Greetings dear readers, this is Jeanne.  I want to apologize for not identifying myself in previous posts, and I have a confession.  When Lynn asked me to contribute to her blog, I was really nervous! I feel this is a sacred community and I don’t want to harm it in any way.  I want to be one of the conduits through which the Lord blesses you.  He does have good things for me to give you, if I can keep my flesh out of the way!  With that said, on to today’s post.

A few months ago I heard the song “Thy Will” by Hillary Scott.  It’s a beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking song.  I don’t have permission to quote it here, but if you get a chance to listen to it, please do.  She wrote it after losing a baby to miscarriage.  The most heartbreaking part for me is that she seems to believe that God caused or at least allowed her baby to die, for reasons she might never know.

We all have tragedies in our lives that leave us asking “Why?”  You probably know people who have turned away from God because of a painful event or a prayer he didn’t answer.  If you are like me, you have also gone through times when you weren’t sure you wanted to serve a God who lets bad things happen to good people.  Or perhaps you have believed that he has some unknowable reason, and the painful experiences are part of his plan for you or for them.

Please know that I am not condemning this thought process; trust me, I’ve been there.  It is one of the most insidious lies of the enemy that God controls what happens on this earth.  You may have heard it taught in your church, but it’s still a lie.  God gave dominion – power, authority, jurisdiction -  over a perfect earth, in which there was no death, to human beings made his own image. When they chose to obey the devil instead of God, they handed that authority over to the enemy.  

               The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind.  Ps 115:16

Don’t you know that you become a slave to whomever you choose to obey? You can obey sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteousness.  Romans 6:16

Jesus came as a man because that was the only way he could get the earth back from the enemy.  He came to destroy the works of the enemy. To get mankind out from under the yoke of sin, Jesus had to lead a perfect life, never once obeying the enemy instead of God.  What an incredible task!  He did exactly what the Father sent Him to do, and in the end sin and death had no power over him. 

Jesus gave that power and authority over the enemy to his disciples (that would be us.)  He gave the church (us again) power to bind and to loose, and he said the gates of hell will not prevail against us.  What happens on earth is our will, not God’s.  He allows what we allow; he won’t interfere with our free will.  God’s will is that every one of us would choose life, love each other, and spend eternity with him.  But the choice is ours.  Each of us has free will and the choice of how to live and whom to serve, every moment of every day.

Back to the tragedies that fill our lives.  If it wasn’t God’s will that the Scotts lost their baby, why did it happen?  God breathed life into that baby at the moment of conception.  He had a plan for that child’s life.  It was cut short by the thief who comes to kill, steal, and destroy.  The devil and the effects of sin are all around us.  People blame God for what man does or does not do, which is exactly what the devil wants.  The good news is, we have the power and the authority to rebuke the devil, to walk in the power Jesus gave us, and to bring the Kingdom of God to earth.  The bad news is, it won’t happen if we don’t do it.

Today, let me encourage you to search the Scriptures and ask Holy Spirit to show you the authority you have and where he wants you to exercise it.  Our prayers are powerful; our words are powerful; our actions are powerful.  Don’t let the enemy deceive you into believing what you do or say or pray doesn’t matter.  Leave a message in the comments about what He shows you.  Remember, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Phil. 4:13)

Jeanne

When I was in high school, my mother signed me up to teach a Christian education class to first graders.  The church provided a curriculum, a classroom, and a roster of students.  The first day of class I took attendance and began to teach the first lesson.  Almost immediately, one of the boys went to the back of the classroom and started playing with the art supplies.  I told him to go sit down, but he did not.  I ignored him and kept teaching.  Soon another child got up and went to the back of the room.  By the third session of this class, all I was doing was taking attendance and keeping the kids in the room. I stopped even attempting to teach. 

The gospels tell a story about a man who brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus’ disciples.  To summarize, Jesus is on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and when they come down there is a crowd waiting.  A man tells Jesus about the torment of his son, and says that his disciples were not able to heal him.  Jesus expresses frustration with this “faithless and unbelieving generation” and then heals the boy. Later,

… the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.  However, this kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:19-21, NKJV

Different translations of this passage say “This kind of demon only goes out by prayer and fasting” but in the original language, “this kind” refers to the unbelief, not the demon.  Jesus is clearly telling them that the issue is their faith, or rather the lack of it. 

