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Based on the scriptures that you have just read, I have built up four composite prayers, pulling together scriptures that share a common theme. I have built four themes…

1. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God took away sin (the Foundation, the Rock)
2. Jesus Christ reconciled and blessed this world
3. Jesus Christ brought me into right standing with God
4. Jesus Christ removed the power of death to harm me

Here are the four prayers, one for each theme. The prayers are a compilation of scriptures, edited to make them flow easier. They are a powerful sword! These prayers are only a suggestion. Modify them, add to them and build your own sword which you use every day.

Have a look at the parts of my sword…

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God… a Sovereign act

Jesus Christ IS the Lamb of God and He took AWAY the sins of this world. And not only believers sins, but the sins of the whole world (1Jn 2:2). By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, as an offering for sin, God has subdued and overcome sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). Christ has redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us (Gal 3:13). Our transgressions are Sovereignly blotted out for God’s own sake (Is 43:22-25, Is 44:22). Sin has been set aside and abolished. Death has been anulled. God’s full righteous lawful chastisement due to this world for all it’s sin was placed upon Jesus Christ on the cross; and in this way God has created peace between Himself and this world. This world is no longer being devoured by a curse and the inhabitants no longer suffer punishment, because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There is no sickness (Is 33:24), no war, no tears, no mourning (Is 25:8), no weeping, no distress (Is 65:19), no wretchedness, because of the cross of Jesus Christ. The sure Foundation of Jesus Christ has anulled all covenants with death, all agreements with Sheol are set aside, all hiding places of lies are swept away, all shelters of falsehood are washed away (Is 28:16-18). All captors of humanity who used the power of law, sin and death – such as death, the grave, sin, satan, demonic spiritual forces, rulers and authorities, principalities and powers – they have all been visited, conquered (Col 2:15), led captive by Jesus Christ (Eph 4:8) and gathered into a pit/dungeon (Is 24:21-23). Jesus Christ alone holds the keys to death and Hades (neither sin, nor demons nor satan can use death).

And then God gave gifts to mankind… the exchange!

He “reign of sin and death” has been ended and has been replaced by the “reign of God’s grace” through Jesus Christ. Death could not hold Jesus Christ who rose up to the right hand of God; and then God gave gifts to mankind (Eph 4:8). All of us sinners () and ungodly () people are reconciled back to God () through the blood of the perfect spotless Lamb of God. Jesus Christ has put His Spirit within us, He has cleansed us, He has given us a new soft heart of flesh and He has put a new spirit in us, He causes us to walk in His ways (Eze 36:25-27). When Jesus Christ took the sin of the world away, the veil separating this world from God was torn from top to bottom. Everything in Heaven and everything on Earth has been reconciled back to our Father God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made all things new in this world. He created a new Heaven and a new Earth (Is 65:17). The Heavens are now His throne and the Earth is His footstool (Is 66:1). The Heavens have been torn open, they are not closed any more. Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, there is now a canopy of His glory as a divine protection over every dwelling, every assembly and over the whole land. Yes Jesus Christ is our everlasting light, He is our glory, He is our beauty (Is 60:19-20) and He answers us before we call, He hears us while we speak (Is 65:24). On His cross Jesus Christ gave all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined (Is 25:6) and the fat coming from all of this breaks the yoke off our necks (Is 10:27). Everyone has a house and an income (Is 65:19-20) because of His work on the cross. The fruit which came from the reign of sin and death is punished and removed. The fruit of the reign of God’s grace is righteousness in all spheres of life, an abundance of salvation and inner and external peace forever. On the cross Jesus Christ bound up and healed the broken-hearted. He proclaimed liberty to the spiritual and physical captives. He opened the spiritual and physical prisons of those who are bound. He proclaimed a jubilee from sin and a return to God. He comforted all who mourn. He gave us joy; and consolation for our losses. He gave us beauty and joy and praise (Is 61:1-3). He gave us gold, bronze, iron, peace, righteousness; and we will call our walls salvation and our gates praise (Is 60:17-18). Jesus Christ overcame that old world and made a new one on His cross. It is finished, it is done and I receive it through my faith in Jesus Christ.

For followers who accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

I am a part of God’s family through my faith in Jesus Christ. I am His Son. I am Jesus Christ’s brother, He is the firstborn of many. I have been given God’s surname! I was chosen before the foundation of this world was laid. I have been given eternal life, here, now, already. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. I am seated with Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. The Father holds me by my right hand. He is my strength and He shows His strength through me. When two or more of us are gathered together in His Name, we are His body right here on Earth. I am filled with the fullness of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I have the priviledge of being His light, His salt, His fruit and His body to this world. As a result of my faith in His work on the cross, the evil of this world is increasingly overcome. Despite my ongoing sin, when God looks at me, He sees His Son, He relates to me as His Son, He treats me as His Son, He speaks to me as His Son, He dwells with me as He does with His Son and He has 40 people working for my good. I am IN Christ Jesus and He is IN me. I am WHERE He is at the right hand of the Father. I am AS He is. I am clothed with His righteousness and He has made me (an ongoing sinner) acceptable to God. I have the gift of His Holy Spirit. I am a new creature in a new creation within a new Heaven and a new Earth. I have been made holy, pure and blameless by Jesus Christ on His cross.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. – 1Cor 15:25-26

