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Spiritual Warfare

Fighting principalities, dominions and powers.

  1. Who Has True Authority in this World?

    Authoritive Prayer

    In the Bible can be found a kind of prayer which is the highest and the most spiritual, yet few people notice or offer up such utterance. What is it? It is “authoritative prayer.” We know prayer of praise, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of asking, and prayer of intercession, but we know very little of prayer of authority. Authoritative prayer is that which occupies a most significant place in the Word. It signifies authority, even the command of authority.

    Now if we desire to be men and women of prayer, we must learn this authoritative kind. It is the type of prayer which the Lord refers to in Matthew 18.18—“What things soever ye shall bind on earthshall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Here is loosing as well as binding prayer. The movement of heaven follows the movement of the earth. Heaven listens to the words on earth and acts on the earth’s command. Whatsoever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever is loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven. It is not an asking on earth but a binding on earth; it is not an asking on earth but a loosing on earth. And this is authoritative prayer.

    Such an expression can be found in Isaiah 45.11 which runs: “Command ye me.” How do we dare to command God? Is not this too preposterous? too presumptuous? But this is what God himself says. Doubtless we should not in the least allow the flesh to come in here. Nevertheless we are hereby shown that there is a kind of commanding prayer. According to God’s viewpoint we may command Him. Such utterance needs to be learned specifically by all students of prayer. . . .

    In our day where does such prayer of command find its origin with the Christian? It has its origin at the ascension of the Lord. Ascension is very much related to the Christian life. What is the relationship? Ascension gives us victory. Just as the death of Christ solves our old creation in Adam, and resurrection leads us into the new creation, so ascension gives us a new position in the face of Satan. This is not a new position before God, for such position is obtained by the resurrection of the Lord. Nonetheless, our new position before Satan is secured through the ascension of Christ.

    Note these words from Ephesians: “And made him [Christ] to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, ...
  2. "Christ Be Formed" and "Transformed" and "Like Him"

    by , 02-07-2015 at 01:20 PM (Being Accounted Ready (Matt. 24.40-42, Luke 21.36, Rev. 3.10) Before the Tribulation 2023 - 2030)
    I was reminded today of the devilish obstinacy and utter lack of humility of an old man in his flesh whom I have known for decades when he accused me of claiming to be God after I told him he needs to be Christlike because his anger and lack of discipline were showing up in his inordinate nose picking in confined and non-public places which I privately witnessed many times. I told him he should repent, to stop taking pride in his nose picking and that he needs to be Christlike. Is Jesus a nose picker? Christians don't believe we are God for we are not the uncreated Creator, obviously. Only God is uncreated. There are no gods beside Him, before Him, or after Him. He alone is God from everlasting. Let's take a look at some verses that support the need to be Christlike.

    "Christ Be Formed" and "Transformed" and "Like Him"

    As the law of life operates freely in us life will increase to the degree of having Christ formed in us (Gal. 4.19). In the measure that Christ is gradually being formed in us, in that same measure are we increasingly transformed (2 Cor. 3.18); and the goal of transformation is to be like Him (1 John 3.2). Christ formed in us is inseparable from the operation of God’s life in us. To the degree that the life of God works in us to that degree is Christ being formed in us and to that degree is there the amount of our transformation. As our inside is filled with the life of Christ our outside is able to live out and manifest Christ. This is what is meant in Romans 8.29 by "to be conformed to the image of his Son." It is both Paul’s pursuit and experience (Phil. 3.10, 1.20). It should be the calling as well as the practical experience of all children of God today. For us to be wholly like Him will of course have to wait until He shall manifest himself (1 John 3.2), that is to say, at the day of "the redemption of our body" (Eph. 1.14, 4.30, especially Rom. 8.23).

    "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4.19).

    "Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing" (2 Cor. 2.15). Ryan gets his nose in the way of the beautiful fragrance, because his fingers are in his nose way more than they ought to be. That was funny!

    "But we all, with open face beholding ...
  3. How do you really lose weight? Plan for the next 30 days

    by , 01-05-2015 at 12:46 AM (Truth of Mistaken Assumptions)
    You have to keep track of your calories for breakfast, lunch and supper. Lookup that item for its calorie content and create a list of the foods you eat and their calories so you don't have to search for the item again on the internet. Keep adding new foods to your list.

