"Overcoming the Spirit of Death" | POWER HOUR | Ep.173 - 29 Sept. 2021

[Music] brown [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] hello what's up power our family it is wednesday the whatever of september i can't remember it's a wednesday at the end of september and we are here super excited for a power hour it packed with revelation packed with prayers packed with freedom and wisdom that will get you free it's episode 173 which is crazy i think we've done 173 power hours thinking about when we started i mean i had no facial hair i still had a clip we should maybe delete those youtube videos i looked about but we're here and we are still journeying together as a global family and it's so good to have you all joining and please do comment and uh post where you're you're joining from we love to see where our international global family are joining power hour from it's always good for us someone's saying it's wednesday the 29th and so that's that's the day i couldn't remember i'm useless with dates and i'm joined by the glorious katrina and sarah james for the next hour which is super how are you both doing great sam feeling a little bit nostalgic looking at your sweater this morning it's a throwback day christina and i are feeling a bit too modern for this show right now you're back in the 80s it's back to the future that's the theme isn't it oh yes and yes i i was saying sam i had a boyfriend who had a jumper like that i'm feeling very old right now i mean i'm 52 and just about to remember the 80s but seriously anyone else out there lived that fashion before loving it though i did search grandpa sweater because i wanted one that's what i was actually looking for so and i have shot corner officially gotten rid of all my skinny jeans so i have finally gotten them all away hallelujah that is a new era right there yes that is a new year no i will keep i'll keep my skinny jeans i don't suit the baggy gene look too well so that will be a staple for me but i should also clarify as you'll see i am in a very different background this week so before people get concerned debs and luke are away for a lovely and well deserved few days and charis and i are just here babysitting so we've not swapped house or anything like that but it is a slight different background to normal for me today tell you what i was like someday jesus when i grow up i want to live in a house like this when i reach peak adulthood this is like so many plants it's just so well designed like they both love interior design and you can see it like their home is just so so lovely so it's an absolute treat just to get to stay here i hope you're watering those plants katrina for dabs we'll keep an eye on them yeah i hope debs is watching because in hollywood she's not i hope they're having a good time at home she told me to put a rug on my wall which i have so i thought that that that's all debs interior design top tips for me yesterday put a rug on my wall i mean oh over i have a lot there stuff here that i've got a couple of boxes that i still need to unpack and they're making me slightly anxious so i just knocked something off the top but anyway how is the new how is the new flat time because you've recently moved into a new a new place yeah i've been here just over two weeks i think yeah just over two weeks is great my own space it's just me and jesus and it's glorious and i'll wait and it's quiet and i go to sleep and it's quiet and it's just marvelous and it's so tidy because i am a neat freak if you don't know me i am a meat freak i am ridiculous with tidiness and it's so tiny i'm so happy so yes it's glorious new places to live and no no homes which is amazing and but i did have a disaster in the middle of the night and well just before i was falling asleep um i have i don't have any cupboards for my clothes and i was falling asleep and i woke up just about or kind of sat up to this enormous crash and i went through to the other room where i keep my clothes and one of the racks when i hang up all my jeans had collapsed under the weight of the jeans hanging up and everything was on the floor and i was like oh my goodness do i tidy it now because that's the type of thing i could be pedantic about i could just try and fix it now and tied it so there's no mess but i went to sleep and shut the door and thought at some point today but i don't know if that's either it was a poorly designed clothing rack or which i don't think is true i have too many pairs of jeans which is definitely not true i know you and we know your love obsession with clothes shopping so i think we're gonna side with the clothes rack and say that it's too many jeans i think it's the extra weight of denim see with the baggy jeans you just it's too much weight of denim you're going to have to pair it down honestly people are saying classic sam it's ridiculous that the things that happen i mean my i live on like the top floor but i have a front door and you go upstairs and i was carrying up a package yesterday and i get to the top and i miss the step and i end up on my front and sleep all the way down to the bottom of the stairs and i'm like why does this stuff happen to me and you know that way where you're not you're you're alone so you don't have anybody to laugh with so it's awkward i'm like do i laugh do i just sit in a heap at the bottom of the stairs what did i do can i just have a day without any disaster or any drama just a peaceful normal day so that was me yesterday in and amongst everything else sliding down the stairs of my family completely by accident holding a clothed drying rack that's what i was holding because i just got one delivered anyway i think it's probably time for something any more disasters that we've had so you'll see the title today and i think we've called it overcoming the spirit of death we love a good punchy title we love a a good title that sounds war fairy but you'll be surprised where we take today and just with some of the things that god has been saying to us but i want to start by setting a little bit of context and just infuse you with some truth and the truth is this jesus has already defeated death it is under his feet and i often wonder i would love to be a fly on the wall not just of the