Showing posts with label the Sword. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Sword. Show all posts
Friday, January 9, 2009
Warfare--Sword of the Spirit, memorization
One of the things the Lord has really impressed on me for this year is the importance of memorizing scripture. I have heard many excuses for avoiding this Christian discipline. However, the reality is excuses are just that--excuses. They are a justification for our not wanting to take responsibility for doing the right thing--the thing that feeds our soul, attacks a situation, brings down mountains, and breaks forth life. The Word says the Sword of Spirit is the Word of God. Why do we make excuses for refusing to pick up a weapon so powerful that it brought for the universe in six days?
If you have chosen to pick up your sword, one way you learn to wield is by memorizing scripture. I want to share a few methods for memorizing scripture.
1. Repeating aloud. Simply read the verse aloud repeated. For people who learn by hearing, this is great.
2. Technology aided. You can record it on an iPod or MP3 player and let it play back to you. Say it as it plays. This is great if you use your iPod for exercise or copy it to a CD to play in your car on the way to work or run errands. Hit the repeat button and let it go. Listen to it and repeat aloud. After awhile, you should be able to turn off the voice or CD and simply say it alone. Again, this is great for those who learn by hearing.
3. Write it down...over and over and over. I use this method because I remember what I see or read. One of the blessings of a photographic memory. There are 3 tactics for this. I use different ones at different time.
a. Break the verse or passage up into pieces, such as sentences or phrases.
Example: My children learned this in one day.
I command you to brave and courageous.
Do not be terrified.
Do not lose hope.
I am the Lord your God.
I will be with you
in everything you do. (Joshua 1:9 NIrV)
I wrote it on the white board that way. We read it several times. Then I started erasing words.
I command you to be brave and
Do not be
Do not
I am the Lord your God.
I will be with you
in everything you do.
More words were erased.
I command you to be
Do not
Do not
I am
I will
At that point, they had it memorized. Then we simply went through it a few times each day.
By the way, they each have their own journals, and they write down the verses they memorize and the date. We are building a foundation for them, and these are part of the bricks we use.
b. I write the scripture over and over. Each time I try to write more without having to look at the text. Usually, I have to write it four or five times to make it stick, and I try to keep my focus text under five written lines. If I am doing a long passage, I do it in sections. Today I worked on James 1:2-4. I worked on verses 2 and 3 by themselves.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Then I worked on verse 4.
Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Then I put the whole section together and wrote it several times. I use a simple spiral to write these in.
c. The last method incorporate color coding. An example is:
This is what I am commanding you to do.
Be strong and brave.
Do not be terrified.
Do not lose hope.
I am the Lord your God.
I will be with you
everywhere you go.
I use this with the children a lot. I make multiple copies on the computer and put them around the house. I put one in the bathroom, by their beds, on the wall so everyone can see it from the kitchen table. You get the idea.
Our goal is one sentence at a time. Breaking them up in colors makes the bites edible and not overwhelming.
Don't forget!!!
And that brings us to my final suggestion, put it everywhere so you can review it.
My friend Debra has verses on the wall in front of her toilet.
She has them on the cabinets in her kitchen.
She puts them like posters and post cards all around her bedroom.
If you walk in the door and turn to the side, there are verses.
You cannot walk into her house or move from room to room without seeing the verses.
She also has a packet in her purse at all times.
She takes them out and read them when she is waiting for her children.
She hands them to her girls to read while they are in the car driving from place to place.
Standing Together
Find an accountability partner or two. Tell them what you are memorizing and give them (or every other day) updates. Memorization really is a daily exercise. It takes about 27 days for something to become a habit, so try to make a goal of reviewing a verse everyday for a month. You can work on multiple verses at once. Write them all down in an email to your Accountability Warrior every day. If you are doing a whole section, and it takes two weeks to memorize, then write the whole thing you have memorized each day from the time you start that passage until a month after the last part is memorized. Does that makes sense?
