This is a quote from a recent article by Chris Anderson called Finding Protections from Vulnerability to Government....which you probably can find using Google.
"Prayer for the leaders of the beast system is what gives us prophetic authority over the beast system as the Lord's forerunner. This is the Lord's answer to our natural vulnerability as sheep amidst wolves."
God's ways are so simple and if we are to be the strong body that God has purposed then we will be participating as the Spirit directs us in His ways. As we head into Thanksgiving I am reminded of yet another aspect of His ways.
This morning the message in the service where I attended covered the aspect of Thanksgiving as it relates to relationship. It was a fresh view to me....thanksgiving acknowledges a relationship with the person to whom thanksgiving is addressed, both when it occurs in human relationships and when it occurs in our relationship with our Father God.
On the other side of thanksgiving, there is what the speaker called "false thanksgiving." While he didn't cover all the depths of this, he said "false thanksgiving" always comes back to me. If we take the scripture out of context and see thanksgiving as something we give thanks "for things" I question whether it doesn't most often come back to me and "I". Scripture on the other hand doesn't speak about thanksgiving FOR things. It speaks of thanksgiving IN everything....give thanks IN every situation...nor for. The difference is when we give thanks to God because He is God IN every situation and every circumstance, we have literally released the power of the Spirit of God into the earth in that situation from the inside out. It is about a relationship with the Father and Christ IN me....not just what God is doing for me or what God did "for" me or even that he will "with me" but it is about WHO HE IS....in everything.
Ok, I admit....that what I am sharing is about "coming to a measure of maturity" IN Christ. Many of us find ourselves still in childhood, thanking God for the stuff he does for us just like we might have thanked our parents for the stuff they did for us. A friend told me as we were talking about this message this morning how thankful she is for all Christ has done "for her" in her life. And there is nothing wrong with that...but that is like we are as children thanking our parents for all they do "for us." The test of maturity IN CHRIST as we mature in relationship is whether we turn from what pleasure we get from what our parents do for us....to thankful hearts for who are parents are and not just what they did for us, is it not?
How many of you have been tested here with parents or children who haven't moved from what they wanted from you and wanted you to do to valuing who you are or who they were as human beings? To do this means we are past the place where we need our "desires met", where we aren't just in a relationship of "meet my needs."
How many of you have been tested here with parents or children who haven't moved from what they wanted from you and wanted you to do to valuing who you are or who they were as human beings? To do this means we are past the place where we need our "desires met", where we aren't just in a relationship of "meet my needs."
Dear Brothers and Sisters: we are entering a day when we are going to be challenged in our faith and trust in the relationship we have with Christ Jesus to an extent none of us in America have had to be tested. It reminds me of what my dear friend told me where she began to learn this. She had trusted for years that "premise of faith"..I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Year after year He saw her through issues, gave her strength to see through things, helped her do things with her cows and horses that were beyond her human strength. Always there when she called to Him. Then the day came when it fell to her to deliver a calf....and she called upon the Lord, as she always had. And she was unable to deliver the calf alive. She realized she was beginning to grow up in her relationship with her Father. He was beginning to ask her and continues to ask her to trust Him to be who He is even when He "doesn't deliver her" any more than he delivers people around the world such as the people in NIgeria where ten churches were attacked, burned and sometimes only one or two people escaped the fire, the hatchet or the rapes. Was God not with them because He didn't deliver them? What of the "blood of the saints" that goes down when Babylon is destroyed in an hour of a day?
What of the young child that is captured by sex traffickers of godly parents? Or the wives of godly men that are raped or their daughters? What of our homes that will be taken over by government because we don't say the right thing or because we speak the power of Jesus Name and our children "turn us in" not only to lose our property but to incarcerate us? Where is God" Where is our Thanksgiving? It won't be there if we in this hour aren't able to see and thank Him for being who He is in the midst of our day today. NOT WHO HE IS TO ME.....but WHO HE IS apart from what he does or doesn't do in my life circumstances!!
What he's done in the days past in David's life is what David used to trust that He is the God that the TORAH said he was, that the prophets talked about..the God that is NOW whether we see his hand in today's circumstances, whether we lose our jobs, our family, our lives or our physical abilities to function healthily!!
I turned 71 yesterday Nov. 5. I have aches and pains that I have never known until this past year and "conditions" that under normal circumstances apart from the Lord's intervention will continue to deteriorate. I have a new perspective today. I have read of so many in the persecuted church throughout the world....who are trusting God after every kind of medical issue and atrocity in their lives. Today my aches and pains only remind me to pray for those that are suffering for their aches and pains inflicted because they name the name of Christ. Mine are because I am aging and not always lived and eaten and motivated righteously and healthily...not because I have been persecuted. Do I thank God for my hurts and pains! NO, I thank God that He is God in the midst of the circumstances of hurt and pain and aches....HE IS LORD.
