WARRING FOR THE KINGDOM

[Albert Finch]

Luke 11:1 states: "Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'"

This is our prayer, "Lord, teach us how to pray." -- we do not want to pray in our old ways, asking and begging. We want to come before Him as His Bride, drawing near to Him in a deep place of intimacy, and just be. When we are near Him, He is able to dwell in us more fully. From this posture everyone we encounter will be impacted by His presence in us.

We need to know who we are in Christ -- the power that is flowing through us and our authority over sickness, distractions, or other issues of life. We must war for the Kingdom of God rather than be distracted by a noise from the camp of the enemy which is built upon self, idolatry and individualism.

RESURRECTION POWER -- TAKING AUTHORITY

We have resurrection power attached to our prayer life! We can look to things that are absolutely dead and pray forth eternal LIFE! The same power in us is the same potencey God demonstrated when He raised Jesus out of the grave.

"His power at work in us who believe. This power in us is the same as the mighty strength which He used when He raised Christ form death...." - Ephesians 1:20

Our body is the temple of God and we have the right to take authority over every area of it – spirit, soul, and body.

We need an encounter with God on a deeper level and our prayer life to be transformed into living in a place of victory -- our intimacy with Christ growing stronger than ever with a sweet desperation for more of Him and the fulfillment of Jeremiah 33:3:

"Call to Me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."

COMMUNION WITH GOD

1 John 5:14-15 states:

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."

When we are in that place of intimacy with God, we can hear His heart. We are able to feel what He is doing and the season He is bringing us into. He is able to show us the things of the future and from that place decree them with greater authority. The time is crucial for us to begin to speak the hidden things of the Lord into existence, even if at the time we are experiencing difficulty and hardships. We are called to live a victorious life speaking as though our Father is speaking.

As it says in Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

The question is, how much intimacy do we want? Just how passionate for Jesus do we want to be? We are the ones who set those limits,not God.

Eternal life is not a length of life, but rather a quality of life. Eternal life is intimacy with the Father & Jesus. (John 17:3)

A NEW MODEL

Many of the old models are being put away, for this is the hour to stand in faith and prophesy the new things to come. Isaiah declared in Isaiah 43:18-19:

"Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. 'Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.'"

We know we have the victory over sin, death, and the darkness of this world. There is no way we are losing this battle, because the Lord provided the victory through the Cross. Even when things are hard, we must praise His name, because what the enemy intended for evil God will turn to our good.

No one wants to go through hard things, but as it states in James 1:2-4:

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

The more we go through, the more we overcome; and the more we overcome, the greater our authority becomes. We are made perfect and complete and lacking in nothing. God allows us to go through hard times because He has given us the grace to overcome it and will then give us Kingdom authority.

Hunger and purity is one response of a believer who sees the Lord in His glory. Another response is being consumed with passion and zeal for Him as Isaiah was.

"...For I am undone...I am a man of unclean lips..for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!...Whom shall I send...Then said I. Here am I; send me." - Isaiah 6:5,8

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY