Weapons Of Warfare - Huddle Up

[kristie]

WEAPONS OF WARFARE

First lets have a little huddle talk of understanding. No matter how bad things seem, God is in control. Our comfort is knowing that God is in control, not us and certainly not satan. "Simon, Simon, behold, satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Luke 22:31 - 32. Sifting. Jesus knew the outcome, yet Peter still had to go through the "sifting" to be ready for God's calling on his life. Will you be ready when He calls you? "And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Jas. 1:4. You see, the truth is, God has a calling on each and every one of us. He gives every one of us gifts of the spirit, a talent that He wants you to use for the kingdom. Your purpose is to be in service to God. This is what Ps. 2:1 is speaking about, the fruits. God intends each and every child of His to root deeply and become a tree firmly planted by streams of water (living water of His spirit). God intends for each of us to bear fruit, and He says that we are the vines and any vine that does not bear fruit will be pulled up and tossed away. You are here right now, the majority of you that is, because you are being sifted like wheat right now by satan. The enemy cannot do anything to you that God does not allow him to do. Just like with Joeb and with Peter also. God has a calling on some of us that goes a bit more beyond the typical bearing of fruit, like the disciples were a special chosen group of men for a specific purpose, to follow Jesus, learn from Him, and carry on His work and spreading the word after He returned to the Father. We are all to spread the good news of the gospel, that is a job expected of each and every one of us, but again, sometimes God has a bit more for us to do then just that..something that requires a much higher level in Him then most reach. If you are being sifted right now, it is probably for good reason that has just not been revealed yet. God has chosen you and called you out to something special, and you are being sifted to get you to the higher level required for the task. So again, I say that there is something to be said for trial and turmoil and we do need to be thankful for it. You are a special chosen people by God, there is not greater honor than that. It far bypasses the honor of being somebodys wife of husband, so understanding helps you in your trial, when you can see the other side of things, and know there is a devine purpose for things happening and that God works all things out for the good of those who love Him. We have good things ahead, isnt that awesome! Praise God that He is in control and He is always orchestrating, even the enemies hits at us, for the good..to bring out miracles and greatness! Seeing your plight in a good light can make all the difference in your attitude while in it. Wisdom and understanding brings strength because we see there is nothing to fear, God is in control and we could be in no better hands.

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Curses and blessings of the mouth.

When you are under attack, do not break and get all fearful and start speaking out how disasterous your life is, because satan hears your words, and what you speak becomes reality. It is okay to tell your circumstances to others so they can pray for you, but follow up with a notation that you know that God has control and you will be given back double for your trouble. If it is just doom and gloom, you will get doom and gloom, but if you speak victory over it all, you will have victory over it all. Everything we speak goes straight up into the spiritual realm where it manifests into realness. If you curse yourself, it will become so. I did this for years over my vehicles, used to say that I was car cursed and it did not matter if it was brand new off the lot, it would break down on me before I rounded the bend leaving the dealership. Guess what..I have had vehicle trouble all my life, until I stopped cursing myself. I like to walk around my house repeating the words, "I am a child of God, highly favored and highly blessed!". Chant it as you work. Blessings of the mouth. It is also good to repeat blessings over your spouse. I have a list of biblical sayings that I speak over Kevin, used to daily, and should again, but it was lengthy. Things such as Kevin is complete in Him Who is the Head of all principality and power. Kevin is alive in Christ. Eph. 2:5 Kevin is free from the law of sin and death. Ro. 8:2 Kevin is born of God, and the evil one does not touch him. 1John 5:18. Kevin has the Greater One living in him, greater is He Who is in Kevin, then he who is in the world. 1John 4:4. Kevin has put off the old man and have put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of Him Who created him. Col. 3:9, 10. I have 6 pages of these I used to say over Kevin. I will try to type them up sometime for you, but meanwhile go through Gods word and note things to say over your spouse.

Spiritual Warfare.Take your thoughts captive. Your battle will be won or lost in your mind. "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete." 2Cor. 10:5-6. Don't play into the enemies hands. Don't entertain evil thoughts. Take them captive! This runs along the same line as curses and blessings of the mouth. What you let control your mind will make a difference as well. You can let satan control your mind or God, one of the two. Typically what you think will reflect itself outward in some way, typically words which if what you think is negative in your situation, then you will speak negative, therefore curses of the mouth. But even if you hold your tongue, it will show in your attitude or behavior to those involved. It will definitely show itself to God and satan, and any negative satan is going to use against you and your situation. Everytime you have a negative thought or speak a negative word, rebuke it and ask for forgiveness, and ask the Holy Spirit to take your thoughts captive unto Himself. When you find satan plaguing your mind, start praising God or singing worship songs, this will drive him back out. Oddly enough, satan can put thoughts in your mind, but he cannot read your mind..hear your thoughts. Only God is omnipotent and can hear your thoughts. That is why I teach that when in petition prayer to God, do not speak your prayers out loud, but do so in your mind, unless you are Holy Spirit filled and speak in tongues, the language of God. Remember that satan has ears and he is always ready at attention to see what you are going to say or do so he can use it. Likewise, if you speak your feelings, fears, needs and desires to God, satan also hears them and then he knows what your weaknesses are, it gives him a plan of attack. The only time you should speak out is when you are prophesizing to your situation...meaning declaring what will be in your situation...or blessings of the mouth. Speak out that your marriage will be restored, your spouse will give their lives completely over to God, and so on. Miracles of the mouth I also call them. Remember, what comes out goes up and becomes reality. Like in the book of Ezekiel, when the Lord led him to the valley of the dry bones and told him to speak to the bones, to tell them to rise up, join together, grow muscles and tendons, and cover themselves with flesh. Ezekiel did as God told him to do, and the bones did what he told them..and all the slain laying in the valley came back to life from nothing but dry dusty bones, and became a vast army for the Lord. This is a story of prophesizing to your circumstances in the Name of God. Like telling the mountain to go throw itself in the sea, same thing. Speak out what you need to be in the Name of the Lord, and so it shall be.

