What do you crave? Is it something God doesn't want you to crave? Is it more important to you than God? If you want it just because you want it, you may be living by following your desires and cravings rather than the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:16,18 (TPT) tells us, "As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. When your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit you hinder him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit's intense cravings hinder your self-life from dominating you! .... But when you yield to the life of the Spirit, you will no longer be living under the law, but soaring above it!"
The other week I had a dream, and I heard the Lord say, "The greater the battle, the bigger the miracle." When He spoke these words I felt great hope, full of expectation, being released in the dream. I felt such an increase in the demonstrative power of God to turn impossibility on its head. I could also see that the Spirit of God was bringing comfort to those who have been in major battles. I could feel the weariness of these many saints who have been saying, "The battle has been so great."
The Great Commission should be imbued with the essence and mission of every local church. This is especially true if we are devoted to the "apostles doctrine" the way the early church was (Acts 2:42). The early church was always "missional" because it was "apostolic." The word "apostle" comes from the Greek word apostello, which means "sent one." The Latin word for apostello is missio, from which the word "mission" or "missionary" is derived. Paul, the great church planter, who wrote about one-third of the New Testament, was focused because he knew he was a "sent one." Titus 1:1 (ESV) says, "Paul, a servant of God and an apostle [sent one] of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth."
In my prophetic word for 2022, released last January, the Lord gave me several timing words that have all come to pass. Particularly what took place during Passover to Pentecost - there was a release of healing and revelation. The Lord spoke to me, "There will be a major release of fresh new spiritual gifts in July 2022. The Lord is bringing a new revelation into numbers, dates, times and seasons. This will bring about some new revelation into your life and propel the world of medicine and science to bring about medical cures and a radical change in the way we do things. During this time, the Lord will also release a new wave of healing power and anointing over sickness and disease."
Today as I was praying the spirit of the Lord began to speak and show me a vision that we must pray into this season. I see churches throughout the world, some are small and yet many are large. Some were opening the doors to only a few, while others were overflowing with people. In the image there were no two alike, yet all were churches with people that thought they were in the right place and time.
In the parable of the sower in Mark 4, Jesus reveals that the seed is the Word of God, man's heart is the soil, and Satan comes to take away the Word that is sown: "The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts." (Mark 4:14-15) In Mark 4:17-19, Jesus reveals that when affliction, persecution, cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches, and lusts of other things enter in, they choke the Word so it becomes unfruitful in your life.
In general, most deliverance ministry and spiritual warfare prayers fall short of what we need to bind, restrict, clean up and clear up the spiritual atmosphere. People stay in bondage because we don't go deep enough and far enough in using our authority and casting out demons. We get bored and stagnant in our prayer time and don't partner with the Holy Spirit to listen to what He says needs to be prayed out. I remember a mother who kept trying to take charge of her child's health by praying in her mind, "I rebuke you, Satan." I told her she must speak out and decree into the situation, but she persisted that rebuking the devil in her mind was enough.
On many occasions I have preached in churches where I saw the same peculiar vision while standing in the pulpit. I saw in my spirit many tangled and gnarly roots growing up from the floor of the building and wrapping themselves around the chairs and walls. The roots covered the doors, the stage, the pulpit and even the ceiling. It appeared as though these invasive roots were choking the very life out of the house of God. I have come to know that what I was seeing was evidence of a spirit of religion. And in each case, I understood it as a warningâ°"because the life of the Holy Spirit cannot flourish in a church that is controlled by this cold, dark deadness.
He'll play on our insecurities and, like a broken record, bombard us with the same things, over and over. He'll tell us things like: "You're always messing things up—how can God love you?" "You'll never be as good as your brother or sister." Or maybe you've heard this one: "You can't do that—you're not smart enough!" He wants us to feel bad about ourselves, then compare ourselves with everybody else. But here's the problem: If we don't recognize his lies and replace them with truth from God's Word, we begin to believe these things about ourselves and begin saying them out of our own mouths.
When most people think of a Biblical "shield of faith," they picture the shield from Roman times which is what the Apostle Paul would have been thinking of when he admonished the church at Ephesus to put on the whole armor of God. The shield, sword, and helmet of Ephesians 6:10-18 are indicating a march into battle. When using this image of me holding the shield in front of me, I ran into a problem at night when I was asleep. How can I hold a shield of faith for protection when I am asleep???
