PASTORS NOTES

  God has promised us that He will cause our enemies who rise against us to be defeated before our faces. But we can get in the way of our blessing and leave room for the enemy to stand in our faces rather than fleeing seven ways. With that in mind, here are seven tactics to make the devil flee seven ways. 1. Diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God 2. Repent before you engage in battle 3. Know that God is on your side 4. War from a position of victory 5. Praise your way through 6. Take up your armor 7. Pray always and be watchful Breaking the power of vicious circles is often a matter of making better choices, but when it’s a demonic cycle you need to identify the imaginations and wrong thought patterns that are allowing wicked spirits to wreak havoc on your life.  Go forth, spiritual warrior, with praise in your heart and prayer on your lips, dressed for battle. The battle belongs to the Lord, and the devil will flee seven ways. He has no choice when you submit yoursel...

  Isaiah 5:30 is a good reminder.  “And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by the cloud.”  When faced with difficulties, we must not merely look across the land and our circumstances; instead, we must raise our eyes to the hills. Psalm 121:1-2 gives us this assurance:  “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” We look to the hills and pray with faith. Let us reflect on the relationship between prayer and faith. When we pray, we must have faith because the object of our prayer is God. God is Spirit; although we can’t see Him, we know that we are not praying into thin air or a silent void. Rather, we are communicating intimately with a personal God, and so we must pray with faith. We believe that there is a God, but is that enough? James 2:19 says, “ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder...

Tolerate that women Jezebel ?   “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭2‬:‭20‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬ The spirit of Jezebel seeks to seduce and often works through teaching and prophecy. This spirit seduces the saints into idolatry and immorality. This spirit may use control and manipulation to do it, but ultimately that’s not the end game. Jezebel’s end game is murder. The wages of sin is death, and Jezebel leads people into sin. Pastor...

  Building Hedges of Spiritual Protection A Hedges in biblical times were special barriers/fences placed around grape vineyards.  They served many purposes (Keep out insects, bugs, rodents, birds, or thieves from coming in and stealing the harvest).   Spiritually, a hedge is God’s wall of protection promised to all of those who believe/trust in/walk with in Him.   As Christians believing in the promises of God (Yes & Amen) it is time we start reclaiming what the enemy has stolen from us.   It’s time we appropriate God’s protective barrier around our life and around our family.   God longs for churches/Christians who will stand in the broken-down gaps so the enemy will have no right to plunder what He has given.   The gaps are there because we’ve not maintained them. b Lack of care, maintenance, neglect . . . etc     (Trouble always follows when God removes the hedge around a nation, church, family, individual) Job 1 ...

  Understanding the Battle of Spiritual Warfare     To understand the battle of spiritual warfare, we need to begin with acknowledging that we are in a war. Battles make up smaller components of the bigger picture. By definition, battles involve combat between two persons, between factions, between armies and they consist of any type of "extended contest, struggle, or controversy" (Webster-Merriam).   As Christians, we are in a spiritual battle of some sort on a daily basis. In warfare, battles are fought on different fronts, for different reasons, and with varying degrees of intensity. The same is true in spiritual warfare. Our spiritual battles and warfare are real, even though we cannot physically see the attacker. But, we can educate ourselves on how the battles are fought and how they impact our lives on a daily basis.   Jesus told us in  Matthew 28:18  that, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” We now have the ...