​These past several months have been difficult for all of us as we have lived without power and water for extended periods of time. What was once readily available in the hardware stores and at the grocery stores has also been in short supply or completely missing. Through this season of adversity, I believe we have learned the value of the everyday-life things we often take for granted. It is like God was using the winter weather event as a “reset” or as a wake-up call…because His bride must be prepared and made ready.

As you know, I recently lost my husband to heaven, and the winter weather storm event was like a “burial” for me, like a time in the grave; but it was a necessary transition for me to be able to rise up to the new life God has prepared for me. During this season of my life, I have realized that sorrow remains as long as we focus on the past and on what was lost; but joy takes over and strengthens our lives when we focus on the present/future with the all the wonderful possibilities God has made available to us. God’s best for me and for you is always joy in the expectation of our brilliant present/future opportunities! “For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) “As He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)

As the winter storm heaved its last frosty breath over Texas, the Lord gave me this verse out of Song of Solomon 2:10-12

My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”

Did you hear that? Your Beloved is inviting you to rise up off your bed of sorrows and sadness and yesterday’s disappointments, and come WITH Him. He didn’t say, “Come to me.” He said, “Come WITH me.” He is offering relationship with Him to all who will come. He wants us to live our everyday lives WITH Him. He wants us to know that He didn’t ask us to live FOR Him so much as He is inviting us to live WITH Him. Did you hear that?

I have often heard it said that someone was able to get the Word in their heads, but they were not able to get the Word in their hearts. We can possess the knowledge of the Word with our minds; but Jesus isn’t satisfied with just mental assent. He wants to live in our hearts. He wants RELATIONSHIP with us. It is through the experience of everyday life in His Presence, asking Him what He thinks about things, asking Him what you should do in a given situation, asking Him to share every emotion you are feeling, and asking Him who He wants to be for you in this present moment that RELATIONSHIP is formed and nurtured and maintained. 

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me!

Shalom!
Linda Sue Harper
(c) 2021
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The Lord has been speaking to me about Psalm 23:4, giving me a fresh perspective on the valley I have been walking through during this past season of my life.

Psalm 23:4 (NIV): Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.

This verse follows verses 1-3 which proclaim who the Lord is: He is my Shepherd who supplies all my needs - the needs of my spirit, the needs of my soul, and the needs of my body. These three verses also proclaim what He has done for me and why I should be praising Him - because Who He is and what He is done for me is the motivation for me to praise Him with every fibre of my being.

But then there is this sentence in verse 4, and all of a sudden, who the Lord is and what He is able to do for me seems to be of little significance – meaning, it doesn’t seem to keep me from pain and suffering because it mentions a valley and death, fear, and evil.  If God is truly for me, then why are these things able to touch me at all?

When you look at this verse in the original Hebrew language, you begin to see a deeper meaning to these words.

Yea – the Hebrew word gam which carries the meaning: also, moreover, yea. This transition word links the first three verses about who God is and who God is for me, with the times of testing that will come during my sojourn on earth. I am assured that His nature and purpose for me does not change even as I am promised there will be difficult times ahead.

Though – the Hebrew word ki which carries the meaning: that, for, when - reminds me of James 1:2 - "whenever you face trials of many kinds."

Walk – the Hebrew word halak which carries the meaning: that, for, when

Through the valley – the Hebrew word gay which carries the meaning: valley or valleys. As long as we live on the face of this earth, we are living in a broken creation that includes low places. But notice that the verse says we walk "through the valley". This is the same encouragement Jesus gave His disciples before they encountered the storm in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. He said they would "cross over to the other side." (Mark 4:35)

Of the shadow of death – the Hebrew word tsalmaveth which carries the meaning: death-like shadow, deep shadow. Notice that this is not death, although it may feel like something in you has died. This is also not separation from God, for we belong to God who is our Life. Rather, this is a time of testing so that our faith may develop perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anyting. (James 1:3-4)

I will fear – the Hebrew word yare which carries the meaning: to fear, to be in awe of, to reverence, to honor. Not only will I not fear the evil, but it will be because I am in awe of who God is. My eyes are firmly fixed on Him. He is the author and finisher of my faith. (Hebrews 12:2) God is love. In Him there is no fear because His perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18)

No evil – the Hebrew word ra which carries the meaning: bad, evil, malignant, unpleasant, giving pain, unhappiness, misery. Notice the verse says "I will fear no evil." Because I belong to the King of Kings, no evil may befall me; no disaster will be able to come near my tent. For He will command his angels concerning me to guard me in all my ways; they will lift me up in their hands, so that I will not strike my foot against a stone. I will tread upon the lion and the cobra; I will trample the great lion and the serpent." (Psalm 91:10-13)

Your rod – the Hebrew word shebet which carries the meaning:  rod, staff, club, scepter, tribe; in fact, the word is translated “tribes” more times in the Bible than any of the other meanings.

Your staff – the Hebrew word mish'enah which carries the meaning: a support, staff - as seen in Hebrews 11:21 - By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

Comfort me – the Hebrew word nacham which carries the meaning: to be sorry, console oneself, when the time of mourning was ended. The difficulty is limited to a season. "A time to mourn and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:4) It is limited by the God who loves me. When the difficulty has accomplished His purpose in and through my life, He will comfort me. 1 Samuel 30:6 tells us that when David was greatly distressed, he consoled himself in the knowledge of who God is and who God is for him. 

There is a purpose for the valley: to test and strengthen my faith in what I believe about God as my Father, Protector, Provider, and Ever Present Help in Time of Trouble. The particular valley I may be walking through was designed by Him for my good, to strengthen me in the places where I am weak, to enable me to practice standing firm, so that I am able to resist those things which threaten to undo me, and to prove my faith in Him is well placed. Another purpose for the valley is to prepare me for the greater things God has in store for me for it is the testing that produces the testimony. And because of these things, I can be assured there will be valleys.

But why in the midst of my suffering is He talking about using His rod and His staff? How do implements of discipline produce the comfort I need in the midst of the trial? Again, when we look at the meaning of the Hebrew words translated “rod” and “staff” they mean more than instruments of discipline; rather they are instruments of significance! The rod symbolizes I belong to Him! I am a close relative of His! I am of His tribe! Therefore, I have standing before Him and He will do whatever it takes to bring me comfort. The staff is also not just an instrument of discipline; rather it is a picture of support. The staff is what you lean on. His staff is the symbol of who He is and what He has done for me in the past and what He will do for me in the future.

But why did God think it necessary to place verse 4 in the middle of the Psalm that is often repeated as a prayer of expectation?

Because it is a prayer of expectation.

We can expect the Lord to be Who He says He is.
We can expect the Lord will do what He has promised to do.
We can expect to experience difficulties that test our faith in Who He is and whether we can trust Him to keep His promises to us.
We can expect Him to fight for us, to stand up for us, to support us, and to enable us to be victorious over the difficulty.
We can expect that the valley is but a season; it is not permanent because he told us in verse 4 that we would walk “through” the valley. He also told us that death is but a shadow, an illusion. It is not real. The power of death was broken at the Cross and we who belong to the Lord will live and not die.

Over the past seventeen months, I have been walking through a valley and I have experienced the doubt and fear that come when we are facing an unknown menace and an uncertain future. I experienced the loss of faith in who God is and His promises to me. I went into a death-like shadow. But God brought me through the dark place and restored my faith that He truly is God, He will do what He has promised and I can put my hope and trust in Him alone. It is out of the valley that the testimony arises – the testimony of His goodness and mercy which will follow me all the days of my life.

In June, 2019, my husband received word that a routine pulmonary CT scan revealed a mass on his liver. He was scheduled for a second CT scan of the abdomen a week later. The second scan confirmed the mass on the liver, the preliminary diagnosis was “hepatocellular carcinoma” and the recommendation was to follow up with a liver biopsy and a PET scan as soon as possible. The biopsy confirmed the diagnosis and the PET scan confirmed that the cancer was contained in the liver.

As my mind reeled from this devastating news, I heard the Lord say to me, “Liver cancer is not a death sentence.” I wasn’t sure exactly what He was telling me, but I chose to go with what He said and boldly proclaimed that my husband would live and not die as I cursed the cancer that had invaded his body.

I searched the Internet for everything I could find about this particular cancer. Although most of the documentation was dismal, giving a 6-12 months life expectancy if no treatment was given, there was one bright spot in one of the articles posted on the medical website. The article was titled, “Liver Cancer Does Not Have to be a Death Sentence”. The article discussed the value of early detection and early treatment. Unfortunately, my husband’s cancer was already spreading within the liver even though it was not yet spreading to any other part of his body.

Hope and faith grew dim as I wrestled with the unknowns of this inescapable journey that lay ahead of us and what would happen to me if my husband died within the next several months. Our lives changed overnight and the trauma of it all had a deep impact on my thoughts, my feelings, and my belief in God as the healer. I became my husband’s caregiver to make sure he took his meds and kept all of his doctor’s appointments; and as a result, I often forgot to take my own meds and keep my own appointments.

During our first visit with the oncologist, he explained that my husband’s cancer was not operable because it already covered both lobes of the liver. The only course of treatment recommended for him would be chemotherapy, and the chemo would not be effective in eradicating the cancer; it would only extend his life. My husband chose not to do any chemotherapy at that time; however, several months later, he changed his mind, and asked to be able to take a daily chemo pill rather than go through weeks and months of infusion. Five months after the initial diagnosis, he began a three month regimen of a daily chemo pill.

The months on chemo were difficult for him and for me, as I watched my husband’s strength wane and his mental sharpness become confused. He experienced constant dizziness and fatigue and lost interest in doing much of anything. By the end of the third month, a CT scan showed the tumors were diminishing and no new tumors had appeared. We were overjoyed with the good news; but my husband chose not to do any additional chemotherapy. Within three days of ending the chemo, my husband was back to his normal self; and I rejoiced in the gift of having my husband returned to me. He was able to begin doing some things around the house and for awhile, he seemed to be no different than he had been before the chemo.

The plateau lasted about eight months before he began to experience pain in his lower back. A scan revealed that the tumors were growing again and were reproducing at an alarmingly rapid rate. My husband was given the option of doing more chemotherapy; he chose not to continue with chemo. Then he was given the option to engage Hospice care. He also turned that down. But after several weeks of difficulty standing and walking because of the pain, he decided to call in Hospice care.