Then we move from thanksgiving for WHO GOD IS and all He is doing ....to praise of WHO HE IS. Thanksgiving opens the door of relationship that allows me to worship Him in holiness....it is the fullness of the release of HIs Spirit through my spirit which begins with thanking HIm for all He has done...not just done for me...but what HE is doing. That means that I have paid the price to seek Him and find out what He is doing. How can I really thank God in this election time if I don't know what He is doing? Sometimes it means like David, seen what He's done in the past, and trusting HE IS GOD and He is loving, kind and gracious but HE will accomplish His purpose in the earth in this late hour!!
I don't like what I see happening in this year....and as I seek Him, I am assured that what He is doing isn't limited to this election in two days but what He is doing will continue to be seen in the days, months and weeks ahead IF YOU HAVE EYES TO SEE AND EARS TO HEAR by His Spirit. For He has said....eye hath not see nor ear heard....BUT I WILL TELL YOU BY MY SPIRIT!!!
That is what thanksgiving is about.....understanding and knowing from relationship with Father in the Spirit...what He is doing....and then worshiping him as we praise Him for being the I AM who is, who was and who will be all He IS.
And then it comes down to the practical side of our hearts being willing to let go of everything we care about in order to see and hear and experience what God is doing. A good friend was grieving this morning over the loss of a good friend she's had for many years...her dog Snap. Seeing her distress, I went over to minister to her. And what I learned is a lesson for me......she was enjoying her emotional turmoil over her dog and was being empowered by it and not in the least yet willing to "Come unto Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." I spoke His Peace and rest into her but knew that at the end of the time I spent with her...there was no witness.
Such "coming unto Him" follows thanksgiving and praise IN the circumstances of our lives....because it requires we yield all I have, all I know, all I love and value to Who He is, recognizing apart from Him, nothing I care about can bear fruit of righteousness....if I am not "in His Rest, at Peace who is Himself." The funny thing is the pastor hadn't covered these scriptures yet when I ministered to her.........so I really don't know if, by the end of the service, Holy Spirit had stirred her and called her to Himself in "relationship" through thanksgiving and praise. Of course I questioned whether I was too early and she wasn't ready yet to hear.....but as I wrote this, just now I realized...the Word went forth to her as I ministered and while it appeared when I got done she went right back to verbalizing her emotional energy from the grief..........I don't know what Holy Spirit did when the very scriptures and principles that I had spoken to her were preached from the pulpit. Do any of you question yourselves? But as I said...I just realized what I shared with the lady in prayer ended up being preached from the pulpit...within the next 30 min.
When I taught "gratitude" as a counselor, I often said that the words of our mouth determine the direction our lives take. When the words of my mouth are filled with thanksgiving by the Spirit of God IN every situation...we literally release the Holy Spirit to work. Even as I posted the quote at the beginning of this article, it important that we comprehend than when we begin to pray for the leaders of this nation, even those so fully identified with what is often called the Babylonian system, the rising or forerunner of the beast system...we have released the very power and angelic forces that provide us with a measure of security and protection by those same angelic forces.
The Kingdom of God is about CHRIST IN US....it is more than Christ is for us...we are His. He has poured Himself into us and invites "relationship" with Him BY HIS SPIRIT....which becomes evident by simple thanksgiving and praise and prayers for those in our lives. When I thank God that He is God over my leaders...........I release His Spirit in me to deal with the relationship that I have, that I will have with those leaders and even which perhaps my children may have!! In everything give thanks for this is the will of God IN Christ Jesus concerning you.
Apart from Christ in us, it is all about "us". Salvation begins with what He did for us, that we might come to know who He is and grow up in the knowledge of Who He is, as we understand that we are in relationship to the God of the Universe and participate in seeing His will accomplished on earth..............And it begins with trusting that relationship in the spirit as we thank Him for being God in all circumstances.
May Jesus Christ be praised!!!!
Meri
Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church...just in case your congregation such as where I attended to day didn't mention it!! We are a part of a Body...and much of HIs Body is suffering under great persecution in this hour and yet are growing exponentially while the "church" in America is dwindling.......
Meri Ford 516 Park Rd Winlock, WA 98596 360 520 4503
Blogs http://meriford.blogspot.com/
