Experience the Impossible: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven's Power on Earth (8 page)

You will always reflect the nature of the world you are most aware of.

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his world is filled with mistrust, skepticism and unbelief. Faith exists, but rarely is it the cultural norm. As a result, most believers are more aware of the darkness around them than the heavenly realm of which they are citizens. This failure to recognize that our present-day citizenship is in heaven costs us tremendously. Not just when we die, but now, in this present darkness.

People release the reality of the world they are most aware of, good or bad. We know this instinctively. We know, for example, that if a depressed person walks into a room, no one will be healed by his shadow (see Acts 5:15–16). The picture is obvious. Depression often comes from believing a lie. Being absorbed with a lie affects a person’s countenance, which has an impact on the atmosphere around him. It is not a countenance of life, encouragement and health. Such an individual often drains anything positive from the environment, as he looks for something to get him through the next hour.

Or take, for another example, people filled with bitterness. Rather than draining the atmosphere, they fill the air with
tension and conflict. They contaminate the environment, releasing what they are most aware of—offense, conflict and division No one will be healed by their shadows either.

The great news is that light is greater than darkness. Anyone living aware of the presence of God is never at the mercy of those who darken the environment, whether those people are bitter or depressed or whatever. And it goes even further. As we live aware of the presence of God with us, we are much more likely to influence the environment ourselves. It is true.

The Old Testament gives us a profound illustration of this principle in the life of Lot. Second Peter 2:7 tells us that God “rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.” While Lot did not have the same benefits that we have in the New Covenant—that is, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit—others in the Old Covenant seemed to have more success with that challenge than did Lot. Daniel is a perfect case in point. He lived in a demonic society, was numbered with the witches and warlocks of his day and worked for a demented king named Nebuchadnezzar who demanded worship from his subjects. But Daniel did not buckle under the influence of the surrounding darkness. His ability to live above it all no doubt played a part in his significant role in one of the greatest conversions in all of Scripture—that of Nebuchadnezzar himself.

Lot’s surroundings were more than he could bear. And even though he was righteous, he became oppressed by the evil in others. It literally shut down the influence that God intended for him to have. We can be thankful that that result is not inevitable for believers, because, where sin abounds, we carry the promise that grace abounds more. Grace flows through believing believers. We can affect our surroundings by our partnership with the Presence of God—by carrying His promises in our hearts. We can manifest the King’s dominion in the environment around us. People possessed with hope are able to endure, and endure well. Hope attracts breakthrough.

Prayer

Father, please help me to live aware of You in the same way Jesus was. He was continually aware of what You were doing and saying, and I want the same thing. Thank You that Jesus made it possible for me to live in the same measure of victory that He did. I give You praise and honor for the fact that You designed me as a carrier of Your presence and have given me the privilege of bringing Your presence to a lost and dying world.

Confession

God has enabled me to live above the influence of evil around me. I celebrate the fact that, according to 1 John 4:4, greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. And that greatness will be seen through me as I live in the constant adoration of God through the Holy Spirit.

Sympathy is the counterfeit of compassion.

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uch of what has been applauded as Christlike compassion is nothing more than sympathy. Sympathy has little to no hope and lives without power. It leaves a person with his affliction, problem or question, while compassion brings him out. Jesus, again, set the standard on this subject. Whenever He was “moved with compassion,” a miracle followed—every single time. His view of compassion is much different from ours, so ours must change. It is as though compassion was the vehicle that God’s power rode upon. All ministry is supposed to be that way—gifts riding upon the vehicle of character. Gifts and character were never meant to be separated.

Sympathy can even become dangerous, as it reinforces a person’s identity in his affliction or need. The best that the natural man can come up with, sympathy tends to insulate the person in need from awareness of God’s promises that are for now, therefore keeping him from the faith necessary to overcome.

