By His Authority - Cleaning Out the House –– Purity 641
Purity
641 01/29/2022 Purity 641Podcast
Good
morning,
Today’s photo of lush green trees and grass underneath the blue
skies of Honolulu, Hawaii comes to us from a friend’s epic journey to the Aloha
State back in June of 2021. This scene was captured at the National Memorial Cemetery
of the Pacific. The site is known as the Punch Bowl Crater as it is located
within an extinct volcano. It serves as a memorial to honor those men and women
who served in the United States Armed Forces. Since the cemetery was dedicated
on September 2, 1949, approximately 53,000 World War II, Korean War, and
Vietnam War veterans and their dependents have been interred. At the time our friend shared this pic they
shared that the cemetery consists of 112.5 acres in extent and the sight was
also known locally as "Puowaina" which roughly translated, means
"Consecrated Hill" or "Hill of Sacrifice." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Memorial_Cemetery_of_the_Pacific).
I was moved by the lush green flora as I scrolled
through my phone’s photo archive because it just spoke “life” to me, and I
guess I long for those vibrant greens of spring and summer that are so absent at
the end of January in upstate New York, but I can also appreciate the contrast
of death and peace that is present at burial grounds.
God’s created order highlights the cycles of life
and death and His plan for us, sending His son Jesus Christ to redeem fallen
mankind, provides the means in which our lives can transcend death itself as
the Lord promises eternal life to all who come to faith in Jesus.
In contrast to the Lord’s goodness and light, the
prince of the powers of the air, Satan, the enemy, wishes to deceive us and
lead us to reject the Lord and become subject to the judgement and wrath of God
that he will ultimately suffer when he is cast into hell at the end of
days.
Satan is a defeated foe and out of his hatred for
God and mankind He seeks to kill and destroy us through deception and encouraging
our own rebellion and rejection of God. When we are lost to the enemy’s schemes
through our salvation by faith in Christ alone, he still wishes to steal away
our peace through tempting us to sin and then by accusing us and condemning us
for our failures.
So even after we are in Christ, Satan still seeks
to oppress us and make us unfruitful and to suffer torment through the bondages
of sin. If we believe His lies, we will
fall into sin and disrupt the harmony of our relationship with God as we will
doubt our identity as a saint and one of God’s children.
Satan’s power is in the lie and he and his
demonic minions seek to make us believe that instead of being victorious over
sin and death, we are powerless against them and that we must suffer in the
bondage of sin and fear the coming of our deaths.
Satan has the power to oppress us if we believe
his lies and he has supernatural powers to frighten us if we do not stand in
the authority of Christ to cast out the dark spiritual forces that may be
presently trying to torment us.
In our personal lives this struggle with Satan is
most commonly characterized by negative mind states of fear, depression, anger,
frustration, anxiety, condemnation, low self-esteem, and by being consumed by
selfish and sinful pursuits.
The remedy to these problems that stem from the
effects of demonic, worldly, and fleshly influences is to establish and to
maintain our relationship with God and our freedom in Christ by receiving Christ
as Lord and Savior and by agreeing with God’s word in terms of who we are in Christ
and in how we should live our lives.
When we are firmly rooted in our identity in
Christ and endeavor to live as disciples of Jesus Christ by learning and applying
His wisdom to our lives we experience the promises of God for freedom and the
growing of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. This continual seeking of the Lord and growing
in our maturity as Christians are to be the content of or lives as we seek God’s
purpose for our lives. It’s a continuous practice and an earmark of our living
relationship with God.
This renewing of the mind and experiencing the
progressive victory over the enemy is enough to occupy the rest of our lives
but if we were only to focus on this internal struggle of faith we would be
failing to recognize the reality of the presence of the enemy in the world at
large.
The animistic, pagan, or eastern cultures of the
world recognize the spiritual forces that are active and powerful in the
world. A participant of my Freedom in
Christ Discipleship course that meets via Zoom on Thursday evenings recently
testified that his background as someone who hails from an African nation spoke
of the reality of the manipulation of spirits through shaman, or witch doctors,
and how spells and sacrifices are still utilized by people to receive blessings
or to inflict curses on their enemies. The people in these cultures don’t doubt
these spiritual practices because they have seen evidence of their power. These manifestations of spiritual power are
not of God and these phenomena should educate us of the existence of the
spiritual forces of darkness that are active in the earth.
