Gifts of the Spirit Series: Miraculous Powers,Ep 2-49

 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 in this episode we are discussing miraculous powers.  This is the 9th gift, our last gift to discuss and the last episode of 2023.  What a great topic to close out the 2023 and begin 2024 with.  All these gifts are alive and active in 2024, just as they were in 34!

As always, we want to start off by laying the biblical foundation. This foundation can be found in 1 Corinthians which summarizes all of the gifts.  Let’s start there, and then we will dig in and look at what this gift looks like in operation. 

1 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. 

Acts 8:26, “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 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, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 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.”

Verse 34, “The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 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?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 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.  Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.” 

Azotus, was a Philistine town about 18 miles northeast of Gaza.  The modern town of Ashdod in Israel sits there now. Its about halfway between Gaza and Tel Aviv. Philip was transported there in that moment. This may be hard for you to believe, but this is what the Holy Spirit chose to do with Philip to get him where He needed Philip to be at the moment He needed Philip to be there.  In our own power, we are limited to time and space constraints, but the Holy Spirit is not and when He wants to use us, we only have the limitations He gives us.

This next one either gets overlooked a lot or people aren’t reading 2 Kings a lot, I don’t know which.  I personally find it fascinating.  We’ve talked about Elisha before.  He was a prophet of God with an amazing anointing.  He asked for a double portion of Elijah’s anointing, and he received it. 

2 Kings 13:20, “Elisha died and was buried.

Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.”

Can you imagine?  Even having passed, the power of his anointing, the power of God was so strong and was contained in his body that this man was brought back to life.  I know there are huge advantages to living now, medicine and the advancements we have, but don’t you sometimes feel like you missed out on some powerful events? Ok, let’s keep going.

We know the gospels have recorded 37 miracles for us that Jesus performed in his ministry. Most people don’t question that, and then even more people will likely tell you that the time of miracles has passed or it isn’t necessary.  When I hear people who say “we have the Bible, we don’t need the working of any of the Spiritual Gifts” all I can do is shake my head. You can’t argue with that limited mindset.  They will know the truth one day, but in the meantime, I can at least make sure I tell as many people as I possibly can that the Holy Spirit is here.  The Holy Spirit is the same Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the same God Elisha worshipped.  This is the same God that parted the Red Sea, or whatever sea it was, that doesn’t really matter.  God hasn’t changed, we have.  God’s power hasn’t diminished, we just stopped pursuing Him and instead look to do everything in our own power.  Personally, I want to go back to the way it was.  I want the Lord to use me in what He wants to accomplish and if what He wants to accomplish is done through the workings of a miracle, then I am fully on board.  If the Lord wants to regrow a limb, I’ll be His hands in that, I will use my faith for that.  Will you? If the Lord needs a car lifted off of someone trapped from an accident, I’ll grab some gloves, let’s go.  If the Lord wants to transport me to some remote jungle to share His word, then I’ll get some bug spray and let’s go.  Maybe some netting at least. Years ago I heard a story, I wish I had kept the details, it was a testimony from a man who lived in Northern Europe, maybe Norway or Finland, somewhere like that.  He was in a bad situation, can’t recall what that was about but He cried out to the Lord for something and then all of a sudden a man appeared, a man smiling.  He said it was an older man, and he looked to be from a Latin American country.  This man gave him something, smiling but not speaking.  He described the man as seeming to be elated to be there.  Then suddenly the man disappeared.  He understood that to be the man was transported in the Spirit to help him when he cried out.  Ever since I heard that, I told the Lord I would be willing, but He hasn’t taken me up on my offer just yet.

Let’s take a look at an example Jesus gives us that does happen a lot.  It’s happened to me and I know several people who have told me their stories of having been a recipient of this miracle.  Let’s take a visit to a little village called Tagbha.  I was there in February.  It is off the coast of the Sea of Galilee, the northern part of Galilee, the northwest corner almost. The Sea of Galilee is kinda pear shaped but with the bottom of the pear the top of the Sea of Galilee, so stem down.

Matthew 14:15 is where we find Jesus about to perform a miracle. He just got the news that John the Baptist was beheaded.

“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

This miracle of multiplication is more common today than most people realize or give the Lord credit for being a recipient of.  Heidi Baker has seen this happen in her ministry in Mozambique with food that multiplied, along with many other miracles. 

God still moves in miracles.  So why does it happen for some people and not others?  If you are willing to believe with me that miracles can still happen, then isn’t the next natural question how can you be a part of this? What is it about the people or circumstances of today that are allowing these miracles to occur? 

First of all, all of the people I personally know and if you look at the public ones there is a commonality.  Their heart is positioned for the Lord.  They have a need, they voice that need, and they present it to the Lord.  Some are more urgent than others, but He is not a respecter of persons, a need is a need.  So the heart has to be in the right place. 

Second, all of these people also had a true relationship with the Lord.  They spent time with Him. 

Third, all of these people submitted their request to Him in faith. They surrendered their need to Him. 

Fourth, when He provided, no one took credit for this in their own power.  They all acknowledged it was by the hand of God.

Fifth, all of these people were humble before during and after.  When He provides in this way it can be a humbling experience. 

Sixth, these people exhibited a spirit of thankfulness even as they made the request.  They had no idea what was going to happen, but they were thankful no matter what.

While the Lord may reserve some miracles to be done with people He has anointed, the miracle of multiplication I have seen happen for people who exhibited the 6 traits we just discussed combined with a level of faith that rests in Him.  Can you have a need and after you presented it to Him, rest in Him? 

Nothing is stopping us from seeing the same miracles today that first century Christians witnessed except our own minds.  If we position our hearts with His and we pursue Him, miracles can happen anywhere at anytime. 

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I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your desire to partner with Him at a supernatural level. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      Discussed the Gift of Miraculous Powers.  This gift is still alive today.

·      1 Corinthians 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. 

·      There are Power Gifts, Revelation Gifts and Spoken Gifts

·      Acts 8:26, Philip gave the gospel to the Ethiopian Eunich then was transported by the Holy Spirit to Azotus

·      2 Kings 13:20, dead man came back to life after being thrown into Elisha’s tomb and touched his body.

·      The Holy Spirit is the same Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the same God Elisha worshipped.  This is the same God that parted the Red Sea.  God hasn’t changed, we have. 

·      God’s power hasn’t diminished, we just stopped pursuing Him and instead look to do everything in our own power. 

·      Story of a man from Latin America being transported to a man in Europe in a time of need.

·      Matthew 14:15, multiplication of the fish and the loaves of bread

·      Heidi Baker has seen this happen in her ministry in Mozambique, along with many other miracles. 

·      Why does it happen for some people and not others?  If you are willing to believe with me that miracles can still happen, then isn’t the next natural question how can you be a part of this? What is it about the people or circumstances of today that are allowing these miracles to occur? 

·      6 common traits of those who receive miracles today:

o   First Their heart is positioned for the Lord.  They have a need, they voice that need, and they present it to the Lord. 

o   Second, all of these people also had a true relationship with the Lord, spending time with Him. 

o   Third, all of these people submitted their request to him and surrendered their need in faith.

o   Fourth, when He provided, all acknowledged it was by the hand of God.

o   Fifth, all of these people were humble before during and after. 

o   Sixth, these people exhibited a spirit of thankfulness even as they made the request, they were thankful no matter what.

·      While the Lord may reserve some miracles to be done with people He has anointed, a miracle of multiplication combined with faith can produce a miraculous outcome

·      If we position our hearts with His and we pursue Him, miracles can happen anywhere at anytime. 

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, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

Gifts of the Spirit Series: The Gift of Healings,Ep 2-48

 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 in this episode we are discussing the gift of healings.  This gift is pretty controversial, almost as much as tongues and can be misused.  This gift has caused some men to exalt themselves and be greatly humbled.  Our purpose is to reveal what the Bible tells us about it, look at some healings in the Bible, and I will share a story.  This is the 8th of the 9 gifts. Both of these gifts are Power gifts. Next week, as we close out the year, we will discuss miraculous powers to complete this series on the Spiritual Gifts. 

As always, we want to start off by laying the biblical foundation. This foundation can be found in 1 Corinthians which summarizes all of the gifts.  Let’s start there, and then we will dig in and look at what this gift looks like in operation. 

1 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. 

The gift of healings. This gift is often treated with such skepticism and those who have it are frequently maligned and dishonored. It’s sad really because this is such an exciting, beautiful, loving gift from God.  I suspect what is behind that is the enemy and here is one of the reasons why. 

In our world today, we rely so much on science, on being able to prove things definitively that we won’t allow a place in our world for healings.  Our rational mind won’t accept them, it’s like a veil covering our eyes from the truth of God.  The enemy is the one that has created that veil and one of the reasons is because there are many, many healings that are a result of the work of demons on our bodies.  Many healings are needed as a are a result of our being influenced by demons and making poor choices with our bodies.  If we allow ourselves to believe in miraculous healings, we can rid ourselves of these demons. 

Secondarily to that, when we do have medical issues not as a result of demonic influences, believing in, seeking, and showing up to receive a healing requires faith and belief in a God that heals, in a God that loves, in a God that is willing to intervene in your life and change it.  The enemy doesn’t want that either. 

The gift of healings is a gift that is misunderstood, and I wasn’t to clarify what it is and what it isn’t.  The gift of healings is not where people are praying for someone to be healed.  The gift of healings is not where the elders come and lay hands on and anoint someone who is ill.  That is, dare I say, regular healing, what I mean by that is that is what we should be doing, but it does not require an anointing to do.  The gift of healings is a spiritual gift, a supernatural gift that requires the working or the presence of the Holy Spirit in order for the gift to function.  Even someone who has been anointed with the gift of healings, if they try to do it in their own power, it will not work.  It will only function out of the power of the Holy Spirit.  That is why it is a Power gift, we have no power of our own.  We only have Power when we are working with the Holy Spirit and it is entirely the power of the Holy Spirit, we are just the vessel.  It is this reason why the gift can be misused.  Once the Holy Spirit gives you a gift, He will not take it back, even if you misuse it.  What He will do, is cut your ministry down.  That can happen by your life being cut short, or He can release you to the devil who will then use and abuse and tear apart the life that person had.  There are many examples of this in the last few hundred years.  Email me if you want some names.  I don’t want to spend my time here discussing them.  They made their choices.

What I do want to do is look at someone who did use his anointing correctly and for that we are going into the Book of Acts. Let’s take a look at Paul, this is Acts 28, he aftermath of the shipwreck, Paul and the men washed ashore onto Malta.

“Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. 2 The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. 3 Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. 4 When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” 5 But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. 6 The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

7 There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. 8 His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. 9 When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. 10 They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.”

Paul not only took care of himself, which had an impact on the people of Malta and essentially opened the door for his ministry to begin there.  Notice that it says that everyone was cured.  With this gift, that is not always the case.  It is the Holy Spirit who does the healing, so no man, other than Jesus, will always have 100% track record.  If a healing is not the Lord’s plan, then it doesn’t happen.  We don’t always know why, we just know that is the way it is. 

The other thing about a supernatural healing ministry is that for those who have that anointing, and again, this is a gift that is an anointed gift, some people are specialized.  There are those who have or have had a healing ministry, and they are exceptional in healing Diabetes, but not as successful in heart conditions.  There could be several reasons we could rationalize as to why this is, for example pride, but we don’t really know unless the Holy Spirit tells us and if He chooses not to reveal it, then we move in what He does choose to reveal and that’s that.  Too many people act like the Holy Spirit owes them something, an explanation, they want an explanation for something or they just won’t believe it.  Believe or don’t believe, it’s your choice and your consequences as a result of your choice. 

I want to look at an example with Jesus, and we are looking at this because this was done differently.  Most of the time when we see examples of a supernatural healing, it is done intentionally, but we don’t need to limit the Holy Spirit to that.  If the person is powerfully anointed, and understand that I mean not all anointings are equal, if a person is so powerfully anointed and they are working with the Holy Spirit, a healing can occur with faith from the one who is seeking that healing. Luke 8 is where we find this example, “As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,[c] but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

Now before you say, that was Jesus, of course it can happen that way, let’s go to Acts 19, Paul was in Ephesus when this was happening, “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”

I suspect that when Paul was ministering, he was functioning in all the Spiritual gifts.  In order to do what was required of Him, the Holy Spirit would have enabled this level of power to function as a result of his obedience to the Lord.  Never forget, the Holy Spirit is not a respecter of persons.  We can move in these gifts just as Paul did, but we have to be willing to put in the time with the Lord and let the Holy Spirit move in our lives the way Paul did.

I want to share a story, this story is from about 2008, maybe 2009 and there’s 2 parts to this story.  I went to a Conference, it was a Conference but it was a School of Healing Conference for a week.  I was there with probably 8 or so people from the church I was with at the time.  The first 3 or 4 days was instructional, teaching us how to grow in the gift of healings.  At the end of, I think the fourth day, the men who were teaching it, it was 3 men, I can only remember the names of 2 of them, but I remember the shoes of the 3rd man because it was right about the time Skechers came out with those rocker walking shoes, they were like walking with big pillows attached to your feet and they were really expensive.  I remember them because I wanted a pair so badly since my feet were hurting.  I thought these shoes were the greatest invention in shoe history even if they looked a little silly because there was so much cushion in them.  Anyhow, I thought it was an odd choice for him to wear on stage, that’s why I remember the shoes but not his name.  Ok, back to the actual story, on the 3rd day, if we wanted to receive the anointing for the gift of healing, we could come forward and these 3 men would anoint us.  So we are in day 3.  I did all the work all week long, but I still didn’t know if I wanted to receive the anointing.  I didn’t know if I wanted to heal people.  I knew I needed to decide soon.  When the time came, I went forward, but I said this to the Holy Spirit.  “If you want me to have this gift, I will receive it and I will use it.  The way I want to know if you want me to have this gift is if you have Randy Clark be the one to anoint me.”   After having gone through the training all week, I felt Randy Clark was the one who had the highest level of anointing.  I only wanted to receive the anointing from the most gifted one.  Going forward for the anointing was very active, people came, the 3 men were in different parts of the stage.  I walked forward but Bill Johnson was where I was so I just repeated my request and out of nowhere Randy Clark comes over to me, lays his hand on my head and anoints me with the gift of healings.   

Now we move on to day 4, the final day of the conference. That evening was to be a healing ministry event where all those who were anointed would use our new gift on the many people who would be arriving seeking a healing from God. About 5 pm, we were all let out to go get dinner. There were hundreds of people in that conference.  I felt bad for the taco bell across the street. It was the only food place in walking distance people could see.  They were overrun.  Anyhow, I waited in the sanctuary for my husband because he was going to join for the evening event. I waited there alone, I sat in the middle of the sanctuary, I have no idea why, I could have at least walked to the door.  Anyway, from my spot in the middle I watched this woman walk in, she was my height, so short, dark glasses, then I notice she had a white cane and a golden retriever with her.  She was very tentative in the doorway.  She had no idea the sanctuary was empty, she arrived early, she was blind.  I knew the second I looked at her she was blind and I put my head down and I said “Lord, really, a blind woman, you couldn’t have given me a cold or something” I sighed, and I got up walked to her.  I introduced myself and asked her if I could help her.  She was looking for a pastor that invited her, I knew who the pastor was, but I let her know everyone was at dinner.  I took her to a seat where I thought it would be best for her for the event later, and in the small talk she let me know she was there because she was having financial trouble.  She needed rent money in 3 days and she didn’t have it.  The pastor invited her to come for her rent money.  I was a bit surprised, but I said ok, and let her know I needed to get a quick bite but I would be back and make sure she got connected to the pastor. 

About 20 minutes later I was back, and the sanctuary was filled with people.  The pastor she was looking for however, was not one of them.  He left.  So now there is a blind woman who knows no one there except me and I can’t leave her on her own, that would be a horrible thing to do.  So I sat with her and when the time comes to pray for the people for a healing, she and I pray over her rent situation.  Since that wasn’t really a “healing” and there was nothing I could offer her about the rent situation as a result of the prayer, we were just sitting there.  Everyone around us was still praying for all sorts of healings, so I turned to her and I said, “hey, I know you came about your rent, but since you’re here, do you want me to pray about your sight?” Mind you, we hadn’t discussed her being blind, so it was a little awkward for me.  She said ok.  She had no sight at all, completely black, I don’t recall if she was born that way or it happened at some point, but she had been blind for a very long time, that much I do remember.  So, I started praying, speaking to her eyes, doing everything I was taught. The Holy Spirit was there giving me courage and we prayed for a while. I didn’t fully grasp the vastness of what I was asking for because I was focused on the details of doing it right.  Nothing was really happening, but I kept going, and then she said, “hey, I think I see something.  I can see light, nothing clear, but I can see something” So I started praying with excitement, and her vision kept improving, and then she says, “Your shirt, it’s black, but I can see the patterns on your shirt.”  I was wearing a black shirt with a design of about an inch or so, some weird squiggly design all over the shirt.” I still have that shirt by the way, I can’t fit into it, but I kept it as a reminder to me of what God does.

As we continued, her sight continued to improve. She left there seeing colors and shapes and the blurry kept clearing for her.  I wish I had thought to get her name.  I should have shared that with Randy Clark, I should have followed up with that pastor she was looking for but at the end of the day I know what the Lord did for her and I was honored to be a part of it.  

I do use the gift, not as much as I would like but the time is coming when I will be able to do more and healings will be a part of it.  There is a move of God in my area and I am teaching as many people as are willing on how to develop their relationship with the Lord and learn about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  By listening to this, you are a part of the move of God as well.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your desire to partner with Him at a supernatural level. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      We continued our discussion of the spiritual gifts and in this episode we discussed the gift of healings. 

·      This is the 8th of the 9 gifts. Both of these gifts are Power gifts.

·      1 Corinthians 12:4-11, where Paul lays out the Spiritual gifts for us

·      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. 

·      There are Power gifts, Revelation gifts and Spoken gifts

·      The gift of healings. This gift is often treated with such skepticism and those who have it are frequently maligned and dishonored.

·      Today, we rely on science, on being able to prove things definitively that we won’t allow a place in our world for healings.  Our rational mind won’t accept them, it’s like a veil covering our eyes from the truth of God.  The enemy is the one that has created that veil.

·      The gift of healings is not where people are praying for someone to be healed.  The gift of healings is not where the elders come and lay hands on and anoint someone who is ill.  That is what we should be doing, but it does not require an anointing to do.

·      The gift of healings is a spiritual gift, a supernatural gift. It will only function out of the power of the Holy Spirit. 

·      Paul, Acts 28, he aftermath of the shipwreck, Paul and the men washed ashore onto Malta and healed everyone.

·      There are those who have or have had a healing ministry, and they are exceptional in healing Diabetes, but not as successful in heart conditions. 

·      Example with Jesus, Luke 8 where woman was healed just by touching his cloak

·      Acts 19, Paul was in Ephesus and people were healed by touching his cloak without him being present, just a piece of it.

·      Shared a story from years ago when I received my anointing for gift of healing from Randy Clark

·      Shared story of praying for woman over her rent and then praying over her eyes, to recover from blindness

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, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

Gifts of the Spirit Series: The Gift of a Word of Knowledge,Ep 2-47

 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 a word of knowledge, which is one of the Revelation gifts. We are going to go through some examples of how the Holy Spirit uses us with a word of knowledge, some do’s and don’ts if you are looking to develop this gift and clarify what this gift is not.

To get to a better understanding we need to lay the biblical foundation. This foundation can be found in 1 Corinthians which summarizes all of the gifts.  Let’s start there first and then we will dig in and look at what this gift looks like in operation. 

1 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. 

Like the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge has zero to do with the amount of natural or human knowledge we have obtained.  God doesn’t care how many degrees you have.  He doesn’t need your degrees, he still knows more than you ever will.  Your IQ doesn’t matter.  If these are concepts you are using to define yourself, then you are not very usable for the Lord.  He would rather use someone without degrees who will listen and be teachable, than someone who thinks they are already filled with knowledge.  The only truly valuable book knowledge is the Word. 

When we talked about the Gift of a word of wisdom, we talked about what we receive from the Holy Spirit in relation to something in the future.  Because it is in the future for the natural realm, it is not yet realized, which means it is not yet a fact or something certain.

When we are speaking of the gift of a word of knowledge, that is entirely different because it relates to a fact, whether it is past or present.  A word of knowledge entails a person receiving a word of knowledge, or information, that they could not have known otherwise but for that knowledge or information being revealed through the Holy Spirit.  Here is a simple example.  I was invited to a meeting a few years ago now.  The meeting was intended to be a place where spiritual gifts could flow.  In reality, not a lot of people there knew much about the gifts but they were hungry for them.  I attended, I only knew 1 or 2 people there, and no one knew me or that I functioned in the gifts or to what extent.  Generally, someone who functions in the spiritual gifts with a healthy relationship with the Lord where the Lord is to receive all the glory and recognition, those people do not discuss their gifts openly.  We wait and use them as the Holy Spirit leads and only when He directs.  To act in any other manner fosters a prideful attitude and that will ultimately derail the ministry.  Anyhow, in this meeting the Holy Spirit directed me with words of knowledge and to give prophetic words for people that would include words of wisdom.  I want to share one of those that was very simple so you can see how He provided for a woman at the meeting. 

In the meeting, at a given moment, the Lord directed me to go to her, at the time I did not know her name, so he gave me the visual of her.  He said to go to her, so I went over to her, she had her eyes closed in prayer.  It is my custom that in those situations, I will generally touch the person on the hand or shoulder and lean toward their ear to tell them privately but also to ensure they can hear me.  In this meeting there was someone leading in worship music, so I had to be able to ensure the word was heard.  I leaned into her ear, not too close, but I said to her what the Lord directed.. “you think your life is over, but the Lord wants you to know that He has just begun with you and what He will be doing in your life.”  In hearing that, her eyes opened, and she lit up.  She didn’t know me, so I wasn’t sure she would receive the word, but because the word of knowledge given to her was a fact that was in her mind and in her heart, she truly thought she was too old in the years she had remaining in her life to do anything for the Kingdom of God, she received the word in its entirety.  She thought she missed her opportunity. So, the word of knowledge He gave me to give to her related to her position in her incorrect thinking at that moment of herself was then given in combination with the word of wisdom.  He let her know through a word of wisdom that He had a plan for her life, to use her going forward.  Her opportunity was still to come, she just had to choose to take that opportunity. Had the word of knowledge not been accurate, she would not have believed or even listened to the word of wisdom. 

Let’s look at an example of a word of knowledge Jesus used with one of his disciples. 

John 1:43, “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”50 Jesus said, “You believe[h] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. 

Here Jesus used the gift of a word of knowledge and Nathanael believes Him because Jesus gave Nathanael a fact that Jesus as a natural man could not have known on his own.  Jesus knew that Nathanael was not like the others, he would require more to believe and he provided that more that was needed. 

Likewise, for us now, the Holy Spirit will give you that word of knowledge if it is needed so that you too can bring about the outcome that He is desiring in asking you to use your gift.  There are times to understand that if you have this gift, you also have to use discernment.  Not all words of knowledge provided by the Holy Spirit are meant to be shared.  There are times when a gift of knowledge will be provided to provide background or context for a situation you are in so you can respond or react appropriately. 

An example might be if someone has experienced abuse in the past and the Lord wants to work in their life but discussing that abuse may not be appropriate at that time.  The use of the gift requires development so that the person operating in it understands how and when the Holy Spirit wants you to speak and when you are given information but are not to speak about it.  Everything is done for His glory, not to expose or embarrass anyone.  Never, ever, ever should anyone be operating in that gift with a haughty attitude as if they have information about another person and laud it over them.  That is the spirit of the enemy functioning and while there may be something embarrassing they have been told by a demon, it could also be a lie just meant to bring pain and harassment. 

Let’s look at another example in the Bible.  We are going to revisit a story we discussed a few podcasts ago about being a an opportunity or a resource.  We are going back to 2 Kings and why was Balaam being summoned by the King.  So here is the backstory to why Ballam and his donkey were on the road traveling to the king.

2 Kings 6: 8, “Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.” The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places. This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

God was using a word of knowledge to keep his nation safe as they traveled.  Elisha was probably doing other prophetly duties when the Lord revealed this information to him.  Elisha didn’t even to know to ask for this because he didn’t have any idea what this king was up to but for God revealing it.  Elisha then did what the Lord wanted him to do and it protected God’s people by allowing them to avoid being attacked.  What do we need to make sure we learn from this and take forward in our own lives?  Do not sit on information.  If it is being given to you, it is being given for a reason and you need to make sure you are obedient to God’s plan. 

I do want to clarify something else regarding words of knowledge.  If this is a gift you are seeking, or you are operating in it and looking to develop it further, there is an unintended consequence to the person who has this gift.  People around you who know you have this gift may shy away from you.  It is usually people who don’t know you very well and the reason they do it is out of fear.  Here is why.  God is all knowledge.  He knows everything and he knows it in the past, present and future and He can see those three all at the same time. He is not limited to time and space constraints like we are in our natural world.  Because he is all knowledgeable, then He knows what we’ve done, what we are doing and what we are going to do, what we are tempted to do, what we are considering doing and what we are ashamed of doing.  Nothing is hidden from Him.  When the Lord chooses to use someone for the gift of knowledge, it is at God’s discretion, not ours.  We have no control over when, where, why, how much or for what purpose.  We are just obedient with what He has asked us to do with the information.  We don’t know if we know the whole of the information or ¼ or ¾ of the information.  We can ask questions for clarification which may or may not be provided.  People are fearful of what it is about them that you may know.  They think if they avoid you or stay away from you that you won’t know as if there is some space limitation that God can only provide to me if you are within 4 feet of me so if you stay 4.5 feet away I won’t pick up the signal.  It doesn’t work that way, it’s pure ignorance of the gifts of the spirit.  You don’t have to be anywhere near me, if the Lord wants to share with me something that will be used for his glory to help bring you to where He wants you to be, which is generally closer to Him, then He will share it no matter what.

The other side to this discussion is that if the Lord is using you in this way, then He trusts you with the information and that trust should not be violated.  You would never want someone sharing your personal information, we don’t betray the Lord by speaking what we have been given to those it is not intended.  If you have been shown not to be trustworthy in this area, then it’s likely not going to be a gift the Lord will trust you with until you are trustworthy.

Some final words on this gift.  Words of knowledge reveal circumstances or events from the past or the present, not the future.  The reason it is used will be revealed at the time and always for God’s purposes, not man’s.  We need to be obedient and trustworthy with the information that has been revealed to us so we are allowing the Holy Spirit to use as His resource in the Kingdom.

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I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your desire to partner with Him at a supernatural level. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      Discussed the gift of a word of knowledge, which is one of the Revelation gifts.

·      1 Corinthians 12:4-11.

·      Power Gifts, Spoken Gifts, Revelation Gifts

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

·      Like the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge has zero to do with the amount of natural or human knowledge we have obtained.  God doesn’t care how many degrees you have or your IQ. 

·      A word of knowledge relates to a fact, whether it is past or present.  A word of knowledge entails a person receiving a word of knowledge, or information, that they could not have known otherwise but for that knowledge or information being revealed through the Holy Spirit. 

·      Example of a meeting a few years ago where I gave a word to a woman that included both a word of knowledge and a word of wisdom.

·      John 1:43, Jesus used the gift of a word of knowledge and Nathanael believes Him because Jesus gave Nathanael a fact that Jesus could not have known on his own. 

·      There are times you have to use discernment.  Not all words of knowledge provided by the Holy Spirit are meant to be shared. Aa gift of knowledge can be provided to provide background or context for a situation you are in so you can respond or react appropriately.  Ex, abuse

·      Everything is done for His glory, not to expose or embarrass anyone.

·      2 Kings 6: 8, God was giving Elisha a word of knowledge to keep his nation safe as they traveled. 

·      An unintended consequence for the person who has this gift is the people around you may shy away from you. God is all knowledge, and nothing is hidden from Him. People are fearful of what about them that you may know.

·      When the Lord chooses to use someone for the gift of knowledge, it is at God’s discretion, not ours.  We have no control over when, where, why, how much or for what purpose.  We are just obedient with what He has asked us to do with the information. 

·      If the Lord wants to share something that will be used for his glory to help bring someone to where He wants them to be, which is generally closer to Him, then He will share it.