crucifixion and not just of the resurrection though i would love to see them but off that middle second day when jesus goes down to the city of death and he takes back the keys of death and of grave forevermore and he puts them under his feet and jesus when he has died on the cross he goes down into the realm of the dead and he takes back what is rightfully his he terrifies darkness he terrorizes darkness and that's why the word of god says jesus made a public spectacle of them why because satan and his hordes of demons they thought they had won they thought that death had the final say and in their moment or on that second day probably of thinking we have won jesus barges into their realm with all authority with all power and he takes back what is rightfully has jesus has already defeated death and so when we're talking about the spirit of death when we're talking about overcoming death we are discussing how we appropriate what jesus has already done how we live out the fullness of what jesus achieved for us with his death his burial his resurrection and his ascension and so we're not fighting a battle where death has the upper hand we're not fighting a battle where death has more power or more save than we do we're fighting a war that has already been won and death is already under the feet of jesus so we're going to really press in today around this concept of death and death in the kingdom of god being crucified with christ what that means but also how we overcome the death of the demonic the the the death of the kingdom of darkness so let me just say this as a kind of top line about the spirit of death and then sj and katrina will kind of go from from there the main aim of the spirit of death is not to kill you or to kill something but it is to keep you from the fullness of life that's the main aim of the spirit of death it's not to kill you or kill something but to keep you far away from the fullness of life it's the spirit of death that keeps you going back and forth it wants you inconsistent it's happy for you to burn for a moment but then to lose your fire soon after the spirit of death wants you look warm and the spirit of death locks you up in mediocrity and i believe that at this time the lord is saying i will not have a lukewarm church i will not have a mediocre church i will not have a church that goes back and forth and that's why we need to hit the spirit of death because it is that that underpins many of those attributes and so we need to deal with our lukewarm death tendencies that's what we've got to do and we've got to shift them off because lukewarm living is not living in the fullness of life look warm living is not occupying the fullness of life that jesus has achieved for us so esther you wanna go you have um a great word on focusing on life and that's i i know you're going to hear the word spirit of death and death a lot today but our attention is on life really in this episode more than on the death so um if you want to take us there thanks sam yeah i think the word that arrested me some weeks ago when we were praying into a very serious situation and we were working in the spirit praying in the spirit as we've talked about before and we've trained you in before that sense of actually as we moved in the spirit the lord said to me there is more agreement with death than there is with life and and i was shocked i was like lord what do you mean i mean we're all in christ you know we're all faithful we're all giving our lives here for you but there's that sense of the lord saying as he said that there is more agreement with death than there is with life that it illuminated you know when god links is a word he brings it out of the hidden place into the same place so that we can grab it and it illuminates everything around us and so for me the last number of weeks and maybe we're into a couple of months now where the lord has spoken that i'm very aware of him disentangling me from death as psalm 18 18 says david talks about the chords of death entangled me and surrounded me and god came and he removed them he cut them off and that sense of actually the awareness of them is the start the awareness of the course of death the awareness of the things that we have inadvertently partnered with or inadvertently not appropriated to the cross with jesus that we are still holding on to the sin the sin of our own lives the sin of our thought life the sin of our flesh life all that stuff that is really ugly that we wish was just gone and go away the lord is saying look i want you to face death yeah doesn't scripture tell us death is the final enemy and death keeps us from the fullness of life and we're back to john 10 10 again where the enemy comes to still kill and destroy but jesus says i have come that they may have fullness of life so the fullness of life part comes to us as we are arrested by this truth of god we are more partnered with death than we'd like to realize individually me sj and the rest of the church and corporately as the church but right now personally the lord is saying look how do you get out of this you know how do you get out of the entanglement of death and the cords that are around us we get more entangled in life we get more connected to life that is christ we get more immersed in him we get more filled and subsumed with him that everything of death just is removed by exchange and as we move into life there is a displacement of death displacement means you know um something moves in so something comes out think of the law of um displacement when you get into the bath the weight goes in of your body the water comes up it's displaced it's moved it's shifted and that sense of as we move into the positional place of christ within us that we understand that not just by our heads but by our core spirit within us that we are one in christ that we are hidden in him and that christ in us the hope of glory wants to manifest himself through this body through your body you're the body of christ with the body of christ so there needs to be a manifestation of life that comes through us and from us yeah and this is the simple part and let me tell your friends it is so simple it's the focusing on that that internal life of jesus within the life that is the