When the demon saw Jesus, it threw the boy into convulsions and he fell to the ground, rolling around and foaming at the mouth.  I’m sure this was frightening for the disciples to witness, and though they knew Jesus had given them authority over the powers of darkness, they reacted with doubt.  The same thing happened to me as a teenager. I had the authority to place my hand on the wayward child’s shoulder and direct him back to his seat.  I lost control of the class simply because I did not exercise my rightful authority. In the same way, the disciples felt powerless even though they had the authority of Jesus himself.

These same disciples had successfully cast out demons and healed the sick in the past.  But in this circumstance, they had allowed what they saw to override what they knew to be true: that Jesus himself had given them the power to cast out demons.  It can be quite difficult to stand solidly on a spiritual truth when our flesh is screaming something contradictory. 

When Jesus stated that unbelief only comes out by prayer and fasting, he was referring to this tension between the facts (what we can see in the physical realm) and the Truth as defined and described by God. Jesus was always watching and listening to the Father.  He saw the same demonic seizure as his disciples, but instead of being intimidated, he focused on his Father’s will to heal and Holy Spirit’s power to invade the natural realm.  Jesus prepared for his ministry with 40 days fasting in the wilderness, and countless more late nights and pre-dawn mornings spent in prayer. Jesus got hungry and tired as we all do, but accomplishing the Father’s will was truly his life’s purpose.

To be honest, my flesh doesn’t always want to set aside my own agenda and spend time in prayer, and it surely doesn’t want to skip many meals. But look at the promise!  If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move mountains… nothing would be impossible for you.

Jesus knows we can’t do this on our own. He is patient as we learn to follow his example, little by little.  If we increasingly trust him one minute, one hour, one day at a time, he will teach us to do what he did, and even greater things. 

Note: This story is related in Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29, and Luke 9:37-43.

Ya, so last Friday's post was harsh. I didn't mean for the words to come across harsh or accusatory in any way. 

Ugh!

Jezebel is an evil that is brutal and demands blood. However, if I hurt anyone by mentioning abortion, that was not my intention. Please forgive me. Jesus has forgiven a torrent of my past and abortion is under His blood. In fact, it's a joy for me to pray with people and watch Jesus redeem an abortion. If you want to experience that, please email me and let's plan a time to make that happen.

I do want to share some more about Jezebel. But today, I want to talk about Jesus!

Everything about the demonic world stems from iniquity. There is an iniquity force at play in the world right now at a level I haven't seen in my lifetime. And it is iniquity that opposes Jesus. 

What is iniquity anyway? Well, the simplest way to explain it is: SELF 

Self-interest, self-desires, self-indulgence, self-driven. It is the sin of self. This is the very sin that cast satan from the Kingdom of Yahweh.  In the word the 7 - I WILL's are the essence of iniquity:

Isaiah 14:13-14  For you [Lucifer] have said in your heart:

1. I will ascend into heaven, 
2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; 
3. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation In the sides of the north;
4. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, 
5. I will be like the Most High.

Anton LaVey, the author of the satanic bible, also propagates a life of self. He died alone, destroyed all of his marriages, relationships and now I imagine is impounded in the worst circle of hell.

So what is iniquity? It is a force that feeds the demonic realm. It is rebellion, lawlessness, sexual sin, violence and all forms of the occult. It opposes all that Yahwey is. Twice the Lord has shown me what iniquity looks like in the spiritual realm. It's a thick inky blackness that consumes all it touches. It blackouts minds, hearts and destroys everything. 

I saw iniquity one night as I prayed. The Lord showed me a picture of my husband in the other room watching television. After hours of watching, which is common, the black inky substance began to leak out of the bottom of the screen. It's slowly moved toward my husband who watch the images, in mindless control, on the set. As it moved, it began to cover my husband with a warmth of seductions. It grew hands and arms and began to massage him. It was subtly coving him with perversion and deceit.

Ugh. Gulp.

Ya.

Ugly. This is why I take such a position about screens and time on the screens. They are portals that will allow a darkness you can't see but is very real.

Okay, I need to end here. Next post, I'll share about the other time I saw iniquity and the implication. AND I'll also share how iniquity is defeated. I'll give you a hint: Jesus.