“Jesus Christ took the sins of the world upon Himself and He paid the full price of death for it all, for both believers and unbelievers. Death, your power was the law but the law no longer finds fault with any of us, even though we continue to sin. Jesus Christ took our sins and made a full payment of death on the cross, so the law no longer finds fault with us. The righteousness of the law has been satisfied by the blood of the Lamb of God. Therefore the power of death is ended in this world. Death you can no longer sting me because of my sin. You will not sting my finances or my property. You will not sting my body or my thoughts. You will not sting my family or my friends. You will not sting my city, my country or this world. Death, may NO fruit EVER come from you again, in the Name of Jesus Christ. All captors of humanity who used the power of law, sin and death – such as death, the grave, sin, satan, demonic spiritual forces, rulers and authorities, principalities and powers – you have all been visited, conquered (Col 2:15), led captive by Jesus Christ (Eph 4:8) and you have been gathered into a pit/dungeon (Is 24:21-23). Jesus Christ ALONE holds the keys to death and Hades (neither sin, nor demons nor satan can use death). Get behind me satan, in the Name of Jesus Christ.”

That is my sword and I speak it every day, sometimes more than once a day.

Although this book is devoted to a message about the impact of Jesus Christ on this whole world, it is vital that we Christians do not lose sight of part three – our personal prayer, our unique priveledge of being the chosen vehicles through which God is blessing the world! You can say that prayer on behalf of any Christian or even for the church. It is true for all of us.

He Sovereignly chose you and me and raised us up in order to use us to bless the world, to make His Name famous, to make other nations jealous so they will want Him for themselves, to bring the world back to Him.

From Abraham onwards God has always been speaking of blessing the world. Psalm 105 speaks wonderfully about that covenant which still exists today…

Psalms 105:8-11 He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.”

You are in the right time and at the right place to be used to spiritually fulfill that covenant. What a privilege! What an honor!

The central message of this book is that we should not be waiting for another Messiah to come, Jesus Christ is our one and only Messiah. If there is a promise in the bible about the Christ, then He did it (Matt 5:17). Don’t wait for someone else to come. Don’t wait for Him to come again and do it. He did it. It is finished. It is done.

He is coming back for a radiant bride and nothing less. His work on the cross was sufficient for us to become that radiant bride. Do not expect Him to return and deal with sin or any burden, the bible is explicitly clear that nothing remains to be done…

Heb 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, NOT to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

The Amplified bible expands on that saying “not to deal with sin nor burdens”. So don’t keep waiting for another Messiah to deal with your burdens, our Messiah has come! He is Jesus Christ and He dealt with our sin and our burdens. Accept fully what He has done for us.

Weather

Meanwhile… in the Atlantic Tropical Hurricane Season (not!) the season is about to officially end on Nov 30. Here is the reason given for the season being so quiet…

The basic result was to increase west wind shear across the Caribbean Sea and southwest tropical Atlantic and also to cause anomalous sinking motion across the same area. Neither favored tropical cyclone development.

The combination of these two ingredients made for many atmospheric snares for the tropical cyclones that did develop and hence they were for the most part very short-lived. This combination also routinely formed snares that prevented tropical cyclone formation on many days during the peak of hurricane season. – Weather.com

One of the things I like about myself is that I have a memory like an elephant. So when I saw “wind shear” given as a reason, I remembered that it was the same reason why the storm stopped last year too! Hurricane Gustav was simply chopped off!!

Holy Spirit outpouring begins in places!

Read this and get ready

On November 11,duringa 9:00am class of first-year students, led by Allen Hood and Wes Hallat International House of Prayer University (IHOPU),the Spirit moved in their midst with physicalhealings, deliverance, and a spirit of joy. That class, on November 11, continued for more than 15 hours.The word spread quickly, and over 2,000 people spontaneously gathered in the auditorium from all over the Kansas City area,as deliverance and physical healings increased. The meeting continued well past midnight.Recognizing that the Spirit was moving, the leadership of IHOPU canceledall classes for the next few days so that we could gather to receive all that the Spirit wanted to do.