These are weapons of spiritual warfare, scripture prayers and prophesizing to your situation, taking your every thought captive unto God, blessing yourself instead of cursing yourself, and declaring Gods promises to satan and to the spiritual realm making them manifest. You must remember that you have the power of God within you as His child. When Jesus went back to sit at the right hand of the Father, He left us a counsler and comforter, His Spirit..the Holy Spirit, and we therefore have Jesus within us to continue His good works and declare healings and miracles in His Name. You just have to use the power of He gives you, implement it against the enemy..just as Jesus Himself did during the 40 days of temptation..It is written, it is written, it is written. Gods word says, Gods word says...Gods promise of restoration, of what has been put together by God with God as a witness let no one tear asunder, not even my spouse, of my spouses stone heart being replaced with a heart of flesh, his spirit being renewed in Christ, him putting off the old man and putting on the new man, is mine and I claim it! You can claim all of Gods word over your situation and it will be so, never fear, satan cannot stand against the word of God, no way, no how, he is a down and out loser with no recourse. Cast him away from your marriage and into the outer darkness where he is to await judgement day, he has no hold on you or your marriage...unless you give him one by lack of faith and trust in Gods word. If you stand like a winner claiming victory, you are the winner claiming victory, God says so.

Oh, and also be aware that satan can present himself to you as a angel of light. This may sound scary as you may be thinking, "How will I know if it is satan or God?" First off, satan will never give you good advise even if it comes to you gushing of love, he is not capable of telling the truth, it is not in him. Anything from him as the angel of light is counterfeit and it will not line up with the word of God. Also know that your spouse is in captivity to satan, therefore, you need to give your spouse over to God and leave them there. Do not entertain the enemy with meetings and words, as this is when he will show himself as the angel of light, loving words of deception just to get you to show your weaknesses and vunerbilitys so he can use them against you. He will try to get you to reveal your and Gods plans so he can try to thwart them. You just have to realize that your spouse is not your spouse right now, and imagine the enemy face upon them and take caution. I teach that you must give them to God and ask God to take all control, to block communications with your spouse unless they are God ordained. This means that you do not contact your spouse, you let your spouse contact you, and then when this happens, you pray for God to be your voice, that He take over and speak through you so that you do not mess up anything. God knows how to handle satan. It is okay to let your spouse know you love them which keeps the door open for when God brings them back out of the wilderness He has them in, but it is not okay to gush over them. The only thing you need to say is that God is your first love and your new husband, and life is wonderful with you and God. Your objective is to puzzle the enemy, not help him keep your spouse captive or his hand on your marriage. Speak to the enemy like Jesus did. Gods truth will protect you and confound the enemy. So..your goals here are to avoid communication by not making the inititive to contact them, and let God control the matter by letting them contact you. If God is in control and it is not His ordained time for your spouse to speak with you, God will foil the enemies plan of such and they will not be able to get access to you. Then again, when God brings you to that meeting with your spouse, let Him speak, not you, your only voice is your love of God, your greatness of life in God. This not only defeats satan, it is a very very magnetic force on your spouse who is fighting to come out of captivity with God..it pulls on them, helping them..your peace and joy in their time of suffering in the wilderness is magnetic to God. And yes..your spouse is suffering even if you cannot see it, the wilderness is a rough place to be, even if they are with the OW or OM, trust me, the other is a bitter gall to them even if they look otherwise. The enemy is master of disguise and deception, mirages and magic tricks, illusions..but they are not real. Just know that he shows himself both ways, his evil cold self and as a angel of light, do not fall to his deceptions and schemes..stay alert and firm in God, obedient to God at all times, and you will not trip up and fall.

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The Power of Three

Two or three gather together. Find two or three other women or men, whichever your case may be, who will pray with you.

"But Moses' hands were heavy, Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one of the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sunset...when Moses held his hand up, then Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down Amalek (the enemy) prevailed." Ex. 17:11-12. Find two other prayer partners to hold you up so you wont become too weary. Pray and ask God to help you find two others who are likeminded. You can find an Encouragement partner right here I am sure. On that note, I want to express to you another very powerful weapon of warfare in your situation. That weapon is praying for others! When you are deep in your own situation and battle, and you can rise up enough to pray for someone else, God runs to honor you, give you favor. Most of my growth came when the Holy Spirit instructed me to set out on a worldwide prayer fast for broken marriages. I spent day and night posting to hundreds of prayer boards announcing the fast, and God spoke to me that the fast was for seven days, a David fast, which is no meat, bread or sugar, and He told me to keep the fast going as long as people needed prayer, and I was to fast through the entire thing. This meant that those coming into the fast would fast seven days, but I was to fast as long as people kept coming in and doing seven days. It went on for over 40 days, I do not remember the exact. But I can tell you that in the process, I forgot completely about my own hurts and sufferings, battling for others made me so strong, and without even noticing, my marriage started restoring. God brought Kevin in for meetings where He could minister the word to him, which fed Kevin and broke away the chains of the enemy. And I was so strong in the presence of Kevin, I was a woman on a mission and that was to kick some devil butt off all the marriages, hundreds of them, that God brought to my attention all over the world. It had that magnetic power over Kevin, he looked totally perplexed over my peace, joy, strength and confidence in the Lord. He was perplexed also that it seemed everything in my life was blessed, my finances, vehicles, everything..people coming out of the woodwork to fix things in the house for free, cut the grass, give me money. He saw that he definitely was not needed, I had God taking care of everything and he was doing a much superior job over what Kevin had ever done! lol! There are many here in the same boat, spouses in captivity, so I would suggest you partner up in groups of three and pray together daily.

