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Author: Hope

Power of Proclamation

Power of Proclamation

Proclamation definition – a clear declaration, a decree, an order, an announcement.

Why is it important for us to proclaim God’s word? Let us look at the following scripture:

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Therefore, if we need faith and we are overwhelmed by our circumstances we need to take God’s word and start proclaiming it so that we can hear what it is saying. This doesn’t mean just reading it out loud, it means we have to really hear and focus on what we are reading.

When my husband and I were just married we went through a painful situation where someone that was very close to us betrayed our trust. Months after this, we met a wonderful older couple who walked a road of restoration with us for a whole year. Ministering to us, praying with us, helping us through our pain. We looked up to them because they had a great relationship with God and they taught us solid principles from the word of God. We became good friends and walked with them for 8 years.

In that time I was still struggling to get through my self-worth issues. I was very unsure of myself. My husband and I felt that something was wrong with this couple, but we couldn’t put our finger on it. We received news that the husband had left his wife and 2 kids and just dissappeared.

I was devestated; we had looked up to them and he had taught us so much from God’s word and I found myself in a place of turmoil and confusion. We had looked up to them as role models. So I ran to the Lord asking, “What now? What should we do now?” And I heard His soft voice saying, “You just carry on.” Fear had taken a hold of my heart; I heard the whispers of the enemy – “If he didn’t make it, you will never make it!”

There was a wrestling match going on in me – the voices whispering, “you are a hopeless case, you will never be able to stand against the enemy, you won’t be able to stay a child of God, you are a looser, you are weak.”

8 Years before this happened, someone had given me a small booklet by Derek Prince: The Power of Proclamation. The second part of this book had different topics with a few relevant scriptures. I found the topic for emotional pain and started to proclaim each scripture out loud everyday. Whenever I felt overwhelmed, I would take the book and start proclaiming those scriptures out loud. I had to build my faith by hearing the word of God. It took a week of doing this before one of the scriptures hit a sweet spot. I can’t tell you how or what happened exactly, all I know is that I had a mindshift and I knew that I was going to be fine. As my life is surrendered to the Lord, I would be covered.

We all have our moments when we deviate from God’s will. I realized that it is always our own decision to deviate from his ways and his principals; this is what causes us to loose the plot. If we stay close to God and keep giving Him permission to heal us, we will be safe.

There were many times in my life where I had to take the word of God and hammer myself with the truth until a shift came.

When our son was about 4 years he burnt his hand on a hot stove plate. It was terrible and he developed a blister so big it covered his whole hand! At that time, our finances were very limited and we had no medical insurance. He was in so much pain but I really couldn’t take him to the doctor because my husband had the car and was at work. All I had was Jesus and the word. The best I could do was to hold him on my lap with his little hand in a bowl of cold water. I had the worship music playing and proclaimed God’s word about healing and His sacrifice on the cross. I was sticking in there, not backing down, I kept worshipping and I kept declaring God’s healing. After about 2 hours, the pain had completely subsided. I then commanded that blister, in the name of Jesus, to be completely dried up and to be gone within 2 days.

The next day the pain was completely gone. That night while he was bathing, he took the soap and rubbed it onto his hands. I cringed for fear of the pain I was certain would follow (oh ye of little faith), but there was none. The following day, the blister was completely gone and all that remained was a slightly reddish layer of new skin on his hand. Two days, that is what I prayed for. God touched our son, removed that huge blister and brought complete healing.

There is power in God’s word. Everything we need for life is in His Word. We need to proclaim it loud and clear so that we can hear, because hearing the word of God puts us in a different mindset.

By proclaiming God’s word, my mind focusses on what I am reading and saying, shifting my focus from what is in front of me and that which is very intimidating to me. My focus turns to Jesus – who He is; healer, saviour, comforter, peace etc. It is when I look to Him and not at what is in front of me, that boldness and faith start rising up within me. I have realized that I don’t have anything else but Him and I know He is the only One that can help me in times of trouble.

There was a season in my life in which I had several experiences like this. Times where I couldn’t focus on what was in front of me, but had to dig in my heels and only take what God’s word says about a situation. My faith was being tested and I had to learn to trust the Lord in everything, especially with my children (this is a mothers biggest test, to not want to save our kids by ourselves, but to trust God). I have learned that to really trust and believe in God, I had to lose control – completely – to try not to control situations by making my own plans.

Isaiah 55:11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God’s word will be excecuted, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. It will come to pass.

Beloved, what is it that you need to proclaim? In which area of your life do you need your faith to be built? Get those scriptures out, write them down if you must and start proclaiming the truth. Faith comes by hearing so listen and focus intently on what you are reading and speaking. Let your spirit drink deep. Faith will rise up! Don’t stop until something happens.

