Becoming thee th
Master’s Key
L. Emer Emersson Fer Ferre rell l
ecoming the Master’s Key 1st Edition
3rd Printing All rig rig hts rese re serve rved d. Th T his publi publicc atio ion n ma may not be repro repro duc e d or transmitted in any form or any means, filed in electronic system nor transm ransmit itted ted in any any e lec le c troni ro nicc , mec me c ha hani nicc al way in incc lud ludin ing g photocopying photocopying re c o rdin ing g o r by an any y in inffo rmat rmatio ion n stora sto rag g e retrie retriev v al system, or any other manner, without the previous written permission of the author. author. Co ve r design Cove es ign:: Rube Ruben n Mariac Mariacaa Asp As po rt, rt,
[email protected] Interior design: ospreydesign, osprey design, www.ospreydesign.com All scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the Kin King Jame s V e rsion sio n Cat Cate g o ry : Prophetic Teaching Publisher: Jo Jo rdan rdan River Rive r Publishin Publishing g Co mpan any y P.O. P. O. Bo x 8333 83 3355 2 Miami, FL 33283 www.riojordan.com ISBN: 978-1-939891-21-1 Digit Dig itaal boo bo o k(s) (e pub and and mo mo bi) produ producc e d by Booknook.biz Booknook.biz..
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book first and foremost to thee pr th pr ecious cious Holy S pirit. pirit . He He has be b een more faith faithfful to m than I merit or deserve. My heart is so full of gratitud and thank than ksgiving sgiving that w ords can not express. express. I can not begin to thank my dear wife Ana whos selfless work has made this book a reality. Thank you sweetheart. “I pray God will reward you abundantl for your encouragement ncouragement and per per severance severan ce.” .” Special thanks to my son Jordan whose faith in hi dad also als o did not go unnoticed. unn oticed.
Contents
Prologue Prolo gue Introduction Intro duction Chapter Chap ter 1 Giving: Givin g: The First Key Chapter Cha pter 2 Pray Pr ayer: er: The Second Second Key Key Chapt hapteer 3 Hungry For Fasting Fast ing Chapt hapteer 4 The Mas Master terss Key Key Chapt hapteer 5 Mammon Conclusion
Prologue
I be b elieve lieve that tha t this t his boo b ook, k,B B ecom ecomiing The T he Maste M asterrs K ey,wrien ey,wrien by b y Emer Em erson son F err er r ell, a t eacher each er an and d in intt ercess er cessor or,, helps help s u to understand which keys are needed to achieve a victorious vict orious Chr Christ istian ian life life. The first three keys, giving, fasting, and prayer are essential for the body of Christ. Unfortunately, althoug these are important, few Christians practice them. tr uly bel b elie ieve ve that w hen you finish finish re r eading th this is book you will clearly understand the meaning of these keys, which will help you achieve success in your spiritual walk. I am sure that Emerson Ferrell was inspired by th Lord to teach us, not only the first three keys of the Kingdom, but also how to fight against the spirit o Mammon. amm on. I know th that at after after you finish finish r eading this b oo ook k, you will rise to the next level in your spiritual giving, fasting ast ing and pray pr ayeer . You w ill also lear learn n how to over over come thee spirit of Mammon. th The person who reads this book will be transformed and changed by it. I am a witness to the fact that the author auth or of this boo b ook k pr pr actice act icess w hat he teaches, daily, daily, and with diligence. That is why this book is so informative, and above all, filled with God’s revelation in each of its
chapters. T his is an gr gr eat b oo ook k and I alre alr eady want w ant the first co cop p for my m y self! self! —Guillermo Maldonado, Pastor and Apostle El Rey Jesus International Ministry
Introduction
Those of us who believe the Church is ready to mov into a ne n ew era of r eformation orma tion may ma y find this b oo ook k to off offer solid footing for such a venture. For those who believe the Church is, according to statistics growing quite nicely and should continue its direction and message might might not find this t his b oo ook k to appealing. appealing. In Mahew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 Jesus said, “Yo cannot serve God and Mammon.” We will endeavor t understand what that statement means as it relates to our Church and an d daily lives. W e w ill expose expose our our spirits spir its to to the truth tr uth of the W ord of of G od and how to t o ide identif ntify y w ho we serve. The truth is what makes us free according to the Scriptur S cripturees and an d the desig designs ns of the Holy Holy S pirit w ill b our guide. guide. I believe the Lord is speaking to all of us who “hav ears to hear,” a message of reformation and transformation. One of the messages the Church i receiving is to “come out of Babylon.” I have hear many ministe minist er s and lay people people speaking speaking th this is word. w ord. Babylon has many meanings. Some say it is th Church structure of religion, others say it is corruption in the Churches, etc. Both etc. Both of these are true and relevant. However, this book will speak about the spirit which is
behin b ehind d al alll t he definit defini t ion ionss of B ab y lon lon.. T ha hatt s pirit pir it i mammon and it is so malevole malevolent nt that t hat our our very lives lives are ar e being b eing sacr sa crificed ificed t o t hi hiss spir sp irit it w ithou it houtt us even knowin know ing g about it. I believe this is what is spoken of in Revelatio 18:2: He gave a mighty shout, “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen; she has become a den of demons, a haunt of devils and every kind of evil spirit. For all the nations have drunk the fatal wine of her intense immorality. The rulers of earth have enjoyed themselves with her, and businessmen throughout the world have grown rich from all her luxurious living. As I said earlier we will endeavor to uncover key located in Mahew chapter 6 that will help us destroy this spirit in our lives. I believe all of us, with no exception, have drunk of the fatal wine, and become addicted to this t his insidio ins idious us spirit. spir it. The T he goal goal of of th this is spirit spir it is to kill, kill, steal and dest destrr oy our destiny in God. God. Through the mercy and grace of the precious Hol Spirit, I have been privileged to see the awesome desig of God for victory over this enemy. During extensiv fasting, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see som truths that can radically transform our lives. I am not speaking about a temporary spiritual band aid. I am talk ta lking ing about ab out walki w alking ng int into o realms of under under standing st anding that you may not have ha ve been been privileg pr ivileged ed to see. see. I am not n ot be b ein
spiritually arrogant when I tell you; through times o great ecst ecstasy asy w ith the th e L ord I was wa s shown “the “ the beg beginnin fr om the end of of th this is matt ma tteer .” T he impo import rtant ant thing for for all of us to know know is, what you are ar e about about to t o read co come mess w ith a w arning ar ning label. That labe lab el reads, “You have now been given the blue print to become b ecome ar med an and d danger da ngerous ous again aga inst st t hi hiss devil. devi l. W ha hatt you do with this revelation will determine how you finish your y our course. It is th that at serious.” serious.” This book will detail the importance of giving, prayin pra ying g and fasting. You will be b e given given insight on how to achieve victory over those particular areas in your life. The keys you receive can actually be used to unlock the deepest parts of your souls. “You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart” (Psalm 51:6). These places within our hearts, minds and souls are what have made us slaves to mammon and not ste st ew ards ar ds in Gods kingd kingdom. om. The places Job learned about from God is wha tr ansf ans formed his ve v er y soul (J (Job 4: 4 :12 Living Bible) Bible). This truth was given me in secret, as though whispered in my ear. It came in a nighime vision as others slept. Suddenly, fear gripped me; I trembled and shook with terror, as a spirit passed bef b efor oree my face—my ha hair ir stood st ood up on end. I felt felt t he spirit’ spir it’ss presence pr esence,, but couldn’t couldn’t see s ee it sta s tanding nding there. t here. Then out of the dreadful silence came this voice: “Is
mere man more just than God? More pure than his Creator?” “If God God cannot tr ust his own ow n me m essenger ssenger s (for (for even ange an gels ls make ma ke mista mis take kes), s), how much less men made ma de of dust, who are ar e cr cr ushed ushed to death death as easily as moths!” They They ar a r e alive in the th e mor mor ning, b ut by b y evening they are ar e de dead, gone gone forever w ith hardly har dly a th thoug ought ht fr om any an y one. Their candle ca ndle of life is snuffe s nuffed d out. They die and no one cares. Has anyone preached the message of “Fearing God i thee B eginn th eginning ing of of W isdom,” in the t he Chur Ch urches ches of lat late? e? I see seems to t o me I he h ear many message messagess ab out out how G od lo love ve me, wants me to prosper and have the good life while here here on ear earth. th. But B ut I have not heard much abou ab outt “th “thee fe fear of God” being the beginning of everything in my Christ hr istian ian lif lifee. We will speak about the wisdom of God and how it is revealed to those who have such a reverent fear of God that serving any other God but the God of Abraham Isaac saa c and Jacob Jacob is not an a n option. T he Church is not whe w herr e Jesus Jesus lef left it 2000 20 00 ye y ears ar s ago. ago. I has been reshaped and reformed to many cultural and social issues. None of which have shaped it after Hi Image. His Image is something that was lost in th Garden of Eden but reformed in the Garden o Gethsemane. We are going to discover how to return to that th at image im age th thrr ough ough our discussion. If when you are finished reading this book you can
honestly repent from serving mammon and return to your first firs t love w ith all your heart, heart , my missio m ission n has b een accomplished. This will only be the beginning of a life time of bales with this spirit. But you have been equipped by the Holy Spirit; the word of God and th design design God ha hass placed inside of y ou to be victorious. vict orious.
1 Givi Gi vin ng: Th The First First Key
L et us be b egin our our j ourn ourneey by unders understanding tanding our our purpose. purpose. There is nothing more miserable than to drive off in some direction without first knowing where that direction leads or if the road we are currently on will tak ta ke us to a desired dest destinat ination. ion. One thing was certain about our Lord; He kne where He was going and the best way to get there and the thing that very few of us understand the driving force that made Him give His life as the ultimat r econciliat conciliation ion ffor or us, to access the t he Fat Father. her. The major purpose of our journey is to unlock the mystery of that power and to unfold these truths through the “keys” hidden in the scriptures. We will begin b egin by b y unc u ncov over erin ing g Mat Mattt hew chap ch aptt er six. s ix. Most people are aware that chapters and verses, in the Bible are arranged by the translators. This ca sometim sometimees create cr eate a separ separat ation ion of of continuity and thoug t hought ht structures. Yet, even the Holy Spirit has been known t rearrange things in the minds and hearts of people, including including the trans tr anslator latorss to t o suit His His needs. needs. I believe in the way this chapter is designed, the
location of the texts and the position of the “keys” are very significant. I hope you will see the wisdom behind the order of this chapter and the choice of words used by b y Jesus. Jesu s. So, the purpose is to understand this chapter in a simple and yet profound way. This will allow the Hol Spirit to release a new understanding in the Body o Christ. The reason for this is to sustain a powerful new r eformation orma tion that t hat is be b eing released. released. I have found at least three major keys that unloc doors. These doors have been closed to all of us from time to time in our Christian lives. They are simpl door door s of giving, pray pr aying ing and fas fastt ing. The profoundness is released individually, to each one of us who unlock these doors. Once those doors have been b een opened, a new n ew v ision is ion is r eleased eleas ed by b y t he Holy Hol y S pirit pir it to reveal even deeper truths. These truths begin to give us insight into the driving force of our Lord while on this planet. planet. Let’s Let’s begin begin w ith th thee fir first st key.
Giving: The First Key By opening to the first verse of Chapter Six o Mat attt hew, hew , w e find Jesus Jesus telling t elling His disciples and an d all those th ose listening, including the Pharisees: Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be b e s een een of t hem: hem : ot other herw w ise is e y e ha hav v e no r ewar ew ar d of
your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet bef b efor oree t hee, as t he hypocr hy pocrit ites es do in t he syna sy nagog gogues ues and in the t he stre str eets, that tha t they may ma y have glo glorr y of men. men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know w hat tthy hy r ight ight hand doe doeth: That thine alms may b e in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall sha ll rewar rew ard d thee openly openly.. S ince Jesus Jesus beg b egins ins by b y ta talk lking ing about giving, in the t he for for of alms, alm s, we w e need need to t o def define some terms ter ms.. Let us begin by understanding what “alms” means. One source, Nelson’s illustrated Bible dictionary define it this way: “money given out of mercy for the poor.” This source goes on to say, “by Jesus’ time, the wor “rig “r ight hteeousness” ousness” was wa s tie t ied d closely closely to the th e w ord “alms. “alms .” S o w e might might paraphra par aphrase se the firs firstt verse by saying say ing that when we give, in order to be counted righteous, our motive should be to please God and not man. Jesu implies that giving is expected but the motive behind the gif giftt is most import important. ant. I b elieve lieve Jesus is teaching t eaching this to t o reveal a much dee deeper per truth. Jesus is saying that the very beginning stage o our development, as a disciple is determined by how and why w hy w e give. ive. Jesus J esus s ai aid d la latt er in t he same sa me b ook of Ma M a hew , in 26 26:11 :11 that the poor will always be around. So, giving to the poor is not the main issue, it is the heart He is after. Th
poor are the visible means by which our hearts are being b eing t r ied; money mon ey b ecomes a w ay t o measu mea surr e our obedience. Jesus J esus w ill ask as k every ever y one of us if w e under un derss t a nd t he price that has bee b een n paid for for our salvat salv ation. ion. He asks this through many ways, but the most basic is through our tithes and offerings. The issue of giving is elementar lementar y to each of us who w ho know know th thee pr pr ice Jesus paid. If we w e have not gone gone to depths depths of under under standing st anding the cross cr oss and the price associated with our Savior, then givin w ill alw always ays be b e a problem. problem. Giving is so much more than leaving your money in an envelo env elope pe or or offering offering plate. plat e. T r ue givin giving g comes comes from an aitude that understands the depth of what our Lord and S avior av ior has do done. ne. T r ue giving is determ determined ined not onl by b y t he amoun am ountt w e b r in ing g b efor eforee t he L ord or d b ut b y t he amount w e keep keep for ourselves. our selves. Our demonstration of gratitude is meant to be a continual offering before God in every part of our life. For example, pare par ent ntss don’t don’t give to their t heir childre childr en be b ecause of rules established by books and experts. Parents give becau b ecauss e t hey a r e flesh an and d b lood of t heir offsp offsprr in ing g an and d the needs of their children are more important than their own. This type of relationship is what makes the family a family and creates harmony and security among its memb membeers. rs . We find this type of relationship or covenant all through scripture. So when God made covenant wit man He knew man could never keep this level o
commitment so what w hat did He He do? do? For when God made a promise to Abraham, becau b ecause se He He could coul d sw ear b y no n o one great gr eater er,, He swor sw oree by b y Himself, Hims elf, say sa y in ing, g, “ Surely Sur ely bless b lessin ing g I w ill bless b less y ou, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all disputes. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God t o lie. lie. —Hebrews 6:13-18 This is the type of love that produces passion in one’s heart to give all. This type of giving comes from the under under standing st anding that nothing I have hav e belong belongss to t o me. me. A b solutely solutely all a ll o off us, ever ever y b r eat athe he we take, take, every b eat of our heart, is through the profound mercy of God. When that realization consumes us, the struggle over w hy and how much to t o give give becomes becomes no strug str ugg gle. le. W e are ar e in submission to the Holy Spirit. If the truth that Go has pledged Himself to our success becomes a reality, thee purs th pursuit uit of our selfish agenda agenda be b ecomes comes abnorm ab normal al and an d living livin g t ota otally lly for Him Him beco b ecomes mes the th e norma nor mall life life for us. us . Think with me for a minute. The creator of the entir universe has made covenant with you through Jesus.
Part of that covenant, just a small part, is His pledge t take care of you as you would take care of your own children. Let me ask those of you who are parents, “W ould ould you provide every every good good and per per fect gift ift w ithin your means to your offspring?” The answer is obvious, “of course.” Is our heavenly Father capable to provide more tha we possibly could? Absolutely, yet in the average Christian life “giving” seems to be a major area of not trusting God. This is why it is the first subject Jesu speak speakss ab out out in this chapter. For some “twisted” reason, we believe we can make be b eer er decision decis ionss w ith it h our finan fin ances ces t ha han n He can. ca n. I f w e will observe this hypocrisy in our lives and purpose to repent from this belief structure the Holy Spirit is the capable capab le of r evealing even deep deepeer tr uths about ab out the th e nat nature ure of our tr ust and a nd belief belief syst sy steems. Perhaps this is why there has been so much teachin on fait faith, h, par particular ticularly ly in the t he area of our finances. I totally t otally applaud those who have been at the forefront of that message and have done their best to train us in the scriptures concerning faith. This has prepared us to move b eyond just j ust sowin s owing g and reaping r eaping.. In my life I have observed my faith in the beginning which was measured in dollars, to being measured in obedience. The amount becomes secondary to the w illingness illingness to be b ecoming someone someone th thee Fat ather her can tr t r ust. ust . No greater example is given in the Old Testamen than Abraham Abr aham and Isaac: Isaac:
Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Ab raham, ra ham, and said to him, “Ab raham!” ra ham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offe offer ing on on one of th thee mount mountains ains of w hich I shall sha ll tell you.” —Genesis 22:1-2 This offering had nothing to do with money and everyth very thing ing to do w ith value va lue.. In our life w e sometimes sometimes do not even get to the place of giving the most precious “thing” “t hing” w e posses posses as Abr Ab r aha aham m did. For example, when was the last time your givin could ultimately have resulted in loss of your life? Or w hat h have ave you given iven that tha t re r esulted sulted in in your total t otal trust tr ust in God God for for your y our ve v er y existe xist ence? This type of obedience requires such a deep understanding of our relationship to our Father that life as we know it on this planet radically changes. T omor omor row has no meaning meaning other other tha than n “how can I pleas pleas the One who gave gave me this day and the ver ver y breath b reath I a br b r eathi eat hing? ng?”” This key of “giving” is the first and most important becau b ecauss e wit w ithou houtt it no other ot her key is avai av aila lab b le to us. us . Thi T hiss is is why if we just think of it in terms of money we have totally misunderstood our Lord; our Heavenly Fathe demonstrated why to give and what amount to give in John 3:16 3 :16..
For God so loved the world that He gave His only beg b ego oen en S on, t ha hatt w hoever hoev er b elieves in Him should sh ould not perish b ut hav h avee everla everlast sting ing lif lifee. For G od did not not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but b ut t ha hatt the t he wor w orld ld thr t hr ough Him Him might m ight b e s aved. av ed. — John John 3:16-17 3:16 -17 The true standard of giving is set by the One, who through our conversion, requires our life for His. If w do not understand the price paid by our Father, our abili ab ility ty to give give is is dramatically dram atically diminished. diminished. T his is why w hy a constant reminder of the cross is so critical for our repentance of anything associated with selfishness. I believ b elieve, e, givin giv ing g is t he firs fir s t an and d most mos t power pow erful ful key key t o understand. Our opening verse speaks about giving in secret, w hich causes God God to rewar rew ard d the giver giver in open. open. In 1 Corinthians 2:7 Paul said what God did was mystery to the powers in control of this planet. Paul was of course speaking of the crucifixion of Jesus that was done in secret dethroning the “powers and principalities prin cipalities of of th this is world. w orld.”” And just like Jesus revealed in Mahew 6:4, God i now rewarding Himself openly with a future bride for His Son. Can you see the wisdom and beauty of this design? His love for mankind was so deep and the pain o separation so intense that He gave the best gift He ha with the purest of motives, in secret. Now what has
been b een done don e in secr ete is b earin ear ing g fruit fr uit for t he entir ent iree wor w orld ld to see. The true bride is being displayed for the entire world to see. This fruit, called the “Body of Christ” wil begin b egin to t o build bu ild the t he foot foot st s t ool for for Jesus Jesu s to t o rest r est His feet. T he Lord says sa ys to you, my lo lord: rd: “Take “Take your your thr one at my right-hand, while I make your enemies your footstool.” —Psalm 11 110:1 0:1 Beloved we are living in the most outstanding period of history. Jesus is preparing a perfect “Body” that wil move through this earth like a hot knife through buer. The revelation that is being poured out right now will equip all who are willing to destroy the works of the enemy. nemy. This T his army ar my w ill move move into a level level of of faith that w e all have read about in the Scriptures. The faith of th giants recorded in Hebrews will become realized by a generation that understands the keys of the kingdom being b eing releas r eleased ed at t hi hiss tim t imee in hist his t ory or y . Let’s look at the supernatural force behind faith and how it is r eleased: leased: But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. —Hebrew —Hebrewss 11:6 1 1:6
We will continue to see how God is a rewarder, but not everyone today is coming with the purest of motives. Our Heavenly Father wants every human being t experience Him as more than willing and able to take care of our every need. His method of showing us this is demonstrated by our willingness to trust Him (faith) in thee secret place th pla ce (uns (unsee een). n). We will keep returning to the motives of our heart. I we truly have experienced the depth, width, height and length (or dimensions) of the love of Christ, our motives will move from the seen realm to the unseen realm. The unseen realm requires a currency called faith to access the Father. One translation of Hebrews 11 says, “Fait means be b eing sure of th thee things w e hope hope for for and a nd know know ing that th at something is re r eal even if w e do do not se s ee it.” Any growth we make in the unseen realm is always by b y faith. fait h. We must give what we can see as a deposit in the th e real rea lm we cannot ca nnot see. Then the Father, knowing how we train children, gives us a reward to reinforce our efforts of faith. The T hen n He will train tr ain us to t o totally tr t r ust Hi w ith everyth every thing ing w e hold valuab va luable le,, as He He did Abraha Abr aham. m. This is why Jesus began the chapter with the mos elementary key called “giving.” If we can not understand this level or are not willing to give back to Him everything He has entrusted to us, it will b impossib imposs ible le t o receive receive the th e next “ke “ key y .” Remember, each key is critical if we are to advance bey b eyond ond our in ineff effect ectiv ivee C hr ist is t ia ian n lives liv es t o enter ent er t he
heavenly places God has provided for us through Jesus T hese “places” “places” require require “keys “keys”” to unlock do doors ors th that at have hav e been b een s hut hu t as a r esult esul t of our disob dis obedient edient an ancest cestor ors, s, beginn b eginnin ing g w ith it h A dam. da m. J esus came ca me t ha hatt w e might mi ght ha hav v abundant life which is far beyond “big houses and cars.” Look what Jesus said in John 10:10. A thief come to steal and kill and destroy, but I came to give life—life in all its it s fullness. fullness. This is the life of watching the Father, as Jesus did doing as He He does, does, and obeying ob eying as He did. Jesus knew t ha hatt on earth there would be many different circumstances and influences influences continually cont inually bidding for for His a aention, ention, b ut He knew knew His purpose, pur pose, an and d that th at kept kept Him focused. focused. B ut H also knew that His Father was the sole authority in Hi life, and if He watched His Father, there would be n surpris sur prisees from the th e thief. thief. Jesus J esus is our r ole model, an and d every ever y t hi hing ng He said sa id an did were examples or demonstrations of how to live for the Father. This would be impossible without the Hol Spirit, but Jesus knew that and made arrangements for the precious Holy Spirit to take us into even greater dimensions t ha han n He H Hims imself elf.. As a parent, I want my son to go farther and reac higher than me and that is what Jesus said, “Greater w orks shall you do. do.” W hat a wonde w onderr ful Savior is ours. There are many different levels of giving, but we will look loo k at only th thrr ee.
