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Is Your Style of Armor Working?

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Armor181

Prayer is armor. It is one that protects, develops, and increases the spirit, characteristics, and the abilities you already have. This is an armor that is needed for the war that comes into your life with or without warning.

I am not talking about the kind of prayer that is done just for one to say that he or she has prayed for the day, week or month. I am focusing on the prayer of intimacy and growth, the prayer that will transform you (your thoughts and actions) and even what you see as you pray. This prayer is come by seeking God’s face, not looking up into the sky and imagining Him as a shape of a cloud. I am speaking of getting low, getting your own face hidden so His can be sought. This kind of prayer allows you to feel His presence and to hear His voice. This is prayer as armor.

When suffering loss, financial distress, or any kind of life altering obstacle you feel it, when you are attacked you feel it physically, mentally, and emotionally then you feel the impact to your spirit. Most attacks in life become a spiritual war. You are faced with being up or down or stuck somewhere in between and you run from one end to the other trying to keep a balance. Without the proper armor you will feel an intensified blow, become exhausted and may have trouble recovering. Even when you are armed you must be sure to use all of your armor to get the most benefits from what is available. Don’t let your armor sit dormant while you suffer.

Become mentally equipped to execute the use of your armor. The mentally equipped will keep fighting if the will to succeed is dominant and if faith in a winning outcome is present. In the mind is where the battle begins and if your mind is ready you can move forward believing that your armor will do you some good. You will believe that you can use what you have to effectively counteract what comes against your spirit.

You have the armor within you strengthen it, all you need is: time, a private place, your voice, your ears, your mind, and faith. Prepare yourself, life is happening every day.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not ear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Psalms 66:18-20

Overcome To Live

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Overcome: to defeat someone or something, to gain control of something difficult, to affect someone very strongly (Merriam-Webster, 2014).

Satan is not for you, he is not excited about your victories. He feels good when you fail, are overtaken by life, and find yourself crawling instead of standing. He enjoys seeing you injured. When you are injured you have potential to be eliminated.

Recall a time when you were stumbling over the rocks on you path and chose to voice your issues to others; what response did you get? If you have witnessed others sit up with excitement and tuned in to hear your misery you can use that kind of response to gauge exactly how Satan is behaving when he has injured you and is waiting to overcome you. He is enjoying with anticipation, circling his prey, preparing to devour you. Some of the people in your circle or those you communicate with may not want to devour you, but if they seemingly perk up at your troubles they have a similar spirit. They may not appear to be harmful, but they are. People of that nature bring negativity and negativity drains life of energy, energy that you need to keep from being defeated.

Now consider when you have succeeded or overcame, you shared the good news about the promotion you received, the insight you gained from a recent failure or the debt you paid off, and what happens? Does the body language of your audience change; does the voice of a certain friend or acquaintance become monotone or maybe these people cannot get a vocabulary word out that exudes congratulations or a “way to go friend”. It could be that you have excelled where they have not, however it is not a positive responds and this is how you can expect Satan to respond. He is disappointed and is not going to congratulate you, but he is thinking of how to overcome you for the future. He is planning an attack, a way to injure you, or a way to eliminate you through the way you deal with life events.

You can stop the process of elimination, you can overcome. You can overcome sin and be reconciled to God. You can overcome obstacles and day to day blows and leave Satan defeated. When you are able to overcome in such a way you can then feel and live out the meaning of the scripture that reads like this: “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31KJV). If you are an overcomer you are becoming more intimate with God. You have learned to be equipped by Him through prayer and fasting and he is for you. You are his called, and his chosen, and his faithful; God is for you, but Satan can be against you. If you are living as a diluted version of the power Satan has in the earth by way of the sin you have not yet escaped, he can come against you, but with God you will overcome.

Live to be an overcomer and overcome to live.

