Shalom Praying Friends,
Recently I had the opportunity to enjoy several weeks of refreshing provided by the Lord. Did it show up in a pretty wrapped box with a gorgeous bow? No, but it was pretty close to that. What became abundantly clear to me is that often we need a time of refreshing away from daily stressors and especially to recognize it as such when the Lord presents it. Who would know better what we need than the Holy Spirit?
In the weeks leading up to my time away I began experiencing some challenges in making decisions in a clear cut manner, putting my thoughts on paper, lack of energy, desiring to avoid difficult situations. Checking out the Hallmark movie schedule can easily become an obsession when you want to just check out. Sometimes as an intercessor, I’d almost rather not even answer the phone, especially when heaven’s calling and its time to take on what the Lord brings before you.
2019 has been a year of increasing complexity, accusations, disinformation, wars of words and downright horrible for many in the Body of Christ and the world in general. But what has become increasingly clear to me is that what I have been experiencing is no different than many of you. Many have reported on the confusion and chaos they are experiencing in families, communities and churches.
Many prophetic words are being released and they have been going here, there and everywhere. Is Holy Spirit confused? No, but often we are if our spiritual ears are clogged from debris of lots of listening but no retuning. It depends on what frequency is being released into the atmosphere. What sound are we hearing? Heaven’s frequency or hell’s?
For me, it was like I was dragging through thick sludge, almost when you enter the ocean and try to go out against the current and the effort to make progress was exhausting. Holy Spirit showed me that many in the Body of Christ were just plain worn out from wear and tear in their prayer life and in the natural. They need a reset if you will, similar to a tune up in a car. And they need to take time in a frenetic schedule to actually listen to what Holy Spirit is saying and not man.
Many years ago, when I first got saved, I attended a conference with Joyce Meyers. I most enjoyed her teaching on “The Battlefield of the Mind.” Many years later I have given it my own title, “The War Between Our Ears.” As we come into the final stretch of the year 2019, I have made a determination that I will enter into 2020 and the new decade with clear understanding and vision as led by the Lord and the Kingdom of God.
The greatest battle you will ever fight is the War Between Your Ears. On the battlefield there are only two armies, the army of God and the army of the devil.
More than 40 years ago, I had opportunity to rappel off the rooftop of a 9 story fire building. You know, kind of like mountain climbers that bounce themselves off the side of a mountain with rope harnesses. It was purely voluntary and I was a recruit in a law enforcement academy. I was part of a first ever class of coed trainees. I wanted to prove, “I am woman, hear me roar!” It was also a class with many former military personnel who had served in Vietnam. You have to understand that as a child I would climb into a tree and get stuck crying until my father would get a ladder and retrieve me back out. I was afraid of falling. Actually I was terrified and later determined I needed to have my head examined for volunteering to jump off the fire tower.
I was assured by my drill instructors that the safety harness would preclude any reckless events and I was very safe. With heart pounding I agreed. When I climbed the 9 flights of stairs and got to the top, I looked over the edge and almost vomited. The former military men had decided they had nothing to prove by volunteering and appeared like minuscule ants way below. It took the drill instructors 40 minutes to finally talk me over the edge before I started my descent.
10 minutes and about 15 feet into my descent, a fellow cadet, Miss Know It All Fancy Pants, decided to show me how brave she was by accelerating past me in her descent downward. She suddenly flipped upside down and was hanging by her ankle boots which was definitely not part of the safety explanation. The unforeseen happened and I was terrified. I had no choice but to proceed, slowly and with great trepidation. Reared as a good catholic girl, but decades before I accepted a relationship with Jesus Christ, all I could whimper was, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”
He heard me! Saved or not saved at the time, He heard me and answered in my time of need. Today I am here. I am whole. I am saved. I am delivered of much. I am healed of much. I am not alone.
Sometimes the devil tries to tell me differently and with experience and time I have come to know when it’s him calling and his intention is destruction, any way possible. His field of battle is between my ears.
Another time, a married man that I knew through business transactions introduced me to his wife and mother and the next day proposed to me something definitely outside the constraints of his marriage vows. I reminded him that he was married, I wasn’t interested in him and my faith would never allow me to enter any relationship with him. Immediately he spoke words that I discerned was the enemy. I heard a hiss and saw in the spirit a long forked tongue come out of his mouth. He said very softly “oh but don’t you christians believe in forgiveness? If you sin won’t your god (little ‘g’ was his understanding of God) forgive you? I hung up on him.