light of life that is christ in us and it's that centering and on the truth it's that focusing on the truth of who that is and if you imagine for those of you that have gone shopping which is probably most of you and you've bought the most amazing glass on mug and you love it and maybe you've got it from tk maxx or tj maxx in america or somewhere like that and there's this big sticky label on it right in the bit that's really annoying and the glue is right on there and it's really hard to get off what do you do you soak it in the sink you soak it in water and i feel like the lord is saying look you cannot wrestle yourself strive yourself uh fight the spirit of death off you you must be immersed in life and light so that fusion of light and life just soaks off disentangles everything of death that's got stuck even when there's a plant that's stuck with its roots you know soaking it and loosening it off that sense of actually the loosening off of the cords of death needs to happen by our full immersion and i feel like the coming fully alive in christ to do that to be fully alive in christ we first must be fully dead and so it's that death in submission it's that death and yielding and it's that death to say i'm coming before you naked lord naked and thought willing to be moved by the spirit to to connect fully with that life that is christ within me and what does um let me just find that scripture because i've got lots of scriptures this morning 2 corinthians 5 17 therefore if anyone is in christ and anyone here in christ you're all listening if you're not in christ just asking jesus you're my lord and savior get in christ as quick as you can therefore if anyone is in christ he is a new creation the old has gone the new has come it's doesn't say if anyone is in christ he will become a new creation the old will come the old might then sorry the old might go and the new might come it says the old has gone and then has come and we are a new creation now and so that sense of actually let's enter in to that new creation mandate if you will that is in christ that is fullness of life and that comes from yieldedness and submission let's get soaked in the light of life it's so simple but it's by the spirit it's not by our heads so good sj i think we have forgotten how utterly radical the death burial resurrection and ascension of jesus is and what that has achieved not just for our future in securing our eternal home but for our present right now and securing the fullness of life for us and we put off so often into the future what god has inaugurated what god has initiated right now in us for today and we expect one day the old will go as sarah jane was saying one day the new for me will come one day my old man will truly die one day i will be a new man one day and we forget that today god has already inaugurated that he has already initiated it and it can be your present reality right now and it's like ephesians 2 says but because of his great love for us god who is rich in mercy has already made us alive in christ even when we were dead in transgressions and it is by grace that you have been saved and get this and god has already god raised us up the word there is something he has already done god has raised us up with christ and seeked us with him in the heavenly realms in christ jesus and we cannot forget our radical present truth that we get to live in that we've been made alive and we've been raised with christ that we have been made alive with christ and we've been raised to be with christ and let me ask you this question does jesus have limited life does jesus have a portion of life or a percentage of life or does he have the fullness of life that was ephesians 2 that whole chapter and is great on life does he have a portion no he has the fullness of life and we have been made alive with him we've not been made alive in a percentage or a dirt downgrade of life or a lesser of life we have been made alive with christ katrina you've got lots on this as well do you want to take it on and continue on this trajectory yeah no i'm just loving it so far and i you know just looking at the comments a lot of times we get stuck and when it comes to okay so i understand the theological truth i understand what scripture is saying but how does that impact my day-to-day life how do i then you know change my behaviors change my habits and that's exactly where we want to go with this as well is that in yielding your day-to-day choices and saying holy spirit would you help me to make this choice and so for instance earlier today um the lord was it was really funny i've never heard him talk about death and strong men like this but he was saying death is like the kingpin you know like in the mafia there's the kingpin and death is that and where his little cronies are on the streets trying to get people come into agreement are things like control and fear and anxiety or our drive to be individuals and so we need to begin if we're going to really fully disengage from death and displaced death we need to acknowledge that that also includes i have to disengage from my absolute compulsion to want to be in control of my own life i have to disengage from the drive to be an individual separate from god or an individual separate from the church and the body of christ and so we need to also advance that in our thinking how do i disengage and so very practically speaking when you're you know you're in a moment and you think i feel like the holy spirit is convicting me to make this choice and this seems like the holy choice you know scripture commands us be holy as god is holy and that's what really fertilizes the life within us is be holy as god is holy so in your day-to-day choices is this the holy choice or is this my controlling choice is this the holy friendship or is this the friendship that makes me feel good in the moment but over time may seek to undermine me and so just having that idea of how am i partnering then with life in my choices how do you make choices when it comes to friendships how do you make choices when it comes to your finances how do you make choices when it comes to the tv programs that you're watching and i felt that in the last few years as especially with covet you know