Locally, supernatural phenomenon of spiritual
forces of darkness are attributed to be “lost spirits, poltergeists or ghosts
and my in-law’s family has testified of various experiences with things that
went “bump in the night” at previous houses in their family’s past.
My wife’s current residence is a rental. It is an
old house dating back hundreds of years and her landlord is a Mormon which is a
not a branch of Christianity. We are actively looking for new housing
opportunities.
Mormonism is a cult that posits Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s
founder, to be a prophet who is equal to
if not, over, and above Jesus Christ. Mormonism is scandalously anti-Christ and
the only thing more insidious than their beliefs is the sweet and wholesome
lifestyle they seem to represent. Mormons are deceived and need our prayers. I recommend Waler Martin’s book “Kingdom of
Cults” for a through disposition on Mormonism, and all other religions that
would claim to be a pathway to God but are actually different entranceways to
the road of perdition.
Anyway, there has been noises and disturbances in
this old countryside home at times that have tormented members of my new family
from time to time. I have personally
been afflicted by disturbed sleep and demonic dreams while staying there. During
one of my first stays at our “countryside
home”, I was recording a podcast in the living room, and I felt that someone
was standing in the doorway just outside of my peripheral vision.
This “presence” caught me by surprise and
startled me, but I just turned away from it and kept on recording. After I was
done, I thought about the spiritual landscape at our place in cow country and
how it might have some familiar spirits that sought to frighten or oppress us. I didn’t want to say anything to the children
or my wife about it but learned that there had been things that were similarly
unsettling that happened to both my wife and kids in the house before.
I was hesitant to do anything because of the
landlord’s rights to his property and was uncertain if we had the spiritual and
legal authority to claim the space as a safe place for our Christian
family. But after an episode of my stepdaughter
being tormented by noises and who had previously claimed to see “bright glowing
orbs” at times, I knew that I had to use the authority of Christ to “clean out
the house”.
My research showed me that when we pay for the
occupation of a space for lodging, temporarily or on a somewhat permanent basis,
we are given the legal and spiritual authority to claim the space, by the power
and authority of Jesus Christ, to make it a “safe space”, to be free from the activities of the
spiritual forces of darkness that may have been given free reign over the place
by current or previous occupants.
So having the wish to have peace in our countryside
home, and because I wished to conduct ministry work from their in the future, I
knew I had to exercise my authority in Christ to establish our home as a place
of safety and of service for the Lord’s kingdom by praying over every room and
space in our home.
So last night, I used the following prayers, both
of them, to exercise my authority in Christ to cast our any dark spiritual
forces or any demonic claims to our home.
As I prayed through each room last night, I felt the authority of God
was effective in claiming the house for our safety and for His surface.
These prayers come from Dr. Neil Anderson’s
Restored which is available as a free pdf download on FICM.org. Anderson states that to resolve any personal
or spiritual conflicts we should first pray through the Steps to Freedom in
Christ, and I am sharing the PDF( The Step to Freedom in Christ PDF) for those on the blog, and then get rid of or
destroy any cult or occult objects in your home before praying these prayers:
The prayers state:
PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL
CLEANSING
Home/Apartment/Room
After removing and
destroying all objects of false worship, pray this prayer aloud in every room:
Heavenly Father, I
acknowledge that You are the Lord of heaven and earth. In Your sovereign power
and love, You have entrusted me with many things. Thank You for this place to
live. I claim my home as a place of spiritual safety for me and my family and
ask for Your protection from all the attacks of the enemy. As a child of God,
raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places, I command every evil
spirit claiming ground in this place, based on the activities of past or
present occupants, including me and my family, to leave and never return. I
renounce all demonic assignments directed against this place. I ask You,
Heavenly Father, to post Your holy angels around this place to guard it from
any and all attempts of the enemy to enter and disturb Your purposes for me and
my family. I thank You, Lord, for doing this in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
PRAYER FOR LIVING IN A
NON-CHRISTIAN ENVIRONMENT (as
house guests or for temporary stays)
After removing and
destroying all objects of false worship from your possession, pray this aloud
in the place where you live:
Thank You, Heavenly
Father, for a place to live and to be renewed by sleep. I ask You to set aside
my room (or portion of this room) as a place of spiritual safety for me. I
renounce any allegiance given to false gods or spirits by other occupants. I
renounce any claim to this room (space) by Satan based on the activities of
past or present occupants, including me. On the basis of my position as a child
of God and joint-heir with Christ, who has all authority in heaven and on
earth, I command all evil spirits to leave this place and never return. I ask
You, Heavenly Father, to station Your holy angels to protect me while I live
here. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray.
