HOMECOMING - A-Spiritual-Re-Awakening

PRAYERS

Welcome to this site. My prayer is that you take a look at the site and as you do, let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and reveal what God wants you to discover. (in Jesus' name)

God tells us that if we see a brother (or sister) in need we should do that which is within our means to help. Prayer is always within our means but we never know what doors Father may open through them. Should you desire prayer for anything (healing, direction, etc.) or if you want supportive prayer along with your own please feel free to e-mail that request to sharbu3@gmail.com and be assured that there are others who will be praying with or for you.

In this blog, I share what the Lord shares with me. I reference scripture a lot in support of what is being said. I realize that what is in each entry is NOT a complete 'word' on what is being said, but is rather enough information to stimulate our spirits to dig deeper (remember the Bereans Acts 17:10-11) thereby gaining a fuller understanding for ourselves.

At the end of each post are the options to share, forward or make a comment. Click 'comment' to respond. Let us know if you like, don't like or are helped by what you read. Comments can be made or read by anyone. All you have to do is select the "comment" at he end of the entry.

Saturday, October 7, 2023

10-8-2023 4 COMPONENTS OF SPIRITUIAL WARFARE

What has to be true in our lives to run a successful warfare campaign against our enemy? We need to always remember that we don’t fight against flesh and blood but against powers, principalities, rulers of darkness in this world and spiritual wickedness in high (G2032 epouranios – celestial, heaven, high)(Eph. 6:12). We are in a time of Spiritual reawakening and our enemy does not like that so he will fight us savagely to thwart our growth. Father wants us fully equipped to face new challenges and press through new doorways into spiritual growth, drawing ever closer to Him, enabling us to be true witness in His love.

Effective spiritual warfare is composed of four basic components

1 a. Salvation - Confess with mouth, believe in heart that God raised Jesus from the dead & we shall be saved (Rom. 10:9). We need to believe that God is and that Jesus is God come into this world in the flesh for our sakes. He is the only way into eternity (John 14:6-7).

b. Repent of sinful nature -Repent, be converted, sins blotted out = refreshing times from Lord (Acts 3:19). When we repent, we are converted & our sins are blotted out. Father puts them behind His back and they slide into the sea of forgetfulness (Isa. 38:17, Mic. 7:19).

c. Acknowledge Jesus for who He is and that the fullness of God does dwell in Him and He has reconciled us to Himself through the cleansing blood of the cross. (Col. 1:19-20, 1 John 1:7). This means to receive Him into our own hearts and lives (John 3:16).

Without Jesus in our lives, the rest will not be effective.

2 Holy Ghost in our lives – Receive the HG, He is always with us (John 20:22,John 14:16-17). Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5).

a. Spiritual warfare means Spiritual ammunition & guidance

Baptism of Holy Spirit John] baptized with water but He who comes after me (says John) will baptize with HG & fire (Matt. 3:11-I2) (baptizmo G907 {baptisma G911} – fully drenched or overcome)

b. Listening to and obeying the HS - Spirit of truth will guide into all truth, He speaks what He hears [from Father & Son] showing things to come (John 16:13), …the Lord gives us understanding in all things (2 Tim. 2:7) and we receive power after HG is come upon us & (we will) be witnesses (Acts 1:8). Power is both ‘authority’ ( Matt. 10:1 - Exousia G 1849 and the ‘strength to ‘git ‘er done’ (Acts 1:8 - dunamis (G1411).

3 Living for Jesus Christ

Live for Him –The Covenant: (Hebrews 10:16-23)

Write His laws into our hearts & minds

Sins & iniquities no longer remembered

No offering necessary where there is remission of sin (once we receive Jesus, our ‘sin nature’ is cleansed, yet we may still ‘mess up’ [we are still in the flesh] so He is our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). He stands the gap between God & us for anything we do after salvation. We do have to confess (1 John 9-10).

