Heavenly Father,

I bow in worship and praise before you. I plead the Blood of Jesus on my entire physical body, on my entire soul and on my entire spirit. I plead the Blood of Jesus against any demons that may attempt to come against me. I plead the Blood of Jesus against any humans that may try come against me.  I plead the Blood of Jesus against any natural accidents or catastrophe's that may come against me. I plead the Blood of Jesus against any diseases, illnesses or sicknesses that could possibly come against me.  Father, in the name of Jesus, I have full faith and belief that the Blood of Jesus will always protect me. Father, I surrender myself completely and unreservedly in every area of my life to You.  I gladly put myself into Your hands and I am more than willing to let You find a way to release Yourself through me. I take a stand against all the workings of satan that would hinder me in my prayer life. Satan, the name our Lord Jesus Christ, commands you to leave my presence with all your demons, I bring the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ between us and against you, and I address myself only to the True and Living God and refuse any involvement of satan in my prayer.
Father, the name of Jesus Christ, takes authority over every principality, every demonic spirit, and every spiritual wickedness in high places. The name of Jesus Christ has bound the spirit of fear, anxiety, depression, oppression, weariness, doubt, stress, bitterness, jealousy, unforgiveness, failure and poverty, and cast them out of my life, and the name of Jesus Christ  has loosed the fruits of the spirit and prosperity in my life.  Because the Blood of Jesus Christ covers me, satan has no power over my life, or anything that pertains to me.  Therefore in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, satan is rendered helpless, powerless, and ineffective against my life.  
Heavenly Father, I recognize that You are more than worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise.  I renew my allegiance and my vows to You and pray that the blessed Holy Spirit would enable me in this time of prayer. I am thankful that in Jesus, you have made me complete, and that You have offered Yourself to me to be my daily help and my strength. I am thankful that the victory the Lord Jesus Christ won for me on the Cross and in His resurrection has been given to me and that I am seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies.  I take my place with Him in the heavenlies and recognize by faith that all wicked spirits and satan himself are under my feet.  I declare, therefore, that satan and his wicked spirits are subject to me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and I rejoice in Your mercy and goodness Lord.  
I am thankful for the whole Armor of God You have provided. I put on the whole Armor of God and live and pray in complete dependence upon You, blessed Holy Spirit. I put on the Girdle of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sandals of Peace and the Helmet of Salvation.  I lift up the Shield of Faith against all the fiery darts of the enemy; and I take in my hand the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and I choose to use Your Word against all the forces of evil in my life.  
I am grateful, Heavenly Father, which the Lord Jesus Christ spoiled all principalities and powers and made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in Himself.  I claim all that victory for my life this day.  I reject all the insinuations, accusations, and the temptations of satan.  I affirm that the Word of God is true and I choose to live this day in the light of God's Word. I choose, Heavenly Father, to live in obedience to You and in fellowship with You.  Open my eyes and show me the areas of my life that do not please You, and then work in me to cleanse me from all ground that would give satan a foothold against me.  I do in every way stand into all that it means to be Your adopted child and I welcome all the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life.

I am thankful, Heavenly Father, for the expression of Your will for my daily life as You have shown me in Your Word. I therefore, claim all the will of God in my life this day.  I am thankful that You have blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  I am thankful that You have begotten me unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  I am thankful that You have made provisions for me so today I can live filled with the fruits of the Spirit in my life.  I recognize that this is Your will for me and I therefore reject and resist all the endeavors of satan and his wicked spirits to rob me of the will of God.  I refuse to be fooled by my feelings and I hold up the Shield of Faith against all the accusations, distortion and insinuations that satan would put into my mind.  I claim the fullness of the will of God for my life and I walk in the authority given to me by Christ Jesus.
By faith and in dependence upon You, I put off the fleshly works of the old man and stand into all the victory of the crucifixion where the Lord Jesus Christ provided cleansing from the old nature.  I put on the new man and stand into all the victory of the resurrection and the provision He has made for me to live above sin.  Father I pray that you will dwell in my heart by faith; that you will keep me rooted and grounded in your love.  For Father in your love there is no fear; because your love is perfect and it casteth out fear. And I thank you Lord for not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.  
Heavenly Father, open my eyes each and every day that I might see how great You are and how complete Your provision is for me.   Father, please give me eyes to see and ears to hear that I can understand those things that you are showing and speaking to me, so that I may understand you more fully and do exactly what you want me to do.  Oh Father, when You said seek my face, my heart cried out to You, your face Lord will I seek. Father, hide not your face from me, put not thy servant away in anger, thou has been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation, but show me your face and lead me in the way that I should go so that I won't stray from the straight and narrow path that you have set before me. Oh Lord I ask that the heavens be opened and that I may see visions of God.

In every way I stand into the victory of the ascension and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby all the principalities and powers were made subject to Him.  I claim my place in Christ this day, and I am victorious with Him over all the enemies of my soul.  Blessed Holy Spirit, I pray that You would fill me up to over flowing, break down every idol and cast out every foe. I pray that You will help me to walk in the Spirit this day, as well as every day.  I pray that You lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from every evil and demonic temptation and every snare of the enemy. I pray and believe that no weapon formed against me will prosper, and every tongue that riseth up against me shall be condemned.

A repost from Biblical Steps To Financial Freedom

Christianity is burdensome when one does not understand the ways of God. It is difficult to accept or obey what we cannot understand. One of the most practical examples is the monetary side of our required obedience. This is in the area of monetary contributions, offerings and charitable giving.

 Financial lack is still among the worst areas of affliction among believers, though for non-believers as well. Some are in huge debts. Others are lacking basic resources in their lives and Christian living. And so on. As believers God has given us biblical principles that relate to our material well-being. We can at least overcome areas within our sphere of responsibility. Applying God’s principles may not bring all we desire but it can eliminate avoidable and needless distress.


Same Principles, Different Limits
A text in Malachi that talks about tithing and offerings is a key reference to how God works through our financial obedience or disobedience. It’s important to note that tithing, that is, giving ten percent of our income, is not required in the New Testament era we’re in. We are freed, through Christ, from religious rituals of the Mosaic Law.

If tithing is still a requirement then we need to resurrect the whole Old Testament law. And all of us who go to church on Sunday would have no place in heaven until we returned to Seventh Day worship. Violation of this law is more eternally serious than violating requirements on tithes and offerings. So let no one deceive you that giving ten percent of our income is still our required minimum limit. Neither let them deceive you that a traditional church is the only accepted avenue for giving in the body of Christ.

However, the principles under tithing and offering requirements still apply in our day. So the text in Malachi still speaks to us today. The financial requirements in the New Testament era actually demand more than the old ten percent (tithe) minimum limit. We’re required to deny ourselves and to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Making ourselves as offerings to God is giving everything we have for his interests. 

 The early church in the book of Acts is a good example though not necessarily to be applied the same way they did. They sold their belongings and gave the funds to the apostles as stewards for all believers. Please don’t try this even if you hear a voice claiming to be from God. Continue you good deeds with bible based financial principles that are not based on emotions or strange voices. And let no ministry manipulate you by claiming to bring special rewards from heaven when you give to them. The bible talks about believers’ motives for giving while saying nothing on which ministry is more acceptable than another on financial matters.

We’re requested to be rich in good deeds, which is a way of storing up our treasure (wealth) in heaven. Our security is meant to be in what we’re saving up in heaven through good deeds rather than in how much our savings or earthly investments are worth (Matthew 6:19-21). It’s a complete opposite paradigm or standard from the secular approach. How much is required to be stored up in heaven is therefore as much as we can possibly manage. No percentage limits.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life,” 1 Timothy 6:17-19.


Obedience is the Key
Like in the old covenant era God brings whatever results based on our financial obedience or disobedience. He said to those who desired financial deliverance and freedom: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruits, says the Lord Almighty,” (Malachi 3:10-11).

So this is God’s way of providing material necessities. It is through giving. A tithe (ten percent) of ones income was the minimum in the Old Testament. Something is a gift when the giver requires nothing in return. It maybe financial, material, service of one’s talents and time, counsel and so on. It’s something that will contribute to the well-being of someone or group at the expense of the giver’s input.

