Grateful to the Lord/Aggravated with Myself
I will tell you this, however. We’ve been far too passive even when it comes to praying over our own lives. I know because I’ve been that way myself. Some time ago I was praying, asking God to reveal His will to me in a certain area. “Oh, Lord,” I cried desperately, “I need some clarity on this. I want to do what You want me to do here…”
My prayer was so heartfelt and sincere, I figured it had to be right. But the Lord, once again, interrupted me. (As you can tell, He has to do that for me a lot.) “How many times have you asked Me to reveal My will to you in this area?” He asked.
“Again and again, Lord. But I keep asking because still don’t know.”
“Do you think that’s My fault?” He said. “Do you think I violated My Word and refused to give you My wisdom when you asked? Or might the problem lie somewhere else?”
I’m at least smart enough to know the answer to that question. “I’m sure You aren’t the problem, Lord.”
“Then stop asking Me to reveal My will and start thanking Me for having already done it in answer to your previous requests. Take authority, bind the confusion that’s been coming against your mind and start declaring, ‘I have the wisdom of God in this area.’”
Sure enough, within 24 hours I was literally flooded with the revelation I needed. I was grateful to the Lord for it and aggravated at myself for being so passive and letting low-level devils of confusion and my own unbelief rob me of it for so long. Since then, the Lord has begun to reveal to me one area after another where I thought I was waiting on the Lord to do something about a situation when, in reality, He was waiting on me take spiritual responsibility and do what He’s given me authority to do.
Tremendous Answers to Prayer
I wish I had time and space to write here all the tremendous answers to prayer I have seen as I’ve begun to act on these revelations in the past few months. In one particular case, I saw a breakthrough in a person I’ve prayed over for years. What did I do differently? At the direction of the Lord, I stopped making requests for that person and began, instead, to believe and declare that the devil’s power over him was broken and that everything I had prayed over the years was now coming to pass.
Practically overnight, that person stepped into a freedom in the Lord they have rarely ever experienced. His heart was literally flooded with revelation from the Lord. Spiritual strength welled up within him and he began to walk in a new and higher place.
As far as I know, nobody ever said a word to him in the natural. His breakthrough was exclusively the work of the Spirit of God.
I’m seeing the power of God loosed as we step into our authority in Jesus corporately, too. A few months ago, the group that attends prayer school in Syracuse was moved by the Holy Spirit to pray over our city because of the rampant violence here. The murder rate had sky-rocketed this past year and when one of the recent victims turned out to be the son of a new member of our church, we decided enough was enough.
Love Himself moved us to pick up the sword of the spirit and command the violence in our city to stop in the name of Jesus. God revealed to us scripture after scripture we could use to bind up and hinder the plans of the devil, loose peace on our streets, supernatural help for our law enforcement officials, and protection over the children of the saints.
Since then, the drop in crime—especially murder—has been so significant that the media here has reported on it several times.
Does that make us, as prayers, proud? No, a thousand times no.
It makes us fall on our faces at the feet of our Lord Jesus and worship Him. It makes us weep with gratitude for His precious blood that saved us when we had no right to be saved…for His strength that operates through our weakness…and for giving us His name so that we can stand in His authority and enforce His wonderful will in the earth.
A Supernatural Surge of Revelation
If you are hungering as I am to gain greater revelation of your spiritual authority, I urge you to pray the prayer in Ephesians 1:17-23. Pray it every day, believing for a supernatural surge of spiritual revelation that will propel you forward as never before in the will and power of God. Release your faith and begin to declare, “I believe am receiving more revelation from God than I’ve ever received in my life!”
Too many believers I talk to these days seem to be treading water, waiting for the plan of God to unfold in their lives. Too many dear Christians who love the Lord with all their heart seem to be stalled spiritually, stuck in the same-old patterns of frustration they’ve been caught in for years. If you’re one of them, it’s time for you to break free…and it will take divine revelation to do it.
If you’re not in that place, praise the Lord! But, no doubt, you know many others who are. The more fully you grasp your authority in Jesus, the more you’ll be able to help them through your believing prayers. The more we wake up and begin operate like the mighty men God has called us to be, the more we’ll overturn the works of darkness our families, our churches, our cities, our nation and our world.
Whether we realize it or not, the war is on. The only way we can lose is if we fail to fight. Let’s beat our plowshares into swords and enforce the victory of Jesus NOW!
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A writer by trade and a minister at heart, Gina Lynnes has been a Bible teacher and associate pastor since 1996, ministering especially on the subject of prayer in churches both in the United States and abroad.
A recipient of the National Religious Broadcasters award for her writing of the UpReach! Radio Broadcast, she has been involved in Christian publishing for more than 20 years, working behind the scenes as a writer and editor for a number of international ministries.
Gina and her husband founded Lynnes Ministries in 2001, and spend their time ministering in Minneapolis, MN, where they now reside, and in churches across the country.