Authority on the Job

Greetings,

                There it is. It's the same sarcastic smile you are greeted with every morning. Yuck! The receptionist, who puts on an air of friendliness for everyone else, makes no effort to hide her distaste about you. It's no mystery as to why she does this. She gave you the same air of friendliness until she found about you and the C-word. That's right, the day she found out you were a Christian everything changed. Unfortunately it wasn't just her.

                Others began to act funny around you. Then you started getting accused of being ignorant and judgmental. You weren't consciously judging anyone, but you were labeled because you are Christian. Suddenly, you became a magnet for negativity. Why would people intentionally ostracize you? Why would people go out of their way to tell dirty jokes right in front of you as often as possible? Could it be because you are Christian? Of course.

                It can be challenging to balance our spiritual persuasions while working in a secular field. There is no doubt that the easiest thing to do with our religious convictions is to keep them to ourselves. The reason is because when we begin to become vocal with our coworkers about what we believe, people can begin to respond negatively. So what can we do about this?

                I have found myself in several awkward situations at the various jobs I have held in the past. I don't expect this to change for jobs that I will hold in the future. Since I tend to be rather straight forward about my relationship with Jesus, this is something I have simply come to accept. However, I have learned that there is an edge that I will always have over those that seek to create problems for me. I have an awesome prayer life!

                "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12)

                While I do not discount practical tips and tricks for making peace and keeping friends, there is a very real spiritual element to every situation. On this note we must always remember that our battle is not against people, but against evil spirits in the kingdom of darkness. As a matter of fact, what I have learned is that there are key evil spirits that oversee the activity occurring in just about every business. These spirits are usually things like alcoholism, drug abuse, gossip, revenge, hatred, slander, antichrist, jezebel and so forth. It's usually very easy to tell what kind of spirits are in operation by simply having a keen eye and picking up on the obvious. If you know what everyone did last weekend (without any specific individual telling you their own story) it is pretty easy to conclude that a spirit of gossip is at work. If there is a strong rebuttal every time the name of Jesus is brought up, there is probably a spirit of antichrist.

                "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." (1 John 4:3)

               

                In order to circumvent the strategies of the enemy, we must remind ourselves about who we are in Christ. We must then exert the authority that Jesus has given us. In Him we have been given power over the power of the enemy. This is relevant for every setting and situation. It doesn't matter if we are not in the church building. God intends for us to partner with Him to the end that the works of the devil are destroyed. As it is written:

                " Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke 10:19)

                Whenever I am working a secular job I make sure to bind all of the evil spirits and activities I have identified (or that the Lord has pointed out to me). This is not something I do only once on my first day of work. This is something that I do daily during my morning prayers. I have found that when I bind the works of darkness and loose the things of God, my work environment is radically changed in my favor. It actually positions me for favor with my superiors. Moreover, it breaks the spiritual resistance to the testimony of Jesus Christ. This means that it is much easier to engage coworkers, pray with coworkers, and even lead coworkers to Christ. Now that is what I call the ideal work environment!

                "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18)

How To Stop Nightmares

Greetings,

                You are waking up in a cold sweat. Your heart is frantically beating, trying to escape from its place in your chest. You have stress, anxiety and fear all at the same time. Surrounded by darkness, you are trying to collect your thoughts. Your palms are sweating,  and you're breathing is heavy. What is going on? As the moments pass ,you begin to settle down. There is no threat. You are safely in your bed. Then you realize that it was all a dream. Or should I say, a nightmare?

                Nightmares are the dreams that no one wants to have. They are scary, disturbing, and unpleasant. The evil that accompanies them can be felt, sometimes even after we have awakened from them. We have been in a long series on spiritual warfare. This week we will learn how to apply spiritual warfare techniques to solve the problem of nightmares.

                The first thing that we need to understand about dreams is that they have three main sources.

1.       Dreams can be inspired by the Holy Spirit (the kingdom of light)

2.       Dreams can be inspired by our own anxieties, passions, and experiences

3.       Dreams can be inspired by demonic entities (the kingdom of darkness)

True nightmares are often inspired from the kingdom of darkness. While we can have "nightmares" that are not inspired by the kingdom of darkness, these are not the ones that this email is going to focus on. How can we tell the difference? When the nightmares include a component of evil that can be "felt," it is a good indicator that the dream has been inspired by the kingdom of darkness. If the source is normal stress or anxiety, the dreams are typically not much more than unpleasant.