The religious spirit loves for us to operate in sympathy as it celebrates
form without
power.
It fuels people’s identity as victims and makes the possibility of heaven in the future their
only hope. While that may sound okay, it is not how Jesus lived or what He preached. His message was that
the Kingdom of God is at hand
, here and now and within reach. While the eternal aspect will be glorious beyond measure, it is the
now
that was the target of His message, backed by His works, that destroyed the devil’s works.

Let’s be honest: It is often much easier to console and give sympathy, knowing there is no simple answer for a person’s problem. Tragically, we position ourselves to comfort instead of contend for the miracle on behalf of those who cannot seem to fight for themselves. It is easier than putting our faith on the line.

Biblical compassion is the love of God. Love seeks the best. And the believing believer has access to the best—Kingdom power being released now. Faith operates through love. These two things are eternally connected.

Compassion has Kingdom solutions in sight. It is energized by the affection of God, the One who paid a high price for us to be healed and delivered in this life. He does not look at a problem wondering if He should provide an answer. He does not look at a disease and wonder whether or not to give healing. Two thousand years ago, a price was paid for all to be healed. In the same way that payment made it possible for all of us to be forgiven. There is no lack on His end of the equation.

Prayer

My Father and my God, I need grace in a very big way each and every day. Help me not to insulate people from their need to trust You. Instead, I want Your affection to flow through me, not only giving comfort to those in need, but also bringing them into breakthroughs. Help me to recognize Your heart for each person and demonstrate Your kindness in the same way Jesus would. People must know what You are like, and I give my life unto this end, that You might be glorified.

Confession

I will not restrict my life to what is humanly possible. Instead, I will embrace the privilege of allowing His heart of love and compassion to flow through me. As I demonstrate His perfect compassion, I will look for and anticipate the answers that Jesus would bring were He in my place. These are the things I will do that Jesus Christ will be exalted in all the earth.

A stronghold is anything people trust other than God.

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rust is the expression of faith. And whenever people put their trust in something other than God, the enemy of our souls sees it as a place of legal access to deepen the deception. His goal is to inhabit it and make it a stronghold. The powers of darkness are attracted to misplaced trust. They do not really care where trust is placed, as long as it is not in God. That is why Paul said, “Don’t give place to the devil.” It is possible for a believer to give the devil the place reserved for God alone.

The book of Proverbs gives us an interesting picture that illustrates this truth: “A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust” (Proverbs 21:22). The key phrase is
stronghold in which they trust
. If you can see where people have put their trust other than God, you will find the stronghold that must be brought down. Wisdom enables us to bring down the strongholds over cities once they have been removed from our own lives.

Jesus modeled a strict lifestyle for those wanting to be His disciples. Their approach to family, money, relationships,
occupations and the like was different from the approach of the world around them. Some think mistakenly that Jesus taught poverty as a lifestyle. That simply is not true. The disciples had to go without in order to learn how to steward correctly what God would provide for them. Their journey was much like the children of Israel’s journey in the wilderness. They went without in order to learn how to manage the land of promises they were about to inherit. Before Jesus left the earth, He urged them to take the money belts with them that they were forbidden to take at the beginning. It was never about money; it was about trust.

The challenge for us is not whether or not we should have money; the challenge is where we are going to put our trust in spite of how little or how much we have. How much is too much money? Whatever amount replaces trust. For one person, it is little. For another, it is a lot.

Anything that earns our trust, besides God, attracts the demonic. The devil considers all misplaced trust as devil worship, for he hides himself in its shadows.

Faith also attracts. But instead of empowering darkness, we become like lightning rods that attract the activities of God into our surroundings. Even the angels are compelled to fill such an atmosphere, for they have been assigned to “render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). They are fascinated with our trust in our Redeemer because it is a position they will never have.

Trusting in God is a privilege. It is worth every effort we make to expose ourselves to and memorize the promises of God for our lives. I had a dear friend named Dick Mills, who is now home with the Lord. He memorized 7,700 promises in the Bible, in various translations. He was a joy to be around, for he always had a promise from God for any problem or challenge. He brought encouragement to countless thousands of people through his years of faithful service to the Lord.