We have to hang up on the devil when he comes calling. In the War Between Our Ears it is important to battle from a strong position of defense. The best position is to stand on the WORD of God. What does the Lord say about the situation? He says Ephesians 6:11-12.
When the footman of the devil says “You have no future, you will never amount to anything, you are a loser, you will never be chosen or succeed. It’s hopeless! Rise up mighty warrior and slay that footman with the WORD of God. What does the Lord say? He says Jeremiah 29:11.
When the watchman of satan says you won’t be able to meet your quota, your sons and your daughters will never be saved, you won’t find a job with sufficient income to cover your bills. Your rent is being raised and you can’t make it. Rise up mighty warrior and rebuke that watchman with the WORD of God and give thanks for what is coming to you that He has promised. His WORD says Philippians 4:6.
When the black knight of satan says the odds in the battle are overwhelming, everyone is against you, the world is coming to an end, you won’t survive, run before they get here, run, run, run. Rise up mighty warrior and unseat the black knight from his charger! Stand on the WORD of the Lord. He says Isaiah 35:4.
When the general of the evil one whispers “Poor you, You have reason to be sad, no one wants you, you’re too old to matter, you’re too young to succeed, you’re invisible because you’re too fat, no one will want you because you’re too skinny. No one will love you because you are unlovable. Rise up mighty warrior and look in the mirror of the WORD. As the general of the Lord defeat the general of the evil one and declare Isaiah 60:1.
Prepare for Engagement as we enter into 2020! Let the Rules of Engagement Be Declared! We release a new sound into the atmosphere!
Father God we enter into Your gates with thanksgiving and into Your courts with praise. We are thankful to You and bless Your holy name YHWH.Psalm 100.4 As this decade ends and the new one begins we acknowledge that not one of us would have made it this far without You! You are the Alpha and the Omega. You were there with us at the beginning of the decade and at the end and will be with us forevermore. Your Glory oh Lord stretches into eternity! Revelation 1:11
You have chosen us for such a time as this and we will enter this new season defensively armed and ready to receive Your best for us. We will overcome. For as a man thinks so shall he be. We declare that we have the mind of Christ and we are going to win the battle between our ears.
Your throne, O Lord, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness, the scepter of Your kingdom. Let the scepter of Your Kingdom be extended over the nations. Psalm 45:6 Let the nations be still and know that You are God; be exalted among the nations, and be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10 For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is the great king over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. Psalm 47:2-3 Let the nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to You.Psalm 47:9
Lord as we prepare to engage the enemy Your Word gives us instruction on the rules of spiritual warfare. We heed Your instructions lest we become unnecessary casualties of war.
We put on the full armor of God [for His precepts are like the splendid armor of a heavily-armed soldier], so that we may be able to [successfully] stand up against all the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil that attempts to overcome our minds and ways of thinking. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. Ephesians 6:11-12 Amplified
Father God, we repent for ungodly beliefs and stinking thinking. We have often entertained the deaf and dumb spirit which manifests in confusion, depression, bi-polar, oppression, dyslexia, ADHD, stuttering, deafness and blindness. We bind it now in the name of Jesus. We repent for any time we came into agreement with it. We declare we have the mind of Christ. When we truly repent we change our way of thinking.
Lord we know the plans and thoughts that You have for us, You said so in Your WORD. You’ve made plans for us for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give us a future and a hope. When the footman of the devil brings his message of failure we will laugh in his face and dance in victory before You! Jeremiah 29:11
When the watchman of satan says we will be brought low by insufficiency and lack we arise and defy that edict. All our household will be saved! The WORD of God says we will not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, we shall continue to make our [specific] requests known to You oh God! We thank You for the abundance of blessings You pour down upon us. We thank You that our sons and daughters will prophesy. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Philippians 4:6
When the black knight of satan tries to lance us with fear and trembling and to seize and cause our our hearts to fail, we stand on Your WORD. We will not be anxious or panic-stricken but instead declare over ourselves that we are strong and will not fear! Indeed, our God will come with vengeance [for the ungodly];The retribution of God will come, He will save us. Isaiah 35:4
When the general of the evil one shoves us into the miring clay, where we are supposed to wallow in self pity and seek commiseration from familiar spirits, we will arise [from spiritual depression to a new life] and look in Your mirror, we will shine [be radiant with Your glory and brilliance of the Lord]; for Your light has come upon us, Your glory and brilliance o Lord has risen upon us. Isaiah 60:1
So will Your word be which goes out of Your mouth; It will not return to You void (useless, without result), without accomplishing what You desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which You sent it. Isaiah 55:11
AS WE ENTER INTO THE NEXT DECADE 2020 WE ENTER WITH PERFECT VISION. WE HAVE THE EYES OF THE EAGLE! WE LOOK AT THE WORLD THROUGH YOUR WORD AND YOUR EYES!