1. Giving To Get Most Christians are taught that God is a giver and H will always give you more than you give Him. Th “prosperity” message has built large Churches and filled big auditoriums with Christians looking for a be b eer er life and an d thr t hr ill illed ed wit w ith h the t he idea of lots of money. money . All A ll the Scriptures quoted by the so-called “prosperity” crowd are legitimate and indeed speak of the desire of thee Fat th Father her to t o take care of His children, childr en, r oyally. oyally . A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. —Prov —Prover erbs bs 13 1 3 :22 Unfortunately, this scripture has made many believ b eliever erss pass pa ssion ionat atee for t heir “i “inh nher erit itan ance” ce” from t he wicked. But there has been very lile transfer and even less less impact made in the world w orld of th thee unb unbeeliever. liever. It is not my intention to be critical of those who have preached these messages for all these years. Nor am aempting to belile those who have “confessed” their promises. W hat I am saying is is that there is a bigg bigger reality reality tha t ha truly works for those of us who want to be wealthy stewa st ewarr ds of th thee Kingdom ingdom of God. But the t he ent entrr an ance ce to tthis his higher level must be through the gate of self denial and
th e cross. the cr oss. T hen we w e qualif qualify y to t o handle a tr t r ansf ans fer of w ealth from the heathen to the “just.” This is what is bein described in the Scripture as one who is righteous and lives lives by b y faith. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is wrien, The just shall live by faith. T he faith faith me m essage is re r eal, that G od w ant antss to t o bless bless Hi children is true. The problem has always been the “heart.” God loves all of us but, He only can trust thos w ho trust tr ust Him. Let’s Let’s look look at a ve v ery interesting scriptur beginn b eginnin ing g in Luke 16 16:11 :11.. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been fait aithf hful ul in what wh at is another a nother man’ ma n’s, s, w ho will give give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he w ill be loyal to t o the one and despise despise thee oth th otheer . You You cannot serve serv e God God and Mamm Mammon. on. —Luke 16:11-13 Notice that Jesus makes it clear in the text that if w can not be b e trusted tr usted with unrighteou unrighteouss Mammon, M ammon, how can we receive the true riches? The prosperity message has been b een derelict der elict in t eachin each ing g tha t hatt t he money m oney of this th is w orld or ld is is
strictly a test or way of measuring a true believer’s heart. People who run after the wealth of this world unfortunately have lile understanding of how abomi ab ominab nable le that is to our our Lo Lord. rd. S ome teachers of S criptur cr iptures es and foll follower owerss bel b elie ieve ve tha if you do not have lots of money, you have not achieved the level of God that people with money have. Nothin could be farther from the truth. God is interested in the heart; always has and always will be. The heart is the tr ue compass of our motive motiv es. The rest of that Scripture tells us that you can no serve two masters. Notice, Satan is not mentioned as master. So this other master must be a spirit to be compared co mpared with wit h G od and it must desire desire worship w orship in some way. In her book “Seated in Heavenly Places,” Ana Mende Fer r ell talks about this t his subj sub j ect ect in some detail: detail: Mammon has a kingdom and a terribly strong str ucture with w ith w hich he dominates dominates the t he king kingdo doms ms of the earth and a vast majority of Christians. This spirit governs in a subtle way and is very difficult to detect detect b y th thee peopl peoplee o off God. U nfo nforr tunat tun atel ely, y, bei b eing ng ignorant of his devices is one of the principle causes that th at impede us fr fr om possessing possessing what w hat is our our s. The book goes on to describe that the purpose of this spirit called Mammon is to destroy our confidence in
G od and subtly subt ly cause us to submit to t o it. it. Mammon has voice. If we could identify it, the conversation might sound like the th e follo follow w ing: I am your master; I control your finances, your emotions. I am the one who tells you what you can do and what you can’t do. I determine where you can travel, and if you can travel. I determine where you can buy your clothes, what restaurants you can go to and which ones you can’t. I am the one who says how you can treat the servants of God and w what hat you can do and not not do for them. t hem. I am a m the t he one who decides how much you can give for an offe offer ing and how much you y ou can tith t ithee, or or even if you should tithe at all. I decide what school your children go to and to which hospital you can take your family. Remember, I am the one who makes your budget, and I determine what you can do and what you can’t, because I am your master. When you must make a decision concerning money, I am thee first th firs t v voice oice you hear hear.. Oh Oh,, yeah, and that pain you get in you y ourr stomach st omach over money, that’ that ’s me, and it is a re r esult of th thee fear fear I have hav e instilled in you. Is the th er e any w onde onder w hy the t herr e has not be b een a ttra ransf nsfeer of wealth? In all of our lives we have submied to this ruthless master called Mammon. Later in the book I a going to spend time uncovering even further this spirit so we can truly tr uly serve the only only true t rue God. I think t hink it w oul oul
be b e good for al alll of us u s t o renew r enew our v ow t o our L ord or d Jesu J esu and re r epent pent for any attachment att achment to Mammon. Mammon. Let us pray this prayer before we precede further, “Holy Father, we repent for being controlled by th voice of Mammon. Please forgive us and lead us to deeper understanding of how our lives have been controlled though this spirit of greed and anti-Christ. Please restore us to your side and teach us to despise Mammon.” This prayer is only a beginning of our fight to become free from this demon. Our bondage to this devil did not begin b egin yest y ester erda day y . W e have hav e b een condit condi t ion ioned ed all our life to trust tr ust in this th is filthy filthy devil. devil. It w ill r equire many ba b ale less and total tot al reliance r eliance on on the t he Holy Holy Spirit Spir it to t o become fr ee. ee. Continuing in Luke 16:14-15, we find some ver intere inter esting st ing comment commentss by b y Jesus, Jesus, Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination ab omination in th thee sight sight of God. God.”” Jesus J esus r evealed evea led plain pla inly ly t he hear h eartt of t he P ha harr isees. is ees. Thes T hes men tithed, gave offerings, were always in the synagogues and were the spiritual leaders of their day. T hese hese men men w ere usually very w ealthy, althy , and Jesus Jesus made stateme sta tement nt then that tha t might might w ell be relevant relevant today, “You “You
jus j ustt ify your y ourss elves elv es bef b efor oree men.” As I mentioned earlier, some believe that materia wealth among “Christians” somehow validates ones spiritual authority. I am not labeling all Christians wh have wealth as Pharisees. I am saying that the rest o that Scripture is the bar ba r by b y w hich we are all j udge udged. The motive for giving is of primary concern for our Lord and will be our determining factor as well. Scripture is rich with examples of how we are to prosper and not be in lack. That has not ever been disputed, but the “why we give” should always be judged. j udged. This is usually the first level of giving, and if those who begin this way start to evaluate their motives and let the Holy Spirit deal with them, we will move to th next level of of givin giving, g, w hich is giving givin g out out of obedience. obedience.
2. Giving From Obedience This level of giving comes fr fr om listening list ening to the t he voice of thee Hol th Holy y S pirit and develo developing ping a tr t r ust and confidence confidence i Him. We have moved beyond trusting in Mammon an have repented from listening to that hateful anti-Christ voice. From this position of giving we start to understand that all we have and all we will ever have comes from our loving Father. He desires for us, Hi children, to be trained in the higher ways of stewardship. Therefore, He will test us in all levels o
obedience obedience and an d all levels of givin giving. g. This type of giving is not to get, but to obey. Our tru motive is to please the heart of the Father. The obeyin in most cases is is not easy, but w e are ar e lear learning ning to trust tr ust in someth something ing other than t han ourse ours elves. Once we enter this level of giving, the excitement o the Father to have found someone who trusts Him ca be b e obv ob v ious. ious . T he S cript cr iptur uree in t he b egin eginni ning ng of M a hew Six says He will reward those openly who give to Hi in secrete. In my life I have experienced many situations i which my trust in God was tested. I can recall on on occasion the Holy Spirit prompted me to give a larg sum of money to a ministry. The idea of giving several thousands th ousands of do dollar llarss on a cre cr edit card car d did not mak ma ke sense sense to me. How many ma ny of us have hav e lear learned ned th that at w hen the Lor L or speaks to give, the mind is not the instrument for arriving at a spiritual decision? We must simply obey regar regardle dless ss of w hat the ratio rat ional nal mind says. says . Fortunately, I overcame the voices of Mammon an fear to give what I heard the Lord say. Within a maer of hours after giving my offering, I was contacted by someone I did not know, to purchase equipment I ha for sale. s ale. That sale sa le more than tha n made ma de up for for the t he of offering. erin g. I experienced a satisfying feeling of joy for havin obeyed and a more exhilarating sensation for having pleased the Father. But beyond the feelings I had th sense that this act of obedience would produce a much greater r eturn tur n than t han me m ere re r eaping for having hav ing sown.
W e have already spok s poken en about one of of th thee gr gr eat ateest acts act s of obedience demonstrated by Abraham. This wa Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. This level o faith is not really understood today, although spoken about very often. Indeed the messages of faith are truly manifest manifesteed in th this is example. B ut w hat of th thee every everyday day people people like like you and me who w ho have hav e lef left everyth every thing ing at th thee alt altar ar to be b ecome tr ue disciples disciples of our Lord? There are countless stories of precious saints who have witnessed in the spirit our Lord’s suffering for their right to become an heir of salvation. Men like Joh G. Lake, who gave away his fortune to follow the call o God on his life. We all will have a choice to make at critical times in our lives. Will we be able to obey difficult instructions that in the visible realm seem perilous? Will we be able to walk in the supernatural r ealm to t o fors forsake ake th thee seen seen for for the t he unseen? unseen? Servants of God such as David, Joshua, Moses an others understood this high level of obedience. But the few of us “common folks” who have been instructed to give all we hold dear in this world must learn to conside co nsiderr w hat an honor and joy j oy it is to t o be tested tested in this way. This level of giving was tied to the observation made by b y t he a uthor ut hor of Hebr Heb r ews ew s 12 12:2 :2 w hen he s ai aid d “l “lookin ookin unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising despising the shame, and has sat do dow w n at the right hand han d
of th thee thr th r one of of God” God” We see an example of this giving, found in 1 Kings 17:10-14. So Elijah went to Zarephath. When he reached the town gate, he saw a widow gathering wood for a fire. Elijah asked her, “Would you bring me a lile water in a cup so I may have a drink.” As she was going to get his water, Elijah said, “Please bring me a piece of b r ead, too.” T he woman answ an sweer ed, “As surely as the Lord L ord your God lives, I have no bread. I have only a handful of flour in a jar and only a lile olive oil in a jug. I came here to gather some wood so I could go home and cook our last meal. My son and I will eat it and t hen die fr fr om hunger.” “Don’t worry,” Elijah said to her. “Go home and cook your food as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread from the flour you have, and br b r in ing g it t o me. Then cook c ook s omethi omet hing ng for your y ourss elf an and d your son. The Lord, Lor d, the God G od of Israe Isr ael, l, says, say s, ‘That j ar of flour will never be empty, and the jug will always have oil in it, until the day the Lord sends r ain tto o the land.’ land.’” We know that God usually spoke exclusively through His prophets in those t hose day days. s. And, until Pe P eter r eceived ceived th revelation of who Jesus was, not many others who heard the voice of God were mentioned in the
Scriptures. However, in the following text we se something something extr extraordinary aordinary.. T hen the word wor d of of th thee L ord came to him, saying, “Go “G o now tto o Zar Z areephath, which w hich belong belongss to t o Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” —1 Kings Kings 17:8-9 1 7:8-9 “God has commanded” is the part that stands out. often wondered why God would speak to a non-Jew about providing food for His prophet. It occurred to m that God always had future generations on His mind. I He could not find Jewish people who would believe Hi then He would find someone outside the covenant. Notice w hat Jesus said s aid in the th e foll ollowin owing g scriptur scr ipturee. Certainly there were many widows in Israel who neede needed d help help in Elijah’ Elija h’ss time, t ime, w hen the th er e was wa s no n o rain ra in for three and a half years and hunger stalked the land. Yet Elij Elij ah w as not sent s ent to any of th theem. He w as sent instead to a widow of Zarephath—a foreigner in the t he land of Sidon. —Luke —Luke 4:25-2 4:2 5-266 What was it about this woman that brought the riches of God to her house and family? There wa something something about the hear heartt of this w oman that captured the heart of the Father. I believe her level of honest
qualified qualified her her for one who w ho would w ould be obedient obedient in giving all she had. T his woman w oman says something something interesting interesting in in verse 18 o 1 Kings 17 when her son dies. “Have you come to me t br b r in ing g my m y sin si n t o r ememb r an ance ce an and d t o caus ca usee the t he death deat h of my son”. I b elieve elieve this th is son w as born b orn out of w edlock edlock.. And the shame and guilt that this non-Jew had suffered created such a dialogue between her and God that the Father Fath er found someone someone He He could could tr t r ust. ust . Something happens to us when we find ourselves contrary to the God of the universe and facing certain death. We must make decisions from the heart hewed from honesty and recognition of our hopelessness without God. This woman found favor in the eyes o G od od.. N ot only only w as her provisio pr ovision n be b eing met met but b ut she wa wa to w witness itness the t he resurre resurr ection of of her her son. The simplicity of truly believing, trusting in God, i thee doo th doorr to our greatest happiness. Unfo Unforr tunat tun atel ely, y, many times we construct insurmountable walls created by doubt and unbelief that stop us from seeing great miracles. I can also think of many situations in which I did no obey the t he voice of th thee Holy Holy S pirit. pirit . I reg r egrr et th those ose decision decision and I know know that no eexcuse xcuse or rationalizatio r ationalization n justifie j ustifiess the t he disobedience. If only I had known then what I kno now,, I could now could have had maj ma j or manif ma nifestat estations ions of His glor glor that would have saved many years of consequences for w r ong decisions. decisions. In the scriptures we find examples of disobedience
that caused caused death death and disast disasteers. rs . In A cts 4 and 5 w e fin an extraordinary account. Let us look at these verses and hear hear w hat the Hol Holy y Spirit is saying say ing:: Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but theey had th ha d all th thing ingss in common. —Acts 4:32 When has the Church been of “one heart and one soul since that time? And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds proceeds of th thee things that t hat w er e sold, sold, and laid them t hem at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need. And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money money and laid it at th thee apost apostle les’ s’ fe feet. —Acts —Acts 4:3 4:33-3 3-377 We are seeing a great move of the apostolic in this hour, in some instances real, in some not. There is no
question that the apostles of the early Church moved in the genuine. I believe the “real” move in this hour will be b e mar ma r ked w ith it h great gr eat power pow er and a nd grac gr acee and an d ther t heree will w ill be be no doubt of which is which. The truth will speak for itself with signs and wonders causing resources to foll ollow. ow. There T here will w ill be no need need for for cre cr eat ating ing progr progr ams and agendas fashioned after this world’s system. God will never needed this world’s system to support His agenda. agenda. We W e would all do wel w elll to t o consider consider these t hese ver ver ses in Acts. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his w ife, ife, sold a possession. And he kept kept b ack part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and br b r ought a cert cer t ai ain n par pa r t an and d la laid id it at t he apost ap ostles’ les’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part par t of th thee price of of the land for for yourself y ourself?? “W hile it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, sold, w as it not n ot in your your own control contr ol?? W hy have h ave you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these thing th ings. s. And the t he young men arose ar ose and wr w r apped apped him up, carried him out, and buried him. Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so
much? much ?” She said, sa id, “Yes, for for so much.” much .” Then Peter said sa id to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those w ho have buried your your husband husb and are ar e at the th e doo door, r, and they will carry you out.” Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the Church and upon all w ho hear heard d these things. things. —Acts —Acts 5:1-11 5:1 -11 W hat w ould ould happe happen today if the Holy Holy G host be b egan t expose th thee hearts heart s of givers? ivers ? W ould ould the term “slain “ slain in the t he spirit spir it”” t ake on a diff different meaning? m eaning? We must all fall on our face and ask mercy and forgiveness for wrong motives and disobedient hearts. The disobedient always cause harm not only to himsel but b ut t o all tha t hatt sur s urrr ound him h im or her. her . I truly believe that when this apostolic age has matured, that we will begin to see the motives of our hear hearts ts reveale revealed. d. W e must all pray tha thatt w e are ar e ready and willing to be obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit Ultimately, when the time comes for our decisions to be made to obey obey or partially part ially obey obey as a s Ananias and Sapphira did, did, what wh at w ill each each of us us do? The level of our giving must pass these tests in order to achieve th thee place of r eal int intimacy imacy w ith our Savior. Sa vior. Doors Doors w ill ope open n w hen we w e pass our te t ests st s of giving. Our
bigge b iggest st door of resis r esistt an ance ce is w hen w e ref r efus usee to t o look pas pa s t our circumstances and rely on what the natural eyes can see. This only postpones the inevitable, the sacrifice of our self. This will require an all consuming love o commitment and realization of what has been accomplished for us through the cross. The passion o our Lord must consume each of us to take us to the next level of giving until we ourselves become the gift on the altar of self, called a living sacrifice by Paul in Roman 12.. 12
Living Sacrifice We are going to take a journey, beginning in the Old Testament with some examples of those who were living sacrifices. We have already spoken about Isaac. The interesting thing about Abraham’s offering o obedience was that Isaac was just as obedient as his father. Isaac Isaac w as at least least a te t eenager nager and probably probab ly strong st rong enough to have resisted if he had wanted. The fact that he did not makes the obedience two-fold, the giver and the gift. The analogy between Abraham and his son i the foreshadowing of the greatest love ever shown, Jesu Jesus, s, givin giv ing g His His life l ife b ecaus ecau s e of His lov l ovee for for His Father Fat her.. Now let us take a look at a living sacrifice who also knew how h ow to t o give-J give-Job ob 1:1-5. 1:1-5 . Ther Ther e w as once a man in t he land of of Uz whose w hose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one
who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And w hen the fe feast days had run r un the th eir course cours e, Job woul w ould d send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Most Bible historians agree that Job was perhaps after Genesis one of the oldest books in the Bible. Thi means that long before Moses introduced the laws and customs associated with Judaism, Job already knew how to honor God with sacrifices. Job knew that hatin evil and fearing God was a principle to live by, and doing do ing it had always alw ays br oug ought him riche r ichess and w isdom. isdom. We will discover some important things about becomi b ecoming ng a liv l ivin ing g sacr sa crifice. ifice. The T he ter t erm m soun s ounds ds so s o holy an and d lofty. Yet, the price to become a living sacrifice is self evident. Job discovered that giving and being obedient positioned him so God could use a mortal man to give satan sat an a for for eshado sha dow w of his dest destiny. iny.
One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to prese pr esent nt himself b efore the Lord. L ord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” S ata atan n answ ans w er ed the Lord, L ord, “Fr om goi going ng to and fr fr o on on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a bla b lameles melesss an and d upright upr ight man ma n w ho fea fea r s G od an and d turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he w ill curse curse you to your face. ace.” T he Lord said s aid to Sata S atan, n, “Very “Ver y w ell, he is in your y our power; pow er; only only spare spar e his life life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loat loathsome hsome sores on Job fr om the th e sole sole of of his foot foot to t o the crown cr own of his head. Job too t ook k a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” But he said to her, “You speak speak as any a ny foo oolish lish w oman w ould ould speak. speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. —Job —J ob 2:1-10 2 :1-10
Satan actually believed that Job was like most of u when threatened with losing our life, “skin for skin.” This is where w here the tests of all tests test s be b egin in all of our lives. If we ever reach this place of a living sacrifice, we must be prepared to become the bull on the altar and hopef hopefully a pleasing pleasing fragrance fragra nce to the t he Fat Father. her. The pain of losing everything, except a non-believin wife and three miserable comforters, must have been hell on on earth eart h for for Job, yet despite all of of th this, is, the Bible B ible say “Job “Jo b sinned sin ned not. ” One of the lessons we can all learn from the experiences of Job is that all of us in our pursuit of Go will be tested. These tests will measure just how much of our flesh and soul are in control of our decisions to “give “giv e our our life.” life.” W e discover discover later lat er that th at th thee soul is is fr fr agment agmenteed betw een thee hear th heart, t, mind and emotions. emotions. Giving tests test s the t he mind and heart of man. These areas were fragmented at the fall o Adam. Hebr Hebr ew s 4:12 talk t alkss ab out out the word w ord of of God bein bein sharp and powerful . . . “His word can cut through our spirits and souls and through our joints and marrow, until it discovers the desires and thoughts of our hearts.” Man is the only creature whose thoughts can differ from his intentions or motives. Jesus knew the heart o man and understood how to test the motives. Giving is the one key that must unite motives and thoughts for our relatio relatio nship nship to deepen. dee pen. If our giving is corrupted by “what is in it for me?”
aitudes, then we will never progress. If we want to pass the level of “giving to get” and move into the level of “giving out of obedience,” then we must be sensitive to tthe he precious Holy Holy Spirit Spir it and a nd His His methods meth ods of of t esting. estin g. Job J ob did not know t he w ay of the t he cr c r oss an and d yet y et he w as willing through faith to trust God and retain his integrity. Job was a living sacrifice that produced such an aro ar oma in the nostr nostril ilss of G od that S atan w as shame by b y a mort mor t al man m an.. The pain of losing everyth very thing ing was wa s bad b ad enoug enough, h, but th thee continual torment of the miserable comforters was and is today just like Satan. What joy the Father receive when Job prayed for his tormenters after his trial. Thi would be like kicking the bruise already visible on the head of Satan. Sat an. Job J ob’’s na name me is ment men t ioned in Ezekie Ez ekiell 14 14:13 :13-- 14 as one o thrr ee r ight th ighteo eous us men. The The word w ord of th thee Lord Lord came cam e again again tto o me, saying: say ing: “Son of man, man , whe wh en a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My han against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. “Even if these thrr ee men, N oah, Daniel, th Daniel, and Job, J ob, we w er e in in it, it , they woul w oul deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says thee Lord th Lord God. This speaks volumes of how pleased God was wit this man’s living sacrifice. Job was still on God’s mind long after he had died. This gift of Job’s was counted a righteous. We all will have this opportunity to present our selves bef b efore ore the Lord as a living liv ing sacrif sacr ifice ice..
The next example of a living sacrifice is found in Romans 12. We will describe in some detail what this phrase phras e means: means: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service serv ice.. And do not not be conformed conformed to this th is w orld, b ut be b e tr t r an anss formed form ed by b y t he r enewin enew ing g of your y our mind, mi nd, t ha hatt you may prove what is that good and acceptable and an d perfect perfect w ill of God. God. The man who pinned that scripture knew somethin abou ab outt becoming a living sacrifice sacr ifice.. Paul Pa ul had be b een a zealot zealot for years before being introduced to the One he was per per secuting on on the t he road to t o Dama Damascus. scus. P aul kno know w n as S aul was the t he tormentor tormentor used used by S ata to harass and kill early believers. Saul believed it was his duty as a good Pharisee to uphold the Levitical La of Moses and destroy all those who were followers o this th is blaspheme b lasphemerr calle ca lled d Jesus. Jesus. How How ever ever , Jesus was w as ab le t transform the executioner into the deliverer. This tr ansf ans formation orma tion too t ook k place as a r esult of the de deat ath h of S aul and the t he resurr ection ection of Paul. This can happen to us when we place our self on the altar. W hat is tie t ied d to the altar is not not w hat r ises ises from from the altar. But even though the spiritual transformation too place on on the t he road to t o Dama Damascus, scus, I b elieve lieve something eve eve
more dramatic happened in the spirit realm at Jer Jer usa us a lem when w hen Sau S aull wat w atch ched ed Stephen Steph en being b eing stoned. st oned. Look at the following scripture in Acts 7:51-8:1, i w hich Stephen Stephen was wa s preaching his last ser ser mon. You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your y our ancestors ancestor s used to do. do. W hich of th thee prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you y ou have become become his his be b etrayers tr ayers and murder murder ers. rs . You are the ones that received the law as ordained by b y angels a ngels,, an and d yet y et you y ou hav ha v e not kept it. it . W hen they heard hear d these th things, ings, th they ey became enr enrage aged d and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of G od and Jesus standing st anding at the t he right hand han d of of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the w itnesses laid thei th eirr coats at a t the t he fe feet of a young y oung man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said t his, his , he died. died. And Saul appr oved of of t heir killing him.
I b elieve lieve Stephe S tephen’ n’ss prayer pr ayer is what w hat touched touched the hear heartt o God and marked Saul to become Paul. That prayer which can only be uered from a place of “being full of the Holy Ghost,” is an atomic bomb in the spirit. Th love in those words will rip the veil from our spiritual eyes. This prayer is what comes from the heart o someone who has mastered the key of giving in all of its stages. Please see the power that comes from someone who was truly a living sacrifice. Stephen’s prayer produced such pow pow er in the heavens heavens that S aul, w ho was not even even aware of the spiritual significance of these words, was mar ked ked for for the t he rest of his lif life. e. The event on the road to Damascus was the physica manifestation of what had been accomplished in the spirit realm. The blindness of Saul had been change to produce the vision vision for P aul. W hen the th e scales scales fell fell ffrr om the eyes of Saul the transplanted heart from Stephen t P aul had ha d be b een comple completed. ted. T hose thre thr ee days of blindnes could never reveal the level of light that was filling the spirit of Paul. It was the mantle of Stephen bein wrapped around the very soul of Paul. What th witnesses did in stoning Stephen by laying down his coat co at at the fe feet of S aul was w as a physical manife manifestation sta tion and spiritual act of the mantle being passed to him. What P aul says in R omans 1:14 1:14 express express w hat too took k place in hi life. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians,
bot b oth h t o wis w isee and an d to t o unw un w ise. is e. So, S o, as much mu ch as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. —Romans 1:14-15 For I am a m not ashamed ash amed of of th thee gospe gospell of Ch Chrr ist, ist , for for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes b elieves,, for t he J ew first fir st an and d als a lso o for t he G r eek. eek. For F or in it th thee righteousness righteousness of God is r evealed vealed fr fr om fait faith h to faith; as it is wrien, “The just shall live by faith.” —Romans 1:16-17 Paul became a debtor to Stephen to fulfill the life he Saul eliminated. Is this not the position in which we al find ourselves? If we can see that we all are debtors b the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, we too wil become beco me a livin living g sacrifice. sacrifice. We are talking about becoming the gift. Paul became the gift by presenting his body a living sacrifice. He knew that dead bodies were not acceptable, nor were the lame, blemished or any other defection. God gave His best and expects nothing less from us. We must come to the altar of God with our bodies as a livin sacrifice. When we have reached this point in our Christia giving, we have come to the altar of God, where obedience now changes to understanding. This is the purest pur est form of giving. This is th thee exam example ple God’ God’ss only son
set. This This must m ust b e the goal goal ffor or the t he Chur Church, ch, w whose hose pur purpose pose is to t o please please the th e Fat Father. her. Once we become the gift, Abba knows we mea bus b usin iness ess w ith it h Him. Him . T hi hiss is not w here her e or w hen w e nee n ee to be concerned about the principal of sowing and reaping. This is when we come to understand “giving is bett b etter er tha t han n receiv r eceivin ing. g.”” This is the condition where one lives by faith. This i the situation in which w hich you can walk w alk in the spirit and an d not not thee fle th flesh. sh. This is where w here all of of us want w ant to be b e. This is where the renewal of the mind begins to manifest the will of the Father. This is the place wher the true confessions we make of His promises begin to manifest manifest in our lives. This is where you and I can live, if we are willing t pay that t hat price. price. That price is is our life life, as we w e know know it now. now . This is why our minds must be transformed, because the life we presently understand is like looking through a dirty window. We can not see the complete picture or correct image. So what we see is incomplete; it has missing information that is critical for our under under standing st anding of of each situat s ituation ion w wee encounter. encounter. How many times in our life do we make decisions calculated on on w r ong images? images? W hy is our image ima ge of th thee Father so different from person to person? I submit t you that our information is corrupted. Much like what happens to a computer, computer, when the t he wr ong data is entered; the wrong answer appears. The old adage “what you put in to t o something something is what w hat w ill come come out.” out.”