The power of three. "And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart." Eccl. 4:12

To lift the other up. "Two are better then one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up." Eccl. 4:9-10 I want you to note that this last verse says a great deal. This is why when you become a child of God, you must grow, He emphasizes you must grow and not stay babies feeding on milk, but mature into eating meat, which is the word of God. Christians who do not grow, they are weak and vunerable, and they are almost always under attack because most of the time they are inviting satan in to attack them. They lack wisdom because they do not eat the meat of Gods word, they are always wanting someone else to bottle feed them. They do not want to fight their own battle, they want someone to fight it for them. These are Christians who are always, always, crying over something. If it werent for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all...Doom, despair and agony on me (I am singing here There is no excuse for this, because if you are a child of God, your victory over any attack from the enemy was declared over 2000 years ago when Christ was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His

stripes we are healed." A true child of God has His promises and can live by them, stand on them, and find joy and peace in them no matter what the adversary comes against them with...they know that God has it in control, Jesus died for us to have victory over whatever it is. It is done, we are free, we are blessed, highly favored by God and nothing shall prevail against us! So why are you weeping, moaning and groaning and singing the doom and gloom song?!! As long as you sing the doom and gloom song, you are of no use to anyone, not to God nor to your brothers and sisters in Christ, and that is your sole purpose in Christ in service to Him, to serve others. But if you are always in doom and gloom, how will you ever lift up your brother or sister, you are on the ground all the time yourself. And if you brother or sister is constantly trying to pull you up off the ground, how will they ever help anyone else but you, which eventually they will give up and move on. God will move them on. "But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up." So I just wanted you to see the bigger picture here in this verse. You must be willing to lift up to be lifted up. This is the blessing we give to one another, our service in the Name of Jesus to one another. It brings us the breakthroughs in our own lives and situations.

He is there with you. "For where two or three have gathered together in My Name, there I am in their midst." Matt. 18:20 "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he responded and said to his high officials, 'Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?' They answered and said to the king, 'Certainly, O king.' He answered and said, 'Look! I see four men lossed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!" Dan. 3:24 You are never alone! Remember how their robes were not even scorched, yet the soldiers ordered to throw them into the furnace were burned to death just getting close, the fire was so hot. God sent His angel to be with them and protect them. As you walk through your trial by fire that will refine you, know that there is a fourth man in the fire with you as well, and you are protected and will be restored.

Agreement. "Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven." Matt. 18:19 When you are wrestling with peace about something, call someone who is believing with you and pray in agreement and know that it is done. What is there to question about this promise from God? Can you interpret this in anyway to say you are a loser in your circumstances? "anything that they (two of you in agreement) may ask, it shall be done for them." Is there any room here for doubt? NO! So what have you to fear? I agree with each and every one of you right now for restoration of your marriage, for restoration of your spouses with God, for a bright and happy future with a Godly spouse which is being returned to you from the wilderness, not a brand new spouse, but your current spouse made brand new in Christ, I agree with you right here, right now, and God says that if you and I agree to these things here on earth (and we are on earth) and we ask they be done for you and your spouse, and we do right here and right now, it shall be done. So it is done! Done deal satan, finished, complete, you are outta here! Amen, Praise You God! We thank and love You and give all honor and glory to You!

Standing in the Gap. "And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that should not destroy it; but I found no one." Ezek. 22:30. All God needed was one man, just one, to step forward and speak that he would stand in the gap for the entire land, and God would have spared the land and not destroyed it. How many times did Moses, one man, step forward and stand in the gap for the Israelites so that God would not destroy them? All it takes is one man to stand in the gap..just one...and this is why it does not matter if your spouse is captive to the enemy and the enemy says it is over, he is a liar and it is not over as long as you are standing in the gap for your spouse and your marriage. Remember my teachings on the only reason allowed for a divorce by God, and it was not adultery in itself..it was adultery accompanied by the hardening of the hearts of not one, but both spouses in the marriage. This is the only legitimate reason for divorce because if both of the spouses have hardened their hearts, then neither will be standing in the gap for the marriage. As long as just one of you is standing in the gap for your marriage, God will restore the marriage..that is His promise. "I searched for a man among them who shuld build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it.." God says that He will bring your spouse out of the wilderness and back into his own land..which is you and the marriage, your home. Stand in the gap for your marriage and you shall have restoration!

Then there are those brothers and sisters who stand in the gap for us before the Lord, like brother AW. A true man of God, and whom we are thankful for.

Pray for one another. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." Jas. 5:16. Also, confession to a like-minded prayer partner is the best way to obtain a pure heart. I think Kimberly can relate to this. I am sure it seems like we jump on her a lot, but we are trying to help her grow stronger in the Lord, to stop making the same mistakes that hinder her restoration. Sometimes, most times, we ourselves must be healed and transformed in God before He can begin transforming our spouses and healing our marriages. As the one standing in the gap, we have to be strong in the Lord, the battle rests upon us, the prayer to win the battle, the faith and trust in the Lord. God needs to transform us into total warriors so that He can use us to bring out spouses out of captivity. The battle is actually His, because the battle was already won 2000 years ago on calvary, but God needs us to transform and the main reason is, it is our mess ups, our sins, that opens the door to the enemy to come in and flood our homes and take our spouses or our children captive. If we do not transform in this restoration process, then we are just going to remain that same person who opened the door the last time, and we will find ourselves in this battle again over and over. When God settles the battle, claims the victory, He intends it to be won and not a repeated one. There will be other battles, but we should not be the same as we were and be falling into the same traps of the devils schemes. So...God uses this battle we are in, the enemies attack, for the good...He uses it to put us through the trial by fire which refines us and transforms us into new creatures in Him, higher creatures, with much more wisdom and strength in Him. Warriors. Like the master potter, He remolds us on His potters wheel making us a new vessel He can use to serve others. We are to go out and work the harvest and that can be a hard task in the world of powers and principalities, so through our own faults that caused the enemy to come in like a flood and destroy, God is taking the destruction, turning it around, remolding us, remolding our spouses, and creating a covenent partnership in Him that will go out into the world and reap a harvest! Awesome huh? You would think the devil would figure out that he is just benefiting the kingdom of God everytime he comes after one of us! Unfortunitely, some are blind though..like those who tell you that you should give us, and even many Christians fall for the lies of the enemy and give up, divorce, and let the devil win, and they never go through the fire and mature so they can be used by the Lord. You are special people of God, know that..the very fact that you are here right now and standing in the gap for your marriage..you are special, and you are meant to go on to be a powerful warrior in the army of God! What a honor!

