The Gift of Interpretation of Tongues. Divinely Inspired or Man’s Wishful Thinking?, Ep 2-29

Welcome Back! Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are following behind our last episode where we discussed the Spiritual Gift of Tongues, with today’s episode of the Spiritual Gift of Interpretation of Tongues.  This gift is rarely discussed except to challenge it’s authenticity, so today we are going to address why it is often challenged, explain exactly what it is and what it is not.  Then I will share some of my experiences with this gift, Interpretation of Tongues.

For this series where we are discussing the Spiritual Gifts, we are always going to start at the scriptures that provide us with the layout of these gifts and that is:

Corinthians 12:4-11.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 

To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

The gifts can be categorized by what they provide to the receiver.  The Holy Spirit is the giver of the gift and we, Holy Spirit filled believers, are the receivers of the gifts. 

·      Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers

·      Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits

·      Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues

So this is the third of the spoken gifts, we have already covered Prophecy in a 2 part episode, Tongues was last week and now let’s move on to what we need to know about Interpretation of Tongues.

Let’s start the discussion with a clarification.  Interpretation of Tongues is not the same as translation of Tongues.  People often make that mistake when they hear someone speaking in tongues, and then an Interpretation that follows isn’t the same length.  They don’t understand the difference between interpretation and translation.  I was watching a show a few months ago, some comedy, a police based comedy and the person being interrogated didn’t speak English.  The cop was asking questions, the translator would translate the question and then the person answered for like a minute but when the translator turned to the cop, all the translator said was “no”.  It was funny, you could feel the confusion of the cop that maybe he missed something in translation.  That’s what misunderstanding does to the gift of Interpretation of Tongues. 

Let’s take a look in the Old Testament at a place where an interpretation was used.  We are going to Daniel Chapter 5.  This is the well known story of God’s handwriting on the wall to Belshazzar as a result of his incredibly immoral behavior and a heart filled with arrogant pride.  During a night of drunken partying, God pays Belshazzar a visit and terrifies him by writing these words on the wall:

mene, mene, tekel, uparsin.  Belshazzar is frantic to find out what it means and eventually summons Daniel, a man he knows provided knowledge and wisdom to his father, Nebuchadnezzar.  Daniel comes and is offered an enormous amount of wealth and power if he can tell him what the writing means.   The words written were an actual known language, it was Aramaic, so the literal translation of what God wrote was: The numberer is numbered.  If Daniel had told Belshazzar that translation, he technically would have done his job, but what Belshazzar really wanted to know was what does it mean.  In order for Daniel to tell him what it meant, he actually had to receive an interpretation from God.  He had to put context, the message God wanted to be known, to the words.  The only way Daniel could do that is if God gave him the interpretation of what He meant when He said, the numberer is numbered. 

So let’s read what Daniel tells him in Chapter 5, verse 26: 26 This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 27 TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; UPARSIN: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”[s] 29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

The same process is used when we talk of Interpretation of Tongues.  One other thing I want to point out here is that although the language was Aramaic, it could have been any language Belshazzar didn’t know, it wouldn’t have mattered.  The fact that Daniel knew Aramaic in this case didn’t matter either.  It could have been any language to Daniel as well.  When the Lord has a message and He wants it to be known, He will provide someone to give the interpretation, to speak on His behalf, His words, when He wants them spoken.  Does that mean that the person receiving the interpretation is always obedient and is willing to speak up, nope!  Have you always done every single thing you knew you were supposed to do when you were supposed to do it?  Do you always return the shopping cart to the designated return location every single time, even in rain or snow or hail?  We are human, most of us have moments when we are having a bad day and don’t feel like it, we have pain or we are tired.  Understand, God provides what He wants us to receive, sometimes we don’t receive what He is willing to provide.

Let’s reflect back on the tongues episode for a minute.  Remember the story I told about the woman who had the gift of interpretation of tongues but said specifically she did not want the gift of tongues.  Remember that I said if you have to choose between the two gifts, always chose tongues first.  The reason for that is this.  Tongues is much more valuable as a gift.  As we discussed, tongues can be used for yourself privately and there could be opportunity for it to be used in a church setting where the church as a whole is edified with an interpreter.  The gift of interpretation, on the other hand, requires the gift of tongues in order to be operational.  The gift of tongues can stand on its own as a gift.  The gift of interpretation cannot.  It is a gift only useful if tongues is present so the value or usefulness of it is dependent upon others.  If she cannot and in her case will not allow herself to receive the gift of tongues, then what does it matter that she can interpret.  I know that seems harsh, but as we discuss receiving the gift of interpretation, it is not hard to do.  Anyone can have that gift at any time if you can hear the Lord and are willing to be obedient and provide the interpretation when called upon. 

I’ll even take this a step further and say that surprisingly to most people, of all the gifts of the Spirit, Interpretation of Tongues is actually the least of the gifts.  Not surprisingly, if you have a knowledge of the gifts and function in other gifts. It does not take nearly the amount of time and “training” with the Lord to receive it.  I think it sounds intimidating so not many people seek it, but it’s an easy one for anyone willing to follow the Lord’s ask of you.  You do need to be able to hear the Lord, but you need to be able to hear the Lord for all the gifts.  This is why I wrote the Loving Conversations book and mention it after every podcast, it’s not to make a quick buck.  It is because I know that the Lord wants more people to hear Him.  Once you hear Him, then you can start learning to receive these gifts and live your life using these gifts for the Kingdom, changing lives around you and the lives of people you don’t even know.  I get requests from all over the world every week to use my gifts.  I am no different than anyone else other than I have invested the time in hearing the Lord and have allowed Him to train me in the use of His gifts. 

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 14:13, 13 For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. 16 Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer,[d] say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? 17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.

If we pray in tongues, it should be natural that we are also interpreting.  It should be an easy add if you think about it.  If you can only pray, but not interpret, it’s as if the gift of tongues is not completely fulfilled in you.  You don’t have a full understanding.  God does not give half gifts, so one should seek to have the related gift so that more can be learned and others can be edified not just you alone.  This is why Paul is then compelled to go and say this in verse 18: 8 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

I will tell you I once thought it was an elusive gift, a specialized gift, and thought because I have great difficulty picking up other languages I would have difficulty getting this gift.  Let me tell you, there is a huge difference between being able to conjugate verbs in the past present and future in another language and speaking them conversationally all while adding the necessary vocabulary to build a grammatically correct sentence before the person you are attempting to talk to grows older waiting and the Lord divinely handing an interpretation readily made for you to simply speak on His behalf.  With interpretation, there is no work, only obedience and a focus on the Lord.

Let’s talk a bit about when it is needed.  It seems clear enough but people get a little confused about a few things so let’s clear that up here.  There are 2 times when it is needed.  The first is always, whenever the Lord calls for it.  Second is when he wants to build up His people. Two nights ago I was meeting with a young woman who was wanting to learn more about hearing the Lord’s voice.  As a result of what was discussed in the meeting, the Lord told me to lay hands on her head and pray for her.  I knew when I did, I would at some point be praying in tongues but I wasn’t sure how she would feel about it because we never discussed tongues. I had no idea if she had any experience with it or any biases against it.  Before I began to pray I did let her know what was going to happen, but also told her, if that happens, then the Lord will give me the interpretation so we will know what He has to say.  As I laid hands on her I was immediately praying in tongues followed by the interpretation.  I would go back and forth between English, obviously my first language, and tongues.  Okay English is my only language besides tongues, but not for a lack of trying. 

My point here is, that was a situation where God was instructing me to pray and gave me the interpretation.  In addition to that, because it was public, even though it was only one person, because the prayer was for her benefit, an interpretation was necessary.  It would not have done her any good for me to be standing there praying over her and she had no idea what was said.  Who wants that.  I don’t care who you are, unless God says otherwise, if I don’t know what you are saying, I don’t want you praying over me.  I don’t want to come into agreement with any words over me that I don’t know what they are, it’s just not wise. 

Where is interpretation not required?  Well I can tell you I am in a meeting on Sunday mornings and there are probably half of us who do pray in tongues, but we all actually whisper it to ourselves.  We are doing it to ourselves but for the benefit of the congregation as a whole. In this meeting is anywhere from 5 or 6 to 12, depending on the day.  If any one of us praying on tongues did so out loud openly, then an interpretation should be given because that makes it a public setting.  If one of us were so instructed to do pray out loud, which is the only time someone should be doing praying out loud in a public setting, then God will provide the interpretation.  Two points I want to make here.  First point, because the people who pray in tongues at this meeting are doing so quietly to themselves, in a whisper tone, that does not need to be interpreted.  The intent is not to benefit the group in that moment.  The main prayer over the congregation is always done in English as we each take turns.  Second point, if the prayer were out loud it should only be at the direction of the Holy Spirit.  There are times when people are overwhelmed by the Spirit and rightfully so, and think they are supposed to pray out loud and just start shouting it out.  The problem is, if it is done in a way that is contradictory to what is happening in the meeting, then chances are they were meant to pray in tongues but to themselves quietly.  It happens on occasion.  It can usually be easily corrected without embarrassing anyone.  The way you can identify if this was done in error is if the Holy Spirit tells you so, if in doing so this person has interrupted or interfered with what was happening in the room, or if what they are doing does not bear witness with anyone in the room.  You will feel the disruption in your spirit.  

Why is there such confusion over how many can pray and how does this get misapplied?  I’ve been in prayer meetings or just meetings in general not just focused on prayer, and even the Sunday morning meeting I brought up applies here, the meetings are a gathering of multiple people.  In these meetings people separately are praying in tongues.  There is no issue there.  The confusion is that people are reading scripture literally and saying no more than 3 people can pray in tongues at a time, even in a whisper.  That’s not what Paul was discussing in 1 Corinthians 14:26 Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God. He then clarifies in verse 30: For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.  Paul could have said 4, but he was trying to instill the idea of control and maintaining order.  God does not function in chaos, so if a meeting is chaotic, then it is not moving under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.  When things are not in order, man has allowed himself to influence and control the meeting. In our Sunday morning meeting, there is one person that always tries to interpret the whispers of the individuals praying, I think because she is misapplying this scripture.  There is no chaos in the room as we are each doing it quietly to ourselves as a whisper.  She is still learning so I don’t say anything.  We want to give people grace as they are learning to move.  If it came to a point where what she was doing was disruptive, then I would pull her aside and talk to her about it.  We don’t want incorrect behaviors to grow when the Lord is moving, so you have to find the balance between learning and disrupting.

Let’s round up this discussion with the reasons why this is gift is challenged.  First off, as we have discussed numerous times, cessationists would never believe in this gift because they believe these gifts have ceased.  Second, non cessationists feel tongues is babble so there can’t possibly be an interpretation of something that is mere babble.  Third, the misunderstanding of the act of translation versus interpretation.  These people will apply logic to a supernatural event which you cannot do, you end up deceiving yourself that way no matter what the topic.  Fifth, ignorance, a hard heart, an unwillingness to hear and understand how God works with us.  I’m sure there are many more, but those are the common areas that come up frequently.  You could say fear of the unknown as well.  Bad theology. 

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the spiritual gift of Interpretation of Tongues and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      Discussing the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues

·      1 Cor 12:4-11

·      To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

o   Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers

o   Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits

o   Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues

·      Interpretation of Tongues is not the same as translation of Tongues.

·      Daniel 5, where Daniel interpreted the words of God to Belshazzar

·      When the Lord has a message and He wants it to be known, He will provide someone to give the interpretation, to speak on His behalf, His words, when He wants them spoken.

·      The gift of interpretation, on the other hand, requires the gift of tongues in order to be operational.  The gift of tongues can stand on its own as a gift.  The gift of interpretation cannot.

·      Of all the gifts of the Spirit, Interpretation of Tongues is actually the least of the gifts

·      1 Corinthians 14:13

·      If we pray in tongues, it should be natural that we are also interpreting

·      1 Corinthians 14:18

·      With interpretation, there is no work, only obedience and a focus on the Lord

·      There are 2 times when it is needed.  The first is always, whenever the Lord calls for it.  Second is when he wants to build up His people

·      Where is interpretation not required. People who pray in tongues quietly to themselves, in a whisper tone, that does not need to be interpreted.  The intent is not to benefit the group in that moment.  

·      Why is there such confusion over how many can pray and how does this get misapplied?  The confusion is that people are reading scripture literally and saying no more than 3 people can pray in tongues at a time, even in a whisper.  That’s not what Paul was discussing in 1 Corinthians 14:26

·      God does not function in chaos, so if a meeting is chaotic, then it is not moving under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.  When things are not in order, man has allowed himself to influence and control the meeting.

·      Discussed reasons this gift is challenged today

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

·       Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

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The Gift of Tongues..is it biblical? Is it still active?, Ep 2-28

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are continuing our discussion of the spiritual gifts and this episode is specifically devoted to the gift of Tongues.  This is a widely misunderstood, ridiculed and can really bring out some “unChristlike” behavior within the “church”. Today we will discuss the three different types of tongues, how tongues are intended to be used and get an understanding of what it is and if it is for today.

Corinthians 12:4-11.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 

To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

The gifts can be categorized by what they provide to the receiver.  The Holy Spirit is the giver of the gift and we, Holy Spirit filled believers, are the receivers of the gifts. 

·      Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers

·      Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits

·      Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues

One of the misconceptions I want to clear up is we are truly speaking of gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Specifically, an action or a behavior that produces an outcome as a result of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural activity provided to us in a gift. 

When most people think of tongues, they think of it as some kind of babble that makes no sense and so it often gets discounted from what it truly is and could be in our lives.  The Bible reveals to us there are actually three different ways tongues are used and all are through our receipt of tongues as a gift of the Holy Spirit.  We are going to address the three ways first and then get into other aspects of tongues to give us a better understanding of its use today.

First, Jesus tells us we will have the gift of tongues in Mark 16, he says specifically in Mark 16:17, And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will (1) drive out demons; (a supernatural activity) (2) they will speak in new tongues; (a supernatural activity, because he does not say, learn new tongues, he says, speak) (3)18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; (a supernatural activity, we saw that happen with Paul on Malta) (4)they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”(supernatural activity, Jesus means they will get well in that moment)

All the points Jesus is making involve supernatural activity.  He would not list things here that we could do in our own power.  He is specifically referring to a supernatural outcome produced by a Holy Spirit action through us.  Where we first see tongues occur is at Pentecost.  Acts 2 tells us this, When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

Let’s take a look at another example of a Pentecost type of experience occurring that is frequently overlooked.  We are going to see what happens when Peter obeys God and visits Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, at Cornelius’ house.  Acts 10:44,  While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues[b] and praising God

So this first type of tongue, a miraculous ability to speak a language not previously known, is one aspect of tongues.  It is considered a sign and is intended for non-believers to experience and testify to the truth of the words being spoken.  That is how it was used and how the gospel was able to spread quickly throughout the ancient world.  Jews came to Jerusalem for the Pentecost celebration who had not yet heard of Jesus.  They were then able to experience this miraculous Pentecost and take the word that was shared in their language back to Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, all the countries that the Jews had dispersed to over the centuries. Peter gives us a picture of the Holy Spirit using the gift of tongues with Gentiles, which previously would have been forbidden.  Cessationists will tell you that this did occur but that this is no longer needed and does not occur today.  I have heard multiple accounts among those working in other countries that while praying in tongues during a service over the sick or an outreach, the person praying was actually speaking a dialect of a region where they were doing their missionary work.  There is no reason to believe that this miraculous gift from the Holy Spirit is no longer needed.  There are still areas of the world who do not have the written Word.  I am privileged to know a missionary in the Papua New Guinea area that worked on translating the Bible for a tribe in that region.  The bible does not say this gift has ended, so why would we assume that the Holy Spirit would not use it when needed.  We may have google translate and other ways to communicate but nothing will replace what the Holy Spirit will say in those moments.  The Holy Spirit will guide the words.  I tried to use Google translate in a remote area of Turkey last year and I spoke into the phone and just handed it to the woman who was trying to take our order.  I did not read it.  She giggled and tried to understand and respond.  Once I read it, it had something in there about a boyfriend and the whole thing made no sense.  The important thing was I learned how to say in Turkish “ a glass with ice” so as long as I had that, the rest was unimportant. 

There was one moment of the trip however, I wish just for that moment the Holy Spirit had let me understand what was being said.  We were in Izmir, a decent sized town on the coast.  We had hoped to meet up with a friend we met in Sardis who helped translate and then later had dinner with a few hours away when we went to the Ancient Ruins in Philadelphia.  Since we weren’t able to meet with our friend, we decided to have lunch on the go so we could get to our next location.  We found a little grocery mart, it was maybe 800 square feet and we found all the fixens for sandwiches and were at the register to pay.  The man in front of us turned around and saw my husband and his face just lit up.  He smiled, went on and on in Turkish just giddy.  My husband is a naturally warm person and was smiling back motioning as best he could positive feelings for the man, but was telling him that he didn’t understand.  It didn’t matter, that man went on gushing for a bit and then said his goodbyes and waved as he was leaving, just happy as could be.  I looked at the cashier to see if she could translate any of that and she couldn’t so we to this day have no idea why that man was so happy to see my husband.  We assume it was mistaken identity. My husband thinks the man clearly thought he was Brad Pitt, I was leaning more toward Harrison Ford! Either way, we were all happy!

I digressed.  The second type of tongue is probably the most discussed and battered.  Typically it is referred to as a private prayer language.  While that is exactly what it is, I just don’t like that term.  It makes it sound weird and exclusive to those on the outside.  I don’t like the idea of using the spiritual gifts as a way to appear or present oneself as higher or better and that is how it can come across.  I like to keep things simple but unfortunately that term is pretty accurate, private prayer language.  But let’s look at it instead from the angle of how it is used.  We are going to start with 4 scriptures.

We know that Paul prayed in tongues and here are the scriptures that tell us so:

We will start with 1 Corinthians 13, If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels.. this part of the verse often gets overlooked because he goes on to discuss the often quoted “love” message and that is what gets the most attention.  However, this sentence is Paul specifically discussing praying in tongues.

Next up, 1 Corinthians 14:2,  For anyone who speaks in a tongue[a] does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. Paul is now specifically talking about praying in tongues and distinguishes that it is to God. 

Onward now to Ephesians, 6:18,  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Paul refers to praying in tongues as praying in the Spirit because he knows that tongues is a gift of the Spirit and it is a language the Spirit understands.

Lastly, Jude verse 20 states:  But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, Jude is also referring to praying in the Holy Spirit as praying in tongues. 

In the first century the gift of tongues was accepted and used as a way of prayer life. What we now call a prayer language, they called praying in the Spirit.  That sounds much more open and welcoming to someone who doesn’t understand what it is.  Think of it as a type of devotion or worship time with the Lord where you as the prayer are also receiving an edification or a building up of your own spirit as a result.  Think of it like this, you’re in a game, doesn’t matter what sport.  You are down by a lot, you don’t know how to recover.  You have a halftime break (okay so the sport matters a little, you need a halftime break) and you go and pray in the Spirit.  You just let the Spirit in you talk to the Holy Spirit.  At the end of the break, you go back to your game and you feel rejuvenated.  You are still down in points, but somehow it’s not bothering you as much.  Then you notice your game has changed, you are making a comeback and all is back on track for you.  It doesn’t mean you are going to win every game, but it means you will win at the times when it matters or makes a difference in your life.  That’s what praying in the Spirit does. 

I pray in the Spirit a lot, sometimes intentionally sometimes unintentionally.  Intentionally when I know I need to go to the Holy Spirit for some direction or when I am in need of an uplifting.  Other times, I say unintentionally because it’s at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  It may not be for me at all, but He needs someone to pray about something and I let Him use me whenever He needs to so that His will is done wherever He needs it.  You never know what you may be praying for, who, where, it doesn’t matter, there is a need so if you are prompted, let it flow. 

That is exactly what hinders a lot of people from being able to pray in the Spirit.  The let it flow doesn’t happen.  It’s easy to be self-conscious, or afraid or uncomfortable if there are people around particularly when you are starting off and new at it.  There is an expectation that if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit that you automatically should be praying in tongues, but that doesn’t always happen.  It should happen, but it just doesn’t.  Sometimes it’s over zealousness of the person involved in trying to help the person pray in the Spirit, that can be a distraction.  Sometimes it’s just that the person is shy or overwhelmed, it doesn’t really matter.  It is a very powerful gift and for some it takes a little longer to receive than others, that’s just the reality.  A friend of mine who was baptized in the Holy Spirit prayed for it, but didn’t do so whole heartedly and did not receive it.  A year or so later, she was more mature and understood it better and began to pray for it whole heartedly and guess what, about two months later she found herself speaking in tongues right in the middle of her usual prayer time.

The main reason this aspect of the gift gets battered is because ignorant Christians, and yes I really mean to say that, call it nonsense and babble.  The people who tend to hold these beliefs tend to hold other beliefs as well that indicate their heart is hardened and they will not accept any of the gifts of the spirit.  It makes no sense to try to convince them.  My experience is that trying to explain tends to provoke or move them into anger and it’s a waste of time.  We can’t change what their heart is not willing to accept.  Let it go, live what you know to be the truth from the Holy Spirit and move on.  The Holy Spirit can work on them, it’s not our responsibility to change everybody.  Jesus told us that there will be times when we need to shake the dust off our feet and we need to have the wisdom and discernment to know when to do so.

I want to share a quick example of short sightedness on praying in the Spirit.  A young woman I know was discussing the Spiritual gifts with me and told me that she has the gift of Interpretation of Gifts.  I said oh, that’s good, not many people have that gift, and then I asked her if she also prayed in tongues.  I don’t normally ask this but this woman was meeting with me to be mentored and because the story she told me on how she received the gift of interpretation involved everyone around her speaking in tongues.  She did not at that time, so I was just seeing if that had changed.  Her response to me was that no, she did not, she did not want it and she was not going to try to get it.  I was a little puzzled by this response so I asked why. She didn’t have a definitive answer, other than she had the one gift she didn’t see the need for the other. 

Friends, that is not the way the Holy Spirit would like you to view the gifts.  It should not be that we have one gift so we are not willing to seek another, especially when they are related gifts.  We will be talking about the gift of interpretation in another episode, but if you are going to seek only one gift, definitely chose tongues over interpretation of tongues.  I’ll go over the reasoning in the interpretation episode, but I wanted to share this to hopefully change or shift any mindsets that think the way of this woman.  Understand the gifts before you shut the door to any of them because you don’t know what door you are shutting when you are acting without knowledge.

One final thought on praying in the Spirit.  Don’t overthink it.  If it is new to you or you want this gift, don’t try to understand it, or worry about how you sound.  Whatever language, or tongue you speak does not matter.  It could either be a heavenly language or an earthy language.  It could be a current language or some derivative of it.  It could be an ancient long ago lost language.  It doesn’t matter how it sounds, only the content matters and that is for God to discern and direct, not us.

Our third and final type of tongue is similar to the private prayer language except it is used in corporate, or public settings.  This is what Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians 14, and which is often misunderstood by those who again do not believe tongues is for today and those who do not fully understand the difference between private and public tongues.  Let’s look at the scripture and then discuss more.  1 Corinthians 14:26, What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.

29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.

Let’s backtrack a minute and look at 1 Corinthians 14:18,  I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

What Paul is sharing with us here is that there needs to be order when using tongues in a corporate setting.  The Corinthian church was practicing tongues publicly, but people were talking out of turn, it was chaotic and there was no benefit to their behavior.  In a corporate or public setting, Paul was advising them to become more organized and limit the number of people who were speaking out to the church in tongues.  The gift of tongues was accepted, but it needed to be orderly in order for the church to benefit from it.  The second point he was making was that in addition to limiting the number of people speaking, if there is no one to interpret, then the church is not gaining in knowledge, edification, it’s not being built up so there is no point in doing it if that is the case.  When this was occurring, it was used in conjunction with other gifts and the point of these gifts were to build the church.  Without the interpreter, then pray in the Spirit to oneself quietly.  Again, we will go deeper in to this when we discuss interpretation, but I wanted to be clear about this third type of Tongues and that praying in the Spirit or in Tongues in church is biblical and for today, but it has to be done in order.  Can you imagine visiting a church that did corporate praying in the spirit, whether you did or not and it was all chaos.  I wouldn’t go back because if that isn’t done correctly, what else isn’t following the Holy Spirit correctly.  If I didn’t speak in tongues I wouldn’t go back because it would look like chaos and not an environment I want to be a part of in my spiritual life.