After a month, the passage should be concreted in your brain.
So tell me, what scripture are you memorizing? Why? What is the Lord speaking to you through the verse(s)? You can email me through my profile if you want it private or share on the comments. Make it as long as you like. You never how much a fellow warrior may need what the Father is speaking into you, so share.
Blessings, Warriors and Warriors-in-the-Making!
Remember:
This is what I command.
Be strong and brave.
Do not be terrified.
Do not lose hope.
I will be with you
everywhere you go.
If you have chosen to pick up your sword, one way you learn to wield is by memorizing scripture. I want to share a few methods for memorizing scripture.
1. Repeating aloud. Simply read the verse aloud repeated. For people who learn by hearing, this is great.
2. Technology aided. You can record it on an iPod or MP3 player and let it play back to you. Say it as it plays. This is great if you use your iPod for exercise or copy it to a CD to play in your car on the way to work or run errands. Hit the repeat button and let it go. Listen to it and repeat aloud. After awhile, you should be able to turn off the voice or CD and simply say it alone. Again, this is great for those who learn by hearing.
3. Write it down...over and over and over. I use this method because I remember what I see or read. One of the blessings of a photographic memory. There are 3 tactics for this. I use different ones at different time.
a. Break the verse or passage up into pieces, such as sentences or phrases.
Example: My children learned this in one day.
I command you to brave and courageous.
Do not be terrified.
Do not lose hope.
I am the Lord your God.
I will be with you
in everything you do. (Joshua 1:9 NIrV)
I wrote it on the white board that way. We read it several times. Then I started erasing words.
I command you to be brave and
Do not be
Do not
I am the Lord your God.
I will be with you
in everything you do.
More words were erased.
I command you to be
Do not
Do not
I am
I will
At that point, they had it memorized. Then we simply went through it a few times each day.
By the way, they each have their own journals, and they write down the verses they memorize and the date. We are building a foundation for them, and these are part of the bricks we use.
b. I write the scripture over and over. Each time I try to write more without having to look at the text. Usually, I have to write it four or five times to make it stick, and I try to keep my focus text under five written lines. If I am doing a long passage, I do it in sections. Today I worked on James 1:2-4. I worked on verses 2 and 3 by themselves.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Then I worked on verse 4.
Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Then I put the whole section together and wrote it several times. I use a simple spiral to write these in.
c. The last method incorporate color coding. An example is:
This is what I am commanding you to do.
Be strong and brave.
Do not be terrified.
Do not lose hope.
I am the Lord your God.
I will be with you
everywhere you go.
I use this with the children a lot. I make multiple copies on the computer and put them around the house. I put one in the bathroom, by their beds, on the wall so everyone can see it from the kitchen table. You get the idea.
Our goal is one sentence at a time. Breaking them up in colors makes the bites edible and not overwhelming.
Don't forget!!!
And that brings us to my final suggestion, put it everywhere so you can review it.
My friend Debra has verses on the wall in front of her toilet.
She has them on the cabinets in her kitchen.
She puts them like posters and post cards all around her bedroom.
If you walk in the door and turn to the side, there are verses.
You cannot walk into her house or move from room to room without seeing the verses.
She also has a packet in her purse at all times.
She takes them out and read them when she is waiting for her children.
She hands them to her girls to read while they are in the car driving from place to place.
Standing Together
Find an accountability partner or two. Tell them what you are memorizing and give them (or every other day) updates. Memorization really is a daily exercise. It takes about 27 days for something to become a habit, so try to make a goal of reviewing a verse everyday for a month. You can work on multiple verses at once. Write them all down in an email to your Accountability Warrior every day. If you are doing a whole section, and it takes two weeks to memorize, then write the whole thing you have memorized each day from the time you start that passage until a month after the last part is memorized. Does that makes sense?
After a month, the passage should be concreted in your brain.
