“SEASONS OF CHANGE”
…
Missionary-Evangelist Esther Thornton
Did you know that
the spiritually dry churches are going to rise first in the rapture? Do you
know why? Because the Bible says that “the dead in Christ shall rise first!”
Seriously, we are
now in a season of change for the church of Jesus Christ. God is calling us to
excel in the last days before Jesus comes.
God wants us to
possess the land that He has set before us.
Deut. 1:8
Behold, I have set
the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your
fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after
them.
When God brought
the Israelites out of Egypt after 430 years of Egyptian bondage, He eventually
led them to the Jordan River. Just across the river was Canaan, the land He had
promised them and their descendants. Through Moses, God’s chosen leader, they
were to go in and take possession of the promised land.
By Jesus death, He
has provided a way for us to be able to possess our promises. We don’t just
have to watch others do this, but we can have peace, joy, prosperity, healing,
success and enjoyment in life. We can receive revelation knowledge from God and
His wisdom in our decisions.
Some make excuses
and thus, fail to inherit the promises:
Numbers 13:30-31
And Caleb stilled
the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we
are well able to overcome it. [31] But the men that went up with him said, We
be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
To possess the
land, we must dispossess the current occupants. And, to us, that is the devil.
We cannot fight him with ordinary means for he is a spirit being and must be
fought in the spiritual realm.
We cannot make
excuses but must face him straight on in the name of Jesus. Because an excuse
is a reason stuffed with a lie. We each have our own invisible “excuse bag”, so
that when we are asked to do something we don’t want to do, we just reach in
and pull out an excuse! The flesh wars against the Spirit.
Galatians 5:17
For the desires of
the flesh are opposed to the (Holy) Spirit, and the (desires of the) Spirit are
opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each
other (continually withstanding and in conflict with each other), so that you
are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do.”
The Apostle Paul
said that he had to die daily to the flesh. The more that you and I can die to
our flesh, the more the Spirit of God can live through our lives.
In order to step
into this season of change, we need to know how to combat our enemy, and that
is the devil.
Eight Ways
to Keep the Devil Under Your Feet
Eph. 6:10-13
Finally, my
brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. [11] Put on the
whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. [12] For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. [13] Wherefore take unto
you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all, to stand.
1. Remain
Peaceful in the Storm
God wants us to
hold our peace and to remain at rest. Too often we get frustrated and lose our faith
that God is in control and will take care of everything. Peter was fine as long
as he kept his eyes on Jesus, but when he looked down at the angry waves, he
began to sink.
The Bible says that
we are seated together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. To be seated in
heavenly places with Jesus is to enter an “inner rest.” While we are waiting
upon God, we rest and don’t worry or get frustrated.
Under the Old
Covenant, the people could not rest in God’s presence. The high priest wore
bells on his robe and had a rope tied to his waist. If the bells quit ringing,
the people outside the Holy of Holies knew that he had done something wrong and
had died. The Old Covenant had many laws and was based upon works. But, the New
Covenant is based upon the work Jesus has accomplished, not on our own merits
or works.
Jesus our High
Priest went into the Holy of Holies with His own blood, put it on the mercy
seat in heaven and sat down. Now the atonement for the sins of the world is
finished.
The promise of
God’s peace is not made to those who work and struggle in their own strength
but to those who sit and rest in Christ Jesus. We cannot change our situation
in life, but we must rest and believe that God is working on our behalf.
When something
frightful or disturbing happens, we need to hold our peace and let God take
care of the situation. The devil sets us up to get us upset, but if we refuse
to and just believe God, there is nothing the devil can do to defeat us.
We have had people
mistreat us as leaders in this ministry. What we do is to check ourselves that
we have done nothing wrong, not even in the heat of accusations. Then, I
immediately hand them up to God to deal with as He is more capable than I to do
so.
I have seen God
judge people, sometimes severely for their actions against God’s anointed ones.
1 Chron 16:22 and
Ps 105:15
Saying, Touch not
mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
But, it is wise to
leave the situation in God’s hands, as He knows what is the best action to be
taken.
