His Power in Me

Today was a tough day! I felt completely overwhelmed with life. I was feeling such a presence of stress in my mind...I felt anger and irritation for no real reason. I recognized that I had some "funk" all over me. I prayerfully struggled all morning. In the hustle and bustle of taking care of pregnant mommy's, giving numerous flu shots, annual exams, and all of the other daily routine duties of my job in a busy OB/GYN practice, the Lord was speaking to me. Even though I didn't want to give in to the emotions I was experiencing,I truly wanted to get in the floor and throw a crying, screaming "hissy" fit, like some bratty toddler.

I stopped for lunch and after taking a few minutes to visit with some fellow co-workers, I finally began to recognize that I was under an attack! I began to talk about the power of Christ that I have because of His living in me. I am as Christ! I am filled by His Holy Spirit. The word says "for I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me" Gal 2:20. If I believe the Word, I know that I have all power and authority because Christ lives in me! I AM AS CHRIST!!!! In Acts 1, we read "But YOU will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you". If we have a relationship with Jesus Christ and He is the Lord of our life, His Holy Spirit has come upon us! That truth is empowering in itself! So, if you are a Christ follower, you need to know that you have His power. Greater is He that is in me!!! We walk in His power! WE WALK IN HIS POWER!!! We walk in His power!!! I'm sorry if you think I'm just repeating myself, but I have to let these words sink deep into my spirit! I have to say it over and over again until I truly believe it and accept the truth. I want it to burn into my mind and spirit to where there is no doubt or unbelief. For the enemy is continually reminding me of my humanness and flesh. However, if i know this truth beyond a shadow of a doubt, then I can fight against all strongholds and tactics the enemy uses to keep me down. He is not going to win this battle. I hope you know with confidence that WE ARE OVERCOMERS! We have already OVERCOME by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

I came to the realization the other day that if I was a soldier and facing a battle on the battlefield, I would try to learn as much as possible about my enemy before the time came to fight. I am the daughter of a retired Navy Seal, who was trained in many different areas but in talking and listening to Dad's stories, one thing I've gathered is that he studied and gained every bit of top secret information about his Vietnamese enemy before his battalion attempted to go up against them. He knew every dirty trick, every secret tactic that had been used and he was always trying to be one step ahead of the Viet Kong. This applies to our battle that we fight against Satan and all of his demons. We have to first of all know that this spiritual realm is a reality. We have to know that our enemy exists. We have to recognize him for what he is. He comes to "steal, kill and destroy" and if we aren't aware of that we can't even begin to fight. He is always about like a "roaring lion". He is our biggest ENEMY. He wants to destroy family's, friendships, churches, etc. With that being said we have a mighty army fighting this battle with us! God's army! We are equipped with so many weapons. In 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 we know "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have DIVINE power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take CAPTIVE every thought to make it obedient to Christ." What is a stronghold? A stronghold is defined as "an area dominated by a particular group". What does this mean for us as believers? A stronghold can be disguised as many different things. We allow fear, our past, other's opinions of us and lies to become areas in our minds that are strongholds. We allow the negative thoughts to consume our minds. We listen to the voice in our minds reminding us of all of the negative things and we ponder it and obsess in it all throughout our days. The enemy loves to keep us wrought up in confusion and self hatred in our minds. He does this in silence! He tortures us with our own thoughts, but only if we allow it. We have to combat his tricks.

We need to learn to keep every thought captive. We need to demolish all of these strongholds that the enemy has thrown at us. We have a spirit of POWER, not of fear and as a child of the Most High God, we walk in His TRUTH. He says that when we become a child in His Kingdom, the old has passed away and the new has come. We are a new creation in Christ! If we have repented and asked God for His forgiveness,and accepted Him as Lord of our life, we have no guilt, no shame, no condemnation. For there is NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ!

The Word tells us to renew our mind. How do we renew our mind? The scripture tells us to ask and we shall receive! God is offering us everything we need to fight the battle that rages against us. The first and most important way to renew your mind is to spend time in the Word. If you struggle with not knowing where to read, find a book of devotionals or get involved in a bible study or teaching where you are required to study the Word. It takes discipline but isn't this the most important thing we can fill our time with? Turn off that TV, shut your laptop, sit quietly down with the Lord. Ask Him to come and help you be more hungry for Him. He will! He is desiring a deep, intimate relationship with you. He longs to spend time with you, loving you and teaching you His ways.

Secondly, spend time quietly listening to Him. Prayer time has become the time that we sit and ask God to fix everything to bless us and to make everything better. We come before Him with our long lists of things He needs to do for us. What about letting Him show us what we need to do for Him? Let Him fill you with His love,strength and power. Just come and be still in His presence. He will begin to renew your mind, to turn your thoughts around...to help you take the focus of your life off of "YOU" and put it on Him. Until we focus on Him, we will never find peace. We can't find happiness in our self or anyone else. He is the only path to a life of joy. We need to fall in love with Him. That comes from spending time alone with Him, getting to know Him. Finding out what His heart looks like. How are we to know Him unless we make Him our best friend, our lover, our Father, our Lord? His greatest desire is to have an intimate relationship with you!

Thirdly, get involved in a fellowship of believer's. Find others who love Jesus and spend time with them. Worship and studying the word in a corporate setting is food for your soul. We are all in this together. None of us have completely figured it out and we are all continually growing in our walk with Jesus. We are all human and have our faults. One of the biggest arguments against attending church is that "that church is full of hypocrites" and yes, that is correct. Where else would hypocrites need to be? We are all guilty of being human and we will never be completely without sin...we can only strive to become more like Christ on a day to day basis. We have to put our eyes on God, not on man. He calls us to holiness...to be set apart. We are His chosen ones. We need to find out what that looks like for us. We need to learn how to be like Christ. That's where the corporate body comes in. We need each other for accountability and encouragement. We really do need each other! We are family. We are the family of God. Brother's and sister's to help us get through this life. What good is an army of one? There is strength in numbers!

In all of that being said, I hope you find encouragement in my words. I long for all of you to have the deep, intimate relationship with Jesus that He offers. My heart's desire is to use my gifts, talents and experiences to help others. If you need encouragement, prayer, or just someone to listen, please find a friend,family member, teacher or pastor. God loves you, Beloved one!!!! He loves you more than you will ever be able to imagine! He desires you to love Him as well. He created you to love and worship Him...if you long for that, seek Him. He promises that if you seek Him, He WILL BE FOUND!

Much love and blessings,

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email: shirley_prince@hotmail.com
phone/text: (325) 374-6023

feel free to contact me!