People of God,
Hope you are well and have had a week full of victory, as I have.
Well, this blog, Reflections , is focused on empowering you to live the victorious life God destined you to live in Christ.
We are called to be atmosphere changers, transformers.In this capacity, believe we should fight to take back territory, atmospheres and bloodlines which the enemy has ruled us in and robbed us of.Rev 12 Talks about such a war, and like it or not, you are involved.
The following blog was excerpted from a Chuck Pierce's book that I have been ruminating on,the Future War of The Church.
Child of God, be equipped, in Jesus name.
Enjoy:
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A change in the Air
Do we really understand this war that is being fought? A better way to approach this may be from an understanding of the atmosphere. According to the American Dictionary of the English Language, the atmosphere is "the whole mass of fluid, consisting of air, aqueous and other vapors, that surrounds the Earth." The word is rooted in the interaction between vapor and the Earth's sphere. Vapor consists of the fumes, moist floating substance or invisible elastic fluid that encompasses the Earth's sphere. The Bible even refers to this in Psalm 39:5 when it says, "Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor." Yet when most of us speak of "the atmosphere," we're referring to a generic sense of an airborne aura surrounding us.
What does the atmosphere have to do with a war over God's presence? Actually, everything. We have an atmosphere about us that affects the way the earth operates. The atmosphere we carry affects the land we walk on. The more we are in union with God and His purpose for the earth, the more we create a right atmosphere around us.
To usher in God's presence requires a change in the atmosphere, and we are assigned the task of bringing this about!
The Bible establishes that Satan is the god of this world, the "prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 2:2). Yet how is this so if Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness"? First, we must understand the terms used in those two verses. The Greek word for "earth" is topos, while the word for "world" is cosmos. This means that any structure that protrudes or is above the topos is subject to warfare. Second, we must realize the Bible establishes that there are three heavens. God and all His heavenly beings dwell in the third heaven. Satan, as the ruler of the air, attempts to rule from the second heaven to illegally legislate in the first heaven—that place where we physically stand above the earth.
Apostle Kim Daniels, in her book Give it Back, explains it this way:
"Ephesians 2:2 describes the assignment of the prince of the power of the air. One name for the Greek god of the second heaven is Zeus. The second heaven is the demonic headquarters that is strategically set up to control people like puppets on a string. In the spirit, that is exactly how it looks—like a puppet show! Every human being is connected to either the second or third heaven. People who are bound by second heaven activity are connected to the second heaven by demonic stings. The hydra is the god of recurring curses and is also seated in the heavens. It is one of the constellations or groups of stars that abide in the heavens. The power of the air (or unconscious cycles) is a subliminal bondage, which is controlled from the air. This spirit hides behind the cover of natural habits, and its victims never suspect that they are under its control. Before people are delivered from addictions and habits, demonic strings must be cut in the spirit to sever their alliances with the second heaven. After this, ground-level deliverance can take place.2"
We must determine who is in charge of our atmosphere. Are we going to legislate God's rule in our atmosphere or will our enemy control it? This is one of our greatest warfare dynamics to understand. In Authority in Prayer, Dutch Sheets writes:
"Where God and Satan are concerned, the issue has never been power, including control of the earth. God is all-powerful . . . it is always a question of authority. The same is true with us and our struggle with the kingdom of darkness. Satan didn't gain any power at the Fall and didn't lose any at the cross. His power or ability didn't change at either event. His authority, or the right to use his power, did. In fact, though Christians often state otherwise, Scripture nowhere says that Christ delivered us from or dealt with Satan's power at Calvary. He dealt with Satan's authority."
We must learn to legislate within our realm of authority, while understanding that it is not the same thing as power.Our realm of authority includes both heaven and earth. That is what makes up our atmosphere. Jesus broke Satan's headship and removed his legal authority at the cross. He then overcame death, hell and the grave. He liberated the captives. However, we must keep Satan's power neutralized and defeated in the place in the earth where God has called us to be His stewards. That is what Elijah did when he commanded the heavens to withhold rain for three and a half years (see 1 Kings 17). Then, knowing it was God's perfect time for rain, he birthed a cloud into his atmosphere. The atmosphere was then filled with rain.