The Hospice team took very good care of my husband, so that he was not suffering with pain. He continued to lose weight and strength and required assistance to get in and out of bed. One day as I was helping him back into bed, he asked me, “Do you see all those people in the room?” I knew God was giving him a preview of the higher realm he would be entering soon.  Then five days before he passed, he said he could see white cattle through the window. It had snowed the day before, and I thought he was mistaking the snow laying on the horizontal tree branches for white cattle. But now I believe he was seeing the cattle that belong to the Lord that graze on a thousand hills – another preview of heaven.

We had prayed that God would take my husband peacefully in his sleep; and God was gracious to do just that. Having passed from this life, my husband who had such difficulty hearing could now hear a pin drop across the room; my husband who had difficulty seeing could now see clearly for miles and read the finest print without the aid of a magnifying glass and a bright light; and my husband who had suffered horribly with bouts of eczema every summer would no longer suffer. I rejoiced over the new life my husband had received and I was overwhelmed by the goodness of God we had experienced during our walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I gained a deeper understanding of how much God loved my husband and how much He loves me.

But that’s not even the end of the story. Several weeks after my husband had passed, the Lord spoke to my spirit with these words: “Liver cancer did not take your husband. When the number of his days had been fully accounted for, I took him home to be with me.”

God is faithful to keep all of His promises. He tells us that it is He who determines the number of our days even before we are conceived in our mother's womb, that all the days ordained for our life here on earth will be fully completed, and that not one of our days would be stolen. That means that there are no untimely deaths! That means there are no unnecessary deaths! That means that the "cause of death" referenced on an official death certificate is but an illusion! That means we have nothing to fear from any of the "C" words: Cancer, COVID-19, COPD, Cardiac Arrest, Collision because our "C" is greater than that! We have Christ and we have Christ in us, the hope of glory!

When we choose to believe God is who He says He is and that He will do what He has promised, then we can fully agree with and rejoice in the words of the Apostle Paul:

Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?...Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. (1 Corinthians 15:55, 57-58)
 
Shalom!
Linda Sue Harper
​(c)2021

We have been exploring Proverbs 14:1 “The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands.” 

In this blog, we are going to look at what it means “to build” as we consider the question, “What Am I Here For?” and thus discover the woman’s destiny. When God created the woman, His intentions were that she would be “a builder”.   

What does it mean “to build”?  The Hebrew word for “build” is “banah”.  It means to build, construct, fashion, fortify, have children, obtain children, rebuild, restore, establish (to make permanent), and to cause to continue.1  The word “banah” is describing much more than a single event; it is describing an ongoing building process.  It is an eternal process and it has eternal consequences.  And there is never a time when the woman is instructed to cease her work of building.   Building your house is what you were created for; it is your eternal destiny. 

How do you build your house? The house is an eternal structure that can only be built through a committed partnership with the Master Builder.    “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)   As in the natural, so also it is in the spiritual.  The process of building the house can be divided into five phases.  In the natural, the first three phases of construction are performed by the contractor; and the last two phases are performed by the homeowner.  In the spiritual, the first three phases of constructing your destiny are God’s proprietary work; the last two phases are performed by the woman in partnership with God. 

We will call these first three phases: the initial design phase, the initial construction phase, and the interior design phase.  God designs your destiny.  He is a God of order and He begins with a plan.

If you are familiar with the construction of dwellings, you know that the initial design phase begins with a plan, a blueprint that pictures what the dwelling will look like and includes the details and specifications of how the dwelling is to be constructed.  The plan must be designed by someone who understands the whole scope of the project.  And that is exactly where God begins with us.  “When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.” (Psalm 139:15)  God visualized who you would become before one of your days came to be.  “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”  (Jeremiah 29:11)  You were designed with a purpose in mind and God is faithful to accomplish all He has envisioned.
 “I am God, and there is no other… what I have planned, that will I do.”  (Isaiah 46:9, 11) God is the Master Builder and He is in charge of your destiny.  It is not up to you to decide your destiny; it is up to you to seek and find the Master Designer; and in so doing, you will discover what you are here for.  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

After the blueprints are finalized, the initial construction phase begins with performing a soils test to determine if the underlying ground can properly support the weight of the dwelling.  Jesus described this process in Matthew 7:24 -“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise woman who built her house on the rock.” The only way you can build with confidence is to hide the Word of God in your heart (Psalm 119:11) and build on it, because only God is a sure foundation (Isaiah 33:6).

After the soils test is completed, the construction of the foundation may begin.  This too, must be directed by the Master Builder.  “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 3:11) Once the foundation has been laid, the structure of the house begins to rise: walls, windows, doors, and roof rise up, and are joined together to form the protective outer covering.   “you also… are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.” (1 Peter 2:5)

When the exterior construction work has been completed, the interior design phase begins: decorative materials, colors, and finishes are chosen to complete the inner structure so that the home is warm and inviting and comfortable for the occupants.  “For you created my inmost being…I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139: 13, 14 )  “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

All these construction phases have been the proprietary work of the Master Builder who designed you and ordered your destiny.  He set all of this in motion before He laid the foundations of the world.  He set everything up with every detail about you in mind. He established the process that will enable you to reach the goal He has determined for you.  And He will neither leave you nor forsake you until all that He has designed is completely finished!  “The LORD will fulfill His purpose for you.”  (Psalm 138:8 ) “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
Your response to His work in you is to agree with God’s plan and submit to His ways of bringing it about.  When you do that, Psalm 16:5-6 describes the delightful result of your obedience: “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”  The wise woman builds her house because she has received a spiritual inheritance through the Word of God and the Spirit of God. 

The remaining phases of the construction process require us to partner with God.  Our ultimate destiny is to reproduce the covenant relationship He made with us through the blood of Jesus, and through that covenant to produce eternal fruit.  We can only do that when we are obedient to His Word and as we are empowered by His Holy Spirit.   Therefore, we don’t waste time by building with inferior materials like wood, hay or straw.  These materials symbolize the works of the flesh, works accomplished by our own strength without the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.  If we do build in this manner, our work will be shown for what it is; it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of our work.   Instead, we choose to build with gold, silver and precious stones; these symbolize the work of the Spirit in us and through us.  That work is acceptable to God; because when it is tested by fire, it will not only survive, it will produce an eternal inheritance. (1 Corinthians 3:12-14) 

The work of building assigned to the woman covers the two remaining building phases: the maintaining phase which includes fruit bearing and warfare, and the repair and improvement phase which includes rebuilding and restoration as captives are set free from their captivity and prisoners are released from their chains.   Have you ever wondered what the difference was between captives and prisoners?  Captives have done nothing wrong; they are being held against their will; but prisoners have committed a crime for which they are being punished.

This next phase of construction began when we received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  At the moment of our new birth, we entered the maintaining phase of building our house and that includes warfare.  Maintenance and warfare are not passive activities.  Soldiers don’t sit in the barracks while the enemy invades the land.  Soldiers are already well-positioned on the front lines; they are armed and ready before the enemy can take up his position and aim his weapons.   And that is how the wise woman builds her house.

Maintenance is defending, standing, resisting, repelling, proclaiming and declaring the truth of God’s Word, and contending for the territory God has already given to us.  That territory includes all that is our house: our physical environment, the atmosphere, our family, neighborhood, co-workers, community, church, state, nation and all the way to the ends of the earth.  Acts 1:8 - “you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.”    God has assigned you a territory without borders!  There are no boundaries to inhibit you from possessing all of the land the LORD God has given to you so that His glory may be seen in all the earth!  That is your destiny! 

Maintaining your house requires preparation through prayer.  “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”  (Ephesians 6:18)
 
It requires an effective strategy.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are ….my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) God wants us to come up higher in our thinking; He wants us to think brilliantly, like He thinks.  That is how we outwit our enemy’s plots, plans and schemes.
 
Maintaining your house requires fortitude (strength, perseverance, and faith). “They who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31) “Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” ( James 1:2)    “And faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) “That you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:13-14)  “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
 
Maintaining your house requires supernatural empowerment.   “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”   (Acts 1:8)
 
And maintaining your house requires the authority to act which you have been given through the blood and the Name of Jesus.  “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.” (Luke 10:19) “In my name you will drive out demons; you will speak in new tongues; you will pick up snakes with your hands; and when you drink deadly poison, it will not hurt you at all; you will place your hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:17-18)  “At the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”  (Philippians 2:10)

The wise woman builds her house by defending her territory.  We call this warfare.  We have an enemy who is dead set on tearing our house down.  He is the unseen spirit of this world.  Therefore, the wise woman understands that she does not wage war against any human being; because every earthly relationship God has given to her is for her good and for His glory. 
 
Our minds are the battleground and it is here we set up the first line of defense.    1 Corinthians 2:16 - “But we have the mind of Christ.”  We need to be still and allow the Lord to download His powerful laser-like strategy that He has specifically designed for the situation we are currently facing.   
 
Ephesians 2:6  - “We are seated with him in the heavenly realms in Christ.”   This is where we have already been placed by the grace of God; and it is the evidence that we are already invested with His power and His authority over our enemy.   Our enemy is a defeated foe even before the battle commences; but his strategy is to plant lies in our minds to make us believe we are powerless and we can’t win.
 
Colossians 3:2 - “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”  This is the high ground position from which we have a distinct advantage over our enemy.  This is where we learn how to think like God thinks, see what God sees, and love others with God’s heart.  But it requires our making a conscious choice!
 
Ephesians 6:16-18 -  “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit.”  2 Corinthians 10:5 - “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  These are the weapons of our warfare; they are powerful and effective in refuting the lies our enemy has sought to plant in our minds; and with them, we are able to dislodge him from illegally occupying our territory. 
 
“We overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and because we do not love our lives so much as to shrink from death.  (Revelation 12:11)   Success in warfare requires our remaining in the abiding Presence of God.  Success in warfare requires our obedience to employ the strategies of God.  And success in warfare requires that we give God all the glory.  The victory we celebrate does not come about because of our performance; it comes about because of where God has placed us.  The wise woman builds her house by being alert, watchful, and self-controlled as she actively repels the enemy’s invasion of her mind by keeping her eyes focused on Jesus as Lord of her thoughts. 

