Spiritual Warfare

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Comment by Stephen R. Rizzo on December 22, 2008 at 12:20am

Peace: A Weapon Against Satan
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for Thou art with me. (Psalms 23:4)


In the battles of the marketplace, your peace is actually a weapon.
The marketplace creates many opportunities to rob us of our peace.
Cash flow concerns, deadlines, relationships-all create stress on us.
Your confidence in the God of peace declares that you are not falling
for the lies of the devil. You see, the first step toward having
spiritual authority over the adversary is having peace in spite of our
circumstances. When Jesus confronted the devil, he did not confront
satan with His emotions or in fear. Knowing that the devil was a liar,
He simply refused to be influenced by any voice other than God's. His
peace overwhelmed satan; His authority then shattered the lie, which
sent demons fleeing.

There is a place of walking with God where you simply fear no evil.
David faced a lion, a bear, and a giant. In this Psalm he stood in the
"shadow of death" itself, yet he "feared no evil." David's trust was
in the Lord. He said, "...for Thou art with me." Because God is with
you, every adversity you face will unfold in victory as you maintain
your faith in God! David continued, "You prepare a table before me in
the presence of my enemies" (Ps. 23:5a). The battle you are in will
soon become a meal for you, an experience that will nourish and build
you up spiritually. Only God's peace will quell your fleshly reactions
in battle. The source of God's peace is God Himself. If fear has been
knocking at your door, begin to face that fear with God's peace. It is
God's secret weapon to destroy fear.

Comment by Stephen R. Rizzo on November 23, 2008 at 11:45am

Yesterday morning, around 3:00 AM, the Lord awakened me with the statement He made to the prophet Ezekiel (see Ezekiel 22:30): "I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it:...." and He stopped there. Then He said to me, "It only takes ONE!"

As I meditated on what He was saying, He reminded me of how He picked Noah because of his faith and right standing before God to preserve the human race. Then I saw Him choose Abraham out of all the people on earth to become the father of a nation and a people who would walk by faith. I saw how Joseph was chosen to preserve his family, and the future of the nation of Israel.

Again, I saw Moses leading Israel out of Egypt; I saw their rebellion against God and the stirring of His anger against them and expressed desire to destroy the nation and start all over again with Moses. I saw how Moses pleaded with God and how his intercession spared the whole nation.

Move forward in Israel's history and you have Daniel interceding for Israel in captivity and God showing him their return. How about Esther's three days of fasting, prayer and intercession? It changed the course of history for the Jewish people and prevented their destruction.

You're beginning to get the picture, I'm sure. History is filled with examples of how just one individual put everything on the line with God, and how their pursuit of His righteousness and mercy altered the course of history.

Let's take it to more modern times.

Consider America's beginnings. We've talked much about our nation's founding fathers and how they sought to instill a reverence of the Lord God in every part of our nation's early beginnings. But what about the Evangelists, the Prophets, the prayer warriors who interceded on behalf of this nation in those early days? What about their sacrifices, their commitments not only to pray, but to speak out and to take the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ into the very halls of governance of those first thirteen colonies, and then to those who formed our nation's Constitution and established a bulwark of liberty for God's people in the world?

In the early days of this nation we had a man by the name of Jonathan Edwards. He, along with George Whitefield, were both intercessors and preachers who were largely responsible for what we know as The Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards made the following observation of prayer and intercession, and it marked the life of a man whose influence upon our nation's founding fathers was nearly immeasurable.

"I feel an ardency of soul to be . . . emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust and be full of Christ alone, to love Him with a holy and pure love, to trust in Him, to live on Him, and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity."

That, my friends, is the mark of the intercessor -- one who has emptied themselves and focused on what the heart's desire of the Lord Jesus Christ is, and then implements that desire in prayer with commands, decrees, and declarations which rip apart the strongholds of Satan and prepare the way for the Gospel to be heard and received.

Edwards had the soul and the spirit of an intercessor. He often wept over his congregation as he preached. His preaching, combined with his weeping and groaning intercession while he preached, created what some observers referred to as "a spiritual hurricane" resulting in people falling down prostrate under conviction, others being "slain in the spirit" (to use the Pentecostal expression), and still others hanging onto their chairs or columns along the sides and center of the auditorium to keep from falling.

His oft-companion in ministry, George Whitefield, was easily the most widely traveled preacher in the world until modern times. He crossed the Atlantic 13 times preaching throughout America, England and Europe. His voyages were marked by his staying in corners of the ship for hours and days at a time in prayer and intercession, and then followed by his preaching to (and converting) many of his fellow-travelers or ship-mates.