If unchanged minds try to understand the Spirit inevitably we will have the wrong perception of Him and this results in bad decisions and frustrated lives. How Ho w ever, if w e go go to the altar w ith everything everyt hing we have, not just in money but our lives, then something is altered in our minds. That something will eventually affeect our heart, aff heart , which wh ich event eventually ually w ill af afffect our souls. Paul says work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Salvation is worked out when the mind is transformed. That transformation must begin in a new br b r eed of b elievers eliever s w ho move mov e pas pa s t t he “givin “giv ing g t o get get ” aitude. This will release the people from the giving fr om obedience obedience level to finally b ecomin ecoming g the gift. gift. We as the Church must become this living sacrifice corporate corporat ely. In doing so, so, we will w ill introd intr oduce uce a w hole new generation to a life in which the supernatural will become b ecome the t he nat na t ura ur a l wa w a y of livin liv ing. g.
2 Prayer: Prayer: The The Second Second Key
This chapter will change the way we pray. Read th foll ollw w oing verses vers es in in Mat Matth thew ew 6:5-15. 6:5-1 5. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have hav e their re r ew ard. ar d. B ut you y ou,, w hen hen you pray, pray , go into your roo r oom, m, and when you y ou have shut your door door , pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into
temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. orever . Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Fat ather her forgive forgive your tr t r espasses. spas ses. —Matt —Matthew hew 6:5-15 The next “key” Is prayer. Jesus showed us that orde is important for unlocking doors. Once we learn to “be “b ecome th thee gif gift” in giving giving we w e can be b e taught a new w ay to pray. A great majority of Christians are no motivated to pray, or if they do, they lack essential underst unders t an anding ding to be ef effective. ectiv e. T his key key of prayer pra yer is so significant to our development development that it can only be placed in the hands of those who have ha ve mast mas t ered the key key of giving. Praying does to our mind what giving has accompli accomplished shed in in our heart. heart . The hear heartt w hich has been been so corrupted by selfishness must be on the altar of God bef b efor oree t he mind mi nd can ca n b e t r an anss formed form ed b y t hought hough t s of t he Father. Our mind must b e fr eed fr fr om thinking w e must b e th thee center of everything we do for God. It is in thi “position” that the Lord can begin to show us how to pray. The prayer of which I speak is nothing like what w have learned, or worse yet, how we imagine. True
prayer is entering into the mind and heart of the Father to bec b ecome ome His w ishes on earth eart h as it is in H Heeaven. av en. T his unders understan tanding ding of praye pray er can only be b e given given to the believ b eliever er w ho ha hass enter ent ered ed t hr ough t he door of givin giv ing. g. The Lord is quick to reward those who follow Hi paern of giving and then praying. We see throughout the chapter of Mahew 6 His response to our going in secret secr et to t o meet meet Him. The secret place is a special meeting area designed to be b e differ differ ent each t ime im e so tha t hatt man, ma n, as a s he h e so quickly does, will not make a religious ritual or sacred method of meeting meetin g God. God. It is called th thee secret place because it is secret each and every time we meet with Him. The way to the Fathe must b e diff different erent each time t ime so He can continue cont inue to reveal to us the th e motives of our hearts hear ts.. Praying is one of the few things we can do in our Christian development that will always please the Father. Abba is our Father and likes to hear from Hi children. Children are basically selfish and limited when it comes to conversation, but Abba has a way of trainin those th ose w ho at least least make an effort effort to speak to Him. Him. So So w must not be discouraged about our beginnings in our praye pray er lives. lives. I can recall in my early aempts at prayer becoming so fr fr ustrated ustr ated because because of of the time that w as spe s pent nt in “vain “va in repetitions.” I hoped that my words were heard because I believed that was my right as a Christian. I honestl
do not think any of my praye pray ers w ere answ ered. Looking back, I see the wisdom of God not to respon to those prayers, because most of those prayers were selfish and if answered could have made my life more hellish than it was already. You have heard from the secul secular ar w orld the phr phrase; ase; “Be “B e car careeful what wh at you pray for as you may well receive what you ask” Even unbe unb elievers lievers underst and the th e power of prayer pra yer.. Average Christians believes that prayer is the child telling telling the “Fathe “Fat herr ” w hat he or or she wants. wan ts. Althou Alt houg gh th th Father is very interested in hearing from His children He is much more concerned about their motives. A exchange free of hidden agendas and self gratification is w hat r eceives ceives the atte att ent ntion ion of of our heavenly Fat Father. her. Imagery Imagery is terribly terrib ly import important ant in any relationship. relationship. It i becau b ecauss e w e lost los t ours our s in t he G ar den of Eden t ha hatt t h Father is eager to reform His image in us. The image w begin b egin w ith it h in pray pr ayer er must mu st b e chan ch anged. ged. T hi hiss t akes t ime im e spent in His presence without the pursuit of anythin other than t han Him. Him. Ther Ther e are sever sever al levels levels and an d positions positions of prayer pra yer::
rayer ray er Of The The Mind Mind This type of praying is typical of the Christians wh have ha ve not gone t hroug hr ough h the t he process of r eceivin eceiving g th thee key key of giving. These believers have not gone to the altar of sel denial denial and thus do not know know how to t o pray. Prayers from the untransformed mind have lile to
no impact in the spirit realm. We have already learned that th at faith do does es not not resid r esidee in the th e mind. T his could b e w hy the Holy Spirit is not received or understood by th majorit maj ority y of th thee peopl peoplee on on the t he planet. We are all trained to memorize, categorize and process through the mind and in order to make decisions. We are taught this procedure in most schools of elementary and secondary education. This training is considered to be the most important part of our development. The time and energy spent in developin the senses of the natural realm is staggering, particularly considering our average life span is around 70 years. T he real trag tra gedy is that t hat so fe few are ar e awar e of of the spirit r ealm and an d even even fewer fewer know how h ow to t o access access it. it . T hose w ho have understanding are usually not the Christians. I has been our experience that only small parts of the leadership are themselves capable of “moving in the spirit.” Moreover, we find that those who have knowledge o this realm are those in the New Age which is nothin more than old witchcraft redressed to appear refined and inte int ellectually llectually accepta acceptab b le. le. The prayers of the mind are those that do not originate originate fr fr om the Holy Holy S pirit, but in the th e car carnal nal souls o people. These prayers create in the Christian a sense of wel being. b eing. T hi hiss is b ecaus ecau s e man ma n ha hass al alw w ays ay s w an antt ed r eligion to tell him how to act, what to do, what rules he must
follow, etcetera. Religion takes the place of God an leaves man defenseless when it comes to dealing with devils devils an and d demonic demonic inf in fluences. luences. We have to understand that prayer begins by living our our lives lives in a particul part icular ar w ay. Jesus explai explained ned this to Hi disciples, illustrating several important points. First and foremost Jesus said no man can be His discipl unless unless he is willing w illing to leave every everyth thing. ing. W hoever hoever comes to me and does does not hat h atee fat ather her and an d mother, wif w ifee and children, br others and an d sisters, sisters , yes, and an d even even life itself it self,, cannot can not be b e my disciple. W hoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. disciple. —Luke 14:26-27 Comprehe Compr ehending nding this principle prin ciple comes comes fr om the t he place o realizing your life is no longer your own. This should eliminate liminat e immediately immediately of pr pr aying ay ing fr fr om our mind. min d. The one who prays from the mind is the one who thinks his prayers are heard from his much speaking. The mind is full of noise, primarily because it is the center of voices. T hese voices voices ar e fr om the “master “mas ter”” w e have hav e chosen chosen to to listen to. In an earlier chapter we spoke about the voice of Mammon. Every voice other than the Holy Spirit i designe designed d by th thee enemy enemy to t o create fe fear and doubt. doubt . So prayers coming from the mind that has not been reformed into the image of Christ will pray selfish and
fr ight ightene ened d praye pray er s The T he reason for for this t his is be b ecause the one one prayin pra ying g is convinced by th thee enemy that t hat his or her needs needs must be met for their well being to be maintained. The motive behind the th ese prayers pray ers is fear fear,, not faith. The Th e mind, becau b ecauss e of its it s v ery er y fallen na natt ure, ur e, mus m ustt b elieve t ha hatt it is secure and protected in order order to funct function ion proper proper ly. It is easy to see why these prayers have no effect and rather produce false images of our Father. We have spoken earlier about the need for a new or transformed mind. This will w ill be a theme th thrr ough ough our study. st udy. The unregenerate mind will lose every bale against thee devil. th devil. T here is no amount of prayin pra ying g of of th this is kind that will protect you or will reveal information from the Father by the Holy Spirit. In fact, the natural mind wil not allow allow you to unde understan rs tand d the Bible Bib le at all. T he Bible Bib le i wrien by the Spirit and which by necessity causes it only to be realized realized throug thr ough h our spirits spir its.. Therefore, if our prayer life is empty and tedious, we would do well to follow the paern set by Jesus. That paern is to follow the Spirit. The Spirit will teach u how to give out of obedience before showing us how to pray. T hen hen let let the t he Hol Holy y G host tak ta ke us beyond “what w e ca even belie b elieve ve or underst unders t an and. d.”” Then He He will w ill open open a door door of prayin pra ying g lik likee we have hav e never never had be b efore. Step by step st ep each each of us can increase our faith. Then we will not only increase our faith but rely totally upon the Holy Spiri for our “daily “ daily br b r ead.” ad.” W hen we w e have hav e entered th thrr ough ough the doo doorr of prayer pra yer
opened by the key of giving, we immediately begin to move past the t he mind mind and start star t to t o pr pr ay directly from our our spirit.
rayi ra yin ng From From The The Spi pirit rit T his type t ype of of praying pra ying is re r ecognizab cognizab le b y the t he evidence evidence o many things, not the t he least least of w hich is re r eceiving ceiving answe answ ers to our our praye pray er s. Pr ayer become becomess one of of the most valuable v aluable substances of your daily life; because you are becoming one mind with the most awesome praying Spirit-the Holy Spirit. Spir it. “GIV “G IV E us this day our daily br ead,” ad,” this is an exampl that w e must must be a giver giver in order to t o ask to be give given. n. And then notice how the food is wrapped in every day’s revelation, which is our daily bread. Each day becomes food for our spirit because the Holy Spirit has plans for that th at day fr om before before the foundation foundation of th thee world, wor ld, and to to discover discover this t his be b ecomes comes our sust enan nance ce.. We have already become a “living sacrifice” upon the altar of our God. We have developed that level of trust to believe our heavenly Father will take care of OU every need, need, b ut w hat about ab out His His needs. needs. T he Fathe Fat herr is longing longing for for children who w ho will w ill mature matur e s that th at He can tr ust th theem as ste st ew ards ar ds of His Kingd Kingdom. om. This requires requires children children who w ho are will w illing ing to hear His spirit s pirit and a nd begin b egin t o sha s harr e in t he obliga ob ligatt ion ionss of a stew st ewar ar d. S t ewa ew a r ds must understand their duties. This is only possible by praying pray ing in and from from the t he Spirit. Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words w ords which w hich man’s man’s w isdom isdom te t eaches aches but b ut w hich the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things w ith spiritual. spir itual. B ut the t he natural man do doees not re r eceive ceive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are ar e spiritually discern discerneed. —1 Cor Co rinthians nthians 2:10-1 2:1 0-144 Prayer is no longer our voice emanating from the fallen condition of our mind but the Spirit of Go communicating with our spirit in a glorious exchange orchestrated from heaven and demonstrated on earth through a vessel yielded to the ways of the Spirit. Thi beaut b eautiful iful condit con dition ion is w here her e our duties dut ies as stew st ewar ar d become b ecome r ealized. eali zed. A s w e hear hea r t he F at ather her’’s hear hea r t , our spirit is united to His His in such compassion compassion and faith that t hat our very ver y existence is is altered alt ered.. W hen we w e find our our sel s elff in th this is heavenly coope cooperr at ation, ion, our needs, such as food, shelter, money etc. etc. become unimportant. After all, we are now participating with the Spirit of God in establishing His kingdom on earth
His Kingdo Kingdom m dominates dominates every every mate mat er ial subst ance in th universe. This is what Jesus demonstrated every tim He changed water to wine or fed the multitudes or commanded a fish to sw allow a gold gold coin. coin. These prayers are kingdom prayers designed to establish agreement for something much higher than our our nee needs and wants w ants.. For w e do not know know w hat w e should should pray for for as w e ought ought,, but th thee Spirit S pirit Himself makes makes inte int er cession cession for for us with w ith groaning w hich cannot be uered. uered. N ow He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints saint s acco a ccorr ding to the t he will w ill of God. God. —Romans 8:26-27 This passage from the Bible is generally quoted whe someone someone is spe s peaking aking abou ab outt per per sons pray pr aying ing in unknow unknown n tongues. But have we ever considered that our precious Holy Hol y S pirit is so gr gr ieved ieved by our conditions conditions of “darkne “dar kness ss that He has no words to express His feelings to th Fathe Fat herr ? W hen hen we w e j oi oin n our our spirits w ith His, w e too too,, hav no eear arthly thly w ords that can express express our our co conditio nditions. ns. This position of prayer is from and in the Spirit. Thi is not a place in our minds and a nd emotions. emotions. God is a God of order and design and requires tru Christians disciplined to join Him in prayers tha unlock the destinies of peoples and countries. Praying this way in the spirit demands such high level
obedience and perseverance that without the key of giving one does not have the capacity to enter and believe for fo r what wha t the Holy Ho ly Spirit Spirit wil willl reveal. revea l. This not only requires praying in the spirit, but faith at the level of the Holy Spirit. That faith comes b hearing and hearing by the Word of God is a fact, bu the truth of that verse becomes reality in this place of prayer. Why? Because you will hear the Spirit of God an what you hear you believe and begin to speak. (Romans 10: 9-10) This creates the faith of God, through th Rhema word being heard and repeated. This is also th effectual prayer of the righteous man spoken of in James chapter 4. Prayer must be an exchange of what is happening in Heaven with what is going on in the earth. If this doe not take place, true prayer has not been experienced. Every thing that happens from the spirit realm is look loo king for for an a n avenue a venue to be manif man ifeested st ed in in the t he natur nat ural. al. When Jesus said “I only do what I see my Father do, that was not something said to merely fill the pages of the Bible. This was a teaching to show us how to pray Every Everything thing we nee need and everyt everything hing the Father Fat her want w antss t manifest has already been done. Prayer is not just communicatio co mmunication n but demonstr demonstration. ation.
Jesus J esus s ai aid d t o t hem, hem , “Ver “V ery y t r uly, uly , I t ell y ou, t he S on can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the
Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives lifee to whome lif w homever ver he wishes. w ishes.”” —John 5:19-21 This statement was intended to show us that as we actually unite with the Holy Spirit we lose all of our own identity and become one voice. That voice has no fears, doubts, or unbelief. That voice calls things from heaven to earth and sees the end from the beginning. This is the voice that said “let there be light” and there w as and a nd it w as good good.. Prayer Pr ayer has become become the langu languag agee o heaven. Let Let that t hat sink deep deep int into o our our spirit. spir it. W e are de dealing w ith powers so great great that t hat our our earthly ar thly bodies b odies an and d mind mi ndss ar e unab un ab le t o compr com prehend ehend t he magnitude. That is why it requires the training Jesus i describ describing ing through through Matthe Matth ew 6.
Becoming ecoming The Praye Pra yerr The prayer above is an example in which Jesus di only what he saw the Father doing is a wonderful revelation of the level of prayer that changes things in the natural natura l realm. realm. B ut you might might say, s ay, that w as Je J esus, how can w e see see th Father? Jesus was trained by the Holy Spirit to ente
such intimacy with the Father that seeing the spirit realm and watching His Father was His everyday life That reproduced on earth what He saw in Heaven an w as as natur na tural al to Him Him as br eath athing ing.. Praying at this level is not something anyone can understand without first becoming the gift and going thrr ough th ough the t he “fire” Jesus wr w r aps His people people in. John J ohn said, sa id, “I am j ust us t b apt ap t iz izin ing g w ith it h w at ater er.. B ut someone more powerful is going to come, and I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will bap b aptt iz izee y ou wit w ith h the t he Holy Holy Spir Spi r it an and d wit w ith h fire.” fir e.” —Luke 3:16 We spoke earlier about praying in the “spirit,” but “becoming the prayer” is a level beyond. We must become b ecome t he fire fir e from t he a ltar lt ar of heav hea v en. T hi hiss is something very powerful! Let’s consider it for a moment. W e began began our praye pray er lif lifee by uniting w ith tthe he Spirit o God. Gradually we began to see that the more the Hol Spirit controls our life the more fire burns within our spirits. The more the fire burns within us the less “chaff” remains. The fire becomes so intense that we are consumed and become the incense mentioned in Revelation and the coal on the altar of God spoken of i Isaiah. After he had taken it, the four living creatures and
th e twe the tw ent ntyy-ffour elders elders knelt knelt do dow w n be b efore him. Each Each of them had a harp and a gold bowl full of incense, w hich ar a r e the prayer pra yerss of God God’’s people people —Revelation 5:8 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity iniquity is tak ta ken aw ay, ay , and your y our sin purg pur ged.” d.” —Isaiah 6:6-7 When we become the “prayer” we are truly unrecognizable to ourselves. The Father, whose hear has always been to bring back His children, begins to pray through us. This manifests beyond groans into spiritual fire on the altar of God. This fire as it burn away aw ay our sins and iniquities iniquities be b ecomes comes incense. T he smell smell coincides with the amount of soul and flesh being bur b urned. ned. A s w e sur su r r ender more mor e an and d more mor e of our selves selv es thee aroma th ar oma changes. changes. Finally, when there is only our renewed mind and soul on the altar the fragrance smells heavenly. This is the aroma ar oma that penetrat penetratees the t he hear hearts ts and minds of those to w whom hom the Fath Fatheer has assig as signe ned d our our prayers. pr ayers. This sweet aroma created by these prayers, sometimes called intercession, becomes a powerful weapon. These prayers contain all the properties of the Spirit. Our prayers there are atmosphere changing. S
much so we w e are ar e not sure sur e if w e are ar e in th thee b od ody y or out. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago— w hether hether in the body I do not know, know, or or w hether hether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body b ody I do not know, know , G od knows— know s— how he w as caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible w ords, w hich it is not lawf law ful for for a man to t o utt utteer. —2 Cor Co rinthians nthians 12 1 2 :2-4 Many great men of God aained this level o develo development pment in pray pr ayeer . Jesus Jesus w as the t he per per fect example o theem all. th The first prayer we will speak about that touched the heart of the Father was spoken by none other than our Lorr d and Savior Lo Sav ior Jesus. Jesus. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not not know w hat they do.” do.” —Luke 23:33-34 This prayer can only be prayed when we are full o the Hol Holy y Ghost. This This prayer pra yer is the t he standard standar d by w hich all other prayers must be judged. It’s the sweet aroma,
w hich is God God himself manifest manifesting ing in the th e sacrif sacr ificial icial fire. fire. Prayer of this kind becomes like the spirit. It move like the wind to change atmospheres, affect hearts and change the destinies of man. Jesus became the prayer o his Father, the very essence of His love, poured down for all manki ma nkind. nd. The prayers modeled by Jesus are so powerful tha when spoken Heaven was already fulfilling the desire. He said: The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, becau b ecause se I am going t o b e w ith it h t he F at ather her.. You can ca n ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, becau b ecause se t he w ork or k of t he S on b r in ings gs glory glor y t o t he Fathe Fat her. r. Yes, Yes, ask anything in my name, and I w ill do do it.” —John —J ohn 14:12-14 1 4:12-14 Here we see the key to becoming the prayer. Jesu knew how much the Father desires to please Hi children. Jesus, through His obedience unto deat becam b ecamee t he a nsw ns w er for hi hiss F at ather her.. T hi hiss gives giv es hi hiss F at athe he the honor and glory He desires and brings every angel to at attent tention ion at th thee name of of Jesus. In the Father’s eyes, ears and nostrils, He sees, hears and smells smells our prayers. pra yers. These T hese praye pray ers are ar e measur measureed by how much of Je Jesus w e are fille filled d with. w ith. Let me explain it another way. Our souls are like a
Old Testament altar, to which the sacrifices were br b r ought b y t he hi high gh priest pr iests. s. T he s acr ac r ifices ar e our thoughts; our habits, our imaginations, our images, our desires desires and dreams. W hen hen the t hese se are brou br oug ght to the altar of our soul and burned, the fragrances, sounds, and sights sights that are ar e emied emied show show the quality quality and an d quantity quantity of our sacr s acrif ifice ice.. This can reveal our level of giving and praying. If th aroma is sweet and the fire all – consuming, then w hat hateever w e ask the Father Fa ther in Jesus’ name will w ill be done done T he Fathe Fat herr knows thr oug ough the t he fra frag gr ance of of our our praye pray ers if they come from a vessel filled with the essence of His son. The Father saw and heard the agony of His son i Gethsemane. The sight of blood coming from the pore in his body emied an odor like no other. His odor was more than a body and soul dying. That odor came from a life life of total tot al surr sur r ender nder and a nd total victor v ictory. y. The prayer: from Gethsemane flowed from the hear of His Father who had already crowned Him abov everything in heaven and on earth. Those are the prayers that the disciples learned about after the death and resurrection of Jesus. They learned those prayers i theeir own th ow n Geth Gethsemane. semane. Gethsemane will be where each of us will learn as w ell. ell. W hen Jesus said “take “t ake up your cross cr oss and follo follow w me,” he was speaking about going through “the garden” to pick up our our own ow n cross. cr oss. These prayers are not something most Bible school
teach, or or can they t hey be b e lear learned ned fr fr om the th eories. These These type of prayers come from the spirit of God through vessels emptied of themselves and not concerned with self preservation. We all must evaluate our life and where we are in the development of our prayer life. Then decide where we would like to be and how to arrive. This honest appraisal will hopefully lead us, to make quality decisions concerning this most important issue in our our Christian Christ ian walk w alk.. I can ca n reme r ememb mbeer one day not n ot long ago w hen someth somethin in extr aordinar y happe h appened ned to me and my w ife ife. W e w er e in our prayer room early one morning, which is our practice when we are at home. Our prayer room is one of the nicest rooms in our home. In fact we decided to make our dining room the ministry office so we could turn tur n one of th thee b edrooms into our our pray pr ayeer r oo oom. m. This has h as become b ecome one of t he most mos t pr p r ecious pla p laces ces in our home. hom e. One morning as we entered into the room and sat down to worship the absolute Glory of God descended The weight of His Glory was so intense we could no move. We were caught up into this ecstasy every morning for almost a month. During these days, we would talk to Him and ask Him things, but He neve responded. We were somewhat concerned because so often during our worship the Lord reveals powerful lifechanging truths for our lives. So, being human, we were w onder onder ing if w e had offe offended nded our our sw eet eet Hol Holy y S pirit. pirit . Bu that did not seem to be the case, since His presence was
so strong in that room. Finally, the Lord began to revea to us that He was not angry or offended with us. But i fact, act , He ha had d found found a place wher w heree He could could come and fee the Love and Peace He, Himself was bringing. He ha jus j ustt w an antt ed t o come com e an and d R est. est . W e w ere er e speechles sp eechlesss an and d so honored to have provided a place for the King o Glory t o rest r est His Head. Head. Alleluia! Alleluia! It is the Holy Spirit’s desire that we all begin t understand the journey which lies beyond us. I believe Jesus J esus gave gav e us v al alua uab b le keys t o unlock un lock doors door s t ha hatt hol hold d theese myst er ies th ies and an d so much more. I know that t hat giving unlock unlockss the t he door door so we w e might might lear learn n how to pray. pray . Then, thr oug ough His grace we can move ste by b y s t ep t o discov dis cover er w ha hatt w as hi hidden. dden. T he process pr ocess o prayer development is in direct proportion to our proce pr ocess ss of self-denial. self-denial. There is nothing more critical for us to understand than that t hat w hat and w here here we w e are now now is a direc directt r esult sult of whom we are serving. This is expressed in every aspect of our life, but most profoundly in our giving and praying. Our location in Christian maturity does no depend depend solely solely on Jesus Jesus or the t he Holy Holy Spirit Spir it,, b ut our choices as w ell. We made the choices and paid the price to arrive w here w e are ar e now. Now N ow w e must pay the price to leave leave where we are at present, in order to seize the prize that is set bef b efore ore us. The price we must pay to get that prize is not as grea as the reward or nearly as costly as the alternative.