·      If the Lord is trusting you with information, that trust should not be violated.  If you are not trustworthy in this area, then how can the Lord trust you with His gift.

·      Words of knowledge reveal circumstances or events from the past or the present, not the future.  The reason it is used will be revealed at the time and always for God’s purposes, not man’s. 

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, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

Gifts of the Spirit Series: The Gift of a Word of Wisdom,Ep 2-46

 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 Wisdom.  What we are talking about here is a supernatural level of wisdom, which is one of the Revelation gifts. Many of the people I have heard say they think they have this gift, actually don’t and the reason I can say that with ease is because most people don’t understand what it is, it is not related to what we consider earthly wisdom.  To get to a better understanding we need to lay the foundation real quick.

The foundation can be found in 1 Corinthians which summarizes all of the gifts.  Let’s start there first and then we will dig in and look at what this gift actually looks like in operation. 

1 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. 

Wisdom.  What do most people think of when they say wisdom.  The definition of wisdom is: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise. 

Don’t we all kinda think we have some level of wisdom?  We look at someone older and most of the time we assume by their age, they must have some good wisdom we could benefit from and that may be true, maybe not on a multitude of subjects but I am sure those older than us have some nuggets to share with us we could benefit from in some way. 

That, my friends, has nothing to do with what we are speaking of here today.  Worldly wisdom and Supernatural wisdom are not in the same family.  So what is Supernatural wisdom?  Well to fully explain we need to step back a minute. 

To understand wisdom, we have to first believe, understand and trust that this gift is truly, positively and absolutely given to us by the One True God.  There is no other source of supernatural wisdom.  There are many men in history who have been revered for their wisdom, but none of them provides to anyone in their time, our time or in the time to come, anything that resembles supernatural wisdom from the One True God.  We must be very clear on the source of our wisdom because what comes out of receiving this gift is like no wisdom here on earth, that is generated by man, no matter what they do, no matter what their education, no matter what their IQ. 

I am not a fan of Socrates by any means.  If you really examine his life, you would see he was no one to revere, he was despised and cast aside in his own time, ultimately being but he did have one thing right, which is a quote he is known for “all I know is that I know nothing”. Socrates was one who dabbled in the occult to try to understand the world beyond what he could see and it did not serve him well. His seeking the wrong source ultimately cost him his life. If he could have met Paul, that would have been interesting to listen to but they were centuries apart.  No doubt Paul would have answered many of Socrates’ questions regarding that inner voice he concluded was of divine origin. Tho Paul could not help Socrates, he can help us. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul describes wisdom this way:

“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”[b]—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.  (this is a reference to Isaiah 64:4)

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[c] 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
    so as to instruct him?”[d]

But we have the mind of Christ.” (this is a reference to Isaiah 40:13)

So what does that all mean?  He is clearly referring to a supernatural wisdom only received from the Holy Spirit.  So now we need to understand, what does it do?  What do we do with it?  How does it happen? What exactly is it?

We established that the only source of this wisdom is from the One True God.  We should all be on the same page that the One True God knows the past, the present and the future.  He has laid out as much of it as we need to know in the Bible.  So why do we need this wisdom? 

The gift of wisdom isn’t just a stand-alone gift and it is more than just one thing.  It is a set of something in a moment in time that relates to a set of something in the future.  Are you ready for a biblical example?  First, let me ask you to clear your mind of preconceived notions of what you think this gift is to make room for a biblical explanation of what it is.  Remember earthly wisdom and spiritual wisdom are not related. 

Let’s go to Genesis 6, verse 11 is where we begin the story  

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[d] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[e] high all around.[f] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.”

Now fast forward to 7:11,

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.”

Understand that the earth had not rained before this time.  God’s creation was perfect, it did not need to rain so people thought Noah was crazy. 

Verse 24, “The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.”

Do you guys realize the length of time it took for Noah and his sons to build this ark?  Estimates vary, but this was an inordinate amount of wood for the time, and it was all by hand.  Estimates vary but between 55ish years to upwards of 120 years is the time it took.  It was not a weekend warrior project. 

The Lord gave Noah a word of wisdom, meaning He gave him an explanation of an event coming in the future and what he would need to do to avoid that destruction.  He gave him the dimensions and the plans for what he needed to do and he even explained why it was needed, why it was happening and the end result.  From that Noah could then chose to respond and do as the Lord directed or not.  Thankfully for us he chose to respond. 

So again, a word of wisdom, which is the better description of what is provided, a word of wisdom is a set of something, in this case a lot of something, in a moment in time that relates to a set of something, in this case the impending flood, in the future.

Let’s take a look at a New Testament example of a word of wisdom being given.  We need to go over to Acts 9.  We want to examine what happened to Saul and the word of wisdom that was revealed that changed the world.  In this example we are going to see two gifts in operation, the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.  Much of the time these gifts will operate together so it could be easy to confuse the two but let’s see what God does here.

So Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute some people of “The Way”, the Christ followers.  On his way, he has a supernatural encounter with Jesus that blinds him.  He is led to a house in Damascus where he fasts for 3 days.  He has a vision of a man, Ananias, coming to him to restore his sight.

Acts 9, verse 10: “In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

This is a word of knowledge.  Ananias did not know Saul was in Damascus or where he was staying, that was revealed through the Holy Spirit, Ananias could not have known that on his own. The Holy Spirit further tells Ananias what Saul is doing and that a vision has been given to him.

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

This is a word of wisdom.  It is a set of something in a moment in time that relates to a set of something in the future.  The Holy Spirit is giving him a direction for now that will produce a future outcome, that is how what he is doing now will relate to the something in the future.  The Holy Spirit says he will use Saul in the future as His chosen instrument to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.”

Ananias chose to obey the word of wisdom given and the world was changed as a result.

To further clarify, the word of wisdom is not what Solomon operated with, that was an elevated level of earthly wisdom to navigate what happens on earth at a given time.  I can tell you we think of Solomon having more wisdom than anyone that has ever lived or ever will because that is what God gave him. 

1 Kings 4:29, “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite—wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. 32 He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. 33 He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. 34 From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.”

It is one thing to have earthly wisdom and it is another to use it.  If we look at Solomon’s choices and his life, he was the author of Ecclesiastes, it is fair to say he did things that were not wise for his own purposes.  This is clearly not an example of a supernatural word of wisdom.  If the Holy Spirit gives you something, use it, don’t squander it.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your desire to partner with Him at a supernatural level. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      Discussed the spiritual gift of Wisdom, which is one of the Revelation gifts.

·      1 Corinthians 12

·      Power Gifts, Spoken Gifts, Revelation Gifts

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

·      The definition of wisdom is: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise. 

·      Worldly wisdom and Supernatural wisdom are not in the same family. 

·      To understand wisdom, we have to first believe, understand and trust that this gift is truly, positively and absolutely given to us by the One True God.  There is no other source of supernatural wisdom. 

·      This gift is like no wisdom here on earth, that is generated by man, no matter what they do, no matter what their education, no matter what their IQ. 

·      1 Corinthians 2, Paul discussed Godly wisdom

·      We should all be on the same page that the One True God knows the past, the present and the future. 

·      The gift of wisdom isn’t just a stand-alone gift and it is more than just one thing.  It is a set of something in a moment in time that relates to a set of something in the future.  Remember earthly wisdom and spiritual wisdom are not related. 

·              Let’s go to Genesis 6, verse 11and 7:11, the story of Noah

·      The Lord gave Noah a word of wisdom, meaning He gave him an explanation of an event coming in the future and what he would need to do to avoid that destruction. 

·      Let’s take a look at a New Testament example of a word of wisdom being given in Acts 9.  In this example we saw two gifts in operation, the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. 

·      Discussed Saul’s encounter with the Lord on his way to Damascus.

·      Acts 9, verse 10:

·      Example of a word of knowledge when God shared with Ananias Saul was in Damascus and where he was staying, and Saul’s vision. That was a word of knowledge revealed through the Holy Spirit, Ananias could not have known that on his own.

·      The word of wisdom.  The Holy Spirit says he will use Saul in the future as His chosen instrument to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.

·      Ananias chose to obey the word of wisdom given and the world was changed as a result.

·      To further clarify, the word of wisdom is not what Solomon operated with, that was an elevated level of earthly wisdom to navigate what happens on earth at a given time. 

·      It is one thing to have earthly wisdom and it is another to use it.  If the Holy Spirit gives you something, use it, don’t squander it.

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, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

·     

Are you an Opportunity or a Resource for the Holy Spirit?,Ep 2-45

Welcome back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to talk about how we are preparing ourselves to be used by the Holy Spirit.  This is part of our discussion on the Spiritual Gifts, how you wonder? Well, specifically, we are going to talk about whether we are an opportunity or a resource the Holy Spirit can use.  You might think they both sound good but as we dig in deeper you will see that they are nothing alike and we should be striving to be one much more than the other. So let’s dig in.

We will start off first with just simple definitions. 

Opportunity: a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something

Resource: a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively.

Now let’s go back to scripture and see what it is that we are talking about being an opportunity or a resource for in the first place. 1 Corinthians 12:4, “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.”

This discussion relates to all of the gifts. 

Develop our gifts so that these gifts are a part of who we are and we can use any and all of them as needed, as directed.  In doing this, we become a resource, more than just an opportunity.  God can use anyone, anything, at anytime, doesn’t even need to be a believer.  We are going to look at one example in the Bible of something miraculous occurring.  For that we are going to Numbers 22:21.  I’m going to read to you what happened. “Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. 22 But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road.

24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. 25 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again.

26 Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. 28 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”

29 Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”

“No,” he said.

31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.

32 The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me.[a] 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”

In this case, Balaam did actually do as God had directed, but unfortunately, he did share with the King that the way to bring down the Israelites was to get them to worship other Gods and that is exactly what happened.  The fallout is what the book of Hosea is about.

In our example here, the donkey was used in a miraculous way but as an object of opportunity.  We are not desiring to be the donkey, we are desiring to be like Jesus, where we move and do as the Holy spirit directs us and nothing limits us.

Let’s look at another example but this time of someone who was used as a resource.  For that we are going to Acts 10:9, “About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three[a] men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

21 Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?””

If you are not familiar with this story, Cornelius, a Roman centurion, so a leader in the Roman army was seeking the Lord and an angel appeared to him and told him his prayers would be answered and to send some men to Joppa to bring back Peter.  When Peter does go, he understands that the message of salvation is not only for the Jews, but for Gentiles also.  Peter then shared the gospel message and all of Cornelius’ family were saved, so many that Peter was there a few days.  The Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius’ family the same as it did at Pentecost with them speaking in tongues and praising God. 

The difference here is Peter developed his relationship with the Holy Spirit, he took time out of his day to pray and in this case we see that we received a vision, there are different levels of vision, this one was a trance. He also received the interpretation of the vision and was obedient to the Holy Spirit in going with the roman soldiers when they came to bring him back to Caesarea where Cornelius lived.  Once in Caesarea, Peter shared the message he was called to share and then proceeded to baptize and grow the Kingdom. 

That, my friends, is being a resource for the Holy Spirit, not an opportunity.  God could have made a tree talk at Cornelius’ house if he wanted to, but how much better to have a resource such as Peter he could rely on to come and share and be an example of obedience.  At that time, roman soldiers appearing at your door asking you to come with them somewhere you did not know and in this case, to the leader’s house, that could be a bit unsettling. Your first reaction would be self-preservation, but Peter knew the Holy Spirit wanted his obedience and he did it.  This is the life we want to be living.  When we are living in this way, the enemy cannot move in our lives.  He can attack, but when we are that in tune with the Holy Spirit in our lives, the enemy will not be able to gain traction.  We want to be a resource, not an opportunity.  We don’t want to be the donkey here.

Let’s look at another example of being a resource.  This happened in Alexandria Troas, in modern day Turkiye.  It used to be Turkey but they changed their named to Turkiye a few years ago.  Alexandria Troas is… well now it is just ruins, but back in the first century it was a happening metropolis because the port was pretty important to the area for trade and passage through the Marman Sea onward to the Black Sea.  It is southeast of the ancient city of Troy. Alexandria Troas is where you would go to travel across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia or other areas of Greece.  Paul on his way back from Macedonia headed to Jerusalem but stopped for 7 days in Alexandria Troas. The road that he, Luke, Silas, Timothy all would have used to come into the city from the port is still there, parts of it is in ruins, but I walked up it just as they would trying to imagine what it would have been like.  I love finding roads that our biblical ancestors used, it is one of the most fun things I do in my life.  Anyhow, on the occasion I am referring to Paul was on a tight schedule.  He wanted to use every minute teaching and building the new Christians in that area.  We walked all over the ruins there.  We were able to find a fountain, much of the area is farmland now so the stone that was used for buildings has been relocated to make fencing.  You can see broken pieces of pottery, artifacts laying around, there is remnants of a church but terribly overgrown. Of course, I was wanting to find the remains of the house for the story I am about to share, but that’s wishful hunting. There would be no way to really know unless the Holy Spirit told me. There is some excavation there, but you can tell it is grossly underfunded.  If you want to see what we found, check out our YouTube channel, Life Journey with Dawn Simmons this week and you can visit there through our eyes. 

Back to the story, we find it in Acts 20:7, “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.”

That is being a resource.  When Paul was speaking, the Holy Spirit would have been present as Paul worked with the Holy Spirit performing many miracles.  Here we see Paul doing what he does, talking about Jesus things and time didn’t seem to be important to him.  I understand Eutychus, I probably would have done the same thing sitting in the window. All those people crammed together in a room.  It was probably hot, so he was probably sitting by the window for a cool breeze.  The time of year was just after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, so it was probably in April.  That time of year in Turkiye can be warm.  They would have had a coastal breeze being a port city, so Eutychus had a good seat in the room, except that, windows weren’t what they are today and out he goes.  Third story, hitting either cobblestone which how their roads were or dirt if it wasn’t by a walkway.  Paul was able to be a resource and bring him back to life.  That is a miraculous event.  They saw it more frequently in the first century than we do now, but it could still be done, it requires a supernatural level of faith and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit is in operation in your life at this level, the enemy cannot move in your life.  Paul brought Eutychus back to life and then went back to preaching.  He was not so in awe with what just happened because to Paul it was expected, it was part of who He was in Christ.

We need to strive to be a resource not an opportunity.  I know we would all be thrilled to be used as an opportunity, but how much richer would our lives be if we were actually used as a resource for whatever the Holy Spirit needed us to do.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and become a resource to the Holy Spirit in your daily life. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      Discussed how we are preparing ourselves to be used by the Holy Spirit. 

·      This is part of our discussion on the Spiritual Gifts, as we discussed whether we are an opportunity or a resource the Holy Spirit can use. 

·      Opportunity: a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something

·      Resource: a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively.

·      1 Corinthians 12:4, Lists the gifts of the Spirit

·      Develop our gifts so that these gifts are a part of who we are and we can use any and all of them as needed, as directed.  In doing this, we become a resource, more than just an opportunity. 

·      God can use anyone, anything, at anytime, doesn’t even need to be a believer. 

·      Numbers 22:21. Story of Balaam and his donkey and how God used the donkey as an opportunity to get Balaam’s attention and direct him what He wanted him to do and not do

·      The donkey was used in a miraculous way.  We are not desiring to be the donkey, we are desiring to be like Jesus, where we move and do as the Holy spirit directs us and nothing limits us.

·      Acts 10:9, Story of Peter receiving a vision on a rooftop and being directed to go with the men who were coming for him.

·      Peter then shared the gospel message and all of Cornelius’ family were saved, so many that Peter was there a few days.  The Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius’ family the same as it did at Pentecost with them speaking in tongues and praising God. 

·      The difference here is Peter developed his relationship with the Holy Spirit, he took time out of his day to pray. He also received the interpretation of the vision and was obedient to the Holy Spirit.

·      Peter gives us an example of obedience. 

·      This is the life we want to be living.  When we are living in this way, the enemy cannot move in our lives.  He can attack, but when we are that in tune with the Holy Spirit in our lives, the enemy will not be able to gain traction. 

·      Alexandria Troas, in modern day Turkiye.  Paul on his way back from Macedonia headed to Jerusalem but stopped for 7 days in Alexandria Troas.  If you want to what this city looks like today, check out our YouTube channel, Life Journey with Dawn Simmons this week.

·      Acts 20:7, Story of Eutychus falling out the window, dying and Paul raised him from the dead.

·      Paul was able to be a resource and bring him back to life.  That is a miraculous event.  They saw it more frequently in the first century than we do now, but it could still be done, it requires a supernatural level of faith and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit is in operation in your life at this level, the enemy cannot move in your life. 

·      Paul brought Eutychus back to life and then went back to preaching.  He was not so in awe with what just happened because to Paul it was expected, it was part of who He was in Christ.

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, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

How to Remain Focused on the Holy Spirit during Christmas Season distractions,Ep 2-44

Welcome back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to talk about how to remain focused on the Holy Spirit during all these year-end holiday season distractions. This time of year can be such a blessing as we come together with family and friends and begin a new year, but it can also be such a distraction in our time with the Lord. I want to talk about how with a little planning we can keep ourselves from becoming too overwhelmed with all that is “required” of us and still plan for ourselves to move forward in 2024. 

It’s easy to lose sight of what is most important whether it is Christmas or any other holiday throughout the year. Christmas unfortunately gets overrun with so many other focuses that even though we may spend time acknowledging the birth of Christ, we can still be distracted by all of our other “holiday” tasks.  Then we spend the first few weeks of the new year getting back into our usual routine and getting caught up at work or on our household responsibilities.  The Holy Spirit often gets set aside until we decide we have time again. 

This year let’s resolve to do things differently.  Let’s resolve that the One who should be directing our lives, will still be directing our lives no matter how our schedule gets filled.  When we allow worldly distractions, and let’s face it, Christmas has become more and more worldly than Christ centered, when we allow all of that to direct the flow of our time and activities, the enemy rejoices. 

If you are a planner, a list maker, an organizer, this episode will be right up your alley.  If you’re not, just join us list makers this one time and see what it will do for you.  Give us this chance to show you how we use our planning in ways to create balance in what is important to us and what is important to the people in our lives.  That is a balance we have to walk every day and it gets more difficult when we have more people and more activities to include in the same hours we always have each day.

I have 4 kids and I remember dreading this time of year.  This time of year meant 4 Christmas performances, which seemed to last much longer than the comfort level of my seating.  This time of year meant multiple family events of which I used to host one that involved about 30 people only one year of which did I have to tell two people they needed to leave because of their arguing, work party events, much more cooking of much more time consuming dishes, many more dishes to wash, a whole lot of shopping for the immediate family, then the extended family, then there’s the almost family followed by the friends, then the last minute shopping for the people you forgot about or who got you something but you didn’t think to get a gift for them, the hours of wrapping which starts out in a happy holiday spirit but a few hours in, those presents may or may not even see a bow, and it’s taped “good enough”.  I did a cookie exchange one year, if you aren’t familiar with that it’s where you make one type of cookie but several dozens of it because you ultimately go to a big party where all the cookie makers exchange a dozen of their cookies for a dozen of yours.  It’s a great concept because you end up with 12 or 13 different cookies you can have for all your holiday events but making 12 or 13 dozen cookies can be exhausting.  Notice I said I did it “one” year.  Some people thrive on events like that, I just didn’t happen to be one of them.  Yeah, for me when my kids were growing up, Christmas was a tough season.  You wanted your kids to have the best each year.  You wanted them to have happy childhood memories.  It didn’t always work out quite the way we wanted. 

One year my husband, who is the cheery one in our relationship wanted to bring Christmas joy to the neighbors.  Mind you we were in a temporary location where everyone there was in transition on a military base, so no one really knew each other.  Anyhow, my husband decided spur of the moment that we were going to go around as a family and sing Christmas carols to all the people living around us, probably 20 families.  The thing is, none of us can sing, not even the slightest bit.  The other thing is that none of us wanted to go, except him.  He was insistent, so we all got dressed, we didn’t have anything particularly festive mind you, but we got dressed, we didn’t have any sheet notes so we had no lyrics, we certainly didn’t have many songs memorized past the first stanza.  We had no musical instruments because well, no one could play any musical instruments.  This was before we could get everything we needed from our phones by the way.  The poor people whose homes we went to I felt so bad for because for the most part in the military community we are not rude to each other, we are in our own community so there is almost always an openness to each other but I felt so bad for these people because they open their door and are met by 6 people standing there who can’t sing. Let alone sing together and yet there we were.  By house 3, you could tell we didn’t want to even be there.  Everyone was too gracious to end our pain and my husband felt compelled to keep going and was less than pleased with our lack of Christmas cheer.  He eventually gave up and let us go home but I know he was disappointed.  Now we look back and laugh but it was no laughing matter then.  I just asked my husband why he had us all do that when he knew none of us could sing and he said “ I thought if we all sang together, our collective voices would sound good!”  Umm, no, that’s not how it works.  Our best intentions can sometimes take us miles away from where we intended.  So planning ahead will help to alleviate a caroling moment gone bad. 

Let’s take a look at what the bible tells us about planning ahead.  There is an abundance of scripture about preparation and planning but we are going to look at a handful and then go over some steps to start now.  We want to start planning now so we don’t get swept into the holidays but rather remain grounded throughout and continue moving forward in 2024 without missing time with the Lord. 

Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”  There are times when we make plans, I used to be a financial advisor and many people would come in and want help to plan their path forward.  Many of those people came in and needed help because they made some poor decisions and wanted counsel to get to their goal.  We have to be willing to include the Holy Spirit and have godly people mentor us.

Proverbs 15:14, “The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.” We need to learn from our past, look at the successes and look at the failures so we become stronger going forward.

Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” If we put a plan together, we need to be disciplined to maintain what we set out to do in our plan.

Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” We want to make sure that what we are using to guide our way is based on the Bible.  The Holy Spirit will never steer you wrong.

Proverbs 19:2, “Desire without knowledge is not good— how much more will hasty feet miss the way!”  Taking the time to plan ahead will allow us to anticipate obstacles and prepare a way through our obstacles.

1 Corinthians 16:2, “Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. “  When we look at this, at first it may not seem like it applies to our topic, but you can see that Paul is instilling in them a way to be organized and efficient in how they are organized so things are completed before he arrives.

Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” If you live without planning, then you can plan to live without the means you will need at times.  We need to include the Holy Spirit in our planning so we are sowing and reaping where God wants us to plant.

Isaiah 32:8, “But the noble make noble plans,  and by noble deeds they stand.” We need to be honorable in how we are approaching what we are doing or what we are seeking to do.  If we are not honoring to God, what are we expecting in return?

1 Corinthians 14:40, ”But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” God is a God of order and He expects that of us as well. 

2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” When we look at this, we generally apply it to money, but think of it in terms of our time as well.  If you are willing to give of your time to another person, you are sowing into the Kingdom and the Lord will happily then give you an abundance out of His heart for you. 

5 Steps to Keep Focused on the Lord during Christmas and the holiday season.

·      Set aside quiet time with the Lord each day during the Christmas season

o   even if it’s only 15 minutes

o   Figure out how to include the Lord even in your travel

o   Use this time to pray, read the Bible, journal so you remain connected

·      Review 2023

o   What worked, what needs to be adapted, what didn’t work, what never got off the ground

·      Start to plan for 2024

o   how you want to grow in your relationship with the Lord in 2024

§  Bible Reading Plans, Topical studies,

·      Get your calendar ready to go for 2024

o   Get your 2024 calendar set up

o   Start planning ahead so you are in motion in January not deciding in January

o   My meeting to help people set goals,

·      Consider Becoming a Mentor or getting a mentor

o   Who would you like to mentor, find them before year end, who would you like to be mentored by and talk to them before year end

There are our 5 steps in planning and we need to begin now to prepare ourselves for the Christmas season of hecticness.  Work your way down through the steps and change your Christmas season this year and reap the benefits into next year.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your plan to stay grounded through the holidays and into 2024. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      How to remain focused on the Holy Spirit during all these year-end holiday season distractions.

·      It’s easy to lose sight of what is most important whether it is Christmas or any other holiday throughout the year.

·      This year let’s resolve to do things differently.  Let’s resolve that the One who should be directing our lives, will still be directing our lives no matter how our schedule gets filled. 

·      Use our planning time in ways to create balance in what is important to us and what is important to the people in our lives.

·      Glimpse into how I felt in my life raising 4 kids during the Christmas season.  The struggles I had with all the extra responsibilities but yet the same number of hours in the day.

·      Gave you the story of our family Christmas caroling that didn’t turn out the way my husband envisioned.

·      Let’s take a look at what the bible tells us about planning ahead. 

o   Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” 

o   Proverbs 15:14, We need to learn from our past, look at the successes and look at the failures so we become stronger going forward.

o   Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” If we put a plan together, we need to be disciplined to maintain what we set out to do in our plan.

o   Psalm 119:105, We want to make sure that what we are using to guide our way is based on the Bible.  The Holy Spirit will never steer you wrong.

o   Proverbs 19:2, Taking the time to plan ahead will allow us to anticipate obstacles and prepare a way through our obstacles.

o   1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul is instilling in them a way to be organized and efficient in how they are organized so things are completed before he arrives.

o   Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

o   Isaiah 32:8, “But the noble make noble plans,  and by noble deeds they stand.”

o   1 Corinthians 14:40, ”But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”

o   2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 

·      5 Steps to Keep Focused on the Lord during Christmas and the holiday season.

o   Set aside quiet time with the Lord each day during the Christmas season

o   Review 2023

o   Start to plan for 2024

o   Get your calendar ready to go for 2024         

o   Consider Becoming a Mentor or getting a mentor

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, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

Spiritual Gift of Faith: What can it do for us?,Ep 2-43

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 Faith.  What we are talking about here is a supernatural level of faith.  It is the greatest of the 3 power gifts.  I would even argue that it is the greatest of all the gifts because without it, you can’t operate in any of the gifts.  You have to have a supernatural level of faith in order to know without failing that what you are doing in His name is going to do what it is supposed to do.  We don’t all have this level of faith.  We don’t all operate at a level where we can speak in His name and know that every time we do, it will come to pass. 

There is a lot more to it than that, we don’t see all the time and development a person puts into their relationship with the Lord to get to the point where you can speak and know that God will move when you speak because of your relationship, because of your motivation, because of your objective, because you are honoring Him and he is therefore honoring your faith in Him.

What we are going to do in this episode is slice up faith a little bit so we can understand there are different types of faith.  Faith operates differently in different situations, and it all works for its prescribed purpose. 

First we are going to take a look at all the gifts which we read about in 1 Corinthians and summarize all of the gifts.  Then we will dig in and look at how most people understand faith. 

1 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. 

So the gift of Faith is a power gift.  Have you ever met someone who exudes faith?  Usually it is someone older, mature in their faith and in their life.  No matter what happens, they are not shaken.  They will take every situation and filter it down to what God says and proclaim that over their situation.  Simple as that.  People look at them and are like “but what about….” And they will stop you in your tracks and stand on what they just said over that situation.  They are unmovable, unshakeable and you cannot tell them anything that what they know God will do over their situation.  Don’t we all want to be like that?  Well, we have to spend time with the Lord to get there.  On our way to getting there we are going to need to understand there are 3 other types of faith that function in the natural we need to become friends with first.

We are going to go over each of these 3 types briefly first so we can get to the supernatural level.  I am presenting these in order, your faith has to grow in this order in order for you to be able to have a faith elevated to the supernatural level.

First is what is referred to as saving faith in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” So we need to be saved first and our salvation is through our faith in who we believe Jesus is and what He did for our sins, his death and resurrection.

Second, is just a simple faith, some call it general, but most people operate in simple faith.  Paul describes it in Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” When we think of simple faith, it is what every believer operates in as they pray and move in their lives.  We have to have this level to have encouragement in the Word.  This level of faith is increased the more we read His word and understand who He is. 