When do you give up praying? Never! We have wonderful examples of the fact that God does not always mean no when we dont have answered prayer. Look at Joseph, God gave him a dream as a young man, but his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery, and then he was imprisoned when he was falsely accused. Then after interpreting the dreams of two other prisioners, telling one he would be reinstated into his postion serving the pharaoh and the other that he would be put to death, the pharaoh called upon him to decipher his dreams. After doing so and basically saving Egypt from seven years of deadly famine by his interpretation, Pharoah made his the greatest under him in all of Egypt. He then sold grain to his brothers and disclosed who he was and forgave them, reuniting with his family and taking care of them now also in his high position. So God sometimes works all the way around a situation before you will see the end and victory. No answer means to keep on doing what you are doing and do not veer off onto anything else. I was told,...when I found out for the first time that my husband has committed adultery and I was so devastated I could not even think and did not know what to do except give it to God,...that if I was giving it to God and leaving there, that I was to do nothing until God did answer me and tell me otherwise. I did nothing, and because I did nothing but wait on God, I did not leave my marriage and divorce my husband. So God works even in silence. Can you imagine how Joseph felt, to be promised good things by God, then all the years he spent suffering in slavery and then imprisioned, I am sure he wondered what the heck was going on, where was God in all this? But..if he had not been sold and then imprisioned, he never would have gotten the attention of Pharoah and hence became his greatest man in Egypt!

Your faith is great. The Cannaanite woman continued to beg Jesus for her daughters healing. The result:"....Then Jesus answered and said to her, 'O woman, your faith is great; be it one for you as you wish.' And her daugher was healed at once." Matt. 15:2. When we pray for something that is clearly in Gods will, such as restoration, and it seems to have gone unheard or He has said what we think is "No", God may need for us to keep on asking, waiting, pleading, fasting, believing, weeping, laying ourselves prostate before Him. This is a test of our faith, and endurance brings great patience and that is one of the fruits the Lord expects us to acquire. God is typically teaching you patience in delaying the promise. But also understand that again, you must be transformed in Christ, and until you are transformed into the new creature He needs you to be, your restoration will not manifest. You will be in the fire as long as you need to be for refinement. Also note that we ourselves postpone the answer, and this happens more times then not. Your lack of faith, fear, curses of the mouth, and playing to the enemy...slipping up and taking the matter back into your own hands and out of Gods, causes you to lose gained ground back to the enemy. It is normal to feel a sadness in not having your spouse there and all well, but to become obsessed with your situation, to let it hinder your life, to weep uncontrollably, to be tossed back and forth in turmoil and feel no confidence, that is waivering in your faith..it is doubt in God, and it will totally hinder your prayers. Unforgiveness will totally hinder your prayers, as taught earlier, you have to forgive, even the OW or OM, you must not hold anything against anyone, or you will be sitting on hold in the same spot until you do forgive or do gain the confidence in God to fix your problems. Sometimes what we percieve as God not hearing us, is actually a hold pattern we ourselves have put upon the situation by not being right with God.

The battle for his/her soul. Are you unequally yoked? The real battle in your home is the battle for your spouses soul! Are you unequally yoked? Remember that you have the promise: "...you will be saved, you and all your household." Acts 11:14. Remember, a husband or wife is sanctified through his/her wife/husband. The unsaved is sanctified by the saved spouse. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife...For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband?" 1 Cor. 7:14-17. Let me say that unequally yoked means marrying a nonbeliever when you are a believer, and God says not to do this. But..many of us have married believers and we are just as unequally yoked as the ones who married the nonbelievers. Once saved, always saved is a lie! Anytime a child of God turns their back on God and goes off to serve their own flesh, which is serving the enemy..and God says you cannot serve two masters, they are no longer saved, bottom line. If Jesus comes back and catches anyone is sin, they are lost, Christian or no Christian. But He says that it is even worse for a child of God to be caught that way! The only difference between those of us who married a child of God to have them backslide and those who married unbelievers is, stupidity. Sorry, no offense, but it is just plain stupid to marry a unbeliever, it is like asking for the devil to come in and make your life miserable. As my pastor says, it is tight, but it is right! It is a battle enough to fight a Christian spouse out of captivity, let alone a unbeliever into being saved, because that is a conscious choice plus the enemies deception. It can be done, Gods word says so right here, but anyone who willingly marries a unbeliever thinking they will change them is a fool because they have asked for this heartache that we are going through. Get them saved, then marry them, but not vice versa. Just a note for anyone not married reading this..do not be a fool!

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Prayer and Fasting

Prayer AND Fasting. Jesus told His apostles, "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." Matt. 17:21. This is what God told the disciples when they asked why they themselves, who had been giving authority to cast out demons, could not cast the demon out of the boy whose father petitioned them to help the child. Jesus Himself then cast the demon out of the boy, but this happened just as Jesus had returned from fasting for 40 days on the mountain. He told them that is why He could cast out the demon and they could not, because this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Fasting is a very important weapon in your marriage battle because your spouse is in bondage to satan, they are in captivity and in order to break them free from those chains that bind them, just as with this demon spirit in the boy, you must do what Jesus did which is pray and fast.

If you have been praying fervently and have checked to see if your ways are pure, but the breakthrough never seems to come, then you may be like the disciples who had the authority to cast out demons, as you have authority to do also, and fasting may be called for to get your breakthrough. Even Jesus fasted, and if Jesus could have accomplished all He came to do without fasting, why would He fast? He fasted because He knew that fasting opened Him up to the highest level because it unclutters your spirit of things of the world and brings you into a sensitivity to the things of God. As David stated in Ps. 42, "Deep calls unto deep." David was fasting and he reached a place where he could cry out from the depths of his spirit to the depths of God, even in the midst of his trial. Once you have experienced even a glimpse of that kind of intimacy with our God..our Father..the Holy Creator of the universe and the countless rewards and blessings that follow, your whole perspective changes. Fasting is a overlooded secret source of power, just like it was in the Bible!