Amen.
Because of the particular situation at my countryside
home – a rental with a history of occultic faith systems being practiced in and
near this home. I prayed both prayers over every room in the house, including
the basement and the front porch. I
ended with a prayer to dedicate our home for the worship of One True God in three
persons of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit and that this
house would also be dedicated for the work of ministry for His kingdom.
Well, its’ Saturday and we often us the weekends
to “clean house”, If you haven’t done a spiritual cleansing of your place of
residence, I recommend you do so. It was
the first order of business for me when I purchased my new home down by the river
in 2020 and now that my legal and spiritual rights as the spiritual leader of
this countryside home has been confirmed through my marriage covenant to my
wife, I finally was able to exercise my authority in Christ to claim it for our
safety and His kingdom purposes.
To fail to recognize the reality of the spiritual
forces of darkness in the world is like failing to recognize the reality of
death and only focusing on life. God wants us to live in the truth of His
existence and to have a relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ that
will not only defeat sin and death and give us a new everlasting life in His
presence, but He also wants us to use the authority that Christ has given us to
resist the devil and make his spiritual forces of darkness flee.
So keep walking and talking with God. God has
given us life everlasting, power over the enemy, and freedom over sin but if we
don’t believe it and exercise it the enemy will oppress, torment, and confuse
us. So use the authority that God has
given us to have victory, freedom, and peace over your personal and spiritual
conflicts and over the spiritual forces of darkness wherever you go.
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
1 John 4:4
(NLT2)
4 But you belong to God, my
dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the
Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
Today’s verse speaks of the fact that we belong to God as His dear children and tells of the victory that we already have because of the Spirit of God that lives in us.
This letter from the Apostle John is written to Christians, so if you are a Christian these words are for you too. When you put your faith in Christ, you received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who quickened your spirit, bringing you from spiritual death to spiritual life.
If you ever wonder why your non-Christian neighbors seem to be completely uninterested or unconcerned about spiritual matters it is because they are spiritually dead and blinded to the truth of the gospel. The most compelling evidence for this fact is that of our own personal “pre-Christ” testimonies.
Before I heard the gospel message that saved me in 2010, I struggled mightily with trying to understand Christianity. I liked Christmas and the feeling of silent peace in the Catholic church and feared for my eternal soul, but I felt completely uncertain about my spiritual status and whether or not the Christian religion was “for real” or the “only game in town”.
What about this faith? What about this religion? Are you telling me nice non-Christians are going to hell? That seems unfair! What do I have to do to be saved? I can’t do that, then what? Ahhh! I just won’t believe in God, that will fix you! Nanananana, you can’t hurt me! I don’t want to die! Does everyone go to heaven? Oh God help me! Whatever, guess I’ll be partying in hell with all the other sinners!” Oh no, I’ll become fully enlightened and will transcend heaven and hell, I won’t only break on through and save myself, I will save every other sentient being with me! Heck when I am fully enlightened I will know all things and be like God myself…
Yeah that catharsis of fear, loathing, and desperation is a small taste of what my life was at various times before putting my faith in Christ. It was an absolute maelstrom of self will, confusion, and fear. I didn’t know what was true and considered every available option to find peace in this world that ranged from stark materialism, the pursuit of euphoric states, total denial of spiritual realities, and the adoption of other religions. Whatever I tried failed to fulfill me or give me peace…
But God…
God opened my eyes to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and no matter how I investigated Christianity and tried to test it or debunk its truth, I have become increasingly convinced of its truth in ways I will spend the rest of my life testifying about.