Those are the three types of tongues and how they are used.  They are very much alive today, tho some more so than others, but hopefully one day all will be alive as they once were.  Next up in discussing the gifts will be interpretation of tongues and then we will have finished all of the spoken gifts. 

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the Gift of Tongues and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

Discussing the Gift of Tongues

1 Cor 12:4-11

To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

·      Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers

·      Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits

·      Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues

When we are speaking of gifts, we are speaking of an action or a behavior that produces an outcome as a result of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural activity provided to us in a gift. 

The Bible reveals to us there are actually three different ways tongues are used and all are through our receipt of tongues as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus tells us we will have the gift of tongues in Mark 16, he says specifically in Mark 16:17.  These are all points of supernatural activity so tongues is a supernatural activity as well.

Acts 10:44, Peter at Cornelius’ house and the tongues released by the Holy Spirit

So this first type of tongue, a miraculous ability to speak a language not previously known, is one aspect of tongues.  It is considered a sign and is intended for non-believers to experience and testify to the truth of the words being spoken.  

The second type of tongue is referred to as a private prayer language

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 14:2, Ephesians 6:18, Jude verse 20

Think of the second type of tongues as a type of devotion or worship time with the Lord where you as the prayer are also receiving an edification or a building up of your own spirit as a result.

When asking for or first receiving the gift of tongues, don’t overthink it.  Let it flow. 

Our third and final type of tongue is similar to the private prayer language except it is used in corporate, or public settings.  1 Cor 14:26, 1 Cor 14:18

In a corporate or public setting, Paul was advising them to become more organized and limit the number of people who were speaking out to the church in tongues.    

The second point he was making was that in addition to limiting the number of people speaking, if there is no one to interpret, then the church is not gaining in knowledge, edification, it’s not being built up so there is no point in doing it if that is the case.

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

·       Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

Are the gifts of the Holy Spirit real? Are they for today?, Ep 2-27

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are beginning our discussion on the 9 Spiritual Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  We actually started this discussion a few weeks ago when we discussed prophecy, that was a 2-part episode where we discussed not only the Spiritual gift of prophecy but also the Office of the prophet.  With this episode, we are going to lay the groundwork for the 9 spiritual gifts as a whole. We will discuss if these gifts are real and whether or not each these gifts are available for us today. As we continue the year we will cover the remaining 8 gifts, not necessarily in order because we want to also cover topics such as the demonic influence of the Spirit of Religion which often interferes with the Spiritual Gifts in operation.

I want to bring you back to the scripture that is our starting point for all discussions regarding the spiritual gifts.  Paul provides us with a list and an explanation in his letter to the Corinthians.  The Corinthian church was having organizational and doctrinal problems and needed guidance in order to fully understand when the Holy Spirit was at work and what the Holy Spirit was providing.

Corinthians 12:1-11.

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 

To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

The gifts can be categorized by what they provide to the receiver.  The Holy Spirit is the giver of the gift and we, Holy Spirit filled believers, are the receivers of the gifts. 

·      Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers

·      Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits

·      Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues

One of the misconceptions I want to clear up at the beginning of our discussion is that we are truly speaking of gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Someone may look at wisdom and say, “well, I’ve made some pretty wise decisions in my life” that is not a gift of the Holy Spirit, that is man or woman who has made wise decisions, nothing more than that.  When we are speaking of gifts, we are speaking of an action or a behavior that produces an outcome as a result of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural activity provided to us in a gift. 

Nowadays, we have lost our understanding of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.  We don’t know the true power that these first century Christians experienced and therefore needed Paul’s guidance to function in the gifts properly.  Nowadays, most Christians not only cannot name the 9 gifts but they don’t know what they are, and that is why we are here my friends, to correct that and reveal what God has for us.  Part of the problem is that church leadership has turned their back on God for centuries.  You cannot expect modern Christians to know what most preachers not only won’t preach but outright deny exists.  The denial belief has been perpetuated and grown for centuries.  The enemy won’t stand in the way of a movement that denies the belief in the power and authority the Holy Spirit provides because the denial belief system castrates itself to be powerless, and ignorant of God.  I know that seems strong to say, but if you listen to any believer that says the gifts are not for today, you will also see someone who does not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, that is not guided by the Holy Spirit, that does not engage with the Holy Spirit, nor is he or she a person who hears what the Holy Spirit has to say to them. There is no heart there, just one-dimensional Christianity that will only allow what their level of faith dictates.  I have met so many individuals who think this way I can’t even count them it’s so many. Their argument is a blanket, the gifts are not for today. They then say that anyone functioning in the gifts is a heretic or making it up or has a mental health issue.  The problem with their statement is that if you ask, why are they not for today, you generally get as a response, because we don’t need them today.  If you ask, why don’t we need them, then the answer is either, we have the Holy Spirit or we have the Bible.  The problem with that argument is that the gifts come from the Holy Spirit so again, why don’t we need these gifts?  As far as the bible is concerned, how blessed are we to have the written bible available in so many ways to us.  The Bible does not negate the Holy Spirit. The Bible testifies to the Holy Spirit and the Bible testifies to the giving of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  First century Christians did have portions of the Bible written, scrolls or letters that were circulated.  Now the question becomes, where does the Bible say the gifts cease to operate?  There is nowhere written in the Bible that even alludes to a cessation.  So those who call themselves cessationists are spreading false doctrine.  So you have megachurches such as John Macarthur telling millions a lie.  He will have to answer for that one day.  Just because the church is big does not mean that what is said is true. 

To explain further, cessationists believe:  the "sign gifts" (such as prophecy) described in the Bible were temporarily granted to the apostles to authenticate the origin and truth of the scriptures, and that at the close of the Apostolic Age these gifts had served their purpose and ceased to be granted.

The problem with that is the Bible does not say that, anywhere.  The Bible says we will do greater things that what Jesus did because He had to leave us and it also tells us that He sent us a “Helper” to do the greater things.  We cannot do these things in our own power, it is impossible.  With God, nothing is impossible. 

Cessationists are likely the biggest argument you will hear against the gifts and they can get very angry and mean spirited in defending their position.  The fruit or lack of fruit in the conversation tells you what you need to know about their true character.

What if you have never experienced the gifts or have never seen the gifts in operation?  That’s okay, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the gifts.  Ask for the gifts.  As we go through each gift think about which one you would like to have and ask the Holy Spirit for that gift.  I say one not because you can’t have all nine, but to start to learn and be developed in one at first is reasonable.  If you already have three then ask for more. We don’t want to be satisfied with one or two gifts if more are available to us.  The more gifts we have, the more we can do for the Kingdom.  You don’t have to just have one gift. 

So where do we go from here.  Well, we already discussed prophecy, so we will continue through and discuss the remaining Spoken gifts.  So our next podcast on this subject will be tongues and then we will follow up with interpretation of tongues.  If you have questions along the way, email me at contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com 

Then over the remainder of the year we will address the Revelation and the power gifts, by category.  Many times the gifts work together so we will talk about them as orderly as we can.  We want to demystify the gifts and clarify misgivings.

I have met a few people who have had what they refer to as bad experiences with the gifts.  When they explain what happened, it’s really more they either had a bad experience with a person at a meeting where gifts were in operation or they didn’t understand what was going on and it made them very uncomfortable.  Unfortunately, that happened recently at a church I am familiar with.  There is a group that meets and about half of the group hears from the Lord and the other half isn’t there yet but all in the group understand each other so it tends to work out.  An invite was given for someone to attend the meeting, but they had no idea what was going on and as a result, it scared the invitee and this woman did not return.  I hope that never happens to you, but if it does, don’t shut your heart to God, He may want to use you.  The gifts will only be in operation with someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit.  Will God make exceptions to this for His purposes, of course He can, but by and large the gifts are intended for those who are filled with the Spirit.  Now that does not mean you have to be all weird, and I say that in complete honesty that sometimes Spirit filled people tend to be a bit more dramatic than is necessary.  Sometimes it’s for attention, sometimes it’s just misguided, look past nonsense and look for the Holy Spirit.

One comment I hear too often is this “if the Holy Spirit wants me to have gifts, He’ll give them to me” Answer: no He won’t.  The Holy Spirit is not going to give you a gift you don’t want and that you won’t bother to invest the time with Him to be developed in the use of the gift.  The Holy Spirit is a gentleman and He would never give something that carries such a big responsibility to someone who doesn’t understand it, appreciate it or know anything about it. 

If you want a gift, you not only have to ask for it, you may have to wait for it. He may want to make sure you are ready and committed.  As we go through each gift, we will discuss the benefits but we will also be discussing the costs of having gifts. Understand that the gifts, once given, are irrevocable.  Paul tells us that in Romans 11:29. That’s why you can see some people able to heal people in the most miraculous ways, but yet they are living in sin.  We have to look at these gifts from the perspective that the gift is about the gift giver, not the one who has the gift.  If we lose focus and make it about the one who has the gift, that house will fall.  How many well-known pastors have we seen fall prey to redirecting the focus to themselves as if they were doing anything by their own might.

I know all that we have discussed so far has been really heavy.  I am sorry for that but I feel it is really important to address those aspects that have prevented the move of the Holy Spirit.  We need to talk about these things and get them out of our way.  We don’t want any of it hanging in the back of our minds as we move forward to the good stuff, the great stuff, the most unbelievable stuff. 

With each gift we will explain what it is and we will talk through some modern examples of the gift in action.  Maybe some things you won’t believe but that’s ok, they still happened. I share what I know to be true.

As one who does not shy away from controversy, our next episode will be on Tongues!  Probably one of the most heated, widely debated, misunderstood gift of all of them. 

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the 9 Gifts of the Spirit and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      Discussing the 9 Gifts of the Spirit

·      1 Cor 12:1-11

·      To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

o   Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers

o   Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits

o   Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues

·      When we are speaking of gifts, we are speaking of an action or a behavior that produces an outcome as a result of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural activity provided to us in a gift. 

·      We have lost our understanding of God and the power of the Holy Spirit

·      Part of the problem is that church leadership has turned their back on God for centuries.  You cannot expect modern Christians to know what most preachers not only won’t preach but outright deny exists.  The denial belief has been perpetuated and grown for centuries. 

·      If you listen to any believer that says the gifts are not for today, you will also see someone who does not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, that is not guided by the Holy Spirit, that does not engage with the Holy Spirit, nor is he or she a person who hears what the Holy Spirit has to say to them. There is no heart there, just one-dimensional Christianity.

·      Those who say the gifts are not for today will say anyone functioning in the gifts is a heretic or making it up or has a mental health issue.  They believe we don’t need the gifts today.  If you ask, why don’t we need them, then the answer is either, we have the Holy Spirit or we have the Bible.  The problem with that argument is that the gifts come from the Holy Spirit so again, why don’t we need these gifts?  As far as the bible is concerned, The Bible does not negate the Holy Spirit. The Bible testifies to the Holy Spirit and the Bible testifies to the giving of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

·      We discussed cessationists who believe:  the "sign gifts" (such as prophecy) described in the Bible were temporarily granted to the apostles to authenticate the origin and truth of the scriptures, and that at the close of the Apostolic Age these gifts had served their purpose and ceased to be granted.

·      Cessasionists are spreading false doctrine.  One of the most well known cessationists is John MacArthur.  Just because a church is big, doesn’t mean what they are teaching is true.

·      I have met a few people who have had what they refer to as bad experiences with the gifts.  When they explain what happened, it’s really more they either had a bad experience with a person at a meeting where gifts were in operation or they didn’t understand what was going on and it made them very uncomfortable

·      Ask for the gifts.  As we go through each gift think about which one you would like to have and ask the Holy Spirit for that gift

·      One comment I hear too often is this “if the Holy Spirit wants me to have gifts, He’ll give them to me” Answer: no He won’t.  The Holy Spirit is not going to give you a gift you don’t want and that you won’t bother to invest the time with Him to be developed in the use of the gift. 

·      If you want a gift, you not only have to ask for it, you may have to wait for it. He may want to make sure you are ready and committed.  As we go through each gift, we will discuss the benefits but we will also be discussing the costs of having gifts. Understand that the gifts, once given, are irrevocable.  Paul tells us that in Romans 11:29.

·      We have to look at these gifts from the perspective that the gift is about the gift giver, not the one who has the gift.  If we lose focus and make it about the one who has the gift, that house will fall. 

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

·       Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

Understanding Angels Among Us, Pt 2, Ep 2-26

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part two of the ways we are enabled to conquer Unseen and even Seen Enemies with the assistance of Heavenly Angels.  We are going to continue to look at how angels have been revealed to us through the Bible to understand who they are and their role.  I will again share a story of my experiences with seeing an angel working and how it felt to be in the room during it all. 

Let’s do a quick recap of what we have discussed so far and then we will jump right into what the bible tells us. Remember we are only discussing Heavenly Angels.

·      Angels are superior to humans in strength, intelligence, power and character.  They have supernatural abilities and far exceed our level of knowledge, but they are not all knowing, all powerful nor omni present

·      Angels are holy and have always been holy, created by God.  Originally there were 3 companies of angels which were each led by an archangel.  Two companies remain and are led by archangel Michael or archangel Gabriel.

·      The third company of angels are fallen angels and are led by Satan

·      Angels are known for their activities of praising, worshipping and carrying out God’s commands.  Angels are interested in and many of their activities involve humans and our journey of becoming saved through our belief in Jesus. 

·      There are 3 types of Angels: Seraphim, Cherubim and Living Creatures

Alright, let’s get into our discussion for today and we are going to start with the last example from the Old Testament and that is Daniel.  I love reading Daniel because it really gives us such a clear picture of what God is willing to do for those are faithful to seek Him.  Daniel is unique, not many could be as consistently faithful so he is someone we can all learn from to build strength.

So we are reading Daniel 10: 2-14.  At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. (So Daniel prayed for three week)  I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.( that is significant because Daniel would appear before the king and you could not appear before the king not looking healthy and having your appearance be in order) On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, 5 I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. 8 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. 9 Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes,(so the archangel Michael)  came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. (referring to the Demon appointed by Satan over that territory, demons are territorial spirits)  14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

So in these few verses we learn a bit of how the spirit realm works, we see that Daniel’s prayer was set to be answered when he began praying.  So don’t think God doesn’t hear you, He can respond the second we begin to pray.  Also we learn that there is a hierarchy among the angels, they need to travel and will encounter obstacles in their work to fulfill and carry out what God has assigned them in response to our prayers.  So don’t ever say God doesn’t answer your prayers or you align yourself with the enemy and your prayer is now inhibited because you didn’t have the faith Daniel had to keep praying for three weeks.  He not only prayed but he was fasting throughout.  Stand strong in your prayer request and let God work.

Let’s keep going and move on to the New Testament.  We are going to Luke 1.  Luke was written by Luke the physician who was Paul’s traveling companion.  When Jesus died on the cross remember that Jesus gave his mother to John to care for going forward.  Jesus did have brothers, but because his brothers were not believers at Jesus’ death he relied on John.  After John’s exile to Patmos was pardoned, he lived out his life in Ephesus, which is where Mary was said to have lived as well and Luke is reported to have spent time interviewing Mary to get more information for his documentation of his writings.  So we are going to start with the most important angel visitation in the Bible.  Luke 1 reveals that the archangel Gabriel visited Mary in Nazareth to tell her she would conceive Jesus.  I visited Nazareth earlier this year.  It is located in a Palestinian territory and vastly different than when Jesus was there but you still find yourself caught up in the miracle of the location.  Anyhow, here is what we are told in Luke 1, verse 26:  In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, (Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist, and Mary’s older cousin) God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Again, the angels are an integral part in the plan for our salvation.  Mary didn’t pray for this, the Lord used the angels to bring about His plan for salvation and establish His kingdom that will never end.

Now let’s take a look at Mark 16 and see how God uses His angels: When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

God was using an angel to prepare the way for the disciples to see Jesus after the resurrection.  Without the angel, it would have been devastating for the women to show up and likely no one would have remembered what Jesus had told them and who knows what could have happened in their distress looking for Jesus’ body.  God is all about good communication.

Now we are moving to Acts 8 and this is one of my favorite stories.  Philip and the Ethiopian.  Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian[a] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Philip was able to explain to the eunuch what he was reading and about Jesus, prompting the eunuch to want to be saved and baptized. Verse 36, As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] [c] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. (Now here comes my favorite part)  When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. This story is unique because we learn something new about angels among us. Philip is traveling about, it’s not a populated area where this occurred and we are told an angel of the Lord tells Philip what to do, and then afterward Philip is whisked away, essentially transported, to another location to continue to preach. I’ve heard of a few occasions, and I mean 2, where this has happened in this last century.  With God anything is possible, never naysay what you don’t understand when God wants to move.  You can end up missing something He wanted to use you for to build His kingdom.

Let’s move into Acts 12, and take a look at what an angel did for Peter.  6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

There are times in our lives when we need a suddenly, and there are times when we need an action in the natural that can only be accomplished through the supernatural.  I have lived some of those moments, have you?  If you were living one now, would you recognize it?  Don’t let anyone tell you God doesn’t move in the miraculous today, that it’s not for today.  God is the same yesterday, today and forever, Hebrews 13:8. That is your response to someone who is closed minded and has no knowledge of who God is today.

We are going to spend a little time in the Book of Revelation now because we haven’t yet spoken about the third type of angels, the living creatures.  I am going to give you eight scriptures which talk about their activities to come. Remember from Part 1 we discussed their appearance as having eyes all over them, so we at least have an “eye”dea what they look like.  That was a bad pun by the way, but I couldn’t resist.  Let’s read the scriptures and get an understanding of them. I’m going to just read the scriptures one after another.

Revelation 5:6: Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth

Revelation 5:8: And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

Revelation 5:11: Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.

Revelation 5:14: The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Revelation 6:1: I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”

Revelation 6:6: Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Revelation 7:11: All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,

Revelation 8:9: a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

While we are here to find answers regarding angels, reading those scriptures, and that is a small snapshot of all the scriptures, that almost leads us to more questions than answers.  We know that the Bible reveals to us what we need to know to understand, but not everything we need to know to understand the entirety of God’s world.  God doesn’t need us to understand so we have to understand what he allows us to see and from what I see with these living creatures they look specialized, they have a distinct appearance for some purpose we can’t understand today, they have a place of significance in our future, they have control or an authority over aspects of end times, they are full of worship, they are in association with the elders.

A lot of what is in the Book of Revelation is more difficult to understand because it is so foreign to us, but don’t let that intimidate you.  The Book of Revelation is fascinating and it may take a few reads to get it down but that’s okay, spend some time there and you will gain an understanding of heaven and see Jesus in a way few understand. 

I want to tell you the story of my father-in-law.  I haven’t shared this with but a handful of people in my life.  Not many would believe it, but that’s not my concern at this point.  If you have made it this far, then chances are you will appreciate what I am sharing.

This happened about 8 years ago.  My father-in-law was sick for a while, cancer.  He was a good man, a very good man.  He had a difficult childhood that he didn’t speak of often.  He and his sister were foster children at a young age and were placed in a facility run by the catholic church.  It was a miserable childhood.  They were separated so he was alone and was treated horribly.  As an adult it made him turn away from any form of religion.  In his last few years, however, he began to ask my husband questions.  He was seeking, and I think trying to reconcile what he experienced with who God is and I think that’s understandable.  Fast forward to the last year of his life and he did start reading the Bible, talking more, asking more.  It was exciting to see, but he would always stop just short.  Trust was an issue with him and he struggled to trust a God he didn’t fully know or understand. 

On April 27, 2015, my mother-in-law called my husband and said, I think it’s time, you need to get here quickly.  They lived about 3 hours or so from us, so we left as quickly as we could and got there around 1:30. When we arrived at the house, Tom, was in a hospital bed in the living room.  He had been there for a few months I think, it’s hard to remember.  We were the first to arrive that day so only my mother-in-law was there.  As soon as we walked in the house, I felt the presence of something.  It took me a minute to orient myself but I knew we were not alone, someone else was there, someone strong and good.  I told my husband, but under the circumstances I don’t know how much he heard. It was an emotional time when we entered the house, my father-in-law was in a medically induced coma so that he could pass peacefully in his sleep.  As my husband and his mom talked, I stepped back to the side to try to understand what I was feeling and as I looked around the room I could see there were angels circling above Tom.  They were waiting on something as they looked at Tom.  At first glance you might assume they were waiting on Tom but there was more to it than that.  I looked down at Tom in the hospital bed and that’s when I realized what the angels were doing.  They were watching.  There was an exchange going on between Tom and an another angel that looked like a man, a higher-ranking angel based on his dress.  Remember in the first episode when we talked about Isaiah 6 and he gave the description of the train of the Lord’s robe filling the temple, well this angel wore a robe that defied how material lays or gathers in our world.  There were folds on folds on folds of material but it was as if it multiplied in the folds because material does not lay like that.  When I was a kid, my mom would sew and I would go to the store with her shopping for material on bolts so I’m familiar with how material can be manipulated to create folds but that’s not what this was.  The length of the robe was just to his feet. He was older than most angels I have seen or heard about.  His robe was decorated with blue silk embroidery and tassels along the collar and down the front edges of the robe.  The only thing I can remember seeing that I understood was pomegranates.  The robe was unbelievably beautiful, amazingly white.  The angel knew I was there, knew I could see him, but never looked at me.  His focus was on Tom.  He was speaking with Tom because his time was near.  This angel had one job and he was intent on fulfilling it.  He was giving Tom the opportunity to accept Jesus.  Remember Tom was in a coma so he was not in a position to do it fully conscious.  I could tell there was back and forth, Tom was finally getting answers, answers beyond what we were able to provide.  I remember him asking me once, how do you know that he is.  All I could say was because He said He was I AM, and showed him in the Bible where God calls himself I AM.  The angel and Tom spoke for what was a few hours in our time. I only know that by the change of lighting in the room.  People came in during and stood next to Tom where the angel was but it didn’t change anything.  There was a lot of conversation, the later it got, the more people came.  Then without any indication, the angel was gone.  The angels above were still there, they were more animated.  At one point a few people left and it was quieter.  My husband took his phone and pulled up a Johnny Cash song and placed it by Tom’s ear, it was his favorite. My husband kept coming back to spend those moments with Tom and tell him he loved him, then he would go back to his mom.  During this Johnny Cash song, however, Tom woke up, he woke up long enough to look at my husband, say I love you and close his eyes again and go back to sleep. 

By about 8 or so that night everyone left and made plans to come back in the morning.  Me, my mother-in-law and my husband sat in the living room and talked.  Around 9:30, I decided to leave them alone with Tom and I went to read the Bible in the room we were staying in for the night.  At 10, Don asked his mom how she was going to handle being alone, she said she would be okay and then they no longer heard him breathing and I hear my mother-in-law scream my name.  I came running and they were standing beside Tom, I came up to him, checked for vital signs and dreaded having to look up to them and tell them he was gone, confirming what I know they knew.  The rest of the night was a whirlwind of activity.  

I don’t recall if we left the next day to get back to the kids or if we stayed a day but I do remember that it was pretty quiet as we were driving back and my husband was praying.  He didn’t know all the details of what I saw because I hadn’t had time to tell him but he asked the Lord if his dad was with Him, and the Lord gave him a loud and clear “Yes” and that was all he needed.

God uses his angels for His purposes and they complete what the Lord sends them to do.  Never discount God just because you can’t see it.  I was the only one who saw those angels.  I was the only one who saw the conversation, but if I had not been there it would have still happened.  We just had the benefit of seeing God at work through his angels.  No circumstance is too small or too large for I AM.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing heavenly angels and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      Part 2 of our discussion of heavenly angels

·      Recap of most important parts of Part 1

·      Daniel 10 and the angel appearing in response to Daniel’s prayer

·      Luke 1 and the angel appearing to Mary regarding the birth of Jesus

·      Acts 8 with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch

·      Acts 12 with Peter getting out of jail

·      The book of Revelation and the living creatures: 5:6, 5:8, 5:11, 5:14, 6:1, 6:6, 7:11, 8:9

·      The story of my father-in-law passing

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

·       Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

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Understanding Angels Among Us, Pt 1, Ep 2-25

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing one of the ways we are enabled to conquer Unseen and even Seen Enemies and that is because of Heavenly Angels.  We are going to look at how angels have been revealed to us through the Bible to understand who they are and their role.  I will share a few stories of my experiences with seeing angels working and how it felt to be present during it all.  There is a lot of information here and so we are going to do this in 2 episodes so here we go.