Solomon, when writing the books of wisdom, (Kimberly, it was from Solomon that we got that scripture from God on with three of these things..the earth trembles and with four it cannot bear up, which has become a important scripture to me here lately and I think it applies to broken marriages) for Israel , made the point that a cord, or rope, braided with three strands is not easily broken. Eccl. 4:12. Likewise, when giving, praying, and fasting are practiced together in the life of a believer, it creates a type of threefold cord that is not easily broken. In fact, Jesus took it even further saying, "Nothing shall be impossible!". Remember the thirty, sixty, and hundredfold return Jesus spoke of? Mark 4:8, 20. When you pray you can release that thirtyfold return, but when both prayer and giving (most of you know that I teach to sow a seed offering for your marriage to get your breakthrough) are part of your life, that releases the sixtyfold blessing. But when all three - praying, giving and fasting - are part of your life, that hundredfold return can be released to you!

There are different lengths of fasts, and three types of fasts are noted in scripture, the "absolute fast", the "normal fast", and the "partial fast".

The absolute fast is extreme and should be done for only short periods of time. On a absolute fast you take in nothing - no food, no drink including water. This fast should be attempted only with medical consultation and supervision, especially if you suffer from some type of illness such as diabetes, as it is not recommended at all for those who do have a ailmen. Below is a biblical example of the absolute fast.

Esthers three day "Absolute" fast: Esther fasted "for favor" from her husband the king. She fasted 3 days for "favor". "God assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way." Esth. 4:16. This fast (or the 7 - day) has another benefit for those who are contentious or who can never stop talking. You will become too weak to argue!! It is also recorded that apostle Paul did a three day fast and Peter fasted three days.

On a "normal fast", you typically go without food of any kind for a certain number of days, You do drink water, and plenty of it! It is recommended that you use bottled water as this fast is also known as a great way to detoxify the body. Depending on the length of the normal fast, you may also choose to take clear broth and juices in order to maintain your strength. I have done the absolute fast for some things that were critical, such as a healing of someone close to death and you need to get serious and do so quickly, but the normal fast is the one I typically use. I, myself, usually do the water only for three days, and the go into the clear broth and juice for another four, for a seven day fast.

A "Partial fast", can be interpreted many ways, but the way it cannot be interpreted is to include that time when you are sleeping at night. A partial fast usually involves giving up particular foods and drink for an extended period of time. This fast example is found in the book of Daniel. Daniel and his companions refused to eat the choice meats and sweets from the kings table, consuming only vegetables and water. They did this for ten days to prove they could be just as healthy as the kings men without the foods. Later, David did another partial fast, taking no sweets, no meat and no wine for three weeks, focused in prayer. At the end, his prayer was answered by an angel, and this is one of the scriptures God gave to me during my marriage crisis. The angel explained to David that his prayers had been heard since the second he first uttered them, three weeks earlier, but it had taken the answer this long to arrive, because the angel had to fight his way through the powers and principalities to bring Daniel the answer. This is a very good scripture for explaining the waiting period one goes through sometimes waiting on a answer to prayer...there may be opposition trying to stop or hinder the response from God, and the angels have to fight the way through the oppostition before you will see the results.

The duration of fasts can vary. There are significant numbers we find in the Bible, which include 3 days, 7 days, 21 days, and 40 days. But there are also references to half-day fasts and 24 hr. (one day) fasts. A 21 day fast of no sweets, bread or meat is called a "Daniel Fast". A three day fast of nothing again is called a "Esther Fast" and again is a fast that is used often for immediate healing needs, many miracles have come from a three day absolute fast, tumors disappearing, brain waves reappearing. We talked about these two, but lets go over the others.

The day fast begins in the evening after your evening meal. You drink only water until the the 24 hr. period is complete, then eat the next days evening meal. You fast and pray during this time for your petition. This fast can be done a couple of times a week. I do want to say right here though that the fast, any fast, must mean something to you for it to mean something to God. Sometimes believers know that a fast is used to bring breakthrough in prayer, so they do it but their hearts are really not in it. It is more a ritual thing of not eating, especially these 24 hr. fasts, with nothing spiritual put forth. I feel that a 24 hr fast needs to be accompanied by the majority of that time on your knees and face in prayer. A fast has to be a sacrifice to mean something..a giving up and in spiritually. Longer fasts need daily prayer, set aside an hour to pray, but there will be days that it is hard to do so, like day three is the worst because they say that day three is when your stomach finally completely empties out. For three days your body is detoxifying, so they are just rougher days and harder to concentrate on. Just do your best on longer fasts, but do not feel like a failure if you just cannot feel good enough to pray sometimes.

Seven day fast: There is a fast that is 7 days (which represents completion). "Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of Heaven." Neh. 1:4. Usually it will be during great sorrow that you are "called" to fast for seven days. What does "called" mean? When you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, sometimes He will call you to do a fast, like He did to me when He told me to start the worldwide fast for broken marriages, that went for over 40 days. Some people say that you have to be called to do a fast for it to be effective, but that is not true, as long as you make it a spiritual effort and your heart is in it. This is saying to God that your situation is critical to your heart and you will do whatever you need to do to get His help, you will sacrifice and devote yourself to the cause!

Many churches as a group dedicate to a 21 day Daniel fast in the beginning of each year for revival.

The 40 day fast, this is the most interesting in my opinion. First remember that Jesus fasted 40 days and stated that some demons only go out by fasting like this. Moses also recieved the ten commandments during a 40 day fast. Joshua fasted for 40 days as well. Now, interesting story I heard from Pastor Franklin Jentezen. He said that he was reading the book, Prophetic Whisper, by Richard Gazowsky and it told of he and his wife, during a time of fasting, were praying on the beach. His wife has walked further away down the beach from him and began praying for a woman they knew who was being tempted into adultery. The moment she spoke the womans name out loud, a swarm of flies ascended from the ocean surface, as if orchestrated by an invisible conductor, and swept like a blanket across the water and onto the beach. He rushed over to see if his wife was okay. When she told him that she had been praying for the friend, the Lord revealed what Gazowsky refers to as a "vunerability in satans kingdom", that being the flies. Franklin says that he immediately thought of the scripture in Matt. 12:24, "Now when the Pharasees heard it they said, 'This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons." They were accusing Jesus of operating with the power of satan, or as they referred to satan..Beelzebub, which means Lord of the flies. He found it very interesting, and so do I, not surprizing at all either, that during a prayer for someone who is being tempted by demons, a horde of flies came out of nowhere and descended upon this couple. Gazowsky says that he found the "weakness" or vunerability, relates to the life span of flies. Pretty much any species reproductive cycles range from one day to 40 days. That is why in order to exterminate a infestation of flies from a crop, you have to spray pesticides for 40 consecutive days in order to utterly destroy them. If you stop short of 40 days, you only destroy the existing generation, but the next generation will live on. This is a good point when it comes to generational curse and breaking them also. You may be free of a sin, say addiction, that has been a history in your family, and even though you are free, you see it happening in your children. This leads one to think that a 40 day fast is necessary to break generational curses off your family once and for all. Throughout the Bible, 40 days represents cleansing and purifying. The flood in Noahs time cleansed the earth of wickedness for 40 days and nights. Moses life could be divided up into three different seasons of 40. He spent 40 years in Egypt. He spent 40 years in the desert and 40 years bringing and delivering the Israelites to the Promised Land. He also fasted for 40 days two different times, once recieving the Ten Commandments and once interceding for the sin of the Israelites and God spared them. When Jonah went to Ninevah, he gave the inhabitants 40 days to repent of expect judgement, and the king of Ninevah called a fast for the entire land, of which they were awarded with mercy instead of judgement. Elijah fasted for 40 days in the desert, and during that time he spoke with God and recieved new direction, remember the valley of the dry bones, and prophesizing, this is when it occurred. The word Eljah recieved during that 40 day fast also affected the next generation. There is a prophetic release that occurs in and individual who fasts continually for 40 days. This does not necessarily have to be from food either, it could be from tv, or the computer, or anything unproductive to the Kingdom of God. Wonder what kind of cleansing would occur and glory would be released if we fasted an additional hour of every day for 40 days to spend in prayer with the Lord (meaning dedicating without fail one hour daily for 40 days to prayer).

Flies represent demons in the Word, ad do other animals. If you could see into the spirit world, many demons resemble animals. Do some of you remember me telling you about when I blessed my house when my husband went out, the last time when he was in captivity to seven demons, and within 24 hours these silvery very shiny winged fly looking creatures who could only hop came up out of the bathroom floor, through the carpeting, and literally covered the dining room floor as they marched, hopped that is, towards the side porch door. There were millions of them, and within a hour there was not a single one to be seen, they went under the door of the side porch and on out. I called my pastor hysterically and he advised me I was such a sceptic about demon possession that God showed me the manifestation of the demons that were still in my home leaving when the house was blessed. These demon spirits attach themselves to our lives, they carry off our spouses in captivity, into adultery, or addictions. They are generational curses, mental illnesses, bondages, strongholds of the mind, lust, perversion, and addictions of every kind, they are divorce! The problem with most churches is that they just swat at flies for a few days when they are right in their faces, then they go away for awhile, but they keep coming back! Its time to clean house! It is time for a scriptural season of cleansing. With cleansing, devils will start dropping like flies! WhooHoo! Not only in your life, in your generation and in the future generations of demons that are passed down to your children. Solomon wrote, "Dead flies putrefy the perfumers ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor." Eccl. 10:1. Flies would get into the special annointing oil, they'd get stuck in it, die, and spoil the fragrance. Flies hinder the annointing in our lives. Worship gets polluted by flies of fleshly desires, and draws one away from God and into captivity. This is their job folks! It is time to get rid of the flies with 40 days of fasting! It may be time for you to cast out demons from your spouses with 40 days of fasting and praying!

My knees are weak from fasting.

When you are hungry or weak, use that time for prayer and reading His Word.

In order to be seen.

Keep as quiet about your fast as is possible. During the fast, you are to be silent, never complaining or drawing attention to yourself. "And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, annoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you." Matt. 6:16-18.

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Another tip for warfare gear, and I have heard of so many breakthroughs with this, have had breakthroughs with this. Go get a bottle of annointing oil, available at any Bible store, or if not able to do so, a bottle of olive oil and pray over it asked God to bless it and make it Holy oil. Then while in prayer, annoint everything you can think of that your spouse touchs or uses. I annoint his side of the bed every morning, his pillow, asking God to give him the mind of Christ, remove any blinders from his eyes, give him wisdom to know Gods truth and know the enemy deceptions, and to choose to follow after Christ. Then I annoint where his heart would be, and ask God to give him the heart of Christ, to cleanse him from any spirits of inquity, pride and sin, to soften his heart and give him a heart of flesh, to fill his heart with love for Jesus and for me, his spouse. I then annoint where his feet would lay, and ask God to lead his footsteps in the paths of righteousness and away from the unGodly people and things. To set his feet on the paths of service to his Lord and Savior only, to be a leader for his family in the Lord.