Is a Curse Working in Your Midst?
Satan has a million different ways in which he tries to extend his dominion of the air. This chapter is not dedicated to identifying all those opposing tactics, but I do feel it necessary to highlight one in particular: curses. Passed down through time, curses work with iniquitous patterns that have developed in our bloodline. Let's look at how curses play a major role in our reclaiming the atmosphere around us.
Though it seems almost too simple, one of the ways that you can detect a curse is by recognizing the absence of God's glory or presence. According to The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism, a curse is a "verbal invocation to bring harm, evil or detriment on another. More than a threat or a wish, a curse is assumed to have the power to make the desired harm a reality."4 Curses result from not hearing God's voice or receiving another voice that is contrary to God's plan for your life. Curses will agree with internal deficiencies within us such as rebellion, lust or any other sin of the flesh. Derek Prince wrote a wonderful book called Blessings or Curses: You Can Choose. In his analysis of Deuteronomy 28, he says there are seven main categories that curses deal with.
They are:
1. Mental and/or emotional breakdown
2. Repeated or chronic sicknesses (especially if hereditary)
3. Barrenness, a tendency to miscarry or related female problems
4. Breakdown of marriage or family alienation
5. Continuing financial insufficiency
6. Being "accident-prone"
7. A history of suicides and unnatural or untimely deaths5
Because I teach so much on breaking old cycles, I want to be sure that you recognize that curses can be timed and sequenced so that they reoccur from generation to generation. This will continue to take place until the iniquitous pattern in a bloodline or the iniquitous violation on a piece of land has been addressed. I have much experience with both of these patterns. In fact, my wife jokes that I'm qualified to teach on demonic powers all over the world because my family had all of them in operation! Many of those curses operated on the land that we owned. I won't tell all of those stories here, but I will say this: The Lord took me through a 30-year process going back and forth to places where iniquitous defilements occurred in our family. He then would have me repent and release His presence to replace the working of evil. I read many books on cleansing the land and discovered that there are four major areas of iniquity that cause curses to have a right to operate in a land: covenant breaking, idolatry or blood sacrifice, illegal bloodshed and sexual immorality.
Many Christian leaders make light of the concept of curses. I do not want to do that. I do believe that curses are conditional. I am well aware that they can come through words, timing and astrological influences, or magical incantations and actions. More importantly, however, curses can be broken.
A man once approached me who was from a denominational background. The group he worked with had bought a new piece of land to build a school and ministry on. When he and some of his coworkers were walking on the land, they got to a place where everyone immediately sensed a change in the atmosphere. Every hair on his body seemed to stand up. He asked me what that meant.
"When that happens, it means you have discerned a presence of evil," I answered. "It is the Holy Spirit manifesting in you with the gift of discerning evil spirits." He then asked me what he should do and how he should pray. I said, "Well, first of all, you pray until all the hair on your body goes down! That means you have commanded the presence of evil to let go of the place where you are standing and the atmosphere has been cleansed." The group later found several places where satanic sacrifices had been made on their land.
Planning for the Presence
Many of us need to reclaim territories just like this group did. While this can certainly involve claiming victory over the dark history behind a piece of physical land, more often than not it involves cleaning out areas of our lives in which God's glory is not fully seen. We must become people of His presence, consumed with His habitation throughout every inch of our atmosphere.
King David was such a person. Despite making some major mistakes during his reign, David loved the presence of God and had a heart that was turned after God. He was always willing to rely on God to salvage his failures and restore him.
In 2 Samuel 6, we find an account of how David first attempted to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, where he lived. His desire was pure: He wanted the presence of God to surround his life. Yet his execution was flawed and left one of his men dead. As a result, David feared transporting the Ark to his house and instead left it at the home of Obed-Edom. Scripture says, "And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household," and this was relayed to David.
What is interesting is that this Hebrew word for blessed is barak, which at its root means "to kneel." Jeff A. Benner, on his Ancient Hebrew Research Center website, gives an understanding of this word as, "Yahweh (he who exists) will kneel before you presenting gifts."6 The Ark was only with Obed-Edom for three months, yet there was a discernible change in his situation that caused others to recognize that he was being blessed, that Yahweh was presenting him with gifts—all because of the presence of the Ark!