The last phase of the construction process is the repair and improvement phase which includes rebuilding and restoration.  The primary operators in this phase are our hearts and the Holy Spirit.  Our hearts are the seat of the will and the emotions; and this phase requires us to make a conscious choice to remain in the will of God regardless of how we “feel”.    This can only be accomplished by practicing the Fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  These are not describing a range of emotions; these are describing a conscious, will-driven strategy God has given to us to so that we become what He has designed us to be.  We are to be builders. The wise woman builds her house by practicing the Fruit of the Spirit.  She sees difficult situations as opportunities to grow her faith.  Instead of wringing her hands in the face of adversity, she uses the opportunity to ask God “What are you teaching me through this difficulty that you could not teach me any other way?”  And she sees difficult people as opportunities to grow in grace.   Instead of reacting to their negativity, she uses the opportunity to ask God “What Fruit of the Spirit would you have me allocate in this situation?”  Grace transforms negativity; grace changes the atmosphere and sets the captives free.   The wise woman builds her house by being a game changer!

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice.” (Philippians 4:9)  You can only practice what you have become.  Someone with a law degree practices law; someone with a medical degree practices medicine.  The wise woman practices the Fruit of the Spirit because she has the identity God gave her in Christ.  She has the mind of Christ.  And she has the Holy Spirit living in her.  She has the truth of God’s Word established in her mind and firmly rooted in her heart so that when she opens her mouth, “she brings good things out of the good stored up in her heart.” (Luke 6:45)   “Her conversation is always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that she may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:6) The wise woman builds her house with words of encouragement.  She blesses and does not curse.  “When we bless something or someone, we raise it spiritually.”2 She looks for the good in every situation and speaks only goodness into the atmosphere.  She looks for the good in everyone and speaks the higher calling of God into their lives.  And she gives thanks with a grateful heart in all situations. Finally, what occupies our minds and is stored in our hearts will direct the work of our hands.    Colossians 3: 17 - “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

The wise woman builds her house.  She understands that God is the designer of her destiny for “it is in Christ that she finds out what she is here for.”  (Ephesians 1:11).  She invites Jesus to be Lord of her mind, and allows Him to reframe her thinking because she wants to think brilliantly.  She welcomes and embraces the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in her heart to direct her in the way she should go.  She understands that she has been called to go and bear fruit that will last for all eternity (John 15:16), so that the whole earth is filled with a people who live in covenant relationship with God and with each other.  She “lives a life worthy of the calling she has received” (Ephesians 4:1) because she understands “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29).  And she understands that because of the spiritual inheritance she has received, she has an obligation to pass on a spiritual heritage to the next generation that will enable them to do even greater things than she has done.

“Many are the plans in a woman’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”  (Proverbs 19:21)
Is this how you are building your house?

Shalom!
Linda
© 2020 Linda Sue Harper
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1 www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/banah.html
2 Schechter, Shira, The Israel Bible, 2016, www.the israelbible.com

We’ve begun a blog series based on Proverbs 14:1 “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” (NIV)  In my previous blogs on this verse, we explored the question “Who Am I”?  in which we unveiled the identity of the woman; and followed with the second question “Where Do I Belong”? in which we discovered the territory God has given to the woman. Today, I want to explore the place of the woman a little further.

The word “place” is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as:  a physical environment; physical surroundings, i.e., atmosphere; a region; a position in a social scale; a proper or designated niche; or status.

The house is the place God has given to the woman.  That is a noble assignment; but that assignment has been treated with contempt by both men and women down through the ages.  How many times have you heard it said in a derogatory manner, “A woman’s place is in the home”?  Where did that idea come from?
 
The first person to whom this phrase is attributed is “The ancient Greek playwright, Aeschylus who said it this way in 467 BC: ‘Let women stay at home and hold their peace.’  In 1732, an English writer, Thomas Fuller, wrote: ‘A woman is to be from her house three times: when she is christened, married, and buried.’   In 1825, The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, Volume 97, had a family version: ‘A woman’s place is in the bosom of her family; her thoughts ought seldom to emerge from it.’  In 1832, The New Sporting Magazine, Volume 3, put it this way: ‘A woman’s place is her own home, and not her husband’s countinghouse.’  And in 1970, Time magazine quoted Bella Absug as she campaigned for office in the US Congress using the slogan, ‘This woman’s place is in the House…the House of Representatives.’” (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/womans place is in the home)

All of these thoughts originate from an earthly mindset that has been subtly prepared by the enemy in an attempt to keep the woman from occupying the place God designed for her.  Rather than become distressed over phrases like this one, let’s look at what God says about the woman:

Genesis 2:18, “But for Adam no suitable helper was found.”  

Some translations render the description of the woman as “suitable helpmate” with the idea that the woman was to be an assistant, a companion, and a supporter of the man.  But when we go back to the Hebrew text, we get a much more complex picture of the role God intended for the woman.   
 
“The words translated ‘suitable helpmate’ in verse 18 are expressed in the Hebrew as ezer kenegdo. Ezer means ‘power’ and ‘strength’; and kenegdo means ‘equal to him’, specifically a counterpart’.    Therefore, Genesis 2:18 is translated as ‘I will make a power (or strength) corresponding (or equal) to the man.  God made for the man a woman fully his equal and fully his match.  This same line of reasoning occurs with the apostle Paul, who urged in 1 Corinthians 11:10, ‘For this reason, a woman must have power (or authority) on her head (that is to say, invested in her).’  This line of reasoning, which stresses full equality, is continued in Genesis 2:23 where Adam says of Eve, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man’, meaning, she is a ‘very close relative’ to ‘one of us’ or in effect ‘our equal’.  The woman was never meant to be an assistant or ‘helpmate’ to the man.  What God had intended was to make a ‘power’ or ‘strength’ for the man who would in every way ‘correspond to him’ or even ‘be his equal.’…. The Torah Study for Reform Jews describes man and woman facing each other with arms raised, holding an arch between them, giving a beautiful picture of equal responsibility.”
(http:/godswordtowomen.org/ezerkenegdo.htm quoting from an article by William Sulik who references R. David Freedman and Biblical Archaeology Review 9 (1983): 56-58)
 
Having declared the identity of the woman in verse 18, the Lord then established the house through the covenant of marriage between the man and the woman in Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”  This did not render either the man or the woman as relinquishing their individual identity.  The oneness God declared was that the home was also made “in His image” in the same order as the Trinity: the unique unity of totally distinct individuals.  The man and the woman in covenant relationship with each other and with God would produce unity and order in the home. 

And what was the purpose of this relationship?  Genesis 1:28 - “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground’.” 

When God created the fish, the fowl, and the living creatures, He charged them to reproduce according to their kind.  God is a God of order; all of His creation follows a majestic and intelligent design.  The covenant relationship between the man and the woman was intended to reproduce ‘according to that same kind’ so that the whole earth would be filled with a human creation living in covenant relationship with God and with each other!  

God’s original design was confirmed when Jesus responded to a question in which He was asked to name the greatest commandment.  He said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind….and love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37, 39)   This is the ultimate purpose of the covenant relationship of marriage: to love God and to love one another; and to reproduce the fruit of that covenant relationship in generations yet unborn.

While I was preparing this lesson, the Lord gave me a word to help us understand how our being where we belong affects our house: “I build My house – nothing out of plumb, everything perfectly joined together, each element lending its beauty to the whole structure so that all marvel at it and praise Me, the Master Builder.  You are my house!  When you walk uprightly, your house flourishes – with life, beauty, prosperity, joy, and fruitfulness.”

So where do you truly belong?  The most powerful place for the woman is to be fully yielded to the will of God.  God has given you an assigned place; He designed every detail with you in mind.  He wants you to take possession of the house He prepared for you.  He wants you to fully occupy your house, filling it with the beauty that comes from a vibrant relationship with Him.  And He wants you to reproduce the Fruit of the Spirit as a testimony to a lost and dying world.

Are you building your house, or are you tearing it down with your own hands? The wise woman builds her house.
​
Blessings,
Linda
© 2020 Linda Sue Harper

​We’ve begun a series of lessons based on Proverbs 14:1 “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” (NIV)  In my previous blog, we focused on the identity of the woman as we answered the question, “Who Am I”?  Today, we are going to focus on the territory assigned to the woman as we answer the question: “Where Do I Belong”?

God begins this verse with a statement of His perfect will: “the wise woman builds her house.”  This statement speaks not only of the woman’s overall significance in God’s eternal plan, but also her manifest destiny – the territory over which she has been given ultimate authority and has been guaranteed victory. The woman has been given the high calling of God to build her house as of first importance; and since we know that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10), we can also determine that the woman described in the first part of this proverb has an intimate and abiding relationship with the Lord.  She is clothed with honor and glory because of the “facetime” she spends with the Father; and she is prepared when the enemy shows up seeking to steal, kill and destroy that which God has placed into her hands.  And because she has the mind of Christ,  she sees every person and every situation as an opportunity to demonstrate the Fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (Galations 5:22) - because these are the evidence of who she is - her identity.   Her spoken words are encouraging and enlightening; and she proclaims the power and authority of the LORD Jesus Christ into the atmosphere of her home.  All her works glorify God. All of this is possible because she is in a real personal relationship with her Creator.

The second phrase in this proverb presents a jaded contrast to the brilliant woman described in the first part of the proverb.  The foolish woman chooses to do things her own way; “with her own hands” speaks of rebellion against the perfect will of God.  She doesn’t think like God thinks, she operates out of an earthly mindset that is controlled by the spirit of this world.  She uses logic, reason, and rationale to make her decisions.   As a result she is self absorbed and, therefore, selfish; she thinks that the way she lives her life is her choice.  She refuses to acknowledge the potentially destructive impact of her choices on those who live in her sphere of influence.   She does not realize that her words, attitudes and actions have the power to destroy herself, her family, her community, and her nation.  She is an unwitting accomplice of the enemy of God.  The result of her rebellion is not only her own destruction, but also the destruction of the very thing for which she was created.  With her own hands, she destroys both her identity and her destiny; and she yields her assigned territory to the control of her enemy.

What is Your House?
Since the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, I thought it would help us grasp the concept of “house” by looking at the meaning of the word in that language.  The Hebrew word translated house in this verse is bayith and its meaning includes the idea of (1) a physical dwelling place, (2) the family– both ancestors and descendants, (3) the part within, (4) a temple, and (5) a treasury. (Strong’s 1004). 