The third level of faith is more complicated.  The third level I call “Faithfulness” because it is through our faith that we change and become more Christlike.  This level of faith is where most of us are always trying to attain and feel like we never truly measure up.  It’s like a ladder where somedays we climb up and then, some days we go down a level.  Imagine it as a ladder with 9 rungs we are trying our best to get up but even on our best days, it can be a challenge for all of us.  Any guesses what I am referring to here?  This third level is called “faithfulness” because it is part of our goal to live our lives with the fruits of the spirit.  Galatians 5:22 puts it this way, “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”  

I believe most of us focus on all of the other 8 gifts and leave “faithfulness” out in the cold a bit because it doesn’t seemingly get tested the way the others do.  Using myself as an example, forbearance, gentleness, and a dash of self-control, these are where I am weak, I am weak when I am in the car.  For some reason I cannot climb the ladder when certain drivers are in front of me.  I can’t understand their logic when they cut me off for no apparent reason, I can’t understand why they aren’t moving when we should all be moving, I can’t understand their inability to press the accelerator in their vehicle to at least get to the speed limit.  These are all challenges for me and I have to keep apologizing to the Lord for my lack of forbearance, gentleness and self-control.  I know they don’t hear it when I am loudly questioning their behavior inside my car, but I still did it whether they know it or not so I apologize. 

We all have our issues, and when I hear people talk about them, faithfulness is always at the bottom of the pack.  It’s not thought much of because we focus on all the things we aren’t instead of all the things we actually are and will become.  What I really want to say is, “Stop letting your challenges dictate your level of faith and maturity in Christ.”  When we get caught up in all we struggle with, we neglect to fully partner with God because we think we aren’t worthy to move forward into supernatural levels of anything. That’s a lie from the enemy and we need to deny any of those thoughts from a place in our mind and heart.  The Lord cares about our heart and our willingness to seek Him. Grow through all of that and elevate your faith.

With that behind us, now let’s talk about why the gift of faith, supernatural faith, is the greatest of the power gifts and I hope this ignites in you the desire to pursue it.  Once you have it, nothing can stop you, the enemy cannot move and you can undo what the enemy has done.

When you look at the power gifts, faith, working of miracles and healings, faith is needed for the other two to be able to happen.  You can’t work a miracle if you don’t have the faith it is going to happen.  How can you heal someone if you aren’t sure if it’ll work?  Faith, Supernatural Faith is required.  Faith, I think gets a bad rap though because you cannot see faith.  It is intangible so it is overlooked.  A leg growing back, a person raised from the dead, you cannot miss that. If you saw either of those things occur, you would be mesmerized by that gift and the action that you witnessed.  You don’t witness faith, you can’t see it so you can’t qualify it’s importance. 

Let’s look at an example in the Old Testament that required faith and as a result of it, a supernatural event occurred.  We are going to 2 Kings 6, and this is just a snippet of other acts of faith and miracles that occurred. If you haven’t read this in a while, take a look, its really good reading. We are going to start with verse 11, and we are starting with this King being upset because the Lord is revealing all of his plans ahead of time to his prophet so the King cannot overtake Israel.  “ This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

13 “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. “

So Elisha was dealing with a huge challenge.  I don’t think any of us have ever had a King and his whole army against us, coming and surrounding our home to kill us, I hope not anyway.  Elisha was not afraid and he used his level of faith to have a heavenly army that was also present be revealed to his servant, his servants supernatural eyes were opened at Elisha’s request.  Then, that’s not even all, by Elisha’s words the army coming against him was stricken with blindness.  He didn’t say, kill them, he knew that blindness was enough, and he showed a level of mercy and was satisfied that blindness would take care of his problem.  And it did.

That level of faith still exists.  A supernatural level of faith is exhibited when the words spoken by the individual operating in the gift of faith is powered by the Holy Spirit and enabled to come to pass. 

So let’s talk about some real life examples of this in my life.  These are examples that do not include healings or miracles the way most people define them so we can discuss those during those specific episodes.  I want these examples to really just be about the supernatural faith needed to accomplish a task we could not in the other levels of faith we have already discussed.

Last year sometime I did an episode, I don’t recall what it was titled, but it was about a particular demon and in it, I made a comment and I joked during it.  I was referring to Jesus casting demons out of a man named Legion and that the name Legion was referring to the number of demons the man had which was thousands.  My joke was that I had not met anyone with that number of demons and I said I doubt I ever would, or I hoped I never would.  Watch what you say, I should not have been flippant because I kid you not that Sunday at church a pastor approached me and asked me to talk to someone.  I spoke with her and then we agreed to meet a few days later on a Tuesday.  That woman, we did do a deliverance which was what I was asked to do, and that woman had hundreds, there were too many to count.  So many were coming out so quickly we couldn’t keep track.  That wasn’t my issue.  Her strongman was one of the strongest I have ever encountered.  He was very aggressive and at one point would not let me speak to her again.  This demon was trying to engage me to derail my objective.  To be able to complete that, I had to rely entirely on my supernatural level of faith.  I had to know that the Holy Spirit had control and continue to follow through.  Most of the time the demons don’t want to talk, that one had no problem telling me what it thought of me.  When you are operating in a supernatural world, a world you truly only have limited knowledge of, it can be unnerving if you do not have yourself firmly planted in your faith in who the Lord is and that he has overcome the enemy.  It could be easy to be deceived. 

A few years ago we had some pretty bad fires in this area.  There is another one going on today because of the high winds these last few days.  We call this Fire Season in California.  Anyhow, the fire was not contained at the time, there were so many going on that resources were limited.  We had firemen coming from all over the country to help us here.  Many people were evacuated, businesses were closed, our county was surrounded in a ring of fire.  It was arson by the way.  So the source of the fire was intentional and evil in nature.  As it was coming through the canyon area near my house I could see it getting closer and closer.  I live up on a ridge, there were houses below me and across the main road running through the canyon.  There was very little loss of life and in that area of the fire, not much loss of human property, there was loss of wildlife unfortunately and wildlife habitat which is serious because that takes years for recovery.

Northern California was in worse shape than we were, that was the same time the fire in Paradise, California was happening which devastated that poor town.  Anyhow, my husband was up north helping with the fire in Paradise area.  The military assists in these fires as well.  So essentially I was on my own, with one son here and all my animals.  I had nowhere to evacuate to because the few family members I have here were all in the same boat I was in with these fires.  My company offered to put us up in a hotel, but a lot of hotels were full from people in a worse position than we were.  At one point I had had enough of all this and decided that if Jesus can calm storms, then I can calm a fire.  Maybe this seems silly to you, but to me it seemed reasonable.  The fire was started by evil and Jesus overcame all evil so I should be able to overcome this fire.  So I stood in my backyard and I started telling that fire to first go the other direction to protect the houses that were coming in its path.  It’s hundreds of acres of wilderness so I wanted to first get it to go back and then get it to shrink. There was no one there to come into agreement with me so I just started and I had to really rely on faith in that because you feel like one little person against a raging fire, it’s no match in the natural.  I knew that it was also no match in the supernatural.  I prayed, I prayed and I prayed.  It was very important not to let what I saw in the natural influence my faith.  This was no ordinary request.  If I let what I could see influence me then I would have to acknowledge that I saw no change for hours.  I had to be more that what I saw.  I had to believe that what I was asking for would be done because I was asking.  I had to believe that behind my words was the power of God no matter how big that fire was as it consumed the mountain side.  I took pictures through the night and it took maybe 3 hours, but finally I saw a change.  The fire was reversing.  It had already burned the area it came from but it was no longer moving forward and it was going backward.  There were no firefighters where I could see because there were no structures to protect.  In those fires they will let the hillside burn if there are no resources to address the hillside so they can focus on the houses. 

Once I saw the fire reversing, then I moved onto requesting containment.  That took days, but it happened.  Things that we don’t normally think we can pray over are possible when we operate in the Gift of Faith.  Don’t limit God to the usual.  Supernatural Faith provides us with a foundation to move on His behalf and change outcomes, overturn evil, and break bondages that have held nations for centuries.  Through supernatural faith we can accomplish anything.  If you don’t believe me, then believe Luke, Chapter 1, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible”

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your faith to partner with Him at a supernatural level. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      Supernatural Gifts: Faith

·      1 Corinthians 12

·      Power Gifts, Spoken Gifts, Revelation Gifts

·      3 types of Faith before Supernatural Faith

o   Saving Ephesians 2:8

o   Simple Faith, Romans 12:3

o   Faithfulness, Galatians 5:22

·      Gift of faith often overlooked, we can’t see it, we can’t quantify it

·      2 Kings 6: Story of Elisha and opening spiritual eyes of his servant and striking enemy army with blindness

·      Story of a deliverance that required supernatural level of faith on my part

·      Story of wildfire that required supernatural level of faith on my part to change course of fire

·      Develop relationship with the Lord to develop your level of faith

·      With God, nothing is impossible, Luke 1

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, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

How to partner with God for “God’s will” in your life,Ep 2-42

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the concept of God’s Plan in our lives.  It has so many meanings and interpretations and we want to breakdown the concept so when we say “God’s will or His plan”, we are saying words that depict a life in alignment with what the Lord is wanting to do in our lives.

First and foremost, we know salvation is part of God’s plan for all of us.  We have a choice in that, but salvation is a given in His plan, so that is not part of our discussion here.  Living a Christlike life is also what He desires, we all pretty much know that so that is not our discussion here.  What we are going to discuss is how we need to address that God does have a plan for our life and what is our role in that plan. 

Too many people say they want God’s plan, but then aren’t willing or understand that there are 2 parts to God’s plan.  There is God’s part, which He is willing and able to do and there is our part which takes time and focused energy on our part.  We have to move past our unwillingness and lack of understanding and really dig into what it means to know God’s plan, to live in God’s plan, to be a part of God’s plan. 

If I asked you what is God’s plan in your life, what would you say? 

Generally there are 2 types of answers in response to that.  Vague and even vaguer.  I don’t know if that is correct grammar but that’s ok, cause a vaguer answer isn’t a correct response either so they go together. 

Only a handful of people have a specific answer.  Of those folks who have a specific answer, most of them are actually living out God’s plan in their life or putting effort toward God’s plan in their life.  Sometimes there is preparation that is required in what God wants us to have in our lives and how we live out our lives for Him. 

The reason why I want to address this topic is because the Lord keeps showing me people who mean well in saying things like “It’s God’s will” and resigning themselves to whatever happens without ever being a part of partnering with God for an outcome.  That’s a bit like saying “I want to be a best-selling author” but you aren’t willing to write a book.  Or “I really want that promotion at work” but you do nothing to meet the requirements that the promotion requires. 

“I want to be an Olympic athlete” but you don’t even play a sport.  It doesn’t make sense.  If we want to live our lives in God’s plan or His will for our lives, we certainly need to know what that is and that requires effort on our part.

I think there is a misconception on who God is and what He actually does in our lives.  He gets blamed for a lot of things He had nothing to do with.  There are a lot of angry people out there for what they perceive as being wronged by God for one reason or another.  We have to be better than that, that is not to discount whatever event occurred that led to the pain that led to the anger, God can withstand those moments of our lives, but we cannot stay there.  We have to rise above all of our obstacles and take the time to first know who God is or how will we ever understand His plan or His will? 

I was watching a show last night and in it there was an ex-convict in it named Daune.  Hopefully I pronounce that correctly.  He is from Louisianna and he said his mother or maybe his grandmother, I think his mother always told him when he was younger, “If you’re gonna pray about it, don’t worry.  If you’re gonna worry about it, don’t pray”  Now those are some words that really tell you who this woman was, she knew who God was in her life.  Such a simple phrase and so so true.  She saw the partnership between herself and God.  She knew her part and she knew His part. You can’t be doubleminded about a partnership with God. 

So how do we get to the point where we know God’s plan for us.  Well first, we have to know God and the only way to know God is to know His Word.  You have to be reading consistently and what you don’t understand, ask Him to explain it to you.  He will talk to you.  Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know Him, so ignore those people. 

John tells us this in John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.”

Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus later tells us in John 15:26, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

So we have now identified the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and have an understanding that they are one.  That is what this episode is established upon so that we are all clear about which God we are discussing, the One True God.  There are no other gods, this is not about religion, it’s about our relationship with “I AM” as He calls himself in Exodus 3:14. 

To know His plan or will, I am using those terms interchangeably for our discussion, requires we know Him.  We develop that relationship through prayer and reading His word. 

Secondly, we can’t know a plan unless we can hear Him speaking to us.  Too many people rely on “signs”, a leaf fell from a tree, “that’s a sign I’m supposed to…do whatever”. No, that’s not a sign, we can’t live by random acts and plan our life by random signs, that is not how God works.  He establishes clear communication.  Most people don’t recognize it or doubt it.  Being in a relationship requires two-way communication.  Can you imagine being in a marriage or raising a child without two-way communication.  How much of our time would be spent cleaning up after our miscommunications? He is not up there ignoring us, He has a response, we need to understand Him to understand His response.

If you want to know more about how to develop that, email me and let’s talk about the process I teach called SALO that very definitively teaches you how to hear what God has to say to you. 

Third, we have to start taking part in Kingdom matters.  What does that mean?  Well we can’t be complacent and throw our hands up in the air and say, “whatever happens is God’s will” or some equally weak response that removes your ability to speak into the outcome.  I know I sound a little harsh this week, but it’s because I know that if we want to be in God’s will or know His plan, and see His will manifest in our lives then we need, we must, pray using His word to allow Him to make changes, bring healings, get the promotion, help you with your finances, whatever you need in your life.  If we are going to live out His plan in our lives, then we have to start by praying in partnership with His Kingdom on all matters using His word.  If you aren’t even willing to do that, how can you expect a grand outcome when you aren’t willing to put in any effort to align what you need and what he needs from you with what He tells us in His word? 

We are told we need to Ask, Seek and Knock in Matthew 7.  All of those activities require effort on our part.  He expects effort and we should be putting forth that effort in everything we are doing with Him, not abandoning anything in our lives to “God’s will” without any effort in understanding it.  We cannot prevail with that mentality and that is why the enemy eats up believers every day in their turmoil, we have to partner with God, not abandon our needs.  What I am not talking about is submission.  That is very different and that is the highest form of obedience to Him.  Submission is not abandon.  Submission is a transfer of ownership or rights. When we submit our will, our decision, our outcome to Him, that pleases Him and allows Him to move on our behalf.  We still have responsibility in that submission.  We still want to pray.  I gave my kids to God, I said, they are yours, but I still pray for them.  What I don’t do is worry over them because I can’t worry over something I have submitted to God or then I am being double minded.    

Let me give you an example.  Last night during my class, I teach a class on How to Hear God’s Voice, anyhow, someone received a text about a woman we all know who is in the hospital and there is a risk of her baby being born premature.  So we started praying and submitting the situation to the Lord, and in doing so, we started quoting scripture specific to what we were asking, scriptures that align with the Lord’s plan over all of our lives and how we should live in Him.  So although we submitted it all to Him, we gave our prayer power, we gave our prayer “legs” to move forward in the Spirit Realm so that His will would be done over this baby’s life and over the life of the mother. 

I would much rather have a prayer like that over me if I were that mom, than a prayer where someone just says, it’s God’s will, Amen.  We need to understand His will, which we find in the Word, and use His will found in His Word to move prayer into action in partnership with Him. 

There are so many serious issues that are prayed over every second of the day and if we just took the time to understand His will by understanding who He is, we could see outcomes that would come straight down from Heaven and be able to see more Heaven on earth, the way it should be. 

Don’t abandon your prayers, give them life through His word.  Move mountains, tear down strongholds, build up others around you with your prayers. Use the words “it’s God’s will” with some authority because we have that authority, don’t abandon the gift He gave us with His life and have prayers that can’t move for the Kingdom. 

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your prayer life to partner with Him. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

·      Discussing the concept of God’s will in our lives

·      Misconception on who God is and what He actually does in our lives

·      So how do we get to the point where we know God’s plan for us.

o   First, we have to know God and the only way to know God is to know His Word. 

o   Scriptures establish who He is: John 1, John 14:6, John 15:26, Exodus 3:14

o   Secondly, we can’t know a plan unless we can hear Him speaking to us. 

o   Third, we have to start taking part in Kingdom matters.  We have to start by praying in partnership with His Kingdom on all matters using His word. 

·      We are told we need to Ask, Seek and Knock in Matthew 7.  All of those activities require effort on our part.  He expects effort on our part.

·      Don’t abandon your prayers, give them life through His word.  Move mountains, tear down strongholds, build up others around you with your prayers

·      Story of the pregnant woman and how we prayed over her and the baby at risk for being born premature.

·      Submission is not abandon.  Submission is a transfer of ownership or rights. When we submit our will, our decision, our outcome to Him, that pleases Him and allows Him to move on our behalf.  We still have responsibility in that submission to 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

·      If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com.  My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials.  There is also a companion Study Guide and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

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

How to Overcome Territorial Spirits, Part 2 of 2,Ep 2-41

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part 2 of How to Overcome Territorial Spirits. In part 1 we took a look at what the Bible tells us about the existence of spiritual entities, explained how Jesus overcame enabling us to overcome. We put together a general understanding of the demonic rank and order for territories. In this episode we are going to address how these spirits can affect you and your community, and how we are to enter into the territorial spiritual warfare that is occurring around us. What we do impacts our community and breaks years of satanic influence. So we have already laid the groundwork on this topic, now let’s put a plan together for how to do it effectively but simply in your own area using my own town as our example.

The idea of spiritual warfare can be unsettling to some. I want to take the fear out of it and instead talk about how we lay out a plan of how to pray, what are we praying against, and how can we support our prayer action. When you think of spiritual warfare in those terms, it becomes less about being unsettling and more about being directional, focus and strategic. We won’t be encountering strong winds, fiery darts, ominous unseen forces trying to tear us apart while we defiantly hold a Bible in one hand and a cross in the other forcefully in the air as we take a stand against evil. You can do some of that if you want to but then join us afterward for some less dramatic prayer time.

As we discussed in the last episode, the means with which we enter warfare is through prayer. Now we need to take an inventory of the weapons we will be using during our prayer.

Authority Understand your authority and from where it comes. Authority could be a whole book in and of itself, we need to know as a believer, we can do this, but we need to know why we can do it and then how we can do it. In Luke 10:19 Jesus tells us also, “

authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy;

I have given you

nothing will harm you.”

Binding and Loosing. Jesus gives us an understanding in Matthew 18, “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be[e] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[f] loosed in heaven. In Matthew 12, Jesus was responding to the pharisees when he was “accused” remember satan is the “accuser” of working with satan, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.“Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.”

The Name of Jesus alone has power beyond what we can measure. Jesus left us with this understanding of the power of His name in Mark 11:24, “

The Blood of Jesus is priceless and we need to use it with the care with which it was given.

Find someone to come into agreement with you. Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be also. Matthew 18, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” We see the same concept expressed to us in Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us this, “ A

Scripture is incredibly important. Hebrews 4:12 tells us “the word of the Lord is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” sword of the spirit

Fasting: we just did an episode on fasting a few weeks ago. Go back and listen to that to better understand how fasting can produce breakthrough and break bondages. Jesus gave us an example that there are some demons that require fasting and deep prayer in order for us to overcome their strength, but we can overcome them and fasting is one of the ways we are able to do that.

for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” We can never forget our

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask

motivations need to be aligned with Him, but when we are working with Him, His plan of prayer

then we know that by His name we have the ability to change a circumstance. Jesus tells us that

himself in John 15:7, “If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish,

and it will be done for you.”

Though one may be overpowered,

two can defend themselves.

cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Praise and Worship we know was something David used frequently in his prayer to the Lord. It is also something we can use as a weapon against anything that is against the Lord. The enemy already knows who God is, who Jesus is and is fully aware of the angelic forces that are able to come against it. The forces we need respond to praise and worship of our Lord, so we use that in our arsenal all along the way. That one you can do all day long, it can turn your day around.

5 Steps for Preparing a Battle Plan

1. Preparing for battle

The first thing we need to do in our plan is to pray to the Lord and seek His guidance in all that we are doing. This type of praying, where we are seeking the Lord for guidance on if we are to proceed and then how to proceed is not for someone who is not saved. If you are not saved, you have no authority and will not be able to prevail in anything we are discussing. If at any point the Lord tells you not to proceed, then simply stop. We don’t want to act on our own, we only have power when we are working with the Lord.

2. Repentance

3. Understand How to Engage

Before we move forward, we need to make sure our heart is right with the Lord. If we have any sin issue, it will not remain hidden during this time. The enemy will not like what you are doing and will use whatever he can against you to get you to stop. So make sure you are able to move forward in your prayer without having to look back at your past.

There are two ways to go about engagement. You can engage in prayer with the Lord and pray to Him to enable the angelic forces to move based on your authority and His guidance. Angelic forces respond to authority and His plan, but it does require us to engage that plan, or another way to say that is our prayer activates that plan. The other way is to engage with the enemy directly using your authority. Depending on what the Lord guides you and your spiritual maturity, I would say this tactic should be used less than the first method. Each of us has a level of authority based on our maturity, experience, understanding and faith and trust in the Lord. We are not all equipped to be commanding high level demons to do this or that and we need to know our limits by having the Lord tell us where those limits extend or end. There is a lot more that determines whether we engage with the enemy but for our purposes here, I would say the direct enemy engagement method should be used only as the Lord directs. We can accomplish quite a bit by praying and activating the angelic forces to respond as He directs.

4. Do your Research

Identify territorial spirits in your area. Let’s use my town as an example. What we are looking

for could include geographical territories, political territories, think about our school

administrative systems, the history of your area.

My town is on land that was inhabited by Chumash Indians for thousands of years until

Europeans arrived, Father Juniper Serra arrived from Spain and established missions along

California, which was a Mexican territory at the time, at the expense of the indigenous Indians,

known for his cruelty and turning Indians into slaves, bringing disease to the Chumash resulting

in hundreds of deaths, and then forcing their conversion to Catholicism. During that time, the

Chumash did believe in one God.

Spirits of Idolatry, death, persecution, pride,

Ancient Chumash, which is important to know because you want to go back as far as you can,

Ancient Chumash had a polytheism system, multiple gods, not as elaborate as the Greeks.

Town was founded by two brothers who established a ranch here, they established a catholic

church here and donated 100 acres for a seminary to be established, religious spirits, idolatrous

spirits, perfection, bitterness,

Area also known for a state mental hospital, 1936-1997, with several sad stories coming out of

that time period. Mental Health hospitals did not always operate under the best guidelines for

many years. The number of spirits that could have established a stronghold because of that is

exhausting, depression, schizophrenia, suicide, confusion, grief, bitterness, rebellion, addiction

Agriculture industry big here, large military influence dating back to WWII both are still strong

community influences

So what questions am I asking as I look at my town’s history? What am I trying to understand? As I research I am looking for the Lord to reveal to me the nature of the influences, the names of the spirits in authority. Here are some questions to consider when you look at your own town so you can discern and identify demonic influences:

1. Has the town had any involvement or influence in the history of the country? If so, how?

2. Was the area ever conquered such that a new culture, language or religion was imposed on those already in place?

3. What were the ancient religious practices or beliefs?

4. Did new religious practices emerge and why?

5. How, when and under what circumstances did Christianity, saved through belief in Jesus

   as our savior, enter the town?

6. Has the established government in the area ever collapsed? Why? How?

7. What is the governing nature of past governments? Oppressed?

8. Has there been any wars resulting in conquest, invasion, resistance, or civil unrest in the

   area?

9. Is there a battle site in the area of the town?

10. Are there any other names used for the town? If so, what is origin or meaning?

11. Why was the town established? What was its purpose? (Hershey, PA)

12. Who was the town founder? What was his intent?

13. As leaders have emerged, what were their intentions for the town?

14. Are there any or have there been any religious, economic, cultural or political groups or

    movements that have dominated the town? (movie industry in LA, Anaheim has

    Disneyland)

15. Have there been any traumatic events to the town? (Earthquake, hurricane, war)

16. Are there any or have there been any issues of racial tensions in the town?

17. Has there been any religious conflict?

18. Has there been a sudden event that changed the level of wealth in the town? (Example:

    gold rush, oil rush)

19. Was there any technology changes that birthed out of the area (silicon valley, industrial

    age)

5. Prioritize areas of prayer

Pray about all you have discovered through your research and put together a priority list of the prayer points to engage in prayer against. If you have multiple people praying in agreement with you, then split up the areas to cover more territory. You are all coming into agreement in all areas even if you are praying for 3 of 9 areas. Apply scriptures to each prayer point. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you if there are any areas that may require fasting or the pleading His

blood. Decide on how often you will pray, continue to seek the Lord for an understanding of any shifts as a result of prayer or changes needed in your prayer plan. You want to make sure you are staying connected in prayer to the Lord throughout the process so you are developing in this area and ask for revelation on what is changing as a result of your prayer. When we work with the Lord to accomplish what He needs us to do in His name, that’s when we can move mountains for the glory of God.

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn how to identify territorial spirits that may be affecting your home and your community. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

• This is part 2 of our discussion on How to Overcome Territorial Spirits

• Inventory of Weapons Used in Prayer
  o Our Authority: Luke 10:19
  o Binding & Loosing: Matthew 18, Matthew 12
  o Name of Jesus: Mark 11:24, John 15:7
  o Blood of Jesus
  o Come into agreement with others: Matthew 18, Ecclesiastes 4:12 o Scripture: Hebrews 4:12
  o Fasting
  o Praise and Worship

• 5 Steps for Preparing a Battle Plan

o Preparing for Battle: pray for guidance, do not act on our own
o Repentance: address and sin issues
o Understand How to Engage: Pray to God for Angelic Forces to Move, Commanding

the Enemy
o Do your research: 19 questions
o Prioritize areas of prayer: follow up with the Lord, ask for revelation to reveal

changes or outcomes

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

If you are enjoying our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  Kingdom work is my full time job.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

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

How to Overcome Territorial Spirits, Ep 2-40

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing Territorial Spirits.  We are going to take a look at what the Bible tells us about the existence of spiritual entities, explaining how Jesus overcame enabling us to overcome, a general understanding of their rank and order, how this affects you and your community, and how we are to address this territorial spiritual warfare.  This is a 2 part episode because we are going to lay the groundwork in the first episode and then put a plan together for how to do it effectively but simply in your own area.  We will use my own town as our example.

This episode was inspired this week by the happenings in Israel.  I cannot begin to understand how these families are feeling and what they are experiencing.  I’ve shared many times that we were in Israel earlier this year. Our time in Israel was filled with many positives, but you were always fully aware of the political, cultural and religious tension that could shift in a moment’s notice.  The day we left, Israel encountered an attack and activated the Iron Dome. We traveled through the West Bank, which is a Palestinian territory so we had to go through check points as we traveled throughout Israel.  These escalated occurrences are somewhat common there. What is happening now is rooted in biblical history, but the brutality is not what our modern world is willing to tolerate, thankfully most of the world has come together during this time to condemn Hamas. While I cannot change anything that has happened or continues to happen, what I can do are two things: encourage you to pray for the people and the nation of Israel to be able to overcome the evil that has occurred this past week, and talk to you about how you can address evil entities that are in your own area. 

When this first occurred, and I watched the news in the comfort of my home, I asked the Lord why, why now, what is this about and he responded with telling me the podcast this week should be on territorial spirits.  While we see the fighting going on in the natural, what the news is revealing to us, there is much more going on there that we aren’t seeing, a battle in the heavenlies over that territory.  I can tell you without a doubt, there are evil territorial spirits at work in Israel.  I could feel it in Jerusalem very heavily and Bethlehem as well.  So let’s get started and discuss today what could change how you pray for your home, your town, your country and God’s people, the people of Israel. 

The Bible has hundreds of places where it mentions a supernatural world.  It not only tells us about it, we hear numerous descriptions in both the old and new testament and we know that it is where the final battles will occur and the location of that will be in the territory of Israel.  Acts 1 tells us when Jesus returns, it will be to the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem, maybe ¾ miles or just over a kilometer. This is not an end times discussion, I am just showing that the Bible begins and ends with discussion of the supernatural world that we live in simultaneously to our natural world.  The supernatural world impacts what happens in our natural world and that’s in part due to the power of territorial spirits. 

Paul writes to the Ephesians describing to them how satan’s kingdom is present and working to come against us. Chapter 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 gives us more understanding of how and what demons do to prevent others from being able to receive the gospel, 2 Corinthians 4:4, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 

When Jesus came, he was entering Satan’s territory, where he had set up his rebellious kingdom on earth.  Jesus came and overcame his kingdom.  Paul refers to satan several ways in just those two scriptural references: ruler of the kingdom of the air, god of this age, meaning his rule is temporal, his reference to the ways of this world infers satan is the ruler of this world, the earthly world, not the heavenly realm.  Those words help to reveal to us territory and the timeline that satan’s rule is temporary as opposed to the Kingdom of God which is the victorious kingdom that will stand forever.  As a believer here on earth, you are seen by satan as an enemy of his kingdom. He will attack you.

