DEVIL GOT PUT DOWN WHEN CHRIST WENT UP

I heard a story where a brother and his sister were riding in the back seat of the family car when all of a sudden the little girl blurted out, “Shut up devil!” Mom turned around and asked, “Why did you say that?” The little girl answered, “Because the devil told me I should break John's leg.”

We all need to do more of what that little girl did and tell the devil to shut up and go back down where he belongs.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Matthew tells us Jesus responded with: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt 4:10). Notice that Jesus didn't pray about it. He didn't ask God to get Satan away from him. He spoke directly to the spirit and “then the devil leaveth him” (vs.11). Throughout Jesus' walk on the earth we see that He speaks directly to that which is destructive and tells it to stop or depart. We can do the same.

I looked up the Greek translation for “get thee hence” from Matthew 4:10. It is hupago which comes from ago, which is to go, and hupo which is under, beneath, below, to an inferior position. So hupago is to go below. Jesus commanded Satan to back down.

Before I came to this revelation of sending evil deeply under and beneath, I would cast out devil spirits, but I only cast them away, not under. Demanding that evil take itself below is a much stronger image and agrees with many other passages we find in the Bible. For example there is the record of when Jesus cast the devil spirits out of the man of the Gadarenes. The evil spirits went into the pigs. And then what did they do? They jumped from a higher position on the cliffs to the water below and drowned:

And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand) and were choked in the sea. (Mark 5:12-13 AMP)

When Jesus allowed himself to be crucified, He allowed for every evil that possibly could be inflicted on a man or woman to be inflicted upon himself. That would include any sickness, disease, oppression, worry, guilt, lack, and anything you or I can possibly think of that is destructive to the body, soul, or spirit. Jesus took it all upon Himself. He also was buried with it. And all of that evil and sickness was taken to Hell with Him.

It took tremendous power for God to raise Jesus up out of that filth, every bit of slimy, clawing, insidious evil wanting to pull him back down, or hitch a ride up. The Devil thought he'd destroyed Jesus; he certainly would fight to keep him down there, but he couldn't. When God raised Jesus, all evil was left behind, dropped away, and Jesus was raised as the victorious Christ.

Without oppression, there could be freedom. Without sickness and disease, there could be health. Without the wretchedness of poverty, there could be abundance and generous overflow. Without the claw of addiction there could be the joy of liberty. Without the strain of jealousy, there could be the comfort of love. Jesus took all evil to Hell, left it there and was raised all the way up to Heaven to enjoy the full, unimpaired blessing of God.

The rightful position of believers is above with Christ, and without any of things Jesus took with Him to the grave and to Hell.

Because of “his great love wherewith he loved us,” God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4 and 6), “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named” (Eph 1: 21).

Romans 6:4 tells us “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Truthfully, any of the things that Jesus took to the grave and left deep in Hell, should not be in our lives. If they have deceitfully become a part of our lives, we have the perfect right to send them right back down to where they came from. We can walk in the new freedom we have.

God's given us victory and authority in Christ. If devil spirits try to talk us into things that are not the best for us, we can say, like the little girl in the back seat, “Shut up devil!” Or we can say, like Jesus, “Go back below, where you belong! You don't have any right to be here with me!”

Love, Carolyn

Look for the next free download on Thursday: Sample book E – Bible Studies – more exciting than you might think, it includes chapters such as “The Missing Manual,” “Why the Devil Has No Authority,” and “History told in the Heavenlies.” Also a good one on what we can gain from knowing about the O.T. festivals in the chapter on Father’s Day. Available from Amazon.

WHAT DOES A BOAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE DEATH OF THE LORD JESUS?

He sat on the edge of the boat’s railing, gripping the side as he brought his legs over, one at a time. “Is it really Jesus out there?” He questioned himself. “The man did say to come, right?”  Peter took a deep breath…. “Okay I’m going to do this.” Both feet ready and eyes focused only on the figure out there on the water, he lowered himself down and stepped into it. But he didn’t need to flap his arms and try to swim because somehow his toes were the only part of him experiencing the splash of cool water. The first step of faith was to touch something he really didn’t understand, but it worked and he was walking on water to Jesus.

