"The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the
righteous are bold as a lion."
Proverbs 28:1
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We are taking our seat in heavenly places in Christ Jesus!
Ephesians 2:6
Recap of our previous lesson:
“We are citizens of heaven … Philippians 3:20
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” Psalm 23:5
“…by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises…”
2 Peter 1:3-4
Those promises are our provision from heaven.
We operate in two realms: the natural earthly system where we presently live and the spiritual realm as an Ambassador for Christ. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within you. As our minds are renewed to Kingdom ways, we become more and more developed in how to release those ways into this natural system.
It’s an inside job.
All of our assignments operate through love, for the love of Christ compels us to fulfill our call. Jesus gave His life on the cross because of love. We were born again because of His love. Selah
The world is in darkness trying to fix problems without God and going the wrong way.
Orphans
Every unsaved person is an orphan—deep within themselves—because they don’t have Jesus as Lord. They do everything they can to try and satisfy the emptiness, that vacant hole within. Like Adam after he sinned in the garden, they are fear dominated and they seek to make their own covering of protection.
It’s good to remember how we felt without God in this world…without hope and searching. That’s why we pray for the lost.
Dependents of God
Children born of God’s seed operate and live under a completely different system. We walk by faith in God, our Father. “… for in Him we live and move and have our being…” Acts 17:28
One of the joys that Jesus focused on as He endured the cross, was that we would come to know The Almighty God as Jesus knows Him, “Abba Father.” Jesus gave us the complete and full right of fellowship with God… righteousness! 2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus calls this eternal life.
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” See John 17:3. We’re in the family and we have benefits! Praise the LORD!
PROVISION!
He is upholding all things with the word of His power. Hebrews 1:3
Faith that He will provide for everything we need is required to live as victorious overcomers. Every provision for life, protection and happiness is in His written Word.
Did you believe you received when you prayed? Mark 11:24
Many times people have asked me to pray for them, yet moments after prayer they start speaking about the problem all over again. Why? Because they didn’t take hold of the promise in their heart. Only the heart can produce faith to connect to the power source.
Don’t pray/speak until you have the “assurance” in your heart.
“I believe that! It’s mine, I’m taking it now. Thank you Lord, I receive!”
That’s the same process of how you got born again.
As we ended last week’s lesson, we had an assignment to make a list of how you stand in faith for the promises of God.
So, how do we stand for the manifestation of the promises (provision) of God?
Here are some basics I have on my list:
- Don’t get distracted.
- Do not be conformed to the world.
- Be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Romans 12:1-2
- Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17
- Fear comes from hearing and meditating the lies of the devil.
- Cares/worry that enter the heart choke the Word. Mark 4:19
- Take every thought captive to the written promise. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
- Resist the devil’s temptation and deception to give up. 1 Peter 5:6-9
- Confess the promise; meditate on it throughout the day. Joshua 1:8
- Don’t speak words that nullify the promise. Matthew 12:35
- Believe you receive. Mark 11:24
BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS
Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in October of 1947 at a speed of over 700 mph. The sound barrier that many had feared was broken. That breakthrough ushered in a new era, the Space Age.
The real barrier wasn’t in the sky, but in the knowledge of supersonic flight.
Breakthroughs in Revelation Knowledge
THE EPHESIANS PRAYER
The prayer given to us by the Holy Spirit through Paul in Ephesians Chapter 1 is absolutely necessary to experience success in these end days. The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God is the main focus of this prayer to our Father, for revelation needs to come to us in order to understand the spiritual side of our nature and the ways of God’s Kingdom.
The prayer expresses the need God’s children have. It also expresses God’s willingness for His children to break through the barriers of this natural world system we live in and go into the higher realms of living and walking by faith in the Spirit.
Each of the four requests in this prayer are asking God to help us to know and experience what Jesus has already provided and what belongs to us through Him. We make connection through prayer.
“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you:
- the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him
- the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling
- what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints
- and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe ...”
Breakthroughs in Faith
Every breakthrough in faith comes from a breakthrough in revealed knowledge. Revealed knowledge is divine knowledge of the Kingdom of God and how spiritual things operate. This knowledge or “knowing within” is knowledge that breaks through the natural realm as it is received by the heart or the spirit of man.
We rely completely on the Holy Spirit for this.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:12-15
Revelation knowledge is a prerequisite; a requirement in taking a promise of God as your own. Why? Because God’s promises come forth from Him and He is Spirit. John 4:24
Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63
Believing the promise in your heart produces faith. It is that same glorious event that took place when you got born again.
The Word of Faith
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:8-10
Every breakthrough in receiving and manifesting the promises of God comes from a breakthrough in revelation and understanding. Every advance in fulfilling the call of God comes from a breakthrough in the spirit of wisdom and revelation. The great and mighty power that is available to us is accessed through the supernatural revelation of God’s written Word and His perfect love toward us.
Your Prayer Life
Sometimes people who are called to pray forget to pray for themselves. God needs each of us to do what we know we should in taking care of own vessel so that we might fulfill our call: a long, healthy, strong, and prosperous life. See 3 John 2.
Praying the Ephesians’ prayer continually opens the realm of the Spirit because it opens the eyes of our understanding. When we see and know who we are in Christ and what He has given to us, it develops our inner man to be strengthened with might through His Spirit. Ephesians 3:14-21 is another prayer that should be prayed often.
With that in mind, I have put a new resource for you on the website which includes other prayers from the Apostles. It is called THE EPISTLE PRAYERS.
The New Testament Church has been given a “better covenant established on better promises,” (Hebrews 8:6-13), than the Old Testament, for we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
We love and should study the Old Testament, but our new nature requires an identity that lines up with who we are in Christ, not in the works of the law or in present day traditions of men. The Epistle Prayers are power packed and should be prayed often.
Chuck Yeager, as he entered into the cockpit of his plane in 1947, could not even have imagined that his supersonic flight would usher in the Space Age that would put a man on the moon.
We, as people who work with God in the Spirit, have no idea of the barriers that are broken as we pray and are led by His Spirit to intercede for our counties and states.
“But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
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