The best way to
grow in your faith, to feel the power of the Holy Spirit in you and experience
the victory that you have already won in Christ is to test it by surrendering
to a life of Christian discipleship where you seek to know God more through His
word and through communicating with Him in prayer and by applying what you
learn to your life.
To experience
the victory, you have to live out your faith.
You have to trust the Lord and learn just how true all that the Bible tells
you is true. Our doubts are destroyed as
we live out our Christian faith and we experience just how great the Holy Spirit
is that lives inside us.
SO REJOICE, as
a child of God and pursue the life of freedom and victory that is already yours
for the taking, as the Spirit that is in us is greater than any spirit that is
in the world.
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org
where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors
to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue to share from Dr. Neil Anderson’s
. “Restored: Experience Life with Jesus”. Today, we continue sharing from
Chapter 6.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase Dr. Neil Anderson’s books for your own private
study and to support his work.
A BIBLICAL VIEW OF OUR WORTH
A proper sense of worth comes from
recognizing and appropriating the biblical fact that we are loved and valued by
our heavenly Father. Our value is not based on our own merit but on the fact
that we are His precious children for whom Christ was willing to die. We are blessed
with every spiritual blessing...chosen in God...holy and blameless before
Him...predestined to adoption as sons...have redemption and forgiveness...the
riches of His grace are lavished on us.133
The problem is not that we don’t have
tremendous riches in Christ; the problem is we don’t see them. So Paul wrote,
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know
what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints.”134
GOING THROUGH STEP FIVE
“God is opposed to the proud, but gives
grace to the humble.”135 By acknowledging pride, we are declaring
what Satan refused to declare—that we are dependent upon God. By exposing and
confessing pride, we are acknowledging our desire to be free from a
self-centered and a self-sufficient life. Then we will be free to begin living
by the grace of God and deriving our spiritual strengths and identities from
God, through Christ. Ask God to guide you with the following prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
You have said that pride goes before
destruction and an arrogant spirit before stumbling. I confess that I have
focused on my own needs and desires and not others. I have not always denied
myself, picked up my cross daily and followed You. I have relied on my own
strength and resources instead of resting in Yours. I have placed my will
before Yours and centered my life around myself instead of You. I confess my
pride and selfishness and pray that all ground gained in my life by the enemies
of the Lord Jesus Christ would be canceled. I choose to rely upon the Holy
Spirit’s power and guidance so that I will do nothing from selfishness or empty
conceit. With humility of mind, I choose to regard others as more important
than myself. I acknowledge You as my Lord and confess that apart from You I can
do nothing of lasting significance. Please examine my heart and show me the
specific ways I have lived my life in pride. In the gentle and humble name of
Jesus I pray. Amen. (See Proverbs 16:18; Matthew 6:33; 16:24; Romans 12:10;
Philippians. 2:3.)
Pray through the list below and use the
prayer following to confess any sins of pride the Lord brings to mind.
·
Having a stronger
desire to do my will than God’s will.
·
Leaning too much on my
own understanding and experience rather than seeking God’s guidance through
prayer and His Word.
·
Relying on my own
strengths and resources instead of depending on the power of the Holy Spirit.
·
Being more concerned
about controlling others than in developing self-control.
·
Being too busy doing
“important” and selfish things rather than seeking and doing God’s will.
·
Having a tendency to
think that I have no needs.
·
Finding it hard to
admit when I am wrong.
·
Being more concerned
about pleasing people than pleasing God.
·
Being overly concerned
about getting the credit I feel I deserve.
·
Thinking I am more
humble, spiritual, religious, or devoted than others.
·
Being driven to obtain
recognition by attaining degrees, titles, and positions.
·
Often feeling that my
needs are more important than another person’s needs.
·
Considering myself
better than others because of my academic, artistic, athletic abilities, and
accomplishments.
·
Having feelings of
inferiority appearing as false humility.
·
Not waiting on God.
·
Other ways I have
thought more highly of myself than I should.
For each of the above areas that has
been true in your life, pray aloud:
Lord Jesus, I agree I have been proud by
(name what you checked above). Thank You for Your forgiveness. I choose to humble
myself before You and others. I choose to place all my confidence in You and
put not confidence in my flesh. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”,
"Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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Email me
at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be
encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook
Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian
Discipleship