everyone's rushing to netflix and binge watching different box sets and i have felt do you know what that's actually not the holy choice and as much as i want to participate in the conversation with my friends i need to choose the choice of life i need to choose what is holy and righteous and good and so make it very practical when you're in the store and you're shopping is this a stewarding of finances choice that leads me to holiness or is this a moment where i just want to seek my own individual gratification and seek you know and especially for seasons of waiting the lord was talking to me about how we make choices that oftentimes undermine the call to be patient and enduring and the lord said look at sarah and abraham and hagar that's such a prime example of how we they took matters into their own hands and short changed the path towards holiness they short changed the path of endurance and perseverance because they got uncomfortable in the waiting and i'm sorry to say but part of our life in christ is we are in the uncomfortable season of waiting as we wait for the bride to be awake reawaken as we wait for jesus christ to come back again that we need to press in and so i'm hoping that this is making this disengagement from death practical because where where we really come alive is in the secret place of choice in the secret place of how do i steward my time how do i steward my relationships am i willing to be compromised in the things that i listen to and watch you know and and just the relationships and i'm just gonna go on a limb and i think one of the big ones so i'm in my 30s and still single and what i've seen amongst girls that are still in that position is the willingness then to ask so should i just start dating a non-christian or should i just start dating that guy over there because he's single and those for a very personal example that's a very real example where that's a choice am i going to pursue life and holiness even though it costs me and that's the death in christ portion it costs me by laying my life down and yielding to his plans and purposes or am i going to choose to take control and take matters into my own hand which in the short term seems like abundant life but in the kingdom of heaven that's actually death and so for me it's asking the question is this death masquerading as life or is this truly kingdom of heaven life and that's where we really have to push ourselves into that place is this choice actually kingdom of heaven life or is it death that's dressing up as life because it makes me feel good and it brings you know warm and fuzzy happy feelings and emotions whereas we see in the kingdom of heaven and we're so aware in scripture that christ as you know you suffer with me and you suffer for the kingdom of heaven but that is actually life and we need to change our understanding of what abundant life is come on don't hear me wrong i'm not saying that abundant life means that you're impoverished or that you're lonely or that you're depressed abundant life means that i put myself at the feet of christ and say you know better than i do what life is so i need you to lead me and guide me by your spirit and what life looks like in this moment in this choice in this situation in this relationship and all of these circumstances is that absolute yieldedness to the holy spirit that absolute yieldedness to the presence of god and i just want to read a scripture and then and pass it back to you sam and sj but just i feel so convicted and challenged when paul says to the philippians you know in chapter 3 verse 7 it says everything that was gained to me i consider it to be a loss everything that was gained to me i consider it a loss because of christ and he says more than that i also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing christ and other versions say you know anything is lost in comparison to knowing christ am i actually living my life like that because that's where fullness of life comes is my absolute desperation and hunger for more of christ more of christ in me more of christ around me and just that intimacy with him and the holy spirit and so um yeah just want to leave that before passing it to you and sj just how we make our choices and am i putting christ at the front of every single choice oh so good katrina so good and i just want to die now you're not for a minute i think and there's so much and that that actually you know it's deuteronomy 30 and i think it's verses 18 or 19 where god says you know see i have set before you in life blessings and curses choose life but i've still set the options before you and if we could drill down how do you overcome death we would actually i think particularly with what you were saying there katrina put it into the place of choice choose life is how you overcome death and how many of us can share stories of where we thought we were choosing life but it was just death masquerading as life it was a curse masquerading as a blessing and we were quick to make a choice we were quick to give our yes we were quick to give our agreement rather than slow to consider the stake and supposed to consider the cost and slow to consider what was actually going on in the context and therefore we partnered in that moment with a death and with a decay and we've got to be astute and what is death and what is life is this and it is as practical but as powerful as is this a death choice or a life choice yeah is this a death path or a life path is this job opportunity a death path or a life path is this relationship a death path or a life path is watching this on tv a death path or a life path and so on and so forth and the more you choose life the more the life of christ explodes from your insides the more you will instinctively know what is life and what is death the more the life of christ explodes from your inside the quicker you'll be able to make those decisions about what is life and what is death why because you'll be able to recognize what is already in you which is the life of christ actually jonah add on to this yeah i'm loving it i'm loving it i really feel like this is where we get to take responsibility family because the lord is saying look there is the conviction of the holy spirit but actually