Some years ago, an
anointed lady named Maria Etter was preaching in a hall. A lady spoke to
another lady there against her or something that she did. The lady fell over
dead who said that. I believe that we need a renewed fear of the Lord in the
body of Christ today, as in the book of Acts, when Ananias and Sapphira lied to
the Holy Ghost and their bodies were carried out. Think how fearful that would
be to those who saw this! People in this day - the bible says - have no fear of
God in their hearts.
2. Spend Time
With God
Ps 32:6 “…let
everyone who is godly pray - pray to You in a time when You may be found;
surely when the great waters (of trial) overflow, they shall not reach (the
spirit in) him.”
You may feel you
don’t have time to pray and seek God. But, people who want something badly
enough pay the price to get it. When we spend time with God, He becomes our
protection, our stability, our place of refuge, and the source of our help in
every situation and circumstance.
Exodus 33:12
And Moses said unto
the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let
me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name,
and thou hast also found grace in my sight. And he said, My presence shall go
with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go
not with me, carry us not up hence.
God had asked Moses
to go to Pharaoh and say, “Let My people go”. Moses was afraid but God told him
His presence would go with him and He would give Him rest.”
The children of Israel
always sent the Ark of the Covenant into battle first because it carried the
presence of God.
And, today, we
don’t want to move forward in any direction without the presence of God going
with us. And, if we want the anointing of God to be on our lives, we must spend
time with God. If we put Him first, all these things of life will be taken care
of.
In God’s presence
there is joy.
Psalm 16:11
Thou wilt shew me
the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there
are pleasures for evermore.
We cannot allow
circumstances to determine our joy or we will have little. Sometimes when we
come before the Lord, we start out crying, but end up laughing. That is because
we have given all our cares to Him and He strengthens us with His joy.
When you have been
with Jesus, there is just something about you that is different from the
ordinary person. Spending time in the secret place changes us into what He
wants us to be.
Acts 4:13, when
those leaders saw the disciples’ boldness and eloquence of speech and…perceived
that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools (common men with no
educational advantages), they marveled; and they recognized that they had been
with Jesus.
3. Watch Your
Mouth
Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are
in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Words are
containers for power - either creative power or destructive. Jesus words are
spirit and they are life. But, people can also speak death to you by speaking
things that put a heaviness on you.
One way to speak
life is to be thankful. Another way is to speak a word to someone in due
season.
Isaiah 50:4
The Lord God hath
given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in
season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine
ear to hear as the learned.
In Eph. 6, it tells
us of our spiritual warfare and the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. We
need to quote it to the devil when he attacks us and speak it forth when
situations come against us.
When depression
tries to hit you, take hold of the Word and say, “The Lord has given me the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
We serve a God who
calls things that be not as though they were, a God who speaks of nonexistent
things as if they already existed. We can do the same in speaking forth what
the Word says. You can prophesy to the dead areas of your life by speaking
God’s Word.
All of the
Israelites who were adults, who came out of Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb,
died in the wilderness. And, that is pretty amazing when you think about how
many millions of people Moses led out of Egypt. We don’t want to entertain a
“wilderness mentality” if we plan to get to the promised land! That includes
grumbling, complaining, and fault finding. Words are not just an empty vessel,
but they contain power - either good or bad.
Ezekiel asked God
if the dry bones could live. And, God said to speak to them to live. What are
we saying to the dry bones in our life? Are we complaining about them or
speaking life to them? Don’t agree with what the devil is saying to you - speak
what God says and His promises.
4. Submit
Yourself to God
We need to listen
to what God is saying to us personally, and obey it. He knows each of us
personally and what He wants for us to do. Too many times when He speaks to us
personally we take what He is saying as suggestions instead of commands. That
is why we have some of the problems that we do.
Submission is an
action and an attitude
James 4:7
Submit yourselves
therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
The power to resist
the devil is found in submitting to God. We need to walk in obedience and not
use grace as an excuse to sin. But, what grace is, is the power to live a holy
life. People don’t want to obey God because it requires some suffering. Even
Jesus learned obedience by suffering.
Hebrews 5:8
Though he were a
Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
We had some
rebellious people leave our ministry. One day someone else told me that one of
these couples didn’t think they had done anything wrong. Yet, they had tried to
turn people against us and had lied behind our back. They told us that they
didn’t want any part of our ministry - either now, or ever! They accused us to
our face of things we had not done, but had done just the opposite to help
them. But, they didn’t believe us. They didn’t trust us as their leaders. They
ignored what we had asked them not to do, as it is the policy of this ministry,
and they deliberately went behind our backs and did it. Yet, they said they
didn’t think they had done anything wrong. I fear for such people, for they
have allowed their consciences to be seared and that is dangerous!
