Fortune tellers, psychics, and witches are real.
Praying openly through a blog for everyone to read has made me become aware of this. You’re probably not connecting the dots here, so let me explain.
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Jesus tells his disciples in John 12 that “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Our prayers aren’t empty words. There is power behind them when spoken in the name of Jesus. I’ve been saying that a lot, I know, but we often forget it. This means that when we pray, we are to pray in authority. Our prayers are not to be timid and unsure, they are to be riddled with the confidence that we have in Jesus Christ.
We are on a battle field, and when fighting for our King, we should do so in the power of his name.
This is easy for me to do when I am praying with a group of believers. Entering into that moment when you let the heart of the Lord lead your prayers is empowering. There is a knowledge that your words are making a difference because they are lead by God himself.
But that is a whole different ball game here on a blog.
As I type out my prayers, I’m very aware that anyone can read them. Christians, agnostic, atheists, or those unsure about what they believe. With that in mind, all the sudden I find myself sounding very…
Cryptic.
I feel like some crazy person with a multicolored turban on their head “sensing” this and that about the “spirit world.” My words are filled with “feelings” that I should be praying against a “spirit of confusion.” Or “speaking against the powers of darkness.” I “feel lead” to pray for this or that.
And all the sudden I’m scared of what I’m writing. I must sound like I’m crazy to so many people, whether you believe in the Scripture or not.
Now let me go ahead and make something very clear:
There is not a single doubt in my mind about those feelings and promtings that I get from the Lord through prayer. I know His voice like a sheep knows her shepherd and I will follow it wherever he leads. My unease come simply from the way I am perceived.
But I’ve come to realize something.
These fortune tellers, magicians, psychics, and mediums (although many of them phonies) can be real. I truly believe that there are people out there that have the power to speak with what they believe are those in the afterlife. They have the power to perform magic and incantations. They have a power to see into the inner dealings of a person.
But this power is not their own.
There is a battle being fought between light and darkness every day, and we find ourselves right in the middle of it. We can choose to step in a work on the side of darkness, but it comes with a cost. It is demons and the work of Satan that can give these people the power to work within a world that we cannot see.
As Christians, many of us are terrified of this idea. But we forget that we are invited into this world every day as well.
And the truth of the matter is:
Our God is greater.
The demons hear the name of Jesus Christ and tremble.
“And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons…they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
I’m suddenly encouraged by my cryptic- sounding prayers. I’m a solider in the same battle, but I’m on the winning side. Why then should my prayers sound any less bold than that of the enemy when I am speaking with the Authority of Jesus Christ, at who’s name they fear and tremble?
(Let me pause here to clarify that the fortune tellers, the seers, and mediums of which I speak are NOT the enemy. The enemy are the demons that control and give them the power to do what they do. God loves witches and magicians and pagans a lot. And we are to love them the same. )
So let not our prayers be timid, but be encouraged to pray as the spirit of the Lord leads and to do so in power. We are not to be afraid, but to fight with the power of the Love of Jesus Christ.
I’ll end with a story:
At the top of a mountain overlooking Lima, Peru, there are three crosses that light up the sky at night. They are considered an icon of the city, with many journeying to the top of the mountain for various reasons.
While there, I heard legend of a man who did this very thing late in the middle of the night to make a deal with the Devil. He wanted to posses a power that came with commitment to the Evil One. So the Devil met with him there at the foot of the crosses.
The man was told that there were three tests he had to pass before the Devil, the first two physical, and he did these readily. The final test however, came in a different form.
To receive the power that the devil possessed, the man was told that he must recant the name of Jesus Christ as well as the Holy Scripture. The man, unsure, asked why this must be done, and the Devil replied by simply demanding it of him again.
The man, thinking this through realized: If the devil is afraid of Jesus Christ, than it must be because Jesus Christ has a power far greater than his own.
So there on his own, he denied the Devil’s final test, marched down the mountain and sought a church and the power of Jesus Christ that far exceeds that of the Devil.
We were told the man is now a pastor with a thriving ministry.
Whether legend or fact, what a picture of the power of the name of Jesus Christ.
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So that being said, here's Day 8 of the Elijah Project.
All of the following information comes from Operation World by Jason Mandryke and is in no way my own work.
Country: Argentina
Mainly an agricultural society, there has been a recent downward turn, creating a huge gap between rich and poor, wiping out the middle class.
In the 1970’s, Argentina went through political unrest resulting in a mistreatment of the people’s rights. True democracy was obtain in 1983, create a much more stable government. There is full freedom of religion with the Roman Catholic church being the most prominent.
What to pray for:
1) Although there is economic and political growth, the gap between rich and poor flourishes. Nearly 500,000 live in the slums surrounding Buenos Aires alone.
2) Through the recent unrest in the country, a spiritual has increasingly grown. This hunger, praise Jesus is being fulfilled. However, pray for that the Spirit will continue to draw many to the King and for sincerity of faith.
· There continues to be an intense spiritual struggle for souls. The influence of the occult, Mormonism, and a growing Muslim population threaten the work of believers. Pray for a spirit of intercession within the church to fight on the front lines of the battle.
3) Pray for Christian leader who train, disciple, and create more leaders with a biblical foundation.
4)Pray for the indigenous groups of Argentina. Pray that the scripture is heard and received, as well as for translations of the Bible to continue to be worked on in the many indigenous languages.
5) Missionaries to come out of Argentina
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