So tell me, what scripture are you memorizing? Why? What is the Lord speaking to you through the verse(s)? You can email me through my profile if you want it private or share on the comments. Make it as long as you like. You never how much a fellow warrior may need what the Father is speaking into you, so share.
Blessings, Warriors and Warriors-in-the-Making!
Remember:
This is what I command.
Be strong and brave.
Do not be terrified.
Do not lose hope.
I will be with you
everywhere you go.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Warrior Series--Wielding the Sword
A sword in its sheath does no good. It's just ornamental at that point, so is a Bible that lies on the table or sits on a shelf and gathers dust. If you want the Bible to do you good, you have to take it out, open it up, and learn to use its cutting edge.
Sometimes that edge is used by the Lord to correct us and set us free from our own destructive behavior or the prison we have created for ourselves by through sin habits, rebellion, or simple ignorance (Isaiah 61). However, for now, I want to focus on the Sword as our weapon of offense.
A sword is not a defensive weapon. A sword is something used for offensive attack. That may sound odd to some, but think of it this way: if your whole purpose for using your sword is defensive, you will ultimately lose the fight because your enemy will pummel you until you are exhausted and fall. Instead, you use the sword to attack your enemy, drive him back, or destroy him, thus, freeing you from the attack. Now you can stand, walk, and move at will. The sword is an offensive weapon.
The Word of God is an offensive weapon, too. It is not there for us to hide behind but rather for us to use to drive back the enemy (Deuteronomy 33:27), set free captives (Isaiah 61), and usher in the kingdom of God to this earth (Matthew 6:10) . However, for it to be effective, it must be taken out of its sheath.
There are several ways to make the Sword useful, but they all start in one place--the Word.
For years I've had people tell me they cannot be warriors because they don't know the Word. I have gotten phone calls from folks, been taken out to lunch, received emails--the whole gamut--by people who want help, need help. However, they aren't like me. They don't know the Bible like I do. They can't quote the Bible like I do. they just don't know all those verses.
That just tells me they do not make reading and learning the Word a priority.
It is like a soldier in gun fight hiding his head between his knees depending on all the other soldiers to defend him because although he has a gun loaded with powerful bullets sitting beside him, he chose not to learn to use it. Most of us think that is crazy. Christians do it all the time.
So, let's figure out how to make this Sword that created a universe in six days work for us.
Taking hold of the Sword--finding what pertains to us.
1. Read. Read. Read. For three years I read the Bible through each year. I learned tons. To read the Bible through in a year, you only need to read 4 chapters a day. I made it easier for me and read 5. By simply reading the Word, you learn the marvelous acts of God, see miracles (like when the dead body of a prophet was tossed in a grave in haste and the bones he landed on came back to life, very cool story), and learn God's heart. You also find out just how far God is willing to go because He loves you and some of the things He won't put up with at all.
If you read enough, eventually, you can simply pull things from memory.
2. Word Studies. This is not as daunting as it may sound. You can use a concordance, which is the list of words in the back of your bible (or that huge volume of Strong's Concordance), to look up a topic and then read the verses associated with it. The concordance is good because it gives a few words of the sentence and it isn't overwhelming. The negative is that it is not exhaustive.
If you want all the verses, use a software program such as Bible Gateway. It also lets you easily change translations or even compare them.
One of the common questions I receive is, "What if I can't find the word I am looking for?" Good question. When I battled depression, I couldn't find the word depression in there, BUT I found words like despair, hope, darkness, healing. Look at both the synonym and antonym. The verse might say, "You set me free from my despair," OR it might say, "You gave me hope." Both may be what you need, so look for both "sides" of the situation or word. I use http://www.thesaurus.com/ to find synonyms and antonyms. Just type in a word and hit enter.