    You need to have 3 meals: 8-9 am, 12-1 pm, 5-6 pm. No snacking. Your liver snacks in between by itself. And you have to set out all the calories for you next days' meals so you know exactly what you are having for each meal. Treat this as a game. If you find that you are not keeping to the plan then you have to brood over it more on your excel spreadsheet. Create a new column for the next day. Observe the clock constantly for when you can have your next meal. If it is 12 am, you have 8 hours to suffer. If it is 2 pm, you have 3 hours to suffer. Keep reminding yourself.

    Next, you have to determine how many pounds you want to lose and multiply that by 3500 calories per pound. Let's say you want to lose 6 pounds. 6 x 3500 = 21000 calories. Subtract from that 21000 calories what you burn working out. Determine how many times you will workout in the next month, say 12. You generally burn about 500 extra calories per workout. 12 x 500 = 6000. 21000 - 6000 = 15000. 15000/30 days = burn off 500 per day. If you utilize 2000 calories a day normally, you will need to stay under 1500 calories/day to reach your goal in 30 days.

    Simple. The essential part of this if you are faltering you have to brood over these details more. Stare at your excel spreadsheet more until you feel you are in control. Be extremely vigilant! Some people have to stare at the clock and their excel spreadsheet all day long. So be it! If that's what it takes!

    Studies have shown those people who were over 300 lbs. who permanently stayed under 200 lbs. for the long haul did exactly this. Nothing else works. This is the only solution. The Holy Spirit of Truth told me so.

    You don't need to buy a book. Just follow these instructions precisely and you'll be fine. You will do what you have never done before! I'm a Christian telling you the best way to do things. The minute you stop looking at the clock and your excel spreadsheet is when you are susceptible to mistakes.

    It becomes even easier to achieve if your spirit, soul and body of your temple are receiving spiritual strength by reading a Christian book for 1 hour and the Bible for 1 hour in the morning before ...
  4. Deliverance

    DELIVERANCE

    For that which I do I know not; for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I practise. But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 7:15-8:2

    The Desire for Deliverance from Sin

    A person who believes in the Lord may immediately be delivered from sin. This experience, however, is not necessarily shared by all new believers. Many are not delivered from sin after they first trust in the Lord. Instead, they often find themselves falling into sin. There is no question at all that they have been saved, that they belong to the Lord and have eternal life. Yet the great difficulty remains that they are frequently disturbed by sin. Because of this, they are unable to serve the Lord as they would like.

    It is most painful for a saved person to be disturbed by his continuing sins. Since he is enlightened by God, his conscience is sensitive. In him is the life which condemns sins; so he has the consciousness of sin. He deeply feels his corruption and he abhors himself. This is really an exceedingly painful experience.

    Out of this experience comes a problem: many believers do not really know what sin is. Some believers say that sin can be avoided by resisting it. Thus they exert all their strength to resist the temptation to sin. Others contend that sin needs to be overcome. Hence they fight with sin all the time, hoping ...
  5. Why Does it Feel So Good to Read The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee-White Cover Only?

    The Spiritual Man, 700 pages, by Watchman Nee does something to you that no other book does, except for the Bible of course though the Bible takes longer to work in you because it is far more than 700 pages.

    Why does this happen? Because it is the foremost book ever written on the dividing of spirit, soul and body. Nobody else has even come close. Nee considered it a perfect work. I concur. Watchman Nee had the highest IQ of anyone in the history of the Church that we know of. TSM extracts from the Bible the best and most applicable material to show you how the dividing of spirit, soul and body takes place and shortens it up to get right at the heart of the matter.

    So what happens is you read say 20 to 50 pages in one sitting. You're deeply touched, but nothing major happens. Wait for later that day or the next morning. You will sense a change in you, and you can directly correlate it to appreciating what was said from what you read.

    You've just experience a taste of the dividing of your spirit, soul and body to walk by your spirit more than you did the day before.

    Now, realize, this is just a taste of what can be realized. If you were to spend 5 hours that day continuing to read and let it sink into your innerman, the change in your spirit increases exponentially in correlation to your consecration, that is, the amount of time you are willing to delve into it.

