Sometimes Promotion Looks like Demotion

I have a question for you. Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice Issac only to stop him when he had done all that God asked of him concerning this & was in the very act of plunging the knife into his son? The Lord knew before he asked Abraham to sacrifice his son that he would do it. Why then did he make Abraham carry it out...all but the actual death itself? For what purpose would God ask Abraham to put to death the actual promise the He Himself gave to Abraham? This act was asked of Abraham by God not only for Abraham to prove himself to the lord, but also for God to promote Abraham through his obedience. Abraham had to walk out the obedience of the Lord's request of him in order that he himself would know that there was nothing that he loved more than God...not even God's promise. 

Look at what the angel said to Abraham as he stopped him from plunging the knife into Issac in Gen 22: 12. "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." Abraham could have feared  losing what he loved more than fearing God enough to obey him, but he didn't. Verses 15-18 shows us how an angel speaks this powerful blessing over Abraham after he had walked out his obedience to God, "...for because thou hast done this thing, and thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all of the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." 

Abraham proved by his actions that he loved God more than what he wanted to keep...his son. Since God is all-knowing, He will always know ahead of time what decisions we will make, however, there is something about making us walk it out anyway. It is really for us. If we love God enough to give up that thing that we love,... even the very promises that He has given us,... He will cause us to walk in a great blessing. In a hard time of my life and in a valley of decision, the Holy Spirit said to me, "What you are willing to walk away from, I will give back to you." 

It is hard to walk away from what you love, but if God asks it of you, He has already made provision for you. He cannot return to you what you refuse to give Him. It may feel like God is demoting us at times, but God will never demote those who love Him enough to be obedient, but rather promote them. God had a plan to increase Abraham's life through this act of obedience and sacrifice. God sees the big picture of our lives, even when we are confused by His seemingly odd requests.

How Are You like a Map Pencil?

When I was taking some courses in Bible college, they taught me to use erasable map pencils in replacement of highlighters when I highlighted scriptures in my Bible. To my amazement, they work better than anything I have ever used. I have a variety of quite a few of these in many colors. As I was studying my Bible last night,  I was really having a hard time making the mark on the scriptures. I had to press harder & use more time to get the results to show. I looked at the tips & noticed that they were past due to be sharpened; they had become dull & unable to perform their duty as they were supposed to. Finally, after continuing to try to use them in that condition, I grew tired of the effort that I was having to put forth without getting the results that I needed.  I decided to spend a little time sharpening all of the pencils. After sharpening them, I was amazed at the effectiveness of the pencils. Suddenly, I saw it! God was speaking to me. Why had I used these same pencils on a regular basis for so long, yet not even realizing that they were slowly regressing into an almost unusable condition; as if they were never sharpened at all? I had even noticed that they weren't working well, but didn't even take the time to look close enough at the lead to see what the problem was. We can be just like those pencils. We come in a variety of styles and different colors set apart for the use of the master, yet if we are not sharpened through the trials, persecutions, and adversities of life we will not be near as effective.When that pencil is put into that sharpener, and the blade begins to rotate around it cutting off the dullness and residue that is clinging to it, if that pencil could talk, I'm sure that it would testify that it did not feel good at all! However, to a true believer, the sharpening process is vital; necessary. If the pencil were never used, it would never have to undergo the process of sharpening. We will be so much more effective for the kingdom of God after we have been sharpened by the master. While living in this fallen world, we pick up so much residue that clings to us and dulls us; it renders us less effective and many times ineffective. In order to be used by the Lord effectively, we must be willing to go through the sharpening process as often as is necessary. I have certain pencils in my bag that I do not use as often as other ones simply because my task at hand requires certain colors. I have a method of doing things as we all do. Therefore, the colors that I use more often require more sharpening. If those colors could talk, they might just say, "Why don't you use another color, this frequent sharpening doesn't feel so great." Although the sharpening process does not feel good for us to go through, it is worth the Master reaching into his bag of this fallen world, and saying, "I have need of this one, today." Through the pain & agony of the frequent sharpening process, I still desire to be a vessel that God would choose to use often. The pain is worth being used by the Master. He has need of you; Are you willing to go through the pain of the sharpening?

As I write this I am reminded of this scripture in II. Tim chapter 2. There are all kinds of sins listed and commands given from verse 14 through 25, and in the middle of them all falls this scripture in verse 21. "Now if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work."