Knowing that, you must ask yourself, are you a victim or are you a warrior in God’s kingdom?  It is your own belief system that characterizes who you are.  For those who look at Jesus still on the cross, you are already defeated.  You are not acknowledging and moving forward in his resurrection.  He did not die for us to stay on the cross, he died for us so he could rise again and overcome satan’s kingdom.  We cannot lose sight of that fact.  By then leaving us, and the Holy Spirit coming to earth to join with and reside in believers, that again is heaven invading Satan’s kingdom.  A believer cannot be a pacifist in the kingdom of God.  You will be overrun with satan’s strategies.  You have to be a warrior if you are going to survive.  You cannot live a defensive life and hope to achieve victory.  That is not how it works. You have to be an active participant in the warfare that is already going on around us.

Colossians 1:13, talks about the two spiritual dominions we are living in simultaneously.  When we are living in the fullness of Christ, we know we are rescued.  Here is how Paul describes it: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

When Paul tells the Ephesians in 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Paul doesn’t say that because we were rescued, or that we won’t have to deal with these struggles.  He states explicitly that we will have struggles against this dark world, and that our struggles are not against flesh and blood.  Flesh and blood are natural, so we are clearly struggling against the spiritual beings.  Spiritual beings have assignments and some of those assignments are territorial, not over individuals which is what we have discussed here most frequently.

So what do we know about how these dark forces are structured? Not everyone who has researched this area is in agreement on names and rank.  For our purposes we just need to have a general understanding of how the ranks are structured.  If we get distracted by something as simple as, what is the right name in an org chart, then we are already are in an uphill battle.  Don’t start from a weakened position.  We are the victorious ones and we begin with that understanding because we can clear out territorial spirits if we apply what we know.

Satan: Commander

Principalities or princes: empowered and have some independent authority to act on

Powers: lesser degree of empowerment and authority, more in number than principalities or princes, have teams under them,

The best example of this is found in Daniel 10: the Archangel Gabriel is responding to Daniel directly regarding his prayer and tells him the territorial spirits which he refers to as the Prince of Persia, and later the Prince of Greece, interfering with his travel

Rulers of darkness: lower ranking than powers, could function at a regional level

Demons or wicked spirits: lowest level, typically work at individual level

How do these spirits move?  We have two additional examples besides Daniel that reveal how a territorial spirit will utilize geographic territory to their advantage. 

Matthew 13, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Mark 4:15, Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

So we know the demons are there, but what are we supposed to do? Paul reveals in 2 Corinthinas 10:3, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 

The way we enter warfare is through prayer.  Prayer does not have to be only one way.  It doesn’t have to be complete silence before we pray.  Our eyes don’t have to be closed when we pray.  Our hands don’t need to be folded together.  Pray wherever you are, however you are, our heart is what is needed, an obedient heart to pray that is willing to seek an outcome through faith.  I pray while I am walking, I pray while I am swimming, I pray animated, I pray quietly, I pray and point, I pray and command, I pray and fast, I pray and decree.  My point is do not limit prayer to a posture, a time or a location.  Pray with your heart, pray with a purpose and pray without limits.  When we pray, we don’t always get to see what happens.  We don’t necessarily get to see that an angel was dispatched while we were still pleading on behalf of someone or something.  Our appeal was still being presented to the Lord, but he was already working on what needed to happen.  We simply do as Ephesians tells us in 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Without faith behind our prayer we are going to struggle.  We can’t pray, seek to break strongholds over our home and then walk away doubting anything is going to change.  We have to believe that when we pray on behalf of the Kingdom of God, change is going to occur.  We don’t need to know when, we just need to stand on faith that it will. 

This is actually a really good stopping point for today. We have gone through a lot of scripture and we have a pretty good foundation for next week where we will be talking about how we actually put a plan together to pray against territorial spirits and we will use my town as an example. Putting the plan together gets pretty interesting.  We are in 19 countries, can you imagine the progress we can make around the world if we all took some time to break territories where satan has had control.  Can’t you just see the freedom and life opening up?  Exciting! So come back next week and you can hear what I will be dealing with here in my town.

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn how to identify territorial spirits that may be affecting your home and your community. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

Our discussion centered on territorial spirits

This episode was inspired this week by the happenings in Israel.  What is happening now is rooted in biblical history, the world has come together during this time to condemn Hamas.

While we see the fighting going on in the natural, what the news is revealing to us, there is much more going on there that we aren’t seeing, a battle in the heavenlies over that territory.  There are evil territorial spirits at work in Israel.    

The Bible has hundreds of places where it mentions a supernatural world 

Acts 1 tells us when Jesus returns, it will be to the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem, maybe ¾ miles or just over a kilometer.

The supernatural world impacts what happens in our natural world and that’s in part due to the power of territorial spirits. 

Ephesians. Chapter 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.”

2 Corinthians 4:4, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 

When Jesus came, he was entering Satan’s territory, where he had set up his rebellious kingdom on earth.  Jesus came and overcame his kingdom. 

Paul refers to satan several ways in just those two scriptural references: ruler of the kingdom of the air, god of this age.  As a believer here on earth, you are seen by satan as an enemy of his kingdom. He will attack you.

Are you a victim or are you a warrior in God’s kingdom?  A believer cannot be a pacifist in the kingdom of God.  You will be overrun with satan’s strategies.  You have to be a warrior if you are going to survive.  You cannot live a defensive life and hope to achieve victory.  That is not how it works. You have to be an active participant in the warfare that is already going on around us.

Colossians 1:13, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Ephesians in 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 

Spiritual beings have assignments and some of those assignments are territorial, not over individuals which is what we have discussed here most frequently.

How dark forces are structured

Satan: Commander

Principalities or princes:

Powers:

Rulers of darkness:  

Demons or wicked spirits:

Matthew 13, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Mark 4:15, Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

2 Corinthians 10:3, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 

The way we enter warfare is through prayer.  Do not limit prayer to a posture, a time or a location.  Pray with your heart, pray with a purpose and pray without limits. 

Ephesians tells us in 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Without faith behind our prayer we are going to struggle.  We don’t need to know when, we just need to stand on faith that it will. 

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

If you are enjoying our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  Kingdom work is my full time job.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

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

Does the Holy Spirit MOVE You? Ep 2-39

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the Holy Spirit and how to make sure we are moving with the Holy Spirit, in His fullness.  Most believers don’t truly MOVE with Him.  The Holy Spirit has been silenced for so long that I doubt first century Christians, the first believers would even understand what Christianity is today.  They wouldn’t recognize what we call a church service as “church.”  Today we are going to talk about how important it is to MOVE with the Holy Spirit in all areas of our lives.

We are still going to get through the remaining Spiritual Gifts before we finish the year, but I want to spend some time discussing the Holy Spirit because if we do not have a deep, deep understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and how to work with Him, then we will not be able to function in the Spiritual Gifts the way God intends and the Holy Spirit provides.  We will have only partial power, partial outcomes and that’s not our purpose. We want everything the Holy Spirit will provide, allow and enable in us with Him.

So really the question we have to ask ourselves to start out is what role do we have with the Holy Spirit in our lives, in our family, and sadly, even in our church? 

Let’s start out with the Holy Spirit role in our lives.  Where would you rate him in terms of your communication and your reliance on Him.  Where does that reliance waiver?  We have all had those moments, we have started out strong, but when things get really difficult, we either dig down deeper in our reliance on Him, or we run to where it is easier and we have others to lean on instead of the Lord.  We have to grow past that point.  We have to develop our relationship with him so deeply that no matter what is happening, no matter how loud, no matter how scary, no matter how unsettling, nothing gets in the way of hearing the Holy Spirit and His direction for us.  When you get to that point, then you will MOVE in the full power and authority the Holy Spirit provides.  No healing will be withheld, no miracle is too difficult, no demon too powerful, no problem insurmountable, NOTHING will be in our way.  Whatever level you are at now in Faith, well that will dictate your level of everything else.  Without Faith in every aspect of our relationship with the Holy Spirit, how can we accomplish even the simplest task?  We have to want to grow.  We have to want to develop ourselves.  The thing I LOVE about you, you listen to this podcast to grow.  You would not keep coming back if you were not interested in growing.  We cannot be a person who accepts salvation and then learns a little here, a little there, maybe attends a small group, but never really experiences anything because they aren’t trying to experience the Holy Spirit.  Jesus will spit you out of his mouth if that’s all you are going to do.  Maybe I sound harsh today, but it is the truth with our church today.  The Holy Spirit has been put in a box and he is such a gentleman, he won’t ask you to release Him.  He’ll just leave you there with your empty box.  He won’t stay where He is not wanted. 

The Lord told me something a few years ago.  He was talking to me about the vine.  He said sometimes when you look at the vine, it looks like a lot of chaos, branches everywhere.  When you first look at it, it looks like a tangled mess, but when He looks at it, He looks at purpose.  He prunes periodically where He sees fit.  The pruning serves a purpose and the branches become stronger.  What gets pruned was not fit for the vine. 

He told the disciples the same thing in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

It wasn’t until the Holy Spirit came that the disciples were really able to do everything that was required of them.  We need to go from being like the disciples before the resurrection to being like the disciples after the ascension.  They were totally different people, they were pruned in those moments.  When the Holy Spirit dropped in that room in Acts 2, it says “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.”

In February this year I was in Jerusalem, I know I’ve shared that before.  I entered the room where they believe this took place, and although the architecture has been changed, the room is the same.  I walked in with anticipation and excitement that a place I dreamed of being able to visit for years was now happening. It was a pretty big room, my initial imagining of the room was that it would be much smaller, I looked around to try to imagine everyone sitting in there, waiting, not understanding.  I thought of Jesus being in that room, encouraging them with words they didn’t understand.  I stood there and in the time remaining I had to be able to be in the Upper Room, I tried to understand what that would have been like to have the Holy Spirit come down in a way none of them had ever experienced before.  That incredible, world changing moment occurred in that room.  I wanted to relive it, I wanted to experience it.  I wanted the Holy Spirit to MOVE me however He wanted.  I wanted a SUDDENLY!  If you don’t already want a suddenly, I want you to want a suddenly.  No matter how many times you experience a suddenly, you want more.  I want every ounce of your being to want to be MOVED by the Holy Spirit.  That’s when life begins.  When you are abandoning yourself, submitting to the Holy Spirit, that is what abundant life is.  John 10;10, Jesus tells us He came that we may have life and have it to the full, abundant life.

Christians today don’t want that.  They don’t want to abandon themselves, or submit to anything. I’m so thankful the first believers were willing to do so much for our benefit.  They were able to do so much more than we even know because they submitted to the Holy Spirit and had all of the power the Holy Spirit provided. They suffered, they repented, they prospered, they had moments of rebellion.  All the things we have today, but they were willing to allow the Holy Spirit to MOVE them and MOVE in their lives.  So they saw literal chains break open, they saw dead coming back to life, they saw miraculous healings.  Have you seen any of those things with your own two eyes?  We need to be doing what is necessary so we can see those things.  Let the Holy Spirit MOVE you.  If you can be willing to let Him MOVE you, then He can begin to MOVE in the lives of your family.

Once we open the door for our families then we have momentum. 

Last November, about 1 am, we got a call.  When the phone rings at that time, you know its generally not a celebratory call.  It was one of my sons.  He had tried my phone first, but I am a heavy sleeper and I didn’t hear it.  My phone is always on silent, so I rely on vibrate.  So when my husband’s phone rang and he answered I was, admittedly, alarmed. I could only hear my husband, so I didn’t even know who he was talking to but in those moments as he spoke, the Lord was revealing to me what the call was about.  As I laid there, I could see my son driving his car, it was late at night and I can see my son in the car, drivers side, he is alone, but for some reason he doesn’t have control of the car. I can see the car is moving fast, it’s on the freeway and I know it is between our house and San Diego.  The freeway on that stretch of road has concrete barriers to keep cars from passing over and hitting the cars going the opposite direction.  My son’s car was no longer in the lanes but was driving up along the concrete barriers, going freeway speeds and along side his car is an angel, dressed in white, dark hair and he is holding my son’s car.  He was straining somewhat as he held onto the drivers side fender.  The Angel was perpendicular to the car, pushing it back, preventing it from colliding with the concrete barrier.  Then I heard the Lord tell me something to the effect of, “I had him.”

I now start to listen to my husband talking to my son, thinking I understand at least who is calling but not fully understanding.  The conversations carried on a few more minutes and then my husband makes sure he is okay and tells him to call back when he gets home. 

My son was extremely tired.  He was supposed to be headed to Japan on the Monday following Thanksgiving, but was told on Wednesday that they would be leaving on Friday instead.  His plan to move out of his condo over the weekend was now not going to happen.  Thursday was Thanksgiving and my son had to work, so he was trying to move out of the condo whenever he could and he was bringing his personal items home as quickly as he could.  He had been at our house, visited some other family after he left our house and on his 4 hour drive to San Diego, he unfortunately fell asleep at the wheel.  He awoke when the car drove up the concrete barrier and he said he heard his car hitting the concrete barrier.  He called us immediately while it was still happening, how I do not know, but he was on the phone with my husband and they stayed on the phone while he pulled over off the freeway so he could assess the damage.  He was thinking we would need to come get him, help him move out of his condo with the rest of his stuff and deal with his car while he was in Japan.  He pulled over, got out, and was looking at his car.  He was stunned.  He said, I don’t know how this happened, I know I felt my car hit the concrete, and I heard it, but there is no damage to my car.  Nothing.  We drove down the next day to get his car so we could keep it at our house while he was gone and he retold the story and we all stood there looking at his car in amazement.  I knew why it had no damage, but to see it was still pretty amazing.  All he had was a white transfer from the concrete barrier on a bit of his tire. 

That was a suddenly in the life of my family, not because my son is perfect or because he prayed before he got on the road.  I’m sure praying was not on his mind as he got in the car that night. That suddenly happened because I welcome the Holy Spirit to MOVE in my life however He wants to and that night it meant He moved on behalf of my son. 

Once we open the door to our family, He will MOVE in their lives as well. 

So what about the other family, the church family. Is the Holy Spirit moving in your church family?  Of all the places it should be moving, that is the first place you would think you would find it, but it is so disappointing to see the Holy Spirit being discounted and relegated to the sidelines while people make all the decisions and plans for the church.  That isn’t going to work.  To sit in a church with no Holy Spirit moving is depressing.  There are multiple reasons why this can happen.  These are the three reasons I have encountered.

First, the Holy Spirit was never invited.  Generally you will find that in cessationist churches and churches that are referred to as “seeker” churches.  That just means their whole focus is on getting unbelievers in, so everything is geared to being seeker friendly and as a result, in my experience those churches cater more toward worldly experiences that Holy Spirit experiences because they think it would be better for a non-believer to feel comfortable.  That’s where compromising begins.  They talk about the Holy Spirit, but nothing is explained about a relationship. One dimensional. 

Second, these are churches that talk about the Holy Spirit, but they do not actually know how to or in some cases want to actually engage with Him.  This can sometimes happen because members or leadership have had a negative experience with charismatic people and don’t want anything to get too out of hand.  This is unfortunate because growth doesn’t happen and they end up missing out on what should be an amazing life with the Holy Spirit. 

Third, I’ve seen churches who have leadership that are so scholarly that they rely on their knowledge instead of inviting the Holy Spirit to relationship. Book knowledge is nice, but it will never trump a relationship.  When book knowledge is leading, there is no room for the Holy Spirit to MOVE.

There could always be a hybrid of any of these things happening as well, but these thoughts or practices will keep your church from being MOVED by the Holy Spirit.  No church is perfect, but I would rather be in a church that engages with the Holy Spirit, that is of course, Bible based, than in a church with no life.  The more you can surround yourself with people who hear the Holy Spirit and have a relationship with Him, the more you will be able to grow. Like it says in Proverbs 27, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”  We have to always be growing in Him and doing it together is building the Kingdom.   

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to dig deeper with the Holy Spirit. We can never dig deep enough, He always has more for us and He will never stop giving us what we need when we lean into Him.  He wants to MOVE in our lives, all we have to do is say yes and let Him MOVE.  Your life will change and you can change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      We discussed how important it is to MOVE with the Holy Spirit in all areas of our lives.

·      We have to develop our relationship with him so deeply that no matter what is happening, no matter how loud, no matter how scary, no matter how unsettling, nothing gets in the way of hearing the Holy Spirit and His direction for us and then you will MOVE in the full power and authority the Holy Spirit provides.

·      We have to want to grow.  We have to want to develop ourselves or we won’t see the Holy Spirit MOVE in our lives

·      John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

·      Acts 2, Upper Room experience

·      My visit to the Upper Room this year

·      First century Christians were willing to allow the Holy Spirit to MOVE them and MOVE in their lives.  So they saw literal chains break open, they saw dead coming back to life, they saw miraculous healings.

·      Once we open the door to our family, He will MOVE in their lives as well. 

·      Story of my son falling asleep at the wheel and the angel protecting him

·      Three types of churches where the Holy Spirit being discounted and relegated to the sidelines while people make all the decisions and plans for the church. 

o   Churches where the Holy Spirit was never invited

o   Churches that talk about the Holy Spirit, but they do not actually know how to or want to engage with Him

o   Churches who have scholarly leadership that rely on their knowledge instead of inviting the Holy Spirit to relationship.  When book knowledge is leading, there is no room for the Holy Spirit to MOVE.

·      Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” 

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·      Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

If you are enjoying our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God.  You can support us for as little as $3/month.  Kingdom work is my full time job.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

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

Fasting Creates Breakthrough, Ep 2-38

Welcome Back! I am Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing how fasting not only deepens your relationship with the Lord but also serves to counterattack the enemy’s plans over you, your family, your church, your business, anywhere you are involved or have a heart to protect or build.  Our discussion will center around what fasting is, how we can include that in our lives and why we want to include it in our lives. 

We are going to do things a little different in this episode.  At the end of every episode I talk about my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God’s Voice, and that book all started with a fast.  So I am going to read part of the first chapter to you about that fast.

I have known the Lord all of my life.  As a young girl, I remember singing the songs in Sunday school, working in little paper workbooks and hearing all about Him.  At 5 or 6 years old, my grandfather sat me on his knee and transferred Godly wisdom and knowledge to me that, at the time, I did not even remotely understand, but years later flashed into my mind at the exact moment I needed it and has never left my heart.  I was saved and baptized at 13, by a very large and somewhat scary German preacher in Stuttgart, Germany.  I never strayed too far from the Lord as I entered adulthood.  I'm a staying within the line's kind of gal.  My late 20's and early 30's were filled with marriage and child rearing.  My mid 30's and 40's were growth years.  While I did have a good career, my relationship with the Lord grew exponentially in ways I did not know were still possible in today's modern world.  He spoke to me and shared His heart with me, and I was the strongest and closer to Him than I had ever been.   However, as I neared 50, I just wasn't hearing from the Lord in the same way I had for almost 20 years.  In my mind, nothing had changed.  I was reading the Bible, leading Bible studies, going to church, praying and trusting in the Lord, but the silence was unmistakable. 

My answer, at the time, to breaking this silence was foolproof.  I will fast. I will fast, not for a day or even 2 days or even 3 days, no I will fast in a way the Lord cannot help but to notice.  I will complete a 21-day Daniel fast.  Yes, this was definitely the answer.  Whatever it is that is creating this blockage for me to hear from the Lord will have no chance against a 21-day Daniel Fast.  If you aren't familiar with this Fast, it's modeled after the events described in the book of Daniel in the Bible and consists of a plant-based diet.  This fast might not seem like a challenge, but for me, I might as well have been standing at the bottom of Mt. Everest looking up.  Maybe that's an exaggeration, but just go with me that it was a big deal for me.  My logic was simple.  Breakthrough happens when you fast, and I needed breakthrough, and I needed it now.

As I prepared for the fast, I laid out my plan.  I like plans and I like lists, so I was already excited just preparing in the knowledge that change was coming.  I bought a new journal to document the entire event, the good, the bad, and ultimately the breakthroughs would all be documented for me to go back and review and re-experience later. I have journaled for years as a way to hear from the Lord so I wanted to be prepared for the outpouring that will surely happen in the coming days.  I had 5 major areas in my life that I was seeking breakthrough.  I wanted as a result to see answered prayers, blessings, favor, an outpouring in all 5 of those areas.  I not only wanted it, I needed it.  I had to hear what the Lord had for me, where was He, why was I struggling to hear from Him.  My heart and my mind felt desperate. 

I did my grocery shopping for the first week.  I was very disciplined for that hour and a half in the store.  I did not get anything with sugar, no breads, no pasta, I focused on vegetables and fruit.  I have very few, ok, maybe no vegetables I can say I love, but there are some I do like a lot.  Of course, those are prepped with bacon or some other fat that is not a part of this fast, so I was trying to develop my creativity, awaken my inner chef that I let take a few years off since the kids have grown and for the most part out of the house.  Once home, I got out my containers and got everything lined up on the counter.  I spent what felt like hours prepping all my veggies and fruit, trying to convince myself I was going to enjoy this change.  I wanted to move forward, and this seemed like a small price to pay. 

I also shored myself up mentally for the next 21 days of water.  I decided to leave out tea or coffee and stick with water only knowing headaches were inevitable while going through a caffeine detox.  I strongly dislike drinking water.  I know people who can tell the difference in waters, brands, what mountain the waters came from, and are happy to pay a high price for their favorite water but that is not a part of who I am.  The mental struggle I put myself through just thinking about drinking only water for 21 days was a little on the ridiculous side.  At that time, my deepest love in a beverage was sweet tea.  A love affair that admittedly still exists. 

I also pulled together some books on prayer.  I leaned on the works of one of the prayer greats, E.M. Bounds.  I figured I might need some help with prayer and E.M. Bounds seemed like the right fit.  I wanted into that "secret place" E.M. Bounds was known for and I wasn't going to stop until I got inside.  Nothing was going to stop me now.  I was prepped and ready to go and it all came down to one thing, the date, when would this move of my life begin.  The date I chose was September 8, 2018. I want to say a "date which will live in infamy", but it wasn't quite that dramatic.  I love history so forgive me now for any excessive use of historical references, it’s just the way my mind thinks and tends to keep me entertained. 

On September 8, 2018, I started Day One quoting E.M. Bounds in my journal.  Somehow putting his words to a few pages made me feel accomplished, it was documented proof I had begun the fast after all.  The depth of E.M. Bounds words were somehow magnified as I worked through the morning trying to keep my mind off not only food, but the long 21 days ahead.  On page four I began to write to the Lord, write my heart out to Him about why I began this fast.  I told him that it started out as needing breakthrough in one area but had grown and had also become about feeling lost.  I wrote of how I wanted to get back to Him and His plan.  I explained that somewhere along the way, what started out as a journey with Him no longer felt like we were walking together.  Then I quieted myself and prepared to wait on His response.  What I didn't realize in that moment was that my feeling lost, my not hearing from Him and no longer feeling like we were walking together was all me.  It had nothing to do with Him at all. 

So that fast, that was the longest, most difficult and most rewarding fast I have ever done in my life.  It changed my life.  Everything in my life shifted after that fast and it prepared me for some pretty big events I didn’t know were coming.  So let’s talk about fasting, who did it, why we should consider it, what it is and what it is not.

The list of people in the Bible who fasted is like looking at a Who’s Who of amazing people of the Bible.  Moses, David, Esther, Ezra, Daniel, Hannah- the mother of Samuel, Nehemiah, Joshua, all of the Disciples, Paul, Barnabas, the list goes on, to include Jesus.  There is a reason why they all fasted and why it is included in the Bible.  Anything that was done by so many of the great people we learn from in the Bible in both the Old and New Testament, is something we should examine and see how it applies to our lives today. 

We are going to take a look at Jesus, when he fasted for 40 days in the wilderness.  This is not a fast most people are able to do, for health reasons we would definitely want to see a Dr if we were attempting something of that magnitude.  We want to fast safely.  We’ll talk more about that in a bit but I want to address that now to decrease any concerns about that in the beginning. So Matthew 4 tells us about Jesus’ fast and here is what it says:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Jesus was led by the Spirit in his fast, we too can be led by the Spirit to fast or we can seek to fast on our own.  His fast was 40 days in the wilderness.  Even if we were able to fast for 40 days, it is not likely going to be in the wilderness of Israel, in the sun, the wilderness there is treacherous.  We are likely doing it in the comfort of our homes, maybe with air conditioning, or offices, it’s not the same and we don’t need it to be the same.  Satan came directly at Jesus, we likely won’t have Satan coming at us, but we could have some demons.  Jesus did not hesitate to respond to Satan’s tactics with scripture, untwisting the perversions Satan was applying to the Word. We have the written word readily available in most countries so we should also be able to discern when the Word is twisted.  At the end, Jesus overcame those temptations, and his ministry began.  His ministry began with power and authority and miracles. 

So while the circumstances of a fast for us may be different, the elements that are the outcome are the same.  A fast, a heartfelt fast, will provide you with strength to endure, and you will walk out of it with much more than you walked into it with and may even produce power, authority and miracles in your life with Him.

So let’s dig in deeper about why we should consider it.  First off what is it exactly?  We’ve talked about it but what is it exactly?  Fasting is simply abstaining from, generally food, for a spiritual purpose.  I say generally because we can also abstain from other things that would be acceptable for a fast, like abstaining from our phones for a period so that we can instead devote that time to the Lord. 

Fasting is really meant for everyone.  It is not for the spiritually mature or only those in a ministry role.  It is for all of us.  Paul writes in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”  So when we are fasting, we are offering our bodies, we are making a sacrifice.  Anytime we do that for the Lord, when our hearts are sincere, we cannot go wrong.  The Lord will honor what we are doing, even we don’t do it very well.  If we are fasting and fall prey to temptation, well, get back up and try again.  He never said we have to be perfect so don’t let that stop you.

When our heart is right, and by that I mean, our motives to fast, are genuine, fasting is a source of release.  There are some things, supernatural things that can only be released thru fasting.  Jesus tells his disciples that when they are unable to cast a demon out.  By that we know that the act of fasting produces an authority and a power we wouldn’t have otherwise.  What else can fasting do?

Fasting produces breakthrough

Fasting produces healing

Fasting breaks bondages

Fasting increases anointing

Fasting deepens your relationship with Him

Fasting builds desire for Him and His plan in your life

Fasting releases the power of His promises

Fasting reveals enemy tactics

Fasting breaks the cycle of religion

Fasting is not a work

Fasting provides opportunity to intercede for others

Fasting magnifies your heart

Fasting breaks strongholds

I could go on and on here, but I think you see where this all goes.

Fasting is a powerful weapon.  The enemy doesn’t want us to fast.  He knows what happens, what can be, what will be released when we fast. 

A few things to keep in mind.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:16, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

So this leads me to the obstacles of fasting.  Most people think of the obstacles as self-control, doubt, discouragement, selfish desires, rebellion, which are all obstacles for sure, but what about pride.  The pharisees, the Lord calls them hypocrites, they are making a show of their fast, so that everyone knows it. Their pride and arrogance made their fast null and void.  Their heart was not genuine.  When we fast, be discreet, and keep it private so that you are honoring to the Lord.  Does this mean you don’t tell your spouse or those who are close enough to you that it would affect, no, if you need to share it so the ones around you understand why you have a change in behavior then do that. 

One way I like to think of fasting is that I am sowing into my relationship with the Lord.  I will let Him decide when and how the reaping occurs, especially if I am not fasting for myself.  So let’s talk about the mechanics of fasting.

You can fast for breakthrough or whatever your specific petition is for yourself.  You can fast for an outcome for someone else like healing or a job.  You can fast for your church.  You can fast for an event, so the outcome is what the Lord wants.  You can fast for a list of things.  In my 21 Day Daniel Fast I was praying for 5 specific things.  That is part of the reason I chose 21 days. I was fasting for a lot so I wanted to put an appropriate amount of time toward my fast.  There is no hard and fast rule, but I would consider how you want to proceed based on what your are seeking from the Lord. 

