Demons, Prophecy, and Discipline - Purity 1449

Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of a clear grassy pathway between rows of grapes that seem to lead right to the heavens above comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene at the South Dominion Vineyard in Cambridge on Sunday as I was enjoying the extended access to the grounds as I was there for the day as I joined the volunteers of Operation Adopt a Soldier as they were tabling there as part of the Washington County Bounty Tour. Yeah. Uh, well, it's Thursday and I share this pathway photo as a visual reminder. Or encouragement to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship, because the only true pathway to peace comes through placing one's faith in Jesus as Lord and following his example, uh, for living and seeking to apply God's wisdom to our lives. Jesus's life shows us that we should pray daily, live righteously, and periodically go into solitude to be alone with our Heavenly Father. Jesus's example shows us a different way of life, and if we want to follow him by asking our— asking the question, what would Jesus do? One of the answers we should arrive at should draw us to a regular spiritual practice of the disciplines of our faith. Pray and read the Bible every day was one of the first instructions I followed to be a quote-unquote real Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ. And while it was somewhat awkward and unfamiliar in the beginning, as I continued with those basics of our faith, the Lord used my efforts, his word, and his spirit to change my heart and mind to be more in line with him. But as we, but as we pursue the Lord in the basics and seek to know him more, we can easily be distracted from the fundamentals of our faith by seeking special knowledge or power. As a Christian life coach with training in freedom and healing prayer ministry, I seek to help others to connect with the Lord in prayer, to find healing from traumas of the past and freedom from demonic oppression. Through prayer ministry, I personally have received healing and new levels of freedom, and I've witnessed others receive the same. But recently, I became interested in other, more controversial, controversial forms of deliverance and exorcism and wondered if there was more I could learn or do to help the hurt to find freedom. So I enrolled in Bob Larson University and completed the entire curriculum. Um, let's see, we'll just share that image. Uh, I completed the entire curriculum. It was a lot of material, and I learned much about the enemy and his demonic forces of darkness. There are things Bob Larson teaches on that you won't receive in a normal Bible college, and I feel that the educational investment was worth it because it could better prepare me for those times when demons show up in prayer ministry. Similarly, I just purchased and completed John— Jonathan Cahn's latest book, The Dragon Prophecy, in which Cahn reveals how Satan's influences play out in history and in recent events. Cahn's many books reveal how types and shadows from Scripture seem to be playing out in history and how the enemy's agenda is influencing the way things are changing in the modern world. Cahn's Return of the Gods and The Dragon Prophecy reveal that ancient gods, demonic forces of darkness, haven't left the scene and may be growing in strength, as we have seen attacks on Israel and the de-Christianization of Western society. Kahn's books reveal how demonic influence and spiritual warfare are a real and present danger. However, while I appreciate what I've learned through Bob Larson University and the books of Jonathan Kahn, I am somewhat of a spiritual pragmatist and seek to know what I should do with these special teachings and insights. I won't be a spoiler, but both Larson and Kahn's work point to the need for us to be faithful Christians. Whether it's deliverance or seeing the mysteries of scripture and history or in current events, the bottom line is that we should pray, ask for God's help, share the truth of the gospel, seek to influence our realm of influence, and help the lost and hurting through good works. And I know that in order to be able to do that, we need to be built up in our spirits, and that can only come through a regular practice of our faith. We need to do the spiritual disciplines. In pursuing, uh, let's see, yeah, in pursuing teachings on the demonic and the prophetic, I have a clearer vision of who the enemy is. But I have to— I have come to understand that as valuable as the information I have received could be in terms of the help I could possibly bring to others, it is better to know God and to receive what he has for me. And that is best accomplished spiritually, meaning that we allow God to slowly transform your heart and mind from the inside out. In my enthusiastic search for new knowledge, I have been convicted that I will best be able to deal with the demonic or face the uncertainties of the end times by receiving from the Lord as I walk and talk with him, just as Larson and Cahn suggest. As wild and crazy as you might think pastors that teach about prophecy and deliverance may be, it may surprise you that in the end They point you to the path of Christian discipleship and authentic Christian faith. So I learned what I learned and I appreciate it, but now it is time to go back to the basics and be faithful to the simple, disciplined ways that Jesus modeled for us. We don't want to be more like Satan. We want to be more like Jesus. So we should follow him. We can't know the future, so we should trust God for today and tomorrow. And not worry about world events and politics that are beyond our influence. The Christian is to grow where we are planted and to follow where the Lord leads. So let's spend some time today with God to determine where that is. I investigated the teachings of some of the biggest names in deliverance and prophecy. After all that teaching, I'm more convicted than ever to just abide in Christ. To help who I can, and to live a simple Christian disciplined life. So let's do that, and let's keep walking and talking with God. Today's Bible verses come to us from The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on the forgiveness of sins, and today's verses are Luke 18:9-14 from the NIV. And our resource shares this, it says, the proud, self-righteous Pharisee was not justified or forgiven, but the humble tax collector— humble tax collector was justified and could go home