The Spirit of Fear: Part 4

The spirit of fear is a tactic of the devil used to bring destruction upon us. If we fear him, we experience defeat; that's why so many times in the Bible when God's people would go out into battle, He would command them not to fear their enemy or tremble. Have you ever had any situation/s where you had fear towards a physical person/s or situations that made you tremble? When I speak of tremble, I mean that your whole body just shakes, and you can't stop it. Now, likewise, have you ever been in a church service or alone at home in the presence of God, and the power of God came on you so strong that you trembled? I have had both of these happen many times, however, I had to recognize that the trembling that was motivated by the enemy had to be dealt with, and I had to begin to take authority over it in my life and walk free of it. Read  Deut. 20:1-4. Verse 3b says, "Let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them." He had to warn the Children of Israel before the battle not to get into fear because of what their eyes would see. He told them that their enemy would be larger in number than them and possess horses & chariots. The Law of conquest is found in verse 16-17 of this same scripture. It says, "...thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them...as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee." In order to posses the promised land, they had to obey this command from God. God was telling them not to give life the enemy! In order to walk in the spiritual promised land that the Lord wants us to possess, we have to obey this same command. Notice the command was don't fear, tremble, be terrified, or let your heart faint. It was all fear based! God knew that if they feared the enemy, that they would be destroyed, but if they feared Him, they would walk in the blessing. It is the same today with us as it was then for them. There is no difference. The enemy, the devil, will keep us from possessing our spiritual promise land if we fear him above God. If we look at the situation & say to our self, "This is impossible because the opposition is too great," we are agreeing with the spirit of fear & take on that very feeling of fear, but if we look at the seemingly impossible situation and say, "Nothing is impossible with God," we are honoring the Lord God with fear, the fear of the Lord. This attitude recognizes that God is more than enough...He is able! To walk in the Fear of the Lord we must refuse to allow the spirit of fear to operate over our mind. We must do what God told the Children of Israel to do in the verses above; that is to utterly destroy it...save nothing alive but utterly destroy it. Don't even allow it to exist and have the breath to speak lies to you. He gave them a physical example because He physically dwelt with them, in order to give us the spiritual examples because now He dwells in us. 

 I fully believe that signs & wonders are not seen to the degree that they should be because this generation is full of fear, and not the fear of God. When the children of Israel feared God, and walked in what He said to do, miracles happened. They same is for us today. I told in the first blog on fear that I truly feel that the Lord revealed to me that fear was the greatest form of worship. Think about it...throughout the Bible when God would prove himself as the One True God through acts of His children, great fear would fall upon the kings and pagan people. Some kings would even dump their gods and make new decrees for the people to worship & serve the God of Israel as God. It would be fear of God that would turn them to worship Him as God. Fear is worship, and satan recognizes it, and is doing all that he can to deceive you into unknowingly worshipping him as god. He wants to be feared, and if he didn't, he wouldn't try to get you to fear him. He understands the power of fear where we have been ignorant to those truths. The Holy Ghost is exposing the ways of the enemy to us so that we will step into our promised land. 

Look at the story of Elijah & his servant Elisha found in 2 Kings chapter 6. When Elisha awoke & realized that they were surrounded by a great host of an army, fear quickly set in. Notice what Elijah said first..."Do not fear," and he went on to say "for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Something happen...God moved Elisha from being limited to see only in the realm of natural to seeing in the realm of the spirit. The Word says that as Elijah prayed for God to open Elisha's eyes, Elisha looked and saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around him. God struck the army that had come against them with blindness and delivered them from the hand of their enemy. What do you think would have happened if they had feared the enemy instead of standing their ground & trusting God? Do you think that the outcome would have been different? I do. If you will study the children of Israel and the battles that they fought, you will find it to be so. We are in the last days, and we cannot afford to wonder aimlessly in the wilderness because of fear and disobedience. Fear brings disobedience to God. 

The Bible says that the devils also believe in Jesus & they tremble. They back off when Jesus steps into a situation because Jesus has all authority. satan desires to mimic that same authority with us. He wants us to tremble in fear of him. Many years ago, I had to fight very real attacks of the devil in the night, and attacks of a paralyzing fear that had my undivided attention. I had never experienced anything like this ever before, and honestly was terrified. I will not go into detail of the things that happened. I had heard people speak of these sort of things before, and frankly these people scared me. I thought they they were crazy or something until it happened to me. I could not understand why someone as myself who was diligently seeking and living for the Lord, who was a serious Christian about the things of God, and living a life aligned with Him would have to experience these horrible kinds of attacks of the devil. The Lord showed me that he was teaching me of the authority that I possessed through Christ Jesus over the powers of the enemy, and that I did not have to fear him. I was being trained as if I were in a spiritual boot camp. Although I didn't like it, it was producing results. As I continued relying on God & resisting fear, these spiritual manifestations stopped. Actually they stopped when I refused to fear the devil any longer. I had to come to a place of absolute refusal to fear him, and to rely on Jesus as my help. However, Jesus, has continued to reveal to me other areas of fear that I have had to walk free from as well. 

