Truth vs. Lies

Today we listened for the lies at work in our neighborhood (yeah, it's ours now). Lies about who God is, and how involved He is with us - keeping people from seeing hope.  Lies that they are failures, leading to lies that they deserve their suffering, leading to lies that God doesn't exist, or if He does, He doesn't dearly love them.  


We've had enough of the devil's lies. We move in the opposite spirit from the one that's at work here.  Jesus loves with fire in His eyes, and He loves openly in the presence of the enemy.  We tell the truth to people about His deep love for them, and about His acceptance and forgiveness.  And We make no apologies for who He is.  God's Love is the truth.   

Psalm 23:5 "You prepare a table for me in the sight of my enemies..."

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B believes he's worthless and he doesn't deserve to be anything but a drunk- all day, every day.  The truth is that Jesus knows exactly what he made when He made you, B.  He made you like a vessel, perfectly designed to receive and respond to God.  And because you've suffered your whole life under this lie of worthlessness, Jesus has a special word for you about your value in God's eyes... You are precious to the heart of God, B.  In fact, you're like a son to God.  He treats you with tenderness and compassion, He knows you're weak. He will never speak harshly to you.  In fact, Jesus never stops speaking the truth of your value in His eyes-  let Him wash over you like water with words of life. Jesus dearly loves B.


Luke 8 and Mark 5: "Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, launched out, and sailed all night to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.  When He got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit ran up to Him.  He was being tormented constantly, night and day, and was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains.   Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, and the demons came out of the man!  When the people went out to see what had happened; they found the man, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind...  then Jesus got into the boat and sailed all day back to Galilee."  

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S believes she has to be a prostitute to survive and she's ashamed to turn to Jesus because of how she lives her life.  Jesus knows all about your life, S... Every hope you have for something better... Every tear you've shed over what has become of you.  He's not ashamed to publicly call you His own, and to love you.  I can see Jesus welcoming, no, inviting the opportunity to be seen with you, saying "Yeah, she's with me. She's my special friend, and there's no one I'd rather be with.  No one will ever change my mind about that."  Jesus dearly loves S.

Luke 7:37-50 "there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that Jesus was reclining in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. 

      Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon the Pharisee, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet.  You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume.  For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little."   Then He said to her, "Your sins have been forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

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Many believe the enemy just has too much power here... he's everywhere you look. Now, that is just really a lie, because the bigger truth is that Satan is a loser, and he's afraid of the children of the kingdom of God when we love without fear. The truth is that Jesus is on the move.  We are praying for Him to come and take over.  We confront the darkness and lies with as much of the Spirit and Truth of God as we can carry, and we pray for more and more (hey... isn't there something about worshiping God in spirit and in truth...).  Jesus is on the move and the darkness cannot stay in His presence.

Come Serious...

Joshua 5:13,14  "Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" 
He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as Commander of the host of the LORD." 
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" 




One of our new friends has a front row seat on the corner where they say the devil doesn't sleep.  She said she didn't like anyone there, but if we wanted to pray for someone, it was D across the street. Turns out D owns the store in the middle of it all. We walked over and asked in a group of people is someone here named D?  "Yeah I'm D." "We want to pray for you," we said.   "Yeah, I'll have that. Let's get that right now!"  It was so fast we didn't even introduce ourselves.  So we took a minute and started saying what we believed God wanted for him and his store and his life and realized, hey, we better just start praying!  John and I both just brought as much heaven as we could pray down on D and his store and his life. I got the feeling that the dozen or more people on the street were stopping to watch. 


I think something started happening at that point.  Mr. J, an old friend of ours, broke in and said, "I'll have some prayer with you now." Now, I get the growing impression that old Mr. J has got some fire in his bones, because he drew out the fire in us. Before we prayed he looked us in the eye and said "you need to come serious."  What he was saying was that he wanted to see us bring the fire.  I believe he sees something in us that he really wants to see come out.  So we continued to pray there in front of D's store.  


It was something like this- we prayed against the works of the devil in that place that keeps people pressed down, and steals their hope, and lies to them with alcohol and drugs to deaden the pain.  We prayed out loud on that street.  That the enemy is on stolen ground that he got through lies.  That he has no true claim to the ground he works on.  That Jesus Christ is He who is here now, not to give up ground but to take it.  That God has fire in His eyes and He loves with a vengeance and He will have His beloved.  Then John prayed with all his heart that the true Love of the true God would be known on this street. And that demons would flee and drugs would flee and in their place the peace of Heaven would come to this street.  Then Mr J prayed that the terrible shaking of the earth we've seen in natural disasters would speak to people about how God is powerful and unchanging and to be feared and that they would repent.


I felt like something happened in the spirit last night as people watched, and as we prayed-in the Spirit of God in that place.  It felt like Heaven moved.  We want to bring it to earth like Jesus did- everyday.

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POSTSCRIPT:
I don't want people to smile and kind of like what we're doing, but not feel compelled.  I want them to jerk their head around at what we're bringing, and realize that the kingdom of God has come to them.  It's not a nice thing, it's an awesome thing.  God's not nice, He's a consuming fire and His passion burns to make Himself known to people who live in darkness.  His Love is awesome and furious. His Love is war.  It goes in and slits the throat of enemy captors to rescue the beloved. So passionate is His Love for His bride.  And He will have His bride.


Bring us your presence O God!  Display all of what You made the earth, and mankind to display of Yourself. Bring us your Spirit O God, and make Yourself known in this dark place. Do everything that's in Your heart to do for mankind, rescue these Your beloved, and establish Your kingdom here.