Bayith is spelled with the Hebrew letters “Bet”, “Yod” and “Tav”.  In the Hebrew language, every letter contributes significantly to the total meaning of the word, just as the brilliance of a diamond is released through the number of facets cut into the stone.  Every letter has a pictograph, an icon that symbolizes the meaning of the word.  We are familiar with icons: every app on our cell phone has an icon, and many of the directional signs along our highways have icons showing us where we can find food, or gas, or a place to spend the night.  Additionally, every letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value with a corresponding meaning.

The letter “Bet” literally means “house”; (so the first letter of the word translated as house also means house).  The pictograph for “Bet” looks like a house or dwelling, and is described as having a roof, a floor, and a window.  “Bet” is a picture of Yeshua as Master of the House: the roof is His blood that covers us, the floor is the solid foundation on which we stand, and the window is our direct connection to heaven – the throne of God.  The numerical value of “Bet” is two.  (hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Bet/bet.html)

The number “two” signifies several interesting things:

• Difference – male and female were created to be different; but in marriage, God declared the two become one, and thus, the house is established.  God’s plan was for the house to be a place where each individual retained their unique distinctions but operated in unity.
• Division –separation, as on the second day, the Light was separated from the Darkness.  Darkness is actually the absence of light; light is the evidence of God’s Presence.  It was God’s intention that the house be a place where His Presence would abide, thus separating light from darkness.
• Oppression of the enemy – Satan is a divider and from the beginning, he has inserted himself into every relationship.  His plan is to create disharmony within the family and destroy what God has created. (Bullinger, E.W., Number in Scripture, Kregel Publications, 1967, pp 92- 94)

The presence of the letter "Bet" in the Hebrew word translated "house" signifies the following: All of Creation, the entire Universe including the heavens and the earth is God’s house.  God is a God of order; He has a design He follows all throughout His Creation.  He separated or divided the elements to create night and day, heavens and earth, land and water.  He created the fish, fowl, and all living creatures as distinct species and commanded them to reproduce after their kind.  He created man to be different from the animal kingdom; and He made woman to be a perfect counterpart of the man.  Man and woman were created to retain their individual identities while operating in unity, a picture of God’s image as seen in the Trinity.  

Satan was also part of God’s creation along with all the other angels.  Satan’s overthrow and expulsion from heaven was as a result of his desire to usurp God’s position as the Master of the House.   Having failed at achieving his goal to become the master of God’s house, satan has turned his attention to destroying the house of the woman.  Satan seeks to destroy the house because he hates what God loves.

The second letter of the Hebrew word for house is “Yod”.  “Yod” is part of every Hebrew letter and is considered the starting point of the presence of God in all things – the “spark” of the Spirit in everything.  The letter is described as having a “face” and a “head”.   “Yod” literally means “arm” or “hand,” and its pictograph form suggests a hand that is reaching toward heaven.  All of this speaks of a Divine Person who is at and in the Beginning of all things, and who desires a personal relationship with His creation. (hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Yod/yod.html)

The numerical value of “Yod” is ten.  Ten signifies the perfection of Divine order; it implies that nothing is wanting; that the number and order are perfect; that the whole cycle is complete. (Bullinger, E.W., Number in Scripture, Kregel Publications, 1967, pp 243)

The presence of the letter “Yod” in the Hebrew word translated “house”, shows us that the house is a structure established by God from the beginning of time which incorporates both a dwelling place prepared by the Creator and a personal relationship with the Creator.  The structure itself is the evidence of Divine order, nothing is missing, everything is in its proper place, and nothing else needs to be added.

The third letter of the Hebrew word for house is “Tav”.  The pictograph for this letter looks like a cross and it means “mark” or “sign” or “signature”. (ancient-hebrew.org/alphabet_letters_tav.html) The cross is the sign of the intersection of God’s love for mankind and His wrath against sin.  The vertical beam is the bridge between heaven and earth; the horizontal beam demonstrates the breadth of God’s love which stretches “as far as the east is from the west, (for) so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”  (Psalm 103:12)  At the cross the blood of Jesus provided the full payment necessary to completely deliver us from our sins.  The blood is also a sign that a new and living way has been opened for us to come before a Holy God.  God signed the covenant that guaranteed our eternal inheritance in Christ with His own blood.
 
And the Holy Spirit is a sign:  Ephesians 1:13: “Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit (sign) guaranteeing your inheritance... (as) God’s possession.”

In this one letter, “Tav”, we see all three Persons of the Trinity at work on our behalf.  “Tav” is the impression of the simple faith in God’s omnipresence; a faith that passes as an inheritance from one generation to the next; a faith based on God’s seal which is truth.  “Tav” is the sign of righteousness. (inner.org/hebleter/tav.htm)

The numerical value of “Tav” is 400.  This number signifies a divinely perfect period.  From the birth of Isaac until the date of the Exodus was a period of 400 years.  (Bullinger, E.W., Number in Scripture, Kregel Publications, 1967, pp 280)   Genesis 15:13-14 “Then the Lord said to (Abraham), “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.  But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward, they will come out with great possessions.”

The presence of the letter “Tav” in the Hebrew word translated “house” is the mark of God’s covenant with the house, a covenant He established before the foundations of the earth, a covenant He cut in His own blood, a covenant we receive by faith in the One who is the Truth. 

The question, "What is Your House?" may be answered thoroughly by the following statements:

Your house is a picture of the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all present and operating in unity.
Your house is His covenant with you; He paid the price and signed the contract with His own blood.
Your house is your relationship with Him; you carry His “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval within you in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Your house is your person - your spirit, soul and body.
Your house is your marriage, your husband, your children and all extended relatives.
Your house is where you abide; and where He abides with and in you.
Your house is your sphere of influence, your field where you plant and reap your eternal harvest.
Your house is the spiritual inheritance you received and the spiritual legacy you pass on to the next generation.
Your house is who you are – your identity; your house is where you belong – your territory; and your house is what you are here for – your destiny.

Are you building your house, or are you tearing it down with your own hands? The wise woman builds her house.

Blessings,
Linda
© 2020 Linda Sue Harper

The Wise and the Foolish Woman

With the beginning of a new year, I would like to share some thoughts on a new topic. Proverbs 14:1 has been a pivotal message in my life: “The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish (woman) tears it down with her own hands.” (NASB)

Let’s explore the wisdom God has woven into this very short verse by asking the question: Who Am I?

In just a few moments of surfing social media or watching television, or reading most of the books being published today, we become convinced that people all over the world are experiencing an identity crisis.  As disturbing as this is, it is nothing new.  In the 1960’s, a counterculture of psychoactive drug use arose; and the experiences of entertainment personalities who used these drugs were often expressed in the musical lyrics and the movie themes popular at that time.  Underlying the surface of this exploration and expression of alternative lifestyles was a longing of the individual to “find themselves”.   However, the reason they were lost was because they had chosen to abandon their search for a meaningful relationship with God. 

Psychologists tell us that the two most important needs for every human being are significance (identity and purpose) and territory (a place to belong). If we are unsure as to our true identity and purpose, we need to ask God what He thinks. God knows who we are and He knows our purpose.  He created us.  And He created us for the sole purpose of being in relationship with Him. 

Our identity is found only in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; without that relationship, we can be deceived to believe any lie the enemy seeks to sow into our minds.  God wants us to focus our thoughts on Him so we are prepared to refute every suggestion that proceeds out of the mouth of our enemy.

Proverbs 14:1 begins with these words: “The wise woman builds her house.”  In six short words, God declares three important characteristics of the woman: (1) this verse tells us the woman’s identity was determined by God; (2) that she has been given a territory established by God; and (3) she has both an inheritance she received from God and a legacy to leave to the next generation.  Identity… territory… destiny.  It’s all there.

Let’s begin our exploration by looking at Identity. Our identity is determined by God. 

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”
The Hebrew word translated “knew” in this verse is “yada”; and it means “to have an intimate, experiential knowledge of”.  God knew everything about you because you were with Him before the universe was created.  That part of you that is unique and eternal, your soul – that is your mind, will and emotions – was with Him in an intimate relationship that both of you were fully aware of and fully enjoyed before He ever placed you in your mother’s womb.  He knew you so well that He knew every thought you would ever think, every word you would ever say and everything you would ever do.   He knew when you would be in His will and when you would be out of His will – all before the “spark” of conception.   There has never been a moment or a reason for God to disown you as being made in His likeness.   

Romans 8:16  “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” We come to know who we are by understanding who God is and who God is for us.  Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”  The world has abandoned the search for wisdom and understanding and has settled for the pursuit of intellectual knowledge.  And God, who is relational, is not in that.

In the Proverbs 14:1 passage, we discover God intended for the woman to be characterized by wisdom.  This is not a description of her intellectual level; this is a description of her identity.  Wisdom is an attribute of God’s nature; the woman was created in the image of God, to reflect His nature in the earth.  The way we get wisdom is by feeding on the living Word of God, taking it into our lives every day, and allowing it to transform our thinking.  Knowing our identity is the key to being transformed into the likeness of our Creator.   Without that sustenance and understanding, we can easily be deceived and our identity is often the first casualty. 

Satan employed his deceptive practices against the woman in the Garden.  And ever since that time, women have been lied to by the one who seeks to destroy this most beautiful of all God’s work.  When you look deeper into the account of the Creation of mankind, you see some differences in what God did regarding the man and what He did regarding the woman. “God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into him, and he became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).  But when it came to creating the woman, God used a higher element to begin the process.  Genesis 2:22  “The Lord God…made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man.”   When God made the woman, He began with a living being.  The woman symbolized life from the beginning.  Genesis 3:20 “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.”

That’s why satan seeks to destroy the woman; she represents the life and beauty of God’s handiwork and he can’t imitate it!  Therefore, he works diligently to corrupt this beautiful representation of God’s glory.  His motivation is envy.  He was unsuccessful in his attempt to be God; so he seeks to destroy what is precious to God.  Envy is not wanting what someone else has; rather envy is wanting what someone else has and not wanting them to have it anymore!  In other words, envy is a thief and a murderer as well as being a liar.  Unfortunately, too many of us have been victimized by this enemy; and the life we were created to express in the will of God has been darkened by the lies we have believed.