Choosing our own ways, or the good ideas of this world is much more costly than we think, with no eternal fruit at the end. We all must come to the realization on this journey that there is no escape from thiss life alive. thi Many people live their lives, as if there was not death at th thee end end of th this is natur na tural al existence. existence. They prefer prefer to t o live in a fantasy world, in which they go through life in absolute ab solute denial. denial. Most choose choose not to t o even even think t hink of an end to a life filled with “their make-believe existence.” However, not thinking about it will not make it less a reality, nor nor w ill filli filling ng up up your life life with material w ealth create an alternative alternat ive.. T here here is a spir spir it re r ealm that do dominates minates the natural. Th sooner we qualify for authority in that kingdom the be b eer er.. W e can ca n either eit her b e co-domi co- domina natt ors or s w ith it h t he Holy Spirit in that realm or be dominated by the devil and our unref unr eformed ormed minds and hear hearts ts.. The qualification is measured, at first, by the level o our giving and praying. Our abilities are then determined by the keys we acquire and the doors we enter. God will never force man to do anything he does not choo ch oose. se. I know there are more than three levels in any topic Jesus J esus discus dis cussed sed in M a ahew hew 6. I ha hav v e obser ob serv v ed t ha hatt j us as giving transforms the mind and heart, praying intensifies that work and in addition begins to reform the soul. In order for our soul to be totally reformed, the flesh
must be b e domi dominat nateed by the Spir Spir it. As we progress through the revelations of giving and prayer, we begin to realize that our flesh must undergo thee tr ansf th ans formation orma tion process released released throug thr ough h fast fasting. ing. So an additional key is given to our understanding as a result of our prayer life. That key unlocks a door that has not only been locked but difficult to even approach for most Christians, Christ ians, and that is fast fasting ing.. Let us take the key of prayer and unlock the door o fasting. We will discover why it is sequenced in Mahew 6 and how our lives can become lethal to the enemy nemy w ith this t his re r evelation. velation.
3 Hungry For Fasting
In the preceding chapters I developed levels of givin and then did the same with prayer. As I said before, know there are many levels of both giving and praying. It is my intention to illustrate them to challenge and encourage the body of Christ Chr ist.. I have ha ve no desir desiree to make dogma or religion. These different plateaus are purely subjective and are from my personal experiences and revelations. They have tremendously enriched my life and that is w hy I want you to have have them. them. T he truth is, in our our nat natural ural man, man , w e are ar e al alll limited limited by our experiences and mental capacities at any given time in our life’ life’s journ j ourney. ey. One of the sweetest things about our precious Hol Spirit is He uses our limited understanding, where w are, and begins to reveal life changing truths from His Word. These truths, although always having bee available, enlighten our understanding in the exact season of our greatest needs. Then, immediately we are propelle propelled d into int o a dimension filled filled with wit h faith and passion. pas sion. This is such a beautiful picture of why the Bible is
spirit book and can never be understood by anything other than a spirit being. The Holy Spirit then reveal more Truth from that new place. This place is far mor accessible to His spirit than where our dull unenlightened souls had been. We all know who the person of Truth is: In John 14:6 Jesus declares“I am the way, the truth and the life.” This is what happens each time we are given a “key” to the next door, we discover more of th thee way, wa y, the th e truth, tr uth, and the t he life life of of our Master. Master . Having said that, we w e will now explore xplore the th e next next part par t o Math atheew 6:16-18: And now about fasting, when you fast, declining your food for a spiritual purpose, don’t do it publicly, publicly, as the t he hypocrites hypocrites do, w ho try tr y to look look w an and disheveled so people will feel sorry for them. Truly, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, put on festive clothing, so that no one will suspect you are hungry, except your Fath atheer w ho knows knows every secret. secret. And And he will rewar rew ard d you. Most of us have aempted fasting at one time or another in our life. Too often, it becomes retched experiences; we spent more time thinking about food than anything else. What we were trying to sacrifice becam b ecamee our our obses ob sesss ion. The Church has become a group in which most of it members are overweight and unhealthy from
overeating, overeat ing, or consumin cons uming g t he wr w r ong t ype of foo ood. d. In fact, act , if any one group on earth should be fasting, it is the Church. It seems most events sponsored by the Churches ar held held in conj conjunctio unction n w ith dinners and an d br eakf akfasts. ast s. This is not evil or wrong by any means, but does send signals that gluttony is less less a sin than th an others others.. Fasting seems to be one of those words not spoken abou ab outt often often in Chur C hurch ch so as not n ot to t o off offend the overw overw eig eight crowd. Or, if it is mentioned, it is usually spoken light hearte heart edly, foll followed owed by nervous nerv ous laught laughteer . In Jesus’ days the Pharisees were champion faster and they t hey let everyone every one know know it. In In fact, the th ey gave av e, praye pray ed, and fasted more than probably the average Christian does today. So obviously giving, praying, and fastin doees not imply th do that at our behavior b ehavior is acce a ccepta ptable ble to God. God. Everything the Pharisees were doing: giving, prayin problem em was and fasting fast ing were wer e comma commande nded d by b y God. God. T he probl not no t what they did did but the the false fa lse mo m o tives tives in their hearts. If the hearts of Christians today are not changed, w will have the same religious structure Jesus is speakin about. In fact, if we take an objective look, we see the same problems in the Church as in so-called “heathen” society. The Church has lost power to appeal to the worl becau b ecauss e it offer offerss li lile le if an any y r eal s pirit pir itua uall v al alues, ues, not becau b ecauss e of w ha hatt is i s sai s aid, d, but bu t becau b ecause se of w ha hatt is i s done. don e. So, in order to aract people, some churches resort to the system the world uses-entertainment,
advertisement, “user friendly” environments, so not to offend visitors. These Church leaders want to offer programs and environments that make the “lost” or heathen feel accepted. This sounds appealing on the surface, but like everything else that comes from the “world “w orld syst sy steem,” it is false. Remember when Satan told Jesus “If you woul worship me, I would give you all the kingdoms of this world.” He was offering Him, not only the nations bu “The world’s ruling system.” I believe we can make th same analogy today. What he is now saying is: “If yo w orship orsh ip me, me, foll ollowin owing g my w orld syst sy stem, em, I w ill give give you the multitudes. “It is not just about gathering crowds, but b ut t a king t hem t o a r eal encount encou nter er w ith it h t he L ord, or d, t ha hatt will turn them from sin and flesh which is “the world syst sy stem, em, to the t he Kingdo Kingdom m of God. God. Onee of On of th thee famous famous stat st ateme ement ntss of th thee world wor ld is “The “T he en en jus j ustt ifies t he means mea ns.” .” T hi hiss is far from fr om b eing godly. godly . T h Father does care car e a lot about ab out the means means.. B ecause worldly wor ldly appealing, non-confronting, non-transforming methods can ne n ever lead lead to t o holy, righteous righteous living livin g. I think every pastor would agree if you want to aract crowds you must invite Jesus as King and Lor first and allow Him to direct the activities. Th transformation must begin within our minds and heart heartss as the blueprints blueprints the the Master Mas ter designed. desig ned. If we don’t give, we can’t expect to learn how to pray effectively. All this is so basic and yet so difficult for the Church hur ch to emb embrr ace.
T he reason reason w e are talking talking about this t his in our section section o fasting is that most Churches are in a condition in which fasting would change their atmosphere dramatically. The pastors would not be spending night and day counseling their sheep. Instead, they would have more time to be with the Lord. But because man Church leaders, who themselves have never progressed from giving and praying cannot possibly understand fasting. Fasting would bring the flesh under total subjection and the Churches today need this desperately. But ther is a sequence sequence an and d order in God. W hen He showed show ed Moses the th e ta tab b er nacle, He did s from the inside out. The design was first “The Holy o Holies,” then “The Holy place,” then “The Inner Cour and then “The Outer Court.” This is also the metho God uses to t o change chan ge us, fr fr om the t he inside out. Therefore, once our hearts and minds are transformed, we can begin with the flesh in our bodies. That is why fasting is sequenced the way it is in Matthe att hew w 6. We are talking about fasting in this chapter, so to understand that in order to fast we must enter in thrr ough th ough the t he proper proper do door. or. R emember member w hat Jesus said in John 10? He w as sayin sa yin that those who try to gather the sheep by any means other other tha than n by b y Him are ar e thieves thieves and robb ers. rs . He said later later in that tha t chapter that t hat He is is the t he doo doorr by w hich sheep sheep enter. enter. All of our programs and systems that have been
devised by means other than God’s ways are like the illustration above and will create problems, not solutions. If we call for a fort forty y day fast and pastor a Church Chur ch tha has less than 10% who tithe, what is the likelihood the fast will be successful? The same is true when we have all night pray pr ayer er meetings meetings or any a nyth thing ing else else requiring requiring our our hearts heart s and mind to t o be controll contr olleed by th thee Holy Spirit. Spirit . We all know Jesus said to “love God with all our heart. heart .” Mar Mark k 12:30: And An d you shall love love the Lord your G od w ith all your heart, with all your soul, with your entire mind, and with wit h all your your streng st rength. th. So how can we possibly love God with all our heart soul, and mind when we don’t give or pray and much less fast? We have no understanding of the power r equir equired ed for tha t hatt passa pas sage ge t o be fulf fulfilled illed.. This is the purpose of the revelations that the Hol Spirit is pouring out on earth in these last days. H knows the Church is in great turmoil. He knows w desperately need an “upper room” experience. So He i giving us keys to unlock life-changing, world shaking revelations that will expose and destroy this world’s system. Remember, revelation sometimes requires demonstration to become an impartation. In other words, we must use our physical bodies to perform an
act associ a ssociated ated with wit h the t he revelation. revelation. For example example, N oah built built an ark ar k, Ab raham ra ham was w as will w illin in to sacrifice his son and Joshua marched around Jericho These acts caused the revelation to become one with their spirit, and opened doors for the spirit realm and natural realm to interface. This is why our reformed hearts and minds require a physically submied body. Our physical acts manifest the passion generated in our r eformed souls by b y fasting ast ing.. A body can be used by God as a channel between th invisible and the natural realms. Daniel’s diet and his fasting lifestyle contributed to the clear and powerful revelations that he experienced. The same is true with Elijah and John the Baptist. Our fasting results i imparta impar tations tions of revelat revelation ion ffrr om the pre pr ecious cious Holy Holy Spirit. Spirit . When through our giving and praying we have demonstrated an understanding of trust and submission to the Father, then we are permied access to a heavenly heavenly pow pow er that can delive deliverr nations. Jesus J esus s ai aid d in M a hew 17 17:14 :14 an and d M ar k 9:2 9:29, 9, w he speaking about delivering a boy, whom His disciples could not deliver, “This kind does not come out unless one has prayed pra yed and fasted.” fasted.” Jesus J esus w as demons demon s t r at atin ing g an and d declar decla r in ing g t he order or der o power for for ““k kingdom ingdom manife manifestat st ations. ions.”” P r ayer ay er as we w e have hav e discussed opens the door to fasting. Jesus followed the dynamics because He followed His Father’s order. Thi divine paern positioned Jesus in awesome places of authority for major ma jor delive deliverr ance. ance.
That boy was not delivered because Jesus spoke, bu it was from the position where Jesus spoke. If we ca see the design of God we can see the weakness of ou enemy. The design outlined by Jesus in Mahew 6 i our road map to reformation and keys to operate in kingdom authority. Transformation is the one essential ingredient that has been missing for us to live in the spirit as Paul described in Romans 8. This ingredient will take us bac to the cross w her her e our our bodie bodies must hang. Fasting makes this a reality. If our bodies are on th cross our perspective and opinions opinions change ch ange.. “The “The spirit is w illing b ut the t he flesh flesh is weak w eak,,” w ill not be b e heard from the th e cross. The place of power and transformation can be r ealized only fr fr om that tha t position. If only the Church will find that message again, th need for “programs” to aract crowds will diminish. Fasting is the single greatest weapon in the hands of the Christian that will cause hell to tremble and devils to flee. If our our Chr C hristia istian n life life is pow pow er less less and an d unsatisf unsat isfying, ying, it i becau b ecauss e w e ha hav v e not al allow lowed ed ours our s elves elv es exposur expos uree t o t he spirit realm through the cross of His majesty. It is for such people people th that at I w ant to say th thee foll ollowin owing g: G o d has giv g iven en eevery veryth thiing to enable e nable us to discover the the wonders of His ways. He will not try to entertain yo with tricks and gimmicks for your amusements and “lukewarm” aitudes. If you have ears to hear and eyes to see, He will transform your mediocrity into a life
beyond what you you or o r Hollywoo Hollywood d could ima imag g in ine. e. I reached that point in my Christian life in which made a choice to find God or die trying. I had my fill o the parlor tricks of the new age and the pseudo “Chr “C hrist istian” ian” lif lifee. I say pseudo pseudo because because it had ha d all the rig r igh h languages and “acts” of power Christian living without any of th thee lasting last ing fr uit. So I began to study the Scriptures with prayer an fasting. I accidentally discovered the design of Go revealed in Mahew 6. The following was how aempted to fast in the beginning. It also demonstrates thee mer th mer cy of our God. My experience with fasting began several years ago, even before I began to understand the process outlined in Mahew. I began to fast to eliminate toxins from my body b ody.. I had h ad r ead tha t hatt it w as a good thi t hing ng for t he body b ody t o cleanse itself from the inside out. So I determined t begin b egin a t hr ee day fast fas t on liquids. liquid s. M y experienc exper iencee w as probably very normal. I watched the clock and could not be b elieve lieve there were only only 24 2 4 hours in a day. The T he thre thr ee days finally ended and I had accomplished a measure o the detoxification that I had sought. But during thos three days the Holy Spirit began to speak to me abou some things in my life. He began to tell me that I was slave to my mind and body and that th at He had not created me to live that way. He went on to describe how H w ould ould transfo tr ansform rm my thought thought process process if I w ould ould submit t o Him. Him. I had been praying the prayer in Ephesians 1:17-2
about having the spirit of wisdom and the eyes of my underst unders t an anding ding opene opened. d. So I eagerly eagerly submit sub mitted. ted. The next morning He awoke me with a determinatio to fast like never before. I believed for seven days. I di not begin that day but planned to start the following w eek. eek. T hose of y ou who w ho have hav e scheduled scheduled something someth ing fr fr om God to begin at a certain date know the tactics of the enemy. Everything that could go wrong did. Machiner br b r oke, oke, my s on mis m isb b ehav eha v ed and an d I got sick. s ick. Never N evertt heless, heles s, was determined to keep my appointment with the Holy Ghost. My mind w as b usy sending all kinds kinds of fear me m essag ssa ges to my body. My body was reacting by sneezing, coughing and complaining. But, I remained resolute t br b r eak the t he cha c hain inss of slav sla v ery er y over ov er my life, and an d I b egan egan t he seven day day fast. ast . B y the t he end of of the third thir d day day my m y bod b ody y w as not hungry. By the t he fourt fourth h day I w as feeling feeling fr esh and an d alive. I b egan egan to to pray with a new energy and faith. When the fifth day arrived my spirit was receiving information from the Holy Ho ly S pirit on Scriptur S cripturees I had ha d read and not not unders understoo too for ye y ears. ar s. As the days went on His presence grew until I bega to wee w eep p uncontroll uncontr ollab ably. ly. I was w as in the t he presence presence of of th thee On my heart hear t w as seeking seeking.. I ha had d felt felt His His prese pr esence nce bef b efore, ore, on on a number of occasions. But this was different. It was as i He had decided to bring such a level of glory into my room that all I could do was see my wretchedness. Th light and glory was so overwhelming that at times I
could not r ise off off the floor. floor. I be b egan to t o worship wor ship and express express my gratef ra teful ul hear heartt any a ny way I could. I did not want to lose this indescribabl feeling. ling. Durin During g this time tim e I w as changing into something did not know or understand. My desire to please the Fat ather her incr eased beyond my need need to be b e blessed. blessed. I alw alway ayss had wanted to please Him but my thoughts and emotions had h ad contaminat conta minateed those th ose eff efforts. ort s. I could not see s ee Him in the th e absolute ab solute splendor splendor of His maj esty. st y. The T he image image created from my mind and heart had perverted His Holiness and an d Glor Glor y. Suddenly, I could see the condition of my soul an body b ody.. I saw sa w t he cha ch a in inss of fear fear,, sin and a nd ini i niquit quity y in my m y life. I began to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit directing m through worship on how to destroy those strongholds. As I began to shout and dance before the Lord, angel began b egan t o enter ent er t he r oom w ith it h s w ords or ds like I ha had d never nev er seen before. They cut away a lot of the chains. Some o the things they did I had no understanding of then or even to this day. All I know is that the level of ecstasy w as exper exper iencing iencing was wa s be b eyond descr description. iption. For some incredible reason, fasting had broken a hole in the barrier created by my wrong thoughts and images. images. It w as like I saw sa w for tthe he fir fir st time images images comin from heaven instead of my poisoned mind. The overwhelming sensations I experienced can not be done jus j ustt ice b y w ords or ds.. S uffice it t o s ay t ha hatt t he multidimensional facets of His majesty left me helpless to express express anyt hing but uncontr uncontrol ollable lable crying and joy.
My life was forever altered in that instant. In Hi mercy He opene opened d the t he spirit spir it r ealm for for me to see s ee.. He He began began to tell me that fasting is a weapon the Church has avoided because of the lies of the enemy. He said He i going to use people like me to restore what had been stolen. Since that time I have been on several fasts at th Lorr d’s Lo d’s dire dir ection, some times over t w o hundred days in a year. The first forty day fast was a landmark in my Christian development. It was during that time that H reveale revealed to me what wha t I am shar sh aring ing now. R emember member earlie ar lierr w hen hen w e spok spoke about about the Phar P harise iseee being b eing v ery er y dilige dili gent nt a b out fast fas t in ing? g? In I n L uke 5:3 5:333-35 35 J esu responds responds to the t he discip disciple less of John the th e Baptist Bapt ist w ho want w ant to know why Jesus disciples do not fast. The answer given by Jesus is the heart and soul of fasting. He said “Can you make the children of the bride chamber fast, w hile th thee b r ideg idegr oo oom m is w ith them? t hem?”” T hen He said, “Bu “B u the days will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away aw ay from the t hem, m, and then shall they fast in those t hose days.” The more I have fasted the more I have longed for m br b r idegroom idegr oom t o appea a ppearr . The T he w ords or ds “i “in n t hose hos e day da y s ” could not have been more prophetic for the Church. We are living in the day in which our every action must demonstrate our total dependence upon the One to w hom our our hear hearts ts belong belong.. I recall once when I was fasting hearing the voice o the Holy Spirit asking me how much I desired th return of the only true King of Kings? I was puzzled b
the question and asked Him why He was asking me this question. He proceeded to tell me that most of the Church today was more interested in their kingdom instead of His kingdom and that if the Church woul cry out for His return like the children of Israel cried fo a deli de liverer verer in Egypt that heaven would wo uld hear. I have had such wonderful experiences in my times o fasting with the Lord that have changed my ways o thinki th inking ng and be b elieving. lieving. My lif lifee is tr uly no n o longe longerr mine to do as I please. The most poignant understanding I hav had through fasting is the realization that what Jesus did for me can not now or ever ever b e repaid. repaid. T his one truth tr uth has made me deter determined mined to lay my m y lif lifee down down for Him at at any price. price. It is my desire desire that tha t all of of you who w ho desire desire to enter enter into those places of intimacy with the Holy Spirit throug fasting will find the courage and faith to begin your life of fasting for the bridegroom’s return. Once you make thee dec th decision ision to beg b egin in you y ou will never r egr et it. One of the many beautiful things about the Hol S pirit is that He forge orgets your failures failures in the journey an capitalize capita lizess on your succe s uccesses. sses. Our mind is the enemy of our spirit when the Hol Spirit is not in control. There will not be too man things in our life more difficult to achieve than fasting. This is exactly w hy th thee Holy Spirit is giving giving us keys keys.. Remember, the first key is the level of your giving. Have you y ou become become the gift? gift? This Th is w ill unlock th thee myster mys ter of prayer pra yer.. W hen you can become become the incense incense on on the th e alt altar ar
of God, through your prayer life the next key is handed to you. Always remember this journey we are taking is progressive. Each step requires more intense time with Him than tha n bef b efore. ore. T his is to t o insure we w e do nothing routin or familiar as to elicit a certain response from the Holy Spirit. The secret place is called “secret” because it i such each time we seek to enter. Every fast is different and requires a new degree of sacrifice to destroy any preconceived preconceived routine or r esult. The places the Holy Spirit wants to take each of u w ill illing ing to submit w ill require require total surr ender. nder. The T hese se are places places in the spirit w here here love and tr uth r eign ign supre supr eme and the t he mind has no influence. influence. T his is th thee place place the devil devil fears you’re aaining and the place where angels are at your command. You were made before the creation of thee w orld for th for this th is posit position ion in in th thee heavenly re r ealm. I recall duri during ng one o f my fasts fasts that th the e L ord started started to reveal to me how our images have been formed. He showed me that our senses have been poisoned by wrong eating, seeing and hearing, thus altering the chemicals in in our o ur bodies. These chemicals actually work to form the thoughts and images in our brains. Once these thoughts are damaged, the images are also corrupted. If we continue to see the same corrupted images over and over, we begin b egin t o believe b elieve t hey ar e tr t r ue. W ha hatt ever w e cont con t in inua ually lly hear we will believe, and whatever we continually see w e w ill move tow towar ard d and imitat imitatee.
Our minds play images in full stereo, so not only are w e seeing seeing something; someth ing; w e are ar e hearing hearin g the dialogue of fear as well. These images are one of the primary influences by b y w hi hich ch w e make choices choic es in our lives. liv es. These images also produce feelings of comfort o pain. And, eventually over time, our senses and emotions are so damaged that we need more and more stimulation to have any feelings. This is why we are a society of gluons, not only in foods but violence and every other form o f self grati g ratifi ficati cations. ons. Man has always lived by the old saying, “If it feel goo ood, d, do it.” it.” W e begin begin to t o trust tr ust all the t he wr w r ong images images and a nd thoughts created by wrong eating, wrong listening, and wrong viewing. The more we engage in these types o beha b ehav v ior t he easier eas ier it is for us t o b elieve t he lies of t he enemy. The easier it is for us to be controlled by fear. And the more difficult it is to hear anything from the Holy Spirit. Spir it. The Lord has shown me that fasting brings our bod under submission. But what the Holy Spirit i ultimately after is bringing our thoughts into order. As thee Apostle th Apostle Paul said: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to t he obedience obedience of Christ. Chris t.
