[Reminder: We are now fasting 24 hours (6 PM, Nov 30 – 6 PM, Dec 1) in preparation for spiritual battle in 2024. January 1, 2024, we begin fighting in spirit to reclaim our land from Hell’s principalities through once a month, 24-hour, prayer and fasting for America. God bless each of you fasting! Remember to pray for protection over your loved ones, our network of fasting saints, and for God’s people to grow in understanding and spreading this revolutionary message far and wide. The people of God uniting in fasting and prayer is our ultimate spiritual weapon, and there is nothing He cannot do through us!]
Victory in Trials
Have you ever thanked God for a problem, for a stressful situation or difficult trial? I’ll admit, I don’t remember doing so, until this past Summer. Looking back on my prior life of faith, I confess I had not grown to that level of trust and victory. I’d prayed through challenges, rebuked evil and asked for victory. But, I never said “thank you for the struggle”!
My husband sometime ago shared a video clip about Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy, Christians whose family was incarcerated in a German concentration camp for hiding Jews from the Nazis. Betsy and Corrie would pray together in the worst place imaginable. Betsy reminded Corrie the Scripture taught being thankful in all circumstances, and thanked God even for the fleas adding to their torment. Corrie was aghast, but she went along with Betsy anyway.
Corrie would later learn the Nazi soldiers left their dorm alone more than others because they didn’t want to get near the fleas! There was purpose in them and reason to thank God for them! So it is with trials in our lives.
A member of my family has been the subject of an investigation involving two separate, false accusations in a work environment. We know he is innocent, because the accusations are outside his character. So, their true source is hell. One of the accusers is even a believer in Christ!
How tragic to be the victim of friendly fire, for another believer to be a tool in the hands of Satan against a brother. But, not every believer walks in the Spirit, giving the Spirit control of their thoughts and feelings. Many believers are not in the habit of asking for wisdom before making assumptions.
Jesus promised us “the Spirit will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). But, if we are not yielded to the Spirit, seeking His filling continually as Paul taught us, we will not find truth every time. We have to yield daily.
This culture has come unglued in many ways. Lies, deception, false accusations are thick in the air. Lives are purposely ruined or put into harm’s way because someone didn’t like someone else’s opinion, or their authority over them. An accusation is counted as guilt before looking for another explanation to the circumstances, or before it is proven there was a pattern, evidence, and witnesses. How dystopian.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Jesus warned in the end times, the love of many would grow cold. It would seem we are in those days, and it will grow worse over time. Eventually the end times must happen. No matter where we are in the final timeline, we also must get ready and strengthen ourselves in the armor of God and in the filling of the Holy Spirit, Whose role is to be our guide. He is the answer to the fear problem.
God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of the Holy Spirit, and He is our source of love, power and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
Back to our trial. For the first time in my life of faith, when we realized this would not end soon, I looked at my family and from somewhere deep inside me said, “Let’s determine not to give any place to the devil, not to let him manipulate our thoughts or emotions! We will not allow fear to remain in our home, and we will embrace joy!”
We prayed together and asked His help that no matter what circumstance we face, we would let the Lord lead us to rise up on wings of eagles, high above the circumstances on the ground.
Friends, I felt confidence well up in my soul that day, and found it would continue growing. For the first time in my life, I found myself glorying in His strength, thanking the Lord for the trial that brought me to this place of power for the first time in my life.
It occurs to me now how much I’d been missing out! I never experienced the freedom in denying the enemy victory in my mind, heart and spirit! Do you realize, when we reach this place, we become invincible!? This is when we “pass through the waters but they don’t overflow us, when we walk through the fire but don’t get burned.” (Isaiah 43:2)
Hearing the Spirit’s Voice
Now, let’s shift a bit and talk about how the Spirit communicates again. My regular readers know I am a Protestant believer raised in a traditional church environment. We were not taught much about the Holy Spirit, except that He is with us from salvation and occasionally speaks with a “still, small voice”. Basically, we were taught only the Bible can be trusted for guidance, and the Holy Spirit, while acknowledged, was largely un-pursued.
But, Jesus said the Spirit is God’s gift to us Who would guide us into all truth. How can an occasional, small voice we almost never talk about actively guide our lives? Do we imagine this happens automatically as we robotically follow the black and white rules of the Bible? Well, some of it admittedly does, but that is barely the beginning!
Let’s pause for a minute to appreciate Who is the Holy Spirit. He is the third part of the Trinity. He is one with the Father, one with Christ. The Holy Spirit is Christ in you, God with you, dwelling with you, His home. Can you imagine, God shares with us HIS Spirit!
What a remarkable gift, precious beyond measure, is the Spirit, to be tenderly loved and welcomed, to be given control of our lives, homes and churches. He IS Christ, and it is His right and purpose to make us God’s home and guide us.
In my adulthood and maturing life of faith where I began giving myself completely to the Spirit every day, the Lord would open up streams and rivers of communication to and through me. I have come to learn He speaks not only through His word, but through dreams, visions, words of knowledge, nature, any earthly circumstance He chooses, and even occasionally audibly!
Recently, as I was praying about something, I literally heard a voice speak as if from another dimension, almost through static, and it said very distinctly, “I love you”. I heard Him with my ears. That is admittedly more rare, but is so amazing. By the way, no one should be surprised by the static. Scripture tells us Satan is prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) – and our spiritual air waves are, therefore, not clean. Static!
Believers, if you want to hear the Spirit’s voice more, just tell Him you want to be completely His with nothing held back. That your expectations – even if taught you by well-meaning people – are laid down at the foot of the Cross, and you give Him complete control. That you want to hear from Him every way He speaks!
Continually pursue that yielding to and filling of Christ’s Spirit every day. Then, get ready. Expect to be surprised, delighted, intrigued and more. He will begin speaking to you in every way imaginable and beyond!
Back to our personal story, the Lord has already shown us the outcome of our current trial. It will fall away to nothing. It is, in His eyes, already ‘dead in the water’. We may have to fight for truth, but we will win.
We know this because we hear from the Spirit through dreams, visions and more. We do appreciate your prayers on our behalf, in agreement with the will of God as revealed in dreams, for victory!
The Spirit gave me a vision of the second complainant, the believer, standing with a woman’s head of hair, i.e., under the authority of a woman. The vision revealed he was being forced to accuse when he was uncomfortable, probably unsure what was even true. This vision was given the very day we learned of his complaint.
Never underestimate the true power of the Holy Spirit. In this trial, He IS guiding us into all truth! He has revealed the characters of the accusers, the outcome, is pouring His strength, love and confidence into us all the while telling us every step of the way what will happen.
This is reason to rejoice in trials, in the remarkable privilege of growing to hear His voice and an expanded ability to walk with patience. The Lord is always good no matter what. We pray this encourages your walk with Him today, and inspires the opening of your heart and life to His precious Spirit!
FAITH AND FASTING 