The things I like about fasting are how versatile they can be.  You can tailor them to your schedule.  Maybe you fast for a certain number of hours each day.  You could do every other day.  You could do one day a week for several weeks.  Build it to work with your schedule so you can be successful. 

There are 4 basic types of fasts.

1.     Complete Fast: no food no water, this should be rare and dr approved

2.     Normal fast: no food, just liquids

3.     Partial fast: no meat, only veggies, or time dictated

4.     Custom fast: no coffee, no soda, one meal, easier for people with health concerns

Don’t forget you can do any or all of these with non-food items as well.  It just needs to be something that is a sacrifice of some sort so it is authentic.

When I did my 21-day Daniel fast, it changed my life.  God revealed His plan and purpose for my life.  During it, He gave me the Loving Conversations book and as a result my life has never been the same. Even this podcast is a result of that fast. This podcast travels around the world and I get so much feedback of how lives are changed from understanding more about how the enemy has been influencing their lives and how they are changing and growing in the Lord.  I’m just one person and so much came out of 1 fast. What can you do to change your life or someone else’s life with just one fast?  It’s not a work, don’t see it as a works-based activity.  It’s a heart-based activity where you will receive more back than you will ever give up.  Commit to putting it on the calendar and decide what kind of fast you are going to do and let Him move in your life.

I hope you have gained an understanding during our time discussing how fasting not only deepens your relationship with the Lord but also serves to counterattack the enemy’s plans.  I want you to increase in knowledge and be able to have plans of action to fit your needs. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      Discussion on fasting: who did it, why we should consider it, what it is and what it is not.

·      Read from Chapter 1 of my book Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God’s Voice where I am discussing a 21 Day Daniel Fast

·      Talked about the Bible greats Fasted

·      Looked at Jesus as example and his fasting for 40 days in the wilderness. His ministry began with power and authority and miracles. 

·      Fasting is simply abstaining from, generally food, for a spiritual purpose.  I say generally because we can also abstain from other things that would be acceptable for a fast, like abstaining from our phones for a period so that we can instead devote that time to the Lord. 

·      Fasting is meant for everyone. 

·      Romans 12:1 “ to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God”

·      When our heart is right, so our motives to fast, are genuine, fasting is a source of release

·      Listed 13 actions produced by fasting, such as breakthrough

·      Fasting is a powerful weapon.  The enemy doesn’t want us to fast.

·      Matthew 6:16, discussing being discreet about fasting

·      The obstacles of fasting: self-control, doubt, discouragement, selfish desires, rebellion, don’t forget about pride. 

·      I consider fasting as if I am sowing into my relationship with the Lord. 

·      You can fast for breakthrough or whatever your specific petition is for yourself.  You can fast for an outcome for someone else like healing or a job.  You can fast for your church.  You can fast for an event, so the outcome is what the Lord wants.  You can fast for a list of things. 

·      You can tailor them to your schedule. 

·      There are 4 basic types of fasts.

1.     Complete Fast: no food no water, this should be rare and dr approved

2.     Normal fast: no food, just liquids

3.     Partial fast: no meat, only veggies, or time dictated

4.     Custom fast: no coffee, no soda, one meal, easier for people with health concerns

·      Don’t forget you can do any or all of these with non-food items as well.  It just needs to be something that is a sacrifice of some sort so it is authentic.

·      It’s not a work, don’t see it as a works-based activity.  It’s a heart-based activity where you will receive more back than you will ever give up.  

·      Commit to putting it on the calendar and decide what kind of fast you are going to do and let Him move in 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

·       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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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

Defeating a Jezebel Spirit, Ep 2-37

Welcome Back! I am Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing something you may hear about but not many people really talk about it, a Jezebel Spirit. When someone is referred to as having a “Jezebel Spirit” it is a pretty serious accusation and we need to be careful not to use that term carelessly.  Equally as important is being able to recognize when it is working in us or in those around us.  It can bring devastation and destruction and it has to be rooted out.  Let’s walk through what the Bible tells us, how this Spirit got it’s name, how we can recognize it and what we do to conquer it’s influence in our lives. We are going to go through 22 characteristics and behaviors to reveal the tactics this demonic spirit uses.

First off let’s go through a summary of who the Bible reveals Jezebel was and what happened in Israel under her influence.  This is again, just a summary.  1 and 2 Kings is where you will find all the history and happenings what we are getting ready to discuss.

So who was Jezebel?  Jezebel was the daughter of a Phoenician priest king, making her a princess.  She was married to Ahab, who was the king of Israel, the northern kingdom from 874 BC until he died in battle in 853 BC.  At this time in world history there is a lot of turmoil.  Kingdoms are being recreated as kings throughout Europe are killed and Egypt has a new dynasty during this time.  So for Ahab, this could secure not only political support but some prestige in his mind.  Jezebel saturated Israel with pagan worship of Ba’al and developed her own pagan prophets.  She was known for her practice of witchcraft and evil actions toward God’s people. At one point she had as many as 850 of her own pagan prophets from what the Bible tells us.  She wanted to control everything, and the prophets of Israel opposed her so she massacred all of them, except for a remnant of 100 that were secretly hidden in 2 caves.  She was a tyrant and used manipulation and deception to control Israel and her husband.  When he didn’t get his way trying to buy land from Naboth, who refused to sell it to Ahab because it was his inheritance, Jezebel created an opportunity and enlisted 2 people who falsely accuse Naboth resulting in Naboth being stoned to death.  Then Ahab was able to take the land that belonged to Naboth.  One prophet who stood up to her was Elijah.  He was able to prove to the people of Israel that he was a prophet of the one true God and Jezebel’s prophets had a god who did not exist.  In doing so, that brought the people back to worshipping God and all of Jezebel’s false prophets were killed.  This angered Jezebel and she then let Elijah know she will kill him within 24 hours.  Elijah runs away in fear, God sets him up to meet Elisha.  God also provides Elijah with the prophesy that Jezebel would be devoured by dogs by the wall of Jezreel. Now we are going to fast forward to 2 Kings, Ahab has been killed, Jezebel has been ruling 10 years through her 2 sons and now the Lord is going to bring justice for the killing of his prophets by Jezebel.  Jehu is anointed King over Israel and is tasked with destroying Ahab’s household.  In carrying out this task, Jehu travels to the city of Jezreel.  Outside the city, Jehu kills one of Jezebel’s sons and has his body thrown in Naboth’s field.  As Jehu enters Jezreel, Jezebel tries to pretty herself up thinking she can seduce him or manipulate him and calls to him from the city wall.  Jehu he stays true to the Lord, and when he calls for who is with him, he gets a response from 3 people and he directs them to throw her down and they do.  Her blood is splattered on the wall, she is trampled by horses.  There was nothing left to bury except her skull, feet and her hands.  Thereby fulfilling the word the Lord gave to Elijah about Jezebel’s body will be devoured by dogs, and that she is unidentifiable. 

The Jezebel Spirit is also mentioned in the book of Revelation.  In 2:20, Jesus is talking to the church in Thyatira.  He refers to a woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.  He says that her teaching is misleading and leads His people into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.  He goes on to discuss she has been given the opportunity to repent of her immorality but has chosen not to repent.  He then discusses what will happen to her ultimately when His judgment is rendered. 

So that in a quick, not so quick, nutshell is Jezebel.  She is considered one of the most evil, if not the most evil woman in the Bible.  That is why using that name as a descriptor for someone is so serious.  We would never want to say that casually.  When we talk about a Jezebel spirit, we are referring to all of the evil behaviors and characteristics for which Jezebel is known.  The thing we need to remember is that the demons Jezebel worked with to do all of her evil, are still functioning today in our times.  They are still influencing and bringing disaster and destruction on God’s people.  They have been at it for thousands of years, so they are experts at what they do. We need to be able to identify when that spirit is working against us. 

So let’s start talking about what this spirit looks like today.  Most of us today don’t have kingdoms we are building or defending in the natural.  We don’t have a unity the way the people of Israel had at times during this.  We don’t have one person of God that wanders around all of our countries uniting us.  The closest our modern world has ever seen to that is Billy Graham and he is gone now.  What we do have are the same demons, the same angels, the same Holy Spirit, the same God, and the victory in Jesus that those in the old testament did not have available to them.  That is a great advantage because with Jesus having come and giving us the Holy Spirit, we have discernment to help us fully recognize the Jezebel Spirit.

Typically when I hear someone being referred to as having the Jezebel Spirit, it is directed at a woman.  Jezebel was a woman so that makes sense, but men can just as easily have this evil spirit.  Demons don’t wander around going, “ shucks, we can’t mess with him, we can only use the women for our destruction.”  Demons don’t care, it may look a little different with men than with women because there are some innate differences between men and women, but we will go over that.  The Jezebel Spirit is something that whole books can be devoted to, a dissertation could be completed about or even a whole course could discuss.  We are getting the nuggets and learning how to conquer it when we encounter it.

Let’s talk about Jezebel in general first, then we will breakdown the differences that tend to show in women vs men.  This is a pretty long list, so one person isn’t necessarily going to have all of these, but when there are multiples, that is when you want to begin using discernment.

The Jezebel Spirit is about control.  Now many of us many have some level of control issues.  I have some on certain things, but then not on others.  My husband and I split control of various things.  That’s not the control we are talking about.  Even if I had control over an area.  If my husband or my friend, tells me there is a better way to do something than the way I am doing it, then I will listen and not shut them down.  That’s all normal.  When we see a behavior in someone where they have to control everything and there is no interference with that, then you want to start looking for these other areas that we are about to discuss.  This is a long list, there are 22 of these characteristics and behaviors they use to control.  So let’s get started:

1.     Agenda – in meetings or social events, this person has to have control of what is being planned, how it is being planned, what is done

2.     Conversation – this person likes to have the last word, and even the only word if they could. Ultimately what they say is what is done

3.     Information – they want to control the information provided, might holdback information so that they are the only ones who know everything, others given only pieces of information

4.     Money – they want to have a say over how money is handled, how much money is available, how money is accessed, it all flows through them

5.     Time – they dictate time on projects, they set deadlines, they can control and create pressure by doing this, calendars and schedules are also controlled this way

6.     Access – they like to have control of how people can access each other, especially in a leadership situation. They may have no real authority in a group, so they create it through limiting others access to the actual leaders

7.     Narrative – they want to shape what is said, how it is said, why it is said so that it depicts the story they want others to know or not know

8.     Sexuality – will use seduction to manipulate and dominate, morality is not a standard they are concerned with

9.     Control leadership – by limiting and disseminating information they can take control of leadership personnel by not providing accurate or timely information. They then become the only person with all the information and hijack those in leadership roles.

10.  Image – they are concerned with their image, not how what they do affects others and will intentionally mask themselves and create situations to make others look bad

11.  Decisions – they want to control what decisions are made, how they are made, when they are made, why they are made and what is done to support the decision they want to be made

12.  Relationships – they want to control the relationships of those around them to ensure they don’t lose the attention, the power and any authority they have created for themselves. They will interfere to keep other alliances from being able to form if it does not benefit them.

13.  Atmosphere – they will control the mood, the spirit of what is happening in the room.  They will dictate how others feel based on what they want to accomplish

14.  Preachy – they will condemn others, be very harsh in how they view others and convey an unfavorable view of others to elevate themselves

15.  Grace – they will not extend grace to others, others are judged by rules and are called out for not following rules that they likely put in place

16.  Churches – someone with this spirit can devastate a church by taking over and creating divides among the leadership team and members

17.  Creates hurt – situations or conversations are created that are intentionally meant to create hurt, anger or other negative emotions so they can wound others or cause them to lose credibility

18.  Alliances – they will seek out alliances for the sole purpose of obtaining the support they need to push their own agenda

19.  Role identity – Create a role for themselves in a group where they are considered invaluable when they in fact can be replaced or are not needed

20.  Blackmail – will use this as a method to get what they want, willing to create the circumstance used to blackmail

21.  People are disposable – do not value others and will use you if needed or dismiss you when they don’t need you

22.  God – they convince others that they are doing it the way God wants it done and all others are doing it wrong.  Their way is God’s way because they manipulate the word and people to meet their objectives.

When we look at the differences in women vs men, these are some of the characteristics and behaviors you may see:

For women specifically:

1.     Seek to discredit the men more often than they will seek to discredit women

2.     Often triggered by a traumatic event, loss of a loved one, divorce, abuse

3.     Her children are not immune to her control and will often be abusive

4.     Will use seduction under any circumstances to gain control, no one is off limits

5.     Abuse of her spouse is fair game

For men specifically:

1.     Can be sexually abusive or sexually demanding of their spouse

2.     Will using demeaning methods to illicit control

3.     Will use trauma triggers to illicit control

4.     Will use children against their mother

That’s a pretty comprehensive list. You may have noticed that a lot of a Jezebel’s behavior mirrors that of a narcissist.  One thing that will distinguish the difference between the two is the narcissist will do these behaviors just for their own benefit, while the Jezebel Spirit does things for their own benefit but with the added objective to cause the destruction of others.  Now referring back to the list, you are looking for the manifestation of multiple of these characteristics and behaviors, and these could rotate by the way, so you may see 3 one week and then 2 new ones another week.  They won’t all necessarily play out at the same time together each time you are around the person.  You have to take some time to evaluate what is happening.  Someone could just be having marital issues and it is a short-term situation, so we want to use discernment and ask the Lord about what we are seeing.  The Holy Spirit will work with you to determine this is more than just a short-term situation. 

I have a friend going through this right now at her workplace and it has been building over about 2 years now.  This situation doesn’t start out as full-blown Jezebel right away, the person working with this spirit has to build some strength, test the waters on how far they can push, create new levels of order say with a calendar to control how other people are spending their time.  Another way is to create new protocols under the term “improving organization or communication.” All of this over time builds their ability to take control of a group.  We are taken off guard because we think this person is doing it to “improve” things so we let them do it and focus on our own areas.  Then one day you see relationships that used to work are being torn apart, people hurt, jobs jeopardized, the list goes on and on.  With my friend currently experiencing this it is causing a lot of turmoil and it was beginning to create fear.  Like Elijah, I know she wanted to run, but she can’t.  This is a workplace situation.  This is a Christian workplace by the way so this is a demonic attack.  So, if you are in this, like my friend, what do you do?

Well, she reached out to a few people and we came together and put a plan in place.  The one thing we can always count on is that God is not mocked.  There is nothing done in secret that escapes Him.  There is nothing done that those doing it will not be held accountable for at some point.  When we are up against something that is bigger than what we can see in the natural, we want to follow some simple steps.  We want to act in response to enemy tactics.  We can’t sit still and do nothing. Remember tho, this isn’t the person we are fighting against, it is the enemy who is using the person we are against. Here is what we are doing with my friend, use it as a general plan and make changes to fit your situation.  

1.      Find a prayer partner. 

a.     We want a partner to help us stay focused.  We don’t want to let our emotions get the better of us.  We need someone who will be able to be a sounding board for us on rough days.  If you don’t know someone you can trust, contact me, we will find you a partner. 

2.     Put a prayer plan together

a.     Our prayer plan is to meet weekly on a set day so we remain consistent

b.     We have specific prayer points we are asking of the Lord

                                               i.     Let everything not of Him be revealed

                                             ii.     Let His light shine on the darkness

                                            iii.     Protection for her as she continues in her job

                                            iv.     Protection for those around her

                                              v.     Peace for her

                                            vi.     We prayed against the plans, strategies and activities of the enemy currently operating

                                           vii.     We prayed for the Leadership of this workplace to be directed by God on how to proceed

                                         viii.     We also want to see the Lord install who He wants to lead this workplace

3.     Use scripture to support your prayer plan

a.     No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you, Isaiah 54:17

b.     I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you, Luke 10:19

c.     Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans, Proverbs 16:3

d.     Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield for those who take refuge in Him, Proverbs 30:5

e.     It is written: “As surely as I live; says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me, every tongue will acknowledge God’”, Romans 14:11

f.      “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 2 Kings 6:16

g.     “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” 1 John 4:4

4.     Ask the Lord to reveal to us what He wants us to do

a.     When we ask Him and He answers we can receive any or all of the following

                                               i.     How to support or get support

                                             ii.     Words of knowledge

                                            iii.     Peace and comfort

                                            iv.     Confirmation

                                              v.     Guidance and direction

b.     Follow through on what the Lord directs

5.     Wait for the Lord to intervene, don’t try to intervene on our own

I hope you have gained an understanding during our time discussing the Jezebel Spirit.  I want you to increase in knowledge and be able to develop a plan of action against this demonic spirit. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

Discussed what a Jezebel spirit is and how to recognize it

Discussed a summary of who the Bible reveals Jezebel was and what happened in Israel under her influence.  This is again, just a summary.  1 and 2 Kings is where you will find all the history and story of Jezebel.

Jezebel was the daughter of a Phoenician priest king, making her a princess.  She was married to Ahab, who was the king of Israel, the northern kingdom. from. 

Jezebel saturated Israel with pagan worship of Ba’al and developed her own pagan prophets.  She was known for her practice of witchcraft and evil actions toward God’s people.

God provides Elijah with the prophesy that Jezebel would be devoured by dogs by the wall of Jezreel.

The Jezebel Spirit is also mentioned in the book of Revelation 2:20, Jesus is talking to the church in Thyatira.  He refers to a woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.  He says that her teaching is misleading and leads His people into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 

Jezebel is considered one of the most evil, if not the most evil woman in the Bible. 

The demons Jezebel worked with to do all of her evil, are still functioning today in our times.  They are still influencing and bringing disaster and destruction on God’s people. 

Today we have Jesus having come and giving us the Holy Spirit, we have discernment to help us fully recognize the Jezebel Spirit.  

The Jezebel Spirit is about control.  They have to control everything and there is no interference with their control. 

22   of these characteristics and behaviors they want to control. 

1.     Agenda

2.     Conversation

3.     Information

4.     Money

5.     Time

6.     Access

7.     Narrative

8.     Sexuality

9.     Control leadership

10.  Image

11.   Decisions

12.  Relationships.

13.  Atmosphere

14.  Preachy

15.  Grace

16.  Churches

17.  Creates hurt

18.  Alliances

19.  Role identity

20.  Blackmail

21.  People are disposable

22.  God.

The differences in women vs men

For women specifically:

1.     Seek to discredit the men more often than they will seek to discredit women

2.     Often triggered by a traumatic event, loss of a loved one, divorce, abuse

3.     Her children are not immune to her control and will often be abusive

4.     Will use seduction under any circumstances to gain control, no one is off limits

5.     Abuse of her spouse is fair game

For men specifically:

1.     Can be sexually abusive or sexually demanding of their spouse

2.     Will using demeaning methods to illicit control

3.     Will use trauma triggers to illicit control

4.     Will use children against their mother

A Jezebel’s behavior mirrors that of a narcissist.  One thing that will distinguish the difference between the two is the narcissist will do these behaviors just for their own benefit, while the Jezebel Spirit does things for their own benefit but with the added objective to cause the destruction of others.  

I told you about a friend going through this right now at her workplace and it has been building over about 2 years now. 

When we are up against something that is bigger than what we can see in the natural, we want to follow 5 simple steps.  We want to act in response to enemy tactics.  Remember tho, this isn’t the person we are fighting against, it is the enemy who is using the person we are against. I gave you a general plan and make changes to fit your situation.   

1.     Find a prayer partner. 

2.     Put a prayer plan together, when and what are you praying about

3.     Use scripture to support your prayer plan

a.     Isaiah 54:17

b.     Luke 10:19

c.     Proverbs 16:3

d.     Proverbs 30:5

e.     Romans 14:11

f.      2 Kings 6:16

g.     1 John 4:4

4.     Ask the Lord to reveal to us what He wants us to do and Follow through on what the Lord directs

5.     Wait for the Lord to intervene, don’t try to intervene on our own

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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

3 Ways we allow the Spirit of Discouragement to work in our lives, Ep 2-36

Welcome Back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the Spirit of Discouragement.  Specifically how Discouragement works and how we not only allow it, but nurture it in the way we respond.  We will also have some real-life examples of managing discouragement.

Let’s get to know the Spirit of Discouragement a bit before we talk about how we allow it and nurture it.  The Spirit of Discouragement is extremely powerful. There are three main reasons why Discouragement is so powerful.

First, the Spirit of Discouragement enters our life slowly, quietly, and in ways we don’t readily recognize.  Of course, there are times when it comes in with a bang, usually by someone with little understanding and discernment of our situation.  Those people tend to be negative and discouraging everywhere they go and that is what we are not wanting to become.  What we are talking about here is little seeds of discouragement, weeds actually, are planted and we don’t recognize them as weeds, so we allow them to grow.  We don’t rebuke it or turn to the Lord in trust and faith, or even ask for an increase in trust and faith in our circumstances.  Instead, we let that weed grow.  Some weeds can even look pretty, convincingly like they belong in our cultivated garden.  When we don’t exercise discernment and work with the Holy Spirit, we don’t recognize it for what it is.  In the natural, google makes it easy for us to see a plant growing and we can take a picture and google will identify it for us and let us know if it is friend or foe to our garden.  I say garden, I don’t have a garden.  I have tried.  I can grow tomatoes, but I tried to grow strawberries, onions, and I was diligently caring for the soil only to later realize, my dogs ate up all of my precious seedlings, except for the tomatoes.  If my garden had been in the spirit realm, I could have used discernment to see the enemy to my garden, my dogs, had eaten everything up before I was even able to cultivate a single strawberry.  Jesus dealt with this same issue and showed us how to deal with it.  Matthew 21, gives us the story starting with verse 18,

“Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Most people look at that story for the ask part, for prayer, but I want to talk about the tree.  This fig tree was on the side of the road on the way into Jerusalem.  This is not a road new to Jesus, he spent much of his time in this area.  This tree gave the appearance to Jesus from some distance that it was mature enough to bear fruit so we can infer from that it was not a little seedling, or a newly planted sapling.  The tree had been there for a while.  Fig trees are very good-looking trees.  My neighbor behind me has one so I look at it everyday and watch their figs ripen.  I saw them in Israel, they provide good shade in the heat because they are very full, the leaves are pretty huge compared to many other trees.  Genesis 3:7 tells us Adam and Eve sewed together fig leaves for covering once they realized they were naked.  Back to my point.  Jesus and his disciples, not to mention everyone else in that area, undoubtedly walked past this tree on more than one occasion, but it wasn’t until Jesus decided to harvest the fruit of this tree did He see that there was nothing to harvest.  The tree was in the midst of everyone, it grew, it was recognized for what it appeared to be, but it was not what it appeared to be.  As a result, Jesus did not hesitate to dispense of that tree.  Likewise, we need to see the people around us, the words used over us and with us, the activities that we are doing and not doing for what they are to us in our walk with the Lord.  When someone or something is a discouragement, call it for what it is and do not let it hinder your relationship with the Lord.  Where discernment is needed here is to not let your own desires trump what the Lord is doing in your life.  If someone is offering you godly wisdom, listen to them and ask the Lord about it.  Discernment reveals the difference between godly wisdom to give you guidance and discouragement meant to send you down a path of doubt and loss.

The second reason Discouragement is so powerful is because it can work with any demon grouping.  If you have listened to any of my previous podcasts where we discuss specific demons and groupings, we talk about how and why they work well together.  Some demons are just a more natural fit with others in their attempts to lead us to destruction.  The thing with discouragement is that it is a bit like vanilla.  Vanilla pairs well with nearly everything.  You can use vanilla in drinks of all kinds, hot, cold, alcoholic, it blends well and enhances other flavors.  It works well with fruits, both citrus and berries.  I don’t know of any herb or spice that can’t combine with vanilla.  Vanilla can be sweet or savory.  It works in meat sauces, marinades.  We use it for soap, perfume, air freshner.  Vanilla is everywhere.  Real vanilla is very expensive.  Real vanilla costs almost as much as silver per ounce.  Now let’s compare that to discouragement.  Is there any area in your life you can think of that is completely immune to discouragement?  I can’t think of any.  Our careers, our family life, our marriage, our prayer life, our friendships, our finances, our businesses, all of it and more are all prone to have some aspect that we will feel discouraged by.  Like vanilla, discouragement comes with a cost and it is expensive.  If we allow discouragement to flavor any area of our lives, it can be hard to get it out.  I love vanilla, but if it were causing problems in my life, it would be down the drain in my house.  We cannot afford to allow our minds or our hearts to be flavored with discouragement.  If you already have challenges in your life, look to root out the discouragement and even find out where it entered your life.  Seek out that source so you can block it the next time.  If you have someone in your life who continually brings you discouragement, have a conversation with that person about it, explain how it is affecting you and let them know you cannot allow that to continue in your life.  They either need to change how they are speaking into your life or you need to change what you are allowing in your life through them.  If you are watching the news and find that you are reacting in a way that is causing you to behave negatively, then you need to reevaluate what news you are watching.  We need to be mindful of where we have allowed discouragement to grow because it can be a connector between other issues.  If you have financial challenges right now, discouragement can attach to that challenge and pull together other aspects in your life.  Before you know it, you are not only challenged with finances, but other areas as well because you sowed into the discouragement in your finances and allowed it to grow into other areas that weren’t even a challenge for you. 

The third reason discouragement is so powerful if we allow it is that it can and will keep you from moving forward with the Lord.  The whole point, the whole objective of Discouragement is to keep you from victory.  We have victory in every area of our life with the Lord, but if discouragement can keep you from taking ahold of that victory then it is fulfilling it’s role in satan’s kingdom.  I guarantee you other demons see Discouragement and welcome him in because they know they will increase their score with an assist from Discouragement.  We can’t have victory if we keep losing over and over to discouragement. 

Let me tell you a story about fighting discouragement.

This story began in August of 2022.  My husband and I had just returned from exploring ancient ruins in Turkey and he had to go to Japan for 2 or 3 weeks for work.  He’s in the military and there were several of the men from my husband’s unit on this trip.  On one of the Sundays, August 7th, to be exact, about 10 guys set out from the base, drove the hour and a half to Mt Fuji with the intent of spending the day climbing Mt Fuji.  For the average fit person it should take about 6 hours to ascend and then roughly the same to descend. Mt Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, at 12,388 feet and 3 inches.  Mt Everest is a bit over 29,000 feet to give you some perspective on size.  Mt Fuji is a pretty good size mountain. 

Having just come back from Turkey, my husband and I had been doing some hiking, about 10 miles a day, but he wasn’t fully prepared for Fuji.  A lot of times in our lives we are not fully prepared for what is ahead of us and it’s how we manage and navigate our circumstances that builds us or tears us down.

As the men arrived, they all knew they needed to meet back by 6pm.  The gates to the mountain close at 6.  The group of ten divides into smaller groups.  My husband and 2 other men stay together.  My husband is in his fifties, one of the men with him is in his twenties, one early thirties.  Periodically I would get updates, my husband is like a cheer leader and the amount of pictures he was taking was pretty amazing.  He is both the videographer and the photographer on all of our trips for our YouTube Channel so he is in his element.  He is with his men, doing something he was so excited to do.  I’m sure he never imagined himself climbing Mt Fuji. For him it was a once in a lifetime event.  As he progressed up the mountain I watched using the GPS in our phones.  The service was occasionally spotty but I was able to keep pretty good track of him.  His spirits were high, he was in his element.  I shared pictures of his movement with one of my sons.  My second son, Bryce, he is an avid outdoorsman.  He is one of those extreme sportsmen.  He was so excited getting the updates and he admitted how jealous he was that he wasn’t with him.  As the day progressed, I could sense changes in his spirit. 

He is joining us now to share a bit from his perspective and give you a better understanding of the discouragement he was facing that day.  

Welcome Don, you know I was sharing about your climb on Mt Fuji, a lot happened on that day.  You faced a lot of discouragement.  Talk to me about that day, you started out so happy, but I know circumstances changed and it was a challenging day. 

I’m at Mt Fuji, I never expected to be there.  The view was amazing.  I am with some guys from work that I really like.  I am outside, I love being outside. As a kid, I loved hiking. To be able to go up on the mountain, I was excited.