Through the gifts, God says he is moved to “throw open the floodgates of heaven” to bless the giver. It may not be instant or come in a way the giver may assume. However God works everything out in his way and timing to bless the giver. Not only does he open doors for his blessings he also prevents the enemy from undoing our blessings. You probably know people who received much only to loose it all in mysterious ways, to suffer crippling health problems or other misfortune. God works to prevent such experiences for as long as we continue obeying his word. On the highest level we’re requested to “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well,” (Matthew 6:33). It means putting his ways of righteous living, evangelism interests and charitable interests ahead of our personal earthly interests. They need to matter to us more than our interests and needs. All the things we need for our earthly living are given to us as we pursue his interests. God’s Ways or Ours? God has given his ways to open the floodgates of heaven. But some may decide to look for their own ways they consider more convenient. All sorts of “justifiable” excuses may come up. The most common are, “I don’t have enough to give anyone,”  “I’ve so many critical obligations that giving would not be practical,” “I’ve not yet started earning my own income.” Thus we devise other ways to receive from God. We hold long prayers, sometimes accompanied with fasting. Some who misunderstand spiritual warfare resort to binding and rebuking demons from holding their material blessings. At the end of the day nothing moves. We may even begin to question ourselves: “May be God wants us to remain in lack?” After all, the bible strongly warns against the love of money. So living day to day on subsistence provisions by the grace of God could be his will for our lives. All this is not true. We are only applying the wrong principles for the wrong purposes. We still end up walking in financial disobedience and harvesting fruits of financial disobedience. Our Lord waits for us to apply what he has prescribed for us. Until we respond according to his word he continues to wait. Resorting to sinful ways and other worldly ways may work but only to bring in other worse problems in the long-run. On another note, a believer may have other issues outside giving that may be contributing to financial woes. All these are hindrances to what God has promised through his word. Still Under Manna or in Canaan? God fed the Israelites manna during their 40 years in the wilderness. Manna was enough for the day and no more for the next. Any attempt to lay aside some for a succeeding day failed, except the day immediately preceding the Sabbath. Attempts of preservation only led to the manner to rot. After 40 years the disobedient generation of military age had all gone except Joshua and Caleb who had obeyed God. Then God asked Joshua to circumcise the sons of the disobedient generation. After he obeyed this and observed the Passover God opened the door for them to eat their own produce in Canaan. The manna stopped (Joshua 5) and the Israelites were no longer bound to daily rations. Their reproach, which was a sign of bondage, was rolled away when the new generation matured and it fulfilled its obedience through Joshua. “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you,” Joshua 5:9. Their reproach was not rolled away when they crossed the sea with Moses. It was after more than 40 years when they qualified to inherit their promised blessing. All along they were still in some form of bondage like in Egypt. It was a material bondage. No wonder they complained so much that some even asked to return to Egypt where they had no freedom. This could be the case for some believers in their material lives. Spiritually they are no longer in bondage. Materially things have not changed or have worsened. Some even consider returning to sinful ways of gaining material means. They consider sacrificing their spiritual freedom for material gain. They have prayed and begged God for years but little if anything has changed. Yet God is saying some are in a financial wilderness of their own making because of disobedience to his financial principles. Prayer and begging is not a requirement in this area of our Christian lives. According to his word there is a better way out than resorting to sinful or spiritually compromising ways. His ways may take longer than the sinful ways but are more than worthwhile in the long run. So some may be living in a financial wilderness of their own making because of disobedience. There are only two wildernesses in life – one is God-made while the other is man-made. Jesus entered a God-made wilderness when he was led to be tempted by the devil. His wilderness was a general trial of faith and not a financial one. Our God-made financial wilderness is mostly during the years of our upbringing. We receive manna we never worked for. The manna is just enough to get by and scarce enough to continue looking forward to our own means. During this period, God wants us among other things to learn obedience and submission to higher authority. It is also training ground for our submission to God and his ways. During God’s ordained wilderness our parents and guardians not only have heaven’s commission to care for us, they also have the means to exercise their authority. No wilderness is exciting. As we grow older we desire more to be free from the financial wilderness of being on the receiving end. For some the mere thought of others sacrificing their lives for them is tormenting. They look forward to freeing their parents or guardians from their burden of looking after them. For others the manna itself becomes increasingly unbearable. And so on. A God-made financial wilderness is at least one we’re not to regret. We found ourselves under particular parents or guardians of certain means and other characteristics. It was God’s own design. It’s a self-made one that is a problem. Financial Curse (Wilderness) -A Father’s Discipline The wilderness that we can somehow live to regret for having gone through is the self-made one. It comes as a result of disobedience to God. Here an individual has the power of choice but misuses it by ignoring God’s principles. In the God-made one there is nothing we can do except endure it. In the self-made one there is everything we can do to get out of it. It’s presence is a sign that there is something God requires of us that we’re not fulfilling. When the Israelites disobeyed God they paid the penalty by being caged into a wilderness for forty years. They received manna just to keep them alive while paying for their sin. The same happens to us when we disobey his principles. He leaves us to survive on manna that is just enough to get by and scarce enough to continue looking forward to being free from such mere survival. It may seem like God is a strict disciplinarian waiting to punish every disobedience. However scripture and history show that his hand of mercy is more prevalent than his hand of justice. His greatest act of mercy was having his Son, Jesus, die for our sins. We would be paying for every sin if it wasn’t for Christ. For most of us who have not been perfect this would be serious bondage, worse than slavery. But to say God is no disciplinarian would be a big lie. Try getting into certain sins, especially the sexual sins and you’ll be sorry for it. Repentance is the ultimate rescue but may not stop all the sinful harvest. He will also eventually work it to your good but the process of getting to obtain that good can be painful. God does discipline us, out of love, not out of his wrath when we stray. “The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son,” Hebrews 12:6. So God disciplines us when we disobey his biblical financial principles. His discipline is what enables us to return to his ways when we stray. He allows a financial curse or wilderness to develop in our lives. To him disobedience to his biblical financial principles is robbery. We robe God of what belongs to him.  He said, “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me…in tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you because you are robbing me” (Malachi 8-9). A whole nation or household can be under a curse because of one of the heads of a household is walking in disobedience. The curse of not giving is living in scarcity and continual harassment from the devourer (devil) either through a financial misfortune, losses, theft, money going to cover for sickness, and other unnecessary burdens. And because God is merciful he gives manna to the disobedient so that they survive by the day. Until obedience is fulfilled the manna continues. Breaking the Curse of Poverty Through Obedience The curse is only changed into a blessing when one starts giving. Ten percent was the Old Covenant minimum but it can be a safe level to start on. There is no other substitute. Our monetary and material means that are given as gifts are the only worthy seeds for a material harvest. We can also freely give our time and talents that have financial value to Christian causes. This can be a way of making up for low financial contributions in the manna years of scarcity. Merely praying or fasting will do almost nothing. Prayer and fasting only water the seeds. Without the seeds no amount of water will bring anything from the ground. No seed falling to the ground no harvest. Usually prayer and fasting are not necessary to material harvests This is because material seeds work on God’s principle: “A man reaps whatever he sows.” (Galatians 6: 7). If material harvests came from prayer then only Christians would have the material means. The rest would be on manna until they got born again. Evangelism would so easy, if at all it would be needed. Unbelievers would seek salvation once they got tired of the manna. God has set aside prayer (and occasional fasting) for more important seeds -evangelism. He wants us to concentrate on watering (praying and fasting) over seeds of salvation and liberty among lost souls. We can pray over our evangelism efforts or those of other ministries to produce their intended harvest of souls. In the financial or material area God personally opens the windows of heaven to bless us. This happens as we apply the principles of seed time and harvest time. We do not need to pray or ask him to open the windows of heaven. Here he wants to be tested and not be prayed to. Can you imagine God asking his creatures to challenge, test or tempt him? He said, “Test me in this and see if I will not through open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessings that you will not have room enough for it” (Malachi 3:10). There is so much in heaven that God had to build floodgates - figuratively speaking. Floodgates are for stopping floods. God’s kingdom is flooded with blessings waiting to be poured out on obedient souls in the biblical financial principles. Wanna go for a one on one with God, the Almighty, All Powerful and so on? He says “test me,” or “try me.” In paraphrasing he is saying “let’s see who is going to win in the giving game between you and I. Let’s see if what you give to me will be more than what I give back in return to you.” It’s easy to know who the winner will be. God’s victory of giving more than the giver may not come in the short-run. Any short-sighted person can have a difficult time understanding how God works. Many times the desired means also do not come the way an individual expects. For instance, he may open doors for your children into schools and professional positions that you could only dream of. This way your children become your most exciting part of your senior life. Seeing the faithfulness of God fulfilled in their lives gives you more reasons for living. Such a blessing may take 30 or more years to materialize. Yet you kept sowing throughout those decades. God is faithful – in his time and way. How God Opens the Floodgates of Heaven The floodgates of blessings God pours out are in the form of avenues that he opens for us to receive from him and be under his protection. One avenue is through divine ideas. For instance, God told Isaac to plant crops in drought season and he “reaped a hundred fold” (Genesis 27:12). God can drop ideas into the heart of an individual on how to run or start a particular business, where to look for employment, or if it’s a promotion, how she should conduct herself for promotion. Another avenue is God commanding favor in the hearts of other people towards an individual and her particular calling. “Let love and faithfulness never leave you…then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man,” (Proverbs 3:3-4). This favor or grace is the anointing of God upon an individual and his/her particular calling. The individual may not be as educated as her associates, or as good looking, as old or young, as talented, or whatever is desired, yet the anointing upon her will make her to be exceptional in one way or another. The individual can be a farmer, lawyer, nurse, retailer, an evangelist, consultant, teacher, and so on. People will be attracted to her and be more willing to receive from or transact with whatever she offers than with others. The academic world may be the most meritorious system in the world. One gets a certificate, degree or grade depending on their ability in a selected field. Merit or ability not favor or chance is the ultimate determinant. The professional world operates in a somewhat chaotic way. Merit (ability) and favor coexist with one being more prominent than the other in different fields and places. Making it in such a chaotic world may need more than merit for some. For others ability may be all that will be required. God opens doors for mastering the ability and where necessary grants favor in securing a position, business, property, interest or whatever. God even lays burdens in the hearts of some people to give in monetary or material form to the individual. Our