    You should not need to go to Jessie Penn-Lewis' War on the Saints unless you are contending greatly with evil supernatural spirits that are attacking you incessantly.

    After reading TSM do read The Latent Power of the Soul that belongs at the end of the TSM.

    If you do all this, you will experience such a change in your being, you will be left in awe and read the Bible like you have never read it before, because the spiritual world will have opened up to you.
  6. Additional Dangers of Spiritual Life

    Additional Dangers of Spiritual Life

    Other hazards lie in the way of following the spirit besides Satan’s counterfeits and his attacks. Often our soul will fabricate or sense something which urges us to take action. Christians must never forget that not all senses emerge from the spirit, for the body, the soul, and the spirit each has its own senses. It is highly important not to interpret soulical or physical senses as the intuition of the spirit. God’s children should learn daily in experience what is and what is not genuine intuition. How very easy for us, once perceiving the importance of following the intuition, to overlook the fact that senses exist in other parts of the being besides in the spirit. Actually spiritual life is neither so complicated nor so easy as people usually imagine.

    Here then are two causes for alarm: first, the peril of mistaking other senses to be the spirit’s intuition; and second, the danger of misunderstanding the meaning of intuition. We meet these two hazards every day. Hence the teaching of the Holy Scriptures is quite essential. To confirm whether or not we are moved by, and walk in, the Holy Spirit, we must see if any given thing harmonizes with the teaching of the Bible. The Holy Spirit never moves the prophets of old to write in one way and then move us today in another way. It is categorically impossible for the Holy Spirit to have instructed people of yesteryear what they ought not to do and yet tell us in our day that we must do these very same things. What we receive in the spirit’s intuition needs to be certified by the teaching of God’s Word. To follow intuition alone and not in conjunction with the Scriptures will undeniably lead us into error. The revelation of the Holy Spirit sensed by our spirit must coincide with the revelation of the Holy Spirit in Scripture.

    Since our flesh is continuously active, we must be ever vigilant against its intrusion into our keeping the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. We know the Bible discloses the mind of the Holy Spirit; but were we to observe the Bible perfectly, we still would not necessarily be following the mind of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because often we search the many teaching of the Scriptures with our natural mind and later do them with our strength. Although what is understood and is done agrees perfectly with the Scriptures, it is nevertheless done without dependence upon the Holy Spirit. The whole matter has remained ...
  7. The Crazy Games People Play Who Call Themselves Christian that are Not Christians



    Have you come across people, and more potently family members, who claim to be Christians but are clearly not? They throw the word "Christian" around when tested as if somehow that automatically makes them a Christian. For example, a family member may think the atheist in the family or other members of the family are Christians even though they never want to discuss the gospel of salvation of Jesus Christ let alone hear about it. They get angry about it. So this "nominal Christian" (i.e. false Christian) essentially believes in universalism that they are all saved and is under strong delusion that they believe in Christ anyhow in some mysterious esoteric way. What a false Christ this would be!

    How does an atheist accept Christ when the atheist claims God does not exist? That is the most obvious case to put forward. But it is no less true to observe the contradiction in someone who may not vocally deny Christ, but certainly has not received Him for forgiveness of sins and resurrection life.

    This family member who is a false Christian may have accused you of being a fanatic for your faith as a Christian even though you were simply giving the gospel of salvation with love to another family member who is an atheist. You were saved so you ask this fake Christian family member when he or she was born-again? Never did he or she ever give you the gospel before you were saved (or even after). What love is that? But as the years go by this fake Christian says she or he was saved long before you were. What a surprise that is hearing it for the first time when just a few days ago she or he said she believed in reincarnation, universalism and never mentioned Jesus is God the Son. This is a perverted form of one-up-man-ship. This is how worldly people are. They don't care about the truth of the Scriptures or the Spirit of Truth.

    Not only have I experienced this demented game they play, but I know other Christians who have given me their testimony that they have undergone the same mind games from fake Christian family members. I would like to add as well, I have never met anyone over the age of 40 who ever gave their life to Christ so don't expect them to change. At some point you need to simply not discuss it with them anymore, kicking the dust under your feet even as Jesus and the Apostles did. Just be
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