Their lives have
been very self-centered and they don’t care what anyone else thinks about it -
even God!
The Amplified Bible
says in Mk. 8:34 that we are to forget, ignore, disown and lose sight of
ourselves and our own interests. The cross that we carry is not living a
selfish, self-centered, “me, me, me” life but living a life that is willing to
suffer to obey God.
“Therefore (because
He stooped so low) God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on Him
the name that is above every name. That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee
should (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” (Phil. 2:9,10)
The kingdom of
darkness has no power over Jesus and He was extremely obedient to the father.
We should not use
His name as a charm for what we want if we are not walking in obedience to Him.
People excuse sin
because they say it is the 21st century but the Word of God stays
the same. Today more than 50 percent divorce. Teenagers are killing each other
in school and shooting teachers if they get angry. Twenty or thirty years ago,
the worst problem in school was chewing gum and throwing spit wads. Now it is
drugs and violence.
Those who have left
our ministry that I was speaking of are wanting to do their own thing and are
walking in rebellion.
1 Samuel 15:23
For rebellion is as
the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being
king.
Other things that
God hates are spoken of in His Word:
Deut. 18:10-12
There shall not be
found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the
fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a
witch, [11] Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or
a necromancer. [12] For all that do these things are an abomination unto the
Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out
from before thee.
Many today think
the things of the occult are all right, even Christians, who have watered down
the idea that they are wrong. But, God’s Word remains the same on these things.
Horoscopes, tarot cards, psychic readings and fortune telling and such things
are an abomination to God. We need to know the Word of God so that we are not
deceived by the evil one and sucked into the New Age Movement that is even now
upon us.
Learn to live
beyond your feelings. Consult God first - for counsel, for help, for comfort,
for guidance, and walk in obedience to Him to the best of your ability.
A lady who had been
in a full gospel church for many years called me when we lived in Portland and
told me she couldn’t get an answer to her question as to why her husband had
left her, so she was going to go to a physic. I asked God what to tell her and
He told me to encourage her to seek Him and not fortune tellers and He would
give her the answer. So, he told her that it was simply incompatibility - and
she was satisfied and it made sense to her, so she decided not to consult the
physic.
We need to be good
counselors to those who contact us and lead them according to what the Word of
God says. This can prevent them from problems from their own weaknesses.
5. Walk in Love
Eph. 5:2 “And walk
in love (esteeming and delighting in one another) as Christ loved us and gave
Himself up for us…
You can defeat
Satan with a good, strong, healthy love walk. Many times we concentrate on all
kinds of things that we want - healing, success, our breakthrough, our family,
prosperity, and so forth - but seldom on walking in love.
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I
give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. [35] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye
have love one to another.
One of the signs of
the end times is that the love of the great body of people will grow cold.
Everybody gets hurt - but we need to take it to God; commit them to God and
move on, still loving and caring for people.
A piece of wisdom
in not judging other people is “anywhere you don’t have responsibility, don’t
bother to have an opinion.” In other words we are to mind our own business and
not say things or take steps against others, unless they are our responsibility
to do so.
I Cor. 13:5
says…”Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way,
for it is not self-seeking….
Joyce Meyer was
saying how God spoke to her that some of His children were like robots. They
laid in bed in the mornings only thinking about themselves for that day and
wound themselves up. Then, the robot would walk around all day saying, “What
about me? What about me?” Some have sent her toy robots and one had a sign on
it that said, “What about me? What about me?”
Love does not do
the right thing to get something; love simply does the right thing because it
is the right thing to do. Walking in love may mean living in a new way, but it
is worth effort. It not only blesses others; it blesses the one doing the
loving.
6. The
breastplate of God’s Approval on your life
2 Cor. 3:18 says
that we go from glory to glory. God understands us better than we understand
ourselves, and He is waiting to help us. He sees our heart and that is what is
of importance. When the devil tells you what is wrong with you, you need to
tell him that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and you are
being changed from glory to glory. You are acceptable to God because of what
Jesus has done for you. Our right standing with God is not based on our
performance, but on our faith and trust in Jesus’ performance.