—2 Cor Co rinthians nthians 10 1 0 :4-5 Fast Fa sting ing has many m any stage st agess of deve develop lopment. ment. One of th thos os is our being consumed by the thoughts of God. Changing our thoughts requires seeing and hearin diff different image ima ges. s. One way this is done is by removing the current source of the stimulation and replacing it with another. So taking away our current food source starts to clean the mind of wrong images. This is how I began and think th ink it can b e usef useful for for any a nyone one serious about ab out fast fasting. ing. W hen we w e begin begin tto o forfe forfeit it foo ood d to spend more time tim e with the Holy Spirit, our distractions are diminished This does not happen immediately, but as a result o lear learning ning how how to give give and pray, pray , our success is fast fasteer . T he activities of our thoughts slow down for us to carefully observe what is taking place in and around us. As this happens happens w e start star t to observe str ange phenome phenomena. na. Most of our thoughts are centered on only one or two themes. Usually, we become consumed with some form of self preservat preserv ation ion and per per sonal security. securit y. These T hese themes themes are ar e almost almost alw always ays co connec nnected ted with wit h money money in some form or other. This is a recurring thought even if it is disguised in diff different forms. orm s. For example, when we are encouraged to “sow” into the kingdom of God, the immediate thought precedin giving is what will I reap? This is obvious; we spok earlier about this problem in the body of Christ. But what is is not no t so obv o bviio us is our subtle subtle way of sayi sa ying, ng, “We
are not no t of this this world” wo rld” as a Christian hristian Mantra, but making decisions that are designed as though we are building our kingdom kingdom on eart e arth. h. For example, some years ago we were moving from one millennium to the next. The body of Christ wa filled with warnings of disaster concerning the infamous Y2K. I found myself being encouraged or eve warned by large ministries to buy gold and store food for the looming disaster. This was coming from a group of peopl peoplee w ho purporte purport ed to have no ties ties w ith this t his w orld or its system. sy stem.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according according to the Spirit Spir it set the t heir ir minds m inds on on the t he things things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but b ut t o s et t he mind mi nd on t he S pirit pir it is life an and d peace. peac e. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law— indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot can not please pleas e God. —Rom —Ro mans 8:5-8 8 :5-8 This is the major strategy of the enemy. The enem knows that in the flesh and the arena of the mind, he is the master of illusions. So he controls us with fear and pain which totally close our spirits. The images of fear have been rehearsed and “acted out” in our minds for years. So much so that our hearts contain layers of scar
tissue tis sue protec pr otecting ting it fr fr om pain and rejec rej ection. tion. The heart is turned to stone and our minds are filled with images of failures, mistrust, and despair. So the minute we aempt to t o leave leave the natural natur al re r ealm and move to the spirit, our minds become filled with distractions. If we can be distracted by the illusion of solving our problems in our unreformed minds and cold harded hearts, heart s, our our outcome is failur failur e and our our thr t hreat eat to t o the devil devil and his kingdom ingdom has b een neutr neutr alized. alized. Can you see the genius of Jesus laying out this desig in Mahew 6? He knows the power structure of the enemy, so He knows how to dismantle it as well. see the the design design of o f God, G od, we can see Remember, I f we can see the weakness of our enemy. This is why you will be hearing the word reformation from the bride of Christ in the days ahe ah ead. As I said fasting has several stages of development i each one of us. The progress of our development is directly proportionate to our levels of giving and prayer. I am continually amazed how the Holy Spiri w ill tak ta ke me dee deepe perr into His spirit spir it thr t hroug ough h fasting, fast ing, after after I have just obeyed His instructions of giving or interceding. Our giving to God begins to destroy our soul’s hol over over us thr t hroug ough h the t he fe fear of loss, gr gr eed eed or lust for power. pow er. T he purpose purpose of this bale ba le is for for our heart. heart . This is w her her e fear resides and builds walls for protection from the pain of past failures. We have all been conditioned to believ b elievee t ha hatt if w e ha hav v e money, mon ey, w e w ill b e secur secu r e, safe sa fe
and pain free. And if we do not have money we believe the images and thoughts of destitution and fear created fr om society society and our “friends”. “friends”. T hese hese are the image imagess that t hat arise ar ise from a heart and mind that have not been transformed into His mind. Thes structures begin to fall when our hearts are reformed into the image of the One who bought and paid for us. He paid a price we could never afford for a future we certainly do not deserve. That is why He is s determined for us to see all that is ours through the cross. Next, Jesus shows us how to pray, which agai engages our soul. The soul is the baleground for all our emotions, images, and choices. Our minds are at the forefront in this bale because we like our comfort and have been told “seeing is believing.” But we know that believ b elievin ing g w ha hatt w e can ca n not s ee is t he first fir st step st ep t o s eeing in the spirit realm. This is why faith is never found in our our minds. Our mind requires proof from the natural realm bef b efor oree it w ill b elieve. T he s ad t hi hing ng ab out t hi hiss scena sc enarr io is that tha t most m ost of the image images our mind has been been shown show n ar e created cr eated fr fr om illusion. The devi de vill has has created crea ted false false images imag es conditioned by the fears he has tormented us with, to fool us into believing that what we are seeing in our minds is real. This is why prayer requires destroying more of the established structures. Prayer changes our mind by focusing on heavenly images that have broken through
fear and doubt. The bale rages within us until something someth ing begins begins to t o change cha nge.. The change began from our encounter with givin that allowed light to transform our hearts. These changes changes ar a r e to eliminat eliminatee some of th thee poisons poisons those t hose years and an d years year s of conditioning conditionin g ha have ve produced. Jesus J esus knows know s t he hear hea r t s an and d mind mi ndss of man. ma n. He know what must be done to reform man the image of the Father that was lost in the garden, must be reformed. His methods m ethods ar a r e per per fect N ow w e are ar e intr od oduce uced d to fast fasting, ing, th thee place w here the body b ody r eally eall y b egin eginss t o s quirm. quir m. T he b ody ha hass b een een demanding its way for years. Now you are making the body b ody do w ithou it houtt its it s pleasu plea surr es a nd comfort com forts. s. N o foo food, d, are you kidding? Think of it, the entire structure of the devil devil to control contr ol our ever ever y thoug t hought ht is under under at atta tack ck.. It is important to note that the process is never the same for each person. The only thing that is constant is the importance of dismantling the strongholds. Jesus our master designed this three-pronged aack to dest destrr oy the t he work w ork of of th thee de devil in our lives. The soul must be free in order for us to become the ultimate weapon against the devil. Remember when Jesus J esus said sa id in J ohn 14 14:30 :30 t ha hatt t he “pr “p r in ince ce of t hi hiss w orl or l comes but has nothing in me.” This is the condition o total victory, total authority, and complete dependence on the King of Kings. This is something you and I ca achieve. achieve. The method is is perfect perfect and a nd it w ill work wor k if w e are ar e w illing to be b egin where w here we are ar e.
Before we move to the next part of Mahew, I woul like like to show an example fr fr om the th e scripture script ure of th these ese th thrr ee key key s in operation. operat ion. Let Let ’s look in Acts 10:301 0:30-32 32:: And Cornelius said: “Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in br b r ight clothi clot hing, ng, an and d said, sa id, ‘Cor ‘C orneli nelius us,, y our pray pr ayer er has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose wh ose surname surna me is Peter.’” Peter.’” This is the story of how a religious apostle met a spiritual heathen. How the heart of God was moved b giving, praying and fasting regardless of the race of Cornelius. The power of this man Cornelius wa demonst demonstrr at ateed in every every aspect of his soul s oul.. T hese hese are the characte charact eristics rist ics that w ill cause cause He Heaven t open for us as it did him. What is so remarkable about this account is how we see the operation of Mahew 6 releasing the power of the Holy Ghost. The soul of thi man had been transformed long before Peter laid hands on him. The giving and praying pra ying of th this is man had take t aken n him to to a dimension dimension in the spirit r ealm per per petua petuated ted by his h is fast fasting. ing. T his is such s uch a be b eautiful autiful illustr illustration ation of how to dismantle every religious structure and image of our hearts and minds. Cornelius, I believe, hastened the release of the Hol
Spirit to the gentiles. The amazing thing about the Hol Ghost is that He will respond to anyone who respond to His His way w ayss and methods. We must remember that one of the primary goals of the Fathe Fat herr is to destr destr oy the evil evil that tha t w as re r eleased leased in the Garden of Eden. The image of God was destroyed, an thee image th image of of th thee devil devil was w as imprinted impr inted on our our souls. So when God can find someone who is willing to giv at His leading, He will instruct the Holy Spirit to teac that person how to pray. This is what took place with Cornelius. Then while Cornelius was fasting, the scripture say about the third hour he saw a vision. The number three through out the Bible speaks of the Godhead as well a completeness. I believe this was a sign to this “heathen” that he was being made whole, spirit, soul, and body, thrr ough th ough his obe ob edience dience and thirst thir st after after God. God. This illustration speaks volumes to me about how much we can trust our Father with our very lives. I doees not mae do ma er w hat anyone or or any r eligio ligion n says say s abou ab outt Jesus J esus.. I t onl only y ma ma ers er s t ha hatt our hear hea r t s an and d mind mi ndss ar e transformed so that we can receive directly from the source. B ut the t he source, th thee Hol Holy y S pirit, pirit , can not send us image image or sounds through a corrupted, unreformed receptor such as our minds and hearts. So He shows us how t clean our receptor, then He begins to educate us for higher responsib r esponsibilit ilities ies in His His kingdom. kingdom. Cornelius was not only a high ranking officer in the
natural army but was immediately promoted in the kingdom of God. His life caused the religious crowd t submit to the power of the Holy Ghost. What a awesome New Testament example of the power str ucture conta containe ined d in Ma M ahe hew w 6 and a nd the th e faithfu faithfulne lness ss of our Lord. In closing our our subj s ubj ect on fast fasting, ing, I w ant to shar sha r e a fe few w observations that have been exposed to me at different times tim es of fast as t ing. One such ob ob servat serv ation ion is how closely closely fasting and deat death h resemble each other. I have never been close to physical death through fasting. Fasts of forty days are not life threatening, particularly if we consume plenty of liquids. But when I thought of Moses fasting 80 day consecutively without water or food, I started to see how meager my fasts have been. I am also convinced that if we really want to move into the arena of the spirit spir it realm, r ealm, fasting ast ing and deat death h overlap. The term fasting has a sanitary spiritual connotation that is lost when we take the step that Moses took. I Moses’ mind he was already face to face with his creator, creat or, so what w hat diff difference did it make ma ke to him if his he h eart ar t w as beating? beating? Survival was only if he was interested in this planet. What he was witnessing was beyond what the natural realm could offer. Fasting or whatever Moses wa experiencing was a by-product of the transformation proce pr ocess ss taking t aking place.
Imagine with me if you will, Moses standing insid thee cloud th cloud of of God where w here the th er e is no time, whe wh er e the light light from God’s glory changed Moses very DNA. In fact i was so profound I think that is why Satan wanted hi body b ody.. T he t r an ansfor sforma matt ion chan ch ange ged d someth som ethin ing g in t he chemical makeup of Moses, to the point that he could have ha ve lived liv ed,, I believe believe like those thos e of Adam’s Adam’s genera generatt ion. This body held secrets that God had buried in th flood to keep Satan from obtaining them. This hidde knowledge knowledge in the t he hands ha nds of demon demon possessed poss essed people people such as Hitler; Hussein and future anti-Christ’s could chang thee dest th destiny iny of some nations nat ions and an d people peoples. s. God God showe show ed Mose Mosess every deta detail il of th thee tabe tab er nacle in its splendor splendor and a nd grand design. design. This design design was w as more than th an a tabe tab ernacle rn acle;; it w as G od r evealing vealing to His His servant serva nt His ver nature. Do you think we could become so immersed in the Glory of God that all of our necessities would be supernaturall superna turally y suppli s upplied? ed? We have already spoken about the process of reformation that must begin from the heart of man progressing outward to the physical body. This is ultimatel ultimat ely y w here the “rapture” “rapt ure” w ill take place as far as I am concern concerneed. T hat is not main str eam the t heol olog ogy y but it is someth something ing to consider consider . My fasts ast s hav h avee been been freque frequent nt and life changing but not even close to where the Lord is calling us. I believe tha He wants all of us to walk with Him like Enoch an become b ecome a friend fr iend like li ke Abr Ab r ah aham am..
In one of my fasts I awoke in the spirit to see angels bringing bringing me food. foo d. I awoke awo ke so refreshed re freshed and fill filled ed that that I did di d physical physical labo laborr for several hours ho urs that that day. T hi hiss food, fo od, for lack of a beer description looked like liquid light. The taste was indiscernible but I remember having the sensation of o f satiati satiatio o n. I asked the Holy Spirit about that experience and H reminded me of what Jesus told his disciples when they r eturned tur ned to fee feed d Him Him at th thee well in Samar ia:
My foo ood d is to t o do th thee will of Him who w ho sent Me M e, and to finish inis h His His w ork. —John —J ohn 4:34 4 :34 My fasting has taken me to depths of my human condition that frightened me and strengthened my resolve at the same time. I saw that my life on this planet had no purpose apart from that of the Holy Ghost. The greatest illusion perpetrated on all of us is to believ b elievee w e can ca n escape esca pe t hi hiss life a live, liv e, in t erms er ms of our natural existence. As crazy as that sounds it is still the driving driv ing force force behind most of our lukewa lukewarr m attit at titude udes. s. I say lukewarm because we have not closed the door on our belief that “maybe this Christianity thing won’t work.” We have not totally sold out because we have one eye on the world w orld and the t he o oth ther er one on the hypoc hy pocrr isy in the Chur Church. ch. So we rationalize that if we only have one life to live
w e beer be er ge get all a ll we w e can out of th this is world. w orld. T hen our our time t ime on this planet is motivated by trying to satiate the present life and making some death bed confession of Christ Chris t bef b efore ore we w e die. die. The fear of death becomes one of the most powerful weapons wielded by the enemy. However, if we follow the Holy Spirit in the depths of fasting through th method of our master, the enemy sees that the fear of deat death h no longer longer holds holds us captive captiv e. Fear star sta r ts to lose its grip in our life life and we are ar e ready ready for experiences with the Holy Ghost that we have onl r ead about ab out in the t he Bible. Bible. Our Our lif lifee will be b ecome a w eapon eapon in thee hands of God th God that tha t is fear fearle less ss in the t he spirit r ealm. Our aitudes of those around us will change. The life we are now living begins to transform right before our eyes, eyes that have become enlightened with the truth of w ho we are ar e in in Christ. Christ . This level of faith creates boldness in us to transform the dying world around us. The transformation I a speaking of w ill not come fr fr om pred pr edige igest sted ed sermons ser mons an and d seminaries. This will take place from a reformed person radiating the love of Christ and the power of the cross simultaneously. The fear that once spoke to us on a consistent basis loses its influence over our decisions. The questions about survival have been seled through our willingness to die to this weak, frightened, ineffective life. Fasting has removed the sting of death and sealed our resolve r esolve once once and for for all. a ll.
Now we are ready for the resurrection life that can only take t ake place fr om a soul that has b een put to t o de deat ath h in order order to be b e trans tr ansfformed. The ver ver y essence of of our our new lif lifee in Christ Chr ist is His re r esurr ected body, and how this t his pow pow er o resurrection comes to substitute the old sinful nature. Resurrection is not the ultimate goal of a Christian life but b ut its it s v ery er y b egin eginni ning, ng, t he s ource our ce from w hi hich ch everyth very thing ing else else springs fort forth. h. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall sha ll be also in the t he likene likeness ss of his r esurr sur r ection. ection. —Rom —Ro mans 6:4-5 6 :4-5 Because we have His resurrection in us (If indeed w have died to sin) the spirit realm opens up before us with new thoughts and images. Our hearts are free to love and experie experience nce what wh at Ephesians 3:18-19 3:18- 19 say s ays, s, To know the love of Christ this passes knowledge; that th at you may b e fille filled d with w ith all tthe he fullne fullness ss of God. God. That verse will have meaning now because you have a heart and a mind that can re r eceive ceive from from the t he Father. We have moved moved into a re r elationship that w e have read about but b ut not under un derss t ood becaus beca usee of of our former form er condi c onditt ion ion..
The soul is no longer fragmented, double-minded, or with rollercoaster feelings, but we are whole and capable capab le of loving God God with w ith all our he h eart, ar t, mind and soul s oul.. The passion is back and we are burning for the On who has captivated our heart from the beginning. The lifee we have lif hav e been been living livin g till now makes makes no sense with w ithout out Jesus J esus r uling uli ng it from t he in insi side de out. out . W e ha hav v e found t he purpose for which we were created and we are in love and an d capable capab le of expressing expressin g t r ue love. That love has a name and it is Jesus, the lover of our souls. T hat love has healed healed our our b r oken oken hear heartt and a nd poured thee oil th oil of t he Holy Holy Ghost over our fr agmented soul. In this t his conditio condition n w e are now now able ab le to look look at S cripture criptur e in the t he Bible Bib le and see th thee Spirit Spir it of G od od.. The designs designs of G o make sense and we start to understand a higher calling. His purposes for our life begin to unfold in such a way as to t o prepare us for for a place of of kingdom ingdom authorit auth ority. y. T he reforming reforming of our o ur souls souls is just just the begi beg inning. nning. T he ourney Go G o d has for all of us will will take many ma ny more mo re years than our earthly bodies will allow. I believe that is wh God put the tree of life in the garden. His plans are so beyond our natural life that they will take hundreds of years yea rs to fulfi fu lfill ll.. The doors we have opened by the keys to the designs of God are revealing rooms of enormous wealth and power. These are not the wealth of this world but the w ealth of th thee riches of His glor glor y. T he pow pow er is not measur measurab able le by the standards standar ds of of this w orld but thr t hrou oug gh th thee authority G od gives ives to t o command command
circumstances and demons. Now we begin to see why our association with the things of this world system must not hold any araction or desire. This is why we have experienced and will continue to experience more testing test ing to ensure ensur e o our ur heart’ heart ’s r eformation orma tion proce pr ocess ss is preceding thoroughly. The next chapter follows the sequence of revelations Jesus J esus unfolded un folded in M a hew 6. O ur condit con dition ion s pirit pir itua uall ll w ill depend depend on the t he levels levels of our our obedience obedience thus th us far. far . Jesus has prepared and trained us for dominating the enemy by b y the t he way w ay He lived liv ed on on thi t hiss plan pl anet. et. The revelations through His words and actions ar designed for us to dominate from kingdom authority. There is a bale in which every Church, unknowingly for most, is participating. part icipating. We spoke about this false god previously but we will now study the spirit of Mammon in greater detail. Th preparation we have had until now is for this encounter. So with the level of our current understanding and the release of the wisdom from the Holy Spirit, we w e w ill expose expose th this is anti-Chris ant i-Christ. t. The roots of this spirit are deep inside each of us, and very subtle. We are all subject to this devil and have tasted of the wine of her fornication to the point of intoxication. The detoxification process will require the keys the Holy Hol y S pirit has h as given given us. T hey will w ill unlock unlock th thee do doors ors tha t ha w ill release t he weapons designed for our deliverance. delivera nce. This will begin another exodus not unlike what we
have read concerning the first one from Egypt. I believ the cries of God’s people have reached His ears onc again because of the bondage of His people. We are slaves of the worst kind because we believe we are free. B ut we w e are ar e abou ab outt to t o discover discover the captor captor and an d what wha t it w ill t ake for for freedom. freedom.
4 The Masters Key
Before we can understand the purpose of this chapter we need to make sure we have used the keys the Holy Spirit has provided. All of the keys to this point, in our discussion, are to expose our soul’s condition. We have been b een condit con dition ioned ed t o b elieve eliev e cert cer t ai ain n t hi hings ngs t ha hatt may ma y or may not be true. When I say conditioned I mean tha what we hear over and over we will believe. This type of structure is how most of us are trained to make our life’s choices. These choices are made regardless o w hethe hetherr w hat w e hear hear is the truth tr uth or not. not. Therefore, the truth is what must be used to identify our false als e belie b elieffs. Jesus Jesus said: sa id: If you remain in my words you will become my disciples and KNOW the truth which will set you free. —John 8:31-32 Jesus J esus is t he t r uth ut h and an d t he life as spoke sp oken n in J ohn 14 14:6 :6 which means life is not lived in truth, without the One
w ho iiss trut t ruth h living thr oug ough us. Using the above Scriptures as our foundation for determining the truth we are now capable of making sound decisions decisions on what w hat w e should should believe believe based ba sed on on the t he word of God. Then step by step we use the keys o giving, praying, and fasting, to open up the regions of our our hear heartt and a nd mind. We must be cognizant of the fact that we are uncovering years and years of wrong thinking which has created cr eated laye lay er s upon upon laye lay er s of w r ong b elie elieving. ving. N ow, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can continue th jour j ourney ney of uproot upr ootin ing g t he w r ong t hi hinkin nking g from fr om w ithi it hin n our hearts hear ts and move fr fr om “glory “glory to glory glory””. These false structures reside within our souls. The are hidden in the thoughts of our mind, heart and emotions. These beliefs are idols or “false gods” which are easily identified as thoughts that represent our reliance and are the focus of our aention. These “gods” are the essence of our security and trust. These “gods” come in the form of money, power, and position. The “trappings” or observable features of these gods can be found in cars, houses, material pleasures, extravagant entertainments or escapes. We are all prisoners and slave slav es of our false false trust tr ustss and an d securit securitie ies. s. The keys we have received are given to reveal the levels levels of captivity captiv ity w ithin our souls. Each ke key is designed designed to open our own personal doors, where we are controlled by wrong belief strongholds of the mind and heart. As we discover these impediments our weapons
of giving, praying and fasting begin to uproot and pull dow do w n the th ese inner inner structur st ructurees. These doors are compartments within our souls that contain a systematic design to make bad decisions from regions of darkness. I say systematic because the enemy has trained us through many fear tactics. For example, recall making my choices in school according to how much money I could make concerning a career after graduatio ra duation. n. I was w as primarily pr imarily motivated by the fe fear of not being b eing ab le t o prov pr ovide ide mys my s elf w ith it h a sufficien su fficientt in incom come. e. T his is unfortunat unfortunateely the t he motivatio motivat ion n of many Chr istian today. The motivation is not to please the Father but t satisfy the fear of not having enough money. This is the systematic sys tematic approach I am speak speaking ing about to t o perv perveert the Truth Trut h of Jesus with w ith th thee lie liess of th this is w orld’s orld’s syst sy steem. W hen hen w e are ar e made aw awar aree of this w r ong thinking thinking and believ b elievin ing, g, we w e become b ecome deter det ermi mined ned t o free ourselv our selves es from fr om these prisons. However, If we use the kingdom of thi world as a bell weather for discerning right from w r ong, ong, we will w ill create create more darkness darkness w ithin our minds. The Apost Apostle le James am es wr w r ote: Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means means enmity w ith G od od?? T her her efore, ore, whoever whoever w ant antss to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God. — James 4:4 The darkness is the result of not having the light of the
glorious gospel, and this applies to unbelievers and to Christ hr istians ians w ho are ar e full full of unbel unb elie ieff. In which the prince of this world hath blinded the minds of th theem w hich be b elieve lieve not, lest lest th thee lig light ht of th thee glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should sine unto them. —2 Cor Co rinthians 4:4 Our souls are made up of the mind, heart, emotions, and w ill. T his design design mak ma kes our souls very complex complex and the place where the bale lines are drawn between man, Satan and God. This is the region in man that ha been b een domina domi natt ed b y S a t an b eginnin eginn ing g at our b irt ir t h. I t i also where we must exercise our choice of what voices we will choose to believe. If we heed any voice other than the Spirit of God our soul will be fragmented an chaotic. It is this fragmentation that requires major surgery by the Holy Spirit. This spiritual surgery i accomplished by many ways. One of the ways this can be b e accom ac complis plished hed is t hr ough t he designs desi gns w e ar e discoverin discovering g in this b oo ook k. The “Lover of our souls” has given us keys to take u step by step, bale by bale, to defeat the destroyer of our souls. Each key is designed to open the doors of our captured mind, heart and emotions and release us into the fullness of knowing our precious Savior. Man is s “bound up” and captive by generations upon generations of iniquity and sin that his soul, with all its
complexities, has been tremendously damaged. This requires a loving Father to “undo” the harm. Thi process can be painful and frightening if we do not depend depend solely solely upon the t he Holy Holy Spirit Spir it for direction. dir ection. This is the dilemma in all of us. We have been taught that once once we re r ecite the “sinner “sinner ’s prayer” pr ayer” that something something dramaticall dramat ically y changes changes w ithin our souls souls w hich allow allow s us to be cont contrr oll olled ed by th thee Spirit. Spirit . Most Christian Churches focus on the Scripture i R oman 10:9-10 10:9-10 as the t he basis for for r eceiving ceiving the lost lost into the kingdom of God. However, if we observe the ke wording of this verse we will discover something that has caused the Church such consternation with its new converts. The words, “believe in thine heart….with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession confession is made unto salvat sa lvation. ion.”” The condition of our heart is such, that believin something as life changing as the gospel will not go uncontested by the one who has dominated our heart, which is Satan. The truth is most of us begin our jour j ourney ney in s imila im ilarr condit con dition ionss b ut if the t he seed s eed of salv sal v at ation ion is really to take root and grow our life can never be the same as it w as w hen hen we w e first made tha thatt confe confession. T he simple word repentance, often omied in the “sinners prayer pra yer””, separ separat atee the ones ones w ho die to this t his life and beg b egin in their j ourn ourneey as “new creatures”. creatures”. (2 (2 Corint Corinthians hians 5: 5 :17) The soul is where our struggles begin and end. Th purpose of of our life life is is not n ot necessa necessarr ily surv s urvival. ival. Let me explain that statement. If I come to the cross o
Christ with preconceived ideas on how to be a “disciple” “disciple” th theen I have hav e not left left everyth very thing ing to foll follow ow Him If I do not come to the cross with the complet per per suasion suas ion that tha t my lif lifee doe doess not n ot be b elong to me any an y longe longer then, as the scriptures says I cannot call myself Hi disciple. disc iple. (Luke (Luke 14 14:26) :26) The purpose of our life is exactly what Jesus said Hi life’ lif e’ss purpose pur pose was wa s in John 10:17, 1 0:17, w when hen He He said; I gladly lay down my life that I may pick it up again.