There are a lot of differing opinions on angels, and it is important we understand them from a biblical perspective.  I was surprised to find that while as a world population, only 31% are Christian, when you ask about belief in angels about 70% of the overall population believe in angels, regardless of whether they are Christian or another religion. With that many people believing in these heavenly hosts, I think it’s important to spend some time discussing here.

To start off, let’s discuss who they are, where they are, how long they have been around, just get a general understanding of angels. 

Angels are heavenly beings.  They are superior to humans in strength, intelligence, power and character.  They have supernatural abilities and far exceed our level of knowledge, but they are not all knowing, all powerful nor omni present as is God.  They’re existence can only be in one place at one time, though they can travel at whatever pace is required but they can encounter obstacles in their travel.  Angels were created by God, they were alive when creation was formed.  They are holy and have always been holy.  Originally there were 3 companies of angels which were each led by an archangel.  Two companies remain and are led by archangel Michael or archangel Gabriel.  They can be referred to as angels of light.  Light angels will only ever appear as light angels.

The third company of angels are fallen angels and are led by Satan and can appear as light or dark, meaning fallen, angels.  For the remainder of this episode, we are only discussing angels of the light.

Angels are known for their activities of praising, worshipping and carrying out God’s commands.  Angels are interested in and many of their activities involve humans and our journey of becoming saved through our belief in Jesus.  Angels do not need to be saved, they are already citizens of heaven. They already know God, Jesus is King and are opposed to anything that is against God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit.  They can take the form of humans to accomplish the task that is required.  They can remain invisible to our eyes, or they can allow themselves to be seen at differing levels, meaning, sometimes we can see a somewhat transparent or translucent figure but not necessarily a lot of detail to their form. They can also take over another form and we will go over an occurrence of this in the Bible.

In Christianity, there are considered 3 types of angels.  There are others who will name many more than this, but I am only referring to what the Bible calls angels of light.  We are not discussing the titles given to fallen angels because that is not our discussion on this episode, so keep that in mind. Also, our description in these next few minutes are angels in their heavenly state as opposed to how they appear to us on earth most frequently.

The three type of Angels in no particular order:

Seraphim are a type of angel only described in Isaiah.  We are going to be discussing this in detail from the book of Isaiah in a few minutes so I will talk more about these angels then, but they are quite intriguing, and I look forward to having the opportunity to see them myself when the time comes.

Cherubim are winged beings that are referred to the most and are seen more frequently throughout the Bible, 92 times actually.  They are first mentioned in Genesis 3, which we will discuss and are also mentioned in Revelation.  So from the beginning to the end. These are the beings most often misinterpreted as chubby babies and silly caricatures are rampant of them looking sweet and quite frankly ridiculous and nothing could be further from the truth. A number of places in the Bible give a very vivid, while simultaneously hard to imagine description of their appearance.  They are described as having 4 wings, four faces—that of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle with four feet like a calf. When we read of the cherubim first mentioned in Genesis 3:24, after Adam and Eve are displaced from the Garden of Eden, cherubim are stationed outside, this is what the scripture says:  After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Living Creatures are discussed quite a bit in the Book of Revelation. Let’s read the description as given to us in Revelation 4:6, Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. When I read this I try to imagine it and I wonder all sorts of things, what color are the eyes?  Are they all the same color?  Are they identical?  Do they all look in different directions?  Do they need to blink?  What is the purpose? What do they need to see so intently in heaven?  Is that their only purpose? Are they small eyes? Large eyes?

Now we get a little more of a description in Revelation 4:8, Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”

Alright, so we have a general understanding of angels.  Now let’s take a look at some of the ways God uses them. 

We will start with Genesis 19.  Two men entered the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot recognized them immediately.  I find that interesting because these angels took the form of two men, how did Lot know who they were when he saw them?  We know they looked like men because other men, young and old, in the town tried to get Lot to open his house and let them have access to these two men for sexual reasons.  Lot tried to reason with these men but they became more angry and threatened Lot as well.  My take on this is the enemy was behind the behavior of this mob of men. The demon of lust had control of that city we know because it was about to come under God’s judgment.  So what did these two angels do, well, they saved Lot from the mob and struck all these men with blindness.  These two angels then assisted Lot to get out of town before they caused the burning sulphur to rain down and destroy the area.  Just from that one story we see angels provide protection, they can advise and they made adjustments to their plan because they chose to accommodate Lot who did not want to go into the wilderness but rather a nearby village to obtain refuge.  Then the angles executed judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah as God required.  When we think of angels, do we think of them in terms of all they are capable of, or just ornaments and creatures in a gown with wings and a harp?  Why is it angels are looked at so weakly but even non-believers will characterize demons as hard and harsh, strong, almost venerating demons.

Look at this next angel and what God is using him for in Exodus 23:20. “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. As we read this we can see that God has given this angel the authority over that entire situation as the angel leads all the Israelites, no small task. We need to understand that these heavenly beings are incredibly important and we owe so much to their willingness to do everything asked of them.  They do so much for us we cannot see or understand.  We should respect them, not worship them, but respect them. 

This next one makes me angry and makes me laugh, we are going to Numbers 22:21, but let me set the scene here.  As the Israelites are making their way into their promised land, they are encountering other people groups and the people inhabiting those lands are afraid.  They already know God moves with the Israelites so the King of Moab named Balak sought out a man named Balaam who was known as a soothsayer.  Balak wanted Balaam to put a curse on the Israelites. Ultimately God forbid Balaam from doing that, so God did speak to Balaam even though he practiced divination and at one point as Balaam was traveling to Balak an an angel of the Lord stood in the way of Balaam as he traveled with his donkey.  The donkey tried 3 times to avoid the angel of the Lord but Balaam beat the donkey for not obeying Balaam’s directions and further would have killed him if he had the sword to do so.  That’s the part that makes me angry, beating an animal.  That donkey was saving his life.  As a result, God opened the donkey’s mouth and the donkey spoke to Balaam asking him why he was beating him.  Now, my parrot speaks to me, asks me questions, but he does so because we have taught him or because he listens to us.  So when I walk in the room and he says “What’s Up?”  or as we sit down to eat and he says “Ready?  Dear Heavenly Father…, yes my parrot knows how to pray.  But if I owned a donkey and he started talking to me, I would have a moment of terror or freak out, something, I would not just respond to the donkey, I don’t know what world Balaam is living in but after he has a conversation with his donkey is when he realized the angel of the Lord was standing there.  He then immediately fell facedown because he understood God was wanting to speak.  God forbid Balaam from cursing the Israelites but instead he was to bless them.  Balaam was later killed by the Israelites as God required of Joshua to clear the land of evil.  God just chose to use Balaam for his purposes even though he was involved in evil practices.  In this situation, this angel appeared, and the donkey was aware of his presence.  Animals are sometimes able to sense supernatural activities when we are not, their senses are created differently, the nose of a dog will pick up if there is a scent associated with an angel or a demon, which is frequently described in experiences.  A dog can smell 40 feet below ground and can detect a single drop of liquid in an Olympic size pool.  I digressed, but the angel here again doing what the Lord required and it resulted in the Israelites being blessed multiple times.

So now we are going to go to Isaiah 6 and talk about the Seraphim, again this is the only place in the Bible where the Seraphim are discussed.  After this we will discuss Ezekiel and I will share a bit about my experience with an angel before we end this part 1 discussion of angels.

Isaiah 6: 1-7, “In the year that King Uzziah died (733 BC), I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. (Remember that detail for later) Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”Then one of the seraphim (Isaiah gives us this name or we would not know it) flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

So Seraphim have six wings.  I again have questions, why are their faces covered?  Is it only in the presence of God, does that have anything to do with it at all?  Why were there feet covered?  They are in heaven so everything is holy, so why, so that Isaiah couldn’t see it? If they can fly with 2 wings, why do they have 6?  That’s just how my mind thinks because I know that with God every detail has a purpose. Nothing is done just because.  From this we know that Seraphim were used for purification purposes of Isaiah as he began his ministry work for God.  They are associated with the throne of God, but we could only assume their purpose in Heaven, so rather than assume, I will just leave you with what we have discussed up to this point.

We are going to take a visit to Ezekiel next, Ezekiel 10 to be specific. In this chapter Ezekiel is describing the glory of God leaving the temple and there are cherubim present.  The cherubim were there to protect the Ark of the covenant. Gold depictions of them were included in the design of the ark above the mercy seat. So their presence being revealed to Ezekiel as he watches God’s glory depart is not surprising, but the description of them is truly other worldly.  God’s creations are amazing.  I’ll read from Ezekiel and then think about being in Ezekiel’s shoes trying to describe this. This is Chapter 10 verses 9-14.

I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz. As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about[b] as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went. Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels. I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.” Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

Most accounts of people who have had experiences with what they believe to be angels don’t look anything like what we have discussed as cherubim or seraphim.  For the most part my experiences as well as all accounts I am aware of the angels have a human form and that may simply be because they are interacting with us and it is easier for them to blend and to not terrify us.  I have two stories I will share, one in this episode and the one in the next episode because in the next episode we are going to have New Testament examples and that is more fitting for what the angel was doing. 

What I wanted to share today was about 12 years ago.  At the time, we were living by the beach and every morning I would get up early, like 5 am to take my dogs on a walk on the beach before the day started.  On this particular morning, the weather was wonderful, it was still dark, but not too cold.  There was a little ocean breeze and I had walked about a quarter mile away from the house along the frontage road parallel to the beach.  Because no one was awake and there were no buildings along the path I was walking, noise traveled through the air for quite a distance. I remember I was just reaching the point where my house was out of sight, it was so dark and the area only had one street light and it was by my house. As I was walking I heard a door slam and a weird noise after that.  I can’t even describe it, but I knew it was not good.  I don’t know why I didn’t have a cell phone on me, looking back that was pretty stupid, but I turned around and looked at my house.  I couldn’t see anything, but I knew something was wrong.  I ran as fast as I could back to the house and found my husband in his underwear outside on his knees on the asphalt, choking, trying to breath. He came outside looking for me to help him and when he didn’t see me he made the only noise he could.  I tried to do the Heimlich, I was too short, I’m 5’2, he’s 5’11.  I had him move to the steps by the door and I tried the Heimlich again on the steps, nothing.  He was getting worse, just so you know 911 wasn’t an option where we were.  I ran to the neighbor, banged on the door, we yelled through the door until he could open it and I told him what was happening and I needed him to come.  He said he was in his underwear and I yelled I didn’t care as I ran away back to the house.  As I ran back to my house and turned the corner of the side of my house to the front door I was taken back by what I saw and stopped.  My husband was back on the asphalt but standing next to him was an angel about 9 feet tall, in a white robe, serious look on his face. I saw the angel take his arm and put it down my husband’s throat pull out what was obstructing his air flow and toss it aside about 10 feet.  He waited to make sure he was breathing, and then he was gone.  The second he was gone, the neighbor came running past me to give him the Heimlich but my husband was able to stand up straight at that point.  Now there were two men standing there in their underwear and I was replaying in my head what I had just seen. I remember noting the look on the angel’s face.  I don’t know why it stood out to me but there was no emotion, he did the job and once it was done, he made sure all was ok and that was it.  Whereas the 3 of us were emotional and  scared.  The neighbor, bless his heart, was willing to do whatever was necessary.  He was 6’4” so he was definitely able to do the Heimlich! How or why the angel showed up at that moment I have actually never asked God about, maybe I should.  I was just astonished that it occurred.  You don’t know when an angel intervenes in that way how it came to be that they are there when it is a sudden event.  I was the only one who saw that angel that night, my husband had been struggling so long to breathe that he couldn’t think straight to recant anything except to say that all of a sudden what was causing the obstruction was coming up out of his body and he saw it get tossed out about 10 feet. We had to search for what it was because it was tossed. At the time my husband was getting dental work done and somehow a piece of his temporary dental work came loose in his sleep and he somehow managed to get it lodged down his throat.  Imagine something like a retainer for braces, that’s similar to what went down his throat. Scary, but the Lord knew and had a plan.

Well that is all for this episode.  Next week we will be going through some more angel discussions from the Bible, focusing more on the New Testament and I will share another story of being in the same room with an angel who was working for several hours. 

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing angels and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      Heavenly Angels

·      Only 31 % of world’s population is Christian but 70% of the population believe in angels.

·      They are superior to humans in strength, intelligence, power and character.  They have supernatural abilities and far exceed our level of knowledge, but they are not all knowing, all powerful nor omni present

·      They are holy and have always been holy, created by God.  Originally there were 3 companies of angels which were each led by an archangel.  Two companies remain and are led by archangel Michael or archangel Gabriel.

·      The third company of angels are fallen angels and are led by Satan

·      Angels are known for their activities of praising, worshipping and carrying out God’s commands.  Angels are interested in and many of their activities involve humans and our journey of becoming saved through our belief in Jesus. 

·      There are 3 types of Angels: Seraphim, Cherubim and Living Creatures

·      Genesis 3:24, we see Cherubim at the Garden of Eden

·      Genesis 19, Story with Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah

·      Exodus 23, providing protection to the Israelites in their journey

·      Numbers 22, Balaam and his Donkey

·      Isaiah 6, the only place the bible discusses the Seraphim

·      Ezekiel 10 and the description we are given of the Cherubim

·      My story of the angel who saved my husband when he was choking

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

·       Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

Is there an Anointing in or on your life? Ep 2-24

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing anointing.  We hear the term, “anointing, but do we fully understand what it is, and do we understand how God is willing to equip us with our own anointing?  Have you asked the Lord what anointing He has available to you?  Do you know how to apply the anointing in your life?

Let’s start by defining anointing.  What is the purpose of anointing? The intent of anointing is to set apart a person, place, or thing for divine use. The anointed person belongs to God for a special purpose.  An example of this is in Isaiah 61:1, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…

Isaiah was a prophet, one of the major prophets of the Lord.  His book is filled with Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Messiah.  His calling occurred about 740 B.C. when King Uzziah died.  Isaiah was one of many of God’s anointed ones from the Old Testament. His message heavily discussed a coming judgment for God’s people and it was largely ignored. As you read Isaiah, it’s clear to see the calling that was placed on his life and the Lord used him mightily throughout his lifetime. 

So who else was anointed and what does the Bible tells us about anointing? In the Old Testament, priests, kings and prophets were primarily who God called for service and were therefore anointed.  So King David, King Saul, King Solomon, all of the prophets such as Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, including the minor prophets such as Haggai, Malachi, and priests were anointed because all of these people, though this is just a small list, all were anointed for God’s purposes.  We have been given a rich treasury full of their work and words in the Bible as we see how God was able to use these people for His purposes.   

We can begin to see the discussion of anointing oil in Exodus 25, when the Lord tells Moses to have the Israelites bring offerings and God requests spices for the anointing oil. So “anointing”

encompassed more than just a call, but an action involving an “anointing oil” as well.  We will discuss that more in a few minutes, for now I just wanted you to see that it has been a part of God’s plan for thousands of years. Nearly half the books of the Bible have some discussion of anointing, so this is important to God, so it should be important to us as well.

In the New Testament we learn more about the anointing because the Anointed One, Jesus, the Messiah, brings to us a new anointing available to us through the Holy Spirit.   In fact, the word Messiah comes from a Hebrew word meaning “anointed one”.  So this leads me into my next

question, Does everyone have an anointing?  So the answer to that is yes, but it’s different than what we see in the Old Testament anointing.  Let’s see what the Bible tells us in 1 John 2:20, we read: But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.  Let’s go a little further and 7 verses down see what else we can learn about anointing.  1 John 2:27, As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.  So we have an anointing, each of us as a believer, because we have the Holy Spirit, so we are set apart from the world through this anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Next question, are all anointings equal? No, because as we discussed a little bit in the prophecy episodes, there are some people who are called to Ministry Anointings (Prophet, Pastor, Teacher, Preacher, Apostle), so they’re anointings have a different purpose for the Lord, those are similar to the Old Testament anointings.  For those who are not called to a Ministry level anointing, you can still have an anointing gifting beyond what I would call the believer level of anointing.  Now I say that meaning no disrespect to believer level anointing because that is the Holy Spirit, but if you want to increase your anointing, you by all means can by working with the Holy Spirit.   

How do I know my anointing? Your anointing and an increase in your anointing is directly tied to your relationship with the Holy Spirit.  If you want to see an increase in your anointing, then you need to develop your relationship with Him and in my opinion, you cannot function in an anointing if you do not communicate with the Lord.  What do I mean communicate?  I mean two-way communication.  You need to be praying, talking to the Holy Spirit just like you do your friends and…and…you need to be able to hear him respond.  When my son was in the ICU, he couldn’t speak, initially he was too weak to write.  It was a few days before we could even use blinking for basic communication.  Ask yourself this…if the Lord has something to say to you, how does He feel in your ability to receive what He is communicating?  You can pray and speak to Him, but how are you in two-way communication?  If you can’t hear Him guide you clearly, how can you function in an anointing?  If you can’t function in an anointing, how can you then ask for an increase.  If he gave you an increase, how would you even know without communication?  If you have an anointing over your life that He wants to use you for, then you have to be able to follow His direction to ensure you are understanding what is happening in the natural and the supernatural.  We know we are not just living in the natural. We cannot assume that we can function properly for Him if we cannot hear Him. There are several types of anointings.  We can see several in the bible by looking at how God used His people. Daniel had  an anointing, Nehemiah had an anointing, Elijah had an anointing, Moses had an anointing, Joseph had an anointing, Esther had an anointing, John the Baptist had an anointing.  If we look at what was accomplished in all of their lives, we see the functions of their anointings.  In addition, there are functional anointings like healing, intercessory prayer, and discipleship. 

There are even anointings over people’s lives that you wouldn’t necessarily recognize as an anointing.  At my church is a man with an unbelievable anointing over his life.  If you ever visit my church you will inevitably be met by Brother Lowell.  I have not asked Brother Lowell his permission to talk about him, but I don’t think he’d mind.  Brother Lowell has a gift, the Lord has used him well in his life and his anointing is overflowing. Whether he knows you or not, Brother Lowell will embrace you when he sees you with the love of God.  You know when you are being embraced that this man is full of love.  The Lord once told me that this man was like a cistern.  He could pour out on other people and the love he offered would never empty because the Lord continually fills him to be able to pour out on His people.  What a wonderful anointing.  That’s not my anointing, maybe it’s yours or maybe you want it, so ask the Lord.  Ask the Lord what it requires of you.  Understand that an anointing doesn’t always come easy, sometimes there is a cost.  If you aren’t sure what anointing you have or should have, guess who knows?  He knew us before we were made, so there was already a plan created for us.  We have the choice to live in that plan or not, but there is a plan there.  Ask the Lord what His plan is for you.  What does He want to use you for in His Kingdom work.  When we begin to know, understand, and step into our anointing, the enemy loses ground where we step forward. 

How do I apply the anointing in my life? If we have spent the time with the Lord to learn what our anointing is, then we should also expect to spend time with the Lord being developed for that anointing.  He wants us to understand what we will walk in, in His name.  How diligent we are in developing determines how we apply the anointing.  We don’t ask a child to go to work in our place, likewise, the Lord will equip us in our anointing before we begin to apply it in our lives and beyond.  Again, this requires two-way communication.

So let’s switch gears a little bit here.  What is is to “anoint” with oil? In the Old Testament, part of the ritual of commissioning or “setting apart” a person for their calling involved the act of anointing them with oil.  There would be a pouring out of the oil which was typically an olive oil, myrrh or balsam.  They are generally “seasoned” with different spices, depending on the use or the regional area.  In Exodus 40:9 we see that anointing with oil wasn’t just for people, but objects as well.  Verse nine says: “Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. In James 5, we see that anointing with oil could also be done for healing purposes, so you would anoint the sick with oil as you prayed over them for healing. Today you hear more about people anointing their house

or their property.  I personally do that because I am setting it apart for the Lord, what I own is His so I anoint it.  I have spoken of this even for protection against demonic entities and as just something to do annually over your home.  Less frequently you hear people anointing others, generally in churches or some other prayer setting.  As a general rule, I would not allow someone I do not know to pray over and anoint me for anything.  It’s not something done casually so if this is done, it should be intentional and you would generally know who would be doing this over you.

If anointing your house or business is something you want to do, by all means do so and use scripture as you do it.  I get asked frequently about what type of oil to use in anointing.  There are commercially sold anointing oils, you can get them in many Christian stores or online.  I bought some in Jerusalem earlier this year. You don’t need to use any of these if you don’t have access to them.  You can use olive oil.  If you don’t have olive oil, then use what you do have, the Lord is not looking down on us and saying “well, you did everything right, but that’s not the right oil, so sorry I can’t accept what you are doing” Pray over what you have and give it as an offering and anoint your house or your car or your business, whatever you intended.  Anoint your children, whatever you want to set apart for the Lord, do it.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing anointing and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.  As always let’s discuss our

Top Show Points:

·      Today we discussed anointing 

·      Definition of anointing is to set apart a person, place, or thing for divine use 

·      An example of this is in Isaiah 61:1

·      In the Old Testament, priests, kings and prophets were primarily who God called for service and were therefore anointed. 

·      In the New Testament we learn more about the anointing because the Anointed One, Jesus, the Messiah, brings to us a new anointing available to us through the Holy Spirit.    

·      So “anointing”encompassed more than just a call, but an action involving an “anointing oil” as well.  

·      The word Messiah comes from a Hebrew word meaning “anointed one”.   

·      1 John 2:20 discusses our anointing as a believer

·      1 John 2:27 also discusses the anointing we have from the Holy Spirit

·      All anointings are not equal? some people are called to Ministry Anointings (Prophet, Pastor, Teacher, Preacher, Apostle)

·      Your anointing and an increase in your anointing is directly tied to your relationship with the Holy Spirit.  If you want to see an increase in your anointing, then you need to develop your relationship with Him and in my opinion, you cannot function in an anointing without two-way communication. 

·      There are several types of anointings.  We can see several types in the bible by looking at how God used His people.

·      There are functional anointings like healing, intercessory prayer, and discipleship. 

·      Story of Brother Lowell in my church and his anointing

·      Understand that an anointing doesn’t always come easy, sometimes there is a cost. 

·      The Lord will equip us in the anointing that he provides but it will require our time

·      When we begin to know, understand, and step into our anointing, the enemy loses ground where we step forward. 

·      Exodus 40:9 we see that anointing with oil wasn’t just for people, but objects as well to consecrate them.

·      Anointing your house and the type of oil to use

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

·       Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

The Gift of Prophecy Alive or Dead? True or False? Part 2, Ep 2-23

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the second part of our discussion on prophecy.  Is the gift of prophecy alive today or dead?  Is it true or false? Today we are going to talk about false prophecy.  We will examine what the Bible tells us about false prophets and how we can develop what is needed to discern false from true.

Let’s start by recapping the gifts of the Spirit Paul discussed in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

To review, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

To help us to remember the gifts and to aid in understanding them, there are Power Gifts, Revelation gifts and Spoken gifts. 

Prophecy is a Spoken gift.  Of the three Spoken gifts it is the one that is the strongest in that it can stand on its own.  Tongues and interpretation of tongues need each other, so they cannot stand on their own in terms of edifying the church. 

The spiritual gift of prophecy involves three things: edification, exhortation and comfort.

·      Edification is the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually.

·      Exhortation is using language that is intended to incite or encourage another to take action in a positive way

·      Comfort is to ease or alleviate a person’s feeling of grief or distress. 

In my experience, there are two kinds of false prophets, the knowing and the unknowing. We could also call them the intentional and the unintentional or the evil and the ignorant.  Neither are good but generally only one is willing to be corrected. 

Let’s take a look at what the Bible tells us about false prophets:

We’ll start off in Isaiah, I think Isaiah is one of the richest, that sounds like bad grammar, one of the most rich, that doesn’t sound any better, one of the most revealing books in the Bible of the nature and character of God. 

So, let’s look at Isaiah 44:24:

“This is what the Lord says—
    your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:

I am the Lord,
    the Maker of all things,
    who stretches out the heavens,
    who spreads out the earth by myself,
25 who foils the signs of false prophets
    and makes fools of diviners,
who overthrows the learning of the wise
    and turns it into nonsense,
26 who carries out the words of his servants
    and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,

Here God is talking about both false prophets and his own prophets in verse 26.  We can see here that God clearly indicates false prophets not only exist but in addition to them being false, He will interfere and “foil” or prevent the success of, whatever they are doing.  As long as we are here, let’s not overlook the majesty of how God describes Himself, the maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens and spreads out the earth.  When you are having a bad day, remember, you know the “Maker of all things” Ok, I digressed. 