Has satan lied to you about your identity?  Has he convinced you that you can’t be satisfied with who God made you to be?  If that’s you, God has a word of encouragement for you.  He wants to expose the lies you may have believed about yourself; and especially the lies you may have believed about Him.   He wants to give you a “new identity”, an identity that is rooted and grounded in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

One of my earliest memories was asking my Mama where all those people were going as they walked by our house in a small mountain town in Montana.   She told me they were going to church.  My response was that I wanted to go to church.  I was three years old.  I had never been in a church.  I didn’t know what church was.  But somehow, I knew that was where I belonged.  How did I know that?  The answer is: my identity was located in the Person who formed and fashioned me in my mother’s womb, the Person whose DNA I carry within my frame. 

We are a spirit being clothed in flesh.  In my spirit being, there was the pre-loaded knowledge of God even though I had never experienced an encounter with Him in this physical realm.  We hear of migratory animals who return to their place of birth based on the instinct that resides in them.  We were created as spirit beings by God and it is in us to return to the One who created us, the One who desires to reproduce His nature in us; but He waits for us to invite Him in. 

When I was 11 years old, I heard Jesus say, “You have known me all your life; what are you waiting for?”  I was in a Vacation Bible School assembly, and I “knew” it was Jesus’ voice, even though I had never before “heard” His voice.  John 10:3, 4 “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  That evening, I chose to follow Jesus because He called me by name.   He clothed me in His glory and set His seal of approval on me – I was marked for all eternity with the Person of the Holy Spirit.  That night, all of heaven celebrated my new birth as He publically acknowledged me as His child. 

Even though I didn’t totally understand the transaction that took place that night, I knew I was different.  That difference manifested in a powerful sense of experiencing a cleanliness I had never felt before – no bath, no shower, no swimming pool had ever had that kind of effect on me.  In that moment, my identity became rooted in Jesus Christ and began to grow as I read His Word which was now illuminated by the Holy Spirit.  He had given me a new identity; He was equipping me to occupy the territory He was assigning to me; He was preparing me for the destiny He had designed for me. 

But as too often happens, as I got older, I made some choices that took my life in a direction that was not His best for me; and it was thirty years before I returned to the place of submitting my will to His and allowing Him to continue the good work He had begun in me.

During that thirty years of wandering in the desert – outside the will of God - I was influenced by the things of the world and as a result, my identity became confused.   Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one.  The 1960’s saw the rise of a counterculture, and “as that decade progressed, society’s attitudes changed regarding human sexuality, women’s rights, and traditional modes of authority.    As the era unfolded, the counterculture movement celebrated experimentation in other ‘alternative’ lifestyles.  All of this was fueled by the post war affluence which allowed the counterculture generation to move beyond a focus on the material necessities of life and engage in a wide array of behaviors and ‘causes’.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture_of_the_1960s)

In other words, people abandoned the true source of their identity and pursued the god of pleasure with all the physical and material resources they possessed.  And I was among them.  Do you realize this pursuit of pleasure is not a new thing?  Satan isn’t very creative; he just uses the same old methods over and over again.    In Genesis 3:1, satan asks the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?   Satan was manipulating the woman’s thinking; he was getting her to doubt that she had heard God correctly; he was insinuating that she did not have enough intelligence to fully understand what God meant.  He set her up and she took the bait.   In verse 6 we read the woman’s response to this mind manipulation, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye….she took some and ate it.”  Eve’s sin began when she discarded the truth, which allowed her to embrace the lie.  Once the truth was abandoned, she could do what she should not do.  She looked at the fruit, desired it for herself, and then took it for her own pleasure. 

Satan’s plan is always to move the woman out of the will of God little by little so she doesn’t realize what’s going on.  It’s like the frog in the pot of boiling water; by the time the frog realizes he’s uncomfortable, it’s too late. 

In Genesis 3:16 God pronounced His judgment for the woman’s disobedience: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”  Eve had enjoyed equality with Adam in the Garden; but because of her sin, God’s judgment was that she was now to be “subordinate” to her husband.  I wonder, did satan launch the women’s empowerment movement in the 1960’s in an attempt to overturn the judgment God pronounced on the woman?   Not that he was concerned that the woman had been treated unfairly; but if he could overturn the judgment against her, he could overturn the judgment against him!  Then he could replace God as the Chief Justice of the universe.  

The spirit behind the feminist empowerment movement that began in the 1960’s was envy.  Women wanted not just equality with men, but to reverse the roles God established so that women would became the ruler over men; the ultimate goal, of course, was to render men as irrelevant.  Proverbs 14:30 “Envy rots the bones.”  Envy cannot produce life; it can only produce death.  And one of the consequences of the feminist empowerment movement was the death of the unborn.

In the 1960’s, Satan lured women into seeking their identity in pleasure rather than in a personal relationship with God; in the 1970’s, he maliciously encouraged women to seek superiority rather than being submitted to the will of God; and in the 1980’s, he employed another weapon to destroy the woman’s identity.  That weapon was the desire to be all things to all people in all situations – to be like God.

In Genesis 3:5 Satan tells the woman: “God knows that when you eat of (the fruit) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”   Satan’s desire was to manipulate the woman’s identity by adding an omnipotent quality to her growing focus of self-awareness.  He was saying to Eve and to all women for the rest of time, that we could be “like gods” with unending strength and abilities and, therefore, superior to men.  
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To this day, I remember these three events that unfolded over a thirty year period as being significant in the formation of how I perceived my own identity.  For thirty years, I thought I was wise; I thought I was invincible; but the reality was that I was the foolish woman who tore her house down with her own hands.

By the end of the 1970’s, my children were all in elementary school, and I was known as “Mrs. H” or “M’s mother”.  That should have brought me much joy; after all that was a confirmation of the identity God had prepared me for.  But because I was not in a vibrant relationship with Jesus at that time, I believed a lie; I believed that my own identity was lost, and I needed to rediscover who I was.  I convinced myself and my husband that I needed to end my life as a stay-at-home wife and mother; I needed to expand my knowledge and my relationships beyond my family; and I needed to earn my own material resources rather than relying on God to provide for me through my husband.  I needed my own identity.  I felt justified in my choice to pursue a career outside the home because the music, movies, and TV commercials bombarding the atmosphere - all of which were directed by the spirit of this world – were pointing me in that direction.

Let me be quick to say, I am not criticizing women who work outside the home.   I worked for thirty years; and the Bible is full of stories of real women who were engaged in businesses outside their homes.   What I am saying, however, is pay attention to the motive behind your choice.  My motive was to find myself, to be significant, to establish my own identity as though it was all up to me. 

I wonder how many marriages have ended and how many families have been broken because someone within the family believes they are having “an identity crisis” and then uses that as an excuse to abandon God’s boundaries of acceptable behavior?  Today, the world is full of people who are confused about their identity.  When you choose to seek your identity in anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ, you are going to be lost and confused and deceived. And that pretty much described me…until, one day, God. 

I went to work to find myself; but God found me.  It was in a workplace Bible study that He redirected me to the greater desire of knowing Him in a very real and personal relationship.  And then He gave me an administrative assistant who taught me how to pray; and a janitorial contractor who introduced me to the baptism of the Holy Spirit – the only true source of our empowerment.

I had wandered in search of my identity for thirty years; but God restored me to the identity He gave me before He knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Now I know how I am known in heaven.  The Creator of the universe knows me by name; He knows what is in me; and He loves me with an everlasting love. 

And that is exactly how God sees each one of you!  He wants to demonstrate His love for you by anointing you with the finest oil – His Holy Spirit; He wants to show you His faithfulness by providing you with a beautiful covering – His righteousness; He wants to show you His goodness by giving you a new identity – His image; and He wants to rejoice over you with singing as He presents you to all of Creation as His radiant Bride.

Ephesians 1:11 “It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.”(The Message)

The wise woman builds her house.
Blessings,
Linda
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(c) 2020 Linda Sue Harper

The Signs of the Hope We Have in Christ Jesus
Two thousand years ago, a very special baby was born in a town called Bethlehem.  His parents had traveled about 65 miles on foot to come to this town in response to a government mandate. When they got there along with all the other people who were traveling for the same reason, they discovered that at their family’s house, all the bedrooms were already full. 

Houses in that day were usually constructed of several stories with the rooms located on the second and third floors. The first floor was typically enclosed with a low rock wall and served as a pen where the weak and vulnerable among the cattle, sheep and donkeys were brought in for the night. The young couple had no choice but to bed down with the animals, and to complicate matters, the young woman was experiencing her first labor pains.

Can you imagine the frustration they might have experienced? They had traveled for days. They were footsore and weary. I can imagine the trip had taxed not only their strength but also their patience. And now this…not even a decent place to bring a baby into the world.

I remember how I felt the day before my first baby was born, so I can imagine the young woman was very uncomfortable. After the long ride on the donkey, she must have longed for a soft bed to lie upon. After days on the dusty trail, she would have been eternally grateful for a bath and clean sheets. This baby would be her first, and I can imagine she had a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. She didn’t even have a doctor to help her. She was on her own, except for her husband. What would they do if there were complications with the birth?

I wonder how they responded to the circumstances they encountered.  Were they thankful for clean hay and a roof over their heads, or did they grumble and complain - as we often do - when our circumstances are not what we expected?

My pastor’s mother taught her children this principle: “Your attitude will determine your altitude.” If we expect to be blessed in all our endeavors, the best way to begin is with gratitude. Being thankful opens doors of opportunity for our Heavenly Father to pour out an ever increasing supply of blessings.  When we are thankful, our speech and our actions permeate the atmosphere, changing us and the people around us and releasing joy.

Gratitude and joy are linked together.  You cannot have one without the other. Joy is not happiness because joy is not dependent on our circumstances. Joy is dependent on who God is, and gratitude is our response for the good things God has done for us.

We know this young couple found joy in the midst of their circumstances because the baby came without complications. Filled with wonder at the birth of this child, his mother tenderly wrapped him in strips of cloth and gently laid him in a feed trough.  I can imagine both his mother and her husband breathing a sigh of relief even as they marveled at ten little fingers and ten little toes – a perfectly formed baby boy.