Let us pray: Father, I know my faith is weak in this area of my life. I cannot see a way out. I cannot see how I will ever get over what I am experiencing now, but You are God Most High. You are the ruler of heaven and earth. Heaven is Your throne and the earth is Your footstool. Nothing can withstand You: when You act no-one can reverse it. You are the strongest force in the Universe. I look to You now. I choose to take my eyes off of what I see and I set my mind and my eyes on who You are. Holy Spirit please help me to find the right scriptures for this issue and please give me the strength to push through and not stop until something happens. In Jesus name I pray. Amen and amen.

I want to encourage you to not give up. Sometimes it takes a while before you see change, but stick in there. It will surely come!

Trials

Trials

Why do trials sometimes take long before breakthrough comes? Can’t it just happen quickly?

Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Something that we as human beings are not good at – Patience. We live in a society where everything is instant and we tend to think that it is the same in the spirit, but God requires us to be patient in our trials, walking them out and not looking for a quick fix.

So, we have a problem, we don’t want to struggle and we don’t want to feel pain. The further we can stay away from it, the better for us. We always want to dodge getting hurt and we want things in our lives to be quiet and peaceful. Plainly said, we do not want to go through trials, ever. The word of God says that trials build our character and we will grow in our faith. Think about it, if we don’t have trials, will we ever need to trust God for anything?

My mother in law is an amazing lady. One thing I have learnt from her is to embrace life with all it’s curve balls and make the best out of something terrible. I remember one time my husband was on his way home. The highway got backed up due to a huge accident so he decided to take a detour off the highway down a muddy track with the four wheel drive car. He got stuck in mud. He phoned me to come lend a hand (I had the real 4×4), but I couldn’t assist him effectively. By that time it was dark and our little children were hungry and tired. We were cold and dirty from all the mud. We phoned my in-laws and they came to help. By the time they arrived we were annoyed and not very happy. My mother in-law jumped out of her car, took the children with such a big smile and told them what an awesome adventure we are having. Immediately all of our attitudes changed and we started enjoying the “adventure”. It wasn’t long and all were sorted out.

Isn’t that how it is? The moment you roll with it and not get bitter, things just get sorted out much quicker. The more we push against the uncomfortable situations we face, the more we become miserable and actually make it worse for ourselves.

James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

First of all, God says we should be happy when we face trials because it will produce unwavering faith. We all will agree that we as children of God need to grow more in faith, we do lack in trusting God in everything concerning ourselves. The part of the verse that says:”that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing“. This means that there may be nothing lacking to complete your character.

How we approach our trials will either make or break us.

One thing I believe is that our Lord is never taken by surprise by the trials and tribulations we have to face. He knew it was coming and He has all the resources available to us to get through it. I have learnt when trouble is in my camp to say to the Lord, Father, I am in this space and You know exactly what is going on and how I will get through this, what do I need to learn here? I also push against myself by choosing to change my attitude towards my situation, rather than grumbling and fighting against it I turn my attention towards the Lord and who He is.

There is such liberty that comes when we immediately surrender to the Lord’s will in our trials, when we immediately give Him permission to intervene and interfere. If we start kicking, screaming and throwing tantrums about what we have to face it usually takes much longer to get through.

My husband is truly a man of integrity and uprightness. He is such a loyal and committed person. Especially in the workplace, he loves working hard and putting effort and excellence into everything he does.

Years ago, he had been working for a company for about 9 years and all of a sudden they started giving him bad reviews. They said his work was brilliant, but they accused him of not being a team player and said that people don’t like him (I immediately heard the accuser of the bretheren, the devil, trying to break my husbands character down by saying he is not accepted and he is not good enough). So, when time came for his annual increase it was lower than the national inflation rate (the company would generally give all its employees at least an increase equal to the national inflation rate). I couldn’t understand this, he was a hard worker, he worked overtime without being paid and he was brilliant in his work.

My heart was very sore for him, but immediately I seeked God out and I waited on Him to show me what and how to pray. I had to go through all the Chapters in Psalms and I had to find all scriptures on God vindicating us, God silencing the mouth of the lier (the devil), God bringing justice, God bringing judgment on the enemy and God delivering us. I highlighted all those scriptures and every morning in my prayer time I would start proclaiming these scriptures over my husbands situation.

3 Months past and they did another review – again, the same report. I was really not happy, I had been praying everyday, diligently, pushing against the onslaught. The Lord’s response – “just keep at it”. I did, every morning, praying and proclaiming the same scriptures over and over. God showed me that I was busy hammering at a huge wall and as I keep at it, hammering at the same place the wall will start crumbling. It meant that I had to patiently endure until something happened.

I am not saying that this is easy. It requires you to find a rhythm, like running a long and far race – you can’t sprint it! Most of all you have to constantly choose to keep your attitude right.