In the name of Jesus, O God, we thank You for You are our Strength and Shield. We bless and honor You Lord because You are our Strong Tower. Psalm 28:7 Let the power in the blood of Jesus Christ begin to return all our lost blessings. O God download ancestral blessings on our heads and cancel ancestral curses.
Lord give us the blessings we deserve to excel in life and frustrate anyone that is bent on pushing us out of the place of blessing. Powers afflicting our families with battles, thunder of God, destroy them in the name of Jesus.
Enemy soldiers on assignment to turn our days of joy to days of battles, Lion of Judah tear them to pieces, in the name of Jesus. O God arise and reject every enemy arrow assigned to make our family members an instrument of battles against each other. Hosea 5:14
Powers of darkness assigned to enslave us on the day of our glory, run mad and die in the name of Jesus. We pursue our enemies, We overtake and destroy them, for the Lord has lifted us up and we are seated with Him in heavenly places, far above principalities, powers and dominion. The Lord has put all things under our feet, and we use our feet to bruise and destroy all our enemies even satan, in the name of Jesus. Ephesians 1:20
Anywhere the soles of our feet shall tread upon, the Lord has given unto us. We tread upon and destroy completely all strongholds and barriers of the enemy against us, in the name of Jesus. We erase them all and we make them completely desolate. Our strength is in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive strength from the Lord. Deuteronomy 11:24
Father of Truth, we thank You for You have promised never to leave us and today we set aside any evil contention against our lives. Every ancient gate blocking our inheritance, break. Every evil cloud over our heads, blow away. Any curse affecting our brains, break in the name of Jesus. Hebrews 13:5
Holy Spirit of God, explode in our lives by signs and wonders. Good gates closed against us, open by fire. The yoke that holds us, limiting our outreach, break! I declare that our story shall change from woe to glory in the name of Jesus.
We receive the ammunition of angelic guidance and operations in our lives right now. The angels have been ordered by God to take charge over us in all of our ways and we receive them, they go ahead of us wherever we go and in whatever we do; they go forth and make all the crooked ways straight from us, in the name of Jesus.Psalm 91:11
The angels of God watch over us in the day time and in the night time. They make sure that no evil whatsoever befalls us. We send the angels of God to pursue all our enemies and make them like chaff in the wind, in the name of Jesus. We send a mighty whirlwind to hit them, to destroy them and cast them into the abyss. Psalm 35:5
In the name of Yeshua our Messiah, the mighty hand of YHWH is upon our lives, upholding and protecting us from all who rise up against us. Jesus has made His grace available to us all, We ask for the grace and we receive it by faith, in the name of Yeshua! Acts 26:18
We declare that 2020 is the year of redemption for us as old cycles of failure are cancelled and new seasons of blessings overtake us. The beginning of this new decade will gain the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places. The increase of the Kingdom of God will multiply exponentially. We will be in the midst of the increase. Isaiah 45:3 Father God this is the decade You have made for us. Let it be a glorious one! We will rejoice and be glad that we have been chosen to partake of Your bounty and blessings.Psalm 118:24
Lord God bless our friends, and families. Bless our enemies for they know not what they do. Good bless America! God bless our President Donald J. Trump, keep him in health and safety all the days of his life. Holy Spirit of God lead him in the way he should go to become a better leader in all ways. For his time while in authority, help him to accomplish all that You have destined him to accomplish for this nation. YHWH Tsabaoth, Lord of Hosts, with Your armies conquer our enemies in Yeshua’s name. 1 Timothy 2
In the name of Yeshua:
We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces.” For the sake of our brethren and companions, We will now say, “Peace be within you.” Because of the house of the Lord our God we will seek your good. Psalm 122:6-9 AMEN!
Stephania
Shofar Sounder