we do need to take responsibility and we do need to work with scriptures like ephesians 4 22 through 24 where paul is really exhorting us and saying look you know there are some things that you do have to actually choose to throw off you are a new creation but actually you have to choose to throw off the things of death and i think we have to say and be honest with each other if our lives look the same as they did last year or two years ago and we're doing the same things watching the same things having the same behaviors that we were and even six months ago we're not dead enough and we need to die some more and we need to choose some things and and take responsibility for some of our life choices our lifestyle choices our agreements our relational behaviors and the way even we communicate to one another for example you know are we honoring one another in conversation are we respecting one another as the christ within each other as ones made in the image of christ you know are we choosing to actually see things from god's perspective because i believe that's the way of life is you know death is shutting down to each other death is not connecting with one another death is not actually being in relationship at all and it's choosing to actually withdraw and so it costs us like katrina says it actually helps us to say yes to friendships relationships that are authentic and i think this is another problem that we have and i believe it's linked to this portion that we're working on today of choice of life or death is i feel like we've been looking for a manifestation of the kingdom of god rather than the authentication of the kingdom of god in our lives and so what is the authentication the authentic life the authentic life in christ the authentic life in the kingdom of god means we choose life every day every morning we choose life in christ but we choose to die to self we say flesh in me get under my spirit you be subject now to the life of christ in me because i'm choosing life today and i'm choosing christ today and right now in this moment when if if and when temptation of besetting sins or cyclical sins you know what they are in your own life i know what they are in my own life then we have to go flesh be subject to christ in me be subject to the spirit of god in me and get quiet and get low i'm choosing life right now i'm not going down that path of death and and limitation death is a limitation the way of life in christ is a narrow way yeah and you know it's much better to choose the narrow path where there is fullness of life it gets it gets narrower and it gets more restricted but in contrast it gets more full more vibrant more expansive more spacious than we've ever had so i think i would i would say to us all let's actually do a little bit of self-analysis here on and look at our lives even in like two seconds and think am i more dead to myself than i was six months or 12 months or two years ago does my life look different and if it doesn't then we've got some work to do come on still good sj katrina you have a word about death following disobedience and and i think we need to dine out there for a moment um if you want to take us there and then we'll chat back and forward about that yeah apologies if you thought you were joining power hour to get a wee pat on the back today we're just we're going for the jugular on these things so just hitting it just hitting it hard once again and in preparation the lord was saying death follows disobedience so death follows disobedience so over and over you're catching the theme of what we're saying is a lifestyle of life is actually a lifestyle of obedience and the holy spirit began to show me in the scriptures that death followed disobedience and you can see that cover to cover death follow disobedience adam and eve that was the very beginning they disobeyed and death entered in and you see that consistent pattern throughout scripture and in particular the big story that the lord was showing me was the exodus story that the holy spirit and and the lord spoke to them and said this is your land now go and defeat the giants tackle the things that you need to tackle do business with the things that i have set before you to do business with and this will be your promised land this will be the place of life and abundance and what they chose instead was to give in to fear and intimidation so again remembering you know those are like the cronies of death they're the ones that come and do his bidding and and lure us into that path of dead death so they gave in to fear and intimidation which led them into disobedience and ultimately an entire generation had to literally die out before the israelites came back to the territory and came back to that place of okay will this next generation choose obedience or will they follow in their parents footsteps and that generation did choose obedience and therefore walked into the fullness of life walked into the promised land and for a new testament example of where we see this is we see this in anaya since saphira or sapphira depending on where you are in the world but in acts it's the idea of they chose to lie not only to the disciples and the apostles but they chose to lie to holy spirit they chose to say we are going to hold back that which we had committed to the kingdom of heaven and we're just gonna assume that god will be gracious and compassionate you know he knows we need the finances we'll just keep it back for ourselves and the lord was absolutely brutal he killed both of them on the spot and said you do not dishonor me with that level of disobedience you do not dishonor me with that level of thinking that because i'm a kind and compassionate lord that doesn't mean i'm not you know he he's a god of justice and righteousness as well we need to understand the full spectrum of god's character and nature that he is consistently drawing us again towards that holiness and obedience and you know one of the beautiful scripture passages that i've just been mulling over and i just needed sort of my daily prayer recently is philippians 2 5 through 8 where it talks about christ who is yahweh okay christ who is god and above all he humbled himself he emptied himself he obeyed even to the point of