After a year (praying the same scriptures), it was increase time again. Nothing! The same – lower than inflation. I was tired and I felt very bad for my husband. I wrestled with the Lord about this. His reply;” So, are you going to back off because the enemy is in your face, frightening you?” That was all I needed, I said ok Father what else can I add to my prayer? I started blessing and praying for the people in authority’s hearts.

It was after a year and 9 months of prayer: during a one-on-one his manager reviewed the latest reviews. His team members were now saying what an amazing person he is; how they loved working with him. The report started changing. Almost 2 years had passed and another company (out of the blue – sent by the Lord) approached my husband and offerred him a job. God told us what salary to ask for and it was much higher than what he used to get. They agreed and my husband was appointed at the new company.

God has given him much more than what he had before. I asked the Lord about what he was busy doing in my husbands life in that time. God was testing his heart, that even though when they were raising against his character, he stayed true to who he was, he did not change himself to fit into their molds and even though it was tough going to work daily, having bad vibes in the office, he still gave his very best.

Two years may seem really long to you. But I can tell you our faith is much stronger and the Lord has truly polished some of our rough edges. We have learnt to trust only in the Lord and His Word; to stand, to not give up even if there is no change; to keep our integrity; to not lash out when people are damaging our character and to patiently wait until something happens.

Beloved, your trial may just be starting, or you have been walking it for many years. You might not see what you have learnt or how things will change, but the Lord is with you in this fire. He may not neccesarily stop it immediately, but you can be assured, He will take you through.

Isaiah 43:1-2 But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Beloved, pace yourself by praying what you feel God is showing you. Don’t try to speed the process up with your own ideas. This is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. Surrender (give over to God’s will and way) to what God wants to teach you and give Him permission to interfere in your situation because He knows what must take place. You will get through. Seasons do change, you will not stay in that place forever. Most importantly, if you have been praying and proclaiming and nothing has changed, or you cannot see anything positive: when you are prayed up – don’t deviate (trying to follow your own ideas), stay the course by standing on God’s word.

STAND, HOLD YOUR GROUND!

Ephesians 6:10-13 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  

Let us pray:

Father, I am in the fire. I ask, as you were with Daniel in the fire, that You will be next to me. I acknowledge that You have all the answers and You have all the resources I need to walk through this trial. I ask that You will download to me that which I need to overcome and to walk in Heavenly wisdom. Father, I do not have the answers, but You do. Please guide my steps. Please guide me to be effective in prayer. Most of all, please show me what it is that I must learn. I surrender Father, I am letting go and I am letting You intervene. You have full permission to let Your kingdom come and Your will be done in my life, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen and amen.

I Pray that God will strengthen you with power in your innermost being through His spirit, so that you can run the race with patient endurance in Jesus name.

Here is a song for you to listen to.

Come To The Altar

Come To The Altar

This post is for those that have been waiting for such a long time for desires to be fulfilled.

Genesis 22:1-12 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ So he said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

God gave a promise to Abraham that he would give him a son, but Abraham and Sarah had to wait 25 years for the son that they had longed for to be born. Then came a time where God asked Abraham to sacrifice this only beloved son.

I don’t know about you, but man, can you imagine actually sacrificing someone or something that is so dear to you?

Let me tell you what I have experienced concerning this in my life.

I had to fight through many issues in my life concerning self-worth and rejection. The biggest longing in my heart was to marry someone that would love me for me and would stay with me through thick and thin. Like many of us, I had my fair share of dissappointment in men and I was just tired of looking for someone.

I made a deal with the Lord where I told to Him I am done looking for someone and that I give it over to Him to choose my person because I obviously don’t know what I am doing and I don’t know what is good for me. I gave Him permission to pick my husband. I did write a little list with the things I would like in my husbands appearance, but I left his character up to God.

Two years went by and I only focussed on my relationship with God – I stopped looking for someone, I just carried on with my life. Long story short, I went to a new church one Sunday when I saw a guy walking up and down the aisle. I will never forget the evil pride that manifested in me and I had a thought pop up in my mind that I could never love a man like that. Hahaha, really!

As time passed by I got to talk and spend time with this man. We were in the youth group together and we spent time with one another at home church every Wednesday night. I started developing feelings for him. He was not like anyone I would’ve usually been attracted to, but oh man, he was exactly the right person for me. Everytime we were together, he would speak the things that were in my heart. God really started touching my hardened heart. I was 17 at that time and, he was 19.

After a year of dating God asked me to place him on the altar. The same way Abraham had to sacrifice Isaac, his only, beloved son. I was scared because it meant that I had to give over that which I had longed for for so many years and that which was very dear to me. I did wrestle with the Lord about this, but I gave my boyfriend back to God and I allowed God to interfere and remove him from my life if we were not meant to be. I chose to trust the Lord with this because I had asked Him to help me after all.