That’s how it is with all spiritual things. We step out in faith first, then the understanding comes later. Especially when it comes to difficult concepts, we just have to forget about trying to wrap our brains around them. Instead, we need to let go and say, “Okay, I believe. And I know the Lord will give me understanding later.” It’s refreshing and takes the burden off.

So, with that said, I want to introduce some truths about Easter that you may not understand yet. Let yourself believe and the Lord will give you the understanding.

It’s important to realize that when Jesus was born, his blood was extraordinary. It was not from his mother. A baby’s blood doesn’t come from the mother and never mixes in the womb. Jesus’ blood came from his father, God, making it spiritual and perfect.

The Bible tells us life is in the blood. So by bleeding out his perfect blood Jesus made his blood, touched by God Almighty, available to anyone who would believe. And this is where we, like Peter, need to step out of the boat and onto the water. Take it by faith. Believe and receive (Mark 11:24).

Jesus bled seven times. Seven is the number for perfection. The seven places cover every aspect of our lives. The first blood was in the garden of Gethsemane. “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:41). This is where Jesus said, “Not my will but thine be done.” Jesus was willing to do God’s will no matter what. His blood gives us the willpower to choose God’s way. Like it says in Philippians 2:13, “to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

The next time Jesus bled was when he was beaten and whipped by the Roman soldiers. The Bible says he was “scourged.” That means he was given 39 lashes with a whip made of leather thongs, each tied with jagged pieces of metal or bone that tore and ripped open strips of flesh on his back. We know that in the end this terrible beating had no effect on him. Having faith in this aspect of the blood makes it so that our bodies can be impenetrable to any sickness or disease. This has been documented with John G. Lake in Africa. They put diseased matter on his hand and it just died.

Also, because God made it so that every cell in the body has the same original DNA, through the blood, the body has the capacity to restore any missing or broken parts. Spirit in the blood can go anywhere in our bodies and change anything physical. This can happen instantaneously (a miracle) or can be a process. The pure qualities of his blood are able to clean out foreign matter, cause growths to wither and die, kill off cancers and arthritis and restore and refresh anything that has been effected by disease or malfunctions. I know this is a lot to take in, but if you read and study the gospels, in faith, God will show you these things.

The third place Jesus shed blood was from internal bruises. Isaiah tells us: “He was bruised for our iniquities.” Jesus was mocked and beaten. There was distress and swelling caused by broken capillaries and dislodged blood beneath the surface of the skin. The other day I got blood drawn. It hurt a little bit and two days later I looked down on my arm and saw a huge bruise. I didn’t even know it was there. That’s how it is with emotional, mental and spiritual bruises, even more than physical ones. Some of those bruises are so deep within us, we don’t even know they’re there, but the blood of Jesus can even remove those. We believe and receive freedom from the deepest wounds.

The fourth place Jesus bled was when they jammed a crown of thorns into his head. This was for our minds. We can think right thoughts and make wise decisions. First Corinthians says “We have the mind of Christ.”

Next they nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross. The blood from his hands is the fifth place Jesus bled. The blood for our hands gives us unique power. Think about what we do with our hands—we touch, write, make things, give things, stop things, clap, lift, and much more. Believing to let the blood from Jesus’ hands pulse in our own can change everything we touch.

Number six is the blood from Jesus’ feet. Matthew 7:14 tells us “strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.” Though narrow, it is the path of dominion like God says in Deuteronomy 11:24 “Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours.” And like it says in Psalm 23: “He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

And lastly, number seven, perfection. When the soldier came to see if Jesus was really dead he took his spear and pierced Jesus through the side—through his belly, his lungs and his heart—making sure his entire life force bled out. That blood was so that we could receive Jesus’ life force when we believe in him. How perfect is that? We receive his holy spirit into our innermost belly, new life in each breath and best of all, not only the ability to receive the Almighty’s love, but to also give it.