Lord Jesus and his disciples lived under this favor. Jesus made Judas Escariot, a perpetual thief, his treasure to show how unconcerned he was for material provisions. No matter how much Judas embezzled supplies never ran out. How God Prevents Satan from Destroying the Blessing “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” (Malachi 3:11). Pests are problems and misfortune that arise in areas of interest in our lives. The comparison scripture uses is related to farming. A farmer labors sowing seed, tenders it while eagerly expecting a great harvest as the final outcome. However pests come and ruin all his labor. He worked hard but this time it was all in vain. He worked to feed the pests, not himself or his/her family. In our lives Satan and his agents are the pests. They work to destroy everything we endeavor in that is godly and scriptural. Destruction is their only ministry. Their ministry succeeds where we do not have God’s protection. So if our financial areas have no covering our labor may be in vain. God prevents Satan’s access when we start to apply the biblical financial principles. We do not need to pray to him to rebuke the devourer. He does it on his own. Our obedience breaks the curse of poverty for as long as we remain in obedience. We do not need to be even concerned how Satan is working in his ministry of trying to frustrate our lives. Our concern should be on how we’re obeying God in fulfilling our required input. When our obedience is fulfilled to God’s principles he works to rebuke or prevent the devourer affecting our lives. Knowing God’s principles in every area of our lives is therefore our only refuge. The enemy feeds on our ignorance. When we know the truth in a given area Satan can devise any plan of destruction but God’s angels will prevent him from fulfilling it. No need of binding and loosing evil spirits of this and that. Non-believers survive by the mercy of God. The devourer has easy access into their lives. The financial area is where more people are trapped in the curse of poverty than are out of it. This includes believers. Satan may be the thief that comes to steal the blessing but he is not the problem. The problem is believers themselves. We give him access to spoil the harvest if we do not live by biblical financial principles. Living outside biblical principles gives pests as much access to us as they have to unbelievers in their finances. For instance one may save a good amount of money only to loose it through a misfortune. An illness or accident may come along and eat some of it. He/she may invest into something only to see it collapse. One way or another money seems to be coming in and quickly going out through another door. Another situation may be borrowing for matters one shouldn’t have. The individual could still survive without them. But the tempter shows up with wonderful ideas on how one’s life will be better off if they borrowed to obtain certain desires. The funds will after all be repaid at a low interest. Before long the individual is having trouble paying the interest, leave alone the loaned amount. It is like being caught up in a prison of working to pay someone else. This someone is part of the pests that have entered to eat whatever one labors in. This is how curses operate. They keep people from making any progress in areas of interest. People try hard only to fall back, or ending up worse off. A worse off situation arises where an individual gets into increasing debts. Another can be through other problems coming up to eat every form of piece of mind one desires to have in life. We see this in many so called celebrities. Many live tormenting lives confronting one serious problem after another. They have money and earthly fame but they have no peace. Having peace only comes from the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Most of us saved have this peace. We did not buy it. It was freely given upon receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We have the most expensive blessing that no wealth, power, beauty, fame or worldly pleasure can buy. Any believer that does not have it ought to search what is grieving the Holy Spirit from bringing his peace and comfort. Sometimes trials may overwhelm but only some times. Most times the Lord enables us to bear our trials of faith, knowing he is the one in control, not our circumstances, nor other people, nor Satan. During my worst trial or is it worst experience of reaping from ignorance I concluded the best option was dying. Not suicide but asking God to take my life. After all he did that to Elijah who was as human as any of us. Having no children or spouse yet to leave behind made it safe to say such “self-centered” prayers. Like with Elijah it was time to go to a better place. “I have had enough, Lord,” he (Elijah) said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors,” 1 King 19:3-4. Then God revealed the cause of the problem - bombarding hell in the name of spiritual warfare prayers and deliverance prayers. Applying all that was required and correcting interpretation on spiritual warfare ended all the torment. In the midst of the torment I had all the peace as to who I served, where I was going after dying and knowing who was in control over my case. A colleague who was an unbeliever was puzzled to think of someone not being afraid to die. Fellow believers understood the salvation principle though they of course disagreed on making such prayers. Well, God tossed out all such prayers then later revealed the cause. This book, other books and the ministry work would not have materialized had he answered the prayers. I would have been in heaven but would have also received a smaller crown. And many would have been deprived of what he purposed to fulfill from the experiences. The Bottom Line The whole truth about financial rewards is that any giver prospers. “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed,” (Proverbs 11:25). It does not matter whether one gives to the work of God or to the work of men. Neither does his religion or spiritual state matter. The law of seed time and harvest time applies to all of us. One harvests whatever he sows. A mango seed will always harvest mangoes no matter the soil it is planted in. It cannot change to oranges. Same with material or financial seeds. That is why many people in the occult are very wealthy. They are not wealthy because they are in occultism. It is because they know and aggressively apply the law of seed time and harvest time. But they have their major problems that amount to severe bondage. Some of what individuals and companies call as charitable giving to non-profits, sports clubs, schools, hospitals and communities are activities of increasing their wealth so that they can increase their mischief. Their seed is of the flesh and the material harvest is of the flesh. Whatever the sacrifice it has no reward in heaven. Some individuals and companies may even give for extreme occult reasons. You may have heard rumors of some companies contributing some of their profits to satanic churches. Most rumors are hoaxes made by up their competitors. But it shows such activity is there. Some companies reap large profits by sowing some of their finances to demons. Same Harvest, Different Taste of Harvested Material Fruits The only difference between Christian and all other forms of giving is that one sows to the Spirit (of God) and the other to the flesh (sinful nature). Monetary and material gifts by a Christian with genuine motives to other believers or needy people in society are material seeds sown to the Spirit. The recipients may include one’s local church, an evangelistic ministry, and a Christian charity. On the other hand, monetary and material gifts by a non-Christian, even with right motives, sown to needy people in society are seeds sown to the flesh. One cannot buy his/her way to heaven by good works. Good works that have value in heaven are from us who already are counted as God’s children. The good hearted non-believer will be blessed materially and have quite a respectable life on earth but that’s about it. You may have met or heard of good-hearted non-Christians doing all kinds of charity work. Many lead quite admirable lives that many self-righteous Christians may have much to learn from. I have met many in various areas including in charity ministry. I pray for their salvation which is a free gift from God. “It (salvation) is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast,” Ephesians 2:8-9. While salvation and a plot in heaven is a free gift through Christ the crown is not. Christians that may think works are not important have not read the bible. They have not read how much believers had to sacrifice for the gospel and godly work. On judgment day Jesus’ judgment will be based on what we have done not just for being saved by grace. “My reward is with me, and I will give to every one according to what he has done,” (Revelations 22:12). It gets more complicated where scripture adds that not all our good works will be accepted. Like those of unbelievers some of our works may be rejected. They will have no value in heaven. They will bring material rewards here on earth. But they will not be credited in heaven. Here is a warning from scripture regarding our good works. Note that the one whose entire good works are rejected will narrowly escape the fire (hell) and will also suffer loss. It does not elaborate what kind of loss but the mathematics in the scripture points to seeds of the flesh = fruits of the flesh, that is, problems spiritually, socially, physically, etc. “If any man builds on this (salvation) foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames,” 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 With such a warning we can now proceed to the principle of reaping whatever we sow. Since the scriptures can never be broken each seed will reap it’s own nature. “The one who sows to please his sinful nature (flesh), from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit; from the Spirit will reap eternal life,” (Galatians 6:8). One group of seeds harvest fruits that bring destruction on the individual. The other group brings health and life to the individual. They are all monetary seeds but they harvest different types of monetary fruits. For instance, lemon and orange seeds are both citrus seeds. When planted they both produce citrus fruits.  However, the taste of the fruits differ. One group is bitter while the other group is sweet. The same is the case with monetary and material seeds. Flesh and spirit monetary seeds have one thing in common: they are both monetary seeds. They therefore both produce monetary fruits.  However, the taste of the fruits differ. One group is bitter, the other group is sweet. One group of monetary wealth brings sorrow, trouble and death. The other group brings trouble free rewards. “When God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and to be happy in his work - this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life (with regrets), because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart,” (Ecclesiastes 5: 19-20). “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it,” (Proverbs 10:22). His blessings add no trouble because they are fruits one reaps from sowing to the Spirit. Scripture says the fruit of sowing to the Spirit (of God) is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” (Galatians 5: 22-23). On the other hand, the fruits of sowing to the sinful nature (the flesh) include, “Sexual immorality; impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God,” (Galatians 5: 19-21). “The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous” (Proverbs 3:33). The measure of material rewards is therefore not on the scale of quantity but on quality. To what extent are they either curses or blessings on the lives of those that have them?  To what extent are they facilitating their walk with God. To what extent are they blocking it?  David prayed to God, “Turn my heart towards your statutes and not towards selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things,” (Psalm 119:36-37) If what is sown to God’s work has selfish gain motives in it then it is likely to reap a flesh harvest. Orange trees when not tendered properly while growing can turn into lemon trees. Lemons are basically bitter oranges and not the other way round.  The same change can happen to monetary seeds sown to the Spirit, that is, God’s work (evangelism and Christian charity) when not tendered properly or if they are sown with selfish gain motives. They produce bitter monetary fruits in the sower’s life.  Christianity is a call to total self-denial. Whatever comes into one’s hand must go back to extending God’s interests not ours. For instance, if an individual is called into business ministry, the more profits God blesses him with, the more he must sow towards God’s interests. He should not stick with the old testament ten percent rule and shift the rest on personal gains of acquiring a fleet of cars and other unnecessary personal additions.  His selflessness must be expressed in his zeal in God’s interests and lack of interest in himself. About  self denial our Lord said “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it,” (Matthew 16:24-25).  The measure of our obedience is determined by how much we deny our interests and lose our lives by burying them in the work of Christ in whatever calling God puts us in.  “Where your treasure (interest) is, there your heart will be also,” (Matthew 6:21). Where to sow Much of what has been shared may have clarified this. It may be worthwhile to summarize it. Wherever you sow as long as it’s in Christian related causes matters less than your motives for sowing. You will receive financial rewards for whatever financial sacrifice you make. God remembers them all and will reward you in due season. Your concern should be whether or not your financial sacrifices will have a heavenly reward. You may be desperate now to care less on what you’ll later receive but I advise you to minimize your desperation. The more in a hurry you are the more God may test your faith and try to align your motives to suit his. He can therefore delay your purposed reward or transfer it to your children altogether. He may instantly reward but you will be a rare exception. Many of us have had to walk by faith and learnt to give for the sake of the gospel for years and years and years. God has blessed us in many ways that toil and sweat cannot manage. However it has all been in his way and measure, not ours. Another counsel is on ministries claiming to be fertile ground. I believed this until the Lord revealed these matters. The only fertile ground is you the individual believer not an entire ministry. If it was a ministry then our heavenly rewards will be based on which ministries we gave to regardless of our motives. Even non-Christians will be rewarded for helping Billy Graham or Joyce Meyer in their evangelism work or supporting James Gondwe in his orphanage ministry. The scripture says the soil (good or bad) is the believer. The parable about the good and bad soil is in Mark 4:13-20. The parable is more about how we apply God’s word in our lives than about finances. Regarding finances we will reap wherever we sow even with wrong motives or in wrong areas. Our concern needs to be on our motives and areas that the bible supports - Christian causes. Where to sow is therefore in areas that can be considered as Christian causes or responsibilities of the body of Christ. They need to be part of God’s household mentioned in Malachi. God’s house is the body of Christ that is beyond a single ministry, denomination or structure. A traditional church easily fits the description because of our conservative views. However the early church structure is far from what we have today. It was wherever people met and wherever believers did God’s work. They even denounced temple buildings that the Israelites considered being sacred houses of God. Stephen got stoned to death for such remarks (Acts 7:48-50). Paul, the one who supervised his stoning went on after his conversion to establish Stephen’s divine inspired version of non-traditional temples. The early Protestants like John Wesley followed this up in their non-traditional ministries. There is no ten percent rule of paying tithe like in the old testament. Neither is there a rule on sowing to a single ministry or to multiple ones. However it is good not to walk away from your local church. They survive and grow based on your support and you probably have been blessed by their teachings. Attending a local church Sunday after Sunday and never helping out in their financial needs is spiritual robbery. Maybe you feel that they don’t deserve your help. Then you’re better off moving elsewhere you’d be willing to contribute at least on a level you feel grateful for their role in your life. The other problem is when manipulation and deceit is used to obtain financial support. For instance when some claim sowing to their ministry will bring a financial breakthrough or break yokes in certain areas. It is not wrong to say God will bless you. He will bless you because of your obedience to his word on giving, not obedience to someone’s word on where to give, when or how much. It is wrong when God’s blessing is linked to giving to a certain ministry, certain ministry programs and giving certain amounts. If the blessing comes quickly enough you may end up assuming it came because you obeyed someone’s word. He/she ends up getting the credit and not God’s unbreakable word on giving that was actually fulfilled as you gave. You’re better off staying away from manipulative ministries. They may hinder some of your blessings because they make people focus on the assumed power of their ministry and not the real power of God’s word when obeyed. Fellowship with a ministry that does not create such hindrances. There are enough hindrances to deal with already. So certain amounts can be set aside for local and other ministries that have been a blessing to you in one way or another. Bless them materially for the spiritual empowerment they have sown in your life. “If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?” 1 Corinthians 9:11. The material support is anticipated to come from those being assisted spiritually. “In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel,” 1 Corinthians 9:14. If our work has blessed you and you'd like to support our ministry please visit our support pages at JesusWork.org (Jesus Work Ministry). Certain amounts can go to ministries you love to support in their work and care less of hearing or benefiting from them - spiritually, socially and so on. These can include Christian charities helping materially disadvantaged people. Certain amounts can go to your own personal ministry like helping your parents (or former guardians), needy members of your extended family, personal evangelism and so on. Helping your own immediate family (spouse and children) is like helping yourself so it will not count as a sacrificial seed. But your immediate family still counts as part of your personal ministry. Here is the best part on where to sow financial seeds. Sowing with the right motives and in Christian causes is what brings sweet fruits as opposed to bitter fruits. The gifts sown are also counted as a reward in heaven’s bank account. The sweet fruits and heavenly storing is what we all desire from our good deeds. We want to support the body of Christ in evangelism and charitable work for the worthy sake of the work even if no earthly reward came. However we also want heaven to honor our sacrifices on Judgment day rather than trash them in the fire. “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing,” 1 Corinthians 13:1. If we cared less how heaven will value our good deeds then we could give with wrong motives and/or to non-Christian causes. The eventual outcome would still be a financial harvest, but one with bitter fruits and with no heavenly account. No sincere Christian would want this to his/her name. Besides, bitter financial fruits are as distressing and many times worse than having no fruits at all. “Better a little (wealth) with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil,” Proverbs 15:16. “He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor,” Proverbs 28:8. How to Start Having a giving lifestyle may be easy for some while difficult for others. Some who grew up with generous parents or guardians may have easily caught on this discipline. For those that may have problems you have God as your helper. Ask him to give you a heart and mind that is selfless and a heart that will help you in obtaining material blessings based on his principles. A generous heart is God’s spiritual gift of being empowered to apply the biblical financial principles. “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant,” Deuteronomy 8:18. This ability or anointing to produce wealth (material resources) is not some magical or mysterious power that turns everything we touch into gold. It is being empowered with a generous heart that easily gives and gives without being preoccupied with its own needs or what it’s getting in return. A generous heart is blessed in the long run while one that keeps withholding receives no reward. “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty,” Proverbs 11:24. The spiritual laws of seed time and harvest time work in favor of the generous giver in the long run. It is important to pray for God’s ability to have a generous heart if one lacks one. It is a spiritual gift known as the gift of giving or of helps (1 Corinthians 12:28). Scripture encourages us to desire all spiritual gifts in whatever measure God, the giver, is able to give us (1 Corinthians 14:1). Better asking for too much and receive some than asking for a little and receive a minimum that God desired to give. Gifts are for helping us in doing good works. They have little or no relationship with showing how spiritual one is. This book was written through one or more of these gifts working through me. It does not necessarily mean I am more spiritual than those who may not have the ability to share God’s truths in this way. The same goes with the gift of giving. It will not mean it’s a spiritual promotion once God gives it to you after asking for it. Spiritual promotion comes through submitting to God in such an intimate way that his Spirit is effectively enabled to produce his fruit through us. The nature of his fruit that is produced in our lives is diverse. Scripture says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit,” Galatians 5: 22-25. Having the fruit of the spirit is therefore far more important than having the gifts of the Spirit. “Now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing,” 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:1-3. Without love, a fruit of the Spirit, all our gifts have no value in heaven, no matter what we accomplish thorough them. Having the fruit of the Spirit flow through us is what makes our gifts of the Spirit acceptable to God. So please be mindful as the Lord gives you many gifts, including the gift to possess much material resources that it has little, if anything, to do with a spiritual promotion. It does not indicate that you’re closer to God even if people easily judge one’s closeness to God by how much he/she is doing in the body of Christ. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart,” 1 Samuel 16:7. We’ll be amazed in heaven the little reward some will receive after we have labeled them as great men and women of God because of what they outwardly accomplished. God looks at how much was driven by love and his other fruits as opposed to how much was driven by ambition, material gain, fame, power and so on. Some have gone on to manipulate innocent believers that they have a special anointing on them that if you sow to their ministry God will break whatever yokes in your life. Sowing to their ministry, not following the biblical ways of God has been made the focus. They are more focused on their ambition to grow their ministries than to connect people to God and his spiritual ways in the bible. So please be mindful that spiritual gifts have nothing to do with a spiritual promotion. Do not look down on people that may not have certain gifts as if they are less spiritual than you. They are as close to God, if not closer, if their lives are overflowing with the fruit of the Holy Spirit -love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. “To love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices,” Mark 12:33. After asking for the gift of giving you begin looking at whatever you have to give. If you have enough food to eat and a basic form of shelter the rest is a luxury. If your luxury is hindering you from giving you can work on minimizing all that you can live without. Relocating to a cheaper residence maybe necessary if you are paying too much rent. Remember that God does not need your giving. It is you that needs his giving. To receive his giving he requires you to give first. It is therefore wiser to get rid of stuff that hinder you from giving. With all the hindrances around you God will continue waiting until you do your part. As said earlier praying for God’s material blessing will achieve little, if at all anything. Praying for God to help you in making priorities is a worthy prayer. Beyond that you’re asking him to disobey spiritual laws he has set up for our own benefit. If he could provide material resources just through prayer there would be no poverty among Christians. There are many Christians worldwide who pray fervently and overflow in the fruit of the Holy Spirit but still suffer avoidable financial afflictions. Why? “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds,” John 12:24. A particular seed must therefore fall to the ground first before any harvest comes. On material harvests the particular seed required is a material seed, not prayer. Prayers are seeds for evangelism and for seeking God’s ability to obey and fulfill his spiritual laws. They are not for asking God to make some short-cuts. Where funds are scarce material items can be given or sold with the funds going to Christian evangelistic or charity causes. Items you can live without may be idle seed that could be sown for your future harvest. There is much around us that can be worthwhile seed. It’s worth looking around. If all you have is yourself, that is, no source of income there is still something to give – yourself. You can volunteer in Christian evangelistic or charity causes. Wherever your time or skills are needed can be a starting point. Your labor won’t be in vain. In due season God will begin to open strange doors that will enable you to give even financially. Or he may take care of your material needs in such a way that other people will be drawn to helping you materially. Some may even be good-hearted unbelievers. You can pray for their salvation. Another counsel concerns borrowing. Some may assume borrowing in order to sow financial seed may be acceptable. God discourages borrowing, likening it to inviting servitude or bondage. “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender,” Proverbs 22:7. So the issue behind borrowing is that it has its own harvest. Sowing to borrowing you may end up reaping more borrowing. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,” Galatians 6:7. If any ministry asks you to borrow for certain programs while promising God’s blessing please leave that ministry faster than you got involved with it. They have put their ministry agenda beyond your welfare spiritually, materially, socially and so on. God, not their ministry is the one who will release your blessing. It will be based on what he has promised in his word not based on what a ministry has said. And his word certainly has nothing to do with borrowing in order to receive a blessing.