This should be the normal lifestyle for the believer. For this is really the lifestyle of one abiding in Christ—always mindful of His presence and His Word, burning with God’s promise for every situation. This is the atmosphere of heaven that is becoming the atmosphere on earth.

Prayer

Father, please help me never to give place to the devil by trusting in anything that is in conflict with Your heart for me. I know You are fully trustworthy. Help me to see the promises that You placed in Your Word just for me. I do not want to think according to my limitations, but according to Your promises. Let me be one who is possessed by Your promises, bringing hope to everyone around me, regardless of the circumstances.

Confession

I choose to meditate on God’s promises for me. I cannot afford to have a thought in my mind that is not in His. So today I declare that my trust is in God alone, as He has already prepared everything necessary for me to be successful in this challenge.

I try to live in such a way that nothing becomes bigger than my awareness of God.

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ost of us know what it is to be so bothered by something that we worry for hours or days, sometimes to the point of being unable to sleep at night. Try as we might to change the subject in our heads, we are unable to let go. In part, it is the result of the effort of the enemy to distract us from the promises of God for our lives. He is hoping we will lose track of the tools that God has given us for imminent victory.

As negative as it is to be so absorbed with a problem that we cannot sleep, it is encouraging in this sense: It reveals that we actually know how to meditate. We just need to change the subject matter.

In cultic meditation, people empty their minds. That is dangerous because many spirits are looking for entrance into a person’s life to bring the influence of darkness. Empty minds are invitations to the demonic. Biblical meditation is quite different. It means to fill our minds with what God says, running it over and over in our minds and hearts until the truth takes
root in us. What God says then becomes more than something we quote; it becomes a part of who we are.

Whatever we think about or focus on affects our attitudes and countenances immensely. And while faith does not come from the mind, our thoughts and attitudes have great effect on our faith. Simply put, the devil wants us to be overwhelmed by his work on the earth. He knows that if he can undermine our hope, he has influence over what and how we think, and ultimately weaken our faith.

The devil comes to kill, steal and destroy. In present-day culture, we are fed a constant diet of news about death, loss and destruction—the devil’s fingerprints. And if I dwell on what he has done, I will live in reaction to him—and he is not worthy of affecting my agenda. He simply is not worthy of having any influence on my thoughts, plans or actions.

We all face challenges. Sometimes the problems are very personal and heart-wrenching. Sometimes they affect the lives of people close to us. Sometimes they have to do with a crisis, such as a life-threatening storm or war or threats of international conflict. I have no recourse in problems if they overwhelm me. I must be convinced of God’s overriding goodness, as well as the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. When I stay conscious of Him, I can become part of the answer. If I become overly concerned with the problem, though, I am more likely to become a complainer who spiritualizes such weakness by calling it intercession.

Please note that I emphasize living aware of the Holy Spirit in and upon me more than the problem. In other words, I am not just looking for a doctrinal statement to make me feel better in the situation. I am looking for Him, the Person of the Holy Spirit. I am looking to recognize the One in whom is all safety, victory and joy, who continually positions me for triumph to the glory of Jesus’ name.

It sounds rather simple really: Stay more aware of God than of problems. At least for me, the practice of such a priority is more
challenging than the concept. Yet the truth remains. Whatever I focus on will determine if I am a victor in or a victim of the problems around me.

Prayer

Father God, please help me to stay aware of the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank You for giving Yourself to me so completely! I do not want to become a victim. I want to live in such a way that Your purposes and plans for the world around me come into fruition. Thank You for letting me be a part of the company of people who live to change the world. May You receive all the glory for every area of breakthrough in and through my life.

Confession

I am uniquely designed to carry the presence of God in a way that helps others to become victorious, giving Him all the glory. I embrace this privileged assignment for the glory of God.