The principal of loosing your life that you may find it again again is also a lso dramaticall dramat ically y presented presented in Matt Matthew hew 10:38, A nd he that taket taketh, h, not his his cross and followed aft a fter er me, me , is not worthy o f me.
Jesus J esus knew t he purpos pur posee of His life, He could not b corrupted in His soul, by self promotion and survival motivations. T he soul soul of man is w here the enemy enemy focuses ocuses to destroy destr oy our our r elationship w ith tthe he Fathe Fat herr ; it be b egan in the th e G arde ar de of Eden. T his foc focus us has not n ot changed changed today. today. W hen hen Jesus we w ent t thee Gar th Garden den of of Geth Gethseman semane, e, He did many man y thin t hings: gs: One, He showed Satan that this garden was going t be b e t he place pla ce of obedience, ob edience, not disob dis obedience. edience. Two, Tw o, J esus was making a way so every man’s soul could enter
through their own gardens to the cross and then to freedom. The garden of Gethsemane for all of us must be th night we wrestle with our souls to give up this world and all of its aachments. That method is still the only w ay and the t he only only do door or for for all ages ages to t o come. come. N o pow pow er in Hell Hell can hold the soul of of man w ho is willing w illing to lay do dow wn his life for the t he sake of t he only only t r ue Lord and an d Mas Mastt er. W hen hen we w e truly tr uly under under stand sta nd the weakne weakness ss in our souls, souls, we begin the process designed by the Holy Spirit t br b r in ing g us bac b ack k t o the th e Fat Father her.. Our weaknesses are known by the enemy because Lucifer lost his position in heaven for the same reasons man lost his. I am speaking of our souls bein impregnated with the same iniquity found in Satan. This iniquity produces souls whose thoughts are conceived for only one purpose, self exaltation and survival. The wisdom of God is so transforming that when w are introduced to this knowledge through the Holy Spirit, our mind, heart and emotions can be renewed. This can only happen when we are unencumbered by our soul’s soul’s insatia insa tiab b le desir desiree for control contr ol and surviv sur vival. al. The wisdom of God is inconceivable by a soul wit generations of iniquity and sin. The Master knew thi about our condition and developed strategies to bring us out out of captivity captiv ity.. The keys we are receiving are designed to release us from from each level of our o ur soul’s soul’s impri imprisonment sonme nt.. T he key of
giving takes us from the grip of our thoughts of fear of loss. The key of prayer unlocks the gates of our hearts to receive directly from the Holy Spirit. The key o fasting is the weapon that controls the body and destroys destro ys the the soul’s so ul’s desire for fo r self surviv survival al at “all costs.” costs. ” In this chapter something dramatic is going to happen. Up to this point the precious Holy Spirit ha been b een givin giv ing g us u s key key s t o unlock un lock t he doors door s of our soul. sou l. B ut now w e are going going to bec b ecome ome th thee “Master “Mas ter’’s Ke K ey” agains agains the number one enemy of our soul, THE SPIRIT MAMMON. We are going to be the key in the hand of the Holy Spirit to lock the doors of our soul from serving false gods. No more will the enemy consume our thoughts, bin b ind d our emotion emot ionss an and d creat cr eatee in i n us a divided div ided hear hea r t . W e have already seen that God demands us to follow Hi w ith an undivided heart, heart , b ut He He also enable us to do it.
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name na me.. —Psalm 86 86:11 :11 Becoming the Master’s Key is worthy of research an understanding. Let me share with you what I hav r eceived eceived fr fr om the th e Holy Spirit Spir it.. Years ago I realized how easy it was for me to be held captive captiv e b y my emotions. I w ould ould begin begin many days filled filled with hope and faith that I could maintain my focus
continually on the t he Lord. Lord. I w ould ould have awake aw akened ned early ar ly in the t he mor mor ning to spend spend time in prayer and worship, and encountered an awesome presence of God. Then would come a phon call that immediately interrupted the presence of God w ith th thee sound sound of anger anger and hostility host ility fr om someone someone.. My goal of continually thinking about the Lord wa br b r oken oken an and d my emotion emot ionss w ere er e filled w ith it h grief gr ief an and d anxiety. The roller coaster ride of our emotions takes us from thee heig th height htss of b liss to t o the depths depths of despair despair in a matt ma tter er of seconds. seconds. May Mayb b e this has h as happened happened to you. y ou. As I enquired about this turmoil in my soul, th precious Holy Spirit began to reveal some truths to m that I believe can help us overcome this situation in our lives. The components of our souls are so intricately woven together together be b etw een our our thoug t hought hts, s, hear heartt and an d emotions emotions that th at w hen we w e aff affect one part w e touch all. For example, when my emotions were afflicted by someone’ someone’s an ange ger, r, my mind min d tr t r iggered iggered an emotion in t he form of an image to send to t o my heart. heart . These These image imagess w ere comprised of sensations which shaped or formed the w ay I per per ceived ceived the per per son or event. In other words, when I left the presence of God (th only true Judge) and entered into my non-transformed soul to process what my senses were receiving all kinds of ungodly ungodly thoughts t houghts w ere releas released ed.. These images contained some truths and information
about what I was receiving. But by no means was receiving the complete truth. I was making evaluations and judg j udgments ments fr om a soul fille filled d with w ith corrupted corr upted image images. We are all trained to trust what we are feeling as the truth in order to protect our own image. This is the essence of o f our problem. problem. The purpose of becoming the “master’s key” is so that we are no longer aached to our images. These images of ourselves that we protect, promote and cultivate are no longer important or real. The onl image imag e we must have is that of Chri Christ. st. Nothing says it so clear clearly ly as Paul Pa ul in Colo Colossia ssians ns 3:1-11, 3:1-1 1, So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are ar e above ab ove,, w here Ch Christ rist is, seated seated at the th e right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed revealed with wit h him in glory glory.. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornicat orn ication, ion, impurit impur ity y , passion, pas sion, evil evil desire, desir e, an and d gr gr eed eed (w hich is idolatr idolatr y). On accou a ccount nt of th theese the w r at ath h of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you w er e living that lif lifee. B ut now you must get r id of of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the
old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its cre cr eat ator. or. In In that t hat r enewal newa l the th er e is is no longer longer Greek Greek and Jew J ew,, circum cir cumcis cised ed an and d uncir un circum cumcis cised, ed, b ar b ar ia ian, n, Scythian, Scyt hian, slave and fr fr ee; ee; b ut Christ Chr ist is all a ll and in all! The master’s key shuts the door of wrong images and ope opens the t he doo doorr to THE T HE TR UE IMA I MAG G E. T he image image w e w are bought with the price of His blood must bear. Jesus w ho bore bor e the image image of of His father, re r equires us to t o bear Hi image. Rememb Remembeer in Revelation Revelation 3:7 we w e see th that at Jesus w ho has the Key of David is the only one who can shut what n man can open and open what no man can shut. David becam b ecamee t he mas ma s t er’ er ’s key a nd it is t hi hiss key w e ar e speaking speaking about. I b elie elieve ve every every generation nerat ion must w alk in the authority of David on this earth. Time or space doe not permit me to elaborate on the life of David. Suffice i to say that David is the symbol of Messianic Authorit and true prosperity for the end time. If you study the origin of the “key of David,” you will see it originates in Isaiah 22:22 when Elikiam was promoted as treasurer and prime minister to protect the plans of God durin the eventual eventual captivity into Babylo Baby lon. n. If we become the “master’s key,” even if we are in captivity in Babylon, we will be used to extricate ourselves and those with whom we have been entrusted into the kingdom of God. All I can say i
‘Halleluiah!” N ow let let us return retur n to Mahe Ma hew w 6 and begin begin again again w with ith verse 19. We are going to understand this revelation from the perspective of the Father who wants us free fr om the th e bondage of our unr un r enew enew ed souls.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves br b r eak in a nd s t eal; b ut la lay y up for y ourselv our selves es treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart w ill be also. also. The word used here to represent treasures takes on a different meaning when our riches are now in the form of Jesus. Now N ow our thinking t hinking is be b eing trans tr ansfformed and our our values values ar e unde underr major maj or re r eco const nstrr uction. uction. When Jesus was confronting the young rich man, H said something that can give us light on Mahew 19:2022.. 22 If you want wa nt to be b e per per fect, go, go, sell what wh at you have hav e and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; heav en; and come, follo follow w me. But when the young man heard that saying, he w ent aw away ay sorrowfu sorr owful: l: for he had great possessions. possessions. Here, the principles we have been establishing are
plainly shown to this rich man. Jesus is saying, in essence: if you want real wealth, give away what you have and follow Me. Or, be willing to die to everythin you think is valuable and “life supporting” and follow My kingdom kingdom directiv dir ectives. es. The treasure Jesus is talking about is “the pearl o great pr ice” spoken spoken of in tthe he gospels. gospels. This unde un derr stan st anding ding is so beyond our our w ay of evaluating the true tr ue w ealth that t hat Jesus J esus ha hass t o make ma ke a str st r ong illus illu s t r at ation ion t o hi hiss discip dis ciples. les. He goes goes on, say s aying: ing: …Ver …Ver ily I say unto you, y ou, it is easier easier for a camel to go go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter int into o the th e kingdo kingdom m of God. God. W hen his disciples disciples heard hear d it, they w er e exce exceeedingly dingly amazed ama zed,, saying sayin g, “Who “Wh o then can b e saved?” saved?” But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, “With men this is impossible; but for God all things are possible.” —Mat —Mathew hew 19 19:23-26 :23-26 Jes Jes us tells t ells His discip dis ciples les how h ow ha harr d it is i s for the t he rich r ich t o be saved. It is obvious from the response of the disciples that they also thought righteousness and riches were synonyms. But the interesting point Jesus is making is that wit God the spirit of this world can be broken. Notice, H says, “with God all things are possible.” Our trust i God is shallow for many reasons, but mainly because
Mammon has perverted what is truly valuable. Jesu also stated sta ted,, what is considered valuable with man is an abomi ab omination nation with w ith God. God. —Luke —Luke 16 1 6 :15 The essence of what Jesus is teaching cannot b understood without searching deep within our souls. Our souls can be b e dissected dissected to discover discover the t he makeup makeup of th thee heart, mind and emotions. If we can find where our ideas and convictions are formed, then perhaps we can w itness a transfo tra nsform rmation ation within wit hin our our very b eings. ings.
Transforming Transforming Our Our Thoug Thoug h t Life: Life : The Human Human Soul Soul W e are going going to enter into int o more detail detail about ab out thoug t hought htss and the t he eff effect ect th they ey have ha ve on our sou s oul. l. The purpo pur pose se of th this is is to make us aware of how our souls operate. The human soul is mainly composed of three elements, w hich are ar e, th thee heart, heart , mind and emotions. emotions. Jesus J esus made ma de a stat st atement ement in M ar k 12 12:29 :29-- 30 t ha hatt w il help clarify the purpose of our study about the soul. He said, “The Lord our God is ONE Lord: And we are t love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and with our ent ntir iree mind and all our str st r ength.” The Scripture in Genesis 1:26-27 says, “Let us mak
man in our image ima ge after our likeness.” likeness.” W e know from fr om our previous previous discussion discussion that man lost that t hat image image as a re r esult of his disobedience. This has resulted in the present condition of our souls being fragmented and divided. I believ b elievee our s oul at creat cr eation ion w as complet com plete, e, hear hea r t , mind mi nd and emotions. But this is not the condition now and Jesus J esus knew t hi hiss and a nd w as in ess es s ence say sa y in ing g in Mar M ar k, if w are ar e to be one one the way He, He, the Father Fat her and Holy Holy S pirit ar ar one, one, th theen it must m ust b e in our spirit, spir it, soul soul and body. How many times I have known in my heart that should should read my B ible and pra pray y but w as negotiate negotiated d ffrom rom that position position by my minds fatigu fatiguee or or fear. ar . Or how many ma ny times have ha ve I made m ade a schedule schedule to engage engage in early mornin morn in worship and devotions to be denied by a body whose desir desires es were w ere to stay sta y in bed and sleep. sleep. That is why I am convinced that Mahew 6 is one o the designs the Holy Spirit is using to reconstruct our souls into the image fr om which w hich they th ey were w ere cr cr eat ateed. 1) T he MIN MI N D is is much more tha than n jjust ust the t he brain bra in of of ma The brain is a major component of the mind, but to say the brain is the mind would be like saying the roar of thee lion th lion is the t he lion. lion. We can observe many of the results of our machine called called the brain br ain but b ut w e can can not see our our mind. T he brain br ain is capable of the following functions reason, learning, and memory. We have the ability to invent, create, store information and understand concepts. We can also daydream, imagine things as well as process, and receive information. An analogy that can be helpful to
visualize the brain would be to imagine the most sophisticated of computers. Scientists tell us that man uses only a small s mall percentage of of its capacities. It It is easy to understand why Western cultures believe within the br b r ai ain n of man ma n lie al alll t he w isdom is dom necessa neces sarr y for immortality. We can observe many of the miraculous functions of the brain but the Bible speaks about the need to transform our minds. Therefore, I think it i relvant to understand the mind as in relation to the Scriptures. So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made them all look look ffoo oolish lish and an d has shown show n their t heir wisdom to be useless nonsense. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foo oolish lish pr eaching to save sav e all who w ho believe. God’ God’s way w ay seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven to prove it is true. And it is foolish to the Greeks because they believe only what agrees with their own wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God. This “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human
strength. —1 Cor Co rinthians nthians 1:20-2 1:2 0-255 Yet Yet w hen hen I am a m among mature mat ure Christians, Chr istians, I do speak speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being br b r ought t o not nothi hing. ng. N o, t he w isdom is dom w e speak sp eak of is is the secret wisdom of God, which was hidden in former times, though he made it for our benefit bef b efor oree the t he w orld or ld b ega ega n. B ut t he r ulers uler s of thi t hiss w orld or ld have not understood it; if they had, they would never have ha ve crucified crucified our our glorious Lor Lor d. That is w hat the Scriptur Scripturees mean when they say, No eye eye has seen, seen, no ear ear has heard, and no mind has h as imagine im agined d w hat God God has prepared for those t hose who wh o love love him. B ut we w e know th these ese th things ings because G od has r evealed vealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God’s deep secrets. No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And G od has actually given given us his h is S pirit (not (not the world’ w orld’ss spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has fr eely eely given us. W hen we w e tell you this, we w e do
not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given iven to us by the Spirit, S pirit, using using the Spirit’ S pirit’ss words w ords to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t Christians can’t understand these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can’t under under stand st and us at all. H How ow could could the th ey? For, For, W ho can know know w hat the Lor Lor d is thinking thinking?? W ho can give him counsel? But we can understand these things, for we have thee mind of Christ th hr ist.. —1 Cor Co rinthians nthians 2:1-16 2 :1-16 Paul is saying that the spirit of man and the Spirit o God are capable of communing together through w isdom, isdom, but not n ot th thee wisdom of of this w orld. The wisdom of this world is confined to problem solving from a limited understanding of man’s origin and purpose. T herefore, herefore, th thee mind of man, w hich is located in our soul s oul must be b e transf tran sformed ormed or re r enew new ed as Romans 12:2 says. say s. 2) The emotions are our responses to stimuli from within us and from the outside. It is one way we are conditioned to respond to events and circumstances surrounding our environments. I say conditioned, becau b ecauss e we w e a empt t o av a v oid pa p a in an and d grav gr avit itat atee tow t owar ar d
pleasure. Emotions are the most basic of avenues available to the enemy to control man. Emotions are the primary link between our physical senses and the soul. Emotions are very important in the make-up of man’s soul and must be trained to engage the Spirit of God for instructio instr uctions ns in matur m aturing ing this part of our our soul. soul... 3) The heart is not only the pump in our chest cavity. It is also the center center w here all thoug thoughts and emotions emotions are ar e processed. processed. T he heart is the t he engine engine or the t he driving driv ing force force o the soul. The heart is to the spirit of man what emotions are ar e to the body or carnal car nal part of our our thr ee par partt b eing. ing. The heart is the place where the energy of the thoughts and emotions is transformed into pictures or images. It is the center from which the soul gets its direction, pr pr ej udices, udices, and be b elief lief systems. sys tems. The T he heart, heart , soul soul and spirit are sometimes interchanged in the Bible (Ezekiel. 36:26), and is strictly a translator’s interpretation. The heart has the capacity to believe anything in the Bible as long as it remains innocent and pure. The fall o Adam transfo tr ansforr med med the fleshy fleshy or innocent innocent hear heartt into one of stone. st one. (E (Ezekiel. zekiel. 36:2536 :25-27 27). ). T his is w hy Jesus ke kept comparing lile lile children children to the th e way to enter into the kingdom-because they believe w ith an innocent innocent an and d pure pure hear heart. t. So it is obvious to me that this is where believin originat originatees and is w here faith faith is realize r ealized. d. In order to become the Master’s key, in the hands o the Lord the soul needs to be totally transformed into
light. In order for this to happen let me share some revelations revelations that t hat the Hol Holy y Spir Spir it has shown me. me. Through the following Scripture, we are going t grasp something extraordinary related to our “thought life.” This will help us to understand the physical and spiritual spir itual make m ake-up -up of our thoug t hought hts. s. T he lamp of th thee body is th thee eye. eye. If th theref erefore ore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, darkness, how how great is that tha t dark dar kness! ness! —Mathew 6:22-23 If we exchange the word “soul” for the word “eye”, and the word “thoughts” for the word “lamp”, then we’ll be able to see something revelatory for our lives, and that is the tremendous importance our thought life has in the t he process process of our be b ecoming light light..
Thoug Thoug ht htss And And Why They Are Imp Imp ortant rt ant Let us examine something that will help us under under stand st and our purpose pur pose in this th is part par t of th thee discussion. In Romans 7:15-25 Paul is expressing his absolut frustration with what he knew he should do but was unable to do because of the law of sin in his mind and body b ody.. W here her e did t ha hatt la law w origin or iginat atee an and d how did he
over over come th this is condition? The law of sin and death are a result of mans disobedience, beginning in Genesis till now, our minds and bodies have been sold into the slavery of sin and dominated by the will of Satan. What’s more, we hav been b een r ecreat ecr eated ed in hi hiss image, im age, not G od’s, od’s, w ith it h hi hiss mind mi nd and his future. The Father, knowing our predicamen made arrangements for our return to His image by the radical transformation, beginning at the cross of Jesus with our death and then the reformation of our mind and body by changing changing w hat hat,, w ho and how how w e think. This transformation process is one of the most impor impor tant parts part s of our our study s tudy in Ma hew hew 6. P aul tells tells us w hat to th think ink abou ab outt in P hili hilippi ppians ans 4: 4:8-9. 8-9. He tells tells us how h ow to do it in 2 Corinthians 10:3. Then Jesus releases th Holy Spirit as the who that will perform the perfectin of our soul s oulss in John 14: 14 :2323-28. 28. Becoming the Master’s Key is impossible if we do no become b ecome t he “min “m ind d of Chr C hr ist is t ” as a s stat st ated ed in 1 C orin or intt hi hian an 2:15. Paul knew that walking in the Spirit was the onl w ay one could could have the th e mind of of Christ. Christ . W hen hen we w e unde understand rst and that our our thoug thoughts are ar e w hat the t he enemy of our soul seeks to dominate by fear and doubt and our only weapon against that domination is the Word of God and the Holy Ghost. Then we will becom very vigilant in our efforts to guard our minds and “host” “host ” th thee Holy Holy Ghost w ith th thee reverence He He deserv deservees. The purpose of my trying to explain the thought realm is to help us move beyond our minds into the
spirit r ealm. The secret secret of Ma hew hew 6:22-23 is co contained ntained in our our abili ab ility ty to unders understand tand how to contr contr ol our our thou t houg ght life. Our thoughts will take on a totally different understanding if we can see that they must become His thoug th ought htss if w e are ever ever to t o reach our destiny in H Him. im.
What Wha t Creat Cre ates es In In Us Us The Des De sire ir e To Think Or Behav eh avee One One Way Or The Other? Other ? Motivation This question can best be understood by analyzin our lives. In observing observ ing my own ow n life life I find that w hat co continuall ntinuall motivates me to think or act one way or another depends on the positive or negative reinforcement I receive. For example, if I am continually condemned an r eb uked uked for not cleaning cleaning my r oo oom, m, I may ma y not be b e inclined inclined to clean clean it up at all. T he o oppo pposit sitee of th this is example is that t hat if I am a m continuall continua ll rewarded by appropriate complements, I am more like likely to continue cont inue cleaning cleaning my r oo oom. m.
Whatt We Continuall Wha Continually y Hear The amazing thing about our soul’s composition is that what we hear long enough we will believe. That is w hy the t he scripture says,
So then faith comes by hearing, (and hearing and hearing) hear ing) th thee word w ord of God. God. —Romans 10:17 The soul is the soil and the seeds are what we continually hear. If we listen to doubt and unbelief we will produce fruit inside of our souls that are full of poisons, darkness and death. The heart which is our believ b elievin ing g center cent er w ill b e corr cor r upted upt ed and a nd unab un ab le to t o believe b elieve thee word th wor d of God. God. Therefore, our responsibility is to convert our souls to the image of God found within our spirit. The Bibl speaks speaks ab out having hav ing the “mind of Christ” Christ ” (2 Cor Cor inthians inth ians 2:10). The reborn spirit of man must be in control of his soul, or his life will be a series of constant bales and conflicts. This is an all too familiar situation in our Churches today.
What We Continually Think Our lives are controlled by what we think about. We will move our lives in the direction in which we continually think. Saying it in another way, if one continually thinks about becoming a millionaire, one will find himself consumed with those types of mental pictures. For example, one might might surr sur r ound onese oneself lf with wit h image im agess or conversations of expensive cars, expensive clothes, big b ig houses hou ses and an d expensiv expens ivee r estau est aurr an antt s . T he
conversations of this person will nearly always have the words, “costs”, “money”, “worth”, “how much”, “ can or cannot aff afford ord it” etcetera etcetera.. The same is true for negative thoughts, such as in an illness. A sick person may surround herself with all kinds’ of images of sickness and disease. She may read much infor infor mation mat ion about me m edicines, dicines, or or th thee lat lateest medical medical discoveries. She may listen very aentively to any person speaking about symptoms, or diseases and death. The distinction between images and pictures is important. The heart of man stores images in order to form beliefs and feel secure. The mind paints pictures because it has been trained to function more quickly and efficiently than the other parts of our soul. T he mind must make fast decisions based on less information than the heart or emotional centers of the soul. soul. T his is w hy pictures may not be b e comple complete te but like like pencil pencil sketch sketchees on an ar a r tists tis ts easel.
Images And Pictures Thoughts and words begin to form pictures in our minds and event eventually ually images images in our our heart h eart.. For example, if someone talks about a disease or sickness, we are capable of retrieving an image of the last time t ime w e had the symptoms or malady. Pictures are the quickest way for our minds to associate with what we like and what we dislike.
Images we like are usually associated with things that give us security, pleasure, happiness, etc. The etc. The opposite is true for images that we do not like which are associated with anxiety, fear, doubt and turmoil. They form str uctures that can be b e str onghol ongholds ds of of captivity. captivity . Images, whether right or wrong, enrich, or corrup our hearts. hearts. I mages mag es from from the word of God G od and people o faith faith strengthen streng then our o ur relatio relatio nship with with the Spirit Spirit of God. Go d. Onee of On of th thee major maj or purpose pur posess of G od od’’s W ord is to t o fe fee our spirits with the image of God. That image wil over over power all tthe he images images of fe fear and doubt. doubt . The Spirit of God reforms the image we lost in th Garden, through Adam’s disobedience. In addition, ou spirit starts to control what we think about, and who w e listen listen to, both spiritually and an d physically.