Ok, I am going to give you several more verses on false prophets before we begin our discussion so just stay with me here.  These are all very interesting and God does not mince words on how He feels about them.

Jeremiah 14:14: Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.

Jeremiah 23:16: This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

Lamentations 2:14: The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The prophecies they gave you were false and misleading.

Ezekiel 13:9: My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.

Hosea 11:6:  A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans.

Matthew 7:15:  “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Matthew 24:24:  For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

2 Peter 2:1:  But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

1 John 4:1:  Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Now that is not an exhaustive list of scriptures on false prophets, but those are some of my favorites.  We have a good cross section of old testament and new testament spanning several centuries and one thing we can see is that God’s position or His opinion of these false prophets has not changed.  We also can see that the existence of false prophets has not diminished.  We know that we have them today.  This is why the issue of prophecy becomes such a sticky subject.  Those who would rather not learn the difference will simply shut down all prophecy.  Any church teaching that prophecy is dead is in fact a dead church.  Why do I say that?  The Bible does not say for example, watch out for all prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  It does not say in test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many prophets have gone out into the world. The Bible is warning against false prophets.  If there are false prophets, then there must be “true” prophets as well.  You cannot have something be false if there is no true.  False cannot exist without truth.  A church who wants to disregard prophecy for today is not willing to read the bible and hear the Holy Spirit, be led by the Holy Spirit or seek knowledge or understanding from the Holy Spirit.  It’s like putting a blindfold on and heading out into the street thinking you are going to get to where you want to go without encountering harm.  You may know the way by heart, just like you can know scripture by heart, but you cannot know the Truth of what obstacles lie before you which will change daily if you don’t have the light which the blindfold will prevent you from receiving.  The better way is to know the way, the truth and the light and prophecy is a part of all of those things when we receive it from the Lord. 

Let’s go back and revisit what I said earlier about two types of false prophets. The knowing and the unknowing, the intentional and the unintentional or the evil and the ignorant.  However you want to refer to them is fine but we want to understand the difference because the difference is HUGE. 

Someone who is knowingly, intentionally behaving, directing, providing false prophecy is evil.  Someone who is unknowingly, unintentionally providing false prophecy is ignorant.  While both are harmful, the one who is ignorant is likely immature and is willing to take correction.  If the one who is ignorant is unwilling to take correction, then they are acting out of the flesh and they are actually evil. 

How do you tell the difference?  Sometimes it can be difficult because the false or we can consider him to be a dark prophet will attempt to masquerade as light.  I know of one in my area who claims to have the gift of prophecy and uses all the correct “verbage” or “Christainese” vocabulary, but when this person speaks, there is no truth.  The mask of the Christainese vocabulary will fool many, but the Holy Spirit will reveal the falseness of the person if you pay attention or if you ask for revelation.  There will be an uneasiness about what is being said.  The Bible tells us to test the spirit to see whether they are from God.  You can test them by evaluating their words against scripture.  This is why knowing the scripture is so important.  Our ability to discern is based on our knowledge of scripture or at least how to get the knowledge from the scripture.  Taking the time to read and compare what was spoken to the nature of God and His direction to truth, fruit of the spirit, our relationship with Him.  More often than not, a false prophet will direct the attention to themselves while giving the appearance they are speaking on behalf of God for you.  We all want to believe God has a word for us, that He has something to say to us, and He does, but we can hear it ourselves if we have that relationship.  A false prophet will pull you along for whatever benefit they can ultimately bring back to themselves. 

Remember the distinction we made between the spiritual gift of prophecy versus the Ministry Gift of the Office of the Prophet.  Dark False prophets generally don’t operate in the spiritual gift of prophecy, that is where you are more likely to encounter the unintentional false prophet, someone learning and usually excited about hearing the Holy Spirit.  The example I gave last week of the word I was given “gold” more falls into this category.  Generally speaking someone operating unintentionally is open to correction.  If however, the correction isn’t received that is a red flag that their fleshly pride is getting in the way.   

An evil false prophet will usually depict themselves as one who functions in the office of a Prophet.  The reason for this is generally pride and greed.  One who truly operates in this office will direct the honor and glory to God and acknowledge that God is the source of everything.  An evil false prophet will not do that because they ultimately want something for themselves. 

It is likely we hear more about false prophets out in the world than true prophets.  Part of the reason is because a true prophet functions through the Holy Spirit, so they won’t be out there shouting to the world for attention.  Being a true prophet is a hard gig. You are met with disbelief and distrust in most Christian circles, you can be incorrectly associated to false prophets and even when you have an audience who believes, we often act as the Israelites did and not listen and obey what is being provided.  A true prophet is not distinguishable from his or her appearance.  There is no flashy behavior or extravagance in their appearance, there is no need for that.  They stand on truth, that’s all they need.  A false prophet needs that extra to get attention and create excitement because there is no Holy Spirit excitement. 

I am currently teaching a class in my area on how to hear God’s voice.  Prior to the class starting I was in a public meeting and an announcement was made about the class so a number of people had come to me to talk to me about it.  On this particular day, I was approached by the false prophet in my area I mentioned earlier.  I had seen this person twice before in other meetings but have never spoken to them.  I knew from hearing this person speak in those meetings there was an issue, but had not asked the Lord about it.  I am not the Holy Spirit police so unless there is something definitively harmful or the Holy Spirit tells me to intercede, I will generally wait, watch and listen.  Anyhow, this day, this person approached me and asked me one question and then proceeded to tell me all about themselves and all the prophetic work they do.  I remained silent, just nodded my head, essentially acknowledging that I was being spoken to but not encouraging the conversation, just listening and watching as it unfolded.  The conversation then shifted to this person attempting to compare themselves to me and then went even further to them stating they were gifted the same as I am.  I found this quite strange as I have never spoken to this person before, and I can count on one hand the number of people that I have ever shared information about my giftings.  What was being done here was an attempt to establish credibility by attaching to me.  Any credibility I have comes from the Holy Spirit, not me.  The Holy Spirit confirms my words, I don’t have to convince anyone. I don’t care if people believe me or not because it’s not by My words that truth comes, it is by His.  As soon as she spoke the words “I am just like you” the Holy Spirit said to me “She is not like you.” The conversation pretty much ended after that and I have not seen her since.  That was about 2 months ago.

What I want you to walk away with from this is an understanding of prophecy.  I want you to be able to recognize true prophecy and whether it is the gift of the spirit of prophecy or an actual prophet functioning in the Ministry Gift in the Office of a prophet.  I want you to develop discernment so that you know when you here either types of prophetic words the Holy Spirit will confirm whether it is true or false.  When it is true, it is a blessing from the Maker of all things and we want to do with that word, whatever He is telling us.  When we recognize a word is false we can rebuke and dismiss it and offer graceful correction when needed to those who are earnest and learning. Prophecy is alive and a beautiful gift from God.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing prophecy and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.  As always let’s discuss our

Top Show Points:

·      This is the second part of our discussion on prophecy specifically discussing false prophecy 

·      Recap of the gifts of the Spirit Paul discussed in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

·      To review, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

·      To help us to remember the gifts and to aid in understanding them, there are Power Gifts, Revelation gifts and Spoken gifts.

·      Prophecy is a Spoken gift.  Of the three Spoken gifts it is the one that is the strongest in that it can stand on its own.  Tongues and interpretation of tongues need each other, so they cannot stand on their own in terms of edifying the church. 

·      The spiritual gift of prophecy involves three things: edification, exhortation and comfort.

·      In my experience, there are two kinds of false prophets, the knowing and the unknowing. We could also call them the intentional and the unintentional or the evil and the ignorant. 

·      Let’s take a look at what the Bible tells us about false prophets.

o   Isaiah 44:24:

o   Jeremiah 14:14:

o   Jeremiah 23:16:

o   Lamentations 2:14:

o   Ezekiel 13:9:

o   Hosea 11:6: 

o   Matthew 7:15: 

o   Matthew 24:24: 

o   2 Peter 2:1:

o   1 John 4:1: 

·      The Bible is warning against false prophets.  If there are false prophets, then there must be “true” prophets as well.  You cannot have something be false if there is no true.  False cannot exist without truth. 

·      Someone who is knowingly, intentionally behaving, directing, providing false prophecy is evil.  Someone who is unknowingly, unintentionally providing false prophecy is ignorant. 

·      The Bible tells us to test the spirit to see whether they are from God.  You can test them by evaluating their words against scripture.  This is why knowing the scripture is so important. 

·      a false prophet will direct the attention to themselves while giving the appearance they are speaking on behalf of God for you. 

·      An evil false prophet will usually depict themselves as one who functions in the office of a Prophet.  The reason for this is generally pride and greed.  One who truly operates in this office will direct the honor and glory to God and acknowledge that God is the source of everything.  An evil false prophet will not do that because they ultimately want something for themselves. 

·      A true prophet is not distinguishable from his or her appearance.  There is no flashy behavior or extravagance in their appearance, there is no need for that.  They stand on truth, that’s all they need.  A false prophet needs that extra to get attention and create excitement because there is no Holy Spirit excitement. 

·      Story of someone in my area presenting themselves as functioning in the Office of a Prophet, but is a false prophet.

We encourage you:

·          To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·          If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals coming out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

The Gift of Prophecy Alive or Dead? True or False? Part 1, Ep 2-22

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing prophecy.  Is the gift of prophecy alive today or dead?  Is it true or false? This spiritual gift is one of the most misunderstood Spiritual Gifts and unfortunately one of the most misused, even abused gifts used to deceive the undiscerning. 

In order to discuss all of the elements we need to cover; I want to first walk through an understanding of prophecy.  Prophecy is one of the nine spiritual gifts Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.  To truly understand it, we need to understand what it is, what it isn’t, who has the gift, what is the gift versus the office, how is the gift to be used and finally the misuse of the gift. That, my friends, is a lot to cover and we will not get through this in one episode, so get comfy and let’s get started understanding this wonderful gift that is still in operation today.

If you asked most Christians today and that means church going Christians as well, not many can name all 9 spiritual gifts.  Many times, they will confuse the Ministry gifts with the Spiritual Gifts.  I don’t want you guys to be like most Christians, I want you to be aware and have an understanding of those gifts.  So over the next several months we will be covering all 9 gifts.  For no particular reason, we are starting with Prophecy and we will begin that by reading 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

So here Paul talks to the Corinthians first and begins to explain where the Corinthians came from and then leads them to where they need to go and what is available to them through the Holy Spirit.  In verse 7 he lays out for them the gifts that some were already operating in, and Paul wanted to clarify so they were using them correctly.  This also served to educate others who were not sure or not yet operating in the gifts so they were not deceived. 

To recap, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

Let’s take this a step further and let’s group these gifts as they work together.

·      Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers

·      Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits

·      Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues

So that may help you to remember the gifts and to aid in understanding them, there are Power Gifts, Revelation gifts and Spoken gifts. 

Prophecy is a Spoken gift.  Of the three Spoken gifts it is the one that is the strongest in that it can stand on its own.  Tongues and interpretation of tongues need each other, so they cannot stand on their own in terms of edifying the church.  These gifts are intended to be used in a corporate setting, for the body of Christ, so prophecy is able to stand on its own.  To clarify, we will talk about tongues on another episode but this is not referring to praying in tongues privately.  Our discussion here focused on using the gifts for the church.

One of the typical misunderstandings of prophecy is the difference between the gift of prophecy and the Office of the Prophet as Paul discusses in describing the Ministry Gifts in Ephesians 4. The spiritual  gift of prophecy is available to all of us.  Not many people operate in it and we will discuss why, but it is available today for all of us.  The spiritual gift of prophecy involves three things: edification, exhortation and comfort.

·      Edification is the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually.

·      Exhortation is using language that is intended to incite or encourage another to take action in a positive way

·      Comfort is to ease or alleviate a person’s feeling of grief or distress.  

Recently someone offered me a “prophetic word” and it was literally one word.  This person is retired, did not retire from a ministry job and presents himself as someone with a prophetic gift, I can’t recall if he refers to himself as a prophet, I’d have to think about that, but he does make it a habit of going to people frequently with a “prophetic word”.  On this particular evening we were at a meeting, there were maybe 20-25 people there.  If you don’t know better, someone approaching you with a “prophetic word” may sound enticing or exciting.  A true prophetic word can be exciting, but when we are given a ”prophetic word” rather than be excited, I want you to be discerning.  I want you to understand what is being given to you and the Holy Spirit should confirm it in your heart.   Let me tell you what this person told me and you’ll see what I am saying.  He approached me and offered to me a “prophetic word” “gold”.  That was it.  If we look at what a prophetic word should do with the gift of prophecy, not the Office of the Prophet, the word “gold” does not edify, exhort or comfort me in any way.  I actually dislike “gold”, I don’t wear it in jewelry unless I absolutely have to and that is extremely rare, I think I only wore it once this year.  Gold did not relate to anything in my life.  We’ll get back to this but now let’s clarify the difference between the Spiritual gift of Prophecy and the Office of the Prophet as Paul describes in Ephesians 4. 

When Jesus ascended to Heaven, He gave these gifts to those who had a divine call. 

Ephesians 4:11-13 Reads:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Those who function in this office have a divine call to do so and they are to do so for the body of Christ.  This is not a spiritual gift but an entire office.  A person in this role has more than just the spiritual gift but rather it is a ministry gift, quite different, the role and responsibility is entirely different.  A person in this role will also function in other gifts, this is their full time office, they are preachers and teachers of the Word.  They function out of the Word because they function out of divine revelations of the Holy Spirit that are far beyond what the spiritual gift of prophecy will reveal.  This role requires additional gifts to be in operation in order for them to be able to fulfill their responsibilities.  For example, to be in Office, you must also have Revelation gifts.  Remember Revelation gifts are wisdom, word of knowledge and discerning of spirits.  That goes far beyond the three things that the spiritual gift of prophecy entails: edification, exhortation and comfort.

Let’s look at an example in the Bible to see the difference.  Let’s take a look at Acts 21.  To set the scene, we are in Ceasarea Phillippi, I was there earlier this year, it was amazing.  I’ll see if I can get a video of it on the YouTube Channel for you in the next few weeks so you can see it. Anyhow, Paul is visiting and is on a journey back to Jerusalem.  In Chapter 21, verse 8 we read:  Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

Philip’s four daughters had the spiritual gift of prophecy.  We know that because Luke, the author of Acts, tells us that.  If we read it in the Bible then we know they had that gift.  Somehow Paul and Luke witnessed these daughters using the gift and included that in their account.  There is nothing specific said so we would conclude that this is the gift of prophecy rather than the office.  As we read further in verse 10:  After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

Here Agabus, referred to as a prophet, so the Ministry gift is in use here by title but then also by his actions.  Using revelation gifts, Agabus tells Paul, he foretells Paul what will be happening to him in Jerusalem. 

Now that brings up another point we need to understand about prophecy.  Agabus foretells what will happen in the future.  A prophet can foretell or forthtell.  Forthtelling involves an explanation of a present circumstance from God’s perspective.  We aren’t going too deep into this, just wanted you to know the difference.

Now that we have a better understanding of the Office of a Prophet as a Ministry Gift, let’s go back to my story before where I was given the “prophetic word” “gold” Does that word meet any of the criteria of being a prophetic word from a Prophet?  Nope, not a bit.  So let me tell you how that conversation ended, in case you ever find yourself in that position.  This was not my first time receiving a “prophetic word” from this person so I wasn’t too surprised when he walked across the room to where I was sitting.  He didn’t ask me if it was ok before he spoke, he didn’t preface what he had to say in any way, he just spoke.  Generally, that’s not a good start.  He gave me his word and stared at me.  I knew it had nothing to do with me so I waited to see if there was something else he was wanting to say, when he didn’t, I responded with “I’ll ask the Lord about that”.  The reason I responded that way was a few reasons, to give him some grace and not embarrass him because he did it publicly, also not a good idea.  I was letting him know I was not receiving that word but was instead having the Lord confirm any word that was presented to me.  In doing that, I was telling him that his word did not resonate with me and needed to be confirmed and establishing that the only word I will receive is from the Holy Spirit.  If he had continued and pressed me to receive the word, which he does to other people, then it would have been appropriate to let him know that his word was not correct and address it further. 

About 7 months ago I did receive a prophetic word from someone that I did receive.  I did not know this person, he was an evangelist from another country visiting the area.   The presence of the Holy Spirit was present at the time, the words he spoke to me were spot on.  He used the receive a word of knowledge about me that no one else knew about and I knew immediately the Holy Spirit was moving and the word was for me.  It was foretelling, which is not very common.  More common now are forthtelling words.  Anyhow, I have already seen the beginnings of what was spoken begin to play out in my life so I know there is still more to come in that area of my life. 

I think we have a pretty good understanding of prophecy right now.  We are going to stop here for this week but come back next week because we are going to start talking about the misuse of the gift, false prophets, how to grow in this spiritual gift and if you have any questions on this, send them in and I will address those as well. 

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing prophecy and I hope it has helped to build your understanding.  We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.  As always let’s discuss our

Top Show Points:

·      This week we are discussing prophecy. 

·      Prophecy is one of the nine spiritual gifts Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

·      9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

·      The gifts can be grouped as Power gifts, Revelation gifts and Spoken gifts. 

·      Of the three Spoken gifts prophecy is the one that is the strongest in that it can stand on its own.

·      The spiritual gift of prophecy involves three things: edification, exhortation and comfort.

·      Recently someone offered me a “prophetic word” and it was literally one word.  This person is retired and presents himself as someone with a prophetic gift

·      Those who function in this office have a divine call to do so and they are to do so for the body of Christ.  This is not a spiritual gift but an entire office.  A person in this role has more than just the spiritual gift but rather it is a ministry gift

·      Office, you must also have Revelation gifts.  Remember Revelation gifts are wisdom, word of knowledge and discerning of spirits. 

·      Philips daughters who functioned in the gift of prophecy

·      Agabus, a prophet, using foretelling with Paul

·      Difference between foretelling and forthtelling

·      Discussed how to gracefully not accept a prophetic word given to you

We encourage you:

·          To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·          If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals coming out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

How to Overcome Weakness and Temptations, Ep 2-21

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing how to overcome our weaknesses and temptations.  We are going to talk about our position in the Lord and go through some examples of how the Lord will respond in our weaknesses on our behalf.  

Before we begin, we have to understand that not all weaknesses are the works of satan.  Not all temptations are a source of the demonic. There are also times when our weaknesses are opened up, and it’ll feel like a wound torn open, and through those weaknesses God is going to then come beside us, encourage us and build us up in Him by having us walk through our weaknesses with Him.  We need to understand and believe that first before we start talking about the temptations the enemy brings.  We don’t always assume that everything that hits our weakness is from the enemy.  Once we acknowledge that, then we can move on address what the enemy is attempting to do to us.

Let’s start with defining weakness and temptation.

The definition of weakness is the state or condition of lacking strength.

The definition of temptation is the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.

The demons we see when dealing with our weaknesses and temptations are endless because it is such a personal matter.  For some it will be doubt, fear, for others lust, gluttony the list goes on.  Our discussion here isn’t about the specific demon but rather the process behind how they work and how we need to respond.  Our response is what defines our beliefs.  Our beliefs are what define us ultimately.  Let me explain.

There are times when we will be tempted in areas that aren’t actually our weakness, but the enemy thinks we can be swayed to make the wrong choice because of our circumstances.  In those moments we can be manipulated to come into agreement with the enemy and that is a lie and not who we are or in alignment with the Lord’s plan in our lives.  Let me give you an example.  This past week I got a call, about 9:30 at night from a friend of mine.  I happen to be a huge animal lover, in my life I have had over a couple of hundred animals easily between pets, fosters, and they are all types: lizards, snakes, turtles, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pig, hamster, fish, and of course all the parrots I have now.  So if you ever call me about an animal, I am going to listen.  So this particular call from my friend was about their cat, Pumpkin.  I didn’t ask Pumpkin’s permission to use her name, but I think she will still be able to maintain her anonymity.  Anyhow, Pumpkin has some little kittens to take care of but on this particular night, Pumpkin, who is an indoor cat, was nowhere to be found.  We have coyotes that come into our neighborhoods at night here so you always have to be careful around here even with larger dogs.  I had one night I was walking with 2 dogs and we came up on a pack of 5 coyotes and it was pretty terrifying. Anyway, back to the Pumpkin predicament.  Now you can understand, the family was pretty anxious and they asked for prayer.  So we put a prayer game plan together and agreed to keep in touch.  Our pets can create a huge weakness for all of us.  For everyone I know, their pet is their family.  So this prayer plan was a good plan, but it did involve faith on the part of the family that what we were asking of God, He would fulfill.  No matter how the situation looked, their faith in Him had to remain solid.  In our prayer plan, we were asking God to have Pumpkin return that night.  I like to be specific in my prayer requests so we asked for it to happen that night in part because of the kittens.  I checked in with them at 10:15, nothing yet.  I’ll be honest with you guys, I was asking the Lord to show up BIG on this one.  I even went so far to say, Lord, if something has happened to that cat, then I need that cat to raise up from the dead and get back to that house tonight.  Sounds silly, but if Pumpkin were yours that’s what you would want so I asked. This was a time when kids were learning the importance of faith so asking for the unusual to me is reasonable.  So where is the temptation or the weakness in this?  Well, the faith needed was where a weakness could have been exploited by the enemy to get any one of the family members to be discouraged and say “she’s gone, she’s never coming back”.  If the family had been weak in those moments and come into alignment with the enemy in any declaration other than what they are asking the Lord for, Pumpkin’s story could have a sad ending.  Our words matter.  Would you like to know how Pumpkin’s story ended?  Well about midnight the family ended their search of the neighborhood and headed home.  They were sad to give up the search but they had to go back home to take care of the kittens.  Within minutes of their return, Pumpkin appeared in their backyard and of course the family was elated. 

We are not defined by our weaknesses. We are more defined by our response in the moment of weakness and how we respond and react based on what we believe.  We have to understand we have a “standing” in the Lord.  What do I mean by that?  When I was in law school one of the first concepts we learned was legal “standing”. 

“In simple terms, the courts use the term “standing” to ask, “Does this party have a 'dog in this fight? '” Standing limits or allows participation in lawsuits by asking whether the person(s) bringing a lawsuit, or defending one, (you will often hear of groups adding in a legal positioning in cases that affect a class of people) but that person or group has enough cause to “stand” before the court and advocate, since not anyone can go to court for any reason.”

As a believer, our “standing” is in the Lord.  Our ability to “stand” before the Lord and contend for someone or something in our prayers is given to us by our accepting Jesus as our savior.  Without that “standing” we will have a hard time defending ourselves against enemy attacks because we won’t have the power and authority of Jesus.  Our “standing” is our strength and our shield as the Psalmist says in Psalms 28:7. Pumpkin’s family knew their “standing” and they did not waiver.

Let’s talk about “standing” a little more.  Our “standing” is our Truth.  Our “standing” will not change once we have it.  It will never fluctuate.  Our feelings, on the other hand, will fluctuate and we cannot allow our feelings and emotions to rule our lives.  The enemy will prey on our weaknesses, so we need to prevent the enemy from having an influence in your feelings or emotions.  If we feel our emotions wavering, we need to rebuke and our response is to declare our standing.  There will be times, however, when the Lord sees a situation coming, and will intercede for us because of our standing. I’ll explain that a little more in a minute but first I want to hit a few points.

Demons are witnesses to our lives in the same way as angels.  Police psychics or mediums can help solve crimes because demons were present when these horrible events took place, they know what happened and they simply tell the medium. It’s not rocket science.  It is wrong to communicate with demons that way, but rocket science it is not.