There are many aspects of fear, and different degrees of fear. He wants the smallest aspect and degree of fear to be utterly destroyed from our lives. It is the little foxes that spoil the vine. The small ways that you fear, which you do not think is a problem can ultimately keep you from walking in the fullness of His plan for your life. Fear is a spirit, it is our enemy, when we do not resist it, we come into agreement with it, therefore, taking on it's characteristics which affects our emotions. That's why we can mistakenly think that it is simply an emotion. When we surrender to God, we take on His characteristics and mindset; it is the same when we surrender to the enemy. When a spirit shows up and we pay it attention...are in awe of it...revere it (even though this is spoken of in a very negative and fearful way)...we connect emotionally with it, and it produces in us a mental disposition of fear. We emotionally feel whatever we revere. Just like when we are in awe of God, there is an emotional experience that comes with it. 

Have you ever set through a praise & worship services & felt so compelled to break out & worship God freely? Maybe you felt strongly compelled to do something unusual like breaking out & running around the church. The first thing to hit your mind will be fear. If you draw back from doing what you know the Holy Ghost is leading you to do, how do you feel in your emotional make up and in your spirit man when you walk away from there knowing that you were disobedient? On the flip side, when you revere God enough to say, "I just don't care what they think of me, I'm gonna worship my God & do what the Holy Ghost leads me to do," and break out in radical praise towards God, how to you feel emotionally and spiritually then?

Ask God today, "What areas of my life do I walk in fear?"  Let's pray this together. " Dear Lord, Jesus, I come to you now & I repent over receiving the spirit of fear in my life. I make the conscience decision to no longer submit to this spirit, but I choose to fear you and surrender to the working of the Holy Ghost in my life. Please reveal to me even the smallest of areas that I am giving control to the enemy concerning fear that I might have the knowledge of the truth and walk in victory. I loose your light into me to expose all darkness of the work of this spirit in my life. I bind the spirit of fear  and take authority over it in the name of Jesus, and I loose the fear of God into my life. I will not be a man-pleaser or fear men, but instead I determine now to fear you in all things. I purpose right now to never fear circumstances or situations that look impossible because I have faith in your ability. I ask you now for the fear of the Lord to be strongly rooted inside of me. I seek after it, and I expect to have the power to walk at all times in a reverent fear of you. I thank you in advance for delivering and healing me in my mind, body and spirit, and restoring me this day to the fear of the Lord. I thank you that I have what I ask according to your Word, in Jesus' name Amen."

The Spirit of Fear: Part 3

Throughout the Bible, every time an angel of the Lord showed up great fear would fall upon the person(s) that the angel was revealing themselves to, however, the angel would always greet them by saying, "Fear not!" This is proving to us that we are not even supposed to fear the very angels of God...his own messengers...his "get the job done men." It is evident that they are very frightening to look upon, or the people would not be so afraid, and the angel would not have to show up saying, "fear not!" However, the righteous reverent fear of God does not belong to them, and they are well aware of this...it belongs to God. If we are commanded by heavenly angels not to fear them, then this just validates even more that we are not to fear satan or the demons because they also are angels the same as heavenly angels, but rather they are fallen angels. If I asked you, "Who is the opposite of God?" What would you say?... Would you say, "satan?" Many times without even thinking clearly, that is exactly what we would say. satan wants to be like God & this is clear by reading the five "I wills" in Isaiah14:12-15. However, satan could not even be the opposite of God because being an opposite would suggest that he was equivalent to God in power & authority just on the opposite scale. He's not! satan, or lucifer at the time that he was in heaven, was simply an angel that served God like the heavenly angels that still do. He is an opposite of the heavenly angels because he is an angel, a fallen angel. He is not all-knowing or all-powerful, and cannot be all places at once; only the one true Almighty God, Jehovah, can. Look at this scripture with me, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down from the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart,...

1. I will ascend into heaven,

2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,

3. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north,

4. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

5. I will be like the most High....

...Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."

Can you see clearly just how satan thought that he could become like God? He is still doing it today; his attitude has not changed. He desires that you fear him rather than fearing the only one worthy to receive that kind of honor. Now, the fear of God is a good fear. Even when people are afraid of the heavenly angels, it is not a fear that brings harm to them, but rather a reassurance and produces an obedience and a drawing closer to God. The spirit of fear is simply a demon, another fallen angel, that brings torment, and a drawing away from the things of God. Many will even describe having the attitude of not pressing into God because of being afraid of the devil & what he will do to them when they press in & obey God. Has this ever happened to you? It has to me. I had to have one on one training not to fear the devil and plenty of refreshment courses. Where the fear of God brings you closer into blessing and obedience, the spirit of fear will pressure you to be disobedient many times without even recognizing it, and rob you of that blessing. Now, if God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of  power, love and a sound mind, what do you think that you will have if you fear the things of life, people, the devil,etc...?