The Belief System Many times what we believe has lile to do with the r elative truth tr uth for for each of us is determined determined truth. W hat is re by b y t he in inform format ation ion w e decide is v al alua uab b le or t r ust us t worthy. This is one of the processes by which our lives are guided. We have always been given the choice to trust God and His ways, or to make our own decisions in thi lifee regardle lif regar dless ss of th thee Bible. R omans 10:9-10 says (“w “with ith the HEAR HEAR T man be b elie lieve for righteousness . . . ”) Then he confesses with his mouth. Our hearts must be convinced before our
mouths mouths w ill change change their w ords. Perhaps many who have been unsuccessful at confessing the word of God needed to check their heart condition. I am not necessarily saying that such people are not saved (even though some may not be) but that their motives may be wrong. The heart is directly affected by w hat it be b elieves. lieves. Our “thought life” paints the pictures and our hearts are the canvas that displays these impressions. These imprints become images and these images become belief systems. Our heart’s belief system determines our behavior. The heart believes and behaves according to what it is continually forced to hear, hear , see see and meditate meditat e on. on. The mind will believe most things that give i pleasure, profit and security. The heart on the other hand will make it’s decision to believe according to the images that it has formed from the pictures it has received. When the heart believes something different from that of the mind the soul begins to become fragmented and chaoti chao tic. c. For example, if I am trained in my mind to believ only what I can see, feel, touch and taste, and the Bibl and my heart say, faith is believing what you can not see and that is what pleases God, I have a dilemma an a major maj or chaos rages rages w ithin my soul. soul. . The Apostle Paul understood very well th
importance import ance of our thoug t hought ht lif life. e. He inst instrr ucted us on what w hat w e should th think ink about, ab out, Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing do ing the things that t hat you have hav e le learned ar ned and re r eceived ceived and an d heard hear d and seen in me, an and d the th e G od o off peace w ill be b e w ith it h you y ou —Phi —Ph ilippi lippians 4 :8-9 We must see the importance of our thoughts in relation relation to t o our our heart and how this t his ultimately affe affects the t he completeness completeness of our soul. The Bible cont continually inually say s ayss w e must seek seek God God with w ith our w hole heart, heart , mind and soul. (Mar Ma r k 12:30-31) 12:30- 31) How How is thi th i possible when our heart believes one thing and our mind another? As a child I noticed something strategically designe by b y the t he enemy t o corr cor r upt t he beliefs b eliefs of our hear hea r t s. Like most children I grew up with the so calle “harmle “har mless ss belie belief” in S anta Clause. I w as continually tol t ol the “lie” about this fat man, who wore a beard and flew a sleigh pulled by reindeer. This fictional character delivered gifts every Christmas, to “good” children, by sliding down down th thee fir fireeplace chimney. That time of year, which was originally intended to
cele celebr br at atee the birth bir th of Jesus, became a time of cele celeb b r at atin in this th is make ma ke b elieve elieve man, man , t ha hatt br b r ought ought all of our “goodies” “goodies”.. Then as I matured, my mentality was turned t skepticism skepticism for hav h aving ing believed believed this lie. lie. The Th e sinister plan of the enemy had succeeded. My heart filled with possibility to believe was changed to doubt and mistrust. So why would I believe there was a Jesus born to virgin? The same thing happened at Easter with th Easte ast er Bunny. Bunny . Our belief systems formed within our hearts become so by the information we process, that we make into images. images. The Th ese images images have nothing to do w ith the t he truth, tr uth, unless they t hey ar a r e founded ounded on Gods Gods word w ord and a nd His His image ima ge..
estoring Our Soul Soulss The image of God in man was lost in the fall of Ada and re r estored st ored throug thr ough h the t he resurr resur r ection of Jesus. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to anothe anoth er ; for for this t his comes fr fr om the Lord, th thee Spir Spirit. it. —2 Cor Co rinthians nthians 3:17-1 3:1 7-188 Being conformed to the image of God is a progressiv
tr ansf ans formation orma tion that th at r equires the th e r eformation orma tion of th thee soul. This is a project for the ages and must begin while we are ar e in in this th is body and on this planet. As we have learned through this chapter, the thoughts of man are important to God. We have seen how the thoughts of God are the only tool capable o conforming conforming us into the t he True Light Light.. T he th thoug ought htss of G od are ar e higher higher than t han our thoug t hought htss an indee indeed are ar e more pow pow er ful than th an th thee we w eapons of this ag a ge. T he purpose of of this b oo ook k has b een designe designed d to impar t keys for unlocking our souls and seing us free. God is challeng cha llenging ing us to believe t he way w ay Jesus belie b elieved. ved. If we can do nothing else, we must go to Philippian 4:8 and star t thinking t hinking on the things Paul speaks speaks about. ab out. We have come too far to go back. The life we are now living livin g is going t o change into a life t ha hatt r eflects eflects the t he image of God. This will require for each of us to continually chec w hat w e beli belieeve against against w hat G od says. Not w hat so s om one said, that you thought you heard. But you must study st udy the t he Bib Bib le for yourself y ourself.. The Word + Giving + Pray Pr ayeer + Fasting Fast ing = God’ God’s Image. Image. G od od’’s image is what w hat w e are after after and w hat I am goi oin n to obt obtain. ain. How about a bout you? y ou?
5 Mammon
We have now reached the “WHY” for becoming th Master’s Key. All of the keys of giving, praying an fasting have prepared us for this end time bale. The pow pow er of our our adver adver sary sar y and the re r easons for for our slave slav er y will be made clear. Our enemy is Mammon and our souls have hav e been been his r esting st ing place. place. As we discovered in the previous chapter, we become the key the Master uses to open doors no man can shut and close doors no man can open. That key is the ultimate ultimat e weapon used used by Jesus, formed formed fr fr om the lives o those th ose w ho have hav e used used “the keys.” keys.” I trust you have noticed by now, the kingdom of Go operates by rewarding those who have mastered the keys of giving, prayin pra ying g and fasting, w ith more authorit auth ority y and challenges. The biggest one we will all face is defeating the spirit of Mammon in our lives. Let’s follow along in M Mat atth theew : No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be
loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve ser ve God God and Mam Mammon. mon. —Matt —Matthew hew 6: 24 24 Why would Jesus put this verse in this place? W have hav e said all along, th that at G od is a G od of of d deesign, purpos and timing. Jesus knew there was no reason to spea abou ab outt Mammon amm on until unt il we w e were w ere eq equipped uipped to defe defeat it. But He also knows the composition of the huma being, b eing, par pa r t icula icu larr ly t he comp c omplexit lexity y of the th e soul. sou l. He know kn owss unless our soul and flesh are one with His Spirit, we ar helpless to change masters, or even recognize the difference. W hat is the t he most impor impor tant co commandme mmandment? nt? Jes Jes us ans a nsw w ered, er ed, The most mos t imp i mpor ortt a nt one say sa y s: “People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and str s treength.” ngth.” —Mar —Markk 112:28 2:28-30 -30 This statement is the heart of what we have been discussing thr oughout oughout our b oo ook k. How can we love the Lord our God with all of ou being? b eing? How do we w e fix our soul sou l and a nd b ody (str (st r ength) engt h) to t o be be one w ith Him Him the th e w ay Jesus was w as one with wit h His His Father? We have said all along that Jesus in His infinite lov and w isdom develo develope ped d tthe he teachings found found in Ma M ahew hew 6 for this very reason. This is why we are developin
our lives of giving, praying and fasting, to repair our souls. We have used each key to open chambers within our minds and hearts to let the “light of the Holy Spirit shine inside. This light allows us to replace our fears w ith fait aith h and an d see th thee end end fr fr om the th e beginning. beginning. “So what exactly is Mammon?” you might say. Som translations use the word “money” in place of Mammon. This is not an accurate translation bu someone’s interpretation. Money has its own Gree word and is used throughout the Scriptures. Mammo is an Aramaic word which means, “That which is kep saf sa fe, or secured. s ecured.”” Thus, because becaus e so many ma ny b elieve elieve securit secur ity y is in money, then it is easy to see how the translators have hav e int interpose erposed d money money for for th thee true tr ue name nam e of th this is spirit. spir it. However, Mammon is a spirit that manifests i property, stocks, careers, or family connections or anything which subtly guarantees and secures an income. In ancient Israel, this spirit was the direc equivalent to what we now call “savings.” A man’s mammon was his bank account, his safety net against thee unfo th unforr eseen. seen. W hen a Jew of ancient P alestine referr referree to his Mammon, he was speaking of that thing that GUARANTEED his financial security. MAMMON ANYTHING WE PUT OUR TRUST IN OTHER T GOD GOD. ANYTHI ANYTHING!!!!!!! NG!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!! !!!!!!! !!!!! !!!!!! !!! !!!!!! !!! Mammon is not necessarily money, but that which gives ives the t he power power to t o pur pur chase what wha t money can buy. b uy. It is a type of promissory note that gives an illusion to it’s
owners of security and purchasing power. I say illusion becau b ecauss e if a nyone ny one w ho ha hass r ead ab out or lived liv ed durin dur ing g the great depression in the United States can see how one day money had worth and the next day it did not. This is one high high price pr ice for for se s er ving Mammon.
ammon ammon Per Perve verts rts The Mess Message ag e Of Pros Prosperit pe rityy So when Jesus compares God and Mammon, He i referring to the system, which is a spirit, that competes for the affection, worship, faith and aention of those w ho say, say , “Lor “Lor d, Lo Lorr d.” d.” All my Christian life I thought I was serving God. was a giver in tithes and offerings over and above 50% of my income. At that time in my life I was makin several thousand dollars a month. I secretly began to admire my giving to the point point tha thatt pride and arrog ar rogance ance becam b ecamee associa ass ociatt ed wit w ith h my m y givin giv ing. g. I would choose carefully those ministers and ministries to whom I would give or “sow” into. Th primary primar y purpose that I gave to them was w as numbe numb er one; one; was being nurtured and fed in my spiritual development. T hese Men of G od w er e very popular popular in tthe he media media an throughout the world. I felt good about giving to ministries that I could watch on TV and see ho millions of lives were being affected. The other reason was, I believed that God would multiply back what gave. All of these ministers taught sowing and reaping.
Sometimes that is all they taught. But there were other benefit b enefitss t o givin giv ing g in intt o t hose hos e mini mi nist strr ies as w ell. I w ould be b e r ecognized ecogniz ed for t he amount am ount of my givin giv ing g b y s pecial pecia l seating at conferences, or I would be given so-called private privat e numbers directly t o the ministers’ homes. homes. The larger the gift the more the recognition and special privileges. Some ministries would invite me to become b ecome par pa r t of t heir “i “inn nner er cir cle” of follow follower erss , w hi hich ch allowed me access to selected meetings and trips with them personally. I felt very privileged to have personal contacts with some of the biggest personalities in the Christian and Television world. Each of these men was serious about their passion for Jesus and the hurting millions in the world. But, the system being used to keep their ministries going was creating something other than what was intended. I observed that the people operating these ministries were using the same techniques and principle prin cipless as common cor cor porations porat ions of th thee world wor ld used. used. I watched as the same “Madison Avenue” slic advertisement to sell cars, or elect politicians, was employed to promote the conferences and persuade me to give give to these ministr ies. ies. I r eceived ceived multiplied multiplied thousands th ousands of do dollar llarss in publicity and new new sleers sleers a year from from many ministr ministrie iess that t hat I w as supporting. The bigger ones were like a corporation, w ho had to have hav e more and more money money to t o ope operr at atee th theeir many depar departm tments ents and expe expenses. nses.
The men of God became more like CEO’s of hug enterprises, than what I had imagined an evangelist, healer or teacher of the gospel should be. I am not intending to judge anyone here. I am relating my feelings, lings, and what wh at G od w as teaching t eaching me about my heart and abou ab outt tthe he syste syst em of Mammon. I began to feel like giving entitled me to get from God In fact I was starting to get subliminal messages fro these ministries that having money was a sign of righteousness. I began to feel that because I was not receiving “th hundredfold return,” there must have been something w r ong in my spirit s piritual ual life life. I be b elieved lieved th that at th those ose w ho had lots of money had great faith. After all, some ministries talked talked extensive extensively ly abou ab outt how many planes planes the t hey y owned and had given given away aw ay in their lives. I never met one person who received a hundredfold from their giving. There might be many. I just have no heard or read r ead of any. any . But in the circles that I frequented that message w hich has ha s since been been rep r eplace laced d with w ith the t he “thousand “thousan d fold fold,,” was the most popular teaching presented before an offfering was of w as take t aken. n. There was not one person among us who did not think after giving in that offering, that we would be entitled to receive what would be equivalent to the loery. That is how corrupted my heart had become fr om think thin king about b eing prosper prosper ous. Let me make this clear, I believe each of those men t
be b e abs ab s olutely olut ely conv con v in inced ced God G od was w as b eing honor hon ored ed in their t heir lives and ministries. Indeed, all of these men are precious precious saint sa intss of G od full full of of int inteegr ity and I am not n ot their t heir judge. j udge. Moreover, oreover, I would not even have hav e reached the firs firstt step st ep of giving had it not been for the messages from these men of God. W e are living living in a new new genera neration tion that must he h ear and see much more mor e the nature natur e and tr t r ue charact char acter er of God. God. I am convinced that God initiated the so-calle “prosperit “prosperity” y” message message for a major maj or re r eason. That reason is becau b ecauss e t he C hur hu r ch did an and d in many ma ny places pla ces s t ill does not, give. The Church is still so bound up in Mammon tha many of its members do not even tithe. So God had t show the Church through His mercy that He is rewarder of those who will diligent seek Him, even if it is in the t he most most eleme lementa ntary ry w ays, ays , such such as giving. iving. I began to notice over a period of several months that my business was “drying up.” The business that believ b elieved ed God G od had h ad b lessed less ed as a s a r esult esul t of my givin giv ing g to t o Hi work was becoming like the “brook of Cherith” in 1 Kings 17:7. 1 7:7. Then one day my money ran out. I had not don anything differently. I was giving all that I had to th ministries who were regularly asking, sometimes two and thr ee times times a month. But my business was not producing any income. was self-employed and relied on what I thought was
God to prosper me. “What is wrong? Lord, I asked. heard nothing not hing fr fr om the th e Holy Holy Spirit. Spirit . During those years of giving tens of thousands o dollar do llars, s, I had gone gone to many man y nat n ations. ions. I had ha d praye pray ed for for th th sick and had seen miracles. I prophesied and cast out devils devils and a nd even even pre pr eached. I w as tr uly bei b eing ng used used by God God and felt His presence often. So why was I not receivin the hundredfold returns as promised? Why had my prayer pra yerss for for money gone gone unansw unans w er ed? Then the Holy Spirit said,: “Read the followin scriptures: Mahew 7:20-24” This speaks about those who had cast out devils, prophesied and done miracles in Hi His name name.. But He He to tolld the them, “DE “DEPAR T FR OM M NEVE NEVER R KNE K NEW W YOU, YOU, F O R YOUR YOU R PRACT PRA CTII C E I S EV EV MY EYES.” Then the Holy Spirit said clearly, “your master i Mammon not me.” I was absolutely devastated. Ho could this be? I knew I had heard the Holy Spirit tell m to give to these ministries. I knew that my “sowing” entitled me to “reaping” according to the Bible. I knew all of th these ese tr uths. uths . However, more times than not the hidden motivation is for our “financial security.” This is where our deception begins and the transfer of allegiance from one maste mast er to another take t akess place But my giving was to a disguised system from a w r ong heart, heart , b ased upon upon the t he principles principles of Mammon. Ma mmon. M trust was not in God but in the system of “giving and getting.”
I had heard these mighty men of God say over an over over , while wh ile th theey w er e taking an offe offer ing “your source s ource is God, God, not your y our job.” j ob.” T hat w as “a truth” tr uth” alright but b ut I for one did not know know the difference. I was also taught that God could use m job j ob t o prosp pr osper er me. S o, s ubt ub t ly t he j ob an and d G od w a confused confused in my mind on who w ho was wa s really r eally supplying. I had listened to the biblical principles on how to prosper perverted by the system of Mammon. Wha truly began as a revelation from God, corrupted my way of thinking by appealing to my sin nature of greed that had not be b een tra t ransf nsforme ormed. d. We were told by some to have multiple streams of money; money; to t o create a hedg hedge agains againstt financial inancia l disaste disast er . Some Some w ere even even teaching us to have hav e fait faith h in faith, but not how to have faith in God. I was seeking to live well but I wa drinking dr inking at th thee W ell of Mammon. am mon. Let me repeat, I am not placing the blame on th messenger messenger s as much as a s the t he message I falsely als ely rece r eceived. ived. The problem is that some of the messengers, who in many cases are bound to this spirit, are either unaware or unequipped to extricate those of us who are also boun b ound d to t o this th is mons m onstt er cal c alled led Mam Mammon mon.. T he motives motives of my hear heartt w er e wrong wr ong and deviou deviouss by by listening to messages knowingly or not were steeped in the systems sy stems of Mammon. T here here are ar e prosper prosper ity message message today that are so corrupted that it has polluted the purity of the truth. tr uth. The Bible principles are correct: Give and you shal
receive; but most of our goals are not for the things above. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ sieth on the right hand han d of G od od.. Set your y our affection affection on the t he things above ab ove,, not on things on ear earth. th. —Colossians 3:1-2 The reality is, we who are led by the Spirit ar wealthy IN CHRIST. We are wealthy becau everyt every t hin hing g He ha has, s, we w e ha have, ve, if w e tr uly belo b elong ng to Him. Him. Dear reader whether you have a million dollars or ba b a r ely enough foo food d t o eat, eat , w e ar e al alll in one w ay or another bound to Mammon. We are being led by a spirit, but what spirit, Is the question we must answer. And the Holy Spirit in His mercy is allowing us to se the truth. tr uth.
ow The The Hol Hol y Spirit Spir it Chan Cha nged ge d My Master The Holy Spirit began to “deal” with me after repented. He came to me in gentle yet profound ways about my bondages and wrong thinking. He would show me the depths of my aachments to Mammon. Part Par t of th this is teaching is is a result r esult of of th those ose sessions with w ith my my TRUE MASTER. Mammon is only mentioned a few times in the scriptures. Yet it is the most insidious devil on this
planet. One way Jesus showed the world He would not b contr co ntr ol olle led d by Mammon Mamm on was wa s to t o make make Judas the th e ministr ministr treasurer. How many ministers do you know who would look for a thief among their faithful followers and appoint him the guardian of the money? Jesus made a powerful stateme stat ement nt,, by do doing ing this. Jesus under under stoo st ood d Hi mission on the earth and showed His disciples how to establish His Father’s Kingdom without bowing t Mammon. We just read we can not serve two masters, because we will hate the one and love the other. This is because masters require undivided aention from their disciples. Jesus said sa id “a house divided cannot can not sta s tand.” nd.” The truth is, many of the so-called Christians, i reality do not love Jesus. They like Jesus but they lov money. It is a sad thing to learn that those who profess to love Jesus Jesus in essence ess ence hate hat e Him. Him. If we are bowing our knee to Mammon we hate Jesus The Scripture makes it clear that we love one and hat the other. As you continue to read, you will see the seriousness of our betrayal. Judas only got thirty pieces of silver. What W hat are ar e we selling selling out out for for ? Why would Jesus ask Peter three times in John 21:15 17 if he loved Him? Jesus was using the Greek word fo love, Agape, which means unselfish love. Peter wa responding with the Greek word Phileo, which mean affection without demonstration. The reason, as we have discussed before, is that love requires action. But
liking liking someone someone does does not n ot demand deman d a response r esponse fr fr om us. Is it any wonder Jesus began His discourse i Mahew 6 with giving as the first and foremost sign of expressing what wh at one verbalizes? verb alizes? I learned it was not giving that was my problem, but the motive behind the gift. That was and is what is w r ong w ith message messages on prosper prosper ity today. G iving is tr uly the t he beginning beginning of of all be b eginnings when w hen it come co mess to t o demonstr demonstrating ating who w ho we serve. But But w hy w e give give will separate the wheat from the chaff, or God from Mammon. We find in 1 Timothy 6:10 that the love of money is thee root of all evil. This th This te t ells me that th at if someone someone is having ha ving proble prob lems ms in his life he should investig invest igat atee the roots of the “flowerin “fl owering g problems. pr oblems.”” According to this Scripture we will discover that th love of money is the cause. This is Mammon controllin our lives lives and our our attention. at tention. W here your tr t r easure asur e is, there will w ill be your heart also. Let’s be honest with ourselves and uncover why we do w hat w e do. do. Money decides how we dress so we can get that cer cer ta tain in j ob. If we w e befr befr iend iend certain cert ain people people because of of their influence and connections, then money is deciding who our friends friends ar a r e. If we work extra long hours to maintain a lifestyle, then money is deciding how much time we will spend
w ith our family. family. If our wife works so we can be wealthier, then money has decided that our children are beer off with someone someone other than th an their t heir mother. If we aend Churches whose main messages are prosperity and words that focus on me geing my needs met, then money and self are my motives, not w hat God God might might be saying say ing to the nations. The list goes on and on. Sermons that alter the ver heart of the true gospel are negotiated with, in order that w e might might gain. We are living in the age that can be described as Modern Apostate Christendom, which simply mean w illf illfully ully and a nd purpose pur posely ly r ej ecting the t he teachings of Jesus. Jesus J esus said sa id t o seek firs fir s t His kingdom a nd Hi righteousness and all these things shall be added but Mammon and the “Apostate Christendom” say, “See first financial security security,, and then then you y ou will have both time and an d money to t o giv givee to the th e kingdom kingdom of God.” God.” Apostate Christendom dressed up in the modern da prosperity message, has rewrien the scriptures into respectable “practical wisdom” about our finances. There seems to be a subliminal message, that gain is associated associated with w ith supe s uperr faith. The statements Jesus makes in Mahew 6:25-33 ar clear clear and uncompromising. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about
your body, what you will wear. Is not life more t ha han n food, food, an and d the th e body more m ore than th an clothin c lothing? g? Look Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into thee o th oven, ven, will he not much more m ore cloth clothee you—you you—you of lile faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father know nowss that t hat you need need all these th things. ings. But str st r ive firs firstt for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all th theese things w ill be given given to you as w ell. Most of those words have become meaningless in Churches whose goals are primarily focused on prosperity. If anyone were dare to speak or act in the ways described above (take no thought for tomorrow), he would be labeled irresponsible, regarded unreliable and an d dismissed dismiss ed as a fool. fool. Verse 26 plainly states that our living is not dependent upon our working, and our future is not
dependent upon our savings, but is solely dependent upon upon w ho our our Father is. Nevertheless, many modern day prophets and apostl apo stles es speak about abo ut pro pro sperity sperity and wealt wea lth h transfers transfers as as if they were the captain on the Titanic, imploring thei passengers to put out the deck chairs and enjoy the voyage. We were not confused about the meaning of these statements when we first read “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth”, or “take no thought for tomorrow,” or “labor not for the meat which perishes” or “seek first the kingdom of God….” The confusion arises when our needs and wants become more impo import rtant ant than our our menta mentall assent to t o God God’’s w ord. To hope, hope, think thin k and confess confess somethin s omething g according to t o our our “faith”; but then choose to live according to Mammon’s principles because of what we call “reality,” is to live in hypocrisy. Can Can w e honestly honestly call that th at being a Christian? Christ ian? The age in which we are living demands the Churc to either serve God or take its chances with Mammon The lifestyles of most professing Christians are barel distinguishable distinguishab le fr fr om “respe “r especta ctable ble heathenism”. Forgive me for speaking so bluntly, but we are livin in dangerous times, and we need to change why we do what we do or we will hear the Lord say “DEPAR FROM ME I NEVER KNEW YOU.” Many Man y of us belie believe that the aack aa ck on the twin tw in towe tow ers in New York, September 11, 2001 was God, telling u that Mammon was being judged, and all who continued
to nurse nur se fr fr om the paps of th that at god would suff suffer th thee same judgmen j udgmentt s. S t udy t he eighteent eight eenth h chap ch aptt er of R evelat evela t io and an d see for yours y ourself elf.. If we look at our life, we will see whom we are serving. We will hate the one (God) and love security (Mammon); or we will hold to God and despis Mammon or securit security y in this t his world’ w orld’ss system. sy stem. B ut why w hy shou s hould ld we hate security security in money? money? T he B ibl says “money answereth all things and money is a defense” (Ecclesiastes 10:19 and 7:12). The use of money in these scriptures doesn’t imply that those who use it have put their trust in it; rather that money money serve serv es the t hem. m. If we will take another look at Ecclesiastes 12:13, w will see that the conclusion of the maer is “Fear God, keep keep His His commandment comma ndments.” s.” Proverbs 8:13 says, The fear of the Lord is to HAT EVIL EV IL . Evil Evil can be b e de defined fined as anyt a nything hing that demands demands ou trust tr ust rathe rat herr than God. God. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, Trust in the Lord with all thin hear heartt and lean lean not to th thine ine own unders understanding tanding.. ALL OF OUR HEART means all of our heart, which w hat w e have been been attempting at tempting to liber liber ate.