I’m so thankful that Jesus made the decision to go through the crucifixion for us. I pray God’s will be done in our lives as well.

Love, Carolyn

Only a couple days left to get my FREE sample book download. It’s called SPIRITUAL EYES and is available on Amazon.

EASTER - PAID UP FRONT

Why didn’t God make it so that there would be no sin? Because God made people in his own image, with the freedom of will to choose. God didn’t want puppets. God has a wonderful life planned for everyone, but He wanted people to choose it, not be forced into it.

But people didn’t believe in His goodness and turned away from Him. When the first man and woman sinned, it began to cultivate in the blood. They rebelled and chose to do things against God’s plan of good, and so the results were ungodly too. “For the wages [payment, harvest] of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). These wages came in the form of instant death like the murder of Abel, or in various partial deaths such as a partial death of a healthy mind, partial death in the functioning of various body parts, partial death of right thoughts about prosperity. You get the picture.

God knew that once sin got started, the results would be passed down from generation to generation. Sin brings death into a person’s body, mind, emotions and spirit and if allowed to go on, eventually destroys him entirely. God didn’t want that. What would be the point if every person was destroyed and gone? God would have no family left! He had to have a way for man to escape the results of sin that would kill him. So instead of having to pay with his life for every sin, God said people could pay with something dear to them and the sin would be covered, the debt paid.

In Old Testament times sin was covered with the payment of sheep, wheat, barley and other things that had significance to the people. But God had something better in mind that only He knew the full value of. He planned to give mankind His own son, who people could then take into their lives and hearts. People would then have the one and only perfect payment for all sins—Jesus.

When a person accepts Jesus as their own, then they have the most treasured sacrifice to give. Whether we know it or not, when we first believed in Jesus, we allowed Him to pay off our sin debts for us.

Jesus took the results of all our sin, including death and hell. But since Jesus had committed no sin, even death and hell couldn’t overcome Him; it couldn’t stick to Him. God raised Him up and outsmarted the best the devil had to throw at Him. Jesus Christ rose from the dead as victorious over all adversaries.

If you don’t know Jesus Christ and you want to, then all you need to do is “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). Jesus Christ comes into our hearts and all the old sin is washed out. We become new people with the seed of God’s Holy Spirit in us to stay.

The Holy Spirit in us rejects sin. So when we sin and rebel and make mistakes (and we all do), God says just admit it, say we’re sorry and we’re forgiven. No more sacrificial payments. Jesus paid it all up front. And no sin or the results of sin can overcome or stick to us either if we don’t want them. We can live in the goodness of God’s plan for a wonderful life now and we get to have it forever.

Love, Carolyn

WEALTH FROM THE WICKED or LOOKING AT WORK IN A VERY DIFFERENT WAY

Someone made a mistake and the wrong type of boards were purchased for doing the faux wood samples. Because of this error it would take longer to prep them and that’s when I got called in to help speed up the process and cover for the error. I started seeing similar things happen; things that had been there all along, but now God was showing me a different way to look at them.

When people made errors, I got to ...fix them. When details weren’t carried out, I got to finish them up. When things got sloppy, I got to clean them up. All these things used to get me irritated, but now I realize it’s not my job to change the way people are; only God can do that. So instead of getting irritated, I take it as a blessing because it just makes my prosperity grow.

I’ve heard lots of teachings on Proverbs 13:22, “the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just,” but I always thought it was only talking about cash money that a sinner might have stored up, that would eventually, miraculously come our way. I’m sure it can happen, but God showed me another way of looking at it.

The Holy Spirit prompted me, “What else can a sinner be wealthy in?” I answered, “Laziness, sloppiness, little attention to detail, fear.” There are many other things included in a sinner’s wealth. Try to name a few. But keep in mind we all sin, so others are going to make extra cash off our mistakes too. It’s a universal thing.