First, you will be powerless. The word power here in 2 Tim.1:7 is "Dunamis." It means-force, miraculous power, power, mighty work, strength, miracle, might, ability, abundance, meaning, mightily, worker of miracles, violence. To the degree that we fear God is to the degree that we walk in power. To the degree that we fear men or the devil or life, etc...is to the degree that we walk in the lack of power. Honestly, do you think that we would have seen Peter walk on water if he had said or thought..."I don't think I can do it."... "It's not humanly possible, therefore, why set myself up to fail?"..."Nobody else is getting out of the boat, & they will think I'm foolish if I do!"..."I don't want to look like a failure in front of people when it doesn't happen or I sink."... "I don't want people to think that I want to be the center of attention." Peter just trusted Jesus! Peter feared Him enough to step out, and he never failed whatsoever until he looked at the storm and feared it more than Jesus. Peter never failed stepping out and walking on the water. Never! It really happened,... but he sank because of his sudden lack of trust in Jesus. What took that power to walk on water from him? His attention was abruptly divided through fear...the enemy used a spirit of fear, and the dunamis power left. He became fearful, and it was not the fear of God. The fear of God is dunamis, a power that produces effects where the spirit of fear robs you of this kind of miracle producing power.

Secondly, Fear will rob you of love. There are different types of love spoken of in the Bible. This is Agape love spoken of here. Agape is the way that God loves. It shows affection, it gives and gives without conditions or the expectation of something given back. It is the very love that God displayed to us when He allowed His only son to be tortured and crucified so that we could live for an eternity with Him in heaven. It is a deep, and constant love shown to one regardless of the circumstances. When we walk in fear, we will not walk in this unconditional type of love towards people, but we will rather love if the circumstances are right. God says that perfect love casteth out all fear. If you cannot show unconditional love to someone when they hurt you or when you don't like their ways...there is a spirit of fear involved. You see, the opposite of love in this scripture is not hate...it is...conditions! If you are giving your attention to a spirit of fear instead of fearing God, you will give love if the conditions are right to give it. We have to constantly give that spirit the left foot of fellowship out of our lives! It will hold us back if we embrace it.

Last of all, you will be tormented in your mind. The word sound mind, which is sophronismos, also means discipline and self-control. When a spirit of fear is involved, our mind can seriously run away with us whatever the situation is. The enemy will make you believe something that is not... using lies, deception, and confusion. Your mind will create situations that do not even exist. He will make worry about how people view you. He will pressure your mind to take the smallest of happenings and dwell on them until... in your mind...you take that situation and make it different and much bigger than what it really is. For example, you could feel a small lump, and immediately be convinced that its cancer. The devil can tell you that you are going to die or be debilitated & you agonize over it believing that you will be. He can tell you that your spouse is gonna leave you, and you start treating that spouse bad and accusing them of it. Someone close to you can make a decision that affects you that you don't agree with, and you immediately take it personal. You can even hear your name being spoken in a crowd & quickly think that someone is talking about you, when they could be praising you for something. The Bible says that the devil is a liar, and the father of lies. In order to torment you, he lies to you. In this scripture, in Timothy, it is reminding us to discipline our minds, train it to think according to the Word of God and what it says concerning every matter in life. If we fear death...What does the Word say about it? If we think someone is angry at us...what does the Word say and how does it tell you to handle it? etc...etc... We have to discipline every reaction to every circumstance by the Word of God; It is the ultimate authority concerning ever situation of life. If we receive the spirit of fear, we will live a life of torment in our mind, confusion, and an attitude of defeat. Our mind will not be disciplined to press through the lies of the enemy, and we will believe them. Twelve spies were sent out the scope out the promised land. Ten came back saying that it could never happen because there were giants in the land. Their minds were not disciplined because they were not fearing God, but man and the circumstances that their own mind created. They saw themselves failing if they even tried, because it  looked to great for them to accomplish. It was too big for them, but it wasn't to big for God! Only two who had disciplined their minds to trust God even though the circumstances looked different. They were just foolish enough to say, we need to take em' out cuz the grapes are soooo big!... surely this is the place that God spoke of! This should teach us to always remember to not follow the majority...fear of God will not be found in the majority... of even Christians. Peter was the only one who stepped out of the boat while eleven chose to stay in the safety of it.

Remember this, if satan is not intimidated by your walk with God, he will not try to make you fear people, circumstances, or him. If you are struggling with a spirit of fear, he recognizes something within you that is detrimental to the kingdom of darkness, He will try to hold you back from fearing God, by trying to turn your attention towards this spirit, fear. When you fear God and not satan or his tactics, you will have miraculous experiences. Faith is the opposite of fear, the wrong kind of fear. When your attention is not on or is diverted away from the ability of the Almighty God and on your circumstances, you will not go forward in the things of God. If you look at lack, if you expect lack, you will get lack. If you look at God, if you expect from God, You will get what you need from God. God wants to use us to go against the flow so that He can change the nations by displaying His power, His love, & His mindset through His people.