I remember one time
when I was witnessing door-to-door that a man tried to get my attention on
hypocrites to distract from his need of Christ and salvation. I told him that I
had not come to him to present any person, not even myself, but to present only
Jesus Christ who is our perfect example in every way.
God sees us as
righteous because He looks at us through the blood of His Son. Our actions or
work for God should not be to find a right standing with Him, but as an
outpouring of our love for Him.
7. Think About
What You are Thinking About
When you become
depressed or discouraged, take inventory about what you have been thinking
about, and you will discover why you are feeling that way. Negative thinking is
a stronghold of the mind that our spiritual weapons can tear down. The mind is
where the battle with the enemy takes place.
2 Cor. 10:5
Casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Philip. 4:8
Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things.
When Jesus was
tempted of the devil in the wilderness, He answered Him by quoting the Word and
that is what we should do.
When Joyce Meyer
was young, she had been sexually abused. So, the devil would tell her, even
years later, that she was no good. So, she began to use the Word of God and
claim that she was the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and that for her
shame, God would give her double in goodness.
8. Pray at All
Times
“Pray at all times
(on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all (manner of) prayer
and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and
perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God’s consecrated
people). (Eph. 6:18)
Philip. 4:6
Be careful for
nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God.
Praise and worship
confuses the enemy and defeats him in your life.
Psalm 50:23
Whoso offereth
praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I
shew the salvation of God.
We need to take
praise pauses during the day. When we start doing this and being thankful, we
will begin to see changes in our life that we have been desiring.
We should intercede
for other people - to stand in the gap for them. It is like sowing seed and you
will reap a harvest. When you sow into someone else’s life, God meets your own
needs.
We need to pray
against temptation - watch and pray that we enter not into temptation - the
spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Pray before you will be in an
area of temptation when possible.
Prayer binds evil
and loosens that which is good and brings about action that will cause change
in a situation. God can work out things for our good that Satan intends for our
harm when we pray. So, pray everywhere, in every season and on every occasion.
We will be more than the devil can handle, and the only place he will have in
our life is under our feet!
CONCLUSION:
This is the season
of change for the church. And, even as the old leaves fall off the tree, so God
is purging His people. For He has said that judgment must begin at the house of
the Lord. He is purging us so that we can produce more fruit.
It is the last days
for the body of Christ before the rapture of the church. If we are to go forth
and possess, and if we are to conquer, it must be done now. Time is running
out. The devil is holding onto whatever he is able to in our lives and in the
nations of the world.
Caleb and Joshua
were the only two adults who were allowed to enter the promised land. The
others died in the wilderness. Too many of God’s people today have a
“wilderness mentality”. Too many have been hindered by incomplete obedience and
lack of knowledge of God’s Word.
The Bible says in
Hosea 4:6
My people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge…
Some spend their
time saying the wrong things with their mouth and murmuring and complaining and
speaking against others. Some are against their leaders, as they were with
Moses, when they murmured against him. Some just wished they were back in Egypt
with the leeks and garlics. People today many times don’t want to pay the price
and would even return to their bondage because of that.
But, God is calling
a new breed of believers who will be willing to surrender all and walk in
obedience to the best of their ability. Many of them have had severely sinful
backgrounds but have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus and are on fire
for God! They are ready to give, go, and be all that God wants them to be!
It is a change of
season - and even as surely as the leaves are falling off the trees - winter is
coming - and it will be too late to be saved. The Bible says that we are to
work while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work.
Pastor Kirschman,
Sr. pastor of 1st Assembly of God in Kelso some years ago had a
dream. He dreamed that it was beginning to rain and storm and he and his wife
were running for shelter. He felt that this dream was telling him that the end
was coming soon. He felt urgency in the dream to get under the shelter.
We, who are safe in
God, need to reach out as never before to a hurting world. For this season is
upon us that will be their only chance. Time is short and there is much to be
done - not only overseas, but the one next door - those you come in contact
with. Now is the time. Tomorrow may be forever too late!
____________________
REF: “Eight Ways to
Keep the Devil Under Your Feet”, by Joyce Meyer
May God bless you and use your life for His glory!
In His Love and
Service,
Esther
