Behaving Like the Bride of Christ 1: Through our Bold Declarations

The world is celebrating Halloween these days, but as the Bride of Christ, we need to know our identity and act like we are God’s children. Our mandate is to come against the wiles of the enemy and all forms of manifestations of its antichrist spirit that many make light of and imitate by some of the customs they wear and the way they decorate their homes to celebrate this satanic holiday. Those that are making light and celebrate Halloween do not know that they are paying homage to the spirit that fosters terror in them and others. 

Through the works of witchcraft and those who engage in cursing others for selfish gains because they are under the influence of this spirit, they are prompted to take all sorts of actions to see another person’s life destroyed. For some, this has become their hobby, for others, it’s just about getting good fortune and knowing what their future has for them. But they are getting their information from demons since every time they go to visit a witch, a fortune teller, a witch doctor, a soothsayer, no matter what they call them, these are people who are all under the influence of the spirit that not only wants to remove the influence of the Spirit of Christ in their lives, but also wants to replace that influence with everything that opposes Jesus and is contrary to love.

For instance, Jesus is about love, compassion, and mercy; about us serving others and being empowered to succeed with integrity and faithfulness and by the pursuit of His purpose for our lives. He is also about us being mindful of the wellbeing others. On the other hand, the spirit of antichrist is about anger, hatred, rejection, and wanting to see others destroyed so they do not fulfill the call of God on their lives. When Jesus says to give for others to have what they need, antichrist says to hoard and become powerful as quick as you can by pushing and shoving your way up through the latter of success through sexual immorality, lying and cheating, manipulating and stealing, and by bullying and intimidating others. (See Galatians 5:19-23)

We are called to oppose the influence of the antichrist spirit since God swore that He would fight against it in every generation. We are His Church and He uses us to fight the enemy of the advancement of His Kingdom on the earth. Exodus 17:14-16 says, ¹⁴“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in the book, and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. ‘. ¹⁵ And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-is-My-Banner; ¹⁶ for he said, ‘Because the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’”  NKJV

Let me briefly show you the history of why God reacted this way against Amalek who represents the antichrist spirit. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 tells us, ¹⁷“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, ¹⁸ how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. ¹⁹Therefore it shall be, when the Lord gives you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.” NKJV

When the Israelites were in their flight out of Egypt, they had to pass through several lands owned by other people and tribes in order to continue to the land God was leading them to. They received favor from most of the people and were allowed to continue on their journey through their land. But the people of Amalek refused to permit them to pass through and also attacked the weaker ones like the elderly, the women and children when they were too tired and weary from the journey and prevented them from getting to their destiny. For this reason, God swore He would fight this spirit and those influenced by it in every generation so His children can continue on the path He made for them to get to their promised land.

But how do we as a Church blot out the remembrance of the spirit of this world from our lives as the Lord has clearly commanded us to do which, by the way, is one important aspect of the fulfillment of the Great Commission Jesus gave to us in Matthew 28:18-20? This Commission says that we are to take the authority He delegated to us as a Church and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and also make sure to teach them what He has taught us to do for He is with us. This includes removing the influence of the antichrist spirit from our sphere of influence and authority and teaching others to do the same.

So, to explain one of the ways we can do that in this post, a couple of Sundays ago the Lord spoke to me as soon as I woke up and said, “If you want radical answers, you need to pray radical prayers.” I knew this was a Word for the Church that in many cases has not stepped into her place of authority to push back the darkness and tell the devil, “You may come no further against me, my family, my community, my nation, and everything else God said I can have.”

The Bible is a great place to learn how to pray radical prayers. We have the great need of spending time discovering how the people in the Bible talked to God because they were radical in their praying and bold in their declarations, and therefore, received radical answers. The Old Testament is a fore shadow of what we are to do as the warrior Bride of Christ that not only Jesus, but His disciples and those that were raised after He ascended to Heaven such as the Apostle Paul, modeled for us. From the Book of Genesis, we can find examples of how the enemy and his tactics were exposed and denounced. Eve is one of them, who after falling for the lie of the enemy that seduced her to eat the forbidden apple, exposed him instead of finding fault with Adam, and told God, who was to blame for what happened at the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:13 explains,

“And the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”

We are commanded to denounce and expose the enemy that has deceived us and confront him as God modeled for us in Genesis 3:14-15 when we hear His instructions by His Spirit, and declare His Word in the our situations in order to destroy his works and wreck every demonic structure he has erected against us that to keep us in bondage and obstructing our way to the promises of God. Esther also exposed this enemy, not because she had fallen for his tricks like Eve, but because she became aware of a plot by Haman, a descendant of Amalek, and sorcerer who had paid money to prepare a plan of annihilation against her and her Jewish people in the territory of king Ahasuerus. Her position as queen gave her access to tell the king of the vile ways of Haman and his plot.

