A Strategic Teaching

The Lord gave me this strategic teaching this morning and insisted that I get it out today because the people of the Lord need to hear this now. I pray the Holy Spirit will anoint your heart to hear what the Lord is saying to you in this message.

 

The Greatest Test

What tested God’s creation the most? Was it sin alone? Was it pride? Was it lust for power, riches or fame? No! These came in to play only after the stage had already been set for them.

 

Think about it. Lucifer, full of his own beauty and abilities, begat sin in the form of self-focus. Let’s explain that. We think of self-focus as only pride, arrogance and self-importance but that is not true. ‘Self’ focus is being overly occupied by constantly focusing on your self and what pertains to you. 

 

It can be about what you don’t have or what you do have that you don’t want, like a blemish, weight problem or illness. It can be what you need or what you lack. It is often what we feel justified in desiring, like beauty, power, position, to be valued and acknowledged. Inner statements like, “I” feel; doesn’t anyone care what “I” feel.

 

But our pain does not draw in our miracle; many suffer and are not healed. Our faith draws in our miracle. Often we think this is not fair. Don’t grieve over it. Things on earth are not in proper order. The ungodly will be unfair to us at times. In Heaven things will be fair, for they will be in God order.

 

The enemy’s job is to keep you preoccupied with yourself, because faith is God focused. As long as your thoughts and emotions are tied up in yourself, you will remain defeated and subject to the enemy’s attacks. Because self-focus sets an atmosphere that Satan can influence, push and attack. But God focus sets an atmosphere of faith that repels the enemy of our soul. When Lucifer began to affect the atmosphere by self-focus and sin, the Lord’s presence withdrew. The two atmospheres are diametrically opposed, self-focus and God-focus. It works the same when we get into self-focus, the Lord’s presence withdraws.

 

Not all angels sinned but the atmosphere changed around them all because God withdrew. They may not have known why. God, the one who loves them and had promised them good things ‘seemed’ to be gone. The atmosphere pressed them. Doesn’t God love ‘me’ any more? ‘I’ just need to hear clearly what to do. ‘I’ need comfort. ‘I’ just want to be with Him in worship and feel His presence. ‘I’ need guidance. ‘I’ know that He’s God, He could help if He would. Listen to all the ‘I’ statements.

 

Count the ‘I’ statements Lucifer made in Isaiah 14:12-15 ‘I’ will ascend into the heavens; ‘I’ will exalt my throne above the stars of God; ‘I’ will sit upon the mount of the congregation; ‘I’ will ascend above the heights of the clouds; ‘I’ will be like the most High.  Self-focus wants others to focus on you, and what you want.

 

The true test and the most difficult test of the angels, was that in the midst of a corrupted atmosphere, that pushed any form of self-focus, from self-pity, to bitterness, to anger; they could not hear or see God. The ever-present God that had been so easy to love and worship when He was there in person, because His presence was so overwhelmingly awesome, was not present.

 

Now listen to the three things that brought the downfall of 1/3 of the angels, who had seen God’s presence and knew Him well.

1. First and foremost, self focus
2. They stopped worshipping until He returned, instead of worshiping to return His presence. Worship is God-focus and it changes the atmosphere in such a way that it draws God in.
3. They stopped doing what they knew to do. We know to pray, worship, read the Bible, etc. But when His presence seems far away, we have a tendency to lose those things as a priority. We get caught up and overly busy in lesser things. These are the weeds of the cares of this world that Jesus talked about in Matthew 13:22 that choke out our good seed.

 

We wait for His presence to return instead of drawing it by our heart attitude and faithfulness. Paul said in Ephesians 6:13 having done all to stand.

 

If it tested the angels to the point that 1/3 of them fell, do we expect we will not be tested. To end these test, we must pass them. Some of the things I hear the most from people are ‘I’ just don’t hear God clearly; If ‘I’ just knew what to do; ‘I’ can’t feel His presence; When ‘I’ worship it seems to fall flat; Doesn’t God love ‘me’ anymore; Doesn’t He know I love Him; Doesn’t He care about ‘me’?

 

We all go through these valleys where God seems far away, some remain there. It is nothing unusual. It is the great test to see if your focus will turn. One thing the Lord has taught me again and again is that we need to believe God’s love and goodness for us beyond what we see and feel. What goes on around us doesn’t change who God is. What should we do in these valleys to get through them? Well let’s look a few things.

 

1. If you’ve gotten into self-focus, complaining that God doesn’t seem to care, or if you’ve fallen for the enemy’s trap of despair (which means hopelessness and to be continually beat down – this is one of the enemy’s main weapons). Then repent. 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Wash in the Blood of Jesus Christ and clothe in His righteousness. It never was about our righteousness. The enemy just wanted us to feel that it was.
2. Watch and Pray. Watch for the warning signs of self-focus. The many ‘I’ statements. Repent of it and rebuke it.
3. Guard your thoughts and emotions. Never blame or accuse God of not being good to you. Instead make statements that God is good to you and you believe in His love for you. Turn your focus to God by making God statements instead of ‘I’ statements.
4. Thank God for 5 minutes a day for what He ‘has’ done for you. Remember things God has done for you in the past.
5. Worship God as though He were near, because regardless of how you ‘feel’, He is near. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. Joshua 1:5. It was only our perception that altered; God was always close at hand. Let your worship plow the ground and soon you will be able to feel His presence.   

                                                                                                                               

There was an old man who always wanted to learn to pray and talk to God but he felt awkward. Finally he was near death and bedridden. He thought what do I care now what people will think? He asked that a chair be put near the bed. No one was to sit in that chair because Jesus sat there. Well if Jesus is sitting there it would be rude not to talk to Him. So the man began to talk with Jesus about many things. As the man was dying, he said his deepest regret was that he waited until the end of his life to put that chair near his bed. He now felt very comfortable with the Lord. We too need to find a way to feel comfortable and talk with the Lord all the time about all things. It will change your perception and your life.

6. Do what you already know to do and keep it as a priority in your life. Enduring love. Hebrews 12:1 says Let us run the race with endurance. That means there are things to endure. Ask the Lord for His enduring love. In Hebrews 12:3 we see that Jesus also had to endure.
7. Pass your test. Get out of your valley into the atmosphere of God’s blessings and reap the rewards of your faithfulness.

 

I pray that this word encourages you that you are not experiencing anything unusual. This word is to let you know that you can press through to the other side of your valley. We certainly don’t want to camp in this valley as some have. God never stopped loving you and never will leave you. Let’s push through this valley so we can become aware of the presence of God.

 

Please Pray for Upcoming Trips

I will be in the Dallas area ministering July 8^th through the 13^th. Then our team will be leaving for Europe July 31^st and returning August 28^th. We will be in Paris, Vichy, Rome, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Istanbul, Turkey. As you can imagine we need funds. Please pray for that. We need protection and guidance. Much of the trip we will be driving a car across many countries, please pray for God’s grace. We need prayer for the many battles, and that we will accomplish all the Lord is sending us to do without the enemy’s retaliation and of course for the protection of our loved ones. We will also, of course have many meetings and I ask you to pray for our meetings and schedule. We are believing for an outpouring of the Lord’s miracle power and a manifestation of His love.

 

Your faithful prayers make a big difference and I thank you for them. I know you are with us in prayer and the Lord knows it too. You will reap what you have sown in prayer. I pray the Lord’s greatest rewards for your faithfulness.