Scripture Inspiration; Romans 8, Revelation 12, 13 KJV

Team Up

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“I am for my God only; I love Him and His son. I live in this world, but I am not with it. I believe His gospel and live by his words. I am chosen and I have a purpose; I must win the fight for my soul’s life. I am peculiar, set apart, elect, blessed, I am not ashamed and I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am created in his image; He perfected me inch by inch until he was pleased.  I am His child and He is my King. I am to be a pleasant scent just for Him. I have faith, I have power, and I am complete. My heart carries Him where some will not take Him. I am the salt and the light that shines for others to see. The best is what He gives to me and my best is what I return to Him.”

When you have these kinds of feelings about God and Christ and you can define yourself in similar words, you know that a relationship with God and Christ has developed. There are some who have not reached this point of expression. You cannot fully express what is not in your heart. If the belief of God and what He is has not soaked into your mind, changing your lifestyle to fit with His ways will be difficult.

It is not so difficult to change for those that you can see, or for yourself. You may adhere to a dress code at work or for a dinner party, if you work in customer service or with people you may change your behavior accordingly, and to become healthier you may change your diet. To go through the process of transformation to become whole through Christ is not looked at the same.

This is a spiritual change taking place and a different perspective is taken. There are some who need human help for this spiritual change. When there isn’t an understanding of who God is some do not realize that He is all knowing, He hears and sees all. If they are thinking about or faced with doing something that is difficult to overcome or not of God, there may not pause and consider that God knows and can be sought after for intervention. However they will consider an accountability person. They may make a connection with that person and ask for help or advice or will wonder if the person who calls to check up on them can hear their stumble.

An accountability person can be the help that one needs until he or she can get to a level of understanding who God is, how He operates, and all that He can do. It should be a person who communions with God often, follows His ways and is subject to Him, a person who knows that Satan can come through the smallest crack and destroy. An accountability person will let others know that he or she is not a replacement for God or Christ, but one to hold up the weak until they become strong by reaching a goal of true intimacy with the Father and the Son.

If you look closely you will see others in need of God’s help. If you are on one end of the rope looking across at those who cannot envision or understand how to usher God’s presence into their life the way that it should be, you must act. Stand firm and keep hold of the rope. If you are on the receiving end of the rope you are in need of the help and should act. Ask for help, there will be a reply. God will give you each the partner you need to fulfill the task and grow in him.

Scripture Inspiration; Romans 15:1-6, Matthew 5:13-16 KJV

God Sees Opportunity

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Do not be limited to what others imagine you as. Everyone is free to have thoughts and their own opinions, but you do to have to live within the jurisdiction of anyone’s mind. It does not matter what gifts, skills and abilities you have or what you have done people will categorize you. If you try, and strike three times some will label you as out even if they have knowledge that God can do all things and change all things. People limit God so why would limits not be put on you.

There are some who will see that you are on your third strike and they smell failure and expect it to reign. God sees opportunity when others are drawing a blank. He sees that you do not give up when you are challenged and that you are not ashamed to start over when you fail. Others see your failure without knowing your struggle. They do not know that during your adventure you acquired new information for the future although you struck out. Many will not read your story as success they will only see your strike and what you have not accomplished.

God see the success. Each time you have failed God knew that there would be a greater opening in your heart, mind and soul for him to enter into. He knew that you were not out, but ready to come into something new. God knew that you were in no rush to get to the top because he hid the concept of growth in your heart for you to find. While others thought you were crumbling and were waiting for you to be swept away you were progressing. God was molding you and developing you. Now you have a strong resume for the job ahead of you.

Keep trying, keep moving, and keep your ears on God’s voice. Anyone can come along to attempt to break you while you are already broken. Let them waste their energy, their best efforts do not compare to God. There is no piece of you he cannot find and make whole again. God sees all of you while others are only there for some of your plays and innings. They blink, day dream, and focus on the imprint you left the last time you fell, and that sums up what they are able to imagine for you.

However, with God you are free, free to live in God’s vision and you are not limited to what anyone else believes to be your reality. Look at all that you have, and top it with God’s ability and he will show you what you can do with what he has given to you. Stand, shake off the excess, tuck in your blouse or straighten your tie and walk past every strike and false limitation ready to live through God’s eyes.

Scripture Inspiration; Psalm 56:1-13 KJV