Holding the Sword--Being Armed with the Word
1. Memorization--There are several methods for this.
a. Read, read, read.--Pick a passage or a verse and read it over and over and over. Eventually, your mind won't need the paper anymoe.
b. Concentrated time--Sit down with the verse or passage on paper and work on it until you get it. Do this several days in a row, though, so your mind doesn't think you were joking.
c. In reverse--Write the verse or passage on a paper or dry erase board and take out one word at a time (with the children, I do one or two a day) and read the passage over and over until you no longer need that word. Then take out another word.
Example: The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
The _____ is my shepherd I shall not want.
The _____ is my shepherd I shall not _____.
You get the idea.
2. In your face.--Also known as Notecard Mania.
I have put posters of verses on my wall or papers with verses, but my friend Debra took this to a life-altering level. When the enemy threatened her family, she loaded up on the notecards. She wrote verses on them and put them everywhere--her daughters' bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, the laundry room, her bedroom, the living room. You couldn't walk into her house without seeing a notecard with a verse. And when she left, she took her baggie of notecards. When her daughters had a bad day, they pulled the notecards out and read them aloud. When Debra had a bad day, she pulled the notecards out and read them aloud. They not only kept the Word before them, they released it into the heavenlies. The Lord says, "My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11)."
Using the Sword--Declaring, Proclaiming, and Praying
I talked about this in a different post, so I'll only hit the highlights. The Bible says every promise by God is yes and amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). That means every promise He has made in the Bible, He made to YOU, too.
He promised forgiveness. That is for you.
He promised healing. That is for you.
He promised to be a rock, fortress, and shepherd. That is for you.
When pray verses over you or declare and proclaim God's promises, you are not burdening God or being a pest. Intead, what you are doing is saying, "God, you made this promise, and I trust your character enough to know you are going ot keep, that in fact, you want to keep it. I choose to agree with you so you can do that."
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." The enemy will tell you God is waiting for you to do something wrong, so He can smash you. The enemy will tell you God enjoys watching you be miserable. However, this promise if for YOU, and you can declare it over your own life.
"The Lord has plans for me. His plans are to prosper me--not to do me hard. He plans to give me hope and a future, and I receive His good plans. I receive His hope. I receive His future, and I praise Him for His goodness toward me. I rejoice in the goodness and the love of Almighty God."
Go yell it from your back porch (Yes, I've done that. No community comments, and it did make a difference in the circumstance). If you are having problems in your work place, go in there and start praying that verse while walking around the desks or standing outside your boss' office. If your marriage is struggling, you walk around your house and pray this. Lay your hands on your bed and pillows and pray this. Is your child making some questionable choices? Go in their room and pray this: "I know the plans my God has for this child..." Pray it every morning, noon, and night if you have to, but don't you let the enemy steal from you, and don't you buy his lies.
You have the power of Almighty God. It's His Word, and He has handed you the Sword. Yes, it is there to defend you, but its primary purpose is to defeat the enemy. So, Warrior, get out that Sword, get it polished up, and take what God has promised you.
Copyright Jerri Phillips 2008
Sometimes that edge is used by the Lord to correct us and set us free from our own destructive behavior or the prison we have created for ourselves by through sin habits, rebellion, or simple ignorance (Isaiah 61). However, for now, I want to focus on the Sword as our weapon of offense.
A sword is not a defensive weapon. A sword is something used for offensive attack. That may sound odd to some, but think of it this way: if your whole purpose for using your sword is defensive, you will ultimately lose the fight because your enemy will pummel you until you are exhausted and fall. Instead, you use the sword to attack your enemy, drive him back, or destroy him, thus, freeing you from the attack. Now you can stand, walk, and move at will. The sword is an offensive weapon.
The Word of God is an offensive weapon, too. It is not there for us to hide behind but rather for us to use to drive back the enemy (Deuteronomy 33:27), set free captives (Isaiah 61), and usher in the kingdom of God to this earth (Matthew 6:10) . However, for it to be effective, it must be taken out of its sheath.
There are several ways to make the Sword useful, but they all start in one place--the Word.