Knowing that demons are witnesses to our lives.  Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” They are like those coyotes I referenced earlier.  Let me tell you about that night.  I was out on a walk, it was evening about 8:30, a Saturday night actually and it was already dark.  The strip of road I was on was outside of my neighborhood and the streetlight in that stretch of the road was out.  The next streetlight was over a quarter a mile away.  One of my dogs was a little guy, maybe 12 pounds, his name was Blackie.  One of the kids named him because well, he was black.  Not terribly creative but he didn’t seem to mind.  The other dog was a border collie mix, so mediumish size, maybe 45-50 pounds at the most.  His name was Shadow because he followed me everywhere and he was black. The neighborhood where we lived was very safe so I only had a cell phone on me.  It was pitch black in this area and on one side of me was a number of baseball fields and the other side was wild lands.  The coyotes lived in the wild lands, there were several acres of it. They usually, I hate to say it, but they usually were well fed from the wild rabbits.  I had never walked here at this time before and never did it again.  I did notice a few times as we were walking along, Blackie stopped and looked behind.  Shadow was just focused on going straight ahead, not stopping.  As we walked, all of a sudden, there was something white about 20 feet away in the middle of the street walking with its head down and turned toward me.  I have seen coyotes since I was a kid and they are usually about the same size as Shadow, but this one was HUGE, it looked like a wolf.  They are also usually tan, but this thing was bright white, like he was glowing, a pearly translucent fog was surrounding him.  It was crazy to see.  Then I realized there were 4 more and they were circling me and the circle was getting smaller.  I called home, but no one answered.  4 people were home and not one person answered.  I was about ½ mile from my house if I went backward.  I wasn’t sure what to do, but I did pick up Blackie and at that point Shadow was doing his best menacing behavior, but we were not going to be able to withstand 5 of them on our own. 

That’s how an attack can be from demons who see us in a weak moment.  The temptation method the coyotes used was entice me to do something unwise out of fear and while being distracted.  By having the white one in front of me, I would be distracted and too fearful with that one and not notice when one or two of the others come at me from behind or the side.  They will snatch a dog out of your hands by the way, so Blackie was far from safe because I was holding him.  I am only 5’1” so all they had to do was jump.  I would love to tell you I took authority over those coyotes and held them back with my hand like Moses did the Red Sea, but my story is a little less dramatic.  We decided our best move was to get to the light ahead and so we became as menacing as we could, loud and aggressive so we could keep moving and try to confuse them to think twice about getting closer.  Not exactly my most heroic moment, but it worked and someone finally answered the phone and they all came to pick us up.  The Holy Spirit made that coyote glow or I would not have seen it until it was too late and Blackie would have been no more and most likely the same with Shadow.  Shadow however lived to a ripe old age of 19 and Blackie passed in my arms about 8 years later.  What I want to point out is that I had no idea those coyotes were there, but the Holy Spirit did and the Holy Spirit was there to reveal the danger in a glowing white way I could not miss so I didn’t have to withstand an attack.  I had “standing”.  I was at a weak point, but the Holy Spirit was there before I even knew I was in danger.

When Jesus spent his time in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, Satan did his best to tempt Jesus by preying on his human weakness and vulnerabilities.  You can read about this in Matthew 4.  Jesus knew his “standing” in His Father and withstood everything the enemy attempted by responding with the Word.  If I had not eaten for 40 days, I hope I would be that able minded, but I also know that because of my “standing” the Lord will help me in those moments.  No matter how weak we are, how much the temptation, we can withstand through our “standing” in Him and for Him and through Him.  Luke puts it so eloquently in Acts 17:38, “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being;”  When I get to heaven I want to spend some time with Luke.  I think he is overlooked.  I overlooked him myself for years because he wasn’t one of the original ones, no one knows for certain where he was during the time when Jesus was here but he certainly devoted his life to being an attentive onlooker, scribe and servant for the Lord.  When you see that what Luke did was entirely for our benefit, you can’t help but respect and admire him. 

So what do I want you to take away from this.  I want you to be able to face any temptation, any weakness with the strength of your “standing”.  When you know, truly know you have that “standing” and that is what will carry you through anything in your life, you will stand a little taller, walk a little surer, I don’t know if that’s a word, but it is today.  The enemy knows you have “standing”, so you should too.  Standing works in the courts of this world and it certainly works in the courts of heaven.  The accuser, our enemy, doesn’t want you to understand this concept.  If you don’t understand it or chose to deny it, then how can you get to a place where Jesus is your intercessor, where the Holy Spirit is your comforter, where you can know the truth and say in all certainty what Paul reveals to us in Romans 8:31, “what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  

The next time you are weak, stand tall and let your response reflect your “standing.”

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who can benefit from this, please share this podcast.

As always, let’s recap the Top Show Points:

·      Not all weaknesses are the works of satan.  Not all temptations are a source of the demonic. There are also times when our weaknesses are opened up, through it God will encourage us and build us up. We don’t always assume that everything that hits our weakness is from the enemy.

·      The definition of weakness is the state or condition of lacking strength.

·      The definition of temptation is the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.

·      We are not defined by our weaknesses. We are more defined by our response in the moment of weakness and how we respond and react based on what we believe.  

·      Our discussion here isn’t about the specific demon but rather the process behind how they work and how we need to respond.  Our response is what defines our beliefs. 

·      There are times when we will be tempted in areas that aren’t actually our weakness, but the enemy thinks we can be swayed to make the wrong choice because of our circumstances.  

·      The story of Pumpkin and her triumphant return

·      The courts use the term “standing.” Standing limits or allows participation in lawsuits by asking whether the person(s) bringing a lawsuit, or defending one, has enough cause to “stand” before the court and advocate

·      As a believer, our “standing” is in the Lord.  Our ability to “stand” before the Lord and contend for someone or something in our prayers is given to us by our accepting Jesus as our savior. 

·      Our “standing” is our truth, don’t let your emotions dictate our responses

·      Demons are witnesses to our lives in the same way as angels.  They know our history and our weaknesses.

·      1 Peter 5:8, gave example of 5 coyotes circling me while I was walking my dogs

Demons attack us in our wilderness, example of the coyotes trying to distract me with the one coyote in front so the others could come snatch Blackie from behind

·      Jesus withstood temptations from satan in the wilderness, Matthew 4

·      Acts 17:28

·      “Standing” gives us confidence to face anything coming at us

·      Romans 8:31

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals coming out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

We encourage you:

·          To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·          If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals coming out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

Overcoming the Demons of Distraction, Ep 2-20

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the demons of Distraction.  These demons use multiple strategies and are so subtle we don't notice it until we are already distracted and sometimes even forget what we were originally doing.  First we will discuss what the demon of distraction is, then we will look at some biblical examples of distraction and discuss examples of this demon at work this past week and in a deliverance.   Finally we will talk about what we need to do to overcome this influence and evict it from our lives.

Let's first talk about the demon of Distraction.  Who is this demon?  You don't hear a lot about it and that is actually part of how this demon works. It doesn't want you to know about him because that would defeat the purpose of his work.  If he is doing his job correctly, you won't be able to follow through on understanding who he is because he can keep you focused elsewhere.  So if we are dealing with this demon we will have issues with: focus, completing projects, following through on our commitments, remembering appointments, time management.  This will create problems in our relationships, in our work responsibilities and prevent us from achieving personal goals.  All of that is bad enough, but the real intention of this demon is to keep us from developing and maintaining our relationship with the Lord.  Using those other areas of our life is the distraction that will keep our wheels spinning so we don't read the Bible, pray, go to church, go to Bible study, all the things we need in our lives to keep them orderly and close to the Lord so we can hear His voice above the demon of distraction. 

This demon will frequently be seen working together with the demons of frustration, forgetfulness, confusion, indifference, procrastination, and restlessness

Let's look at some Biblical examples where we can see this demon at work.

First, I know we picked on Eve a few weeks ago, but we need to take a look at her again. Genesis 3, we see the distraction unfold.  To give some context to the situation, Eve was made to be a helper for Adam and Adam's responsibility was the Garden of Eden.  Adam was to work the Garden of Eden and take care of it.  So Eve should have been busy at work tending to Garden activities.  The Bible doesn't tell us what their responsibilities were but we do know it was a sizeable area because it supported all the animals.  As a side note, based on the Bible's description, we have some clues geographically where the Garden of Eden likely was located and that is an area referred to as Mesopotamia.  In our modern day geography it is most likely determined to be in the Persian Gulf area, in northern Kuwait and Iraq. 

Ok, back to our point, Eve's role was to be a helper in the Garden of Eden so she had areas she was meant to be focusing on in the Garden.  At the time she was tempted by Satan she was alone, so that leads me to believe that Adam was somewhere working, they would likely have spent their downtime together.  While alone, she would be more vulnerable than when Adam was there.  We are all usually stronger when we have someone else there, the Bible even tells us that.  So likely, she was on her own working and she was distracted by Satan.  That first distraction was very costly to her personally.  It changed her life immediately in her spiritual death and her life in terms of pain in child bearing and the land they were then given to them was cursed.  Once they were ousted from the Garden of Eden, I can only imagine the amount of regret she had. 

Now let's take a look at Samson.  To read about Samson, we need to go into Judges and his story starts at Chapter 13.  The Israelites have been misbehaving and God delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years.  Samson was God's answer to ending that judgment.  God took a barren woman and blessed her with a son who was to be treated differently from the moment he was conceived.  Throughout his life, Samson had the spirit of the Lord with him.  Unfortunately, he still made some mistakes and misjudgments and allowed himself to be distracted.  His relationship with the Lord was severed as a result of poor judgment in his relationship with Delilah, that's in Judges 16:20.  He made the mistake of telling Delilah how God gave him his strength even after she had betrayed him 3 times.  So when the Lord left him, his strength left him and some pretty torturous things happened to him as a result.  In the end, he did kill thousands of Philistines, but he died along with them. 

Allowing the distraction of Delilah and then all the continual distractions she caused led him to a terrible end. 

Now let's take a look at David.  We are going to go to 2 Samuel 11 for this story.  Let's set the scene:  It is spring, the men of Israel are at war and David, their King isn't where he is supposed to be which is at war with them, instead he is at home.  He gets distracted when he sees Bathsheba, wants her, but she is married to one of his men. David doesn't care, sends for her, does what he wants to do and ultimately Bathsheba gets pregnant.  David does multiple things to try to cover up his sin by adding more sin to the mix and ultimately creates a huge mess for himself by getting Bathsheba's husband killed to help cover up the pregnancy.  God isn't happy, he sends Nathan to rebuke David and tell him the consequences.  The baby dies, the household is sent into chaos, which means the kingdom of Israel is affected. 

David allowed himself to be distracted. His relationship with the Lord was disrupted and the consequences were permanent.  Innocent lives were lost.  David was not the only one to pay the price for the sins that followed his distraction.

Okay so we know these Bible stories, what does that mean to us today?  We have WAY more opportunities to be distracted today.  Our cell phones alone offer endless hours of escape, hours of entertainment, ways to do things we shouldn't, ways to shop, ways to learn, not all the opportunities are negative, but they all can be a distraction if we are not careful.  As I was preparing for this podcast, I went on my phone to look up something and got distracted by a video of Gordon Ramsey showing me how to make a delicious Wagyu burger.  I then did not remember why I even picked up my phone, that was yesterday, and I still don't remember.  While that did not have a lasting impact on me, distractions are in the small places and in the more impactful places. 

This past weekend I was in a prayer meeting.  At my church before the service, a group meets for prayer and we do soaking where we have a specific focus and ask the Lord about it.  So not your typical prayer time, no one is speaking because we are focused and waiting on the Lord, or writing out what the Lord said to us individually and we share at the end.  The room we are in is used for the middle schoolers after we leave.  This past week during the payer time, no less than 5 different people came in the room to open or adjust a window.  Everybody went to the same window, seemingly to do the same thing.  Two other people came in the room looking around for something else.  Two people came in late, one person brought in a kid about 5 years old who isn't at an age where he could sit still and be quiet to allow the rest of the room to have our prayer time.  The room was full of distractions.  I've never seen so many people in and out of a room that is supposed to be quiet and focused.  This isn't me complaining, it's me describing it for you to understand what was happening this past Sunday that doesn't normally happen. I will say, from the moment I walked in the room, I knew something was going to be off that morning.  There was an interference present but I didn't know why or where it was coming from, so I decided to keep that to myself and just wait to see what happened.  Wherever God wants to move, the enemy does too to keep us from moving with God and fulfilling His plans.

No one, nowhere is immune to distractions.  How we respond to them is what we need to address.

Earlier this year I was doing a deliverance on a woman, we'll call her Jane, and it was probably one of the more severe cases I have seen.  As we were beginning the deliverance I could tell this would take a while and there were going to be some manifestations along the way.  A lot of times in these situations the manifestations that appear are not necessarily to do with the person but more about a show to distract the person who is there to facilitate the deliverance.  This process was about hours, which is longer than I would normally go in one sitting but the demons were working really hard to stay.  The further we progressed, the more resistant they were to my commands.  Ultimately if the person is giving me this authority and wants this to happen then the demons have to obey the authority I have in Jesus.  The authority we all have.  However, in this particular case, they were stalling.  The enemy was intending to use manifestations to scare me, or deceive me into thinking I couldn't make them leave.  They tried several manifestations like having her head roll around and making her face contort to see if that makes me freak out because then they can gain some ground.  As long as the person isn't being harmed, I don't react to anything they are doing.  The name calling doesn't matter to me, the evil words don't matter to me, they hold no power or authority so I keep going in my commands for them to leave.  They will try to have conversation, which is intended to make me lose focus on my agenda to evict them. 

Whether the enemy is using tactics that are subtle or bold, we can't lose our focus.  They will work as hard as they need to because they know if they can get us distracted one time, they can build on breaking us down in our relationship and time with the Lord. 

So how do we overcome these attempts at our time and attention? First let's go back to see who the demon if distraction works with and how that plays on our emotions. 

When we are feeling: frustration, indifference,

When we are experiencing: forgetfulness, confusion, procrastination, and restlessness

Those demons are working to make us feel vulnerable.  The thing about our feelings is that we can't always trust our own feelings.  How many times have you had your feelings hurt only to later find out you misunderstood something someone said.  Our feelings are not always the best judge of a situation so we need to be aware that our feelings can distract us from the Lord.  Someone asked me last night in a discussion about the essentialness of daily prayer, "what do I do if I don't feel like praying?"  My response is simple, you pray anyway, even if it's just saying "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus " over and over again.  Don't let feelings override your actions because they will distract you and confuse your purpose and direction.

So to overcome distraction be mindful of our feelings directing our actions.  We also need to be honest about our time management and how much time we are spending with the Lord.  Look back at the last week and see where you intended to spend time with the Lord and evaluate it by activity, church, prayer, bible study, reading the bible.  Break it all out so you can see the patterns develop.  Document how or why you were distracted and didn't do what you had planned. Then decide how you will correct it.  We need to be intentional about what we do and being accountable if we have a problem with distractions. 

If we look at Jesus as an example, we will have a better understanding of how to improve our own lives.  Jesus frequently stepped away from everyone and had his alone time with His Father.  That was a necessity in His life and if it were necessary for the Jesus then we are no exception and should model what worked for Him in our own lives.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who can benefit from this, please share this podcast.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

Discussed the demons of Distraction

These demons use multiple strategies and are subtle

Demon of Distraction doesn't want you to know about him because that would defeat the purpose of his work.  If he is doing his job correctly, you won't be able to follow through on understanding who he is because he can keep you focused elsewhere.

This demon will frequently be seen working together with the demons of frustration, forgetfulness, confusion, indifference, procrastination, and restlessness

Example of Eve getting distracted in the Garden of Eden and the costs of that distraction to her immediately and forevermore.

Example of Samson and his momentary distraction and giving in to Delilah and the painful  immediate cost to him and ultimately led to his destruction.

Example of David and his distraction by Bathsheba and the loss of innocent life and the impact to the Kingdom.

Example of distractions in a prayer meeting at my own church

Example of demon trying to distract me during a deliverance

Do not let your feelings override our actions and distract us

We talked about how to document our activities and the distractions so we can see patterns of distractions and decide how to correct it

Use Jesus as an example of how to focus on alone time with the Lord

We encourage you:

·          To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·          If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals coming out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

Uprooting Disbelief, Ep 2-19

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing disbelief and disillusionment.  We are going to talk about where it is rooted.  Unlike other episodes we aren’t going to be talking about how satan is the root of disbelief and disillusionment but rather how these are created though manmade ideas and misconceptions. 

I say periodically throughout this podcast that not all bad things that happen are satan and his demons at work against us.  Many times it is and we want to be knowledgeable and educated on how satan operates so we can conquer him and his tactics are no longer effective.  Today we need to address something that has permeated Christianity and not only affects us in our daily lives but can limit you in your relationship with the Lord going forward. 

Let’s first start off addressing disbelief and disillusionment.  There are multiple ways we let these two states of being take over our life and our circumstances and we need to uproot some misconceptions and uproot the lies that allow these two to operate. 

First off, I want you to think about a time when you made a judgment call and you were just flat our wrong or someone made a judgment call about you that was just flat out wrong.  Think of something.  Got one?  Okay I will tell you mine for this week.  Friday I was called a heretic.  Now not just a regular old heretic, there were some pretty harsh name calling that went along with that from a Christian man because I believe in the spiritual gifts.  The spiritual gifts that Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12.  Now I know this guy is completely wrong and one day he will have to answer for his words.  I don’t care about him, what I do care about is the effect his words had on the man who originally asked the question I was answering.  The ripple effect of the ignorant man can have a lasting effect.  It can shape the mind of others who are on the fence.  The ignorant man was relentless in going after anyone who had beliefs that were different than his and became very ugly about it.  It’s as if he was throwing a tantrum to get people to listen to him and not think for themselves.  Only his words mattered. He was creating an atmosphere for disbelief in the spiritual gifts of the Bible. 

Now let’s talk about a time when something just wasn’t going your way and you were really struggling.  Have one?  I am going to share an example of a man who is currently blaming God for bad things happening in his life.  This is a man who says he was healthy, lived a healthy lifestyle.  I have no way to deny or confirm this.  He is a middle aged man, and he had a heart attack and a stroke.  As a result, he has lost his job, his girlfriend, his confidence, and he is unable to spend time in the gym the way he used to and has become depressed.  He is convinced that God did this to him and that instead of taking him from the heart attack and stroke, that God instead kept him alive for the purpose of torturing him. 

Thinking of those two situations, they both have one thing in common.  They both involve someone who is putting themselves at the center of the situation.  The first one involves how disbelief is perpetuated by someone who will not allow people to believe what the Bible says if it disagrees with what he thinks the Bible says.  He attacks and tries to force himself to convince others.  Which then impacts others who are learning and trying to understand.  The second involves a man who is disillusioned into thinking that God would do something evil, which is blasphemy and a lie.

Blaming God is very common and a very manmade idea, not always satan.  Satan will be more than happy to exploit that and take advantage of it, but by and large when we carry disbelief and disillusionment in our lives, we create it in our thoughts and our words and our actions.  But the question is why?  No one is happy in disbelief or functioning in disillusionment so why do we do it?  Why do we fight God in this way? 

The answer is pretty straightforward.  It stems from disobedience, ego.  This goes back to some of the points we made in the Blessings and Curses series and which are discussed in Deuteronomy 28, but we need to talk about how we direct this in our lives.  We have to be willing to self-identify when we are growing in disbelief and disillusionment and building problems against ourselves. 

No one who truly knows Jesus would ever say that God spared them their life just to torture them.  You cannot read the Bible and come to that conclusion, it is illogical, unbiblical and a complete and utter lie.  So if you aren’t reading the Bible, you can’t know who God is, or how He works.  If we don’t know who God is, then how can we understand anything about how He wants to work in our lives.  If we can’t understand anything he wants to do in our lives, then we clearly don’t have a relationship with Him because He will spend time guiding you and explaining to you His best in your life. 

Those who are disillusioned and want to blame God don’t acknowledge that they are looking for ways, for resolutions, and for answers outside of the Word.  When we function in disbelief and disillusionment because we are unwilling to seek the Lord, we have created our own downfall. 

When we are in disbelief and disillusionment, we are also housing distrust, there’s a selfishness we are carrying, discontent and indifference to seeking God, truly seeking Him through prayer and His Word.  We want to do things our own way and not allow God to correct us and direct us to make better choices, provide understanding to foster better decisions.  We don’t want to be disciplined, we don’t want anyone calling out our dirty laundry.  We aren’t willing to discipline ourselves to change.

Let’s look at how Jesus handled a woman who had dirty laundry and when He called her on it, she reacted.  In John 4, Jesus meet a Samaritan woman.  Jews and Samaritans at this time did not mingle.  There was a mistrust and a hatred for each other.  Samaritans were a culture that originated out of the Israelites, the northern kingdom.  Each group believes themselves to be members of the true religion of ancient Israel and that the other has been diluted or contaminated might be a better description.  So Jesus meets this woman getting water from the well because that was a typical responsibility of the women of the day.  He asks for water, He tells her He is the living water and then He also tells her about her life and essentially airs her dirty laundry.  Her reaction is not one we see today.  Her ego did not get in her way.  She did not allow disbelief to enter her heart and she was certainly not disillusioned by what He has said or done anywhere else because she didn’t even know who He was. 

Jesus was able to move in her heart and guide her to change her life and her response was to run and tell the rest of the village what just happened.  She focused on Him, not her and she acted in faith by running to get the others so they too could benefit from hearing what he had to say. 

So why are we talking about this?  I’m going to ask you to do something this week.  Sit down and take an inventory.  This is just between you and the Lord so be open.  Take an inventory of areas in your life where you have exhibited great belief.  Areas where you have excelled in faith. 

Then I want you to take an inventory of areas in your relationship with the Lord where you have exhibited disbelief and disillusionment.  Include times you have felt He wasn’t answering your prayers, turned his back on you or didn’t give you the outcome you thought you should have received.  Again, this is just between you and him so be honest. 

After you have both of these lists completed, we are going to go back and evaluate these lists.

What can you count as favor and blessing you have received because of your belief and faith?  What did you do to foster that belief and faith?  What actions did you take?  Now look at the disbelief list and list what you did to foster disbelief.  What actions did you take?  What thoughts did you allow?  Did you take to someone who helped build your faith or build your disbelief? Compare these two lists and look at your differences. 

What I have seen in working with people over the years is that when they hit a period of disbelief they quit seeking and building their relationship with the Lord and instead direct their frustrations at God.  Those disbeliefs will grow.  Many times the feeling associated with disbeliefs will grow faster than how we feel when we are operating in faith and belief that God is truly working on your behalf.   

We have the greatest ability to be our own unseen enemy and as much as we need to conquer satan, we need to conquer the pieces of ourselves that allow disobedience, disbelief, disillusionment, indifference, distrust, selfishness to grow. 

Go read John 4 and ask yourself, are you going to be like the Samaritan woman or are you going to just get your water and go home.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who would benefit from this podcast, please share.

I have looked forward to our time this week, don’t forget to do your lists and then act on them and evict any disbelief and disillusionment you have allowed to enter your life that is contrary to God’s word.

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!  

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

Understanding why New Age s a Lie, Ep 2-18

Welcome back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the New Age religion.  We are going to examine the common beliefs and reveal where it counterfeits Christianity.  I want you to understand how it misleads people and could easily permeate into the Christian belief system if we do not recognize it.  We will see where the root of this religion was first established and identify scriptures of truth that contradict New Age beliefs.

Let's start with what is the New Age Religion? New Age primarily dates back the last few hundred years and gained popularity in the 70's and 80's.  The root of New Age, however, dates back to ancient times because it is a melting pot of a number of beliefs and practices that include occultism, mysticism, pantheism, reincarnation, holism, much of it coming out of Hinduism, which produced an offspring of Buddhism and several smaller practices which we will cover as we walk through this discussion.  The very first root of New Ageism actually can be found in the Bible with some words from Satan and we will get to that in a minute.  What I want to go over first is a general understanding of New Age beliefs.

I say a general understanding because with New Age, there is no one set of beliefs or practices, they actually vary and I will explain why as we go through this.  As Christians, we have a Holy Bible.  It gives us an understanding of God's character and reveals to us what is evil.  We learn of God's character and the saving grace of a salvation through Jesus.  We understand God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as one and we worship and find peace, love and guidance from them. 

In contrast, New Age does not believe in the concept of good and evil.  Where that creates a problem is that if you don't accept that there are good and evil options, and consequences of those options, then you do not accept a moral structure that civilization is built upon.  For those believing in New Age, there is no fall from grace or sin, but rather man has fallen into ignorance.  They believe there is a gradual ascent into enlightenment. 

Enlightenment is defined differently among those who practice this, but it essentially involves gaining your enlightenment through spiritual means.  This is a wide door because it involves the use of mediums or psychics who help you navigate your spiritual path.  As we have discussed in previous podcasts this is all witchcraft which the Bible tells us is strictly forbidden.  This process also includes speaking to dead loved ones, again forbidden in the Bible.   As you develop in your spiritualness for enlightenment, you will enlighten yourself on your own terms, so there is no standard, it's essentially self-monitored or self-realized.   They believe there is a third eye that will guide you through the spirit world.  Whatever name you want to call it, it's all demonic.  Mediums and psychics only have one source for information and that is demons.  Demons were here at the beginning just as the angels were so they know the history of places and people and can easily recreate events and reshape to people we are familiar with to entice us to engage with them.  Other activities for enlightenment would include seances, yoga, mediations, crystals, out of body travel, and some ridiculous stories of extraterrestrial beings.  Again, those are called demons.  When you seek to be a part of that world, they will be more than happy to entertain you with fantastical beings and images.  Anything we haven't seen or recognize will fascinate people who are seeking and looking to experience something. 