Be bold to enter holiest via blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19-20)

Walk in Jesus’ pathways via His example (1 Peter 2:21)

He is our High Priest (Heb. 5:1-10)

True heart (Rom. 10:9-11)

Assurance of faith (1 John 1:9)

Hearts cleansed of evil conscience (Heb. 9:14)

Bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10:22)

Hold fast to profession of faith (Heb. 10:23)

Don’t waiver (He who promised is faithful) (James 1:6)

Abiding in love. Jesus says “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15)

And just what are His commandments

How can we express our love towards God? (Mark 12:29-31)

1^st commandment

Lord is one Lord (John 1:1)

love Lord with all heart (Mark 12:30)

soul

mind

& strength

2^nd like it

Love neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:31)

Which fulfill the original ten commandments (Exod. 20:1-17)

1 No gods before Me

2 No graven image

3 Don’t take God’s name in vain

4 Remember Sabbath, keep it holy

5 Honor father & mother, longer life

6 Don’t kill

7 Don’t commit adultery

8 Don’t steal

9 Don’t lie

10 Don’t desire what your neighbor has

The Ten Commandments give us a brief explanation of how we can love God for all that He has done for us.

4 Applying the armor of God into our own lives (Eph. 6:10-18)

V10 Be strong in power of His might

V11 Pu on whole armor to stand against wiles of devil

V12 We don’t wrestle with

Flesh

Blood

We do wrestle with

Principalities

Powers

Rulers of darkness in this world

Spiritual wickedness in high places

V13 Put on whole armor

To stand in that evil day

Having done all, stand

V14 Girdle of truth

Breastplate of righteousness

V15 Feet shod with preparation of Gospel of Peace

V16 Shield of faith (above all) to quench fiery darts of wicked

V17 Helmet of salvation (know Jesus as Lord AND Savior)

Sword of Spirit which is Word of God (and rightly divides all that is before us)

V18 Prayer is essential for the armor to properly function!

Pray with

All prayer (attitude)

Supplication (requests)

In the Spirit (God has given us a spiritual language – Spirit to spirit, Rom. 8:26-27), if you will, a hot-line, straight to the throne room through Jesus. (There has been a ‘hot-line’ between Washington and Moscow to avoid any ‘accidental’ breaches of peace.)

Watching with perseverance (don’t give up)

Supplication for saints (strength for the body of Christ, don’t forsake the gathering together (Heb. 10:25) for there is strength in numbers (Deut. 32:30, Ecc. 4:9-12).

To fight spiritual warfare we need

To be saved

To be empowered by the Holy Ghost

Baptized in the HG

Listening & obedient to HG

Giving our hearts & lives wholly over to Jesus

Living for Him with all our being

Believing Him for all things

Trusting Him to deliver us from all things

Be fully equipped for battle

The armor

Fortified with & by prayer in the Spirit

And operate with support

So, why is this so important today? For the Spiritual Explosion to be fully realized, Christians ‘gotta be actin’ like Christians’ – once again. Father always has his number (Rom. 11:1-5). Who is a part of that number? Joshua said “As for me and my house (family), we will serve the Lord (Josh. 24:15)! AND as we are obedient to God’s Word, we just may see Christians actually doing the works Jesus did 2000 years ago and greater (John 14:12)! That is healing the sick, raising the dead and casting out demons. Yet, we do need to know who we are in Christ Jesus. And live like we know it!

Today, we are looking for a harvest. The harvest of personal growth in our own lives so we can reap the harvest, from the work Father has given individually, by drawing others into that closer relationship with Father.

Amen

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THE FIRST STEP

Luke chapter 15 relates the story of a son who took his portion of the inheritance, left home and ‘did his own thing’. He found ‘friends’ in his new surroundings, partied and basically did whatever he felt like doing. His money ran out, his ‘friends’ disappeared and he came upon some very hard times. He finally came to his senses realizing the error of his ways and decided to go back home and tell his father how sorry he was for having left hoping that his father would receive him back into the homestead, not as a son but at least as a servant. His father did more than that. Even though his son had squandered his inheritance dad threw a big party to welcome his son back home where he belonged. Once he was lost but now he's saved.