For years I've had people tell me they cannot be warriors because they don't know the Word. I have gotten phone calls from folks, been taken out to lunch, received emails--the whole gamut--by people who want help, need help. However, they aren't like me. They don't know the Bible like I do. They can't quote the Bible like I do. they just don't know all those verses.
That just tells me they do not make reading and learning the Word a priority.
It is like a soldier in gun fight hiding his head between his knees depending on all the other soldiers to defend him because although he has a gun loaded with powerful bullets sitting beside him, he chose not to learn to use it. Most of us think that is crazy. Christians do it all the time.
So, let's figure out how to make this Sword that created a universe in six days work for us.
Taking hold of the Sword--finding what pertains to us.
1. Read. Read. Read. For three years I read the Bible through each year. I learned tons. To read the Bible through in a year, you only need to read 4 chapters a day. I made it easier for me and read 5. By simply reading the Word, you learn the marvelous acts of God, see miracles (like when the dead body of a prophet was tossed in a grave in haste and the bones he landed on came back to life, very cool story), and learn God's heart. You also find out just how far God is willing to go because He loves you and some of the things He won't put up with at all.
If you read enough, eventually, you can simply pull things from memory.
2. Word Studies. This is not as daunting as it may sound. You can use a concordance, which is the list of words in the back of your bible (or that huge volume of Strong's Concordance), to look up a topic and then read the verses associated with it. The concordance is good because it gives a few words of the sentence and it isn't overwhelming. The negative is that it is not exhaustive.
If you want all the verses, use a software program such as Bible Gateway. It also lets you easily change translations or even compare them.
One of the common questions I receive is, "What if I can't find the word I am looking for?" Good question. When I battled depression, I couldn't find the word depression in there, BUT I found words like despair, hope, darkness, healing. Look at both the synonym and antonym. The verse might say, "You set me free from my despair," OR it might say, "You gave me hope." Both may be what you need, so look for both "sides" of the situation or word. I use http://www.thesaurus.com/ to find synonyms and antonyms. Just type in a word and hit enter.
Holding the Sword--Being Armed with the Word
1. Memorization--There are several methods for this.
a. Read, read, read.--Pick a passage or a verse and read it over and over and over. Eventually, your mind won't need the paper anymoe.
b. Concentrated time--Sit down with the verse or passage on paper and work on it until you get it. Do this several days in a row, though, so your mind doesn't think you were joking.
c. In reverse--Write the verse or passage on a paper or dry erase board and take out one word at a time (with the children, I do one or two a day) and read the passage over and over until you no longer need that word. Then take out another word.
Example: The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
The _____ is my shepherd I shall not want.
The _____ is my shepherd I shall not _____.
You get the idea.
2. In your face.--Also known as Notecard Mania.
I have put posters of verses on my wall or papers with verses, but my friend Debra took this to a life-altering level. When the enemy threatened her family, she loaded up on the notecards. She wrote verses on them and put them everywhere--her daughters' bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, the laundry room, her bedroom, the living room. You couldn't walk into her house without seeing a notecard with a verse. And when she left, she took her baggie of notecards. When her daughters had a bad day, they pulled the notecards out and read them aloud. When Debra had a bad day, she pulled the notecards out and read them aloud. They not only kept the Word before them, they released it into the heavenlies. The Lord says, "My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11)."
Using the Sword--Declaring, Proclaiming, and Praying
I talked about this in a different post, so I'll only hit the highlights. The Bible says every promise by God is yes and amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). That means every promise He has made in the Bible, He made to YOU, too.
He promised forgiveness. That is for you.
He promised healing. That is for you.
He promised to be a rock, fortress, and shepherd. That is for you.
When pray verses over you or declare and proclaim God's promises, you are not burdening God or being a pest. Intead, what you are doing is saying, "God, you made this promise, and I trust your character enough to know you are going ot keep, that in fact, you want to keep it. I choose to agree with you so you can do that."