Suddenly, the heavens around them exploded with the sound of angels singing as they announced the birth of this very special baby to shepherds who were watching over their flocks in the fields. “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.” (Luke 2:10-11, NIV) And then a great company of heavenly host appeared praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:13-14, NIV)

What a sight that must have been and how glorious the sounds that rang through the night air. I wonder if the child’s parents heard and saw all of this from where they were in the stable. The shepherds wasted no time.  They left their flocks to go look for the baby, and when they found him, they, too, praised God for all the things they had heard and seen. They were filled with an exceedingly great joy.

Did you hear that?  Gratitude for what God had done produced an overwhelming joy that permeated the heavens and impacted all the people on the earth.  But the story doesn’t end there.

Thirty-three years later, Jesus, the baby born that night, was praying for all of us as He talked with His Heavenly Father. “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17:13, NIV) Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth to fill us with His joy. The Greek word translated joy in this verse is charan and it means “the awareness (of God's) grace and favor (Strong’s 5479).

God made joy  - the awareness of His grace and favor - available to us through His Son, Jesus, who “for the joy (the awareness of God’s grace and favor) set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV) “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:6-8, NIV)

This is the season when we hear “joy to the world” and “peace on earth”. This is the season during which we delight in giving and receiving gifts. On that night over two thousand years ago, our Father God gave us the very best gift: joy – the awareness of His grace and favor – and this joy is embodied in the Person of His Son, Jesus.

We have been given the freedom to choose – we can receive this glorious gift – this joy, this awareness of God’s grace and favor - or we can reject it. If we choose to reject the gift, we choose to live a life without hope.   But, if we receive the gift God gave us through His Son, Jesus, we have a hope and a future; and joy is readily available to us in every one of our circumstances – even the negative ones!  All we have to do is choose joy and then make it our constant practice.

Blessing
Always be joyful (filled with the awareness of His grace and favor)…No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, TLB) May God, (who is) the source of hope, fill you completely with joy (the awareness of His grace and favor) and peace because you trust in Him; and may you overflow with confident hope (expectation, trust and confidence) through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13, NLT)

(c) Linda Sue Harper 2019

Walking in Wholeness
Ephesians 5:8-11 – For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

When we finish dealing with all the fractures uncovered during the inner healing session, the client is now free to live a life of wholeness.  Now it is time to make some new lifestyle choices that will keep them holy and whole.

Walking in a brand new way is what sanctification is all about; it is something we learn as we go and the Holy Spirit is our Teacher. A brand new baby has to learn how to relate to his surroundings and how to respond to people and to circumstances. He has to learn how to sit up and roll over. He has to learn how to crawl and to walk. He has to learn how to talk. So it is with us.

We have received the ministry necessary to unbind us from those things that had hindered our walking in the fullness of life we were given in Jesus Christ. We have a new beginning – an opportunity to start over – and as Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11)  God is in the business of doing total makeovers.
 
TWELVE STEPS TOWARD A TOTAL MAKEOVER – GOD’S WAY FOR WALKING IN WHOLENESS
 
1. Daily submit your will, your rights and all control to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We cannot begin a single day without making that declaration (and we may have to repeat it throughout the day until it becomes our first response), because the enemy is watching for an opportunity to take back the territory he just lost.

Genesis 4:7 – If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.

The word translated as “master” is the Hebrew word mashal (maw-shal') and it means “to rule, have dominion, reign over”. (Strong’s 4910)  We have not only been given that level of authority over all the forces of darkness, but we have also been given the power to operate in that authority.
 
2 Timothy 1:7 (AMP) - For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but (He has given us a spirit) of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline (abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control).

From the beginning of creation, our purpose was to rule and reign over the sinful influences that are presented to us every day through our minds, our will, and our emotions. By making the declaration of who is in charge every day, we are not only bolstering our faith in the Lord, but we are also disarming our enemy.
 
2. Declare your true identity and express thankfulness for what God has done for you - both of which are contained in the Spiritual Warfare prayer.
It is important to pray these things out loud every day before we get out of bed. This prayer is a declaration of our identity in Christ, what He has already done for us, and how that disarmed the enemy and drained him of his power. If someone has not been living a life from this Biblical mindset in the past, it is going to take some practice for them to fully implement their new identity, but this should be their new “normal”.

3. Establish the habit of reading the Bible every day.
Not just a verse here and there. Not just a devotional. But read it – INTENTIONALLY – with a definite plan and goal in mind, meditate on it, and take it into your inmost part. Own it for yourself. Let it bring the nourishment to your soul God intended it to be for you. Think of it as God’s Love Letter written just to you.
James 1:22 – Do not merely listen to the word…Do what it says.

As you read the Word, where the Word uncovers some old man thinking - allow the Word to rule, and get rid of the old man thinking. Practice the Word. Let it guide your decisions and your activities. God is in charge of everything. His plans for you are good, His plans all succeed, and He is looking for a willing partner in His work.

4. Pray - every day, all through the day, in the Spirit, with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Don’t settle for praying while you are driving in the car on your way to work; the distractions will keep you from satisfying the longing of your inner man for the soul food God has for you. Instead, get alone with God for a deeper level of communion and intimacy, and for a greater awareness of His Presence. Understand that prayer time is a private conversation between you and the Creator of the Universe. How many of us would be honored to have an audience with a King or a President? We have an opportunity that is even better than either of those: we’ve been invited to sit with the Lord of Glory, the One who made us and desires to be in relationship with us! He wants you to know that, and to experience His presence as though you two were the only beings in the universe.

5. Put on the full armor of God – first thing, every day.
Those words found in Ephesians 6:10-18, are not a suggestion; they are a COMMAND. The word says:
BE STRONG in the Lord and in His mighty power.
PUT ON the full armor of God.
STAND FIRM with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
TAKE UP the shield of faith.
TAKE the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
PRAY in the Spirit.
BE ALERT AND ALWAYS KEEP ON PRAYING for all the saints.
 
6. You have the mind of Christ; use it!
Take every negative thought captive and make it conform to the person of Jesus Christ. Don’t listen to the devil; resist him!

Colossians 3:1-3 – Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

God wants us to know that we will encounter difficult people and troubling circumstances all through the day. He designed things that way because if everything was easy, our character would not develop properly. Jesus said it this way:

John 16:33 - In this world, you will have trouble, But fear not, I have overcome the world!
That means that Jesus has already met you in the difficult place even before you get there and He already has a solution for you. Therefore, every circumstance you will encounter is an opportunity to prove His specific promises to you; and for you to rule and reign over the enemy.

James 1:2-4 – Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

If you are experiencing difficulty, it is the opportunity for you to ask God, “What is this, and what do you want me to do with it?” That is how you operate out of the mind of Christ.  And then, rejoice in the midst of the difficulty, because God has considered you worthy of the test.

7. Practice the power tools of binding and loosing, forgiveness and repentance, and the spiritual gifts you have been given.
Using them all through the day will enable you to overcome every challenge that comes to you, whether it is from difficult people, unexpected circumstances or an outright attack of the devil. If you have received your prayer language, pray in the Spirit every day, all through the day. That is your private hotline over which you can communicate with the Lord. The devil cannot eavesdrop on the conversation, and it frustrates him mightily when he doesn’t know what you are saying. The spiritual gifts are weapons and they are able to defeat spiritual enemies.

8. Practice the Fruit of the Spirit in every situation.
Doctors practice medicine. Lawyers practice law. We should practice the Fruit of the Spirit. When a difficult situation arises, ask the Lord, “What Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Galations 5:22-23) do you have for me to allocate to this situation?” When a rude, obnoxious individual slanders your confidence, ask the Lord “What Fruit of the Spirit do you have for me to allocate to this person?” Then forgive both the offense and the offender, repent for how you allowed that situation to affect you, and speak blessings over the offender.

Proverbs 25:21-22 – If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.

9. Understand and fully embrace your new identity in Christ.
Your true identity is found only in a personal relationship with Jesus. To be free in Christ we must know who we are in Him, as opposed to what the world or the demons have told us about ourselves. The inner healing ministry session exposed those lies. Now God wants you to know the truth. Jesus promised that you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

God’s word contains many descriptions of your true identity. It is important for you to know how God sees you, because that is who you really are. These are but a few samples of what you will find in God’s Word concerning your identity:
You are God’s child (John 1:12)
You have been bought with a price. You belong to God. (1 Corinthians 6:20)
You are a saint (Ephesians 1:1)
You have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18)
You have been redeemed and forgiven of all your sins (Colossians 1:14)
If your trust has been violated through abuse or neglect, you can know for certain that:
You are free forever from condemnation (Romans 8:1-2)
You cannot be separated from the love of God (Romans 8:35)
You have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
You are born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)

If you suffer from shame and guilt or insecurity, you can know for certain that: 
You have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)
You are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16)
You are seated with Christ in heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6)
You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13)

These statements summarize your scriptural identity and your position in Christ and they form the foundation for your freedom in Christ. Read these statements aloud often, and especially when you are in the middle of a spiritual conflict. Why do you need to do this?

You need to do this because you have spent a lifetime speaking negatively about yourself or speaking lies over yourself. It will take time and practice to reinforce the truth of who you are in Christ until it becomes the default way you speak about yourself and about others.

Furthermore, if you find yourself constantly defaulting to the old behaviors you once walked in, it is because you are working on trying to be good; you are trying to “tough it out”; you are working out of the faulty flesh. You cannot change your behavior!  Rather, you understand and own your true identity, you speak it into being, and you operate out of that position of authority and victory. Then your behavior will line up.

10. Know for certain that you were created for a specific purpose.
We must understand how God sees us and what He created us for. These things lead us into a better understanding of our purpose on earth. God’s word says:

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Psalm 90:17 – (Lord, you) establish the work of our hands for us.

Psalm 37:23 (KJV) – The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

Spend time thanking God for His plans for you every day and declare your agreement with His plans, because His plans are the only ones that will always succeed. Visualize God’s designing your day for you, writing on your calendar the appointments He has set up for you. Be prepared for adjustments to your thinking as things don’t go the way you expected during the day, because you are being given an upgrade opportunity to practice your new identity as you produce the Fruit of the Spirit. Everything – the good, the bad and the ugly – will be used for your good and for God’s glory.