POWERFUL PRAYER - DEMOLISHING STRONGHOLDS


By: J. Mark Copeland

This very insightful and informative writing is reprinted by permission from the ministry of: Advocates In Prayer
There are a number of insightful and informative teachings on their website about different aspects of prayer, and we highly encourage readers to check the sight out.  To go to their website, click on the link below:

http://www.prayerlinksministries.com/Teach.htm#Series%20Title:

POWER PRAYER IS PRAYING beyond ourselves.  It is pressing beyond our limited human reasonings and our vulnerable emotional states to make a faith connection with God.  It results in our perspective being altered to see things clearly and God’s power being released to change things radically.

I vividly remember a personal experience of powerful prayer that occurred when I was in the fifth grade.  I woke up one morning with abdominal cramps.  I had experienced them before on several occasions and feared that it might be appendicitis.  But, the cramps and pains always went away within a few minutes.  So I comforted myself on this occasion with the thought that these symptoms would let up this time as well.  Only, they didn’t.

Pushing the fear to the back of my mind, I went to school only to find myself getting progressively worse.  By the end of first period class, I took my few books in hand and made my way to my next class.  By the time I made two bends in the hallway and entered the classroom, I was so weakened that my mind was racing with fear.  Instinctively, I dropped my books off and made my way to the bathroom where I stood against the wall with both hands over my stomach.  I was beginning to double over from the pain, and chills set in.  Reflecting on my brother’s bout with appendicitis and surgery a year earlier, my eleven-year-old mind became frantic with fear.

I made my way back to class to get my books and ask permission to go to the clinic.  Second period was recess, and there were only a couple of students left in class.  I went to pick up my books and found that I was so weakened that I couldn’t lift them.  So, I asked a fellow student if he could help me get to the clinic, and he obliged.

I scuttled my way to the clinic as I could not lift my feet.  The nurse was out, the beds were empty, and my companion dropped off my books and left so as not to miss recess.  Making my way over to one of the beds, I spent a good two minutes trying to get in a laying down position on the bed.  If I laid my head on the pillow, my knees were up in the air.  If I flattened my legs, my head was up in the air.  The pains, chilling, and cramping just wouldn’t let up, and my mind was racing.

