you don’t want your prayer life to become
mundane and never grow or change. You want it to be fresh, exciting and
even explosive in the Spirit. We all want our prayers to be effective,
and anyone who is full of the Spirit has the anointing to pray powerful prayers that produce miracles.
We can pray in such a way that our
prayers just flow. We don’t have to force them. They can even become
prophetic—the heart of the Holy Spirit pouring out of our words and
expressions.
Several years ago, we were praying at a
prayer meeting in our church, asking the Lord to use the ministry more
effectively to touch lives in our city. The Lord directed us to pray in
such a way that our prayers would have “bull’s-eye” accuracy.
We knew the Holy Spirit wanted to develop specific
prayers that were going to be like instruments of warfare targeted
toward building certain key parts of the church’s vision. After that
time of prayer, we were amazed at the number of breakthroughs we
experienced in our ministry.
As believers, we sometimes pray
randomly, repeating things—not really thinking about what we are
saying. To pray effectively, we must pray calculated prayers, with
biblical, Spirit-led accuracy.
These kinds of prayers are like swords
in the Spirit (see Is. 49:2-3). They shoot out, and something just
“clicks” when you pray them. You know you hit the target and don’t walk
away wondering if you received the answer.
James 5:16 tells us it is “effectual” prayer that avails much. The Amplified Bible says that is prayer that “makes tremendous power available.”
Effectual prayer is accurate, targeted prayer that is done with action. In the Greek, it is the word energeo, which means to be “efficient, full of energy, and to display working activity.”
In other words, when you hear someone pray with effectual
prayer, you don’t have to wonder whether it’s working because there is
energy behind it. You can sense and feel power on it.
One way to ensure you are praying
prayers that work is to pray according to the Bible. Rather than just
praying whatever you think, find out what God’s will is for the
situation and bring your prayers in line with it. God has a certain way
of thinking when it comes to things in our lives, and we need to align
with that.
Case in point: When you need prayer for
physical healing, you may feel terrible in your body and want to cry to
the Lord about how bad things are for you. However, a more effectual
way to pray is to find the Lord’s promises about healing from Scripture
and pray in agreement with God.
This doesn’t mean you cannot cry out to
the Lord in your time of adversity. What you need in order to stay
accurate in prayer, however, is then to refocus on trusting in God and
His promises.
When you make a habit of praying this way, you will learn
to pray from the river of your spirit. You plug into the Holy Spirit’s
way, the source of power in you, because you are agreeing with the
Lord’s opinion.
Instead of trying to swim upstream, you are flowing with
the current. Remember that when the power of the Holy Spirit flows out
of you like a river, it contains miracles, blessings and answers to
prayer. Accurate prayer will help you flow in all those things.
Suddenly, instead of praying random,
disconnected prayers, you are grabbing hold of the blessing that God
has already placed in the river of your spirit. A new energy and
confidence will come to your prayer life, and you will have conclusive
results because you are targeting what you need with what God has
already promised.
Brenda Kunnemanis
co-founder, with her husband, Hank, of One Voice Ministries and
co-pastor with him of Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Nebraska. She
ministers worldwide in conferences and churches and is the author of
several books, including The Supernatural You (Charisma House). read more
Our relationships become healthier when we remember the message of the cross.
In our relationships, it is important for us to remember that mutual love and respect are to be accomplished out of reverence to Christ. To the degree that each of us is subject to Jesus Christ, the Lord enables us to relate to each other lovingly and respectfully.
The reverse corollary is also true. To the degree that we are not subject to Jesus Christ, He will not rule our hearts, and forgiveness will not be built into us as a moment-by-moment daily practice. When we do not submit our wills to Him, we will be subject to one another, but to one another's selfish control rather than to blessing.
Good, bad or indifferent, each of us does relate to every person with whom we come in contact. We affect others in some way. In that sense, we cannot avoid being subject to on another.
Without the presence of Jesus in our lives, we will relate to others only according to the flesh and not by the Spirit. Only when the cross is present is the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ able to transform our relationships to produce blessing rather than harm.
Our distance from the cross of Christ, practically, in daily living, is the reason we have so many broken relationships and divorces today. People are paying lip service to Jesus, but they don't know how to walk with Him moment by moment. They can't maintain long-term relationships because the fire of unforgiveness burns within them.
When a man and woman enter the marriage relationship, the husband and wife often tend to counterbalance each other. For example, if one tends to talk too much, the other is likely to remain silent. If one is a strong disciplinarian, the other probably will be more lax.
When this tendency to counterbalance one another occurs, tensions develop between partners because one or the other is pressed to lean uncomfortably toward behavior contrary to his or her normal temperament or beliefs. This counterbalancing dynamic is also active among siblings, friends and business associates.
The key to overcoming this dynamic is in sensitive applications of the cross and forgiveness. We must evaluate what is happening in all our relationships and put our own ego in proper perspective.
Jesus said, " 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me'" (Matt.16:24, NKJV). We can take the practices of our relationships to the cross through forgiveness so that through the power of Jesus Christ our selfishness can be put to death and our wounded feelings healed. read more
In Genesis 13 (Read Genesis 13), Lot chose selfishly and moved his family
to the choicest land—near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose
inhabitants sinned greatly. Abram, Lot’s uncle, generously let him go;
and for his generosity, God blessed Abram and allowed him to settle his
family in a safe area.
Later, God used Abram to rescue Lot
from the evil cities before He destroyed them. Abram learned the
blessings of being generous and following God’s plan. read more
During the years that Jesus walked this earth, He devoted time to teaching His disciples the principles of the kingdom of God, principles that conflict with those of this world. In the Beatitudes, specifically in Matthew 6, Jesus provided the pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God. That pattern addressed three specific duties of a Christian: giving, praying and fasting.
Jesus said, "When you give" and "When you pray" and "When you fast." He made it clear that fasting, like giving and praying, was a normal part of Christian life. As much attention should be given to fasting as is devoted to giving and to praying. read more