John Newton (who wrote Amazing Grace) said of Whitefield, "It seemed as if he never preached in vain." George Whitefield -- as I have noted in the Coffee Break series, THE AMERICAN COVENANT -- was followed continually by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin, as we all know, was famous for his various experiments and scientific mind. During one of Whitefield's sermons, he walked away to a spot where he could not hear him too clearly, marked that spot, and began measuring the area that encompassed the listeners. He concluded by his experiment that not less than 30,000 people could hear George Whitefield clearly and easily without amplification -- so great was the power and anointing under which he preached.

But these are only anecdotes of intercessors. Let's get to the picture of intercession, and what is accomplished in the midst of it.

We come back to a verse we've quoted several times from Psalm 115:16 where David writes, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men."

This is an extremely important principle to remember. Genesis 1 and 2 tell us that following creation of the earth and all that is therein, he formed man, breathed His life into him, then gave man dominion over everything upon the earth, and put him into the Garden of Eden to "dress it" (the Hebrew word is 'abad: meaning to work it, care for it, and have dominion over it) and "keep it" (the Hebrew word here is shamar: meaning to guard, protect and hedge about, being circumspect of all therein).

Adam surrendered day-to-day control of the earth to Satan by virtue of his eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and bringing a curse upon the earth, but God still held Adam (and his seed) responsible. When Jesus came, both as the seed of Adam and the son of God (by virtue of the Holy Spirit), he -- through His suffering, death, cancellation of the curse and restoration of access to and fellowship with God, and resurrection from the dead -- restored total dominion AND DAY-TO-DAY CONTROL -- to those of the human race who would receive Him, acknowledge His Lordship, and function through His authority and power!

Wheww! Sorry about that long sentence, but you get the picture.

Jesus, now seated at the right hand of God the Father, now functions as our intercessor. (See Isaiah 53:12, 59:16, Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25) But there's more!

In Romans 8:26, the apostle Paul writes, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

We can also read this last phrase in the Greek text like this: "But the Spirit Himself (the better rendering) makes intercession on our behalf, across and through us, for our benefit, with sighs and internal groanings which are unspeakable."

So what does all this have to do with the picture of the earth belonging to the Lord, but the earth being in the hands of the children of men? Just this: God does not retract what He gives. He doesn't change His mind and take back the earth. Sure He's the Creator, and He has a plan and purpose for the earth. Because He has given the earth into man's charge, He has made it so that for His Will to be enacted in the earth, He must come through us.

That's not because He isn't Supreme, it's because this is a legal requirement He has created in order to get man involved in the affairs that take place on earth. He simply will not act without at least ONE man interceding and petitioning Him to act in the affairs of men. Hence, the Word the Lord spoke to me in the early morning hours was, "It only takes ONE!"

When Jesus commanded us to decree, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done in earth as it is in Heaven," He was expecting our direct involvement in the process of ruling over the earth. After all, that's what God's people were designed for in the first place! As already noted, ruling over the earth was man's first command -- with blessing. The curse took that away. Jesus restored it to those who would live and operate through Him.

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but these principles are critical to understand for the intercessor. God spoke to Ezekiel telling him that He longed for and looked for someone to stand in the gap so that He would not have to execute judgment upon the nation.

The apostle Paul, in I Timothy 2:1-5, writes, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, 1supplications, 2prayers, 3intercessions, and 4giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."

Supplications, Prayers, Intercessions, Giving of thanks: these are four specific things Paul commands with purpose -- 1that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty, and 2so that the heart's desire of the Lord can be fulfilled in seeing all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth.

Let me do a quick outline and define these four specific things from the Greek text. Then we'll stop for the day and come back to this discussion later in the week.

1. Paul's first command is supplications. The word in the Greek text is: de.esis; and it means: petitions, requests.

2. The second is prayers. This is a distinctive word -- proseuchomai -- and it is a covenant word. It literally means: to worship [within the framework of God's Covenant with us, and our participation in that Covenant]. (We'll talk about this picture more in our next Coffee Break.)

3. The third is intercessions. This word frequently -- if not most of the time -- gets treated in our mental pictures as crying, long prayers, begging God, banging on Heaven's gates, and trying to convince God to do something He really doesn't want to do. Nothing could be further from the truth! The term in the Greek text is: enteuxis; and this is a legal term, frequently used within the old Greek justice system. Enteuxis is defined like this: to confer with, to entreat for, to deal with. It is the presenting of a legal document with arguments based in Covenant Law in order to have enforcement of the Covenant. (We'll get into this a lot more, later.)