We didn’t eat before we left and there was no place to buy breakfast before our early start. So we already started out not fully prepared. We were able to rent the climbing gear so we did have that and I had a few snacks packed away in my bag.  We had water and oxygen bottles.  We were excited, committed, motivated to climb Mt Fuji. We started the climb, others went on ahead of us.   The view of Mt Fuji and the surrounding area was breathtaking.  After a couple of hours into our climb, I started feeling sharp pain in my knees. I tried to hide the pain and push through, but after a while I knew I had to let the guys know I was experiencing pain in my knees and needed to slow down. I realized that taking shorter steps was less painful.  So, to remind myself to take shorter steps I used a two word phrase to shorten my steps, I don’t remember that the phrase was, it was like slow and steady. I started feeling discouraged because now I was slowing the 2 other guys down and we still had a ways to go. I felt like I was interfering in their progress and opportunity to reach the summit. They committed to staying with me and we continued to climb.  About an hour later, one of the guys with me, injured his knee.  At this point, we are about halfway up. So we decided we are going to make it to the top whether we have to crawl, low crawl, whatever we had to do we were going to make it to the top.  Even though we were both in pain, we pushed on.  The terrain was different at times, sometimes steps, boulders, flat surfaces, steep angle, loose soil but we kept pushing forward.  Before you climb, you can chose to buy a staff or a short stick.  I bought a staff and as you climb, at each station you can stop and pay to have a woodburn mark in your staff.  We would stop and get our marks.  About ¾’s of the way up and I walked past the station and turned right to look at the next section up to get to the next station and the terrain was really rough and rocky and I almost cried because it didn’t look enjoyable because of the pain in my knees.  So we regrouped in front of th e station, we talked about our options, the time, and we knew we were not going to make it to the top with the time we had left.  So we had to make a decision and we decided to hit the escape trail for the descent.  It was crushing to know we had to do that, we wanted to make it to the top. As we began the descent path, about 20 minutes in, 2 other guys in our group heard about my buddy’s injury and they administered first aid to his knee.  The one guy was a former navy corpsman, so he was a trained medic. While the corpsman was administering first aid, the other guy went down and let the mountain staff know we needed attention and arranged for us to get a ride down the mountain. We had to be down to the starting point at 6 pm in order to catch the bus and the mountain staff assured us we would make it.  At first, only two of us were able to be given a ride.  So the group, which was now 4 of us, were separated.  Eventually we all made it back down together.  Once we got to the bottom we were so happy we were at the bottom, but we still had to walk ½ mile to get to the busses.  We walked but did not arrive until 6:07 and the gate was closed and park staff would not allow us to leave the park.  We did all we could to try to get them to let us out and it was not happening.  We were now locked into the Mt Fuji visitor center until the next morning.  There was no restaurant, nowhere to eat, they had a lodge but it closed at 6:30.  We made our way  to the lodge. There are 4 of us, my two buddies and the medic.  So we get a room, it was one room for the 4 of us, it was $300, and it consisted of 4 walls, a carpeted floor, 4 cot mattresses, no bathroom, no shower and a mural of Mt Fuji that was about 7 ft by 14 feet.  All we had was what we had been carrying with us all day which between the 4 of us consisted of an apple, a couple of protein bars, a granola bar and water.  It was hot and muggy and we opened the window for a draft only to be met with the scent of sewer so we had to close the window.  The level of discouragement was pretty high.  We were all pretty discouraged.  We were supposed to be at work the next day and we were stuck on Mt Fuji and feeling defeated, trapped, like a prisoner of the mountain. 

The next morning we woke up, spirits were a little lifted, the sun was shining, we decided to enjoy the views.  We were told we would get a free breakfast and we were excited about getting a free breakfast, we were all packed up and set and ready to go for breakfast and found out that, no, our free breakfast was a vending machine that we had to pick our food from and pay for, there was no way it was free.  We were so looking forward to sitting down having a meal, we didn’t know what it was going to be but we were looking forward to it.  Once we found out about the vending machines, we were so deflated.  We were not going to pay for breakfast.  That was not going to happen.  So we gathered our stuff up, went outside, in front of the lodge and we were talking, voicing our disgruntledness.  There were a few small vendors out front and one Japanese lady gestured to us and gave us a puffy dough with meat in it.  A steamed meat bun.  I was so joyful, we hadn’t eaten, we were so happy. 

As we ate and got something in our belly, we then were able to take a moment and reflect on what we had been through. We were thankful that it was daytime and we could enjoy the scenery and the drive back to base.  We were still sore, we knew we needed to go the doctor for our injuries and weren’t sure what they were going to say, but we were thankful for the opportunity to climb Mt Fuji and experience something most people aren’t able to do.   

Thank you Don for sharing that with us, I remember that being a difficult day for you and it felt like every time we communicated which wasn’t much as the day progressed because you didn’t have a charger, but I know that was a hard day.  It was how you managed the challenges and accepted that your desire, your expectation, your hope to reach the summit was not going to happen that speaks of who you are as a man.  You didn’t mention it, but I know you were praying through that situation and praying with them and none of them were Christian. 

Now the story doesn’t end there.  The story ended exactly a week ago actually.  My son,

Bryce, the extreme sportsman, is also in the military.  In November of last year, he was sent to Japan.  About a month ago he was invited by some guys to go climb Mt Fuji. Bryce and the guys took a 3-hour train ride from the base to Mt Fuji.  Bryce didn’t think he was going to get the opportunity to get to Mt Fuji, so he was excited.  He didn’t really even know the guys who invited him, but they knew he would enjoy it so they asked him.  Bryce didn’t prepare for it either, since he was asked last minute.  He actually did the climb in vans, street shoes, a pair of shorts and a tshirt.  He too bought a stick to have the woodburn stamp at the stations.  He saw my husband’s a few months earlier and thought it was pretty cool, I think he said “sick” actually, to have as a keepsake.  Bryce is a pretty friendly guy, he is extremely fit and had a plan for how quickly he wanted to make the ascent.  He was ahead of the group he traveled with and met people along the way.  He stopped at the stations and got his woodburn stamps as my husband did.  At one point, he met two Americans, also military guys and was chatting with them.  They asked him something about his climb since he was alone and he explained he was with a group but he was trying to make the ascent within a certain timeframe.  Once they realized what he was doing, they quickly realized that talking to them was slowing him down.  They encouraged him to get on and not let them interfere.  At one station he was having trouble communicating with a vendor and a Japanese woman helped him out. Then they chatted a bit as she explained some things to him about the culture and tradition of Mt Fuji. Bryce then continued on his way and reached the summit, he reached it in 2 hours and 45 minutes.  On his way down, the terrain was rough and because he was in vans, he slipped and cut open his hand pretty badly.  Along the way he ran into the same Japanese woman and she gave him first aid.  She insisted, which was incredibly kind.  Bryce was very excited that this one thing that he was so happy my husband did, and that he wanted to do, that he was actually able to do it just weeks before he was to leave Japan.  We picked Bryce up from the airport in San Diego last Saturday, a week ago today.  He apologized that he did not buy gifts for us.  He said actually I did by one gift but wanted to make sure I knew he wasn’t playing favorites.  While at Fuji he bought an additional short walking stick and had it stamped with the 4 additional stops don could not achieve when he was at Fuji. 

Even though Don could not complete the ascent, the Lord still gave him the gift of the stick through Bryce.  Don was so touched that Bryce would think to do that for him. 

When you are having your Fuji day, what kind of person are you going to be.  Are you going to stand by someone else when they are struggling even when you are struggling?  Are you going to encourage someone to keep going and move ahead so they can achieve a goal like those men did for Bryce?  Instead of being jealous or petty when he explained he was trying to achieve the ascent in an incredibly fast pace, they supported him and they didn’t even know him.  Are you going to be like the Japanese woman and help someone out when they are in need?  How are you going to react when you are in pain and you realize you are not leaving the mountain tonight?  When you have had a hard day and you have very limited resources, what will you turn to God with?  Anger? Frustration?  All of the things we encounter in our lives provide an opportunity for discouragement.  It is how we allow that opportunity to grow in our lives that determines how deep our relationship with the Lord will become. 

James tells us this, 1: 2-8 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”

Think of discouragement like your Mt Fuji.  Some days your discouragement may be like Don’s climb, long, difficult, painful and nothing like you were expecting.  Some days it may be like Bryce’s and you may be having a great day, but on your way down you get cut up when you slip on some jagged rocks.  They were on the same path, completely different days.  Neither let discouragement take them out.  Decide how you will handle your Mt Fuji.  Stay committed to overcoming discouragement and let it draw you closer to the Lord with every step.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the Spirit of Discouragement and how we allow and even nurture it in our lives.  I do hope it has helped to build your understanding and encouraged you to conquer your own unseen enemies.  If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      We discussed the Spirit of Discouragement

·      Discouragement is powerful.  There are three main reasons why Discouragement is so powerful.

·      First, the Spirit of Discouragement enters our life slowly, quietly, and in ways we don’t readily recognize.  Matthew 21, Jesus and the fig tree.

·      The tree was in the midst of everyone, it grew, it was recognized for what it appeared to be, but it was not what it appeared to be.  As a result, Jesus did not hesitate to dispense of that tree.  Likewise, we need to see the people around us, the words used over us and with us, the activities that we are doing and not doing for what they are to us in our walk with the Lord.  When someone or something is a discouragement, call it for what it is and do not let it hinder your relationship with the Lord. 

·      The second reason Discouragement is so powerful is because it can work with any demon grouping.  If you have listened to any of my previous podcasts where we discuss specific demons and groupings, we talk about how and why they work well together.  Some demons are just a more natural fit with others in their attempts to lead us to destruction.  The thing with discouragement is that it is a bit like vanilla.  Vanilla pairs well with nearly everything. 

·      Is there any area in your life you can think of that is completely immune to discouragement?  I can’t think of any.  Our careers, our family life, our marriage, our prayer life, our friendships, our finances, our businesses, all of it and more are all prone to have some aspect that we will feel discouraged by.  Like vanilla, discouragement comes with a cost and it is expensive.  If we allow discouragement to flavor any area of our lives, it can be hard to get it out.

·      The third reason discouragement is so powerful if we allow it is that it can and will keep you from moving forward with the Lord.  The whole point, the whole objective of Discouragement is to keep you from victory.  We have victory in every area of our life with the Lord, but if discouragement can keep you from taking ahold of that victory then it is fulfilling it’s role in satan’s kingdom. 

·      We can’t have victory if we keep losing over and over to discouragement. 

·      I gave you the beginnings of the story of my husband at Mt Fuji. 

·      My husband gave you his story of his climb on Mt Fuji

·      I shared with you the story of my son climbing Mt Fuji

·      All of the things we encounter in our lives provide an opportunity for discouragement.  It is how we allow that opportunity to grow in our lives that determines how deep our relationship with the Lord will become.

·      Discussed James 1:2-8, talking about trials and how we need to respond in time of trial.

·      Think of discouragement like your Mt Fuji.  Decide how you will handle your Mt Fuji.  Stay committed to overcoming discouragement and let it draw you closer to the Lord with every step.

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Come to my live event on 9/23 if you are in the Los Angeles area and experience the Holy Spirit, 80 Wood Rd, Journey the Church Office, for more details listen to the Invite I posted on 8/24.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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

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

5 Barriers to Our Spiritual Growth, Ep 2-35

Welcome Back!  I  am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to get back to the basics.  We are talking about conquering our unseen enemies, but we are talking about the things we do to ourselves where the conquering is our own doing.  Specifically we are going to address 5 barriers that prevent us from being able to move forward with the Lord.  Not every unseen enemy is satan, sometimes we create our own enemies out of our behaviors.  So let’s take a look at the 5 most common barriers I have seen created in the lives of people I have worked with over the years.

1.     Overcommitment

A lot of times how we commit, or how often we commit is related to our personality type.  People pleasers sometimes find themselves in the situation where they have trouble saying no and as a result wear themselves out overcommitting to so many activities that they struggle to stay focused and feel they are doing the right things.  This isn’t limited to people pleasers, sometimes when we are unhappy or don’t trust ourselves to have downtime, we end up taking up every spare minute of our time with serving or volunteering all over the place.  Part of the challenge in overcoming overcommitment is understanding why we are overcommitting.  A life change often leads people to begin overcommitting to avoid loneliness, a recovering addict, loss of a loved one, a recent retirement, there are several reasons why this becomes a way to deal with change.  At first glance it may seem like a healthy solution, to get out there and help others, be a part of something, but isn’t the best answer. 

Let’s look at Moses, he was overcommitted and he wasn’t as effective as he could be because he overextended himself.  As long as he was overextending himself, Moses  could not truly lead the people the way the Lord needed.  To set the scene, Moses is leading the people in the wilderness and managing any large group comes with challenges.  His father in law comes to visit and spends the day with Moses as he conducts his daily business.  So we pick up the story from there. Exodus 18, starting at verse 13.

13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”

15 Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”

17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. 21 But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. 23 If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

Jethro knew Moses needed to be committed to what he was called to do by God, but he was overcommitted to the daily tasks which meant he was undercommitted to areas where the Lord needed his full attention.

Are you committed to what the Lord has called you to? When we overcommit to what “we” want, we undercommit to where the Lord needs us to focus.  We cannot be effective that way.  We need to know what the Lord wants our focus to be directed toward and stay focused to do all the Lord asks of us in that area.

2.     Undercommitment

We already hit on how overcommitting really just means we are undercommitting to where we are called.  Here, undercommitment, which I don’t think is actually a word, but we are using it anyway, undercommitment here is where we are intending to do what we are called to do by the Lord, but we are not willing to do what is required.  Where I see this happen the most is when we want to do what we know we should be doing, but we aren’t willing to make the time that is required to develop or participate. We have the time, we just chose to spend it doing other things.  We don’t want to give up the things we like to do what He asks of us.  Some people are not good with time management.  That is not what we are talking about here.  Undercommitment is part a heart issue, it’s part a faith issue, it’s part an endurance issue and at times can be a resilience issue.  When we are undercommitted we are prone to fall away easily if we do not see a big change or a “payday” for the time we are putting into something.  I’ve mentored people on an area that has taken me years to grow and develop in and after a month they get disappointed they are not where I am and lose their willingness to continue to do what is required.  If you aren’t willing to do what the Lord needs from you then how can you expect to be able to have the Lord provide you with all you need to carry out what he has called you to do?  Jesus never gave the disciples shortcuts because they were his favorite.  Why should anyone think now that we don’t have to spend the time developing what is needed to be able to live in our purpose for Him? 

If you are having a few rough weeks, that’s ok, that happens, but we become our own enemy when we stay in that rough place for too long mentally or in our heart. 

Are you undercommitted to what you are called to do?  The Lord did not go halfway in what He was called to do for us, so we should not be undercommitted to do what He asks of us.  Don’t give up, don’t let someone else’s issues become your issues, don’t let your own doubts derail your progress. 

Here are some scriptures to lean on when you are developing your commitment.

Proverbs 16:3, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

3.     Failure to grow

Failure to grow is related to undercommitment, its like a cousin of undercommitment.  Failure to grow I see as a barrier because it doesn’t mean they are incapable of growing, it means they aren’t willing to put in the effort.  Paul tells the Colossians growth is important if we want to please the Lord.  Colossians 1:9 we read, “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[e] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,” Bearing good fruit requires growth.  You cannot bear good fruit without growing because it is about life and what happen over time when we are doing what we need to nurture growth.  Ephesians 4 also reveals how and why the Lord set up us for success to grow. “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 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.” We are expected to mature in our knowledge of Him.  Hebrews 6 puts it this way, “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites,[b] the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.”

To be honest, when I hear most Christians talk and the topic of growth comes up this is how I see their response describe who they are.  Luke 8, “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”  Anyone I mentor who is not willing to grow does not remain as someone I am willing to mentor until they are willing to do what is necessary to grow.  When I hear someone is hungry, then I know guidance and encouragement will be a huge factor to their success.  Paul explains it this way,

1 Corinthians 13, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” That takes time and effort and discipline to keep going. 

Recently at one of the Holy Spirit nights I was hosting, I talked about how important it is to grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit.  It is so important to grow, to want to grow.  In my teaching I told everyone that if you are not in the process of growing, then you are in the process of dying.  It is easy to allow the culture, the ways of the world and the enemy to sway how you think, how you see the Lord, and what you think of the Bible.  Over the last few weeks I have seen an increase in the amount of questioning the validity and veracity of the Bible from people who are calling themselves Christians.  That happens when we don’t bother to grow.  So get busy growing or get busy dying!!

4.     Blitzkrieg growth

Now this barrier may not make sense at first but let me explain how I have seen this time and time again.  It’s a mistake that sincere people often make thinking they are doing themselves good. 

When I first adopted Zeke, my green wing macaw, I didn’t know anything about birds, let alone these big beautiful, intelligent parrots. He was barely hatched, I visited him for months as he grew until it was time for him to come home.  It was a huge responsibility, and a long-term commitment I made when I adopted him.  His nature is still a wild bird, so he can be unpredictable even tho he is more than happy to learn English or whatever else I teach him.  He has the intelligence of about a 4-year-old.  They have dietary do’s and don’t’s, grooming needs, companionship needs, medical needs which were all new to me.  For the months between when I paid for him and when he came home, I was learning everything I could every day to make sure I could care for him correctly when he came home.  I had to learn about cages, toys, how to work with him, how to change my house to accommodate him, there was so much to know.   It was overwhelming.  I watched videos, read books, emailed experts, talked to people, and it felt like no matter how much I learned, there was more to learn, or different opinions that contradicted others.  I wanted to know everything.  I wanted to be responsible.  My heart and my mind were in the right place, but I was just getting information from everywhere, and it was actually making me feel less confident the more people I listened to.  There are varying level of eccentric people who are bird people, I am one of those people, but even I cannot handle some of the extreme behaviors and opinions of some bird people.  Differing opinions, differing viewpoints, differing experiences lead people to say and do what they do.  When it comes to animals, passions ignite and people can be really rude when someone does something that is contrary to their opinion in how a bird should be cared for or exposed to.  I’m digressing now, when it was time for Zeke to come home, I didn’t use a lot of that information I had crammed into my brain.  Instead, Zeke and I handled everything new to both of us a little at a time and found our way as companions.  As I put my notes together for this episode he sat next to me, preening and asking me “What’s up?”   I spent so much time learning things that were not applicable, things that I now know I do not agree with, things that were actually just ridiculous, and a waste of my time.  I lost focus on what I needed to know trying to make sure I knew “everything” I needed to know.  My heart meant well, but my type A personality went into overdrive when it should have just slowed down and taken things one at a time. 

When we want to grow in knowledge, we need to be focused.  We don’t want to be listening to 8 different podcasts on top of reading 4-5 books while listening to multiple radio ministries.  I guarantee people who are blitzkrieging their growth are listening to ministries that are contradicting each other because we do not all believe the same interpretations of the Bible.  When I hear someone say they are doing this I begin to ask who and what they are listening to or reading.  Then I ask them about what they are getting out of each one.  If you are doing this, ask yourself the same thing.  If you can’t answer definitively what you are learning from what you are doing then start to pull apart what you are doing and define what you are trying to develop in your life.  You cannot grow when you are giving 10 different ministries 15 minutes of your time.  That just doesn’t make sense to do to yourself.  Learn one maybe two things well and then move on to learn something new.  Overwhelming ourselves with too much gets you nowhere, there is no benefit.  We may think we are spending time with the Lord doing it that way, but if it’s not quality time, what does it matter.  Always choose quality time with the Lord not quantity time with several ministries.

Hebrews 12 gives us a description of what we are doing to ourselves by doing a blitzkrieg instead of focusing on our growth, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

5.     Fear

Most of us are aware of our own fears.  We either deal with them head on or avoid them, maybe chip away at them. No matter what your reaction is, we are generally aware when fear begins to affect us.  We have talked about how the enemy uses our fears against us, but here we are talking about how we use our fears against ourselves.  Sometimes we get so focused on our own fears that we don’t realize the fears of those around us.  According to an

October 14, 2015 09:05 ET| Source: Linkagoal study, nearly half of applicable adults (49%) admitted that fear of failure was the biggest roadblock to either not achieving their goals at all, or discouraging them from revisiting their goals. And while fear of failure topped the Fear Factor Index, fear of embarrassment (44%) and fear of one's goal being perceived as too difficult to achieve (43%) were also major hurdles to goal achievement.

We have to trust in the Lord, we have develop our faith to overcome our fears.  I know that is not a new thought, but the issue is how.  How do we overcome our fears?  When it is not the enemy, it is just us blocking our own path with fears?  How did David overcome his fears when Saul was searching for him to kill him?  How did Moses respond when he was leading his people out of Egypt and Pharoah came after them but the only way forward was a body of water?  What did Saul do when he had been struck with blindness by the Lord on the way to Damascus? 

Most of us do not have fears that exceed what these 3 were dealing with and what did they do?  They gave their heart full of heaviness to the Lord and they acted.  They didn’t have a choice but to act.  They trusted Him and acted in faith.  David ran, he hid, at one point in a cave in En Gedi and Saul was in that same cave and had no idea David was even there. I was in En Gedi earlier this year.  I looked at the caves and thought of this moment in David’s life and if I were David, what would I have done.  Moses undoubtedly had a heavy, fearful heart as he was leading all of his people out of Egypt and to see that Egyptian army after them must have been confusing and terrifying.  Moses had to believe in a God he could not see for an answer he could not conceive of and overcome his fear.  Saul was out to kill the followers of “The Way” and yet, blind, had to rely on one of them to come to him and restore his sight.  He had to believe that Ananias would do as the Lord described and not take revenge on him. 

We have what we need to overcome our fears.  The Lord doesn’t ask us to do it alone, but we have to be willing to trust Him and act.  We can’t sit still in our fear or we will start to spiral downward and the enemy will at some point join in on our spiral.  We have to make a choice and if it’s something we have to make everyday, then we make it everyday. 

All 5 of these barriers we discussed are within our control and ability to change.  We need to be willing to remove any barriers that prevent you from being able to move forward with the Lord.  We know what will happen if we don’t remove them, but what can we accomplish for the Kingdom if we do.  The Lord can do anything, but He needs us to do it with Him on earth as it is in heaven.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the 5 barriers to moving forward with the Lord that we place on ourselves.  I do hope it has helped to build your understanding and encouraged you to conquer your own unseen enemies.  If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share. 

As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:

·      Address 5 barriers that prevent us from being able to move forward with the Lord

·      The 5 most common barriers I have seen created in the lives of people I have worked with over the years.

o   Overcommitment

§  The 5 most common barriers I have seen created in the lives of people I have worked with over the years.

§  Let’s look at Moses, he was overcommitted and he wasn’t as effective as he could be because he overextended himself.  As long as he was overextending himself, Moses  could not truly lead the people the way the Exodus 18, starting at verse 13.

o   Undercommitment

§  We already hit on how overcommitting really just means we are undercommitting to where we are called.  Here, undercommitment, is where we are intending to do what we are called to do by the Lord, but we are not willing to do what is required

§  Proverbs 16:3, Galatians 6:9,

o   Failure to grow

§  Failure to grow is related to undercommitment, its like a cousin of undercommitment.  Failure to grow I see as a barrier because it doesn’t mean they are incapable of growing, it means they aren’t willing to put in the effort. 

§  Colossians 1:9, Ephesians 4, Hebrews 6, Luke 8, 1 Corinthians 13,

o   Blitzkrieg growth

§  When we want to grow in knowledge, we need to be focused. 

§  Always choose quality time with the Lord not quantity time with several ministries.

§  Hebrews 12

o   Fear

§  We have to trust in the Lord, we have develop our faith to overcome our fears. 

§  Story of David, Moses and Saul. They gave their heart full of heaviness to the Lord and they acted.  The Lord doesn’t ask us to do it alone, but we have to be willing to trust Him and act.

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Come to my live event on 9/23 if you are in the Los Angeles area and experience the Holy Spirit, 80 Wood Rd, Journey the Church Office, for more details listen to the Invite I posted on 8/24.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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

·         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

5 Steps to Overcome a Spiritual Attack, Ep 2-34

Welcome Back!  !  I am your host Dawn Simmons and on this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be talking about 5 steps you can take to overcome a spiritual attack. 

Do you remember the last time you felt like you were under a spiritual attack and you just keep getting hit over and over no matter what you did.  Well you are not alone. We all have these times in our lives.  While sometimes we are going through challenges that aren’t necessarily a spiritual attack, these 5 steps we are going to discuss will serve you well and get you through your storm. No matter who you are, life is full of challenges and we need to be armed and ready to take on those challenges so that we come out of them stronger, more resilient and better able to discern how the Lord is guiding us through it.

We know that 1 Peter 5:8 tells us “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. “  When we are in the midst of an attack, it does feel like this, doesn’t it?  We sometimes let ourselves feel defeated when we keep getting hit with yet another thing.  Let’s look at what that scripture is telling us.  We know the devil is around us, it may not be 24 hours, but we know there are times when he is working hard against us.  It doesn’t say when we are doing good things, or when a breakthrough is coming, there is no qualifier to when he prowls.  He just prowls like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  I can’t remember if I told you before about this, but I used to be a member of the LA Zoo.  I was a member before I had kids because I just love animals.  One of the benefits of being a member is that you get to get in earlier than non-members.  So I would plan my early entries to try to be at certain enclosures when the animals first came out.  This one day, I wanted to be there for the lion.  The lion enclosure is nowhere near the entrance so I had to plan the route I was going to take and I had to time it because it was too far to walk and be there in time to see him come out.  I remember that day, it was a sunny day, it was 29 or 30 years ago and I ran.  I ran through winding paths, up little hills, down little hills, up big hills, down big hills, by myself, to make my way to the last curve leading me to the lion enclosure.  I arrived, out of breath, and made it to front and center of the enclosure where the lion would come out from the back.  The enclosure sadly is not very big, it’s kind of pie shaped if you were to take 1/3 of a pie, which can happen in my house with pumpkin pie, but I digress.  So the distance between me and the edge of where the lion can come out is maybe 40-50 feet at most.  The space that makes up that 40-50 feet drops down like a moat, but there’s no water there cause we live in a desert.  Anyhow, I was at the center of the enclosure facing the gate where the lion comes out just at the moment the lion was released and came out.  He looked kinda angry or amped up and he came out of that gate with a start and right to the edge of the enclosure in front of me, stared straight at me and let out a roar I will never forget.  I stood there, witnessing this beautiful lion, mouth open, roar so loud the noise traveled across the 40-50 feet and enter my body, shaking me from head to toe.  I was shook! I was also a little scared.  I was thankful that lion presumably could not make the 40-50 foot leap across that enclosure to get to me because he truly looked like he wanted to let out some frustrations on me.  When I read that scripture, like a roaring lion, I have that as my perspective.  A roaring lion is terrifying without an enclosure to protect me.

As believers, I think at times we are too nonchalant about how we view a spiritual attack.

You often hear believers talk like this:

The enemy is really attacking me lately.  Then someone responds with, well then you must be doing something right, or then breakthrough must be right around the corner. 

That may be true, but so what.  How does that help us while we are in the midst of an attack? Don’t we all hope we are doing something right or have a breakthrough coming? But what difference does it make?  In our thought process we should not qualify the enemy attack with a Kingdom advance.  The enemy should not have an open door to attack us. The scripture said “Be alert and of sober mind” We need to change the narrative and go on the offense as soon as we think we are under attack.  If it turns out it wasn’t a spiritual attack and is instead a consequence of a bad choice, then we have still trained ourselves on how to respond under all circumstances.  We aren’t going to train ourselves to sit and wait while we are in the storm.  We are going to train ourselves to be forward advancing for the Kingdom working with God always, under all circumstances, no matter how we feel.

An enemy attack can be very simple or an attack can be very elaborate.  Regardless of what type of attack you are experiencing, there are 5 steps we can follow to get us through the attack successfully and bring us closer to the Lord at the same time.

1.     Put everything in perspective:

When we are experiencing an attack or even if we aren’t sure if it is an attack but it feels like the world is against us, we need pull back from our circumstances and gain some perspective.  As a believer, we have everything we need to overcome our circumstance.  It can be easy to lose sight of that when we are in the midst of our difficulties, but no matter what the enemy attempts to do around us, we know what John 16:33 tells us, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” This alone tells us we know our outcome, but we have to walk through some things to get there.  In our walk we have to start with putting everything in perspective and these verses can help you do that. These are great verses to add to your scripture journal.  This is why a scripture journal is so essential.

Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Psalm 112:7, “He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.”

Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Romans 8:28, And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2.     Don’t let the challenge be a distraction. Refocus:

Often times when we are facing an attack, it becomes all we think about.  We almost wait for the next thing to happen.  When we wait expectantly, we are coming into agreement with the enemy and we have to change that thought process. We can’t continue to think of ourselves at the receiving end of whatever the enemy wants to throw at us.  Instead, turn the situation around and start to take aim at the enemy tactics and don’t just build your defense, which at times is all we think we can do.  This is time to go on the offense.  Don’t let the negative situation turn you into a weak and willing participant with the enemy.  This can be really hard depending on what you are dealing with.  Sometimes all we see is what is in front of us, but we have to stop thinking just about what is in front of us if we are going to get through this with the Lord.  I know people who faced with a difficulty, took time off work.  When I asked what they did during that time, they did nothing.  They wanted to just hide from the world, but that won’t work.  It only distracts us to go deeper into a hole that we need to walk away from and refocus our attention on the Lord.  

Here are a few scriptures to get our hearts and minds refocused:

Colossians 3:2, Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

2 Corinthians 4:18, As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

3.     Be more conscious of your time with the Lord:

When we are in the midst of a spiritual attack we tend to let our usual routines fall by the wayside.  Where we would normally pray, when things are really difficult, we don’t pray the same.  Our faith has dwindled. We have a desperation cry, or we turn on God and ask why, sometimes getting angry.  We all have had moments where our emotions become that intense.   Where we need to focus is in our time with the Lord.  We need to make sure that we are not neglecting our time but instead investing our time with Him.  We need to be more purposeful in our prayer time, add worship time into our daily schedule, even if it’s only 15 minutes. Read the bible and let Him speak to you. The more conscious we are of how we are spending our time and including the Lord in it, the easier it will be to overcome the attack. Using scripture positions us to send arrows right back at the enemy and it will reduce the effectiveness of the attack and build you at the same time.

Here are some good ones to incorporate into your day:

Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing”

Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

4.     Slow down and seek the Lord on your decisions:

When we are in the midst of an attack, a lot of times we just want it to end, as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately that can come at a cost if we are not careful.  If we are not seeking the Lord and listening to Him on how to resolve a challenge, we could invite unexpected consequences we were not prepared for or had the insight to understand would occur.  We often try to use our earthly wisdom to deal with spiritual forces, and it doesn’t work.  The only way to overcome an enemy attack is with the Lord and following what He tells us to do and not do.  He will give us the way we need, may not be the way we want, but it will be the way we need.  We have to trust that His way is our way. 

Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (referring to provision)

Psalm 25:5, “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

Psalm 62:5, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.”

5.     Stand firm in the truth of the Lord:

When things don’t happen as quickly as we would like, humans have a tendency to try to hurry them along.  Our culture is all about the hurrying things along, what we can get or do faster gets us onto other things we can also do faster.  The art of waiting is almost obsolete.  Waiting with the Lord as He prepares you and strengthens you and shows you His way is actually exhilarating. When you can do this, you can forget about the difficulty and look forward to His outcome.  Not a lot of people can do this, waiting can be challenging, not going to deny that, but if you truly trust Him, you don’t mind the wait.  We can’t expect God to be like a slot machine, we put something in and just push a button and something comes out.  That’s the way He is treated a lot.  I would rather put all I have into Him, and then wait to see what He creates in and out of my circumstance. 

I am these last few weeks facing a spiritual attack, haven’t had one like this in a while.  I wouldn’t say I am enjoying it, but I am finding peace in it.  I didn’t actually count how many attacks I’ve had in this time period, it has been a series of attacks.  It started as a cluster of attacks, a bunch of little attacks, then a week ago, some big things coming at me. But the Lord has been with me and showing me how He is going to resolve things and how I can stand with Him in all that is happening. 

These are some great scriptures to help you through this last step:

1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

Ephesians 6:10-18, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

I want to end this discussion with a scripture because it really sums up everything we have discussed into one beautiful example of how He provides for us in everything:

James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the 5 Steps to Overcome a Spiritual Attack, and I do 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:

5 steps you can take to overcome a spiritual attack

·      1 Peter 5:8 tells us “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 

·      Story of me experiencing a roaring lion that felt like it was face to face.

·      5 Steps to Overcome a Spiritual Attack

o   1. Put everything in perspective:

§  John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

§  Psalm 46:10, Psalm 112:7, Galatians 6:9, Romans 8:28,

2.     Don’t let the challenge be a distraction. Refocus:

§  Colossians 3:2,

§  2 Corinthians 4:18,

o   3.Be more conscious of your time with the Lord:

§  Ephesians 6:18,

§  1 Thessalonians 5:17,

§  Romans 10:17,

o   4. Slow down and seek the Lord on your decisions

§  Matthew 7:7

§  Matthew 6:33

§  Psalm 25:5

§  Psalm 27:14

§  Psalm 62:5

5.     Stand firm in the truth of the Lord:

·      1 Corinthians 15:58

·      James 1:12

·      Ephesians 6:10-18

·      James 1:2-4

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Come to my live event on 9/23 if you are in the Los Angeles area and experience the Holy Spirit, 80 Wood Rd, Journey the Church Office, for more details listen to the Invite I posted on 8/24.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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

Spiritual Gift of Discerning of Spirits…Why do we need it today?, Ep 2-33

Welcome Back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the Spiritual Gift of Discerning of Spirits.  We will discuss what it is, what it isn’t and how we can use this gift in our lives.  I will share some stories of discernment in my life and explain why it is so important in our everyday life.

As always in our Spiritual Gifts series we will start with the scriptures that reveal the gifts to us. 

1 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

Our discussion today is the beginning of the group of the Revelation gifts.  Of the three Revelation gifts, discerning of spirits is often considered the least of the three, but I would argue that its importance is of equal value.  The reason it is often considered the least is because it involves the spirit realm.  By its very nature the spirit realm has to be an active participant in order for this gift to be in operation.  In addition, the number of people able or willing to see supernatural realm activities is by and large a small population of the world and what is seen to some degree has to, for the most part, allow itself to be seen or the Holy Spirit enables you to see. So by the time you add together all of those factors, it could be considered to be the least of the three.  My argument, however, is that once all of those factors are present, what it provides to us is immeasurably useful and so basic that we should not want to function without it. When we have discerning of spirits in operation, we can receive guidance and direction from the Holy Spirit on what He wants us doing.  We will know when He is present and wants us to move in healing or just be obedient in giving a message to someone.  Without this discernment, we are working in our own power.  In addition to what most people know discerning of spirits provides, it can also prevent accidents, save lives, reveal evil participation.  It’s incredibly important.    

Let’s talk more about what discerning of spirits provides to us.  The name is pretty clear as compared to some of the other spiritual gifts.  With this gift, we are able to “discern” or perceive, recognize spirits by their nature.  There is a bit of a misunderstanding of this gift in that a lot of times people assume it is only used for recognizing evil.  If you have ever had a moment where you felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and then you followed through with whatever He asked you to do, then you are operating in the gift of discerning of spirits.

Let’s take this a little deeper and then we will go into some real-life examples of this gift being used.  First, 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to be ones who “correctly handle the word of truth” in other words, we want to make sure we are using the word to guide us correctly into truth, not twist it or use it in a way that benefits us. When we don’t know the word, we can be a casualty of listening or following someone who does this and leads us astray.  Unfortunately, this has always been a problem.  Even Jesus had Judas to deal with who was presenting as a follower but was actually corrupt.  Discerning of spirits helps to reveal to us when what we are hearing or experiencing does not line up correctly with the word of God.  Jesus correctly called out when the heart of a person is not correctly aligned and that is what is at the heart, no pun intended, of discernment.  In addition to recognizing false doctrine, it will guide you to discern when someone is filled with or following evil rather than truth.  This will serve you well in church, in Bible study, in conversation, anywhere in your life that you are hearing the Word and applying it to your life. 

A great example of this is with Paul in Acts 16 when he was in Philippi.  The female slave who was in divination, fortune telling, the same demonic activities psychics do today, Paul was able to discern the evil spirit in her which is why she knew who he was.  She was following him and Silas for days testifying that Paul was a servant of the Most High God.  Her knowledge of Paul came from her involvement with the occult. It was revealed to her by the demon influencing her, she did not discern it.  Once the Holy Spirit allowed Paul to address her, Paul commanded the demon to leave.  The demon was using this woman to interfere with what Paul was doing and therefore Paul had the ability to command it to go once the Holy Spirit told Paul to do so. If Paul had tried to command it to leave before the Holy Spirit allowed him to, it would not have worked.  We do nothing in our own power, only through the Holy Spirit.  

Let’s step back for a minute and clarify what discerning of spirits is not before we move forward.  I think it is easy to think of discerning of spirits and assume it is associated with things like fortune telling or psychic activity.  It’s not mind reading or anything psychological.  We have discussed in the past that fortune telling or any of those divination activities, tarot cards, whatever it is, that’s not what discerning of spirits involves.  Those activities are just demonic activities.   The demons provide, transmit, share, whatever you want to call it, a manifestation or knowledge to the person.  There is no testing of the spirit to discern what is of God and what is not.  That is a transaction with the devil. 

I want to share some examples where the discerning of spirits was priceless to me as well as unexpected. 

The first one was years ago.  I was on maternity leave and wanted to get out of the house and take a short walk.  It was a weekday about 8am.  Back then, cell phones were not what they are today, they were basic and the only one I had was for work and I wasn’t expecting any calls so I didn’t take it with me.  Again, we didn’t use cell phones like we do today, I don’t leave the house without one now. Anyhow, what I did carry that day was a knife, a little pocketknife.  As I walked out the door, it was by on the little table I kept by the door and I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Holy Spirit prompted me to pick it up, so I did.  It was black, a benchmade with the butterfly logo.  It was a cool looking knife and super easy to open.  Anyhow, I did take that with me, but nothing else.  I decided since it was 8 am and a lot of people were getting to work or taking kids to school not to use surface streets, but I would use this area we call a wash.  In CA we have created cement riverways to collect water and wash it out to the ocean.  That is a whole other discussion, but on the side of each wash is usually a walking and bike path.  So let me describe this one to you in detail.  This wash went through the town I was living in at the time, which was Simi Valley, as most do.  It ran somewhat parallel in between two main streets.  On each side of the wash were backyards.  The backyards were a higher elevation, so there was a slope from the fence line of the backyard down to the walking path of about 20 feet and angled down like stadium seating angles. This no man’s land slope had trees, bushes, dirt, grass, all kids of different things along the path.  It was natural, not landscaped.  Then the path itself was about 12 feet wide.  This particular section where I was walking was about a mile and a half with a slight curve that had a gentle bend in it about ½ mile in from the direction I began my walk.  While I was on my walk, I had never walked this before and have never walked one since, but while walking I saw women joggers, men joggers, bicyclists, there were other people out.  I saw one other person walking well ahead of me, a Hispanic man, older than me, about 5’7 in a white t shirt and blue jeans.  At one point he turns around and passes me going in the opposite direction.  I continue walking and decide I don’t think I can make it all the way to the end and then all the way back and still get to my house which was probably ½ mile from the wash. This was my first time out of the house by myself since I gave birth so I didn’t want to overdo it.  I turned around but couldn’t see very far down the path ahead of me because of the curve.  One thing I noticed tho as I looked around, there was no one out there but me.  As I approached the curve I felt something was wrong.  I knew something was wrong, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I could feel a change in my body, my temperature dropped, my hair stood up, I stopped walking to try to figure out what it was I was feeling. I knew the manifestations I was feeling was not of God, but it was also very strong.  I started to take some steps slowly and look around for my best way out even tho I had no idea what was going on yet.  I knew my best way out was forward, going through whatever it was because going backward was too far.  I could not run fast or far.  I started praying for it to be revealed to me.  As I walked about 20 feet or so I saw it.  The Hispanic man that had been walking ahead of me and then turned around and passed me was up hiding in a bush in that no man’s land but now he was wearing a green sweatshirt to cover his white t-shirt.  He was barely visible.  He was crouched over watching me, waiting. I had to decide what to do, again, the fastest way out was straight ahead so I would have to pass him.  I pulled out my knife, held it up visibly and yelled something at him. It was something like, “you’re not getting me.” I walked sideways to get past him and then backwards until I was far enough away to run.  We can all get an idea of his intentions, they were evil.  When someone is going to do something like that, there is likely an evil presence with them and that can be discerned.  Did I get some help from the Holy Spirit, absolutely in being able to discern, that was a gift given to me to use in that moment. I did turn back, of course, while I was running, only to see he had taken off his sweatshirt and was again walking down the path in his white t-shirt going in the opposite direction of me.  

That was an everyday example, that saved me from something awful.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit aren’t just meant for large crowds, big shows of the spirit, they are meant for individual little moments too when we need it and aren’t even expecting it. 

The next story I want to share happened maybe 13-14 years ago.  It was the summer. I had a few house guests and on this particular night, it was about 9:30.  I walked downstairs to check on everything before I was going to go to bed for the night.  I walked down the hall, I began to approach the room where one of the guests was staying.  The door was open but the light was off.  I came up to the doorway and just as I approached it I felt my body temperature drop immediately and then I was covered in goose bumps, not like I was a little chilly, these were some mammoth goose bumps.  I turned into the doorway to see what was going on and saw the guest was asleep. There was a window opposite the doorway, a pretty good-sized window so I could see light coming in from the moon.  I stood there for a second confused and then I saw a demon come from the window and slither across the floor to the foot of the bed.  It went up the bed and over the guest and remained there.

Having my temperature drop and the goose bumps at the time caught me off guard, but I believe the Holy Spirit allowed me to see that demon so I could see what I was dealing with in my house.  I wasn’t expecting it, so I was actually startled, but it opened my eyes to other activities going on in my house that I did not understand.

So far the stories I have shared involve discernment of evil.  Again, discerning of spirits is not just evil spirits, it’s the Holy Spirit also, when angels are present and working on our behalf.  I have in other episodes given you angel stories, but I will share with you one that I really enjoyed that happened in the last year or so, I can’t recall. 

This was a Sunday and I was in church.  During worship I don’t always sing, sometimes I am talking to the Lord and sometimes I ask Him to show me what is going on in the room.  This particular Sunday I don’t know what prompted me to ask, but I did and as I looked around I saw hundreds of angels, way more than I have ever seen there before.  I remember the worship was particularly good that day.  There was something special about that day.  Of course, I can’t remember now what that was, but what I can remember is that there were angels involved in the worship music, and then there were hundreds more that were sitting in these beautiful wood rafters.  Our church does not have anything remotely like wood rafters in the celing, or anything beautiful about the ceiling to be frank.  They were all there that day attending, waiting to see and hear what was going to happen there that day.  The wood rafters went far higher than our ceiling in the natural.  The looks on their faces were in anticipation and there was a celebration.  I knew by what I saw that the message that was coming was going to be something good, something God breathed, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.  If all those angels were waiting in anticipation, then I was in the right place that morning.

A lot of times having the gift of spiritual discernment works closely with visions.  A person who receives visions will generally have the gift of discerning of spirits because visions require the use of the discerning of spirits and seeing into the spirit realm to reveal and explain.  We will have a separate episode on visions because there are different levels and it deserves its own episode for those people who want to develop their abilities to receive and understand visions.

Most of my episodes involve the use of discerning of spirits.  It would be really hard for me to function in what I do without it because I need the insight that it provides. Really, we all do.  I have brought it up at the end of every episode because it is so important in developing who we are in living Christlike.  I think it is a basic need and even requirement in Christianity.  Without it, you have no compass.  You have to be able to discern between what is of God and what is not.  Truly we need to know about this gift so we can develop it with the Holy Spirit.  My book that I bring up at the end of every episode is about how to develop that gift of spiritual discernment because it addresses how to discern Him from your own voice.  We all need to discern Him.  You may never have a demon sliding across your guest bedroom, but you may have an urgent need or an impossible situation you need to know how to walk with God through.  Discerning the Holy Spirit will give you all the answers and guidance you need.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the Spiritual Gift of Discerning of Spirits, and I do 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 Discerning of Spirits

·      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

·      Discerning of spirits is often considered the least of the revelation gifts because it involves the spirit realm.  By its very nature the spirit realm has to be an active participant in order for this gift to be in operation.  

·      With the gift of Discerning of Spirits, we are able to “discern” or perceive, recognize spirits by their nature. 

·      2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to be ones who “correctly handle the word of truth” in other words, we want to make sure we are using the word to guide us correctly into truth, not twist it or use it in a way that benefits us. 

·      Paul in Acts 16 when he was in Philippi, Paul was able to discern the evil spirit in the female slave who was involved with divination

·      We do nothing in our own power, only through the Holy Spirit.  

·      I think it is easy to think of discerning of spirits and assume it is associated with things like fortune telling or psychic activity.  It’s not mind reading or anything psychological. 

·      Story of when I was on a walk and the Holy Spirit revealed to me the evil intention of the man hiding in the bush

·      Story where the Holy Spirit allowed me to see the demon in my guest room

·      Story of the Holy Spirit allowing me to see the angels in my church one Sunday afternoon

·      A person who receives visions will generally have the gift of discerning of spirits because visions require the use of the discerning of spirits and seeing into the spirit realm to reveal and explain. 

·      I think it is a basic need in Christianity.  Without it, you have no compass.  You have to be able to discern between what is of God and what is not

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

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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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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

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Anatomy of a Deliverance, Pt 2 of 2, Ep 2-32

Welcome Back!  I am your host Dawn Simmons, and today on Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be going through part 2 of our 2-part discussion on the Anatomy of a Deliverance.  As controversial as this topic may be for some, I wanted to walk you through what a deliverance is like, what happens, so you are aware and understand what was a large part of Jesus’ ministry, about 1/3 of what we know he dealt with in his ministry was casting out demons.  Jesus directed us to continue His ministry.  

In part 1, we discussed Mark 16:14 which says this: now this is after his resurrection: Later He appeared to the eleven as that at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who [d]believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they[e] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

That verse established our framework and our reasoning for why we do a deliverance and from which we are working. 

In part 1 we also talked about the prep work that I require of the person who wants the deliverance.  That is a very important step.  We met Jane, a young woman who is like most, has struggled with some issues all of her life, particularly health issues.  I also gave you some insight into my process and what my role is throughout.  I gave you a description of Jane’s first deliverance and then we walked through the steps of what I have people say and do in the deliverance process.  Those steps we will cover again in Top Show points at the end.  Lastly, we ended the episode as we began what I consider to be step 10 of my process which is me naming the demons to cast them out.  We are all caught up from last week.

Now, back to the deliverance.  So I began naming them, not necessarily in any particular order, but I was starting with lower level demons.  Things were moving along fine.  She was manifesting the exiting of the demons through her eyes.  A lot of little ones were leaving as she was blinking involuntarily, very rapidly.  Remember, you have to be specific when naming them or they can hide and their argument is that you didn’t name them so they weren’t told to go.  I had the strongman, or the main demon narrowed down to 2, Rebellion or Infirmity, but I wasn’t 100% sure because they will try to deceive you as you are going through the process.  Both were very strong and both were reacting very boldly when I called their name. Rebellion wasn’t leaving as directed.  It was doing what its very nature is and rebelling from the command.  I stayed on rebellion, guilt and shame and there were burps happening.  That’s not something Jane normally does like that so that’s a good sign, I kept going down our list.  I got into Infirmity and there was laughing at me. I want to explain, Jane is there, but her role is to allow me to name and cast out.  The coughing, blinking, burping whatever it is that she is doing is involuntary.  When I am naming and casting I am speaking to the demons.  When I want to talk to Jane, I call her by her name so there is no confusion.  When the demons were laughing at me, Jane started apologizing, worried she was offending me and trying to tell me that’s not her laughing.  I let her know I know who it was, it didn’t bother me, I’ve had worse, let’s just keep going.  The laughing did get a little more escalated and that was indication to me that who I was naming was trying to mock me and not leave.  In those moments anything demons do is not about me, it’s not against me.  Because I am using the authority Jesus gave me, everything the demons are doing, all of those things are against Jesus, so I use scripture against it reminding it who Jesus is and what the bible says about Him.  As it says in Romans 14:11, “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.”

So far, throughout all of this Jane has been sitting in a loveseat.  I previously explained to her we can start out there, but, if necessary, I may need her to move to a chair in the middle of the room so I can move around her if I need to.  So once things began to escalate, I went ahead and asked her to move to the chair. 

With her now sitting in the middle of the room, I followed the direction of the Holy Spirit.  While this process can be long and a little draining, if you are following what the Holy Spirit is directing, it’s actually easy.  None of it is me, I’m just doing what I’m being told.  If you have someone doing a deliverance who is being dramatic with their voice or movements or actions, they are working out of their own actions.  The Holy Spirit doesn’t need all that.  At the most you may need to be a little persistent and this deliverance is an example of why persistence was needed.  One other thing I want to mention here is that in this process, although you are talking to the demon, you are not trying to speak with the demon.  In other words, it’s a one sided conversation.  I have had instances where a demon wants to talk but all of that is a stalling tactic and some of the manifestations they do is meant to rile us up, to scare us, to intrigue us so we will get distracted or dissuaded and not complete the deliverance.  In this case, the Lord specifically told me beforehand “do not be dissuaded”.  If you are being told beforehand not to be dissuaded, that’s a pretty good indication you are going to be met with some resistance. 

Back to our story, so Jane is now in the center of the room.  We are probably entering hour 2 at this point.  I know the spirit of Infirmity is still there and giving me issues but I move onto others, cleaning house so that I have a clearer picture of what remains.  As I moved on the demon if Inheritance was now also manifesting in her as I called its name.  I cleared out more and came back to Infirmity.  As I called out for Infirmity to leave it began to laugh much harder than before.  Then Jane again apologized and said he was being very rude to me.  He was making comments to her but not to me.  The Holy Spirit asked me to me walk around her chair, circling it a few times while praying in tongues and then directed me to lay my hand on her head.  My hand was on fire and I know that means He is going to be doing something at that point.  As I do, I see her body flinch.  I continue to pray in tongues.  I am getting the interpretation as I am praying which is helpful to me because then I know what is happening.  It is very difficult to be speaking, getting an interpretation and comprehend what is happening at the same time.  I can multitask, but that was next level multitasking.  It was all happening very fast for my brain. After a few minutes of that I am directed to sit down in the chair I had set up facing her and continue to pray in tongues.  As I do, I see her face begin to contort.  When these manifestations start I am always cognizant that there is a person sitting there and I want to make sure nothing that is happening is too much for the person.  Jane is good, her eyes are closed throughout all of this.  Her face continues contorting so I know this demon is not budging yet.  I went back and cleared out Inheritance and then I was left with Infirmity.  I again called it out, nothing.  I’ve got a couple of things left I can do at that point so I start with the first one.  The Holy Spirit again directed me to be praying in tongues and this time has me get up and put one hand on her back and one hand below her neck kinda at the level of where her heart is on her chest but not on her heart.  As I place my hands there, her whole-body jerks and moves as if it’s trying to get out of something.  I am praying in the spirit and I can tell that this demon does not want me touching her. As a general rule, I do not like to touch people during a deliverance.  To my memory, this is the first time I have touched anyone during this process.  The only reason I did was because the Holy Spirit said to do it.  Within a few minutes, I saw Jane’s head roll to the side, it was contorting her neck to go away from me.  I watched but didn’t let it affect me, Jane was still fine so I continued.  I am still praying in tongues and as the interpretation is given to me I know the words are telling the spirit to get out, the rest I cannot remember now but at one point while this was happening, with my hand on her back, I would say it was about 1/3 down her back toward the right side, I felt an object about 8 or so inches long, move diagonally down her back like it was dragging across her skin.  It was incredibly strange.  The only way I can think to describe it is if you have ever seen a pregnant woman and how sometimes the baby will drag its foot across the mothers belly.  My oldest used to do that to me a lot.  When you see that happen the first time it’s kinda freaky.  Well, I didn’t see this, I felt it.  Because it was dragging diagonally and the length and shape, it wasn’t her vertebrae, it was this demonic being moving around in her.  If nothing else, at least that let me know it was still there.

Now I only have 1 thing left I can do with her.  I speak to her and let her know what is happening.  We have it narrowed down to the spirit of Infirmity but for some reason it does not believe it has to go and we need to know why.  I tell her we are each going to journal to the Lord and see what He tells us and then we will come back together, see what the Lord wrote to each of us and then go from there.

I was maybe a few paragraphs in on my journaling and I see her put her journal down and lay on the floor.  I watch her for a few minutes, she is crying.  I ask her about what the Lord told her. She told me to read her journal.  I want to keep the specifics of her journal entry private but essentially what we were told was that this one has been with her all of her life and so it was going to be very difficult to remove.  This demon had so intertwined himself to who she was that it was hard for her to know where he ended and she began.  This demon had convinced her that he had been there and protected her.  He was angry that I was trying to make him leave and told her that he thought she was lying when she made her proclamations and told all the demons she was evicting them. 

The Lord told me that this demon was very upset at what was happening because he had been there a very long time and had developed an entire system through her body.  He said the root had to be uprooted. 

She was crying pretty intensely on the floor and intermittently speaking.  I could see her wrestling within herself.  She was saying things that had me concerned because she was speaking about it as if it was her friend.  She spoke of how hard it was to tell it to leave.  As I watched, to me it looked like a breakup and a grieving process.  Have you ever had that one boyfriend or girlfriend that you think you love but they are so bad for you that you know you have to sever the relationship?  That’s what I felt I was witnessing.  I remained in the chair.  I was not to go down to the floor and help her, the Holy Spirit told me to pray from where I sat.  I continued to watch her go through these phases, crying, and as I watched I saw her stomach rise up higher than you would think was possible in the natural. I am watching her stomach rise and it was as if she was about 4-5 months pregnant.  Then it would suddenly deflate.  Then after a few minutes, it would rise again. 

This continued for several minutes and then she was quiet.  Then she cried again.  Then she was quiet and all that could be heard was the music I had playing throughout this process in the background.  There was a peace in the room.  She sat up and began to tell me what happened during that time.  Even as I write this, I am not sure how much I am going to share.  I want you to know, but some of the details she shared are very private and I want to let her have those.  Meaning, her experience was very personal and the details are hard to wrap your mind around. Even people who are well versed in seeing supernatural activities would be a little awestruck.

Here is what I can tell you.  She was the one who had to battle that demon.  She was the one who had to take the authority she had in Jesus and make it go.  It was so intertwined in her and had such a grasp on her that in this case the Lord required she be the one to evict him.  Through that process she was able to see that all the things he had filled her mind with over the years were the lie.  Nothing she had thought was true was actually true in terms of who she was and how she saw herself.  What that demon gave to her, what he had deceived her into believing was security with it was all lies.  She, in those moments on the floor, in one of the times she was crying, was experiencing the love of God for the first time in her life.  She described how hard she had to fight to get that demon to believe and accept that what she was commanding, she truly meant and wanted.  Interesting isn’t it that the demon was manipulating her to the very last moment to get her to doubt herself about whether she truly wanted him to leave.  This back and forth with her and the demon was related to her stomach rising and falling.  I don’t want to say anymore than that at this point.  I will however tell you this.  She was able to see the demon in its natural state.  She said that it was very large.  It had the appearance of a dragon, a very ugly dragon.  The body of it however, was that of a centipede.  The Lord described to me that the centipede body is where all the other demons joined with him to create this system of demons he had established in her life. 

As this is week 2, so more days have past since I originally began to tell you this story, I had dinner with Jane last night.  She is going through a healing process and slowly introducing new foods back into her diet successfully.  Her healing process could take months as she discovers her new life without all of the illnesses and moves forward getting to know who the Lord really is, not who the enemy kept confusing her to thinking He is.  Jane is happy.  She is released. I’ll keep in touch with her but I know she is in a good place now in her life.

I wish this was the outcome for everyone who needs this help.  We need to be aware of what the enemy does to confuse us and understand that Jesus overcame all of this for us on the cross.  Jesus told us in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the deliverance process, and I do hope it has helped to build your understanding of this often-misunderstood practice.  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. 

Our Top Show points this week are the steps I use in the Delivery Process:

1.     Reaffirm my life and salvation in Jesus:
“Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God, the only way to God, You died on the cross for my sins, rose again, and because of your sacrifice I am forgiven and receive eternal life in you.”