death and that's our model and that's what we're invited to is am i humbling myself am i obedient to the point of death where it costs me and it hurts and can i tell you there are moments where i cry myself to sleep because i'm like jesus this is a high call and this is a high cost and i bring this to you and i tell you that it's a struggle but you have my yes and amen you have my not my will but your will be done lord because i want the fullness of life according to your your account of what life looks like and so again we need to recognize where am i disobedient in my life and again this can be huge life choices you know maybe god asked you to move to a different city or god asked you to leave a different job it can be as simple as has god asked you to tithe and you've not yet tithed did god ask you or nudge you to reach out to that person in your congregation because you know that they're lonely and they need a friend and you've just not done it that's an act of disobedience so in the big things in the little things where are you consciously and unconsciously choosing disobedience because ultimately disobedience is the gateway for death and we need to be so brutally honest about that and as sj said every single day say flesh you come under the weight of glory i am not here to serve you i'm here to serve the most high god so flesh you come into alignment and you come under the yielding of god and can i say the lord also said oftentimes what we say to him is god you can have my spirit but i'm going to choose to rule through my soul in my flesh and that's where we really need to confront ourselves have i thought that it was good enough to give the lord my spirit but then like ana ananias and saphira have i held back my soul and my body because i want to rule and reign in those parts of myself you are a whole human being and that means spirit soul and body has to come under the command of the lord it has to come under his weight his glory and so again spirit soul and body am i obedient am i obedient with my emotions am i obedient with my thought life am i obedient with my physical choices in the way that i care for myself that's good sorry so yeah back to you sam do you want to add on to that before we go on um i think you just we're just we're saying different ways aren't we we're really just helping i think us all get a greater understanding of what it means to live a life that is dead in christ and dead to sin and and i think you know even decreeing and declaring some of those amazing amazing um points that you bring katrina and scriptures i which i love and i think for me even just decreeing and declaring the truth of god in scripture over ourselves daily is a good thing i mean you know having not done a diet for decades because i just don't like to and you know when you put a picture of yourself looking good on the fridge to stop you from going in the fridge it's like don't do it don't do it you could look this good you know actually put scriptures up on your fridge put scriptures up on your mirror put scriptures up on your wall um you know to to decree and declare throughout your day over your desk where you work colossians 3 3 is a good one if you're going to put anyone up for you died and your life is now hidden christ in god you're already dead in christ let's remember let's remember who we are and where we are positionally in the spirit positionally with christ we are on the earth but we are those who are spirit beings citizens of heaven ones who move and breathe and have their being in christ and therefore actually we become fetus of the flesh if we don't move into the ways of the spirit and one of the prayers actually another prayer that i've been praying lately is um holy spirit teach me not to grieve you yeah because actually i believe that that is where he's taking us all of these things we're saying today actually will enable us to be a people an individual rest on us if we're partners than we are with life how can how can holy spirit come and move among us as we're desiring if we oh i think you're breaking up psja i don't know if she could hear her he does good and i'll i'll kind of jump in and then if she comes back she can finish on that train of thought and but there's a question um by sam ware or sam weir that you've that that's posted that i think is really helpful then i kind of want to uh bring a couple of thoughts um as we kind of come into land but sam you've said here and how do you keep your eyes on life when you've had a lot of disobedience in the past and you think you are still experiencing the death from that look we do reap what we saw and our choices do produce fruit in our lives but nonetheless god is good and he is gracious and when we ask for forgiveness and when we ask for god to deal with our poor choices and we lay our disobedience at his feet we confess that we've sinned and we give it to him we've got to trust and know that we stand in the security that he forgives us and that he does make us new and he continues to renew us and i think a lot of the time we live in the limitations that we set around ourselves rather than the ones that god sets around us so you may feel like you're still experiencing the death from the disobedience in the past but how much is it that you've not forgiven yourself for that disobedience rather than it that it's god who hasn't forgiven you or sorted that and actually if you are a coming to the foot of the cross with humility and you're coming to the the feet of jesus with repentance then as the psalmist says you know as far as the east is from the west so i have removed your sins from you we have to allow that to anchor in us but i think as well we've got to acknowledge i've made poor choices in the past i've made disobedient choices in the past i've made death choices in the past so holy spirit revealed to me what are the life choices what would be obedient choices because life will always outweigh death obedience will always outweigh disobedience and so god what decisions do i need to make that are about choosing life and choosing blessing and choosing good kingdom of god choices as i recognize that maybe there are some things that i am reaping from disobedience in my past but god is good he is kind