Okay, Thoughts? See you in the comments.

Who Is Our Enemy?

We have a very real enemy. Those of you who are regular readers here at LynnDonovan.com are well aware that we face not flesh and blood but an unseen realm. And that realm is very real. It’s always active with entities good and bad.

Over the next several weeks, I will be traveling so my posts my be spotty until the end of May. However, I want to begin to share some insights into the spirits that we face. I plan to post about Jezebel, mind-bending spirits, sexual spirits, lying spirits, Pharmacia, and others that I’ve dealt with in my life or the lives of those for whom I pray.

Today at the prompting of Martha, we are going to examine Jezebel. And my friends, this is a wicked and cunning operator.

John Ramirez, ex-Satanist and “son of Satan”, says clearly that “Jezebel” is a name indicating a high-level Satanic principality. Not a human person, though named after a human person and its underlings have a goal to manipulate, control and destroy.

We know from the book of 1 Kings. Jezebel was a real woman who was born a princess of the Phoenician empire. A land that worshiped Baal, a Demonic power (god), who requires blood. I found a disturbing depiction of this worship and I’m going to share it because sometimes we need to be shocked into reality about what is really going on in this world:

Baal worship consisted of melting screaming children alive in the arms of a huge bull/man statue with a bon fire raging. You then take the ashes and put it into the foundation of your house. This way you will be granted with blessings to come for your family to come. That was the belief. This is actually just like modern abortion. Kill your first born so you can work at a cubicle for another 3 years to save up a bit more money and be in better financial shape for your family to come. We certainly are in the age of Jezebel and her Spirit. 

Ya, tough to read but it rings true to me.

The spirit of Jezebel is all about CONTROL, MANIPULATION, FEAR, INTIMIDATION and WITCHCRAFT. At the root of all of this is devil worship. And you nearly always need an Ahab who is the figurehead of power but is covertly or manipulated by a controlling Jezebel. This spirit likes to partner with a religious spirit within the churches as well. 

Don’t think for a minute that believers aren’t susceptible to this spirit. I often find this operator very active within church walls, in marriages by men and women. It's not just a woman controlling spirit. It can manifest equally in either sex. Some of the testimonies I’ve read about this spirit’s operation comes from spouses of pastors. Truly chilling.

Okay, I think this is enough for today. But I have much more to share about this evil one and how to identify it in operation and how we defeat it in the name of Jesus.

Look back over your life. At work, at church, in any organization and look for someone who is charismatic, charming, someone who will fill a leadership vacuum every time one arises, and will not receive any correction or allow any voice of descent.

Want to share with me today? Let’s chat in the comments about what you saw and what you did? Love you. Stay strong in the Lord. He defeats this controlling spirit. Hugs, Lynn

My Beloved Son and Daughter,

I have heard the deep longing of your heart. You have been faithful and true and yet have dared to ask the questions that many have feared to ask. In the depths of your soul you have asked yourself, “Where is the God of miracles? Where is the power and authority Jesus modeled to the disciples? Why don’t we see the miraculous today?”

I have heard your heart’s cry and it is time. You were born for such a time as this to step into the Living Word of God. I’m calling my church out of lethargy, out of fear and into sonship. I am calling you to step into your supernatural destiny. My church has tarried long enough in the trenches of powerless faith. My Beloved, you have been held back from an encounter with Me and today I’m calling you into freedom.

My children have been shackled by powerless living and left with little answers to difficult problems. You have agonized over your own children struggling with porn, a son who turned from his faith to heroin, your daughter who attended church all of her life and is now lost in a world of self-doubt, addictions and fear.

My Beloved son and daughter, I AM the answer. My Word has always held the truth, power and answers to all of your struggles and every one of the world’s problems today. I ask you today, my Beloved, step out of the old and dare to discover that you can walk in miracles. You can bring freedom to your children. You are commissioned to rise and walk in the calling of my Son, Jesus.

~Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these.— John 14:12

If you are hungry for more of God, are bored with powerless and Christianity, are longing to experience the powerful answering of prayers, and you are desperate to watch God move in the difficult problems of your life, this journey is specifically for you.

Encounter God’s unfailing love, faithfulness, power and promises and live in the supernatural lifestyle intended for His sons and daughters.