Prayer: Your not so secret weapon

The satan and his demons like to see you doing things on your own initiative, that are based upon your own knowledge and wisdom. They are thrilled to keep you toiling if you are doing things that seem noble, right, and good.

They love to see you anxious and spinning around even if you think you are “doing it for God”. They will do everything possible to keep you in that perpetual existence.

An example of using your own knowledge and wisdom
There are some people that live in urban areas but they make a lot of money so they buy a survival retreat in a rural area thinking that they could travel to it in case of emergency.

Not all, but some of these people are very misguided. For one thing, they might be able to make it to their survival retreat: However, I believe that for most, when it gets bad enough that they need it, traveling will be severely restricted and pretty much impossible.

Secondarily, when things get bad enough that they “head for the hills”, if they DO make it to their retreat safely, their supplies will probably be long gone before they arrive. Plus, if their supplies ARE still there, they will probably not be familiar with how to use them. They will have no idea how to safely and proficiently utilize things like guns, garden seeds, and chain saws. So for many, lack of knowledge, training, and experience will lead to disaster even if they are not harassed by marauders either before or after they reach their destination.

Thirdly, they will not know people in the vicinity and so they may find themselves entirely on their own under extremely stressful, adverse and unfamiliar circumstances.

Certainly, not everyone who has a rural retreat would be like that but I know some who are. So if or when conditions warrant utilizing their “retreat”, it may not go exactly as planned….

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Proverbs 14:12

On the other hand: “Prayer changes things.”
Someone wisely said that the “satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

In the book “The Kneeling Christian”: The anonymous author wrote “There is nothing the devil dreads so much as prayer. His great concern is to keep us from praying.

It doesn’t really seem that the devil’s pride would allow him to “tremble” at anything. Nevertheless, I certainly agree with the sentiments of that phrase.

Evil spirits know that if you are engaged in activities that are your own idea, disrupting your plans will be much easier; regardless of how righteous or noble they appear. On the other hand, they also know that if you are following God’s leading, disrupting the agenda becomes a whole nother matter.

Wesley L. Duewel heard the call of God on his life while playing in his sandbox at the age of five. For the next 94 years he served God with great fervor, accomplishing wonderful things as he led people to accomplish great things by way of a deeper walk with God through prayer.

What is prayer?
Duewel defined prayer as ‘joining Christ in driving out and defeating satan and in setting his captives free. It is advancing against satan’s strongholds and dislodging and expelling demon forces.”

I think that is a pretty good definition of prayer. Prayer and meditation, with the Bible, is the vehicle that will take you to an intimate relationship with God so that you can be in a position to do all kinds of exciting things with El Shaddai.

…the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

Daniel 11:32 b

Accordingly, in Acts 17: 6 the religious people were concerned that the true people of God had come to town when they proclaimed:

These that have turned the world upside down have come here also;

Nominal “Christians” (if there is such a thing – Rev. 3:16) will never experience these kinds of things. So how are the real people of God going to do exploits and turn the world upside down? It won’t be by way of great planning, beans, bullets, or bandaids. Yes, those things are prudent and may even prove to be beneficial for some at one time or another.

The weapons of the Remnant are not carnal in nature (2 Cor. 10:4).
However, the real work that will change the world, as mentioned in Dan. 11:2 and Acts 17:6 (above), will be accomplished by staying intimately connected to the Father through prayer as Yeshua did.

As Yeshua only did what the Father showed Him to do, so shall it be for the Remnant.

I took that little rabbit trail above to help you see how nonsensical some thinking can be; especially when we try to do things on our own.

Being misguided spiritually can yield the same types of results as being misguided physically (sometimes much worse)
HOWEVER, THE SCENARIO ABOVE IS NO DIFFERENT THAN THINKING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO PROFICIENTLY FUNCTION SPIRITUALLY WHEN YOU ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH YOUR SPIRITUAL EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES.

THAT IS ESSENTIALLY NO DIFFERENT THAN THINKING THAT EVENTHOUGH YOU HAVE SNUBBED GOD, HE WILL SOMEHOW COME TO YOUR RESCUE AT THE LAST MINUTE AND PROVIDE FOR YOUR EVERY NEED. IF THAT IS THE SITUATION, WHEN THE NEED ARISES YOU WILL PROBABLY FIND YOURSELF IN THE SAME CONDITION AS THE PEOPLE ABOVE.

God may have mercy on you, but it would be foolish to take Him for granted by assuming that He will and that you will somehow suddenly know how to freely and fluently function in the spirit realm when you had never applied yourself to it before.

There is a day coming that all of the beans, bullets, and bandaids in the world won’t help you if you are not walking intimately with God.

Prayer outside of relationship is religion.
So, if you would like to strengthen your relationship with God through Yeshua and Holy Spirit, here are a few suggestions.

1. First and foremost, tell God that you want to have that kind of a relationship with Him.
2. Be willing to do whatever it takes to facilitate that relationship. Know that you are going to have to commit just as much (or more) time, money and other resources getting to know God as you would in order to develop a relationship with any other person.
3. Commit to it: Purpose to develop your relationship with God in order to expand it in ways that you never thought possible.
4. Pick a time in your schedule that you can be faithful to meet with Him in prayer, meditation, and through the Scriptures.
5. If possible, find someone who can help you that is like-minded but a little farther down the trail.
6. Try to locate a small fellowship that you can become accountable to. The Bible clearly instructs this but it is very difficult to do. For those who are unable to find like-minded local fellowship, we have created our very unique online community.
7. Choose and purpose to not allow ANYTHING to distract you or prevent you from entering into that special relationship with God. You are going to have to be purposeful about this. As you undertake this there will probably be an abundance of distractions and hurdles that pop up that seem legitimate and more important than God.
8. The foundational principles of the Bible are love and faith in that order. The only way to have an intimate relationship with God is to activate these two realities in your life. You can be faithful as could be in numbers 1-7 but if you don’t walk out your relationship in a real and vibrant way, it is nothing more than religion.

I pray you find this helpful as you discern how to navigate these days.

Blessings in Yeshua, 
Parson Rayphe
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