I began to pray frantically, "God, you’ve got to help me!  Please, God!  Do something!  You’ve got to do something!  Please, help me!"  Meantime, my imagination was picturing the revolving lights of an ambulance coming to get me and fearing it would not make it in time if the nurse didn’t show up soon.

Suddenly, I heard the Lord speak to me in my thoughts.  I don’t remember His exact words, but it went something like this:  "If you believe I’m here to help you, why are you so troubled?"  Instantly, all fear left though the symptoms remained the same.  I said out loud, "That’s right, Lord. If I believed you were hearing my prayer, I wouldn’t be acting like this.  Okay, God.  You said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."  (See Mark 11:24)  Now I desire that You touch my stomach and heal me.  I’m asking You to heal me.  I believe I receive it, and I know I have it!

At the instant that I finished saying these words, I suddenly saw in my minds eye a cloudy sky and noticed that the clouds dissipated at once to reveal a perfectly clear sky.  I had the sensation that my vision had been clouded over but that I could now see all the way through to a clear sky.  At that moment, two things happened back to back quicker than it takes to tell about it.  First, I felt as though God gave me an injection of faith.  All doubt vanished, and I positively knew that I was healed.  Second, upon receiving that assurance of faith, my body flattened out on the bed as though someone had lifted a barbell from across my waist.  All symptoms vanished.  I stood to my feet pressing against my stomach to see if I could find the slightest sign of pain.  There was none.

I’ve chosen to relate this particular experience because it demonstrates praying beyond ourselves and pressing into the dimension of God’s reign where faith is imparted and supernatural power is released.  I did not know it when I was 11 years old and laying in that clinic, but the vision God gave me at the moment He came to heal me connects graphically with a biblical teaching underscoring the need to exercise faith when we pray.

The apostle Paul writes, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."  (See 2 Corinthians 4:4.)  The word translated "blinded" in this verse, tuphloo, means "to dull the intellect," and the simple form of the same verb, tupho, means "to make smoke."  Dutch Sheets, commenting on this verse, says that "it is like a smoke screen that clouds or darkens the air in such a way as to prohibit a person from seeing."  [Sheets 1996:166]  I saw the smoke screen!  And, at the moment the injection of faith came, the clouds dispelled.

The smokescreen that clouds our spiritual vision and disables our ability to pray in faith is erected by the "god of this age" (See 2 Corinthians 4:4a) -- a biblical reference to Satan.  Elsewhere in Scripture, these clouds that blind our minds are referred to as spiritual "strongholds."  (See 2 Corinthians 10:4.)  In this teaching, we’re going to talk about spiritual strongholds -- what they are, how they are formed, how they hinder our prayer lives, and how they can be identified and demolished through powerful prayer.

What Are Spiritual Strongholds?

The definitive text concerning spiritual strongholds comes from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, which reads as follows:

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

The word translated "strongholds" in this passage could also have been rendered "fortresses."  In its verbal form, the word means "to make firm."  [Vines 1985: 605]  Just as military forts are established in firm places such as on a hilltop or at the mouth of a bay, so Satan attempts to established strong forts in our minds to hold our thought life captive.

In the passage cited above, Paul defines strongholds as arguments, pretensions, or thoughts that set themselves against the knowledge of God.  Any beliefs entrenched in our thinking that are contrary to truth as revealed in Scripture are strongholds of the Enemy that stand in the way of our knowing God and making Him known.  Thus they hinder us in our walk with the Lord and in our prayer lives.

The best working definition of spiritual strongholds that I have found is Edgardo Silvoso’s.  He states:  "A spiritual stronghold is a mind-set impregnated with hopelessness that causes us to accept as unchangeable, situations that we know are contrary to the will of God."  [Silvoso 1994: 155]  With this definition in view, here’s a few examples of strongholds and Scripture references that demonstrate how these assertions are contrary to the will of God:

·        My husband is hopeless.  He’ll never be saved.  (See 2 Peter 3:9.)

·        I’m just a carnal person.  I’ll never be free from lust.  (See Galatians 5:16.)

·        No upward mobility for me!  I’ll always struggle to make ends meet.  (See 3 John 2.)

·        I’m getting older.  Feebleness and disease is inevitable.  (See Psalm 103:2-5.)

Each of these assertions reflect beliefs entrenched in the mind that are contrary to the revelation of God’s will as revealed in Scripture.  Since God’s Word is truth (see John 17:17), these beliefs reflect minds clouded by Satan’s smoke screen from seeing things the way God desires us to see them.  They are spiritual strongholds.

How Are Spiritual Strongholds Formed?

The Apostle Paul gives us a key to understanding how spiritual strongholds are formed by listing three descriptive terms for strongholds.  He says that strongholds are arguments, pretensions, and thoughts contrary to the knowledge of God.  (See 2 Corinthians 10:5.)  Let’s look at each of these terms to gain insight into how strongholds are erected.

First, Paul states that strongholds are arguments contrary to the knowledge of God. The word Paul uses is logismos, which would be more correctly translated as "reasonings."  [Vines 1985: 319]  The word does not imply arguments with other people but the battle that goes on in one’s mind when the conclusions drawn by human reason and those given through divine revelation in Scripture contradict each other.  In such cases, to believe our own human reasonings is to reject the revealed will of God.

Second, Paul refers to strongholds as pretensions contrary to the knowledge of God.  Paul’s word here is hupsoma, which literally means "high thing" and can also be translated "height."  [Vines 1985: 304]  It speaks of pride by which we exalt our own human reasonings over divine revelation.  It puts the intellect in the place of God so that one is more comfortable trusting his reasonings than believing God’s Word.  This is mind idolatry.

Third, Paul calls strongholds thoughts that are contrary to the knowledge of God. The word used here is noema, which refers to a "purpose" or "devise of the mind."  [Vines 1985: 630].  This word is particularly helpful in that it is also used in 2 Corinthians 2:11 where it refers to Satan’s schemes.  Paul writes:  "We are not unaware of [Satan’s] schemes."  The relevant point here is that when human reasonings are allowed to become schemes that set themselves against God’s Word, the mind has essentially become captive to Satan’s schemes.  In such situations, Satan has effectively planted thoughts into our minds and deceived us into thinking that those thoughts were our own reasonings.

How are strongholds formed? They are formed when we:

·        Reason through situations in life without looking to God for guidance.

·        Draw our own conclusions without consulting God’s Word for validation.

·        Set our rationalizations above God’s revealed will in Scripture.

·        Devise schemes for handling life situations contrary to God’s directives for living.

It is important to note here that when a person first comes to Christ for salvation, he quite likely has strongholds in his life already.  His directions for living have come through parents, teachers, authority figures, his own human reasonings.  Any number of things from genetics, to environment, to parental discipline, to traumatic experiences in life have played a role in shaping his values and conditioning his responses to real life situations.  Now, as a new Christian, it is his responsibility to feed his mind and heart upon God’s Word so that he can learn to live by the Holy Spirit’s directives rather than by his previous conditioning.  This reorientation process involves developing a lifestyle of demolishing strongholds and building godly foundations for living.

How Do Spiritual Strongholds Hinder Prayer?

Spiritual strongholds hinder our prayer lives by turning us into double-minded people.  If as Christians we profess to live under the authority of God’s Word and yet allow our lives to be frequently directed by human reasonings contrary to the revelation of God’s will in Scripture, we have become spiritually schizophrenic.  There are two obvious ways in which such a condition hinders our prayer lives.

Double-mindedness tries to balance competing agendas.

Jesus said that the heartbeat of prayer is deference to God’s reign in our lives.  We’re to pray:  "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  (See Matthew 6:10.)  But, as Neil Anderson points out, double-mindedness determines to have a Plan B of human reasoning to fall back on in case the Plan A of God’s revealed will doesn’t come through.  [Anderson 1990: 157-158]  As long as we hold a Plan B in reserve, we’re not able to pray with faith and confidence for God’s Plan A to come through.