If you want to be successful in your endeavors – whatever they may be – ask Him to direct your steps each day, to show you not only what He wants you to do, but also how to do it – ask for Divine strategies and also the proper timing for it because God’s timing is always perfect! Don’t let yourself run away with enthusiasm about doing great things for God which comes from the flesh; rather, allow Him to give you His passion so that you may do great things with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Also ask Him to show you what He has for you in five years, ten years, and beyond. Learn to think strategically and purposefully in line with the Father; and be open to follow through with all the preparation He has for your destiny. The road He has you on may not lead to the place you are thinking of; but the joy of the journey is where the real reward is found – and that joy comes from growing through shared experiences with Him, learning to trust Him for everything and knowing Him, not just about Him,  in a very real and intimate way.

11. Become a willing and committed participant in a small group Bible study.                    
We were created for intimacy and community. Every one of us has a God-given need to belong to someone and to be a part of something. That is what draws people who have no other group affiliation into gangs and cults. God has provided a much better way for us to belong – first to Him and then to each other.
First, God gave us Himself. The only way we get to know Him is by reading His Word. Proverbs 9:10 – Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Secondly, God gave us His Word in a real and personal way because He was speaking to us about relationship. John 1:14 – The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory.

Thirdly, He created us for relationship because He knows that we grow better together. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 - Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up…Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm…Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Fourth, God created us for relationship because there is safety in numbers. We have an enemy who looks for those who have withdrawn from fellowship with other Christians, and for those who are abdicating their responsibility to grow in the wisdom and the knowledge of God; and when he sees them, he knows they are vulnerable and unprotected from his attack. Matthew 18:20 – For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

God is speaking to us loud and clear: the most important pursuit we can be making is to pursue the knowledge of God through the intentional study of His Word. When we share that activity with others also going through the process of sanctification, we become stronger and are more prepared to resist the devil’s schemes because God is on our side.

12. Align yourself with a Spirit-filled, Bible teaching church. Attend regularly, use your Spiritual gifts to serve in that church, and support the ministry through tithes and offerings.

• Going to church and participating in the life of a church body grants significant personal privileges that are associated with our new life in Christ:

(1) we have personal access to God through Christ and can draw near to him without an elaborate system;
(2) we may grow in faith, overcome doubts and questions, and deepen our relationship with God;
(3) we may enjoy encouragement from one another; and
(4) we may worship together.
To neglect Christian meetings is to live in opposition to our identity and our purpose. To neglect Christian meetings is to live in opposition to the Word of God. To neglect Christian meetings is to give up the encouragement and help of other Christians. Present day difficulties should never be used as an excuse for not participating in church services. Rather, as difficulties arise, we should make an even greater effort to be faithful in attendance. (NIV Study Bible Commentary, Hebrews 10:19-25)

• Going to church and participating in the life of a church body provides relational benefits with others.

Hebrews 10:19-25 – Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

• Going to church and participating in the life of a church body honors God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Friend.

Exodus 20:8-9 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping It holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work.
Mark 2:27 – The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
“The Sabbath was intended to help people, not burden them. In contrast with the grueling daily work as slaves in Egypt, the Israelites were commanded to take a full day of rest each week under the Mosaic Law. Jesus is called the Lord of the Sabbath in that the Sabbath pointed to the rest Jesus provides. Jesus became our rest when He did all the work necessary for our salvation (Hebrews 4). He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17). We rest, spiritually, in Him; He has secured our eternal blessing. As believers, set free in Christ, we are not judged by whether or not we keep the Sabbath day (Colossians 2:16). Instead, we follow the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ. We find our rest in Him, and seven days a week are filled with worship of Him.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/Sabbath-made-for-man.html)
 
CONCLUSION
We were created to be in relationship with God and with each other. It is difficult to say for sure whether we become broken because we allow ourselves to become isolated through our choices or if our choice to become isolated results in our being broken. Whatever the order, God desires that we be made holy and whole and that we appropriate the healing He accomplished. That is why Jesus became our one sufficient sacrifice for sin; and that is what inner healing ministry is all about.

This is my prayer for you:
I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in good health just as your soul prospers. (3 John 1:2, NKJV)
May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together – spirit, soul, and body – and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it! (1 Thessalonians 5:23, MSG)
 
And this is your response to what God has done:
God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I’m alert to God’s ways; I don’t take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. (Psalm 18:20-24, MSG)
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Be healed in Jesus Name!
Linda
© 2019 Linda Sue Harper 

When I began the process of inner healing in my own life, one of the tools given to me to use every day was simply titled “Spiritual Warfare Prayer”. The author of the prayer is Dr. Victor M. Matthews.

Dr. Matthews received a diploma in Bible from Simpson Bible Institute in 1945. He continued his education at Grand Rapids Baptist Bible Institute and pastured several Baptist churches. After graduation in 1949, he became a part-time instructor at the Institute and in 1951, moved to full-time status. While teaching full-time, he earned an A.B from Calvin College and a Th.M from Calvin Seminary. In the mid-1960's he took a year's leave of absence to complete the residency requirements for the S.T.D. degree from Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Dr. Matthews taught courses in apologetics, biblical studies and theology while personally mentoring numerous future pastors and church leaders and is perhaps best remembered for his exceptional ability to teach students to think critically and develop a Christian worldview. Anyone who attended one of Dr. Matthews' classes or Bible studies is familiar with his "study guides" or handouts, which provided a detailed outline of the material and the corresponding scripture verses and references. Many attendees and students have kept copies of the study guides and many have used them as a basis for their own teaching.

Dr. Matthews wrote numerous church and ministry publications including Confessions to a Counselor, Growth in Grace and Personal Success: The Promise of God. He was also recognized as a leading expert on spiritual warfare due to his seminars and writings including his famous "Warfare Prayer". Dr. Matthews' contribution goes far beyond what he has done in the classroom: it reaches to those who have been taught by his students, to those for whom he has spent hours counseling (and praying for) and to those whose lives have been changed because of his devotion to the Lord Jesus, his study of the Word of God and the personal example of his life.

The Spiritual Warfare Prayer declares who God is, what He has done for you, how He has provided believers in Christ with the freedom to live above the disruption our spiritual enemy uses to keep us off center and out of the will of God. I was encouraged to read this prayer out loud before I got out of bed every morning – for at least 40 days. I can tell you from my personal experience, this prayer emboldened me to walk in the authority I have been given in Jesus Christ because it reaffirms that our enemy, the devil, is already a defeated foe. May you experience personal victory as you incorporate this prayer into your daily life.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I bow in worship and praise before You. I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as my protection. I surrender myself completely and unreservedly in every area of my life to You. I take a stand against all the workings of Satan that would hinder me in my prayer life. I address myself only to the True and Living God and refuse any involvement of Satan in my prayer.

Satan, I command you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to leave my presence with all of your demons. I bring the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ between us.

Heavenly Father, I worship You and give You praise. I recognize that You are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise. I renew my allegiance to You and pray that the blessed Holy Spirit would enable me in this time of prayer. I am thankful, Heavenly Father, that You have loved me from past eternity and that You sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to die as my substitute. I am thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ came as my representative and that through Him You have completely forgiven me; You have adopted me into Your family; You have given me eternal life; You have given me the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ so I am now justified. I am thankful that in Him You have made me complete, and that You have offered Yourself to me to be my daily help and strength.

Heavenly Father, open my eyes that I might see how great You are and how complete Your provision is for this day. I am thankful that the victory the Lord Jesus Christ won for me on the Cross and in His resurrection has been given to me and that I am seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. I take my place with Him in the heavenlies and recognize by faith that all wicked spirits and Satan himself are under my feet. I declare, therefore, that Satan and his wicked spirits are subject to me in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for the Armor You have provided. I put on the Girdle of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sandals of Peace and the Helmet of Salvation. I lift up the Shield of Faith against all the fiery darts of the enemy; and I take in my hand the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. I choose to use Your Word against all the forces of evil in my life. I put on this Armor and live and pray in complete dependence upon You, blessed Holy Spirit.

I am grateful, Heavenly Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ spoiled all principalities and powers and made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in Himself. I claim all that victory for my life today. I reject all the insinuations, and accusations, and the temptations of Satan. I affirm that the Word of God is true and I choose to live today in the light of God’s Word. I choose Heavenly Father, to live in obedience to You and in fellowship with Yourself. Open my eyes and show me the areas of my life that do not please You. Work in me to cleanse me from all ground that would give Satan a foothold against me. I do in every way stand into all that it means to be Your adopted child and I welcome all the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

By faith and in dependence upon You, I put off the fleshly works of the old man and stand in all the victory of the crucifixion where the Lord Jesus Christ provided cleansing from the old nature. I put on the new man and stand in all the victory of the resurrection and the provision He has made for me to live above sin.
Therefore, today, I put off all forms of selfishness and put on the new nature with its love. I put off all forms of fear and put on the new nature with its courage. I put off all forms of weakness and put on the new nature with its strength. I put off all forms of lust and put on the new nature with its righteousness, purity, and honesty. I am trusting You to show me how to make this practical in my daily life.

In every way I stand in the victory of the ascension and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby all the principalities and powers were made subject to Him. I claim my place in Christ as victorious with Him over all the enemies of my soul. Blessed Holy Spirit, I pray that You would fill me. Come into my life, break down every idol and cast out every foe.

I am thankful, Heavenly Father for the expression of Your will for my daily life as You have shown me in Your Word. I therefore, claim all the will of God for today. I am thankful that You have blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I am thankful that You have begotten me unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I am thankful that You have made a provision so that today I can live filled with the Spirit of God with love and joy and peace, with patience and gentleness and goodness, with humility, faithfulness and self-control in my life. I recognize that this is Your will for me and I therefore reject and resist all the endeavors of Satan and his wicked spirits to rob me of the will of God.

I hold up the Shield of Faith against all the accusations and distortion and insinuations that Satan would put into my mind. I claim the fullness of the will of God for my life today.

In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I completely surrender myself to You, Heavenly Father, as a living sacrifice. I choose not to be conformed to this world. I choose to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, and I pray that You would show me Your will and enable me to walk in all the fullness of Your will today.