There is a level which is called, "cosmically enlightened" wherein they believe they are attuned to their cosmic consciousness.  If one reaches this level then they are considered to be "born again," sound familiar?  Another counterfeit to a Biblical truth.  Where this enlightenment path is intended to lead them is the belief that they are gods themselves.  

This belief that they are individual gods is one that Oprah is discussing and misleading people by the millions.  This philosophy allows people to create their own religions to suit themselves and have no accountability.  Part of your journey to be enlightened means you understand your godliness and you can elevate yourself through this spiritual peak.

I said earlier that New Age does not believe in right or wrong and the belief they have behind that is they believe they can create their own reality.  Based on what they believe, they can change their own reality.  I don't know about you but if I look at the reality of my bank account, there is a specific amount of money in there and even if I change my belief in what is in my bank account, the reality of the amount of money I have does not change.  There is no truth to be found in a belief system that says if you change what you believe you can change your reality.  It's nonsense. 

One of the reasons this religion has been able to permeate the culture is the practice and teaching of optimism.  Part of this teaching involves the future and a new world order coming, a new world government where there will be a progressive unification of world consciousness.   Now there is a new world coming and a new government and I call that the coming of Jesus but that's not what they are referring to here.  The other side to this optimism is that it is a practice that is taught as a lifestyle, no negativity.  While this appears to be a noble idea, remember that if we aren't using optimism and applying reality into the picture, we are creating a world that does not exist and sends you down a path of irresponsibility if you are not addressing those things that do not fit into your idea of reality.  It in essence is another counterfeit to Christianity.  Peace can be found in a relationship with Christ, peace cannot be found in a relationship with yourself where you believe you are a god.  

Another belief that permeates New Age is that there are many ways to heaven and that ultimately all religions point to us to heaven.  In that belief, Jesus is not a savior he is just a good teacher that reached "Christ consciousness, which each person is mean to reach in their own spiritual journey.  Worship of Him is incorrect in their mind because it will lead people away from discovering their own goodness in their spiritual journey.  In addition, God is not the Creator because the Creator is an unknowable force that was created mysteriously from source energy or vibration.

There is also a belief in this religion of nature and health practices.  Earth is "Mother Earth" and how she is treated and the food eaten should put you in alliance with "Mother Earth".  The earth is a creation by God, not an entity we are to come into an alliance with as if it will change our outcome.  This is not a commentary on being responsible with our resources, this is about understanding that we are not to have a spiritual connection to the Earth or the moon or the cycles or any of that.  That is all paganistic.  We worship the creator, not the creations. 

That takes us to a point I raised early on and where in the Bible we see the first seed planted of New Age counterfeit beliefs.  Let's take a walk in the Garden of Eden and see where Satan first introduces this concept. Let's take a look at Genesis 3, where satan disguised as a serpent approaches Eve in the garden and tempts her.  Satan knows the Bible, don't think for a minute he doesn't.  He knows it better than we do and that's why he can misrepresent it in so many ways.  He tried it with Jesus in the wilderness and he uses that trick on Eve but unfortunately, she was manipulated.  We have to believe God's truth or we will be manipulated as well and that's what happens in Chapter 3.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. 

So these words from satan plant the seed that a human could attain a god status but that is a lie coming from the father of lies.  All of these beliefs and practices of New Age are a lie, nothing is valid.

Finally, I want to address the belief in reincarnation.  Whether it is a belief in coming back as another person, an animal, whatever, it is all false.  We have one life, one spirit and when our time comes to die, that is it.  This teaching deceives people into believing they will have multiple chances to know the truth and that is damning them to not get the chance to know the truth. 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 ESV

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  John 6:38 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14 NIV

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.  Acts 4:12 ESV

New Agers seem harmless, maybe even pleasant, but their ideology is dangerous and seeks to replace God and diminish Jesus and we need to understand the importance of knowing the truth and not allowing deceptive, manipulative, false, self-serving, evil false doctrines to interfere with our relationship with the Lord in any way.  Don't allow it in your house, don't entertain it in your mind, stand for the truth. 

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who can benefit from this, please share this podcast.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

·         New Age it is a melting pot of a number of beliefs and practices that include occultism, mysticism, pantheism, reincarnation, holism, Hinduism, and gained popularity in the 70's and 80's.  The root of New Age, dates back to ancient times

·         With New Age, there is no one set of beliefs or practices, they actually vary

·         New Age does not believe in the concept of good and evil.  There is no fall from grace or sin, but rather man has fallen into ignorance.  They believe there is a gradual ascent into enlightenment

·         Enlightenment is defined differently among those who practice this, but it essentially involves gaining your enlightenment through spiritual means and involves the use of mediums or psychics who help you navigate your spiritual path.  This process also includes speaking to dead loved ones, as you develop in your spiritualness for enlightenment, you will enlighten yourself on your own terms, so there is no standard

·         They believe there is a third eye that will guide you through the spirit world.  Whatever name you want to call it, it's all demonic.  Other activities for enlightenment would include seances, yoga, mediations, crystals, out of body travel, and some ridiculous stories of extraterrestrial beings.  Again, those are called demons. 

·         There is a level which is called, "cosmically enlightened" wherein they believe they are attuned to their cosmic consciousness.  If one reaches this level then they are considered to be "born again,"

·         belief that they are individual gods

·         New Age does not believe in right or wrong and the belief they have behind that is they believe they can create their own reality

·         a new world order coming, a new world government where there will be a progressive unification of world consciousness.   

·         there are many ways to heaven and that ultimately all religions point to us to heaven.  In that belief, Jesus is not a savior he is just a good teacher that reached "Christ consciousness

·         God is not the Creator because the Creator is an unknowable force that was created mysteriously from source energy or vibration.

·         Genesis 3, where satan deceived eve into thinking she could become a god

·         Reincarnation

·         John 14:6, John 6:38, John 1:14, Acts 4:12

·         Don't let false doctrines interfere with our relationship with the Lord in any way.

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!  

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

How and Why We Use the Blood of Jesus in Our Lives, Ep 2-16

Welcome back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the blood of Jesus and I mean specifically understanding why we plead the blood of Jesus.  This is considered unbiblical by some because they accuse Christians of using the blood of Jesus like a slot machine and because they don’t understand the significance God gave the blood from the beginning.  So we are going to address this and talk about how we should be using it because it is very clear in the scripture the importance and significance of the blood from the beginning to the end of times which we will see in the Book of Revelation. Alright. Let’s get going.

We can all agree Jesus has redeemed us, meaning He paid the price for us through his sacrifice, through the shedding of His blood on the cross. He has justified us, meaning he has made us righteous through his sacrifice.  That doesn’t mean we are perfect, but through Him we are made righteous.  He is also our Interecessor, it says it in Isaiah 53 and He tells us that no one comes to the Father except through me, that is in John.  We should all be able to agree that Jesus has sanctified us, that is a word a lot of people don’t like because it sounds complicated but it really just refers to being set apart from Sin by being in relationship with Jesus.  It doesn’t mean we never sin, but Jesus forgives, we sin, we get back up, repent and our relationship with Him provides us that opportunity for forgiveness.  So we can all agree or should all be able to agree on those areas as an understanding of Christianity.  Where we need to spend time is on discussing the necessity of the blood and the power it does have and why we would call on that in our lives.

We are going to go through some scripture and use a lot of Old Testament references.  The Old Testament gives us the base for what happens in the New Testament, so we do need to know it.

Let’s start from the beginning.  Passover, in Exodus 12 we read about the Passover.  At this time the Israelites were still in Egypt, they were slaves to the Egyptians and Moses was to lead them out, but Moses has to follow specific instructions from God on how to accomplish that successfully.  God had produced several plagues at this point and there was a judgment that was about to take place. For the Israelites, God provided protection using the blood from sacrificial lamb.  The judgment of God and the plague God was going to send over the land of Egypt was death of man and animal. God was redeeming the Israelites and offering life through the use of the blood of a sacrificial Lamb, if they were obedient.  Each family had to sacrifice an animal so they could have the blood they needed to save their lives.  The Lamb is one of many prophetic references to Jesus. The Israelites were then given specific instructions on how to apply the sacrificial blood in verse 22.  They were take the blood of the lamb that was in the bason and using hyssop, which was a wild plant, and using hyssop and apply it to the lintel, and the side posts of their home.  Then they had to stay in their home, they couldn’t go outside or they would no longer be protected.  So again, God provided a way, but they had to be obedient or they were not protected.  If they are not protected, they will die.  In His protection is Life. 

Now let’s move over to Leviticus 17, the Israelites are in the wilderness now and let’s see what God tells Moses about how the priests are to operate in the tabernacle.  God gave specific instructions regarding their sacrifices and in those instructions, He tells them what they are to do with the blood of the animal that is sacrificed.  The priests were to sprinkle the blood of the animal on the altar.  In verse 11, God tells Moses the life of the flesh is in the blood, so they are not to eat the blood. He tells them 4 times in that chapter alone not to eat the blood or there will be consequences. If God is telling them this multiple times, it’s important.

Now lets go take a look at Isaiah, Isaiah has numerous prophetic words of the coming of Jesus, we are going to take a look at a few relating to the blood. Isaiah 53 tells us a lot about God’s plan for Jesus, His purpose and what He would have to go through to fulfill that purpose.  Verse 4:

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, (pierced on the cross, resulting in blood poured out)
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed. (referencing blood)
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, (blood of the lamb, He is the Lamb)
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; (death)
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin, (Atonement)
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e]; (the resurrection, life)
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many, 
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors. (Intercessor)

So if we look at what occurred in Exodus, what the priests were required to do in Leviticus and what we just read in Isaiah, we can clearly see that the blood in each case represented life.  Think about this, when God used Mary to give us Jesus, he used his own blood, his own flesh to create Jesus.  Jesus wasn’t created out of nothing, He was created out of the life of God combined with the what He required of Mary to give us Jesus.  Now let’s take that a step further.

In John 6, starting with verse 31 we see Jesus giving us an understanding of life and an explanation of Old Testament references and prophecy.

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[c]”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[d] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 

So understand we do this to be in communion with Him, not as a memorial to Him.  We don’t do communion as a sad, somber event, it is a joyous time to proclaim our life in Him. 1 Corinthians 11:23 says this: 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

When we take communion, we do it because we are saved.  An unsaved person does not participate in communion, they should not.  It is not appropriate to do so if Jesus is not your savior, it has no meaning.  It’s important to understand that life is in the blood and the blood is in the flesh.  When we partake of communion, we are taking part in the flesh and blood of Jesus, we become a part of Him. It was God’s plan from the beginning.  It’s in the bible from the beginning.  It’s also in the Bible in the end.  Let’s take a look at the Book of Revelation 12:10.  This is in the future, end times and at this moment there is a war in heaven and satan gets thrown down.  Here is what john describes next:

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
    by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony;

So here we see the victory for Jesus is accomplished through his blood. 

I know that was a lot of information to absorb, but are you hearing a theme?  The blood offers us life, the blood is life, the blood has power and the authority of Jesus and it is how, in the end, we overcome satan.  So the blood is important, the blood is biblical and we are both able and expected to use it to overcome the enemy.

So where and how do we use it?  Well, we need to understand that the use of the blood must coincide with the will of God, so we must be aligned with God.  If we try to use it for selfish motives, it won’t work.  When it aligns with His plans, then it most certainly will work. 

A few weeks ago was the one year anniversary of my son’s stroke.  I’ve told the story a few times so I won’t tell the whole story again now, but I want to tell you how I used the blood of Jesus in those moments to ensure my son’s life was protected. 

On April 3, 2022, it was a Sunday, I was working at home writing a prayer course called Moving Mountains Through Prayer, there’s a little irony there.  Anyhow, as I was writing I get a call from my daughter in law just letting me know my son was in ER but it didn’t seem serious just an FYI.  I asked to talk to him, we still had Covid rules here in the hospital, so I was staying home.  I stopped at that point and asked the Lord about it and He told me my son would recover, he said it was an unlawful attack on him, to trust in Him, He was seeing everything and then He told me 2 days.  About an hour later, things were very different.  She asked me to come because the doctors weren’t listening to her.  My son was 26 at the time.

A lot happened in the hours that followed but that night it was finally diagnosed that he had a major stroke and he was taken to the nearby stroke center.  On the second day he had surgery, we thought everything was great, we left him for the evening and as soon as we got home go the call that something was wrong, he was going back into emergency surgery and they didn’t think he was going to make it.  They wanted us to rush back so we could say goodbye.  As we rushed back I prayed, this did not line up with what the Lord told me about the situation, so this could not be the truth of God.  This could not be his outcome because God said he would recover which means he will live.  When I walked in the room to see him, he was prepped for surgery and he was not even remotely the same as when I left him an hour earlier.  He looked lifeless laying there.  It was heart wrenching but I didn’t have time to deal with my heart, I had to use my head to pray and plead the blood of Jesus over my son.  I had to plead the life blood of Jesus over my son. My son is saved so he had a right to the lifesaving blood.  What the Lord says is true is true.  No matter how things looked or how I felt by what I saw, I was told he would recover and that is what I chose to put my faith in, the words of the Lord. 

Because I knew that was in alignment with what I was told, I knew pleading the blood was the right prayer, the right words to use.  We need to make sure we are in alignment and what we are asking is in alignment.  If you can’t hear God speak to you yet, there’s ways to work on that but you can still know the character of God and pray what you know.  We don’t pray this way lightly, we pray this way when we need protection, when we are facing something that we need His life blood to intervene.  The enemy cannot stand against the blood.  I read today someone say that they used to plead the blood, but they heard a demon tell them that doesn’t work and they never said it again.  Then they went on to chastise anyone who did stating that it doesn’t work as if they were some authority on it. That’s stupidity.  Of course the enemy will tell you it doesn’t work.  He is a liar.  If he can convince you it doesn’t work, you will stop doing it.  Can we refer back to Revelation 12;11, it tells us the enemy was conquered by the blood of the Lamb! Nough said!!!

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know someone who could benefit from this podcast, please share.  Using what we discuss here can be life changing if we are willing.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

·      We are discussing pleading the blood of Jesus and why we do it

·      Jesus has redeemed us, He has justified us, He is our Interecessor, Isaiah 53 tells us this, In John, Jesus tells us that no one comes to the Father except through me.  Jesus sanctified us, we can all agree or should all be able to agree on those areas as an understanding of Christianity. 

·      Passover, in Exodus 12 we read about the Passover, and how God used the blood of a Lamb over doorposts to provide life for the Israelites

·      Leviticus 17 and how the priests were to use sacrificial blood

·      Isaiah 53

·      John 6 and what Jesus told us about communion and his blood and his flesh and what it represented for us as eternal life in Him.

·      Revelation 12:11, the Blood of the Lamb is how we overcome satan in the end times

·      The blood offers us life, the blood is life, the blood has power and the authority of Jesus and it is how, in the end, we overcome satan.

·      The story of my son and how I pled the blood of Jesus over his life

·      Make sure our prayer is in alignment with the Lord

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!  

What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com

Satan is creating “Deniers” in Christianity, Ep 2-15

Welcome back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies is a little different format.  We are going to be talking about “deniers”.  I’ll explain what I mean by that in a minute.  First let me give you a little background on how these shows come together so you understand why we are talking about this today which is Easter or Resurrection Day, or this week, which I would say is Resurrection Week.  Then we are also going to talk about the Garden Tomb where Jesus was laid after the crucifixion.  I was just there and want to share a bit about my experience there.

So this week, as with every week, I ask the Lord, what do you want me to talk about for the podcast this week.  He gives me direction and drives the direction of the podcast.  At the end of last year, He had a whole series about 7 demons He wanted me to discuss.  He has a direction and the last few weeks our discussion has been leading to what we are going to discuss today, and He chose those topics because today is Easter, today is the day he rose out of the tomb.  As a believer, it is one of the most important days of our lives and none of us were even here for it.  Today matters.  Without today, nothing would matter. 

So now let’s get on to the topic of the day, “deniers”.  What is the Lord talking about here.  When He gave me that answer, I have to admit, “deniers” is not even a word I use so I wrote it and immediately looked at it, like that word doesn’t look right. Is it misspelled?  It’s just a weird word and I felt like it broke some rules of grammar that I didn’t know, but once I got past my right brained thinking I looked at it again for the heart of what He was telling me.  He was asking me to take some time and open my eyes a bit to see the “deniers” that are denying Him of what He did for us.  Those who deny the Truth of who He is and what He did here.  Those who deny the truth of the gospel.  Now those folks are everywhere, truly it’s not hard to see.  What He was asking me to do however, was specifically listen to the “deniers” in body of Christ.  Now this isn’t about judgment, it’s about understanding where we stand in the depth of where He stood, where He hung, where He laid and where He rose and walked again. 

I’m going to share with you some words I wrote down the day He spoke to me.  My original plan was to pay attention over a period of days, but what I am going to share actually was done within an hour.  I’ll also share a conversation I had and we’ll talk a little bit about how to handle these types of words when you are in the middle of it.  It may not happen often for you, but I want you to be equipped when it does because make no mistake about it, it is the spirit of the antichrist talking among the body of Christ.  The reason we need to talk about this address it is found in Matthew 7:21, Jesus tells us this: Not everyone who says to me “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?”  Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!” Here Jesus is telling us the reality of what is going to happen when that time comes and when He sifts, I don’t plan to be chaff, I am wheat and I want you to be wheat too. 

So we are going to go over 7 things that were said pretty immediately after the Lord said, go listen.

1.     “Angels don't communicate with us today or appear to us today, we can no longer see them”

Well this isn’t true because I have seen them, I am sure many of you have seen them.  There are thousands of stories of people, credible people who have had encounters with angels.  While this may not seen harmful, at the root of this comment is the prevalent belief that when the Bible was finished, so were all the supernatural happenings in the world.  As if because we have the Bible, there is no need for the Angels to do anything.  We cannot allow this errant thinking into our minds because it would not explain what we read in the Book of Revelation. So again, satan is trying to make us think that the kingdom of God is done, there is no movement today and that is a lie also called a denial of Truth.

2.     Demons are not involved in situations where mental health or health issues are present. 

Well we have talked about this several times in the podcast as we have discussed specific demons.  This was said by a woman and unfortunately I didn’t write down my exact response.  It actually occurred about an hour before the Lord gave me my direction so I didn’t think to write it down, but I can tell you I told her something along the lines of Jesus gave us specific examples where he cast our demons from people who had mental health issues and health issues.  If Jesus says the reason for it was demons, then demons are involved in mental health and health issues.  We cannot sit here today and say otherwise, that is denying what Jesus did here and is written countless times in the Bible, to do so is to call Jesus a liar and I will not allow that or participate in that.  If we hear someone say that and tacitly allow it, without speaking up then we are in essence agreeing with it.  So we are not trying to argue but we have to speak the truth in a situation.  We are the Truth in His name. 

3.     The Bible – edited, books left out, men have edited it,

Now this statement is actually true, but what he is saying for the reasons he is saying it is a lie and a denial of Truth.  The Bible is edited.  Most people don’t realize that there was set criteria used to determine which books were included in the Bible.  One of the issues that persists today is confusion over what should or shouldn’t be included in the Bible.  We know the Bible is God Breathed to those who wrote it and for some the fact that there are books that were previously included or excluded angers them and so they don’t want to believe any of it.  That is pure nonsense and an excuse to avoid being accountable and living in sin.  The people who seem to get the most upset by it and use it to justify turning their back on Christianity don’t know anything about the part of the bible that is included.  The criteria used was based on a number of things but a few of the things that matter are taking into consideration what the established beliefs the first century Christians held and what was accepted by them as true.  The reason for that is because the first century Christians were there in the beginning when Paul and the Apostles and Jesus were among them and able to guide them and teach them.  The date was also important.  To be included in the Bible, the book had to be written within a time period that was while the church was being established.  So you would not include something from the second century in the Bible because the first century Christians would not have included it in their teachings.  Another thing that was considered was the author.  Even if the author was first century, it what he wrote was what he heard from a guy, who heard it from a guy, who heard it from a guy, it didn’t get in the Bible.  You had to have a relationship that could be verified to those who were the original teachers of Christianity.  So tangential authors, excluded.  The thinking was they did not want any teachings that were not known to be included in the original church teachings.  Are there some in there that should be, yes, we know there are some letters of Paul’s that were lost because he mentions it, but if the Lord allowed it to be lost, then He must not have needed it and whatever it addressed must be covered elsewhere for us. Moving on.

4.     Claiming to be a Christian but also claiming not to know Jesus because He is not God, there are other ways to God.

This one came up a lot.  I am sure you hear that as well.  There is only one way to God.  We can’t skirt around that.  We aren’t trying to argue with anyone, but we should know why we believe that and be able to quote the scripture.  So the easiest one is in John 14:6. “ Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” Anyone saying otherwise is speaking a lie which is a denial of Truth.

5.     I don't believe people go to hell. If everyone is loved then it doesn't matter.  hell is just a scary story

This garbage statement hits on 2 lies.  The first, if everyone is loved then it doesn’t matter.  Well, God is love, yes, but He is also Holy and God will not love that which is evil.  We have free choice and people use it every day to be unholy.  I am not talking about being perfect, but I am talking about being righteous for Christ.  The second part of that is an attack on the Word of God. So clearly you can see in both of these statements, this person is not a true Christian but has instead created a form of self-religion to fit his purposes.  He will be left outside the gate if he does not accept the truth.

6.     You don't have to repent to anyone, just stop doing whatever it is you were doing

So this is a subtle way of denying the Truth.  I say subtle because they are trying to acknowledge that a change in behavior is needed, so it counterfeits the truth by making us think “oh yeah, we should stop such and such, but the way satan uses this man, he calls himself a Christian, just to be clear, is to then say but you don’t need to repent.  Now let’s think about this. So we are going to problem solve here using the Bible but not referencing a scripture.  This is a way you can look at a situation and come to the correct conclusion if you don’t have a Bible available and don’t know the scripture.  Here is how we solve that, who taught repentance in the Bible.  To be fair repent is in the Bible several times old and new, but who spent their whole ministry teaching repentance and then baptizing people? John the Baptist, right?  John the Baptist had a purpose in his life, teach people repentance to prepare the Way for Jesus.  John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  So if Jesus went to John the Baptist and was baptized by Him, it stands to reason, Jesus endorsed John’s teaching so repentance must be required.  Not to mention it an overall teaching of the bible both old and new testament.  So if you can’t quote a scripture but you are put on the spot, answer that way.   

7.     Never felt God's presence, never had a single prayer answered, never got healed of anything, never heard his voice at all, hypocrisy of churches, unloving Christians, abuse of churches, bible full of contradictions and absurdities, is just fiction  I question was why did God not do more to help them believe, why did God not show up more, do more)

Let me put this in context for you.  This person was talking about how every time he tries to evangelize this is what he hears in response.  He spoke about one guy in particular who gave him this as a response to why he walked away from the church.  Again I see this as an excuse to live in sin rather than seek the Truth of the Lord.  When someone speaks in absolutes, that is a red flag.  When someone pushes everything back on God, “it’s God’s fault” that is a red flag.  One thing I want to point out here.  When the excuse of: hypocrisy of churches, abuse of churches is used we need to think about that.  Satan is the one who has corrupted our churches for sure.  We cannot deny that.  To then have an argument to not go because it is corrupted is Satan making truth out of a situation he corrupted.  When there is truth imbedded into what someone says, the rest of what they say will be considered acceptable as truth because a part is true.  See how the Christian who is trying to evangelize is then left questioning why did God not do more, why did God not show up more for this guy.  That is lunacy.  The Christian allowed the enemy to deny the Truth and he just accepted the lies of the non-believer.  We have to be stronger than that.  We shouldn’t be evangelizing if we don’t even know God ourselves.  You are setting yourself up to be deceived.  That’s like me going out to people and telling them “man, have you completed an Iron man? No? on man, you gotta do it, it will change your life.  The training is intense but once you get it down the race itself is a breeze.”  Ok, I don’t do Iron mans, I will never do an Iron man, know nothing about what it takes to compete in one.  So I have no business recruiting other people to run an iron man when I don’t know what I am talking about.  New believers do this a lot and sometimes they are the only ones who do this. But they end up getting skewered by people like this guy because they are not grounded in the Word yet and don’t know how to respond or handle a situation like this.  We all should evangelize, but we need to be honest in the situation and if you are in over your head, say, hey, I don’t know how to answer what you are saying, but I can find someone who can and I’ll be back to with them to talk to you.  Don’t walk away dismayed yourself because you allowed someone else to rob you of the little truth you had.