4. The last thing Paul commands is the giving of thanks. Once again we have a word used within the framework of Covenant. That word is: eucharistia. (Traditional churches derive the "Eucharist" -- or partaking of the symbols of Communion -- from this word.) Eucharistia expresses concept of gratefulness or gratitude towards God, but it does so within the context of our Covenant of the Blessing of Abraham which God made, and Jesus enacted for all who receive Him and walk in His Covenant.

The entire picture of these four words Paul uses comes within the enactment of the Covenant of Blood which Jesus made and restored access to through His suffering, the merciless beatings and stripes He bore for our healing and wholeness, His death on the Cross, and -- most of all -- His resurrection from the dead.

In our next Coffee Break, we'll review the picture of Covenant, how it was originally enacted with Abraham, and why intercession is so integral to our Covenant with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Still more to come.

The purpose of Covenant is to place God's mark in your forehead, that is, to mark your mind. That Covenant is as valid today as it was in the Garden.

The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!

Comment by Stephen R. Rizzo on November 19, 2008 at 1:23pm

Stay strong people. There is a major culture war about to be unleashed on this nation,
http://prophecyandnews.ning.com/forum/topics/2111450:Topic:501
even worse than before and I really do believe you will continue to see fascism extend itself while countermanding the fascist homosexual movement, will be entire towns and cities worshipping Jesus Christ to the fullest extent. This is going to involve spiritual warfare as well but it will also, and I believe this as well, expose the the fascist left and the homosexual movement to a frightening extent and awakening many to the moral degradation and lawlessness pervading our nation to the extent it will bring many backslidden Christians back home.

Comment by Stephen R. Rizzo on November 17, 2008 at 9:56pm

Has any one been trying to keep up with the news today & what is in the Bible about it. Do your self a favor. Fill your Lamps for when the groom comes in the darkness, book mark this page please I love you all, & I can stand to think of anyone of my family in JESUS not to be ready.

This site up dates every day till CHRIST returns in the clouds to take us to our home with HIM>http://prophecyandnews.ning.com/page/bible-prophecy-today-news

US
http://JESUS2ndreturn.ning.com

Comment by betty ellefson on November 16, 2008 at 8:59pm

u beet we have a war fair going on and its coming to our back doors in the amerciaca its like no one wants to be live in god

Comment by Stephen R. Rizzo on November 16, 2008 at 11:29am

A Warfare Prayer - Before Starting Your Day

Gracious God, I acknowledge that You are worthy of all honor, glory and praise. I am thankful for the victorious work of Your Son, Jesus Christ at Calvary for me. I appropriate His victory for myself now as I willingly surrender every area of my life to Your will.

Thank you for the forgiveness and righteousness that has been given to me as Your adopted child. I trust in Your protection and provision daily. I know that your love for me never ceases.

I rejoice in Your victory, my Lord, over all the principalities and powers in the heavenlies. In faith I stand in Your victory and commit myself to live obediently for You my King.

I desire that my fellowship with You become greater. Reveal to me those things that grieve You and enables the enemy to secure an advantage in my life. I need the Holy Spirit's powerful ministry in my life; bringing conviction of sin, repentance of heart, strengthening my faith and increasing perseverance in resisting temptation.

Help me to die to self and walk in the victory of the new creation You have provided for me. Let the fruits of the Spirit flow out of my life so that You will be glorified through my life.

I know that it is Your will that I should stand firm and resist all of the enemy's work against me. Help me to discern the attacks upon my thoughts and emotions. Enable me to stand upon Your Word and resist all the accusations, distortions and condemnations that are hurled against me.

It is my desire to be transformed through the renewing of my mind, so that I will not compromise with the ways of the world, or yield to the enemy's attacks, but be obedient to Your will.

I draw upon those spiritual resources that You have provided me and I attack the strongholds and plans of the enemy that have been put in place against me. I command in the name of Jesus Christ that the enemy must release my mind, will, emotions and body completely. They have been yielded to the Lord and I belong to Him.

Lord, enable me to become the person You created me to be. Help me as I pray to be strong in faith. Show me how to apply Your Word in my life each day. I know that I wear the full armor of God when I am committed to and stand firmly upon Your Word. I want You to have the supreme place in my life.

I surrender myself completely to You, Lord. You are always faithful and You extend Your grace to me constantly, even when I do not realize it. I claim Your promise of forgiveness and cleansing in its fullness. In faith, I receive the victory today that you have already put in place for me. I do this in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior with a grateful heart. In the name and power of the Blood of Jesus, Amen