I annoint the insides of all his shoes, praying for his steps to be on the paths of righteousness and to turn away from anything not pleasing to God. I annoint the grill, all the door handles and the rear bumper of his vehicle every night while he sleeps, praying God let his vehicle only take him to places pleasing to the Lord and away from anything unGodly. I annoint the inside as well, seat where he sits. Everytime I do his laundry, I annoint all of his jeans, I dab oil at the crouch praying God keep him from adultery, placing a hedge about him keeping away any that would be interested in him, and him unable to perform outside the marriage. I annoint the leather tag on the back, praying the Holy Spirit follow him closely with conviction leading him in the ways of the Lord always. I annoint the inner tags of his shirts, praying the Holy Spirit fill him and go with him everywhere he goes. His guitars, the tv he watches at night, that he can only watch programs pleasing to God. (This morning I noted in turning on the bedroom tv, he had on TBN last night before he went to sleep! Praise God! lol!). Just anything and everything you can think of. I annoint our entrance and exit doors, the door to our bedroom, blessing this room and marriage. Just surround your spouse with the Spirit of God, following him day in and day out. Add a bit to his food even, praying the Holy Spirit enter and flow through him, cleaning him of sin.

I also purchased a pack of musturd seeds to represent my faith, that i only need be the size of the musturd seed and God will provide the rest, and I prayed the scripture of the musturd seed over them. I stuck one seed on the sticky side of a small piece of tape and taped the seed to the grill of his car. Put a seed in each shoe, put seeds under his side of the bed. Drop a seed in his food. Place one in his car seat. Just like with the oil, place a seed of faith everywhere you can think of that will be with him. Place a seed in the pocket of his pants.

These things in themselves will not bring you a miracle, what these things do is they are offerings of your faith, they are actions of faith, and they go with the spouse wherever they go, keeping your prayers right there lifted up to God over them at all times. It is a sign of obediance and faith to God. They work!

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Sow a seed offering for your spouse and marriage. If you feel God telling you to sow a seed, never ignore Him! Gods word is truth and if you give, step out of faith that your giving will reap a return from God, the salvation of your spouse, the restoration of your marriage, it will happen, God will never let you down and He outgives you always. Let God lead you where to give and how much to give. Kevin and I suffered a devastating blow between us September 2003, and we separated, he moved in with another woman in fact, and we were parted come November 2003 still. I sowed a seed offering to TBN, they were having their pledgeathon, and God told me to sow for my marriage. I did, and the next morning the phone rang. It was Kevin, he was a broken man and wanted to meet with me to talk. I never seen anyone as broken as he was. He came home, went straight to the church and before the entire congregation he fell on his face and just wailed to God. I never seen anything like it, the entire church ended up on their faces crying out to God. He gave his life back to the Lord that morning. Sowing a seed will bring a harvest to you, count on it, it is one of Gods promises.

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Another real important thing for getting your breakthrough is to be sure to pray for others. I would make a point of going through the posts here and praying over ten of them. Intercession for others is important in recieving your own miracle. Obediance is key to getting prayers answered, and demonstrating a faithfulness to the Lord, and being a service to others in need, just opens doors bringing you favor. If God speaks to you to do something, do not hesitate, do it! Also, If you have not been indwelled with the Holy Spirit, then ask God to give you the gift of the Spirit. On Pentecost, Jesus sent His Spirit into the disciples so that they could go forth in His absence and continue to heal and deliver, perform miracles. This was not just intended for the disciples 2000 years ago, this intended for all Gods children from then on..Jesus said that after He was gone to the Father, He would send his Spirit and a comfort and help. This is for you, and being indwelled with the Holy Spirit empowers you in Christ, just as it did the disciples. When you begin praying in the Spirit, things happen because it is Jesus's Spirit petitioning the Father on your behalf.

I have learned, and this is one reason why being able to pray in the Spirit is so important, that you must be careful when praying to God out loud. Authoritive scriptural prayer is fine, speak it out, you want satan to hear it because he has to flee from it. But, when you are just talking to God, laying out your heart, you worries, hurts, fears and so on...keep it a silent prayer. God is omnipotent and He hears your thoughts, but satan is not omnipotent. Voicing your feelings and such out loud also allows satan to be privy to them and he will use them against you. If he knows you fear this or that, then he will make this or that happen for example. If it is something the enemy can use in his stategy plan to defeat you, do not let him hear you speak it.

Again, never ever speak negative. Speak positive at all times about all things! When you speak about your spouse or marriage, speak that it will be restored, your spouse will accept Christ and so on. Remember that whatever you speak can manifest into reality. If you speak something negative about your situation, satan is going to jump on the opportunity to use it against you. It opens the door to let him do whatever you just spoke and takes you out of Gods protection from him using it. Curses and blessings of the mouth, they are probably the biggest hindrance to prayer being answered. You are asking for marriage restoration in prayer, but you are walking around saying negative to your friends, for example "Bob is filing for divorce and says he will not ever come back". No..Bob is not filing for divorce...if you must say this to someone, then try, "Bob said he is filing for divorce and never coming back, but God says that this divorce will not happen because what He has put together, no man can tear asunder, so Bob will be back!". See what I mean. Do not let the words that come out of your mouth block your prayers. It probably is one of the hardest things to control also, but when you do slip, rebuke immediately your words and claim the opposite.

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Break strongholds, probably the most important weapon of warfare and the one you do not want to not do, if you do nothing else...the greatest offering to God! Praise and worship, especially when you are at your lowest. When you are in a deep dark pit and God can still see the whites of your teeth etched in a smile, He will pull you out without hestiation. God inhabits the praise and worship of His people, Gods word on it. Go into your room, in your house, out in a big open empty field if you have to, and put on some Holy Spirit filled praise and worship music and sing your heart out, dance your legs off, sing and dance in praise and worship to the Lord. Dance like King David did. You will be flooded with Gods favor and power, the Holy Spirit will flood your heart and situation. I promise!

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When servants of God walk in faith and obediance, they are indestructible until God's plan for them is complete. Note I said when you walk in faith and obediance. Key factor in your warfare. Nothing will work if you are not obediant and faithful to God.