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." The enemy will tell you God is waiting for you to do something wrong, so He can smash you. The enemy will tell you God enjoys watching you be miserable. However, this promise if for YOU, and you can declare it over your own life.
"The Lord has plans for me. His plans are to prosper me--not to do me hard. He plans to give me hope and a future, and I receive His good plans. I receive His hope. I receive His future, and I praise Him for His goodness toward me. I rejoice in the goodness and the love of Almighty God."
Go yell it from your back porch (Yes, I've done that. No community comments, and it did make a difference in the circumstance). If you are having problems in your work place, go in there and start praying that verse while walking around the desks or standing outside your boss' office. If your marriage is struggling, you walk around your house and pray this. Lay your hands on your bed and pillows and pray this. Is your child making some questionable choices? Go in their room and pray this: "I know the plans my God has for this child..." Pray it every morning, noon, and night if you have to, but don't you let the enemy steal from you, and don't you buy his lies.
You have the power of Almighty God. It's His Word, and He has handed you the Sword. Yes, it is there to defend you, but its primary purpose is to defeat the enemy. So, Warrior, get out that Sword, get it polished up, and take what God has promised you.
Copyright Jerri Phillips 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Warrior Series--Praying the Word
I grew up in church. We had a real altar that we actually knelt at, and sometimes we stayed there the whole service. I organized 24-hour prayer chains. I prayed for lengthy spans of time.
I am no stranger to prayer.
I believe God hears sincere prayers. I don't think they have to be fancy or lengthy. I've hydroplaned in my little aluminum Toyota with a large 4-wheel drive in front of me that actually stopped at the red light. My prayer went something like, "Oh, God!" I drove home a bit shaken and a lot slower but without mishap.
Some folks tell me they don't know how to pray. I tell them it is simply talking to God and letting Him talk back. Really. That's it, and I believe the Lord honors that. I know He does. I think God enjoys simple conversation.
Sometimes, though, simple conversation isn't what we need. Sometimes circumstances demand more than a casual, "If you think about it, it would be nice." Sometimes the battle is intense, and the situation requires the big guns.
When that happens, pull out your sword. In Ephesians 6, we are told the Sword is the Word of God. Let's understand the power of this Sword. The Word of God created an entire universe in 6 days. It called people back from the dead, and it took out a giant with a stone. The Word of God closed the mouths of lions, walked three young men through a fire, and opened a sea for millions of people to walk through.
Tell me anything in your life that is bigger than any of that.
So, now that we have perspective, let's find out how to wield this Sword.
Right now I am praying over some terminal diagnoses for three people. They need healing. I don't even ask if it is God's will. God say, "Don't eat the fruit, or you'll die." Sounds like God is all about life to me, so I'm going with that. You don't have to agree but don't expect me to change my mind.
I went to http://www.biblegateway.com/ and put the word "heal" into the blank. It brought up 182 references for the NIV. I copied that list to a Word document, and then I started deleting anything I didn't feel fit my needs. When I was done, I had 7 pages of scriptures.
Then I sat on my deck, which is my prayer perch, and I started praying scripture over these people by inserting their names. Anna had a head cold earlier this week, and I did the same for her.
Here are just a few from Matthew:
Matthew 4:23[ Jesus Heals the Sick ] Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness Anna had. {among the people}.
Matthew 4:24News about him spread all over Syria, and Jerri brought to him all {Anna} who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed her.
Matthew 9:35[ The Workers Are Few ] Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every Anna's disease and sickness.
Matthew 10:1[ Jesus Sends Out the Twelve ] He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness of Anna's.
Matthew 10:8Heal the sick {Anna}, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
You get the idea.
Maybe the issue is a prodigal. I have one right now I am praying for. I pray verses like, "It is not the will of God that (my prodigal) should perish but that he should turn from his ways and be saved." I read the story of The Prodigal where God is standing in the yard watching for My Prodigal, and My Prodigal comes home, and instead of a cranky brother, I put me in there with tears ready to kill every fatted calf we own in celebration.