If we knew Jesus and walked away (for whatever the reason) Homecoming is about coming back into fellowship with the Creator of the universe and re-establishing a relationship with Him. Even if we never truly ever knew Jesus, Homecoming is learning how to fellowship with the everlasting God and securing our eternity by establishing that relationship with Him.

If we never truly ever knew Jesus, our first step is to do just that by giving Him our hearts and lives.

We have to recognize that we have not been not operating in God’s will and done things contrary to the operation of His love. God is love and everything He does or stands for is based in His true love.

When Adam & Eve disobeyed God and fell out of His fellowship by eating the ‘fruit of the knowledge of good and evil', God promised them that He would provide a way that man could come back into His (God’s) fellowship.

He re-enforced this with Abraham by using his son Isaac as an example and then reminding Israel through all the prophets of the coming Messiah.

Finally, the time was right and God found a righteous woman whom he would bless with the bringing of His Son into this world. Everything was just one big void so God had nothing to work with except His Word. So, in the beginning God spoke everything into existence. God spoke and the Holy Ghost put God’s Word into action creating everything that is. God then put His Word into Mary’s womb and as the bible says ‘she was with child of the Holy Ghost (Matt. chapter 2). The Greek word used for 'of' carries the connotation ‘about’ or ‘spontaneously happening’, like she wasn’t pregnant, now she is – boom! Jesus had to be born of this world (via Mary) so He could legitimately deliver us from the world but Jesus’ Father is God so even though He is born into this world, He is not bound by the ways of this world. We believe, as the bible says ‘Jesus is born of a virgin’ but He is the Son of God.

We believe that Jesus pleased the Father as He lived in this world for 30 years as He found favor with God and man.

The last 3 ½ years of His life (here on earth), Jesus spent teaching His disciples and those who would listen, the ways of God, the Father.

Then at the end of that 3 ½ year ministry, He was arrested by the Jewish leadership (yielded Himself to them), turned over to Pontius Pilate for crucifixion which Pilate, though reservedly, obliged the Jewish leaders and did so. Jesus (willingly) was crucified and died on the cross. My understanding is that at death, if the body is punctured, water mixed with blood will come out, confirming death. Spiritually, for us the shed blood is for the atonement of our sins and our sin nature and the water represents our cleansing. Jesus died on the cross taking my sins away (and yours) and was buried.

We believe that on the third day Jesus arose from the grave, alive and well and ministered to His disciples for another 40 days.

After which He ascended back into Heaven (from whence He came) and is preparing a place in eternity for all those who believe and He is coming back for us so we can be with Him throughout all eternity.

We believe this with all our hearts, confess our sins (by speaking them out), repenting our part in doing those things against God’s will, with our voices speak out thanks for what Jesus has done for us and invite Him into our hearts and lives determining to live our lives for Him from now on.

When we pray the ‘sinner’s prayer, don’t mince with a formula of words but rather cover the points and mean it:

Jesus is God, Messiah, Savior

He shed His blood cleansing us of our sin nature and all those individual sins we have ever committed

We need to confess those sins (speak them out loud to God) and repent of those sins (be truly sorry we committed them)

He died on the cross then rose from the dead on the third day giving us access to the Father through His actions

Determine (dedicate our lives) to live for Him by keeping His commandment which is learning about and living in His love.

He will come back for us so we can be with Him throughout all eternity.

If we have known Jesus but have ‘slid away’

Repent of and confess our sins (as with the prodigal son)

Receive God’s forgiveness. Isaiah tells us once we’ve repented God puts those sins behind His back. Should we do any less?

Determine (make the decision) to live for Him by keeping His commandment which is learning about and living in His love.

Once we've taken this first step, that is to connect or reconnect with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, then hold on because everything we experience from that point on is an experience in growth in our life. Everything becomes a stepping stone in our life to help us to grow closer to and and stronger in our relationship with God that we may magnify and glorify His Holy Name in all that we say and do and impact the lives of those around us.

A long time ago Father shared with me that I (we) can walk as close to Him as we dare. It is our choice. How close do we dare?

When the time is come, may we all re-unite in God’s wondrous kingdom.

PRAYERS

Saturday, October 7, 2023

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