Esther 7:3-6 says, “³ Then Queen Esther answered and said, ‘If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. ⁴For we have been sold, my people and I to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated…⁵So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, ‘Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?’

⁶And Esther said, ‘The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!’

So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.” NKJV

There are also others that used their authority and came against the works of this spirit by making radical declarations against it and stopped the people under its influence in their generations from obstructing the work they were commanded to do and the advancement of God’s Kingdom through them. We will see the similar declarations that both Nehemiah and the apostle Peter made against this spirit through the people it used. Nehemiah was sent to organize the construction of the wall of Jerusalem so the Jewish people could have a safe city to live in, but encountered opposition from Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab. They were government officials who tried to intimidate and cause Nehemiah and the others with him to stop building the wall. But Nehemiah had a bold response to the bullying of the antichrist enemy through these men in Nehemiah 2:20,

“So I answered them and said to them, ‘The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.” NKJV

Nehemiah was saying, not only will we do what God called us to do, but you and your influence will be removed so you won’t obstruct us again.  In the New Testament, the apostles Peter and John were laying hands on the people of Samaria to receive the Holy Spirit, but Simon, a former sorcerer presumably thought he could buy the Holy Spirit when he saw what was happening to the people as they received the Spirit’s unction. He offered them money as was his former practice to get the false power he used before. But in Acts 8:18-24, Peter made a bold declaration to him,

¹⁸”And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰But Peter said to Him, ‘Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. ²¹You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. ²²Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³For I see that you are poisoned with bitterness and bound by iniquity.’

²⁴Then Simon answered and said, ‘Pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.’”

Jesus also made bold declarations against this spirit and the people that were under its influence in His generation. He called the Pharisees a brood of vipers (Matthew 3:4; 12:34), a snake which, according to Wikipedia, is venomous and when it bites, it causes paralyses, blood loss from cardiovascular damage, and the person can rapidly collapse and die from the effects of the venom. In the same way, a person under the influence of this spirit is dead to any sensitivity to the Spirit of God because their hearts are hardened to the light of His presence and are angered by how He manifests in those who pursue Him and walk with Him. Out of their mouth comes nothing but mockery to the things of God and the abundance of bitterness in their hearts. Therefore, they cannot hear His voice and thus, ignore all signs of warnings He sends to stop them from going on the wrong path.

The higher the level of influence of the spirit of the world in a person, the more they are attracted to the things of darkness such as the occult, promiscuity, murder, and even opposition of others from succeeding because of their jealousy. Jesus exposed the character of this spirit with a bold declaration to the Pharisees and scribes that were influenced by it in Matthew 23:13 when He said, “But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves; nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” NKJV

Those who practice the occult make sacrifices of money and even make blood sacrifices of animals and of people every time they want this spirit to do something for them because they do not know that we have God’s grace and favor to live for Him and accomplish the things He has purposed for our lives. They also do not know that Jesus paid the price and made one sacrifice for all our needs once and for all. They limit the power of the Cross in their lives for their restoration by worshiping their own enemy that requires them to kill and pay every time in order to receive more bondage to him.

The blood in their sacrifices and the money they pay in reality is never more powerful than the Blood of the Son of God that is activated in our lives when we believe what He did for us at the Cross and because He calls us to overcome not only by what He already accomplish for us through His blood sacrifice, but also by the word of our testimony because we are victorious in Him (Revelation 12:11).

So, please join me in this prayer: Dear Heavenly Father. We come boldly to Your throne of Grace with thanksgiving for who You are, for your love and goodness in our lives. We also thank You because the blood sacrifice of your Son granted us this privilege and access. But we also come with humble and repentant hearts to ask you forgiveness for being under the influence of the spirit of this world. We acknowledge You as our God and the one who has our future and wellbeing in mind. Your plans for us are always of Your love for us and the empowerment You give us to walk with You and co-labor with You to advance Your Kingdom in the earth in Spirit and in truth.