Commerce Commerce Of Th Th is Wo World rl d This is the condition of the Church today relative t Mammon. Unfortunately we do not hate the systems o this th is w orld the th e way wa y Jesus did. One One of of the best examples is
given iven us in Matthew Matt hew 21: 2 1:12-1 12-13. 3. Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all wh were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, It i written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; But you are ar e making it a den den of r obbe obb er s. In 1 Cor. 3:16 w e r ead how once we w e b ecome ecome the th e house for for the Holy Spirit, we are then considered the temple o God. Look closely at what Jesus is doing, He is making a statement to all of those who use their temples for negotiating with Mammon for their security. The Hol Spirit of God will not share His domain with any othe masters mas ters or ido ido ls. Jesus J esus made ma de a point poin t of driv dr ivin ing g out t hose hos e w ho w ere er e selling and buying. They were merchandising what is holy. It is an inner desire of a wicked heart to take from others, to gain at the expense of someone else, to lust for riches to satisfy the soul. It is the very love of money that is the root for all evil. It is part of the very seed o evil that t hat corrupted corr upted Lucif Lucifeer . Through the abundance of your commerce you were filled with lawlessness and violence and you sinned.
—Ezekiel 28:16 (Amplified Bible) This is the beginning of our exchange of masters. Selling and buying is the method of commerce in the system of Mammon. The Kingdom of God operates b Sowing Sow ing and Reaping. Reaping. Jesus J esus make ma kess t he stat st atement ement in L uke 17 17:28 :28-- 29 29,, w he asked when would the kingdom of God come: Likewis also as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built: But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it raine fire and br imstone imst one fr om heav heaveen, and dest destrr oyed th theem all. I believe the importance of the terms buying and sellin indicate an individuals overall decision to trust in his own methods of conducting his life rather than trusting God. The illustration is so vivid in Mark 4:14-20 i which the condition of our hearts are such that the word of God can not find a place to be sown that it might reap the 30, 60, and 100 fold return. This demonstrates to me that our minds and hearts are so preoccupied with providing our own resources through the systems of this world namely buying and selling, selling and buying that to trust our lives to the principles of sowing and reaping are very difficult in deed. I am not saying that all of us who buy and sell are serving Mammon. I am simply stating that this type o living demonstr demonstrates ates w her her e our our trust tr ust lie. lie. After After Jesus make makes the t he statement statement of the tw o masters h
w ent on to say, And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves bef b efor oree men; men ; b ut G od knoweth know eth y our hear hea r t s : for t ha hatt which is highly esteemed among men is abomination ab omination in the t he sight sight of God. God. —Luke 16:14-15 Let’s examine more closely the word “covetousness.” Look in Joshua at the seriousness of God towards thi sin. The following are the instructions given to Israel o tak ta king the wealth from Je Jer icho after after the t he battle: bat tle: And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecr consecrat ateed unto the t he LORD LORD:: they shall s hall come into the t he t r easury easur y of t he LORD LORD.. —Joshua 6:18-19 We know the story of how Achan (means serpent), who took the accursed things from Jericho and caused thee death th death of 36 men m en of Israel sr ael at Ai. Look at what Achan said to Joshua, “When I sa
among the spoils spoils a good goodly ly Babylonian Bab ylonian garment, gar ment, and two tw o hundred shekels of silver, a wedge of Gold worth fifty s h ekels, ekels , I COVE COV ETED TED THEM.” THEM.” This story contains so many truths that it would require another book to explore them all. Let me point out some th things ings releva relevant nt tto o our our study s tudy.. God hates the system of Babylon. It is the system o Mammon perpetrated by buying and selling and it is buil b uiltt upon u pon covetou cov etousn sness ess an and d greed. A s much as G od loves loves Man, M an, He hat hatees evil more, w hic He demonstrates by the deaths of the innocent soldiers as t he consequence consequence of of the sin of Achan. Achan . When Jesus told the Pharisees who were covetou that what they found valuable was an abomination to God, it was not because of the gold, silver and bronze but b ut b ecaus ecau s e of t heir hear hea r t s. I t is not t he gold an and d s ilver ilv er that was wrong. It is to what master they are consecrated. Jesus J esus drov dr ovee t he r obb ob b ers er s an and d t hi hieves eves from fr om t he t emple empl e becau b ecauss e of t heir hear hea r t s an and d t he god t hey serv ser v ed. Remember, Remember , we w e are ar e His His temple t emple,, and He He is a j ealous God. God. In my life I refuse to buy what I don’t need, and I wil not sell what I don’t want. I prefer to give away wha still has value. I believe many Christians live this wa but b ut t here her e ar e s ome w ho ar e preoccupi pr eoccupied ed w ith it h b uyin uy ing g and an d selling. selling. The book of Revelation 13:17 makes a very stron statements: So that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the
numbe numb er of its name. n ame. As I said earlier the terms buying and selling do no make you the servant of Mammon but our hearts demonstr demonstrate ate which w hich is our our master, mas ter, the beast or Je J esus Th Th Christ. This means to me, that if we, as the true body o Christ do not learn how to operate in the supernatural, we will be martyred or bow to the idol, which I believe is Mammon.. I am co convince nvinced d that sowing and reaping reaping is is the t he way o supplying the needs of the kingdom of God. Unfor Unfor tunate tunat ely, many of the ministrie ministr iess w ho are adept adept at using these terms do not not oper oper at atee unde underr th these ese principles. In most cases, their methods of sowing and reapin are ar e mingle mingled d with w ith th thee “commerce “commerce system sys tem of th thee world. wor ld.”” The machinery of the ministry has become so conformed to the systems of the world that in order to do business they begin to rely on wrong models. Confidence subtly shifts from faith in God to faith i proven business principles. The results are temporarily sound and effective for the purpose of saving money. This allows the Ministries to preach the gospel to th lost, which appears good. But what we are finding is real problems. “The lost” the major ministries are converting, sadly fail to come out from the system of Mammon. The real tragedy is that they really do no even know know t he diff difference betw een een the t he tw o Kingdo Kingdoms ms.. The new converts are trained more by what they see than what they hear. The ministers are preaching true
principles from the word of God. But the converts se most of the ministries on TV always asking for money They see the methods the Christian Church is using t “raise funds.” and see lile if any difference with other worldly fund raising events, other than the promise of getting tt ing a return retur n on your gift. ift. The so called Christians they produce are hybri forms of the world system. They become trained in Church language and appearances without changin the allegiances to the god they have been serving, Mammon. This is not a condemnation but the sad trut for many man y of th thee Churches in the Western w orld. T he need need for mone m oney y is re r eal. The Th e hear hearts ts of th thee minister are pure for the most part. But because we have all drunk from the cup of abominations spoken of in Revelation 17:2, we are intoxicated with ideas and methods methods from from this t his w orld. We are all to blame for the condition of the Church. We all feel helpless to change the overpowering demand of more mor e and more mor e money money t o fee feed d “the “t he machine. mach ine.”” So the que question stion we w e must all a ll answe answ er is how can we w e live in this world and not conform to its systems and methods meth ods of doing b usiness? usin ess?
Come Come Ye Out Out My Peop Peop l e And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, B abylon ab ylon the t he gr gr eat is fallen, fallen, is falle fallen, n, and has b ecome
a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the w r at ath h of her for for nication, nicat ion, th thee kings of of th thee earth eart h have ha ve commied fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest lest you shar sha r e in in her sins, and lest y ou receive receive of of her plagues. —Revelati —Revela tion on 18:2-4 1 8:2-4 The only person that overcame this world was Jesus The methods He used must be what we use. He said i Luke 16 that if we are faithful with unrighteous Mammon we will graduate to receive “true riches.” Th true riches are not material, such as gold and silver, but rather our trust in the Holy Spirit contained within our hearts. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? —Luke —Luke 16 1 6 :11 As hard as this is to say, the only reason we as the Church Chur ch are ar e not ope operating ra ting with the true tr ue riches is because because we have not been faithful with the unrighteous Mammon.
W e have coveted coveted it it and indeed indeed sought sought w ays ay s of having hav ing bot b oth h t hi hiss w orld’ or ld’s r iches, ich es, her h eree and a nd in t he w orld or ld t o come. c ome. B abylon ab ylon is be b eing j udge udged again again and an d all who wh o ope operr at atee in its system of commerce and trust will suffer the same consequences. The more I understand the Scriptures, the more trut is revealed to me about the term “true riches.” I believe it is the same thing Paul was speaking about in Ephesians in chapters 1 and 3 when he spoke of the r iches of His His glory. glory . W e have seen seen over and a nd over again the t he value placed placed on the heart of man by God. The scripture that says wher your heart is will be the place of your treasure. The heart of man is the place where God or Mammo deposit deposit the th e curr ency of our tr ust. ust . W e th theen have hav e access to the kingdom of God and the true riches or the kingdom of th this is world w orld and sure dest destrr uction. T he “true “tr ue r iches” iches” are ar e th thee hearts heart s of G od od’’s children wh wh are totally His. In those hearts God will deposit all th r iches iches of Himself. Himself. W hat can Mamm M ammon on off offer that th at is mor valuable than that? t hat? “Lord, I repent, help us all to see the truth of your w ord and have hav e the faith faith to ope operate ra te in this w orld and not be b e conformed confor med to t o it; thi t hiss is my pray pr ayer er..
Yeste Yesterday rday’s ’s Temp Tempta tati tioons The The Same As To Today If we can learn nothing else during this discussion let us observe our Lord’s response to this world’s wealth
an d the and th e call of of Mammon. Observe carefully the lessons Jesus was teaching u throu thr oug gh His His wild w ildeerne rn ess te t emptatio mptat ion n with w ith Satan: Sat an: Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus ate nothing for forty days and nights. After this, he was very hungry. T he devil devil came ca me to Jesus to t o tempt him, h im, saying say ing,” ,” If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become br b r ead.” Jesus J esus an answ sw ered, er ed, “It “I t is w r i ien en in i n t he S cript cr iptur ures, es, A person does not live by eating only bread, but by everyth very thing ing God God says.’ say s.’ T hen the th e devil devil led led Jesus to t o the holy city of Jerusalem Jerus alem and an d put him h im on a high place of t he Temple. Temple. T he devil devil said, “If you are the Son of God, jump down, becau b ecause se it is w r itt it t en in the t he Script Scr iptur ures: es: He has put his an ange gels ls in char cha r ge of y ou. They They w ill catch catch you y ou in their hands so that tha t you y ou w ill not not hit your foo oott on a rock r ock.. (Psalm 91:11-12) 9 1:11-12) Jesus J esus an answ sw ered er ed hi him, m, “It “I t a lso ls o say sa y s in t he S cript cr iptur ures, es, ‘Do ‘Do not test t est t he Lord your y our God.’ God.’”” Then the devil led Jesus to the top of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor. The devil said, “If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all
th ese things. the t hings.”” Jesus J esus s ai aid d to t o the t he devil, devi l, “G “ G o aw a w ay from fr om me, S at atan an!! I t is wrien in the Scriptures, ‘You must worship the Lorr d your God Lo God and se s er ve only him.’ h im.’”” —Matt —Matthew hew 4:1-10 We should really study that sequence of events in the Scriptures. Satan begins with temptation of the flesh (food). The body and flesh of man is the first and easiest place for for att a ttacks acks fr fr om the th e enemy. enemy. Our weakness as men has always originated through the sense gates, (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting). Where was the first and most costly temptation for man? In the Garden Eden, Eve wa enticed through her eyes and stomach before Satan could seduce seduce her mind. m ind. Study Genesis 3 to see how she was convince thrr ough th ough her senses before before being persuaded persuaded by her mind. min d. The next aempt was with religion, which is for the soul, comprised compr ised of of our mind, min d, heart hear t and a nd emotions. You notice how Satan quoted scriptures to show us how spiritual he is? This is a lesson for all of us. Jus becau b ecauss e we w e can ca n conform con form a s cript cr iptur uree to t o our b elief sys sy s t em does not mean that God is approving, our lie as Hi truth. There are many “New Age” followers, and cults, wh can quote quote Scripture Script ure to suppor suppor t their t heir hierarchy hierar chy.. The Bible is wri w rieen for for man to discove discoverr the truth tr uth in the t he pe person rs on of of Jesus J esus.. N ot s o man ma n can ca n j ust us t ify hi hiss b ehav eha v ior or in intt r oduc
another anoth er rel r elig igion ion to sat s atisf isfy y th thee longing longing of th thee soul. soul. The Temple is a design of God and is the invisibl symbol of the Temple which houses the Holy Spiri within each of us who belong to Him. There are histor books b ooks filled w ith it h s t ories or ies of how people died for t heir belief b elief in a r eligion. M onks an and d B uddhis uddh istt priest pr iestss eve have set themselves on fire. Today Muslims tur themselves into suicide bombers believing they are pleasing Allah. Satan is still using the same methods t tempt God God (Mat (Matth thew ew 4:7) 4:7).. The final test for every man is whom will we worship? The worship from man has been the desire o Satan from the day iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 28:15). 28:15). He He still promises promises to t o every every man w ho will w ill worship wors hip him “riches and kingdoms.” This is not different in our days, only the disguise is in prosperity and the spirit Satan Sata n uses is Mamm Mammon. on. T his se s equence quence has not change ch anged d over over th thee cent centuries. uries. Our bodies b odies an and d our souls sou ls a r e st s t ill t he place pla ce most mos t v ulner uln erab ab le to the assault assa ult of Satan. So, instead of our using the Holy Spirit and the wor of God to equip and train ourselves for the Kingdom o G od od,, w e turn tur n to this world’ w orld’ss system sys tem and the anti-Chr anti-C hris is himself hims elf t aking the form form of Mammon. Mammon’ Ma mmon’ss goal goal is first fir st to seduce us thr t hroug ough h promise pr omisess of gain, w which hich appe a ppeals als to our fleshly leshly appetit appetitees. Then when we belong to him demonstrated through our trusts, he terrifies us through the fears of loss. This method is easily achieved by painting pictures in our
minds and hearts of doing without anything we believe w e must have hav e to survive surviv e. T his picture pictur e of losing is a conditioned conditioned behavior w ithin all of us-to us-t o elicit elicit fear fear and anxie an xiety ty.. Notice the sequence of his assault on the Son of Go and recall the way Jesus outlined his teachings in Matthe att hew w 6.
Battl at tlee Between Betwee n What Wha t Master To Trust rust T he ba ba le is ultimat ultimateely be b etw een “trust “t rust”” in this world w orld and “faith” in God. Trust in what we can see, feel an contr co ntr ol versus faith faith in w hat G od says say s is our our her her itage by covenant. The economics of this world are perpetrated through health care, education, politics and religion. The system r elies lies on the t he trust tr ust of th thee peopl peoplee to per per petuat petuatee the lie. lie. The Th e lie is other things than God can be our security. Th tr uth is few few r eally believe believe that tha t G od can take t ake care car e of us in all circumstances, so they work for money because they believ b elievee t ha hatt w ith it h enough, enough , we w e will w ill be b e “safe.” “s afe.” You and I will continually be challenged to live by faith in God or by trust in this world’s system, known as Mammon. These challenges may be obstacles tha appear to be locked doors. The keys we use to unloc those doors are manufactured by fear or created by our faith. If we use the keys keys prod pr oduce uced d by our fait faith, h, we will w ill wal w al through doors that open into limitless possibilities with
God, and our faith will grow strong like muscles thrr ough th ough exer xer cise. We will learn the difference between slaves and stewards. We will move into the arena of decisions that constitute real change in our cities. I am not necessarily r eferring err ing to politics. If we see our life has no longer our own, belonging to the only true King of Kings, our vessels become His Then we can fulfill our destiny by becoming first servant serv antss and an d then tr ue disciples disciples of God. God. Then our faith will become transformed to somethin that has substa sub stance nce.. T his subst ance is the very very essence o God. We are then the Master’s Key. He has been seeking generation nerat ion He could could trust tr ust w ith th thee Keys Keys of His Kingdom Kingdom “The Key of David” is the closest thing we can compar to this th is level level of of authorit aut hority. y. You and I have not yet known the possibilities that are ar e our our inheritance inherit ance when w hen we w e no longer longer bel b elong ong to the t he god god of th this is world. w orld. However, if we use the keys of fear, we will open the doors to smaller and smaller prison cells until at last we are like animals in a zoo. Each cell will be smaller than the last because we can not serve two masters and the master mas ter we have have chosen cho sen wants priso prisoners, ners, not no t servants. servants. W e should not not b e dec decei eived; ved; Mammon Ma mmon has ha s keys keys for the t he doors of its kingdom. Its kingdom is constructed in shadows, lies and slieght of hand. It is built upon the blood b lood of men m en an and d w omen w ho ha hav v e devot dev oted ed t heir lives liv es
to building their foundations of “security” on shifting sands san ds and greedy greedy desires. The keys in Mammon’s kingdom are simple. Believe i only what you can “see, feel, hear, taste and control.” Trust in nothing that pressures you to give or infringes upon your security. The foundations of this belief are fear, ar , selfishness, selfishness, covetousness, covetousness, lying and hate. ha te. Its fr uit is restlessness, illness, suffering loss and death. The kingdom of this world is determined to fascinate everyone with its riches and beauty. The hypnotic allure of this kingdom is the illusion of wealth, riches and pow pow er. Then many swallow the bait and run after false promises of power and wealth. The amazing thin about the people who become hooked is that they willingly risk all they own for the chance of becoming indepe independe ndently ntly w ealthy. althy . Is it any w onde onder tha thatt gamblin and lotterie lotter iess are ar e sw eeping th thee w orld? T he real irony irony and tr age agedy is that statistic stat isticss show that 90+% 90+ % of th those ose w ho w win in tthese hese lotteries be b ecome alcoholics, alcoholics, drug dr ug addicts, addict s, divor divorced, ced, or commit suicide.
New Gener Generat ation ion This is the generation that will witness the “Daniels living in Babylon “who know their God will b strengthened and do great exploits.” But when we read the rest of that story, story , w e find that the t herr e is a cost to those th ose w ho are ar e w ise. ise.
Many Man y w ill lose lose their lives trying tr ying to bring br ing out out those t hose in captivity. captivity . This is not a popular popular prosperit prosperity y message message.. But prais pr aisee God, God, Dan aniel iel 12 12:3 :3 says: say s: Ever Ever yone w ho has be b een wise w ise w ill shine as br ight ight as as the sky above, and everyone who has led others to please please God will shine sh ine like like the star st ars. s. As I have said, the issue is not now, nor has it ever been, b een, a b out money. mon ey. I t is ab out w hom y ou ha hav v e t r ust us t ed and obeyed. Come out of the land of your broken cisterns and unfulfill unfulfilleed dest destinie inies. s. W hat visions ar e you runnin r unnin after? Are you living as a spectator of those who are running the race set before them? Are you not tired o merely watching the show, and paying for it? Should you not be warring against the religious spirits who have hav e made you passive pass ive and stole st olen n your y our reso r esolve? lve? Awake! Oh men and women of God and war agains the subtlest of enemies within our souls, Mammon and the syste syst em it re r epresents presents.. The time is short. The hour is much later than yo have hav e belie believed ved or or pre pr epared par ed for. Hear Hear th thee watchman wat chman’’s call bef b efor oree it is t oo la latt e. You Y ou ha hav v e b een een b ought w ith it h a price pr ice more costly than all the gold and silver you could hope to possess. There is an end-time deliverance of wealth that will tr uly be b e tr ansf ans ferre err ed to the righteous. righteous. The qualification qualification is a radical r adical chang chan ge in your lif lifee style sty less and a nd affections. affections. Do not not
underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to help you You have believed the lies of the enemy and have surrendered without firing a shot. I tell you now under the authority of the most most high high God G od,, T hus says say s the t he Lord “You have been born for a time such as this. If you refuse to fight for your rightful inheritance, I will find another generation that will take the challenge and posses the th e lan land. d.”” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob faced the same devils yo are faced with, and became heroes of the faith. God is saying, “I have given you more weapons, more truth and more mor e promises.” promises.” We have no excuses. God will have someone He ca tr ust and I pur pur pose to be b e one one whom w hom He He can count. For I truly recognize the truth that drives me: “those who have been forgiven much love much”. And now I can and will say to Jesus: “I can never repay you fo what you did but I willing give you what you purchased?” What about about yo y ou?
Conclusion
This has been a book that has not been easy to write. believ b elievee t ha hatt w ith it h t he guidanc guida ncee of t he Holy S pirit pir it an prayers of the saints something positive will have been the re r esult. I have understood so well that our Lord designe Mahew chapter 6 with you and me in His mind. observed how He brought me from my wea understanding of giving to the powerful levels of becomi b ecoming ng t he gift. I did not even under un derst stan and d w ha hatt t ha hatt meant until I began to study the Scriptures. I could se clearly that everything I have belongs to Him and th only onl y w ay I can approach His His altar is with w ith me as the t he gif gift. t. It sounded egotistical at first, until I began t under under stand st and the t he love love contained with w ithin in H His is cross. cr oss. His His love for me took Him through Gethsemane to the cross Someone as unworthy as me could capture the Father’ heart to send His His Son to such a death. The places the Holy Spirit took me were s extraordinary that this life no longer held any fascination. ascina tion. In fact, if th thee Body of Ch Chrr ist could could ever ever tr t r ul see the power in yielding up our life to gain His, chains that bind them would fall off and the grip of Mammon w ould ould be b e destr destroyed oyed once once and for for all. a ll.
How could I withhold anything from a love such a this? The more I studied chapter 6 of Mahew, the more could see the design of prayer. Real prayer is not possible without first understanding giving. The truth is that the Church, who longs to walk in the power o prayer, has been hindered because of their unwilling unw illingness ness to t o give. give. Prayer, the backbone of our life with God, has bee void of any real pow pow er. This T his is be b ecause w e are a Churc Chur c that is selfish and stingy with something that does not even belong to us. Then the Lord revealed the prayer of Stephen to me How this prayer released a religious man name Sau into a spiritual giant named Paul. How the destiny o S tephen was w as fulfille ulfilled thr th r ough ough the t he life life of of Paul. Pa ul. T he depth depth of a man’s prayers are not limited to the temporal time he lives on the earth. For example when Moses aske God to show him His glory, God allowed Moses to se the transfiguration of Jesus thousands of years after he asked. T hese hese are the praye pray ers tha thatt move God and shake shake earth ar th These are the prayers the Church must enter, if we ar to see the gr gr eat aw a w akening akening before before the th e return retur n of our our Lo Lorr d. Then the Lord allowed me to understand fasting fro bot b oth h a b iblic ib lical al point poin t an and d pers per s ona onall persp per spect ectiv ivee in my own life. life. Over Ov er the th e years year s I have ha ve ob ob served serv ed my times t imes spen spen with the Lord while fasting to be the most revelatory. This I believe is for many reasons, but primarily it i
becau b ecauss e t he maj ma j or w eapon of t he enemy is neutr neut r al aliz ized ed during these times. Life in the flesh has lost its appeal, thus th us re r emoving the artille art illerr y from the th e han hands ds of th thee devil. devil. I r ealize I have h ave just scratched scra tched the surface surface of of this major maj or weapon and am eagerly awaiting the next stages of develo development pment in this th is are ar ea of my gr owt owth. h. I see how Mahew 6 is strategically designed to prepare us for the bale of all bales, with Mammon. This spirit has feasted on the saints over the centuries and has increased the pressure 100 fold in the past few years. This bale requires all of the keys we have received from giving, praying and fasting. Those keys were designed to show us where we have been held captive. T hese ke keys are ar e designe designed d specifically specifically for every b elie eliever ver to uncover uncover w ith ithin in the th eir souls the depths depths of our dece deceptions. ptions. These keys will show us how our thought life has contaminat contamin ateed our our heart h eartss and an d taken taken us from innocence innocence to hardened hearts. These keys can open the doors but we must have the courage to change what we find inside. I we are willing to allow the Spirit of God to do surger upon our hearts we can win the bale against Mammon. Finally, Fin ally, we w e must b ecome T he Master’ Mast er’ss Key. This Th is ke key i only given given to t o those who wh o have proven that t hat th theeir lif lifee doe doess not belong to them. This key will close those doors w ithin us from ever ever bowing b owing to Mammon again. T his ke will open the door to the Holy Spirit to use us to se many captive captiv es free. free.
It is my prayer pr ayer that t hat you y ou w ill use this boo b ook k as a means of discovering your real potential as a child of the King. You will use this book to recognize every instance in which you have bowed to Mammon, and repent. I hop w e can can all see how far w e have str ayed fr fr om the truth trut h of thee Gospe th Gospell and re r eturn tur n bef b efore ore it is too late. My prayer for all of us is that God in His mercy wil grant us time and energy to change; Love and grace to be b e a light ligh t in t he dar d ar kness; kness ; Pow P ower er an and d might m ight t o hat h atee evil, evi l, and tr t r uth and rig r ight hteeousness ousness to live a Holy life life before before Hi return.
A book that will lead you into an experience with the depths of the invisible kingdom of God.
Disc o v e r an and de stro stro y the majo majo r hin hind dran ranc e stop sto ppin ing g y o u from entering the glorious manifestations with God.
The answers to many of the difficult questions concerning spiritual warfare. A book of wisdom, and experience from a General in war.
Finally, a book that reveals the truth and strategies on eliminating the greatest thief of your finances, Mammon.
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