My boyfriend was not removed from my life, Praise Jesus. We got married after 3 years of dating.

After our first child was born, I found my self-worth issues surfacing badly and I struggled to keep my head up. At that time, I would hide behind my husband. I would not speak to people, he would, I would not start a conversation, he would. He was my hero, my rock, my protector etc. Then God came again with the request: “Will you lay him down on the altar?” Again? The blood drained out of me and fear took hold of my heart. Why? I need my husband, he is helping me and keeping me safe – I can’t lose him so why would God ask me this?

This time, I wrestled hard and long with the Lord, but because I loved the Lord, I placed my husband on the altar. I must add, it was done with fear and trembling.

God taught me why He asked me to place my husband on the altar. First of all, he was exactly what I needed in my life, but he became an idol to me. I had placed expectations on him to save me and help me get through my emotional pain. That was unfair towards my husband because it is not his place. I would’ve destroyed my husband by putting these high expectations on him and not allowing the Lord to heal me. I was placing my husband before the Lord. God was testing my heart, just like he did with Abraham. He was testing me to see if I can trust Him with my pain. To see if I would choose Him above my husband, so that He could be first in my life.

My husband and I have been married for 23 years now and we love each other more and more daily. We understand that we are not each others saviours and we don’t place these expectations on one another. When we have emotional pain, we talk about it, but we take it to Jesus and we only allow Him to heal it.

One other altar moment in my life was when our daughter went through a really rough time when she turned 12. For about 3 years she was in a bad spot. It was in that time that I realised that I couldn’t do anything for her, I couldn’t save her. I, in fact, made it worse by trying to save her; by controlling her and situations around her.

Then I had that moment again; the Lord tugged at my heart, and told me that it is safer for her and myself to allow Him to interfere. I had been trying to fix and help her, but in the process, I had been busy making a bigger mess.

I took a little pebble from my garden and I said to the Lord that this is my daughter and I give her back to Him. This wasn’t easy for my mommy’s heart. I had to back off, completely. Step back and allow God to touch her. All I had to do was to stop trying to fix her or trying to reprimand her and to love her unconditionally instead; even if she was behaving badly. The rest was in God’s hands.

Our amazing Abba Father has truly done what He is so good at – He touched her. Things in her just started changing and our relationship started changing as well.

She is such an amazing young lady with such a compassionate, gentle heart. Man, our Abba is good. He just needed me out of the way. He needed me to trust Him with her.

Beloved, the altar is your safe place. It is a dreadfully scary place, because it requires you to lay down all those very important things, those very desired things and those very longed for and awaited things. Give it over to the Lord and allow Him to release or remove it from you.

Let’s look at that scripture again. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ So he said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Abraham had to sacrifice Isaac, he had to trust God that He knew best and that God will let it all work out. He obeyed God and He held unto God’s promise that He will make Isaac a great nation. He was willing to offer Isaac up to the Lord because he believed God could be trusted with his and Isaac’s life.

My moments at the altar were the times where my heart was tested severely, where I had to choose God’s way above my way, where I allowed Him to have His perfect will in my life because He knows exactly what I need. Not my will, but His will be done.

There were and still are many altar moments in my life; I have learnt to embrace the altar. Every situation is different and I can’t say it gets easier, but what I know for sure is that this is where I am kept safe. Never has the Lord let me down! Everything has always worked out the way it should have.

Psalm 37:5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

Micah 7:7   But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

Beloved, the things that we want or desire can so easily become an idol and all we see is that very thing infront of us and we lose sight of our Lord. This is when we especially need to go to the altar and start sacrificing these things so that God can intervene in our affairs.

Will you take the risk to lay down those desires you carry, the things that you so dearly love and those things you so dearly want to change? Will you allow Abba Father to take charge and intervene in your life? If it is a husband, a wife, a baby, a rebellious child or a position. Whatever it is. I invite you to lay it down. He will bless you for choosing Him first. Faith pleases God.

I invite you to come to the altar so that Abba can release to you exactly that which He knows you need.

Let us pray: Father, I confess that I am scared of the altar. I have set my heart so much on ………………………………………… (insert applicable things that you desire). I know that my eyes have been on this for a long time and that it has become an idol to me. This is all I can think off, my mind is bombarded with thoughts on this. I repent and ask forgiveness for loosing sight of You and only having this in mind. Father, I am scared of being dissappointed. I am scared of loss and I ask forgiveness, I know that it means that I don’t trust You, I repent. Jesus, I choose You. I have been waiting, I have been trying by myself to make things work out, but it doesn’t work and I can’t change anything. Will you please intervene? I choose to place …………………………………………. on the altar, I choose to allow you to take over in the name of Jesus Christ. I trust that You know best for me and that You will let Your will be done, in Jesus name I pray. Amen and amen.

NOW WE WAIT ON THE LORD!!!