But many of us have ignored this or do not know this. Therefore, we ask that because none of us are beyond the power of the Cross to touch our lives and our hearts,that You reach down and save us. We ask that You draw us and give us the desire to come to Your Son so we can be raised from the dead. We know we will never be cast out and rejected by You when we come with humble and contrite hearts to repent no matter what we have done, for Your Word says that no one is mightier than You, and none is able to snatch us out of Your hand. We ask that you watch over us and keep us in our way, and empower us, as we come to declare Your Son as our Lord and Savior, to live for You and not be stumbling blocks for others to fall and be detoured from Your ways. We ask this in the name of your beloved Son which is above every other name, the name of Jesus.

More on the next post. To Him alone be all the glory. ▪

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How to Pursue the Knowledge of the Glory of God 2

Ephesians 5:29-30

²⁹”because no one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church ³⁰because we are parts of his body.” NASB

The enemy has lied to many people, including God’s people and has made them believe that He is not capable of taking good care of them. Satan has them going about being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine that all it does is cause them to walk in more defeat in all areas of their lives because they do not know who they are and that God has prepared a plan beforehand of how He would have them enjoy the riches of His glory on this earth (Romans 9:23). These riches of God’s glory are available to them when they consciously commit to walking with Him and seeking first His Kingdom. The more they pursue God’s Kingdom and His ways, the more they will attract the atmosphere of heaven that brings heaven down to their lives. But this defeat did not start in our generation.

We know from the accounts in the Bible how Adam and Eve lost their relationship with God and their favor which was a demonstration of His glory in their lives (Genesis 2-3). When they were expelled from the Garden of Eden (the place that represents the realm of God where His glory abounds), they were sent to live like people from whom the glory had departed (1 Samuel 4:21-22). This signifies that because they succumbed to the lies of the enemy and disobeyed the command of the Lord and ate the forbidden apple, this act of disobedience caused them to be cut off from the glory.

The earth was also cursed and the spirit of this world (the Antichrist spirit) who tempted them, rules in it because Adam and Eve had relinquished their authority to have dominion (expand God’s Kingdom) in the earth to him. But Jesus bought back our redemption and dominion with the shedding of His blood and by dying on the Cross on our behalf. He took the punishment as the Antichrist and was hung on the gallows (Cross) in our place (Esther 7:9-10). Our job is to enforce the triumphant victory and reconciliation to the Father He gave us at Calvary when He took our punishment upon Himself. And the Church is the one called to demonstrate what Jesus did for us who believe in Him and His work on our behalf, just as it was manifested through the early Church. 

Through intimacy with the Father by the reading of His word, times in praise and worship, fasting, and by living a lifestyle that glorifies Him as our Lord and God and obeying His commands, we allow Him to take us through every process that will ensure the removal of the influence of the Antichrist spirit in our lives. Every process we go through serves for our minds to be set free from every stronghold of the spirit of this world in every area that we are challenged. This way we can repent from the mundane and wicked ways we have followed which means that we separate ourselves from the twisted thinking that comes from the enemy of God’s supernatural glory by renewing your minds to the truth of God’s Word as we meditate on it so we can change the way we think that will help us live lives that will be obviously marked by God and others will be able to notice the difference.

1 Samuel 15:22-23 says in the Message Version,

“22-23 Then Samuel said,

Do you think all God wants are sacrifices—

    empty rituals just for show?

He wants you to listen to him!

Plain listening is the thing,

    not staging a lavish religious production.

Not doing what God tells you

    is far worse than fooling around in the occult.

Getting self-important around God

    is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors.

Because you said No to God’s command,

    he says No to your kingship.

This is what is found in the world and as the result of disobedience to God’s ways because people do not know them. This does not exempt us from receiving the outcome of disobedience. That is because we were created to worship God alone, follow His ways, and serve Him with absolute single-heartedness (Matthew 4:10). Therefore, when rebellion which is the sin that we inherited from Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s command exits in our lives, we will see the evidence of a life full of defeat and heartache. Instead, as stated before, God wants us to enjoy the riches of His glory in our lives that brings His Shalom in every area. This means that we will have His peace that brings, according to the Strong’s Concordance # 7965: completeness in number, welfare, wealth, prosperity, peace, rest, favor, health, quietness, tranquility, contentment, peace in human relations, peace with God, especially a covenant relationship with Him, and peace from war.

When we learn to seek first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness, He will reveal His will for our relationships with others as we learn to love them as we love ourselves. For that, we also need to learn to receive the love of God for us which helps us know how to love ourselves and that way extend mercy and grace instead of retaliation when a wrong is done to us. This also means that we give the situation over to God for Him to fight our battles. The ways of God’s Kingdom for interpersonal relationships is that we forgive and extend mercy and grace, and when prompted, we turn away from every wrong relationship that could cause us harm and does not glorify God in our lives.