and he will forgive and katrina do you want to add anything on to that and before we go yeah i think just the scriptures that come to mind like you said you know psalms and then for me one of the big ones that i always go to when i feel like the enemy is breathing down my neck with you know well you've done this and you've done this is colossians um 214 where it says he erases that certificate of debt debt you know and it hits nailed to the cross it's dealt with but the other major one is isaiah 61 that he gives us beauty for ashes that yes depending on what those disobedient choices were there will be natural consequences whether it's relational fallout or financial fallout but the beautiful thing is that we serve a god who is compassionate we serve a god who is a god of redemption and resurrection and causing life to spring up where there is death and i would say reason read isaiah there's so many passages where god says i will bring forth a spring in the desert i will bring beauty out of the things that are dead and so breathing that over yourself saying death isn't the final answer and death isn't the end of the road yes there are big consequences for our choices but when i come to christ like sam said and i repent and i bring it to him he steps in and says great this is prime territory to bring resurrection life this is an incredible opportunity for me to show off who i am in the midst of death and in the midst of the valley of death and raise up these things back into life but then it does mean you take responsibility from this moment forward and consistently choose life so that you can sustain what god resurrects you can sustain what he redeems and you can keep hold of those beauty you know the beauty for ashes and so it's it's a both and but not to let that um overwhelm you you know we've all made choices and there are consequences but god's so good and meeting us in those places but as i said read isaiah there's so many great images of god creating life where there's death right yes thanks katrina welcome back sj do you want to jump in and conclude your thought if you've got anything to share on the back of what you were saying earlier um i i have no idea what point i lost here was mid flow but i think it's good um that the point is um as i'm hearing you katrina is i think the lord has grace remember he is slow to anger he is abounding in love and he wants us in that place of life he is not condemning us where we've got stuck in fact i believe that the lord is saying look don't even regret and look back on the things that you've got stuck on it's the confessing of sin it's the acknowledgement of god in jesus name i'm choosing the better way i'm choosing the way of the lord jesus christ i'm following him no matter what that looks like for my life and i'm willing to disengage and disentangle myself from everything of sin would you expose it and would you let me bring it before you and deal with it and not to get stuck in regret and i feel like many of us are doing what lot's wife did when sodom and gomorrah was burning looking back in regret and getting stuck and frozen and almost like paralyzed in that place of oh god but this happened you know this relationship ended or uh this person died or uh this situation brought death to me personally and i think that one of the things that i'm aware of the lord saying is look have right memorials no for those of you beloved who have lost a loved one or have suffered a miscarriage or have lost a child you know these things happen you know it is hard hard hard these are hard things that we have to walk through sometimes but the lord says to us look have the right memorial you know remember the life in that person and the life and the dreams even that you have but let's not get stuck there and let's not get stuck in regret and let's not get frozen and paralyzed in place of of death death from the enemy that wants to hold us and say well this is your history and this is your story and i'm going to hold you here and i'm not going to let you go and actually it's a choice of hours to do what god says and the angel says to lots why don't look back actually don't get your eyes backwards because what does that do it takes us all out of alignment yeah it takes us our eyes off where the lord is leading us into fullness of life and we inadvertently keep ourselves in the valley of baka you read about that in psalm 84 we're stuck in the valley of weeping we can't get ourselves out there and it's but it's by the moving out it's by the moving with the lord that we make it a place of springs we make it a place of life by our choice of not not um not not um either unintentionally or intentionally holding ourselves in that place of but god the injustice of but god why did that happen to me but god you know why has this happened to my friends or you know what whatever the but god is bring your box in submission to god and say lord i don't want to get stuck in death i don't want to get stuck in regret i don't want to even get stuck in the questions i just want you and i want life and some things will never get answered and we have to put under that umbrella of the mystery of god as we move through these difficult times where we have to truly face death face face to face but it's in that place of i'm moving through and out with you god i'm going with the angel i'm not looking back i'm following jesus i'm not getting stuck in regret and i think that would be for me it seems trite to say a top tip but i think it is a top tip of the of the um the ways that we can inadvertently get stuck in death um without moving forward it's so good so good just with the last few minutes about five minutes we've got i'm gonna try and rattle through um a bit of a word that i've got about how we defeat death how we overcome it and i heard the spirit of the lord say you kill the spirit of death by participating in my death you kill the spirit of death by participating in my death and that's really out of galatians 2 20. i have been crucified with christ and it is no longer i who live but christ who lives and me roman sex sex also takes that on your old self was crucified with him an order that our body of sin may be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin and god is saying uh through his son jesus i am inviting you to dissolve your partnership with death by partnering with me and what my crucifixion achieved you see the spirit of death it loves to make you look warm but being crucified with christ is the way that you become ablaze it's the spirit of death that makes you struggle with sin but being crucified with christ is the reality that your old man is dead the spirit of death is all about me living my choices me first but being crucified with christ means that christ lives in you the spirit of death is about being a slave to darkness but being crucified with christ is about being a servant of jesus and the spirit of death you have abundant limitation but in life being crucified with christ there is abundant life we live from the flesh by the spirit of death but being crucified with christ is all about living in the spirit it's the spirit of death that makes us dead to the spirit and alive to sin but it's been crucified with christ that makes you dead to sin but alive to the spirit it's the spirit of death that's all about robbery but crucified with christ is all about restoration and in the spirit of death you feel defeated by sin but being crucified with christ is about being victorious over sin and i believe that we are entering the days where god is saying it is the time of the crucified church it is the time of the church who understands the fullness of what my flesh what my death achieved where the works of the flesh die where the works of death die and the fullness of life comes and god really is saying look to us as a church and i think it is honest you've lived according to the flesh and it's death you've led according to the flesh and it's death you've worshipped according to the flesh and it's death you've gathered you've taught according to the flesh it's death you've built according to the flesh and it's death and romans 8 tells us that if we live according to the flesh we die that's what it says so it's no wonder that when we build out of the flesh when we lead out of the flesh well it's death that's what it is is death but that verse goes on in romans 8 to say but if by the spirit you put to death the mistakes of the body you well live by the spirit and a crucified church is a church that lives by the spirit yeah a crucified church is a church that lives by the spirit a crucified christian is a christian that lives by the spirit a crucified leader is a leader who leads by the spirit and we could go on with that left list it is by the spirit and how often are we to uh do we pray god i want to experience the gloriousness of your resurrection in my life god i want to experience and participate in your ascension i think what we i i love i mean i think the resurrection is the single most significant thing that has ever happened and i pray that god i want to participate in your resurrection because it changes everything how often do we pray jesus i by law i want to participate in your death and your crucifixion that i may live out galatians 2 20 where i have been crucified with christ and it is no longer i who live but christ who lives in me that we may be able to say we have been crucified with christ and it's no longer we who live but christ who lives in us and so by the spirit you put death to death by the spirit you put death to death and you occupy life for the path of death is the path of flesh but the path of the spirit is the path of life and what we're talking about today we do just have a minute left is really comes down to lifestyle not warfare yeah and i think we hear spirit of death and you probably did it too when you read overcoming the spirit of death you thought oh they're going to fight for me today they're going to be tongues there's going to be repentance prayer and we're going to cut it off yeah not today although there are there are moments where that is required we're talking about a lifestyle that overcomes the death of the kingdom of darkness and the way that overcut that we overcome the death of the kingdom of darkness is by participating in the death of jesus is by getting low and letting him kill us hell our old man kill our flesh kill our old ways kill our sin kill our mess deeds kill everything in us that does not glorify god and it is in jesus telling us that we experience life that we experience full life let me just say as we as we land and i have never had such an inner compulsion to take communion as i have had in the last week i mean with people with family because it's important that we take it with people with with others there is just this yearning of i need it back and we need to get back to the simplicity of the breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine and of remembering and participating in and experiencing communion together and dwelling in there and not rushing from it that communion isn't just a five minute slot in between worship and the preach but we quickly buzz around and get it over and done with so the box is ticked but actually it's something it's a feast it's an encounter that we participate in that we experience and i think as we as we go practically one quick way that you can participate and walk this out is in communion with others and taking communion the bread and the line with others and it is one surefire way to start to appropriate and what jesus achieved for us on the cross yeah just someone to add in there no just in total agreement no problem well we've had a power packed hour we've managed to fit a lot in as always and because there's so much that god wants to say thank you so much for joining us for this power hour episode 173 overcoming the spirit of death and we shall see you next week um for um for power 174 water women is tomorrow thursdays 12 midday world prayer watch 8 30 a.m friday mornings every friday morning with sarah jane and team and so you can join us there see us there as well but if not we'll see you next week next wednesday for power hour 174 so see you then [Music] do [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Global Prophetic Alliance-Glasgow Prophetic Centre

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Length: 64min 24sec (3864 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021