If you aren't where you use a computer program, look verses up in your Bible in from the concordance in the back. One lady I know has a small book that fits in her purse, and it has a myriad of promises in it for different situations. When she needs to pray on the fly, she whips out that book, and she rips the doors of Heaven off their hinges calling forth the will of God.
Every wonder how folks can do that off the top of their heads? They read the Bible a lot, and they pray those verses at home from their prayer perch. They just have them memorized from use.
The Sword is for every believer. It isn't for the super spiritual. It is for the one who has the guts to believe for better things and to believe God wants to give them.
I am no stranger to prayer.
I believe God hears sincere prayers. I don't think they have to be fancy or lengthy. I've hydroplaned in my little aluminum Toyota with a large 4-wheel drive in front of me that actually stopped at the red light. My prayer went something like, "Oh, God!" I drove home a bit shaken and a lot slower but without mishap.
Some folks tell me they don't know how to pray. I tell them it is simply talking to God and letting Him talk back. Really. That's it, and I believe the Lord honors that. I know He does. I think God enjoys simple conversation.
Sometimes, though, simple conversation isn't what we need. Sometimes circumstances demand more than a casual, "If you think about it, it would be nice." Sometimes the battle is intense, and the situation requires the big guns.
When that happens, pull out your sword. In Ephesians 6, we are told the Sword is the Word of God. Let's understand the power of this Sword. The Word of God created an entire universe in 6 days. It called people back from the dead, and it took out a giant with a stone. The Word of God closed the mouths of lions, walked three young men through a fire, and opened a sea for millions of people to walk through.
Tell me anything in your life that is bigger than any of that.
So, now that we have perspective, let's find out how to wield this Sword.
Right now I am praying over some terminal diagnoses for three people. They need healing. I don't even ask if it is God's will. God say, "Don't eat the fruit, or you'll die." Sounds like God is all about life to me, so I'm going with that. You don't have to agree but don't expect me to change my mind.
I went to http://www.biblegateway.com/ and put the word "heal" into the blank. It brought up 182 references for the NIV. I copied that list to a Word document, and then I started deleting anything I didn't feel fit my needs. When I was done, I had 7 pages of scriptures.
Then I sat on my deck, which is my prayer perch, and I started praying scripture over these people by inserting their names. Anna had a head cold earlier this week, and I did the same for her.
Here are just a few from Matthew:
Matthew 4:23[ Jesus Heals the Sick ] Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness Anna had. {among the people}.
Matthew 4:24News about him spread all over Syria, and Jerri brought to him all {Anna} who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed her.
Matthew 9:35[ The Workers Are Few ] Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every Anna's disease and sickness.
Matthew 10:1[ Jesus Sends Out the Twelve ] He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness of Anna's.
Matthew 10:8Heal the sick {Anna}, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
You get the idea.
Maybe the issue is a prodigal. I have one right now I am praying for. I pray verses like, "It is not the will of God that (my prodigal) should perish but that he should turn from his ways and be saved." I read the story of The Prodigal where God is standing in the yard watching for My Prodigal, and My Prodigal comes home, and instead of a cranky brother, I put me in there with tears ready to kill every fatted calf we own in celebration.
If you aren't where you use a computer program, look verses up in your Bible in from the concordance in the back. One lady I know has a small book that fits in her purse, and it has a myriad of promises in it for different situations. When she needs to pray on the fly, she whips out that book, and she rips the doors of Heaven off their hinges calling forth the will of God.
Every wonder how folks can do that off the top of their heads? They read the Bible a lot, and they pray those verses at home from their prayer perch. They just have them memorized from use.
The Sword is for every believer. It isn't for the super spiritual. It is for the one who has the guts to believe for better things and to believe God wants to give them.
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