Likewise, through our pursuit of God and His ways, we can learn to handle our finances and resources and become givers instead of hoarders. This way we are expanding His Kingdom on this earth with the things He has entrusted to us not only for our own enjoyment, and welfare, but also so we can be conduits of His blessings to others that will help them know they are loved by God and He never leaves them nor forsakes them. He is always thinking of us and knows the little and the big things we need and is always only a prayer away. 

Equally important is how we take care of our bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This means that when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, His Spirit comes to dwell inside of us. Thus, through our walk with God, in His glorious presence, we can be set free from every lustful and promiscuous lifestyle and learn to live with integrity with our spouses and every relationship we choose to honor as we choose to esteem others higher than ourselves. This way we are allowing the glory of God to be manifested through us for them. 

In addition, every process we go through, although it may take more time in the wilderness of testing than the world is willing to accept in order to accomplish things it deems important, is also designed to help us make our trust in God and in His Word of promise to us stronger. In other words, our faith in His faithfulness also provides a firm foundation of His Kingdom in us that cannot be shaken or fall like the things done under the influence of this world will when the storms of life come. During those times in the valley of the shadow of death, we can stand firm knowing that we will see come to pass what God said He would do for us because He is willing, is able, and has the power to do it. So as we obey and do everything He commands us to do, He will do what we cannot do.

Furthermore, every yes we give to God in obedience to His Word and His commands, even when what is asked of us is to carry our cross, will lead us to the place of resurrection where His glory will bring the victorious manifestations of life to the dead areas of our lives. But this requires that we renew our minds to the truth of His word that provides for us the revelations of what Jesus gave us access to and how we can position ourselves to obtain it, understanding that we are also required to present ourselves as living sacrifices that represent His perfect will for others to see. Romans 12:1-3 says, 

“1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.” MSG

It takes the opposite Spirit from the spirit of this world to walk in the glory of God. That is why the Bible says that we are in this world but are not of it (John 18:36). We belong to another Kingdom that is ruled by the One who is the Sovereign God and is relentless in His pursuit of us. His glory is the atmosphere of heaven and He desperately wants to bring heaven to us on earth. This requires our partnership with Him through our prayers and devotion to Him in everything we do with thanksgiving for such lavish and unending love that chases us down until we can only think of how good He is to us and that He is with us always.

No other god or idol can pursue us with so much love and desire to have us live in His glory on this earth. His love is in the glory. The fire that also comes from this glory burns the dirt and the dross in us brought by every lie of the enemy that made us turn from Him and from His ways through our cultural beliefs and traditions, and other background knowledge that did not come from Him and formed our mindsets as well as how we have chosen to live. This is what happened to the prophets of Baal during Elijah’s confrontation on Mount Carmel. At Elijah’s single plea to God to send His fire of glory, God answered and sent it. This fire removed the blinders that had these prophets of witchcraft bound to the influence of the Antichrist spirit brought by their following of Jezebel, the seductress, and false prophet, and then they could see that He is the only God there is. 

God also says in His Word that He makes the simple things of this world make those who think they are wise by the wisdom of this world seem foolish (Isaiah 44:25). That is because their wisdom does not give them the same results that come when we follow the wisdom of God found in His Word or that He might prompt us to follow by His Spirit. In the world, there is toiling and strife, hard work, and lack of grace. It is when we do the opposite of what is usually seen in this world that we get to see the manifestation of the riches of God’s glory in our lives. 

When the world says to hoard because we may need the item another time, God says to give because it is best to give than to receive; when the world says to fear, God says we are at peace when our minds are set on Him and as we meditate on His word and promises. When the world says to push and shove our way through the latter of success, God says to serve others on our way up and honor them no matter how old they are or whether they have a title or not. When the world says to hustle around and try to make things happen for ourselves and in our own strength and time, God says to trust Him with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding, and as we acknowledge Him in every area of our lives before we attempt to carry out any new plan or endeavor, He will reveal to us what to do and how to do it.

This means that without walking with God and learning who He is and our identity in Him, we will not be able to see His glory that brings His supernatural power in our lives which defies the natural laws and makes the impossible things possible, makes a way where there is no way, and makes the invisible visible. Only Almighty God can provide for us out of the riches of His glory everything that He knows we need when we ask Him in prayer and do what He says. He will give us the things the world thinks would be impossible to obtain. God is a creative God and His glory manifests the created things we need that the spirit of this world cannot provide or create.

To Him alone be all the glory.▪

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