I am thankful, Heavenly Father, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, to the casting down of imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought into obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in my own life today, I tear down the strongholds of Satan and smash the plans of Satan that have been formed against me. I tear down the strongholds against my mind, and I surrender my mind to You, blessed Holy Spirit. I affirm, Heavenly Father, that You have not given me the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. I break and smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my emotions today and I give my emotions to You. I smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my will today; I give my will to You, and choose to make the right decisions of faith. I smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my body today. I give my body to You recognizing that I am Your temple. I rejoice in Your mercy and goodness.

Heavenly Father, I pray that now and through this day, You would strengthen and enlighten me, show me the way Satan is hindering and tempting and lying and distorting the truth in my life. Enable me to be the kind of person that would please You. Enable me to be aggressive in prayer and faith. Enable me to be aggressive mentally, to think about and practice Your Word, and to give You Your rightful place in my life.

Again, I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and pray that You, blessed Holy Spirit, would bring all the work of the crucifixion, all the work of the resurrection, all the work of the glorification, and all the work of Pentecost into my life today. I surrender myself to You. I refuse to be discouraged. You are the God of all hope. You have proven Your power by resurrecting Jesus Christ from the dead, and I claim in every way this victory over the satanic forces in my life. I pray in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving. Amen.

Be strong in the Lord and in His Mighty Power!

Blessings,
​
Linda
© Linda Sue Harper 2019

 

​The inner healing session is intended to expose and properly deal with:
1. the lies the enemy has planted in the client’s mind,
2. the unconfessed, unacknowledged, and unrepented sinful behavior the client has engaged in,
3. the generational iniquities (“iniquities” refers to the unconfessed, unacknowledged, and unrepented sinful behavior of the client’s immediate family that has passed down through the generations), and
4. the harmful and long lasting effects of every trauma the client has experienced, whether that trauma was a physical or emotional or mental trauma.
These four areas are the access points  - the gates that Satan used to gain control over their mind, will and emotions – their soul.

When someone is suffering from spiritual influences controlling their behavior, they often act out in ways that have been categorized by the scientific community as mental health issues. The scientific community has described and/or isolated those behavior conditions, has given each of them a name (which can be a traumatic, life altering label that becomes a burden or an excuse for the client), and has often prescribed treatment (which includes mood-altering drugs, hypnotherapy, electrical stimulation, etc.). These methods are intended to modify or control the abnormal behavior in order to stimulate the person to “perform” within a prescribed “norm”. There are many wealthy psychiatrists and psychologists who have cultivated a long-term clientele, but they are not always successful in helping the client live a life free of mental health issues.

The truth is that mental health requires more than the scientific approach practiced by psychiatry and psychology; it also requires a spiritual approach to uncover the hidden wounds in the soul and deal with them using the spiritual tools we have been given in the Word of God. This becomes very clear as we understand the meaning of words.

The Greek word for “soul” is “psuche” from which we get our words “psychiatry” and “psychology”. Psychiatry typically focuses on what is going on in the mind and maybe what is going on in the emotions; but psychiatry totally neglects the impact of the will – the third part of the human soul. The will is where the conscious choice made by the mind and confirmed by the emotions is carried out in behavior.

The Bible calls this “the inmost part”. We refer to this place where every decision originates as the core of our soul. Successful inner healing begins with uncovering the true condition of the core, applying the truth of God’s Word until there is a change of mind, and then working outward from that place to deal with all the wounds lodged in the soul.

Taking Authority over the Atmosphere
Our first step is to take authority over the atmosphere. Inner healing ministry is not deliverance ministry per se; however, in dealing with the wounds in the soul, we must shut down the legal authority the demonic was given in the person’s life through the lies they believed, through the iniquities passed down through the bloodline, through their own sin, and through the trauma they have experienced from the moment of conception.

1. We begin by having the client submit their will, their rights and all control to Jesus by speaking these words out loud. The facilitator does the same.

2. Then in Jesus Name, we bind: Powers, Principalities, Rulers, Authorities, Dominions, Thrones and all demonic realms; we silence them, and separate everything the enemy set against the client from conception, and place those influences in a holding cell guarded by angels.

3. Then in the Authority of the Name of Jesus, we loose the 7-fold Spirit of the Lord – Spirit of the Lord, Spirit of wisdom, Spirit of understanding, Spirit of counsel, Spirit of power, Spirit of knowledge, and Spirit of the reverential fear of the Lord.

4. We ask the Father to separate all the broken places in the client, remove all the gatekeepers (fear, rejection, confusion, anxiety, intimidation, pride, and unforgiveness) that have guarded the strongholds constructed to keep the fractures hidden, we call in all the travelers (a traveler is a fracture that dissociates – runs away either physically, mentally, or emotionally – when under duress), and we put these in a safe place.

The Interview
After this step is completed, it is time to ask the Holy Spirit to bring us the one who knows the client’s story. In inner healing ministry, every Person of the Trinity is directly involved: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The facilitator begins the interview portion by asking the client to share details of their immediate family, including their names (and the mother’s maiden name whenever that knowledge is known to the client). During the interview, the facilitator is listening and the client is doing most of the talking. Because this is the part of the process the Holy Spirit is conducting, the facilitator listens until they hear what the Spirit wants to reveal, and listens for patterns of behavior that pass down through the generations. The patterns of behavior are clues that direct the facilitator to the broken places. The facilitator writes down everything exactly as the client says it. How the client expresses themselves reveals entrance points into the soul. It is important to understand that the information provided during the interview portion is telling us what is present in the soul.

The Core
The core is where the iniquity can be found that passed down through the bloodline. The core is what we want to see filled with the Light of the Glory of Jesus. When Jesus occupies the core, then we can deal with all the gate issues uncovered during the interview.

When the interview portion has been completed, we ask Jesus to put the one who told the story in a safe place and bring us the core. We ask Him to show us what is in the core. We ask the client several questions at this time:
What do you see?
What do you feel?
What do you hear?
How is God speaking to you right now?”

Based on how they respond, we may know for sure that Jesus occupies the core, or the core may have a mixture of Jesus and something else. For instance, on one occasion when I asked a client what they saw, they told me they saw light and the face of their youngest son. That was evidence that Jesus did not occupy the whole of the core; in fact, her son occupied space that only Jesus had the right to occupy.

It has been my experience that many who call themselves Christians do not have their spiritual senses developed so that they are able to “see, hear, feel” what is going on inside their inmost part. Often, the facilitator may have to ask questions to prompt them to “see” with spiritual eyes what is really going on. If we determine that the evidence points to the fact that Jesus is not in the core, we ask the client if they would like to invite him in; and then we allow them to personally invite Jesus to come into the core of their being and flood them with His glory.

Deal with the Gate Issues
Once we know that Jesus occupies the whole of their core, we go back to the interview, and deal with all the gate issues:
      1.  forgive and repent for sin and iniquities;
      2. renounce all agreement with any occultic involvement regardless of how “innocent” that involvement            may have been, i.e, playing with a Ouija board.
      3. exchange truth for the lie;
      4. exchange healing for trauma
until they respond with a new thought, a different feeling, or a different color (as seen with their spiritual eyes). Their body language and facial expressions will actually demonstrate what is going on in their soul. When everything has been dealt with, they will relax; there will be a release.

Sentence the Demonic Perpetrators
Then we bind the demons exposed during the interview, bloodlink them together with the ancestral demon that carries the family name (all family streams), silence their voices, cancel their assignments, separate them from the client, and send to the pit.

Then we ask the client, “Now what do you see, feel, hear?” If the work is complete, they will respond differently than they did the first time we asked these questions. This is where having a copy of The Divinity Code by Adam F. Thompson and Adrian Beale is helpful to understand the metaphoric meaning of how the client describes what they are seeing, feeling or hearing. In one session, the client responded at this point that they saw a long white train. “Long” is a measurement of time; “white” means righteous, and “train” means a ministry with clout.

We ask Jesus to show us if there is anything else He wants to deal with in the client. If something else surfaces, we deal with that and then move on.

Prayers and Declarations
Throughout the session, we have led the client in praying through each step; it is the client who forgives those who have hurt them and repents of how they allowed that person or that event to harm them; it is the client who renounces agreement with anything connected with the demonic realm; and it is the client who affirms the Truth of the Word of God as being the final authority over all their lifestyle choices.

The final step is to lead the client in a prayer which would include declarations such as these:
“Jesus, release your light into the memories of all these places. I pull down all the walls built as defense mechanisms. Jesus, make me whole, integrate all the pieces into a new holy and whole spirit, soul and body. A unity.  Everything set against me from the moment I was conceived, I now bind, and send it to the pit.”

“Jesus, I now choose to accept the work you did for me on the cross. I was nailed to the cross with you. My sins were nailed to the cross with you. When you died, I died to sin. When you were buried, my old man was buried with you. When you rose again, I was raised with you and I now have newness of life. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. I declare the old is gone and the new has come. Therefore, I now leave the past behind and reach forward to what lies ahead, confident that you are with me and you will never leave me. Therefore, I choose to put on the full armor of God every day; I choose to walk in your ways and abandon my way of doing things; I choose to practice the Truth of your Word. I declare that I am accepted in the Beloved. I declare that my identity is secure in who Jesus is. I declare that I am significant in your Kingdom. I was created for a purpose, and your plan for my life has not changed.”

“Jesus, I thank you for the plans you have for me: they are plans to bless me and prosper me, plans to give me hope and a future, plans for good and not for evil. I agree with your Word that says that all your plans succeed. Therefore, I submit my will, my rights and all control to you Jesus, and I say “Yes, Lord, establish the work of my hands. Yes Lord, direct my steps.”

The facilitator closes the deal by sealing the work with the blood of Jesus and speaking the Word over them as the Holy Spirit directs – all through the process and especially at the end.

Then the facilitator asks the client “How are you feeling?” This is an opportunity to reinforce the Truth that has set them free and encourage them to continue in the Truth so that they stay free.

Additional Scriptures for the Client
Psalm 18:20-24 (MSG) God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I’m alert to God’s ways; I don’t take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (MSG) May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together – spirit, soul, and body – and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!

Psalm 4:8 (MSG) At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep, for you, God, have put my life back together.
​
God desires to heal every broken place in you. Now that you know what to expect from an inner healing session, are you ready to be healed - spirit, soul and body? It is easy to contact me for a session: just go to the home page on this website and click on the button that reads "To schedule a session". I look forward to hearing from you!

Be healed in Jesus Name!

Linda

(c) 2019 Linda Sue Harper