Ok, now I want to tell you about a conversation I had this week.  All of these stories I’m discussing were with people who call themselves Christian just to make sure you understand context.  So the initiator of this conversation calls herself a Christian but does not believe in Jesus and stated she does not believe in the crucifixion or the resurrection.  So we are not talking about someone who is Jewish just to be clear.  She is a “Christian” and is spreading the message of God is love and he loves everyone and the initial comment she made was we need to respect everyone because religion is a personal thing and it is intertwined with culture and family.  We can all learn from each other and grow in understanding no matter what we believe.  I’m not sure what happened for her to say that, I was late in the conversation, but the first response I heard was a guy questioning her about where she derived her New Age, Satanic doctrine.  I was a little shocked at how blunt he was, but I was interested to hear her response.  His point was, hey you are saying something to Christians essentially telling us to quiet down the truth and he was calling her on it, so I have to commend him on that.  He was clear, direct and said why he was saying that to her. As you can imagine, it didn’t go over well but that’s where truth was revealed.  What came out of her mouth after that was all the satanic beliefs she was carrying.  Because she got upset, the words coming out of her were satanic and she was twisting the Bible and saying there are other ways to God, the Bible is not the only source of truth and much worse I don’t want to repeat.  You get the idea without me having to speak what she was saying.  Once she was denying that Jesus died on the cross another woman very calmly and very clearly explained the crucifixion and the resurrection to her.  However, let’s call her Jane, I should have done that earlier. But Jane dismissed this well laid out explanation from this woman and called her a legalist and told her to stop spreading her lies essentially.  That’s where I stepped in and said that what this woman said was truth, not legalism and left it at that.  Which of course meant that she was now turned at me.  I don’t mind that, some people don’t want to get involved, but we have to support truth and our brothers and sisters but without attacking Jane.  So then Jane tells me with attitude, “yeah sure, your truth in the Bible’s truth”. I’m not sure what that meant but I just responded, “not sure why you are giving me attitude but yes my truth is in the Bible’s truth.  That should not bother you”. Then she tells me that this is what is wrong with the world today, she wasn’t trying to give me an attitude.  I responded telling her that the issue has nothing to do with the world, but it was her attitude and the way she chose to use her words.  I was prepared to tell her the conversation was over at that point, but instead, she chose to apologize.  I was a little shocked.  She carried on with attitude with others but I left the conversation.

We have to speak the truth when we are hearing otherwise.  We will be held accountable for what we do or don’t do for the Kingdom.  We don’t need to argue.  I don’t have to convince anyone of anything.  We have to get over wanting to win the argument.  We may not be the one chosen to bring that person to the truth of Jesus, we may be one of the other farmers there to plant the seed or water the seed or trim out some weeds or other pests.  It may be for someone else to harvest.  So speak the truth of Jesus but don’t argue, don’t get upset and don’t behave in a way Jesus would look at you and say, that wasn’t necessary.  That’s not My way.  What happened in the Garden of Gethsemane when Peter cut off the ear of the guard there to arrest Jesus.  Jesus didn’t celebrate with Peter, no, he chastised him.  We need to not let everyone walk over us, but stand up and speak the truth.  If it is accepted then great, if it is not, you did what is required of you and let the Lord handle the rest. 

Alright now I want to switch gears a bit and talk to you about the garden Tomb.  I was just there in February and it was amazing.  Now this is the tomb that is widely believed to be the tomb owned by Nicodemis where Jesus was laid to rest.  Of course, there is another huge tourist attraction that claims to be the place and I went there too, but this is the garden tomb not far from skull hill where the crucifixion took place.  While it is also a very busy tourist attraction we were able to experience it twice actually and I really want to share that with you.  The first time we went we were with a lot of people, there are tour groups in and out and it’s crowded and you have limited time because they want to make sure everyone gets a chance to see and experience everything, which is great, but at the same time not so great if you want to have a moment and experience the experience!  So the first day there was good, but I admit I walked away disappointed at being so ushered and rushed in the tomb.  You get 7 seconds in the tomb and you have to get out so everyone gets their turn.  Not exactly spiritual.  Again, totally understand, it’s exciting to see so many people coming from all over the world just to be there for their 7 seconds.  Most people were fine with 7 seconds, it truly is an empty tomb so there isn’t anything to see, thankfully.  Skull hill, same thing, it is not what you expect as it is part of the modern city due to the bus depot being there where the crucifixion took place.  It wasn’t on top of the hill like you see in all the depictions.  Anyhow, we left, got in the bus and as we were driving away, realized my husband had lost his cell phone.  When you are in a foreign country, the last thing you want to do is lose your cell phone.  However, if you are going to lose it, a great place to lose it is at the Garden Tomb.  We have no idea where we lost it, but we do know that it was turned in before we even knew we lost it.  It was turned in and sitting there while we were still there buying our souvenirs.  So when we called, we were so relieved and planned to go back the next morning to get it.  The greatest thing that could have happened to us was to lose that phone because we went back the next morning when they opened and because it was early, there was no one else there but the employees.  We were able to spend an hour at skull hill, just sitting there imagining it, seeing it after reading about it so many times, it was so peaceful and yet obnoxiously loud because it is a bus depot.  It felt dismissed.  I was able to journal there and enjoy the time in a way that was impossible the day before.  From skull hill to the garden tomb is a short walk through a garden area.  At the tomb, we had another hour of peace and had the tomb all to ourselves.  I was able to go in and sit, spend as much time in there as I wanted.  You could feel the Holy Spirit there throughout our time.  When I first walked into the tomb, you could feel the Holy Spirit and as I stepped inside, my right knee buckled.  My knees don’t buckle.  I could feel a presence there, and I was so appreciative of Him, and you couldn’t help but wonder what happened in that cave over that 3 days or however many hours.  He was in there and then he arose, there had to have been such celebration, waiting, joy, tears, how did He feel waking up in there knowing He completed it.  Was he groggy at first, was he sore, so many questions.  If you want to see the tomb and experience what I am talking about here, we have a video up on the YouTube Channel.  We weren’t ready to start posting from the Israel trip, but the Lord said to put this video together for Resurrection Sunday.  So the youTube channel is Life Journey with Dawn Simmons.  We focus on Biblical places on our trips and bring it all back to share with people so others can go too even if it’s only through our lens. 

Thank you guys for listening and for all the emails.  I appreciate it.  We are not following our regular format today, so I am going to end here. 

Have a great week, remember Him and speak the Truth. 

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Satan is a Counterfeit to the Holy Spirit, Ep 2-14

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing counterfeits to the Holy Spirit.  We are going to discuss this in a broad sense because there are so many elements, but you will have a strong understanding of how Satan counterfeits and leads believers astray if they are not able to discern Truth from Lies. 

To start off let’s examine what a counterfeit is, what is the definition. A counterfeit is something made in exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive or defraud. 

I would say the Holy Spirit is something valuable and important to us as believers.  Anything that has an intent to deceive or defraud is not the Truth and therefore a lie and Jesus tells us Satan is the Father of lies.  We talked about that last week and it can be found in John 8:44.

The number of ways Satan counterfeits the Holy Spirit is seemingly endless because the way the Holy Spirit works in our lives is endless.  What Satan cannot do, however, is offer us anything truthful, anything fulfilling, anything to live for because He himself has none of those things.  How can He offer what he does not have.  Jesus on the other hand has all of those things and more but if we don’t truly know Him and have a relationship with Him, Satan can lead us to a place where we begin to have mixed motivations and compromise our values.

Satan’s goal is to counterfeit the Truth so it can be watered down and twisted.  The more often this is done, the less we notice and our whole foundation in Jesus erodes.  We will sing worship songs that have no worship and quote scripture that’s not actual scripture in ignorance because Truth is absent.  

Paul was continually dealing with counterfeits in his ministry.  Here is what he says to the Romans, this is Romans 1:18-27

Warnings Against Denying the Son

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

Let’s talk about this for a minute, everyone today is talking about the end of the world and the antichrist, but Paul is using the term to identify the demonic influence that is present with these men.  A spirit of antichrist originates within the body of Christ, Christ must have a place first for the antichrist to have an existence.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[e] 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

We know Satan is the father of lies, satan knows the Truth that Jesus is the Messiah, but seeks to lead you astray and separate you in your relationship with Jesus.  This is very common in the church today and it is how the Muslim religion has been able to become the fastest growing religion.

24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

Paul acknowledges that at that time, he was dealing with counterfeits within the church.  These counterfeits were leading early Christians astray, same as it happening today.  It is happening in our pulpits by leaders who are teaching a false doctrine.  Well get into that in a little bit.

Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 11: 1-15, and see what Paul has to say about what was happening in first century Corinth.

Paul and the False Apostles

 I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! 2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

Paul is telling them that they are not correctly discerning the Holy Spirit and what they know to be the truth from Satan coming with lies to deceive them with a false doctrine and a spirit other than the Holy Spirit.

5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”

Paul was using this term, super apostle sarcastically and then goes on to show the dichotomy between himself as a humble servant and his message and what these Judaizers were offering a “better brand” of Christianity than the truth of the gospel Paul taught them.

 I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. 7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Paul is talking about the judgment that will take place against these men for their antichrist behavior.  This antichrist behavior is a part of our culture today and that is among believers as well.  When we begin to evaluate churches for their amenities and not the message, we have a problem.  When we are more concerned with How we want people to see us versus how we want God to see us, we have a problem. When we are more focused on self-love vs god’s love we have a problem. 

I hear Paul talking about these “super apostles” and when I compare it to what our world is like today, I would compare it to these mega churches we have.  If it is a mega church that is truly preaching the Word and the message of salvation through the sacrifice Jesus made for each of us, then that is not a super apostle.  It’s when we have the Joel Osteen, sorry of you are a fan, but the Joel Osteen’s of the world are robbing Christianity of the truth of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Participating in that church is participating in culture not relationship and that is the spirit of the antichrist moving in the church today.  His father was not like that, but unfortunately Joel does not preach a bible-based message but a cultural feel-good message that is a counterfeit to what Jesus told us when He walked this earth.  It is our responsibility as believers to discern truth from lies.  We will be held accountable for what we believe, what we say, how we influence others and the way we lived our lives for the kingdom or not. 

I heard a statistic the other day.  A survey was done that was anonymous, but it was only done with pastors. Now this is not bash pastor’s week, but this is make sure you are being led by a bible based pastor week, year, life.  Anyhow, the survey was pretty long but one of the questions was how much time do you spend everyday in prayer.  Do you want to take a guess at the answer?  I’ll tell you…it was 3 minutes.  Yes, 3 minutes. 

Look, if you want to make sure you are not putting yourself in a position to follow a counterfeit to the Holy Spirit, we need to be able to discern the Holy Spirit from Satan.  We need to be able to open our Bible and read it for ourselves, consistently.  Develop that discernment.  We should be praying and developing our relationship with the Lord to help us with discernment. Likewise, we should make sure we are led by a pastor that has that same desire to pray and develop their relationship with the Lord.  No one is above being influenced by Satan.  We need to know Jesus so well, we could never mistake one for the other.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who is experiencing any of the issues, please share this podcast.  Addressing these demonic influences and getting them out of our lives is life changing if we are willing.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

·      Counterfeits to the Holy Spirit

·      The definition: A counterfeit is something made in exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive or defraud. 

·      The number of ways Satan counterfeits the Holy Spirit is seemingly endless because the way the Holy Spirit works in our lives is endless. 

·      Satan’s goal is to counterfeit the Truth so it can be watered down and twisted. 

·      Paul was continually dealing with counterfeits in his ministry.  Here is what he says to the Romans, this is Romans 1:18-27

·      2 Corinthians 11: 1-15, Paul dealing with Super apostles in Corinth. This antichrist behavior is a part of our culture today and that is among believers as well.

·      Modern day “super apostles” and it is our responsibility as believers to discern truth from lies.  We will be held accountable for what we believe, what we say, how we influence others and the way we lived our lives for the kingdom or not. 

·      To make sure you are not putting yourself in a position to follow a counterfeit to the Holy Spirit, we need to be able to discern the Holy Spirit from Satan.  We need to be able to open our Bible and read it for ourselves, consistently.  Develop that discernment. 

·      We need to know Jesus so well, we could never mistake one for the other.

We encourage you:

·       To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·       Our Journals can be found on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/author/mountainmovermedia-dawnsimmons

·       I am doing a giveaway of the Book and StudyGuide for Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  If you want to be included in the random drawing each week then send us an email to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and put in the Subject Line:  "LC"  In the email let us know where you want the books to be sent with a name as well. 

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

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How Satan Works to Manipulate Us Daily, Ep 2-13

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing 4 ways the enemy works to manipulate us in our day to day lives.  Often times the topics we discuss seem separate and apart from our day to day lives because of the severity of what we discuss.  There are other tactics the enemy uses that are subtle, like a slow burn. We may miss these tactics as we go about our daily tasks.  These are very common issues that we need to be aware of, so we stop these tactics immediately. 

Let's start off talking about how Jesus describes Satan.  In John 8:44, Jesus is in Jerusalem speaking to the Pharisees, religious leaders. "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. "  So the father of lies is at the root of all the enemy tactics.  When the root is a lie, everything he produces is a lie. 

This week I was talking with a woman, we will call her Jane, and we were developing a prayer action plan over her son.  The son is currently in an involuntary psychiatric hold and is saying some extremely demonic things right now with brief moments of clarity.  Those brief moments gave Jane hope.  At times he will claim to be Jesus and those are easy to recognize that the Spirit of the Anti-Christ is working in the words he is saying to her.  Other times, there are some more subtle comments made that confuse Jane.  She wants to try to figure out what he is talking about.  There were accusations made against family members and I could hear it was upsetting to Jane and she was questioning if what was being accused was true of the accuser.  We must remember in all situations where the enemy is working against us that we cannot trust in what is being said.  We don't want to take an accusation and act on it based only on that circumstance.  Satan is our accuser and what he does is all rooted in lies.  This is not to say some accusations are not true, but we can't act on accusations given to us in this way. 

In Jane's situation, she had a wide spectrum of demonic words spoken so there was no mistaking the enemy was at work.  For us, in our day to day lives, it will be more subtle and because we are distracted, we may miss that it is actually the enemy behind some simple things, tactics, that begin to manipulate us.

So let's talk about 4 tactics the enemy uses everyday to manipulate us with lies.  We will see what the Bible tells ureveals to us is the truth we need to live by.  Life is found in truth and truth is found in life. 

1.      Eroding our confidence through doubt and fear

The spirit of doubt has a purpose to deceive us into questioning our decisions and actions.  The goal is to lead us into inactivity. Doubt erodes trust.  Doubt destroys creativity.  Doubt builds walls. Doubt shuts doors.  Doubt ends friendships.  Doubt ends businesses.  Doubt breaks contracts.  Doubt builds fears.  Doubt conceals talent. Doubt shreds love. 

The spirit of doubt is dangerous because it is a counterfeit to logic and reason. The spirit of doubt works quietly.  It doesn’t show up in your face, instead it slowly makes its way toward you taking every opportunity to exploit your struggles its advantage.  It waits for a moment of weakness or takes the time to carefully craft circumstances to get you to a moment of uncertainty and then it begins to use your own words and thoughts against you.  If we cannot maintain the integrity of our faith and recognize when the enemy is coming at us, it will crumble, it will be eaten away and what will you have left to stand on for support?  Faith in our walk with Jesus is vital to our life in Jesus.  We have to protect our minds and hearts, we have to protect our faith.  The opposite of doubt is faith.  Faith can hold you up through all things.  Faith can build you in your hardest days.  Faith can tear down the plans of the enemy. 

In Matthew 14:31, Peter is walking in faith and gets our of the boat, but loses focus for a second and we see Jesus respond in this way, immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 

Our faith has to be bigger than what the enemy is driving toward us.   Our level of faith is a choice we make because of our relationship with Jesus.  Doubt will only lead you to fear.  When we act in fear, we make poor choices.  Never let the circumstances you see, dictate your outcome. 

2.      Using our past against us with guilt and shame

Once you become saved and born again, the Bible tells us that we have now become new creations in Jesus Christ. Our past is no longer our past in Christ's eyes.  He never will bring up your past as a way to lead you forward.  He will guide you away from the ways of your past without bringing shame.  We have to learn to let our past go.  If we cannot do that then we are telling Jesus what He did is not good enough.  We can learn a lot from our past.  Our past can help lead others by your example, but we don't look back at it and let it hinder us from our future in Him.

The enemy will use our past to bring out our shame and guilt to keep you from doing anything for the Kingdom because you don't want others to know.  I know with couples who are in second marriages this can be something the enemy uses to keep them from feeling that others are condemning them.  Unfortunately, the enemy will use Christians against each other in this way.  You don't see it often, but I've seen it recently and it was the enemy using a spirit of religion in another Christian to attack a number of people in second marriages.  I had a pastor in the past who would not perform any weddings where either couple had a second marriage.  There was not an attempt to understand the circumstance and evaluate each situation individually to decide if he would be involved, it was a belief that second marriages are not Biblical.  Again, the enemy using the spirit of religion to create an environment that hurt those Christians who were in second marriages that were Biblical or were saved after the fact.

The Holy Spirit works differently in us. Again, the Holy Spirit uses conviction in our hearts to lead us from our sinful life, no matter how big or small, to Him.  He does not use shame or guilt, but rather He uses His right and true ways to lead us to repentance and back in relationship with him.  Guilt or shame, is not His way.  He encourages and uses His loving ways to guide us on the right path.

If you have something that still hangs in the back of your mind, get rid of it.  Give it to the Lord.  Don't give the enemy anything to work with in coming against you.

3.      Using others against us with lies, jealousy and paranoia

Remember, Jesus calls Satan, the Father of Lies so he will always use this as a way to get to us.  We, unfortunately, don't think first in terms of having to judge or evaluate what words are spoken to us.  We don't go around and question everything everyone says to us, so it's not something we think to do when the enemy is using lies to come against us. 

Do you know one of the reasons Americans are such easy targets abroad? I think Canadians fall into this category as well.  When we travel abroad to other countries, we have more of a tendency to think people are going to act the way we are used to acting and so we tend to be very nice.  Too nice and someone looking to take advantage of you will use that niceness against you.  Now we have plenty of people in every country that are willing to take advantage of us, but it's just a known tactic because it works.  Europeans I have found are more aware in most cases.  The enemy will work the same way against us because we generally aren't expecting it.

Jealousy attacks our self-worth, affects how we view others, the world, creates bitterness, harbors hatred, entices people to compromise their morals, and only serves to take us into a downward spiral that will ultimately produce rejection in our lives.  All of that has an origin and it is all from satan. 

Genesis 4 to see the first murder committed out of jealousy.  In Genesis 4:7 we see God warning Cain, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”  Cain could not do what is right and he murdered his brother Abel.  I doubt Abel ever expected that.  No one had ever done it and most people would never think of such things, but for Cain, it was his answer and it was the influence of Satan. 

Paranoia will break you down mentally and you will end up trusting no one.  That will tear apart your relationship with the Lord.  Which leads us to our next tactic.

4.      Addiction Issues

Addiction issues run far and wide.  This goes beyond the obvious involving drugs or alcohol.  There are a lot of other unspoken addictions or rarely recognized behaviors we do that are actually addictions. 

Why are addiction issues so damaging to us?  Aside from the consequences that a lot of addiction issues present, there are underlying issues

Addiction extends to other areas we don't always acknowledge. E-cigarettes, going to the gym, shopping, sports, television, gaming or work.  On the surface, many of these seem like a non-issue but when we move to a place of needing that addiction to function or where it takes over our time such that it interferes with our time with the Lord then we have a problem we need to address.  We don't want to have anything that becomes an idol or that we cant function unless we have that in our life that is clearly not a necessity. If we can't turn it off and walk away, then we need to ask ourselves if this is an addiction.  Does it take up our thoughts and drive our behaviors is a good way to gauge if we have an addiction.

So that is the top 4 areas of manipulation I tend to see people struggle with the most.  If any of those resonate with you, rebuke it, kick it to the curb and focus on what the Lord has planned for you.  Now let's move on to how to stop these tactics from working on us.  I have 4 simple steps for that.

4 Steps to Stop Enemy tactics

1.      Identify It: what occurred, what did the Holy Spirit reveal, how does it line up with the Bible or the character of God

2.      Rebuke It: we always want that to be an immediate response when we begin to see the enemy is involved anywhere we are.  It's as simple as saying :  I rebuke that in the name of Jesus. 

3.      Root it Out: what triggered it to influence you, is it something from your past, is it something that happened to you that you have held on to, how did it get to you (what path did it take – person, location, etc)

4.      Give it to the Lord and speak Truth over your life:  once we have identified what it is and you have rooted out why it is being used against you, hand it over to the Lord.  This is a good time to quote a scripture such as: "no weapon formed against me shall prosper" Isaiah 54:17, rarely is the second part of this sentence quoted but it really applies well here "and you will refute every tongue that accuses you" 

Rephrased I would say, No weapon formed against me shall prosper and I will refute every tongue that accuses me.  That's the rebuke part for our purposes.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who is experiencing any of the issues, please share this podcast.  Addressing these demonic influences and getting them out of our lives is life changing if we are willing.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

Discussed how the enemy works to manipulate us in our day to day lives

4 tactics the enemy uses to manipulate us

1.      Eroding our confidence through doubt and fear

2.      Using our past against us with guilt and shame

3.      Using others against us with lies, jealousy and paranoia

4.      Addiction Issues

Steps to Stop Enemy tactics

1.      Identify It: what

2.      Rebuke It

3.      Root it Out: what triggered it to have an effect on you

4.      Give it to the Lord and speak Truth over your life

We encourage you:

·          To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·          Our Journals can be found on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/author/mountainmovermedia-dawnsimmons

·          I am doing a giveaway of the Book and StudyGuide for Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  If you want to be included in the random drawing each week then send us an email to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and put in the Subject Line:  "LC"  In the email let us know where you want the books to be sent with a name as well. 

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

    What we ask of you:

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·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies

Understanding Curses & Blessings Pt 7, Ep 2-12

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing behaviors and activities we do that result in Curses having a legal right to operate in our lives. We have already discussed what is a curse and what is a blessing. We reviewed Deuteronomy 28 discussing obedience and disobedience relating to blessings and curses, and last week we discussed events or occurrences that suggest or reveal a curse may be operating in our lives. This is part 7 of our series "Understanding Blessings and Curses" and today we will talk about how to break curses and usher in blessings that are being blocked by curses. 

So let's review again the definition of a curse. A curse is defined as: a solemn utterance intended to involve a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something.  The definition of a blessing is: God's favor and protection. 

There are 2 things we are going to discuss today, the why and the how.  Without the "Why", there is no "How".  So let's get started on the Why.  What do I mean by Why, well I am referring to the why behind why we are able to break curses.  Throughout this podcast and even in this series we have discussed in depth the why behind the existence of curses and blessings.  So let's come to an understanding of why we, as believers, and this is only for those who are believers, have the ability to break a curse. 

Everything, everything we need for this is rooted in the cross.  For a curse to have a legal right, a rebellion, disobedience or a turning from God's ways has happened.  That is what enables the curse to begin and then our additional acts allow it to continue.  When we repent and turn away from our rebellion we enter into an exchange.  There is an exchange we participate in as we turn back to God, place Him as our priority and enter into Obedience.

Jesus tells us about this in Matthew 8:16-17, When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.  This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities
    and bore our diseases.”[b]

It is also referenced in 1 Peter 2:21-24, To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

22 “He committed no sin,
    and no deceit was found in his mouth.”[e]

23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.

So this exchange has taken place, our sins for the sacrifice of Jesus.  In the Old Testament, before Jesus, sin was atoned for through a sin offering.  We see that discussed in Isaiah 53: 10, which reads, Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes[a] his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

We no longer are required to do a sin offering because Jesus did it for us once and for all.  So through this exchange, we become clean.  All of the Curses we discussed in Deuteronomy 28 were still and are still considered Curses under the law.  Jesus fulfilled the law, and that is why, the only reason why we are able to break or be released from curses.  This is also why I say this ability only applies to believers.  If you are not a believer, you do not have this exchange and so you are living with curses. 