A biblical example of double-mindedness trying to balance competing agendas help us to see just how this tendency sets us at cross purposes with God’s work in our lives.  First, right after Peter received a revelation that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus commended him for having gotten this insight from the Holy Spirit by revelation.  Then, when Jesus began to foretell how He would suffer crucifixion as a part of his Messianic calling, Peter rebuked Him and said, "Never, Lord! . . . This shall never happen to you!"  Jesus’ response to Peter was, "Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."  Peter’s honorable intentions reflected Plan B thinking when he realized that the Plan A of God’s will for Jesus was something horrible from which he wanted Jesus to be spared.  Yet, without following through on God’s Plan A of Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, eternal salvation for humankind would have never been secured.

This example of Peter’s poor judgment should give us all pause to consider that many rational decisions we make may stand contrary to specific purposes God has for our lives, and some of those purposes may, in ways we cannot see at the time, include the salvation of eternal souls.  Truly, a lot is at stake when we try to embrace God’s agenda for our lives without letting go of our own.

Double-mindedness leads to instability and weakness.

We’ve been talking about the human tendency to succumb to spiritual strongholds by professing to live under the authority of God’s Word while tending to actually live by the dictates of human reasoning.  I think sometimes we realize that the ideal we uphold and the reality that we live out are not the same, but we hope that somehow they will mysteriously converge at some point -- that God will give us the grace to start practicing what we preach.  But, as long as this gap exists between what we say we believe and what we tend to practice, we are building our house upon the sand.  Jesus said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."  (See Matthew 7:26-27.)  Clearly, choosing the strongholds of human reasonings over the revealed will of God for our lives is to build a life that is unstable and that is headed for a great crash.

Double-mindedness makes us unstable in our faith and thus ineffective in prayer.  James encourages us to pray for wisdom so that we will know the will of God for our lives.  Then he adds, " But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." (See James 1:6-8.)

KEY:  The basis for strongholds is that we doubt.  We doubt God’s Word so we depend on our own reasonings.  And, James points out that our tendency to put more faith in our own ability to think through things than in the revelation and direction that God gives through His word produce prayers that waver and a life that is unstable.  Truly, strongholds are a disease that must be excised from our souls if we are to live lives that are fruitful and productive.

How Does Prayer Demolish Strongholds?

Paul writes that:  "The weapons we fight with . . . have divine power to demolish strongholds."  (See 2 Corinthians 10:4.)  The King James Version reads that our weapons are not "carnal" but are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds."  (See verse 4.)  What weapons is he talking about?

The only weapon that can demolish deception is truth.  And, as Jesus said to the Father in His Prayer of Intercession, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."  (See John 17:17.)  In Paul’s own description of the Armor of God, he only named one part of the armor that was a weapon.  He said to take "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."  (See Ephesians 6:17b.)  That the word of God does indeed have "divine power to demolish strongholds" is confirmed by the writer of Hebrews who said, "For the word of God is living 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."  (See Hebrews 4:12.) By judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart, God’s powerful Word distinguishes between those thoughts and attitudes that line up with divine truth and those that constitute human reasonings and demonic strongholds.

Jesus used the Word of God as a weapon to defeat the "schemes, devices, reasonings" of the devil in the wilderness.  With each suggestion the devil made to Jesus, he included reasons why Jesus should act upon his suggestions.  He was attempting to use human reasoning to build strongholds in Jesus’ mind that would influence his own thoughts and direct his actions.  Satan does no different with us.  Jesus defeated him with the Sword of the Spirit.  Every time He said, "It is written" (see Luke 4:4,8,12), He was wielding the Sword of Truth to cut down subtle deception.  We should do the same.

One passage of Scripture that demonstrates well how to use the Word of God in prayer to demolish strongholds is James 4:7-10.  It specifies four steps we should take in defeating the devil’s works in our lives and two promises as to the results that will occur when we do.  I want to demonstrate briefly how these four steps to demolishing strongholds imply using the Word of God as a weapon in prayer.

We should use God’s Word in prayer as an avenue for submitting to God.

James says, "Submit yourselves, then, to God."  (See verse 7.)  We acknowledge from God’s Word that Jesus is Lord (see Romans 10:9), that His teachings are a sure foundation for our lives (see Matthew 7:24), and we commit to His rule in our lives. (See Matthew 6:10.)

We should use God’s Word in prayer as an effective way to be spiritually cleansed.

James writes, "Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."  (See verse 8b.)  We acknowledge that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin (see 1 John 1:7b), that we are sanctified by the water of the Word (see Ephesians 5:26), and that God has established a new covenant with us in Christ that gives us "singleness of heart and of action."  (See Jeremiah 32:39-40.)

We should use God’s Word in prayer to draw near to God.

James exhorts us, "Come near to God."  (See verse 8a.)  We ask God the Father to draw us to Jesus.  (See John 6:44.)  Then we enter with confidence into His Holy Place (see Hebrews 4:16), and we worship Him in spirit and with grateful hearts.  (See John 4:4 and Hebrews 13:15.)

We should use God’s Word in prayer to stand against Satan’s schemes.

James urges us, "Resist the devil."  (See verse 7b.)  We expose Satan’s lies with the truth of God’s Word (see Hebrews 4:12) and exercise our authority over him by commanding him to move over and make way.  (See Matthew 16:33.)

God’s promise through this passage in James is that when we take these four steps of submitting to God, being spiritual cleansed, drawing near to the Lord in worship, and resisting the devil, two things will happen:  God will "come near to [us]" (see verse 8b) and Satan will "flee from [us]."  (See verse 7b.)  The bottom line is that our relationship with God will be strong and solid and the strongholds that Satan had in our lives will weaken and fall away.  The picture of God drawing near to us and Satan fleeing from us says it all.

One final word needs to be said on how to use God’s Word through prayer to demolish spiritual strongholds.  That word is -- persistence.  Ed Silvoso tells of a friend of a friend who was making some renovations on his home.  He needed to demolish a cement wall in order to enlarge a room.  The contractor he hired for the job came with three tools -- a sledge hammer and a regular workman’s hammer and chisel.  First, with the sledge hammer, he began striking the wall with blow after blow.  To a casual bystander, it appeared he was wasting his time.  Ten, twenty, thirty blows, and not so much as a crack.  But, on the thirty-sixth blow, a horizontal crack appeared in the wall.  On the thirty-seventh, several cracks appeared in a spiderweb pattern.  On the thirty-eighth, the whole wall was covered with cracks.  Then, the contractor laid his sledge hammer down and with a workman’s hammer and chisel proceeded to bring the wall down one piece at a time.

Some of us may feel that we have stubborn strongholds that defy change -- worry, fear, anxiety, slothfulness, lust, addictions, poverty, disease, or what have you.  We try to defeat them with speaking God’s Word into our circumstances and it just doesn’t seem to work.  But we must keep in mind that faith increases as we continue hearing God’s Word (see Romans 10:17) and such faith gives us victory over all ideologies and reasonings that are of this present world.  (See 1 John 5:4.)  As we persist in speaking God’s Word against the strongholds of our lives and rendering an obedience of faith in His Word, those strongholds will come down.

Conclusion

Spiritual strongholds are human reasonings that exalt themselves over the revelation of God’s will for our lives as revealed in Scripture.  More than human reasonings, they are injected with the poison of diabolical devices and schemes to trip us up in our walk with God.  They breed hopelessness that paralyze faith in God’s promises and cloud the mind from being able to see God’s purposes for our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray.

We’re in danger of succumbing to strongholds when we make decisions as to how we will respond to life’s challenges without seeking God for wisdom and looking to His Word for guidance.  When we do so, we choose to live independently of God and to make idols of our own minds.

Strongholds weaken our lives and make our prayers ineffective by causing us to become double-minded.  We try to balance our own agenda with God’s rather than dying to ourselves with a whole-hearted commitment to follow Him.  In doing so, we build our lives on a shaky foundation and find ourselves praying prayers that waver through indecisiveness and unbelief.

We overcome strongholds in our lives by allowing God’s Word to be final authority in our lives.  We allow the light of Scripture to expose our hearts, to bring us to repentance, to lead us to worship, and to recognize and resist Satan’s schemes against us.  When we are persistent in wielding the sword of God’s Word against the strongholds of the Enemy, God will draw near to us, Satan will flee from us, the clouds of deception and blindness with dispel, and the walls of Satan’s strongholds will come down.