2.     Remove all pride from my heart:
“I renounce all pride, religious self-righteousness and any spirit that does not come from You. Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.”

3.     Forgive all others:
“I forgive all who have ever harmed or wronged me.  I lay down all bitterness, all resentment, all hatred, anger and ill will.  Lord, bring to my remembrance now any unforgiven feelings or actions I have toward anyone.”
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

4.     Confess my sin:
“I confess all my sins before You, both known and unknown, holding nothing back. I ask you to reveal to me now any sins I need to confess at this time.”

5.     Repent of all sins:
“I repent of all my sins. I turn away from them and I turn to You, Lord, for mercy and forgiveness. I thank you that you are there to welcome me as I turn toward you.”

6.     Break all ties with the occult and all false religions:
“I sever all contact I have ever had, knowingly or unknowingly, with the occult or with false religion where you are not the center.”

7.     Release me from all Curses:
“Lord Jesus, I thank You that on the cross You were made a curse, and that I am redeemed from every curse and inherit God’s blessing.  Jesus, I ask You to release me and set me free from all curses brought into my life both knowingly and unknowingly. I also ask for any generational curses to be broken now in the name of Jesus. I ask that you reveal to me now anything I am actively doing that is allowing these curses access to my life”

8.     Proclaim My Authority in Jesus:
“I submit to You, Jesus, and I resist the devil. I take authority over satan and rebuke him and any plans, strategies or activities he is using in my life in the name of Jesus.”

9.     Evict the enemy in the name of Jesus:
“In the name of Jesus, I speak to every demon indwelling and antagonizing me. You have no legal rights over me. I break every bond, I close every door. I command you leave now.  In the name of Jesus, I evict you!”

10.  Naming and casting out of demons:

Identify the spirits and address them by name commanding them to leave in the name of Jesus.  They may resist at first, be persistent and command in faith.

11.  Invite the Holy Spirit to replace the void in your heart, mind and body:

“Holy Spirit, I invite you to come into my life and fill every void. Renew my mind, my body, my spirit in all of your goodness, kindness, gentleness, patience, peace, joy, faithfulness, self-control and your unending love for me.”

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Follow us in Instagram

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week when we finish our discussion on deliverance!

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.  Those are available on the website.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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

Anatomy of a Deliverance, Pt 1 of 2, Ep 2-31

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and today on Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be doing something very different than our usual episodes.  This is somewhat of a departure from our discussion on the Spiritual Gifts, but as we discuss today’s topic, you will see how the Spiritual Gifts are used.  This is the first of two parts of this discussion.  As controversial as this topic may be for some, I wanted to walk you through what a deliverance is like, what happens, so you are aware and understand what was a large part of Jesus’ ministry, about 1/3 of what we know he dealt with in his ministry was casting out demons.  Jesus directed us to continue His ministry.  

Mark 16:14 says this, now this is after his resurrection: Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who [d]believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they[e] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

That is the framework from which we are working here. 

Before we begin, I want to lay some groundwork for this conversation. 

First, what I am going to share with you is likely going to challenge what some of you may think or have heard regarding deliverance and Christians. Many Christians believe this cannot happen to someone who is a believer, but I am showing you a true situation of demonization of a believer. Know that our focus is not the religious challenges, but rather the process and the experience of the deliverance.

Second, I am sharing my process and the details from a recent deliverance.  The purpose of sharing this is to demystify and destigmatize the deliverance process.  Few people go through it but it’s not something to be ashamed of doing. We could probably all use this at some level.

Third, we are going to be talking about a real person and her walk through this process.  This person is a believer, has been raised in the church and baptized. I do have her permission to share her story.  I am sharing what happened and everyone has the choice to believe or not believe. 

That said, let’s get going. I don’t know if I have spoken of this much, but I do have a deliverance ministry.  I don’t advertise or speak much about it.  It is something I do, but not my main focus.  Talking about it makes some people uncomfortable because they think of deliverance in the way that horror movies depict them and then people think you’re a little too far out there and things go sideways in conversations.  People who want to talk too much about them or ask too many questions tend to be on the side of sensationalizing these and that’s not what I am interested in doing.  I have seen some unusual things happen and we will talk about those things in this discussion because there were some unusual events in this, but by and large, it’s all manageable and rooms or houses aren’t destroyed and I’m not yelling at people to go into the light!

What I find is people become fascinated by all this dramatic crazy, freaky stuff, and then that’s all they want to hear about.  It’s not a game, the freaky stuff that happens, it’s real.  Demons are real.  We have to deal with them or they will deal with us, but don’t glorify the freaky.  Glorify the authority we have over the freaky.  That’s what is important.

Okay, I think you all get where I am coming from and where I am not coming from and so let’s move forward and I will tell you the story and the process of my most recent deliverance.  This last stage of the deliverance was 2 days ago, but to know the whole story, we have to go back about a year and a half.

Anytime I work with someone on a deliverance there is always prep work.  Time spent understanding the person, what are they wanting to accomplish, what are they seeing, what do they know is happening, and what are they willing to do for the resolution.  I began speaking to this woman, we will of course call her, Jane.  Jane and I began talking as she was going through a traumatic event.  Through those conversations is where I understood her position in Christ.  She was raised in the church but had gotten very lost along the way into adulthood.  Now when life was pressing in on her, she was fighting back and confused and directing her confusion at a God she thought was heartless. 

After about 4 months of working with her, she had shifted and she told me she knew she had a demonic influence and wanted to get rid of it.  She knew it was holding her back in many areas of her life.  I agreed to help her, but she had to do some homework first.  She had to identify what she knew was influencing her.  You have to know, you have to be able to identify by name what the demonic influence is because we need that information later.  Without it, we can’t complete a deliverance. 

To give you a framework, I only ever work with people who have accepted Jesus as their savior.  A deliverance cannot be successful without that because that is what gives us the authority to evict the enemy.  Nothing else gives that authority, only Jesus.  When I am working on a deliverance the Lord will usually give me a word of knowledge, something I could only know because it was revealed by Him.  So in this case I knew that one of the issues she had been dealing with was Infirmity, numerous kinds and it was since birth.  The Lord explained that in her case it began while she was still in the womb in a prayer that was prayed in ignorance over her.  So that gave us an understanding of why she has always been plagued with all of these illnesses that the doctors have not always been able to diagnose.  Even to the point she has very few foods she has been able to eat because she can’t digest anything. 

Fast forward, she came back to me with her homework done.  We spent about 4 hours one afternoon about a year ago going through the process.  The steps of the process I will go through as I tell you about her second deliverance.  Here I want to talk to you about what happened in the first deliverance and how it led her to do more work to understand herself and ultimately to the place where she knew she needed to finish the job and ask for a second deliverance.

During the deliverance process, there are a number of things I have people say.  Ultimately, I can only do what the person has agreed to do, so I have them speak out and then I follow with the casting out of demons.  On this particular day we had our list of demons and I was going through and calling out these demons.  It is a long process.  Some demons go right away, some do not.  You never really know what is going to happen so you always have all the things you will need readily available.  Tissue is a must.  There is usually crying involved.  You may need a trash can or at least a trash bag.  I like to have wipes for any cleanup.  It is true that these situations can be messy and the last thing you need is the person worrying how they look as they are experiencing this.  Manifestations can be ugly.  On this first deliverance she cried a lot.  My job as I am casting out the demons is to watch her, look for the manifestations because it tells me when a demon is leaving, it reveals when one is being stubborn.  There are no set standards on what it looks like so time and experience is your guide outside of the Holy Spirit telling you what is happening. If you are able to see in the spirit realm, sometimes you can see it this way as well but not always, so I do not rely on any one way but rather all these things working together and confirmation with the Holy Spirit.

For Jane, her manifestations included a lot of coughing, and I mean A LOT of coughing.  When a demon exits, it can go out with a whisper, or it can go out with a roar.  Depending on their mood they decide how they exit.  As I called names and coughing occurred, we were getting rid of some.  As we progressed, the coughing turned into….I don’t want to be gross here so use your imagination because let’s just say ugly, really ugly globs were coming up of different sizes.  Sizes can tell you about their strength.  It may seem crazy that there were so many we were dealing with but think to any of my episodes where I talk about a demon and then all the others that come alongside it and work to make things worse. It’s a system.  The stronger the system, the harder it is to get them out.  In Jane’s case, remember, we had a whole life of these things accumulating. 

Even though there were a lot of manifestations occurring, I knew at the end of our session we just were not done.  She felt better.  She needed about 45 minutes to pull herself together afterward.  She spent time in prayer, I gave her some space and time alone.  She had done all she was able at that time.  You can’t force anything.  A person going through this has to be fully engaged, fully invested and sometimes their “fully” is only partially them.  We still need to rejoice in the progress we made.  The one thing that is really important in these moments is to have faith, faith that you are rid of the ugly and that you can move forward with Him.  You want the Holy Spirit to replace that void you just created.  We talked through how she can support her faith and grow in this season.

I continued to follow up with Jane and saw vast improvement in her growth but there was something still there.  Again, I can only do so much.  Much of the work that goes into these deliverances has to be done by the individual.  The individual has to be the one ultimately to say what they will and won’t accept in their lives.  About a year after the first deliverance Jane was asking for more time, more guidance and knew that she needed more.  She couldn’t understand what was going on with her, she was sick all the time, having a lot of different fears, she has had counseling most of her life, she wasn’t interested in that anymore because it wasn’t resolving the issues, just giving her ways to manage her issues which she was using.

I agreed to start meeting with her again but like before we needed to talk so I get more details of where she was at that point.  We had to identify what was going on and how it was going on with her.  I don’t want to go through the motions of another deliverance if we aren’t able to ever resolve her issues.  She was holding back, and she finally admitted it.  So now we had to find out why. 

I’ve seen this phenomenon multiple times with people who are struggling and want deliverance but when push comes to shove and we get down into it, the demons they have are comfortable in their uncomfortableness.  People become used to their issues and there is a reluctance to let it go for a myriad of reasons.  As I describe for you what happened in the second deliverance, I hope to do the explanation justice as I walk you through the afternoon.

From the time she asked for another deliverance to when we actually did it was about 4 weeks.  The thing with this process is you don’t rush it.  There is no need to rush it.  When you are working with the Lord on something and in this you are always working with the Lord, you can either do things correctly or you can do things incorrectly.  In this case, Jane had some areas the Lord was working with her on, so we had to go by His timing, not Jane’s timing.  One thing she did was a weeklong fast.  This was her own idea, not something I asked her to do or not do.  She was seeking Him and wanted to use a fast as her way to submit and be vulnerable.  A lot came out of that fast for her, but still He had more He was doing.  I invited her to an event I was hosting, a Holy Spirit night where we would experience the presence of the Lord as a group.  That was a good experience for her, it helped to prepare her heart for what was coming next.  The Lord told me that after the Holy Spirit night, we could do the deliverance.  He gave me some words of knowledge again about her so I knew how to approach the deliverance and told me how He was going to move during that time.

We met a few days ago and I will walk you through our process and explain how it turned out for her.

The first thing we did was identify the demons again so we were on the same page.  Once we had our game plan then I had her recite that Jesus was her savior and who Jesus is, that He is the son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins and rose again so that we can have forgiveness and eternal life.  That is really important to reiterate her faith.  Without it, we have nothing.  There is no authority.

From there she renounced pride, religious spirits, anything not of Him and acknowledged who God is and she included James 1:17. 

In this process it is important to make sure we aren’t carrying any unforgiveness.  So she asked for forgiveness and we asked Him to reveal anything at that time that was unresolved.  Sometimes we forget about an unresolved bitter or hatred toward someone and we want to clear all that out.  Holding any of that could mean we don’t have full authority to evict the enemy.  It could give them the legal right to remain.

After that we are looking to make sure we don’t have any sins we haven’t acknowledged or repented of done knowingly or unknowingly.  We ask that anything we have missed be revealed at that time.  Little things, sometimes things we say or do against someone that we don’t readily recognize as sinful in nature are brought to our remembrance during this time.

Then we move on to make sure we are breaking all ties to any false religions, cults, witchcraft, anything where He is not at the center.  Again, that is hugely important because if we have participated in something we are allowing it and it has the right to remain in your life.

At this time we also ask to be released from any curses that are in our lives.  There can be generational curses that we are unaware of and we want to sever that.  Also, we could be doing something that allows a curse to access areas of our life. 

At this point, I ask the person, Jane in our case to submit themselves to Jesus and take authority over the enemy.  We want to rebuke the enemy in the name of Jesus and any plans, strategies or activities he is doing in our lives.

Now we are ready to begin the eviction process.  I had Jane recite an eviction notice to the enemy in the name of Jesus.  She tells the demons they have no legal rights over her and commands them to leave.  This process will work if you are doing a self-deliverance, but there are times such as this situation with Jane, where you need some help.  So that’s where I step in and begin my part.

My part centers around the prework we did where we identified the demons.  At this point I begin to name the demons individually and cast them out.  Normally when demons are cast out, we do not have authority to tell them where to go.  I’ve heard people do deliverances where they cast out demons to the “pit of hell” or something along that line and that is not biblical.  When Jesus cast out demons, he did no such thing.  We cannot cast them to hell because it is not their time to be cast into hell.  No one knows when that time is so when I hear someone doing that I wonder why they are going beyond what their authority allows.  The only time you ever saw Jesus cast the pigs into anything other than just “out” was when the demons specifically asked to go into the pigs.  He agreed to their request and sent them into the pigs.  The only exception to this is if the Holy Spirit specifically tells you to send them somewhere and in this case He did tell me to send them somewhere specific which was not hell, by the way. 

This is actually a really good place to break for this part 1 episode.  Next week I will be walking you through what happened as I began to name the demons.  Not all were cooperative so I will share all the details of which demons were being stubborn, how they were being stubborn, I experienced a new manifestation during this one, how we handled the stubbornness and what ultimately had to happen in order for her to be free.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the deliverance process, sounds really odd to say but I do 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. 

Because of the nature of this episode being more of a story format, I am not doing Top Show Points this week. We will do that at the end of the second episode.

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 devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book.  One devotional is for women and one is for men.  Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

·       Follow us in Instagram

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week when we finish our discussion on deliverance!

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.  Those are available on the website.

·       Follow us in Instagram

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 Demonic Spirits of Religion, Accusation and Perfection, Ep 2-30

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the Demonic Spirit of Religion and how it impacts our relationship with the Holy Spirit.  We will also take a look at the Spirit of Accusation and Perfection who often work closely with the Spirit of Religion.  We will see how it has damaged the church and continues to grow causing Christians, who are limited by these spirits, to cannibalize the move of the Holy Spirit in the church today. Given that we are in the process of going through each of the 9 Spiritual Gifts it is important to identify and address this demonic influence and remove it from our path as we progress. I will share with you some stories of how it has impacted the lives of people I know and how they are working to be free.

With a Religious spirit working you will generally see the spirit of Accusation, and the spirit of Perfection.  So let’s talk further about each of these spirits and what they will do to influence our minds and our hearts.

We will start off with Religious Spirits.  This is really a family of spirits where the strongman is the Religious Spirit.  The family generally includes legalism, religiosity, traditionalism, formalism, doctrinal obsession, doctrinal error, fear of God, fear of losing salvation, lawfulness, obsession with being right, lack of tolerance for correction, and is works based.  This is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you a pretty clear picture of where these demons are leading people.  In these types of beliefs, a Christian does not allow for the Holy Spirit to work, but instead creates a place where the individual has to work, and sometimes that means to work for their salvation. 

These spirits are typically the ones that serve to drive people away from attending church.  There is not a loving atmosphere, but rather a strict guideline, adherence to that guideline is what is considered important.  This thinking does not allow for people to come as they are, because it already has in mind how they should be when they get there.  All the activities are built on their belief system which may have some seed of biblical application, but by and large are manmade guidelines or requirements in some denominations.  There is sometimes punishment if one steps outside of the manmade requirements.  This is different than biblical church discipline that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians. 

Looking closer at a how a legalist functions.  A legalist does not seek to rightly obey and apply every word of the Bible to their own life. A legalist is someone who disobeys the Bible by adding to the Bible human rules and regulations for thought, life, and morality, and proceeds to judge themselves and others by these self-made rules.

I see these religious spirits play out a lot outside of the church as well.  When someone with marital discord seeks counsel from a fellow Christian, I have seen some extremely harsh words come out condemning the person for even reaching out and further slamming them for questioning why they are having issues.  Where I see this the most often and it is incredibly harmful is when advice is being given to those in a second marriage.  In the last few weeks, so maybe 2 or 3, I have seen at least 5 people reach out wanting support from a Christian marriage support group.  I am a member of this group and have become extremely disappointed at some of the advice being given.  All 5 of these cases, involved a second marriage and all were long-term marriages, in the 20 year range for the second marriage. The issues ran the gamut on severity.  There is another member who gives advice and says the same thing to every single one of these people.  He essentially says this, “could the reason you are having these marital issues be the fact that the spouse (whichever or both if it’s a second marriage for both) is still biblically married to their previous spouse and you or the other spouse, whichever, is actually committing adultery by being with them?  From there he has a huge list of scriptures he uses to them tell them they are living in sin and the marriage is not blessed by God.  He does not take the time to find out why they are in a second marriage.  In his eyes, every second marriage is a blanket sin and therefore God will not honor it by helping them resolve their issues and stay married. So it doesn’t matter why they are in a second marriage, it’s a sin.  That type of thinking and attitude is purely demonic, a religious spirit, and they are using what they think is a biblical doctrine to really kick these people when they are down already.  Where did Jesus ever do that?  Using the Bible to beat people up is essentially what the Pharisees and the Sadducees were doing and that is what Jesus fought against.  An organization filled with people who have no heart, no willingness to listen and understand and only serve to use the Bible to hurt and not heal or guide is an organization that is dead. 

As far as that marriage advice group is concerned, I did speak up about how these people were being treated by this individual and that this individual in particular was misusing scripture.  He wasn’t the only one, but he was always the first to speak up. I had a long discussion but unfortunately, I was told he was using scripture in his response so he could voice his opinion. My response was that if you let this continue then you are condoning a misuse and even in some cases an abuse of scripture. I stepped back from participating and to my surprise, the same person who told me his opinion was okay began to say the exact same things I was saying about his responses. She even stated he omitted pertinent words from his scriptural references.  It shouldn’t be this hard to speak the truth. 

Another aspect I have seen of the religious spirit is in 4 women I have been meeting with recently and I have seen in all 4 the use of shame and guilt. In each woman I heard the same words of how the religious spirit working actively in family and church members made them feel they are not able to be loved. Understand how these spirits work on us.  They will make you think, and erroneously believe, you are incapable of being loved because you can never measure up to what you are being told you need to do. This in turn produces self-hatred and self-condemnation no matter what your accomplishments or how hard you “work”.  This demonic influence uses a rule-based mentality and creates a series of rules that are impossible to keep because in many cases they are contradictory.  When you are rules based, you cannot function in love.  These demons will influence you to hate the fruit of love. Without love, they can keep you in spiritual bondage with self-condemnation knowing if you cannot love yourself, you cannot love others. If you cannot love others, then you can’t develop relationship and this does not just extend to those around you, but in your relationship with Jesus, with God, with the Holy Spirit.  This demonic influence stresses performance over relationship and when it can get you to a place where you think you failed, then you cannot develop relationships that will lead you to freedom in Christ.

When we add to God’s word that is legalism.  So what is the opposite of legalism that is also not in alignment with God?  Rebellion. What I see happening in the lives of the people I talk with who have been dealing with the fallout of legalist churches or family members is a spirit of rebellion develops.  It looks similar to the fight or flight response we face when we encounter danger.  Rebellion is the fight aspect.

One of the women I am working with now has a very heightened level of fight so that even when she wants to submit to Jesus, she is fighting it because she is having issues trusting that God is going to walk beside her, even when she knows he already is walking beside her.  He has made some unbelievable changes in her life a reality and she still struggles to let her rebellion go fully.  We had lunch a few weeks ago and she looked at me and said, “I want to get closer to God, I want to hear His voice, I want to know what He wants for me in my life.  I know I have to get all of this demonic influence out of my life, but I am fighting myself.” She was still in her rebellion mode from what happened to her as she grew up and religious spirits in her family that forced her to make decisions based on what family members wanted her to do, not what she was ready to do. As she talked, you could see her blood pressure increase, she became more animated, her volume increased, her neck turned red, her relaxed smile became an angry smile as she spoke. She was so tired of carrying around all of this weight and wants to be free of it once and for all she just couldn’t get rid of it no matter what she tried.  So let’s talk about why it is hard to rid ourselves of this kind of baggage and evict the enemy.  

To do that, let’s move on to the Spirit of Accusation.  Have you ever had someone accuse you of something you didn’t do, and just wouldn’t let it go?  They kept hounding you and telling other people, damaging your name and reputation.  If that is happening to you, you are likely doing all you can to clear your name, prove you didn’t do whatever or even confront the person telling lies.  It’s a terrible position to be in because you know that it’s likely you will never be able to put yourself back in the position you were in before the false accusations started.

Now imagine if you did do something, but not what you are being accused of and you don’t know how to defend yourself.  You are less likely to be able to speak up.  What if you did it, but you made the situation right and you are living correctly already. People in these situations find it harder to clear their name and this is exactly how the enemy wants you to feel.  Even after you accepted Jesus’ forgiveness, the enemy drags it back up again.  The enemy will take everything you do and twist it and make it sound unforgivable, pick you apart, and if he sees it is working, then it goes at you harder.  That is Accusation.   

Accusation…This spirit functions by using Judgment, Criticism, and Faultfinding in everything you do.  It will twist your motives and make you question your beliefs in the Bible. A small mistake will look like an insurmountable mountain. You can’t move past it, you keep dwelling on it week after week second guessing what you should have done instead.  It brings to mind that if you had been better, you would have reacted better, you would have made a better choice, you would not have handled that situation incorrectly.  Then you have to focus on how to correct it and all the while telling you that nothing you do will actually correct it. So you are really just being kept in a suspenseful state with all the what ifs and how tos.  You aren’t meant to find a way out of any of this.  If you do manage to do so, well that just starts a new cycle. 

In Revelation 12:10, Jesus refers to Satan as our accuser, “For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night,”.  The enemy enjoys listing our sins, continually bringing them up so we won’t accept the forgiveness that Jesus provides.  If we are continually having our sins placed before us, it makes it difficult to repent and trust in our relationship with Jesus.  In that state, we can’t see our Advocate, Jesus, as our defender and realize he is able to address the accusations against us. He paid the ultimate price for us.  I John 2 tells us Jesus, the Righteous One, is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, covering us in all our transgressions. Accusation only wants to distract you and call you a failure in an attempt to put you on trial and punish you. This is why it pairs so well with the spirit of Perfection.   

The Spirit of Perfection is rampant in our world today. For many people, the only image they want to portray is the image that their life is perfect, they look perfect, they have the perfect house, the perfect job, car, whatever.  The reality is, none of us have a perfect life.  We cannot ever be perfect.  We don’t need to be.  Jesus was and we have Him so we don’t need anything else.  That’s great if we have a nice house, but that doesn’t mean you are any better than someone who doesn’t have a nice house.  When our time comes and we face the Lord, we can’t say, “Lord, I may not have been very close to you, but I had the perfect house.”  The Bible does not tell us anywhere to be perfect, we are not striving for that. We want to be righteous, Christ like, but righteous and perfect are not the same thing and righteous and self righteous are not the same thing. 

When dealing with the spirit of perfection, you are dealing with Pride, Vanity, Ego, Frustration, Criticism, Irritability, Intolerance, Anger, Impatience, need for approval, need for attention.

The woman I spoke of previously who was dealing with rebellion, when we dug deeper into what was at the root of some of her issues, we also found the Spirit of Perfection.  For years she was raised thinking she had to always be perfect.  All of her activities, how she looked, how she behaved, her school choice, her degree choice, how she presented her family life. As she was talking to me about her frustrations and her expectations of God, I could see her rebellion taking her in the wrong direction.  She was becoming critical of what she thought God did and His judgment of people.  It was really the religious spirit trying to push back against her trying to submit to God. For me, it was almost like watching a toddler trying to persuade a parent for some candy or something.  If you have ever watched them try different angles, it’s a part of learning, a part of communication and negotiation, but when she was doing it, it wasn’t cute, it was pointed and it was against God. There were a few topics she was really stuck on, wondering how God could do such a thing or be such a way.  As I listened, I could tell that her view of God was not actually who God is, it was who legalists say He is and hateful behaviors they exhibit.  So after we walked through that I redirected the conversation to what we were actually talking about, her being raised thinking that she had to be the picture of Perfection.  We talked about it for a few minutes and then I asked her point blank, when did she achieve her perfection. She looked at me and you could see her countenance change as she laughed and said, “never” and then she started to realize she too was placing expectations on herself she could not meet. She still felt like a failure no matter what she achieved. Her self-condemnation was on its way to eclipsing any expectations she felt her parents had of her, keep in mind, she is 28.  Her need for approval has shifted over the years, but in the beginning, when she was young, it was very strong.

Allowing ourselves to be influenced and follow these demonic spirits will rob us of our experiences with the Holy Spirit.  We will close ourselves off, sometimes feeling comfortable in the unpleasant conditions because at least we know what that is like.  Fear of the unknown with the Holy Spirit means you won’t know Him personally, you won’t hear Him clearly and will stay just as you are, living less than the full life Jesus promises us in John 10:10. 

Why are all three of these demonic influences are extremely harmful? 

Religious spirits, accusation, perfection, they all destroy from within and carry forward to damage the relationships you have with those around you.  This works to isolate you and pull you away from God.  It’s a common and basic tactic the enemy uses to pull us down and pull us apart.  We have to see how they work against us to separate us so we can stop it as it comes to attack.  We don’t have to endure any of this if we maintain our focus on who God is and know who He isn’t.

I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the Spirit of Religion and its associates Accusation and Perfection 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:

·      The Demonic Spirit of Religion and how it impacts our relationship with the Holy Spirit.  We also took a look at the Spirit of Accusation and Perfection.

·      Discussed a family of spirits where the strongman is the Religious Spirit.  The family generally includes legalism, religiosity, traditionalism, formalism, doctrinal obsession, doctrinal error, fear of God, fear of losing salvation, lawfulness, obsession with being right, lack of tolerance for correction, and is works based. 

·      This spirit does not create a loving atmosphere, but rather a strict guideline, adherence to that guideline is what is considered important

·      A legalist does not seek to rightly obey and apply every word of the Bible to their own life. A legalist is someone who disobeys the Bible by adding to the Bible human rules and regulations for thought, life, and morality, and proceeds to judge themselves and others by these self-made rules.

·      Gave story of a legalist giving advice in a Christian Marriage Group that was blanket advice for everyone condemning second marriages

·      This demonic influence stresses performance over relationship and when it can get you to a place where you think you failed, then you cannot develop relationships that will lead you to freedom in Christ.

·      So what is the opposite of legalism that is also not in alignment with God?  Rebellion.  It looks similar to the fight or flight response we face when we encounter danger.  Rebellion is the fight aspect.

·      Accusation…This spirit functions by using Judgment, Criticism, and Faultfinding in everything you do.  It will twist your motives and make you question your beliefs in the Bible

·      In Revelation 12:10, Jesus refers to Satan as our accuser, “For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night,”.  The enemy enjoys listing our sins, continually bringing them up so we won’t accept the forgiveness that Jesus provides. 

·      Our Advocate, Jesus, as our defender and realize he is able to address the accusations against us. He paid the ultimate price for us.  I John 2 tells us Jesus, the Righteous One, is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, covering us in all our transgressions.

·      When dealing with the spirit of perfection, you are dealing with Pride, Vanity, Ego, Frustration, Criticism, Irritability, Intolerance, Anger, Impatience, need for approval, need for attention.

·      Story of woman dealing with a legalist upbringing struggling with rebellion and a spirit of Perfection.

·      Religious spirits, accusation, perfection, they all destroy from within and carry forward to damage the relationships you have with those around you.  This works to isolate you and pull you away from God.  It’s a common and basic tactic the enemy uses to pull us down and pull us apart.

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.  Those are available on the website.

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

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