It's really important that we have that understanding behind why we are able to break these curses, I know it seems self-explanatory, but to move forward and say and do what we need to do, we should make sure we all are aware of this why or you will have a tendency to look back and revisit old behaviors or allow the enemy to deceive you into believing you cannot break a curse, even after you have gone through and broken it. 

Now onto the How.  I have broken this down into 6 steps.  We will be going through the steps first and then we will go through a prayer that you can use to break a curse.  As we discuss the steps, don't worry about writing it out for your prayer because again, we will lay t out and I will make it available on my website under the resources tab so you can always download it there.

The 6 steps to breaking a curse:

1.      Acknowledge Jesus as our savior.  As a believer we do this when we are baptized but we want to do it here again and acknowledge that as our savior he bore our sins on the cross, he died and was resurrected.  Our faith is in Him alone.

2.      Repent.  This is almost always my second step because we almost always have to turn ourselves back to God.  We need to submit to him, that's the obedience part of how we need to live our lives. We want to renounce whatever sins allowed a curse to operate in our lives. 

3.      Acknowledge our forgiveness and address any unforgiveness.  One thing I see frequently is someone who has asked the Lord for forgiveness and then continues to feel ashamed about their sin.  Think about this:  God sent his son to us to live with us, teach us, correct us and guide us.  He then also sacrificed his son, which Jesus willingly did for us to atone for all of our sin.  We accepted Jesus as our savior to receive that forgiveness and then we have the nerve to act like all that God did, all that Jesus did, was not enough and we continue to carry our shame?  In a way, that means you are above Jesus.  If ou are so bad that what Jesus did isn't good enough, then you are not forgiving what God has already forgiven.  Doesn't work.  That does lead me into the other point of this and that is unforgiven sin.  Whether our own sin or unforgiven sin we are carrying because of someone who has wronged us.  We have discussed this before.  We have to release those feelings, give them to the Lord and clear our heart from carrying that around with us.  If you can't do that, then you can't break a curse.

This is also the time where you will address a generational curse.  When you have a generational curse, that is a wrong carried out against you that was without your involvement, now sometimes you may have participated and you need to repent from that, but what we are addressing here is a legal trespass allowed by an ancestor that has been carried down to you without your initiating the trespass.

4.      Clean house. This is tied to the previous point and we don't want to overlook it.  As you are going through this process and you may find the Holy Spirit prompting you of something in your past that is old, long forgotten.  You may have spoken some words over someone or even cursed someone.  Whatever the circumstances, as you are going through this if the Holy Spirit is bringing someone to your remembrance, understand that it is something that needs to be addressed in order to move forward and break the curse.  It's a cleaning house.  It's like when you go to clean out your garage or your attic and you find all these old "treasures" you haven't seen in a while.  Some have positive connotations associated with them and maybe some have painful.  We need to go through and clean it out.  Don't overlook this step.

5.      Renounce any Satanic or Occult practices. Most people don't acknowledge some of the simple things they do that are rooted in the satanic.  Reading your horoscope is rooted in the satanic.  We have talked in a number of podcasts about witchcraft and occult practices so listen to those if you are interested in understanding more because this is more common than most people realize. Any participation in these activities gives Satan a legal right over your life and it is a wide berth.  He doesn't have to stay in one lane, even if you are saved.  So if you did this when you are in high school or college when you were saved and now you are in your 30's and 40's and you have never renounced it, it could easily have attributed to marital problems, financial problems, health problems and you could have passed it on to your kids because it is functioning in your home.

I am not saying any of this to scare you, I say it because I have seen it over and over again. People come to me for help and the devastation meddling in the occult produces is staggering.  The most I have ever dealt with generationally with curses and the occult is 5 generations.  That's not the legacy you want to leave behind.

Finally, once you have done all these things, there is only one thing left to do and that is step six. 

6.      Pray.  Now we are going create a prayer together you can use.  What we want to do is keep it simple.  It is going to say what we need it to say and nothing more.  You can embellish it to fit your specifics, but we are not trying to make this a long drawn-out prayer.  You can always add scripture to it.  We just don't want to over complicate it.  Sometimes people who don't pray a lot in public get intimidated by people who do long drawn out prayers and so it keeps them from even praying privately.  Long drawn-out prayers are no more powerful than short ones that say the same thing in less words.

 Are you ready?  Let's get to breaking some curses. Even if you don't think you have a curse, do it.  If there is anything hanging over you trying to interfere, this will address that as well.

 Lord Jesus, I acknowledge and believe you are the Son of God, the way to God and that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again.

 I repent, Lord, for any rebellion, disobedience, for all of my sins and I submit to you, Lord.

 I confess my sins to you, Lord, and ask for forgiveness for all my sins, anything I have done to allow a curse in my life.  I ask to be released from any generational curses or sins.

 I willingly forgive anyone who has wronged or harmed me, Lord. (Add anyone that the Holy Spirit is prompting you, naming them specifically)

 I renounce any involvement with the occult or anything satanic.  I cancel all claims and rights of Satan against me.

 Lord, I believe and accept the exchange of my sins for your death on the cross and your resurrection.

 In Jesus' name I ask you to release me now, Lord, from every curse in my life.

 I thank you, Lord, that your Word never fails and by faith I receive my release.

 Thank you, Lord. Guide me Lord to align my life with your will.

That is it. Simple and it does everything we need it to do.  The enemy cannot continue when you have completed this and remain in Him.

This concludes our series, Understanding Blessings & Curses.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who is experiencing any of the issues, please share this podcast.  Addressing these demonic influences and getting them out of our lives is life changing if we are willing.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

·         This is part 7 of our series "Understanding Blessings and Curses" and today we will talk about how to break curses and usher in blessings that are being blocked by curses. 

·         A curse is defined as: a solemn utterance intended to involve a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something. 

·         The definition of a blessing is: God's favor and protection

·         There are 2 things we are going to discuss today, the why and the how.  Without the "Why", there is no "How". 

·         As believers, and this is only for those who are believers, have the ability to break a curse. 

·         Everything, everything we need for this is rooted in the cross.  For a curse to have a legal right, a rebellion, disobedience or a turning from God's ways has happened. 

·         There is an exchange we participate in as we turn back to God, place Him as our priority and enter into Obedience

·         Matthew 8:16-17, 1 Peter 2:21-24, Isaiah 53: 10,

·         Jesus fulfilled the law, and that is why, we are able to break or be released from curses.

·         The 6 steps to breaking a curse:

1.      Acknowledge Jesus as our savior. 

2.      Repent. 

3.      Acknowledge our forgiveness and address any unforgiveness. 

4.      Clean house.

5.      Renounce any Satanic or Occult practices.

6.      Pray. 

We encourage you:

·          To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·          Also, we just dropped a video from our Turkey travels on our YouTube Channel. It is on Ephesus, the 7th of the 7 churches of the book of Revelation series. Check it out!

·          Our Journals can be found on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/author/mountainmovermedia-dawnsimmons

·          I am doing a giveaway of the Book and StudyGuide for Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  If you want to be included in the random drawing each week then send us an email to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and put in the Subject Line:  "LC"  In the email let us know where you want the books to be sent with a name as well.  

    What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies

Understanding Curses & Blessings Pt 6, Ep 2-11

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be continuing our discussion on Blessings.  We have already discussed what is a curse and what is a blessing. We reviewed Deuteronomy 28 discussing obedience and disobedience relating to blessings and curses, we discussed events or occurrences that suggest or reveal a curse may be operating in our lives.

Last week we talked about the ultimate Blessing we have and that is what Jesus did for us in the cross, but let’s go a different direction and talk about what the Old Testament begins to reveal to us about God's purpose in Blessings  We will start by looking at the definition of a blessing and then reviewing Deuteronomy 28.

The definition of a blessing is: God's favor and protection.  Just seeing that secular definition it's pretty clear that there are a lot of uses of the word blessing that are not actually a "blessing"  I hear people all the time say "oh that was a blessing" and what they are referencing has nothing to do with God, God's plan or anything received as a result of their relationship with the Lord which would by it's very nature produce favor and protection.  So understand that when we use the word "blessing" we need to understand what it is we are actually saying. 

Now let's look at what God tells us is a blessing.  Deuteronomy 28: 1-15:

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

In those scriptures we see that the blessings are conditional.  He tells us that in verses 1-2.  These conditions are where many people today and throughout history have had an issue.  Nobody wants to hear the word "Obey" anymore.  I think it has disappeared from wedding vows and even parents over these last few generations don't seem to want to attach their children to needing to Obey what they say.  In these 2 verses the Lord says it twice, once in each verse, so I think He is wanting to make sure we understand that it is part of the requirement to receive His blessings. 

The rest of the verses talk about the blessings themselves.  What we can expect from God if we in fact do the one thing he asks, obey.  When you see all of the benefits, it certainly seems like we are getting the better end of the deal.  What the enemy wants to do however is prevent us from receiving those blessings and instead block the blessings and position us to fall under a curse. 

I want to read a little bit more about what God has to say about blessing, this is from Chapter 30, so just follow along with me here. This is Deuteronomy Chapter 30, all of Chapter 30 and I am reading out of NIV.

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, (Matthew 22:27, the Greatest Commandment) 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes[a] and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8 You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

So let's go back and talk about that word "Obey".  What is God asking of us?  It's almost so simple it's unbelievable.  Love the Lord, obey His commands – now His commands are those things designed to keep us out of trouble, to keep us aligned with Him, keep us focused on what is right and true.  Remove any idols and put our relationship with the Lord first.  

Let's take a minute to look at the commands God is referencing back in Deuteronomy 28.  The commands he gives them start in Deuteronomy 4 and continue through 28.  So let's think back to last week and how the biggest blessing we have is in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  I told you about being in Jerusalem where I witnessed those still practicing and living by these very laws, others living for themselves and them a small portion of those living under the fulfillment of those laws through Jesus.  Keeping all of those laws was impossible, but for those of us in Jesus, it is entirely possible. 

When I saw the Orthodox Jews is Jerusalem still working to live by those laws, I saw a remnant of people that had a dedication to God that most people today cannot match.  Most people today chose to not live by any commands let alone hundreds.  The Jewish nation may not accept Jesus as a whole, but many of them have remained faithful in their attempt to Obey their God, our God.  Christians have far less to "Obey" and we struggle. 

Next week we are going to address how to break Curses and move into Blessings, but I want to take a few minutes now to make an announcement somewhat but talk to you about "Obey" 

For us to "Obey" is not as difficult as we make it out to be.  There are some basics yes, that once we are saved, some basic beliefs we live our lives by that are a general standard, even non-believers will agree that following standards like the 10 commandments are overall a good idea.  Obey, however, goes further than that because in Obey we find out how to align ourselves with the Lord where He can reveal his best plan in our lives. 

My work has been focused in this are for the last almost 6 years now and that's where the announcement comes in.  What I have been teaching people ties to how we Obey the Lord to live that John 10:10 life Jesus promised us.  It is what this podcast is about. 

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

I have taken everything the Lord taught be, all the principles I have been teaching others, and was able to write a book and a Study Guide.  It's called, Loving Conversations:  How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  In it, I discuss a process the Lord taught me called SALO, it is Stop, Ask, Listen and Obey, our discussion for today.  To Obey is to be blessed and it will make our lives better.  In the book it discussed how to use this SALO process to be able to hear what the Holy Spirit is guiding you toward, to know what He wants from us.  It will take you from uncertainty in your life to security in being able to hear from the Lord.  It has changed so many lives.  Listen at the end and I'll tell you about some giveaway options. 

Ok, next week we are going to finish up this series and talk about how to break any curses and move into blessings.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who is experiencing any of the issues, please share this podcast.  Addressing these demonic influences and getting them out of our lives is life changing if we are willing.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

• Continuing our discussion on Blessings and Curses, this week focused on Blessing

• The definition of a blessing is: God's favor and protection. 

• Deuteronomy 28: 1-15: God's conditional: If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

• Deuteronomy Chapter 30

• when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, (Matthew 22:27, the Greatest Commandment) 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes[a

• "Obey".  What is God asking of us?  It's almost so simple it's unbelievable.  Love the Lord, obey His commands – now His commands are those things designed to keep us out of trouble, to keep us aligned with Him

• Commands begin in Deuteronomy 4-28

• Jesus was the fulfillment of the commands

• People struggle to Obey not fully understanding what it truly means to Obey

• Discussed Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice. SALO process

Next week discussing how to break curses and move in to Blessings.

We encourage you:

·          To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

·          Also, we just dropped a video from our Turkey travels on our YouTube Channel. It is on Ephesus, the 7th of the 7 churches of the book of Revelation series. Check it out!

·          Our Journals can be found on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/author/mountainmovermedia-dawnsimmons

·          I am doing a giveaway of the Book and StudyGuide for Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice.  If you want to be included in the random drawing each week then send us an email to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and put in the Subject Line:  "LC"  In the email let us know where you want the books to be sent with a name as well.  

·          If you want to purchase the book, here is the information, it can be found on Amazon.  The Study Guide should be available next week from what the publisher is telling me.

https://a.co/d/6Y3Ewly

Next week we will conclude our series "Understanding Blessings and Curses".  I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

    What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies

Understanding Curses & Blessings Pt 5, Ep 2-10

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be continuing our discussion on Curses & Blessings this week by beginning our discussion on Blessings.

I want to give you an Overview of my recent trip to Israel and talk about how what I experienced there is the perfect beginning to the Blessings discussion because it revolves around the beginning of the blessings we have in Jesus.

We encourage you:

·      To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

Our Journals can be found on Amazon at :

https://www.amazon.com/author/mountainmovermedia-dawnsimmons

Also, I want to encourage you to visit our website and join our Warrior community.  I am working on planning some live events and the only way to be included in that is to be a part of our Warrior Community.  Just visit our website, www.conqueringourunseenenemies.com, and join from the Home page or the Resources page. 

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

  What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies

Understanding Curses & Blessings Pt 4, Ep 2-9

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be continuing and completing our discussion on behaviors and activities we do that result in Curses having a legal right to operate in our lives. We have already discussed what is a curse and what is a blessing. We reviewed Deuteronomy 28 discussing obedience and disobedience relating to blessings and curses, we discussed events or occurrences that suggest or reveal a curse may be operating in our lives. This is the second part of last week's episode in our series "Understanding Blessings and Curses" and before this series ends, you will know how to break curses and usher in blessings that are being blocked by curses. 

So let's review again the definition of a curse. A curse is defined as: a solemn utterance intended to involve a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something.  One of the things we discussed in part 1 was Deuteronomy 28 and verses 1-14 reveal the Blessings for Obedience, while verses 15-68 reveal the Curses for Disobedience. 

If there is a curse in effect, it has a legal right to operate.  Our job is to find out why, and eradicate or break that legal right.  As we talk about this, know that I am being very blunt about all of this purposefully.  I don't want to hide behind anything out of fear of offending anyone, or sugar coat anything.  Truth can be offensive when it is contrary to God's word and I am not going to water down what His word tells us will produce the consequences of a curse. This episode is a little more direct, more convicting than last week so that is going to come across in my words.  I could feel it as I was preparing.   

Last week we started this conversation of behaviors or activities that give a curse a legal right to operate and those areas we discussed last week were:

·         Self Imposed Curses by our words or actions

·         God alone has absolute authority.  When we participate in activities overtly or secretly that are an act of rebellion against an authority that we are subject to, we are opening a door. Matthew 28:18

·         Illegal activities

·         Legalism, apostasy (turning our back and renouncing God) carnality

·         Genesis 12:3, Antisemitism, God will bless those who bless His people and curse those who curse His people.

·         Exodus 20, 1st and 2nd Commandments, no other gods before him and no idols

Our first are to discuss that will allow a curse to operate should be pretty self explanatory but because it encompasses so many little things we often overlook we will try to go over several of the pitfalls.  The overall area we are discussing here is witchcraft and witchcraft related activities.  There is confusion today about what is harmless and what is truly Satanic. His primary purpose is to deceive us, so when we don't know the Bible, the true character of God, you won't know when the Bible is being manipulated to serve a purpose other than Godly.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:1-2, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Paul here is talking about satan and we know that God clearly tells us in Deuteronomy that disobedience brings a curse.  A big way confusion enters the picture for naïve believers is through New Age type activities.  The use of crystals, meditations, chakras, moon cycles, yoga, incense, smudging are all intended to replace the One True God with fake, ritualistic activities.  It presents as promoting self-help, but behind it is just the marketing of a peaceful form of witchcraft.  It's all garbage.  Anything that intends to create in you a focus that is directed toward anything other than the Lord is satanic.  Any centering of self or meditating on anything other than the Word or the Lord himself is going to produce a curse in your life that you will not be able to feign ignorance of later.

Of course, there's also the other forms of witchcraft that are easier to discern, tarot cards, psychics, games, rituals.  Unfortunately, there are still plenty of places in the world which still allow animal and even human sacrifice.  In January of this year, Detroit's city just approved animal sacrifices for religious purposes.  This is not God's way because Jesus became that sacrifice for us.  Any sacrifices for religious purposes after Jesus are satanic.  Clearly the participation in any activity that is satanic in nature puts us in operation with satan and will produce a curse in our lives.

Did you know that just as Christians work to evangelize and bring others to Christ, Satanists do the same thing, but also then take it a step further and pray against us for complacency?  They pray for the Antichrist to appear much the way we pray for Jesus to return.  Those activities that we engage in as Christians, there is an opposite counterfeit operation intent on stirring up and growing the population of those against Christ.  I remember a number of years ago, my oldest son was a travel hockey player and so we used to travel all over the country for his games.  He did play internationally, but I couldn't attend those games because it would have been difficult with 3 other younger kids at the time.  Anyhow, we were in a town known for sinful activities and we were there for a weekend.  It is by far not my favorite town, it has a lot of twinkling lights, okay, I like lights but the rest of what goes on in that town I could care less about.  One of the afternoons we were walking down a major walkway area and I was approached and a tract was shoved at me.  I hate it when someone does that regardless of what the tract is.  Even if it were a Christian tract, don't shove it at me, that does no good.  How will that benefit anyone if you are out there forcing your way on someone.  In this case, however, it was not a Christian tract, it was a satanic tract.  I had never seen one before so I was quite surprised.  I couldn't help but wonder how many people were drawn to it.  If you are given something like that and you hold on to it, don't even read it but hold on to it, you have opened a door.  Objects in our possession as we have discussed previously are problematic particularly when they are specifically demonic in nature whether overtly or subtly.  

These next few topics I want to go over are surprising I think, well, they should be surprising, that's probably more accurate.  So what I am referring to here are Christians who slander, gossip, speak with malice in their heart of other Christians.  Now to be clear, what we are not referring to here is when there is an issue of sin and the church is going through the steps of discipline with a member.  What we are talking about is baseless, unnecessary, rumor mill tearing down of each other.  It creates division and allows the enemy to enter into the body of Christ and begin tearing down the foundations of the church.  I remember a time when we left a church and were looking for our new church home.  One Sunday after we found a new church I was standing outside talking to someone and I noticed a woman staring at me, we will call her Jane.  I knew of her from the previous church we attended.  We weren't friends, but we had mutual people we knew.  One of the mutual people was someone who practiced Wiccan, we'll call her Wic.  So suffice it to say, I wasn't much interested in deepening the relationship with Wic.  Aside from that fact, Wic was manipulative, deceptive, and had a cruel streak in her that affected someone close to me.  Wic was not a fan of me either.  I got the impression she could not stand me.  I was not someone she could manipulate and anytime deception was attempted, I called her on it. I refused to do what she wanted and didn't really care what she thought of me.  I wasn't rude, I wasn't argumentative, when she wanted something, I just said no.  I tried to disassociate with her entirely. The person close to me, however, still had to deal with her at times and was becoming more resistant to being manipulated.  This didn't bring out the best in Wic and as a result, she chose to lash out at me by lying about me.  The fact that she did this, I didn't care, Wic was working with the father of lies, so whatever she said meant nothing to me.  The issue was now we were planning to attend this new church where Jane also attended, and I figured at some point this situation was going to come up.  I liked the new church so I wasn't willing to leave and I asked the Lord how I was to respond if anything was said.  The Lord said, "Exodus 20:16" nothing else, just that verse was all I was allowed to say.  In case you are wondering, Exodus 20:16 says “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." I thought it was genius.  Fortunately, it never even came up, Jane ended up leaving the church. 

My point with that story is to explain how we can ask the Lord how to handle anything.  When we hear gossip, we don't know the truth, it's not our life.  Can you imagine if Jane had repeated to others in the new church the lies a Wiccan had told her about me and how easily that would have been to take fire.  What if you are the one hearing the lies?  If you knew the source of the lies was from a Wiccan, would it change your perspective?  Would you be willing to repeat it?  The Lord took care of this entire situation for me, and I never had to open my mouth, but He was kind enough to prepare me in case in my own mind I needed a defense. Examine your heart if you know of this going on around you and talk to the Lord about it.  If you are one who participates, repent and ask for forgiveness. If you are someone who has had this happen to you, don't hold any bitterness, let the Lord fight the battle and move on with what He has planned for you. If we don't, we are allowing a curse the right to operate in our lives.

The last area we are going to discuss is even more surprising to me, the most surprising of all of them, I think.  Actually, I am going to call this one, shocking.  Have you ever known someone who prays but what they are praying for is contrary to God's word?  It happens for a few reasons, first one is easy, people don't read the Bible and therefore don't know who God truly is.  They think their own thoughts are right and true and so they appeal to God through their warped sense of wanting justice or a narcissistic plea in an attempt to manipulate God.  God cannot be manipulated and praying in such a way is an abomination to Him.  When we are jealous of our fellow Christians or feel slighted we can have a tendency to maybe not wish the best for their lives.  The problem becomes when we start to pray to God about that.  When we do that what position do you think that puts us in?  We, in essence, become the accuser, the same role that satan plays.  God sees our behavior for what it is, and we put ourselves right smack dab in line for a curse over our lives for that behavior.

Well, that's it, those are all the areas I wanted to address and as you can see, all of these behaviors and activities are within our control.  There is no reason why we should from this point forward be participating in activities that invite, encourage, engage, entertain, illicit, provoke, generate, prolong, develop or create a place for satan to legally operate a curse in our lives.  Curses should not have any room to have a place with us and we want to keep it that way.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you know anyone who is experiencing any of the issues, please share this podcast.  Addressing these demonic influences and getting them out of our lives is life changing if we are willing.

As always let’s recap Top Show Points:

·         Discussing behaviors and activities we do that result in Curses having a legal right to operate in our lives

·         A curse is defined as: a solemn utterance intended to involve a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something. 

·         Deuteronomy 28 verses 15-68 reveal the Curses for Disobedience

·         If there is a curse in effect, it has a legal right to operate.  Our job is to find out why, and eradicate or break that legal right

·         Areas we discussed last week were:

o   Self Imposed Curses by our words or actions

o   God alone has absolute authority.  When we participate in activities overtly or secretly that are an act of rebellion against an authority that we are subject to, we are opening a door. Matthew 28:18

o   Illegal activities

o   Legalism, apostasy (turning our back and renouncing God) carnality

o   Genesis 12:3, Antisemitism, God will bless those who bless His people and curse those who curse His people.

o   Exodus 20, 1st and 2nd Commandments

·         The overall area we are discussing here is witchcraft and witchcraft related activities.

·         Clearly the participation in any activity that is satanic in nature puts us in operation with satan and will produce a curse in our lives.

·         Christians who slander, gossip, speak with malice in their heart of other Christians.

·         Gave you the story of Jane and Wic

·         Someone who prays but what they are praying for is contrary to God's word

·         All of these behaviors and activities are within our control.

We encourage you:

·      To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment

Our Journals can be found on Amazon at :

https://www.amazon.com/author/mountainmovermedia-dawnsimmons

Also, I want to encourage you to visit our website and join our Warrior community.  I am working on planning some live events and the only way to be included in that is to be a part of our Warrior Community.  Just visit our website, www.conqueringourunseenenemies.com, and join from the Home page or the Resources page. 

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

  What we ask of you:

·         Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe! Share with friends

·         Give us a review

·         Follow us on social media….

·         Send us your questions and stories to share on an upcoming show. Send them to contact@conqueringourunseenenemies