The challenge before us is to apply what we’ve learned.  What’s holding us back from a deepening intimacy with the Lord, greater victory over the Enemy, and a fruitful ministry and prayer life?  It is our duty before God to allow the Lord to expose any strongholds that we have tolerated and to put the Sword to them.  I pray that God helps each of us to meet that challenge.

The Plan Is a Sovereign, Purposeful Move of God Himself

Ezekiel 36:24-29
1. “I will take you out of the nations…”
2. “I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land…”
3. “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean…”
4. “I will cleanse you from all your impurities…”
5. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you…”
6. “I will remove you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh…”
7. “I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws…”
8. “I will save you from your uncleanness…”
9.
It is true that we don’t deserve for God to do this for us. But for the sake of His holy name, He
will do it. He wants the nations to know that He is the Lord who keeps His covenants.

~Excerpts from Israel’s Prophetic Destiny by Jill Shannon
Posted on Facebook by Intercessors Philippines

DECLARATION PRAYER

23 Decrees, Declarations & Affirmations For Increase Wealth & Abundance Upon His True Believers in these Last Days to fulfill the Bible Prophecy on the Movement of the Last Great Revival in Joel 2:28-32 &Acts 2:17-21, By Pastor R E Fulford

“Say These For 21 Days Straight with Power And Authority!! 10 to 15mins is all it takes! Be open for increase and expect change! Read the scriptures that back it up also! Consistency Is Key! Make up in your mind that once you start you will not stop!! Some may not pertain to your situation and that is fine, read it anyway! You never know what type of blessing you might trigger in your life! You really owe it to your self, to God, your family and this whole nation!! 

1) Rev 5:12: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, riches strength, wisdom, honor, glory and blessing and grateful I am to receive this 7 fold blessing based on the finished work of Christ. Thus I can do what the bible says I can do! Be what the bible says I can be! And have what the bible says I can have! And I now decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that I walk, talk, wear, think, experience, emanate and release to others the 7 fold blessing everywhere I go and manifest the results and power of the New covenant of which I have been enjoined. I replace my will with the will of God and accept the mind of Christ and position myself to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness through the Holy Spirit! I am not ashamed of increase and decree, declare and make known to all that I’m blessed to be a blessing! To God be the Glory!!

2) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that God is my source, releasing exceeding great power toward me everyday, in every way by Christ Jesus and the Eternal Spirit of the living God! In Jesus Name!( Eph 3:19)

3) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith by God’s eternal Spirit of grace and mercy that I now inhibit heavenly places and sit high above all principality and power, might and dominions and every name that is named! Thus I work, walk, talk, and think in authority and exercise my right to be rich and live the abundant life style given unto me by Christ Jesus! In Jesus Name!!( Eph 1:12-23, 2:4)

4) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that today going forward I operate outside this worlds system and accumulate wealth, health, riches, honor and blessing supernaturally by divine providence, favor, righteousness, judgment and mercy In Jesus Name! (Phil 4:19)

5) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that as an heir of God and joint heir with Christ I have a right to be rich prosperous and well satisfied in all areas of my life with plenty to give and enough to meet all needs that arise with plenty to spare! In Jesus Name! (2 Cor 9:6-12)

6) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that the divine will of God is for me to dwell in my wealthy place! Multiple channels of prosperity, riches, health, wealth, abundance, and financial increase come into, invade and saturate my life now in Jesus name! (Deut 28:1-14)

7) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that my hearing is acute, fine tuned and magnetized to the voice of the Holy Spirit who shall speak to me, lead and guide me into my wealthy place. Thus I will trust, follow and execute the plans of the Spirit in order to achieve my destination and inhibit this fabulous place.( Isa 48:15-18)

8). I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that I have arrived in my wealthy place of abundance, prosperity, riches, spiritual power, wisdom and blessing! The blessing of Abraham has exploded in my life and I now have become a channel for God’s unlimited flow of supplies and a vessel prepared for His use! In Jesus Name!! (Ps 66:12, 2 Pet 1:3-11, Gal 3:13-14)

9) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that God is my source using many channels, of which I am one, to bless His people and accomplish His will in the earth realm. Thus as a channel I open myself up to receive and release by faith, healing, empowerment, salvation, wisdom, knowledge, creative ideas, increase, blessing, the anointing, discernment, love, reconciliation, restoration, deliverance, stability and grace all in Jesus name (Isa 60)

10) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that I let the wisdom of God envelope my spirit, mind, soul and body that I may be guided in what to say, how to say it and to whom to say it to! In Jesus Name! (Isa 55:11-13)

11) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that everyday I expect, experience and manifest the miracles of the kingdom which validate, vindicate and confirm the Word of God in the earth realm! ( Ps 62:5)

12) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that I walk, operate, pray and speak through the Spirit. I see, hear and manifest the things of the Spirit through the fruit and gifts of the Spirit of God and through my spiritual connection with the Kingdom of God I receive, am entitled to and embrace the prepared blessings that have been reserved, revealed, transferred and released into my life, family and church! (1 Cor 2:9-12)

13) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that today forward I believe all things are possible through the anointing, the Word and recognizing God as my source(.Luke 1:37)

14) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that today my heart is filled with the presence of God and will forever provide a place for His habitation, demonstration and power!( 2Cor 4:7, 6:16)

15) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that I walk under the anointing of Christ which has destroyed all yokes, links, chains and strongholds connected to my life and all those I connect with. Setting all totally, completely and absolutely free financially, physically, spiritually and emotionally!! (Isa 10:27, Jonh 8:32,36, 2Cor 10:3-6)

16) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that today I flow in the anointing of Christ, grace of God and empowerment of the Holy Spirit for the fulfillment of His will for my life and advancement of humanity family and the kingdom. (Isa 11:1-4, Luke 10:19-20, Acts 1:8)

17) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that the spirit of fear, doubt, unbelief, disobedience and deception are broken and eliminated from my life, family, ministry and church. Thus I now flow with the Trinity in peace, power, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, gifts, skills, talents of the Kingdom of God for the manifestation of His Glory in the earth realm! ( John 7:38-39, 16:13-16)

18. I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that from this day forward I'll never be broke again another day of my life for the anointing has destroyed all yokes, chains, hinders, restrictions, obstacles and dams that have blocked all forms of increase, prosperity, advancement, elevations and promotions that where ordained for the fulfillment of God’s will in my life, family and church! (Isa 10:27;2 Cor 8:9)

19) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want! He restores my soul, anoints my head, mind and spirit and makes my soul overflow with joy, peace, power, the anointing, love, vision, dreams, directions, favor and patience. (Ps 23)

20) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that I through the anointing of God shall not want, have, lack, experience poverty or suffer need but shall be completely supplied with all blessings both natural and spiritual to fulfill my destiny! Thus I attract abundance in all forms, experience financial freedom, become a lender, the head above only, and obtain all resources from God my only source, in the form of gifts, donations, rewards, grants, business transaction, miracles, divine manifestations, wealth transfers and the like that I may excel, advance the Kingdom of God and establish His covenant in the earth realm and bring Glory to His name!( 1 Chr 29:11-12, Deut 28:1-14)

21) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that today supernatural debt cancellation has taken place in my life, ministry, family and church, wealth, riches, prosperity, all currencies and financial elevation comes into my life now without delay in Jesus name!!( Gen 12:1-3, 13:1-2)

22) I decree, declare and affirm with absolute faith that today the wealth collected by the sinners of the world shall be delivered to me to enable me to use them for the ministry expansion on this earth to help other ministers to unite together to fulfill the Bible Prophecy as to bring the lost souls into the Kingdom of God around the world.” For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight;but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting that He may give to him who is good before God”.(Ecclesiastes 2:26).

23).I decree ,declare and affirm with absolute faith today that the Treasures of Darkness and Hidden Riches of Secret Places on this earth shall be released and delivered to me which I may become one among other believers , to bless His people and accomplish His will in the earth realm in these Last Days before the coming of the Lord Jesus. Thus as an anointed channel, I open myself up to receive and release by faith, physical , spiritual and financial blessing, healing, empowerment, salvation, wisdom, knowledge, creative ideas, increase, the anointing, discernment, love, reconciliation, restoration, deliverance, stability and grace all in Jesus name.(Isaiah 41:3)