For instance, when I was waiting tables years ago I had a dream that I was waiting on two tables at opposite ends of a mall! No matter how hard I tried it was impossible to keep up with the pace of the meal that these guests were trying to enjoy. This dream was unpleasant by every definition, and I could feel overwhelming stress the whole time. However, without a "presence" of evil in dream, this "nightmare" was most likely not inspired by the kingdom of darkness.

On another occasion (years ago) I had what I will consider a true nightmare. In this situation, I had a sinking feeling throughout the entire dream. As it continued, I kept going lower and lower into this sewer type area. The lower I went, the more threatened I felt. Eventually I encountered this guy that keep pushing me back. The further back I was pushed, the more the feeling of threat increased. At the end of the dream I found myself isolated in what seemed like a cell, awaiting impending doom. Instead of sticking around for the inevitable, I woke myself up. I immediately began to pray.

I have had many unpleasant experiences in my sleep that were distributed to me by the kingdom of darkness. Some of you reading this may be resonating with my experience. You may have experienced death, torture, terror, worst case scenarios, violence, humiliation, or things that are even worse in dreams.

I have learned that the enemy is always going to be a coward. Instead of confronting peoples strongest points, he will always prey on their weaknesses. He also never sleeps. The enemy is just as interested in attacking people in their sleep as he is during their waking hours. In order to sabotage his efforts to attack me in my sleep, what I do is prepare. Since I am not going to be conscious in order to conduct any necessary spiritual warfare, I have to make sure that I won't have to. You can think about it like this. Who is safer: the man who sleeps in the grass in the middle of a large field or the man who sleeps in a fortress surrounded by armed guards.

Many people don't consider that because we are members of the kingdom of light, we actually have the ability to go to sleep in a spiritual fortress. Instead of taking advantage of these potential sleeping conditions, many Christians opt to simply sleep with no defenses. These vulnerable Christians will inevitably suffer more attacks in their sleep. This will be especially true when personal revival for the individual begins to take place.

In order to go to sleep in a spiritual fortress, we have to rely on the spiritual principles that God has given us. He gave us a tongue with which to speak. As we speak in faith, our spoken (not politely thought in our head) words will actually create realities in the spirit realm. This is why the Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those that love it will eat of its fruit (Proverbs 18:21). We use our tongue to speak out the situation that we will be sleeping in.

The next step is to use the promises that God has given us. The way promises work in the Christian faith is that we have to give our yes to God's yes. In other words, there are promises that are waiting for us to grab a hold of. However, before we experience their impact we have to agree with them and begin to declare them with our mouths. According to the following verse, we see that God has already given His yes and His Amen to all of His promises towards us. By agreeing with His promises and experiencing their impact, we will actually bring God glory.

"For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Understanding this, our next step is to find our ideal sleeping conditions in His Word. The following are the scriptures and quotes that I speak over myself before going to sleep every night. By doing this prior to going to sleep every night, I rarely if ever have to deal with nightmares.

Scriptures

"When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet." (Proverbs 3:24)

"There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." (Psalm 91:10)

"No weapon formed against thee shall prosper" (Isaiah 54 :17)

"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust." (Psalm 91:2)

"So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him." (Isaiah 59:19)

Quotes

"Father, I cancel all nightmares in Jesus' name. I thank you in advance that tonight all of my dreams will be inspired by Your Holy Spirit."

"Father, I pray right now that a hedge of protection is established round about my house (based on Job 1:10)"

"Father, I pray that angels would guard this house round about, both above and below, in the name of Jesus (based on Psalm 91:11, Matthew 26:53, Hebrews 1:14)"

"Father, I plead the blood of Jesus over myself, my house, and all of my property in the name of Jesus (based on Revelation 12:11)"

"Father, I pray that every curse, hex, spell, divination, demon, human spirit, form of voodoo, spiritual assignment, and any other unnamed work of darkness sent against me be rendered powerless in the name of Jesus (based on Luke 10:19)" [note: in some cases you can even pray that these things would be reversed upon the heads of the senders that they would know that Jesus is Lord... it works]

Happy sleeping!