with peace in his heart. And the word of God in those scriptures, uh, Luke 18:9-14, tell us, to some who were confident of their own righteousness— to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I'll— I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Yeah, today's verses fall under the 23rd point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the forgiveness of sins. And that 23rd point is: Jesus gave us the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Yes, he did. And, uh, today's Bible verses teach us not to be so self-righteous in our own eyes that we are blinded by our pride. The Pharisees were respected members of Jewish society, and for Jesus to present this parable to challenge, uh, to challenge the appearance of the status quo must have been a shock. Uh, the Pharisees were known for doing what was right, at least on the surface, but here Jesus lets them know that God sees what they are doing and that their pride and their own righteousness was misplaced. As Jesus tells us, that it was the sincere repentant sinner who turned to God that was justified, rather than the one who took pride in all the ways he was doing things right. So let that humble you. Make sure as we make progress in our spiritual lives that we never lose sight of how the Lord has helped us, and that In and of ourselves, we can do nothing. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights and resources from Christian, um, pastors, theologians, and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture And, uh, today's chapter is Hebrews 4, and from that chapter he shares a portion of verse 2, which says, the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. And Stephen Alford writes, the scriptures teach that the just shall live by faith. In this present age, the Christian life is a life of faith. It was true as well of Old Testament saints. God honors faith. Faith touches the invisible. Faith overlooks the concrete and transient and lays hold of God and his word. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Thus the apostle points out the failure of the children of Israel who lost the blessing because they did not accept God's word with positive faith. God honors faith like Abraham's, for he did not waver at the promise of God. And Alfred ends by praying, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Amen. Amen. And yeah, we have to receive it by faith. So to just to know what the word of God says intellectually is one thing, But to receive the word and to have faith in it, to trust it, and to apply it to your life, that's something else entirely. And, um, that's where, that's where our, you know, our attempts at being a Christian life coach and a prayer minister come in, is that we— our mission is to introduce people to the things they don't know and to, and to, and to introduce them to God. To, um, to, to give them the things they, they don't, they don't currently possess but that are rightfully theirs as children of God. The fruit of the Spirit is what we're supposed to experience as a Christian. We're supposed to have peace and joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And when we follow the Lord and put our faith in him and follow him through the spiritual disciplines. The Lord uses our efforts at learning and living to change our hearts, to give us that transformation. And so when we receive it by faith, you know, that we can overcome, that, you know, that we really believe that God is working all things together for our good, and that we trust that we can renew our minds through the word and through following him. That's when we receive, that's when God comes in and he guides us into a deeper life. And so we ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? Do you have faith in his word to the point where you're going to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit? Well, we encourage you to do that. Because even though it's important to know the things of God, it's— I think we think it's more important for you to, you know, do something with what God's word says about you. You know, uh, one of the things that the Lord led me to do is, uh, uh, after you follow and surrender, he usually gives you something to do. And one of the things he's blessed me with is, uh, recovery ministry at, um, Starpoint Church in Clifton Park that meets on Wednesday nights where we do Christian recovery and discipleship. It's called Celebrate Freedom, and I invite anybody in Upstate New York who can make it to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night to come and join us. Um, as we teach, um, we teach about who you are in Christ. We go through the recovery curriculum of Celebrate Recovery, and we teach about practicing good skills, quieting and appreciation, and, and, um, different aspects of our faith to encourage you to, to experience, um, a life that God has for you. We teach you to walk in the Spirit. Um, and as always, we, uh, encourage people to find or increase your freedom, uh, in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on our YouTube channel. Uh, we have several classes, basically, uh, Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, Victory Over the Darkness, and, uh, our own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course that are available to anybody who wants to check out the playlist on YouTube. You can find those on YouTube, or you can go to mtforchrist.com and look at the, uh, YouTube playlist page. Where you can find easy links to the playlist that you're looking for. And as always, we end by asking the question: Are you empty for Christ too? Are you made yourself available for the Holy Spirit to fill you? If so, that's great. Keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to do that by praying a prayer like this one: Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you would, um, or watching today's message, that you would come alongside them in their prayer requests, their walk of faith. Lord, we pray for you to help them and guide them in the way they should go. Lord, we pray that for us too. Um, we need you to show us the things we need to see today. We need you to guide us, uh, into the good works that you have prepared for us beforehand so we can do uh, you know, give you glory and help others. Um, Lord, we need your help with that. We want to represent your kingdom, and we're, we're praying for you to bless us, um, as you always have. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.