The mistake wasn't in David's heart or in his lack of preparation. David had already built a site for the Ark. He had established a special place for God's presence to dwell. No, the lesson David learned was simply this: How we invite the presence of God and how we honor His presence is very important. David serves as a wonderful example because although he made a great mistake, he discovered how to properly bring the Ark to the City of David. He then entered a "series of conquests which greatly extended and strengthened his kingdom (2 Sam. 8). In a few years, the whole territory from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, and from Gaza on the west to Thapsacus on the east, was under his sway (2 Sam. 8:3-13; 10)."
According to Leen and Kathleen Ritmeyer in From Sinai to Jerusalem: The Wanderings of the Holy Ark, the Ark was placed right next to David's palace, in his yard. Living on his property, in his backyard, was the God who brought him gifts! The Tabernacle of David would have remained there for about 30 years. I believe this is what gave David great credibility in war. What an incredible principle! When we have the presence of God in our homes, the gifts of God are bestowed abundantly on our lives and we are successful in war.
However, I also believe this is why David was judged so severely when he didn't go to war and fell into passivity, lust, manipulation and murder after coveting Bathsheba. When we commit open sin while in God's presence, our problems escalate. This is why it is more disastrous when a minister hides a lifestyle of sin than for an everyday Christian to do so. Obviously, sin is sin, but the influence that we have from the presence of God in our midst is not to be taken lightly. I believe we are more accountable when we are aware of God's presence in our midst and we do not act accordingly.
John Dickson, a fellow minister and friend of mine who co-authored The Worship Warrior with me, writes the following about David:
What was unique about the Tabernacle of David was that it was a heavenly paradigm in an earthly setting. When David brought in the Ark, there was already a Tabernacle specifically designed to house it: The tabernacle of Moses was just down the road in Gibeon (see 2 Chron. 1:4-5). But God said of David that He would "carry out My program fully" (Acts 13:22, AMP) and so we find David setting up a different kind of tent on Zion's hill with no brazen altar, no laver, no lampstand, no altar of incense, no table of show bread and—most importantly—no veil. The worshippers entered the very presence of God face-to-face, just like they did in heaven. The way they worshipped was also just like in heaven: With no forms or rituals, they sang and danced and prophesied and warred before the Lord as the minions of heaven are seen doing in the book of Revelation.
There in that Tabernacle on Zion's hill, God enthroned Himself on their praises (see Ps. 22:3) and from that throne He stretched forth His scepter (see Ps. 110:1-3), issued His commands (see Ps. 133:3), declared His blessings (see Ps. 128:5; 134:3), heard the prayers of the destitute (see Ps. 102:17) and punished His enemies (see Isa. 66:6). That word enthroned implies in the Hebrew that God not only came to sit as judge, but also to stay or to dwell—even to marry. God was not going to leave once His "work" was done. He had found a suitable dwelling place for His presence to continually dwell on earth. Psalm 132 says "For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it" (Ps. 132:13-14, NASB). In David's Tabernacle, God was in the midst of continual praises. It was just like His holy hill, by the same name, in heaven. As a matter of fact, Psalm 78 says that God built His sanctuary on Mount Zion "like the heights" (Ps. 78:67-69) or just like it was built in heaven. God's presence, which was continually manifested in heaven, was now continually manifested on the earth. His people could come into that small tent and experience that presence just like the inhabitants of heaven. How wonderful!9
Throughout the Bible, we see that God is enthroned in praise. We glorify Him through our worship. That is why praise and worship are essential to experiencing God's glory. Praise is that element of celebration that can transport us into the throne room of God. Once we are in the throne room at His feet, the only suitable response is to worship and adore Him. As we worship Him in that intimate place, He begins to reveal His glory to us. God is looking for true worshipers who will worship "in spirit and truth" (John 4:24), and as He finds those worshipers, they are able to experience the reality of heaven, which is God's glory.
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Hope it was worth your time,
Shalom.
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