This is just the beginning. On this last weekend I heard of another prayer center, this time in South Africa in the Eastern Cape which is seeing such success that they are considering closing the bible college and moving the prayer center in there! Why at prayer centers?? Because the hunger is there…

“The greatest outpouring, the greatest anointing of God’s power ever known, is coming upon us. Past revivals will seem as nothing when Pentecost breaks upon the entire Church.” – Reinhard Bonnke

I wrote about my expectation for this outpouring here: Until the Spirit is poured upon us from onhigh and How long is “a little more than a year” because THAT is when His Spirit will be pouredout and Let the fire of God come down on all nations – God’swords

The key bible verses is/are this (although the same can be found in the book of Joel and others)…

Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is valued as a forest.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation) will abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace [internal and external], and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever. My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places. – Is 32:15-18

From my journal…

Fire falling after 50 days – by Andrew Friesen on November 3, 2009

** It was 50 days from Exodus to Sinai where the law was given and people could not come near to God’s holy mountain without dying. Fire burned the mountain. It was 50 days from the cross to Pentecost, where fire fell and it brought life and renewal and reconciliation to God. **

I wrote this in my journal…

If fire was to fall in 50 days, then His Fire will fall on on Tuesday 10^th? So there may be 3 days to go to His Fire falling.

• Sept 20th – Received the word about fire falling, and clearly felt it would occur in days (not weeks or months).
• Nov 7 – Today is 47 days (10 days in Sept, 30 days in Oct, 7 days in Nov)
• Nov 10^th is 50 days after I received the word that would happen in days

And so on the 11th I wondered how I had got it wrong… until finding out that it HAD fallen, but just elsewhere, not where I am.

Local food prices continue to decline in SA

Isn’t this wonderful? In a country with 25% unemployent and 40% poverty, lower food prices will certainly reduce daily tension in the lives of parents and children.

Thank You Jesus Christ for blessing us and for what you are about to do.

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset hates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lighting, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” – by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

NOTE: While France had provided the statue itself, American fundraising efforts like these paid for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. In 1903, sixteen years after her death, Lazarus’ sonnet was engraved on a plaque and placed in the pedestal as a memorial.

In this comment I am not discussing politics at all. This is about what the bible says, nothing more.

Did Jesus Christ commanded us to love one another… yes He did!

This is my commandment, that ye love one another. [Jesus, In John 15:12]

In the OT God commanded us to love our neighbour and to protect the helpless and the poor and the weak and to visit those in jails… yes He did!

The Bible contains more than 300 verses on the poor, social justice, and God’s deep concern for both. – Source

Ps. 140:12. I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor.

Did Paul saying not to walk past a beggar and helpless person and say “be filled with the Lord” and then walk on… no he didn’t, Paul made it abundantly clear that we are to intervene and help!

We Christians are to make a difference in this world. That is the fact of the matter. It is abhorrent to hear Christians who say we are to avoid helping those who do not have health care… if we do not help then who will?

It is shocking disgrace to think that Christians refuse to help the underprivileged, refuse to help those trapped in poverty.

Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

Where is your tithe meant to be going?

Deut. 26:12. When you have finished paying the complete tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and the widow, that they may eat in your towns, and be satisfied.

Lev. 19:19ff. Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.

Prov. 31:8ff. [Commandment to kings.] Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

Is. 58:66ff. Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Luke 12:33. “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys.”

Luke 3:11. And [John the Baptist] would answer and say to them, “Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise.”

Please note that this is a not a political message, it is strictly a statement about the expectations that God has shown clearly in the OT, in Jesus’ command and in the NT.

Mt. 5:42. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

And the message is continuous. It’s in the Law (Torah); it’s in the Prophets and Psalms; it’s in the Gospels; it’s in the Epistles.

Prov. 22:9 He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.

Jer. 22:16 “Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; then it was well. Is that not what it means to know Me?” declares the LORD.

Deut. 15:10. You shall give generously to [your poor brother], and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.

Prov. 19:17. He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed.

Jer. 7:5-7. “For, if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”

Is. 58:10. “And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”

Luke 14:12-14. “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 12:44. “Sell your possessions and give alms; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Mt. 19:20ff. The young man said to Him, “All these commands I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

The list goes on and on… here is a study on the bible and God’s words regarding the poor.

I must state once again that this is not endorsing one or another political approach. These are God’s words in scripture. If we have a chance to bring comfort to the people who are unprotected, then we HAVE TO do it. If it means selling some of our own property, then that is what we must do. We are commanded to share what we have.

Christianity is not a call to greed and me-first and selfishness… it is a call to giving alms, selling and giving to the poor, being blessed ONLY so that we are a blessing. God shared His only Son for us. He gives us (spiritually poor and needy) real life and gives us from His riches… He expects us to do the same and give to the poor and needy.

Does God bless those who give generously?

Bill and Melinda Gates have a foundation/charity and are the largest donors in the world. Bill’s father was a significant donor. And you wonder why Microsoft has done so well?

Google has a charity and to fund the organization, Google granted them 3 million shares during their initial public offering. Google has also pledged to contribute one percent of their annual profits to their charitable organizations.

Do not confused… America built an enormous statue welcoming the poor and downtrodden… and the blessings of God made it a vast, powerful and blessed nation.

Any nation that refuses to bless the poor will not prosper.

Ezek. 16:49ff. “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it.”

Is. 10:1-3. “Woe to those who enact evil statutes, and to those who continually record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice, and rob the poor of My people of their rights… Now what will you do in the day of punishment, and in the devastation which will come from afar?”