"He is dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." Surely He shall deliver you...You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and then thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you...Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. -Psalm 91:1-9

This Psalm makes one fact clear; God knows how to take care of His people. Contained in these verses is a direct statment about Gods mighty hand of protection and how it covers and preserves the security of His people. This Psalm is also anonymous, no one knows who wrote it, it is just a anonymous declaration of God's power to protect and is applicable to everyone. With God, it's not over until God says its over. Whoever wrote Psalm 91 had lived through some pretty horrendous times, had not been insulated or spared from some of the roughest stuff life can throw at us. But they had survived those times, this person was writing from experience. They had went through and come through...some stuff, and they are trying to make it clear that with God, its not over until God says its over. That goes for us as well, our circumstances.

Whatever you are doing, seeking, it has to be for God and God only. It has to have God in the center of it. Benny Hinn even said that when people do not get answers to prayer, it is because they are not making the request with God in it. What is your greatest desire in what you are seeking? We all know that you want your husband restored to you, your home put back together, and these things are not out of Gods will, but what is your greatest desire in your heart...the restoration of your marriage or the restoration/salvation of your spouse with God? I can tell say that God will answer pray that is not centered on Him, He will put marriages back together just so they can fall apart down the road again and leave you in the same condition. Because God is the glue that holds it together. He is the foundation it is based on, without the foundation, without the glue, the house will tumble again. God gave us companionship. He loved Adam, His creation and wanted him to have a helpmate, but He created Adam firstmost and foremost to fellowship with Himself, to give and love one another..Adam and God. He then created Eve to give Adam a helpmate in friendship. Note that God gave Eve to Adam, just as He gave you and your spouse to one another, so you started out in your relationship...or were intended to anyway, with a helpmate that God gave unto you, a gift. Your spouse was a gift to you from God. He was first, and without Him, you would not have your spouse. This was the ideal anyway, few wait on God anymore for the gift and seek out on their own and this is why God addressed later to not be unequally yoked. If we all waited on Him for the gift of a helpmate, none of us would ever be unequally yoked, not as daughters of the living Lord. Note also that what God gave Adam was a friendship love in Eve. It was not what it is today, it was based on purity and friendship. All else came after the fall to sin, in which then God expanded into procreation, and this can be seen as God takes all things meant for bad and uses them for the good, even then, always has, always will. I do not see in Genesis, in the beginning, where God intended Adam and Eve to be sexual beings, they were friends, companions, helpmates in tending what God had give Adam to tend. Which tells me also that the root of a relationship is friendship. God says do not have sex outside of marriage, so ideally, God wanted you to wait for Him to bring your helpmate, and he intended for you to build a friendship love, not a physical love, then after you built that friendship, you made vows to one another before God, and the rest comes in a Godly way. I feel that if we want our marriages to be restored into a lasting unity that will withstand the world and the enemy, we first have to want it for the right reason. The main desire of my heart, is that Kevin love God like I do, that he know God like I do, thirst for God like I do, hunger to serve God like I do. I have had to evaluate myself and test myself on that, and have done so by being open before God on what if? What if God brought Kevin into this place with Himself, all these things I desire for Kevin come into place, but God does not put Kevin back with me but with another Christian woman, after five years of battling and praying for Kevins relationship with God, and then I do not get to reap the goodness of that. How would I feel? Honestly, devastated. Just devastated, but at peace that I held on and accomplished the greatest desire of my heart, I did not give up on praying for him, and my not giving up paid off in the salvation of my husband, be it with me or without me. It would hurt that my second greatest desire was not fullfilled, that being having the tremendous joy of sharing a walk with God with Kevin, having my marriage and my husband through a peaceful season of what God intended marriage to be. But would I stop, would I say that I do not want to go forth and pray for Kevin so that someone else could have the blessing with him, No..I would continue on, because the greatest blessing of all is salvation of someone you love. The greatest miracle of all is salvation of anyone. Would I pull out of being a part of that blessing and miracle, being a venue for God to use to orchestrate that, No. God would still reward me in another way, a better way for me. Most important is Kevin and God, not Kevin and I. It really is not that hard to hold to that track of feeling anyway, because without God, there is no hope for Kevin and I anyway. Nothing will work without God in it. So in your seeking, you have to center on two things first, God and you & God and your spouse. I try to not even focus on the third element of Kevin and I, because it is so insignificant. I lift up prayers over us, but it is more important that I honor God and worship Him to build that relationship to higher levels between Him and I, and I focus on requesting the same for Kevin, a closeness to God..to know Him as I do, love Him as I do, seek Him as I do. I can rest assured that in building the other two relationships, God and I & God and Kevin, everything else will fall into place as God intended it to be, that is just a given. Bottom line is, I do not want the husband that went out of here, the flesh Kevin, and that is not what God wants for me. I want, but more importantly I need, a Godly Kevin to come back through the door. I want him in no other form but rooted deeply in God and in no time sooner then what it takes for God to get him there. Any other form and any time sooner then him being completely transformed only brings non-unity and non-unity is not of God, it is of the enemy in attempts to once again cause failure. I am not accepting of failure anymore, there is no peace in that, God is not in failure. I am not accepting of anything but the best that God has for me, and that is victory, total victory. Total victory comes in Gods timing and means, not mine. In the meantime, I have a adventure with God to look forward to, a time to meditate and grow closer with Him, and to become wiser in Him, which is a preventive against future failures, so there is a reason for all things in our circumstances, all elements have a purpose. Go with them and have peace during the adventure. Get all you can from it while you are in it.

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I also want to emphasize that you cannot stop praying just as you are now when your spouse returns. You must continue your warfare, very important! It will get difficult, the enemy comes in like a flood when and wherever he can, he is relentless. Just because you spouse was restored to God and then to you, does not mean your victory is invincible, it merely means that the enemy is going to keep on attacking and trying to steal your victory away. If you stop, he will. I came to a point in our restoration where I became battle weary, all was well now, and I was tired from the battle. I determined in my mind that I should not have to keep battling for my spouse, my spouse needs to battle for himself as he has the truth now. I have come to the understanding that in doing so, I did not stop battling for my spouse, I stopped keeping God in the middle. In slacking off in that area, I myself withdrew from the fellowship I had come into with God....