We don’t want to sin, but it’s great to know that the Lord has already provided a rather nice circle of fixing up each other’s messes, so that the prosperity gets distributed.

Now, instead of getting irritated or disgusted at people’s errors or perceived faults, I see them as a way the Lord is getting me more prosperity, and I’m thankful to receive. I have a friend who works in auditing. Her entire income is based on her ability to find problems. It’s great to see ourselves as the ones who search for and find solutions.

I’ve always believed Philippians 4:13, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Jesus has always been in charge of my work, but now that I’m able to see others’ mistakes in a slightly different way, I’m a much happier person.

I hope this will help some of you who may be struggling and need to see how God is already blessing you with prosperity by allowing you to be the one to clean up, fix up and find solutions.

Love, Carolyn

Check out my book, WINGS: A Journey in Faith from the Earthly to the Heavenly. Available on Amazon. Look for a free download of some of the Stand-Alone chapters starting this Thursday.

PEANUT UPDATE - BV15

PEANUT UPDATE
The people who said they wanted him backed out, then the lady called my roommate and said they have one space left for a dog to be trained to be a help dog - sounds good, right? One catch - he gets trained by prisoners! OH NOOOOO, the slammer, the hoosgow, the joint??? Are you kidding? Then if he didn't make the grade, he'd be put in the no-kill shelter. I just couldn't see him in an orange suit or striped pajamas with a little ball and chain around his skinny little foot! So he’s ours now. We’re all starting dog training next Saturday.

PS: I heard the prison training is great, really, for both the dogs and the prisoners, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it for Peanut:-}

Love, Carolyn

PEANUT AND THE LAMB

 Three weeks ago my roommate found this little dog abandoned in a nearby alleyway. His ribs were showing and he was scared. She stopped her car and got out to see if the dog would come to her. Instead, he crawled under her car. That’s when she called me.

She says I know dog talk and animals will come to me, so I got some dog food and water and off I went. We both sat down on the cement in the alleyway and talked to him quietly and offered him the nourishment. He would take a little drink and a bite of food, then run back a ways, tail between his legs, and just look at us.

Finally after a half an hour of coaxing, he still wouldn’t come, so we called the animal control because we didn’t know what else to do. But when we started toward our cars, the little guy sensed it was his last chance and he ran over to be petted. I put him in the front seat of my car and he snuggled up under my arm.

About that time a guy came down the alley. We told him what happened, that we couldn’t keep him because of our aging cat. He said his landlady recently lost her dog and was looking for another. Tony thought our little alley dog would be perfect so we made the arrangements in case we didn’t find the real owner.

Forty signs and a week later and no one called, so we called Tony and took the little one over. He lasted one night and we got a phone call saying they couldn’t keep him. Seems the landlady had attack birds. In reality they were territorial parrots and wanted nothing to do with a little dog. So back he came to our house. We called some friends associated with dog rescue groups and they found two people who really want the little guy.

Now this is the third week we’ve been taking care of him and now he’s got a purple collar, some toys and a name, Peanuts. He also loves to eat and is filling out nicely. We took him to a nearby vet and found out that Peanuts has his peanuts, so now we’re waiting to see about getting him fixed before he gets his new home. Even though we can’t keep him we just couldn’t leave him in that alleyway. We had to take care of him and find the best home for him.

This experience is reminding me of the story Jesus told about the lost lamb.

Luke 15:3-7 “And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

God really loves every single one of us and doesn’t want anyone left alone and afraid. “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).

We had compassion on this little dog, to look after him and make sure he gets a good home. How much more compassion does God have for us and for those who He finds in the alleys of life, emaciated and scared and just looking for the right home.

Love, Carolyn

Today through Monday I have a free download of the Holiday Section of WINGS: A Journey in Faith. Find it on Amazon under my name and enjoy.