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The Quality of Data

Hi, this is Wallace, Lisa’s husband. Lisa asked me to sub for her and lead Prayer Tuesday night.

In preparation I was praying (which is always a good thing to do). What I heard the Lord talking about was that He wanted us to flourish in ministry outside the church building. That we spent most of our time outside of church, and that’s where He lives, with us.

A major road block to our flourishing is that we lose track of who He is. There is a tendency for us to try and talk Him into doing what we think is “good”. The reality is that “good” is actually His desire and purpose.

 

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

quality of data cloud

In data processing there is the concept of master data management. This is the concept that not all data has the same value. Some data is more valuable than other data. Looking at the best data with the most reliable source, produces a better system. That’s what we focused on tonight.

There are lots of people that have lots of opinions about God. Some are from their personal experiences. Some are from what they’ve been taught. Some are just plain conjecture.

I felt that the best data available to us is what God says about Himself.

In business and sports, there is a focus on periodically ignoring the sophistication of the endeavor and focus on the basics. If you like movies, look at Hoosiers. What really came to mind was an old Harvard Business Review sidebar about JC Penny’s head of sales. He said there were store managers who focused on selling a lot and there were store managers that focused on the basics of selling. He always had to replace the managers trying to sell a lot with new managers that focused on the basics of sales. We are focusing on the basics of who God says He is.

 

SCRIPTURE WE USED

This is the scripture I put in my notes to take to the prayer meeting (I added the emphasis to stand out while I was reading the scripture, it’s not in the Bible):

What the Lord says about Himself:

Exodus 33:17-23 (NKJV) 17So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

18And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

19Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

Exodus 34:5-7 (NKJV) 5Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth

Exodus 34:4-8 (NLT) 4So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5Then the LORD came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. 6The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. 7I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.” 8Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped.

The 10 Commandment Talk:

Exodus 20:1-6 (NLT) 1Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. 3“You must not have any other god but me. 4“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.

Picking Israel:

Deuteronomy 7:7-9 (NKJV) 7The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

Jonah’s Viewpoint

Jonah 4:1-2 (MSG)

1 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper.

2 He yelled at God, “God! I knew it – when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!

Anyway:

Ephesians 2:4-7 (NKJV) 4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 

CLOSING

It was good to pray with everyone on-line afterwards. Join with us in prayer.

Wallace

© Copyright Wallace Swayze 2017

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War in Order (part 2)

Welcome to War in Order (Part 2).

This is a record of my journey to understand how to war according to God’s Word. My goal is to give you what has taken me nearly 40 years to learn.

AS A YOUTH PASTOR EARLY IN MY MINISTRY

I had just learned about binding and loosing. As I said in part one, I had a dream that helped me to know what to do for my dad. Now I was sure binding and loosing was a missing part of my prayer life.

I began to bind and loose every day over my youth group and the little church where I worked. We saw so many supernatural things happen as a result.

THEN ONE NIGHT!!!

55 Satanist and Satanist want-to-be kids came walking into my youth group. I had about 40 kids in my youth group at the time when these lost souls descended upon us like dark clouds. They were dressed in Goth from head to foot. The leaders were two brothers who were belligerent and commanding. They were followed by young teenage girls who mimicked their dark attitudes. They were mockers, immoral and irreverent. The parents of church kids wanted these lovers of evil gone. I didn’t want to be perpetually cussed as I tried to preach, but I also didn’t want to take from these demon inspired kids the ability to have a life change. The fight was on for 9 months.

I WAS FORCED TO REINFORCE

I had 22 workers at the time. I divided them into two groups and put one group praying in another location and one group acting as bouncers. Week after week these kids manifest demon spirits. One kid slithered off the front seats curling and hissing like a snake. I found out later that they were going to a remote place before our services and sacrificing animals to bring demon power into the youth group. It showed. Drug deals, fighting, and disruption happened in the corners and in the open. The police began watching from across the street of the church. My pastor was not sure what to think of it all. I would go to youth pastors meetings and try to ask what to do if 55 Satanist infiltrate your youth group? Other youth pastors would look at me like I had lost my last brain cell!

BEFORE I KNEW HOW STRATEGIC THEY WERE…

I had planned a retreat at a lake camp. Quite a few of this new group signed up to go. I didn’t know they had fasted and prayed to their god for me to get sick at the retreat. I got deathly ill at the retreat and had to leave. At the time I didn’t understand what I was up against. Neither did my special speaker who from that time forward for three years would have his jaws lock in place when he would get in the pulpit to preach and he had to step down from ministry for that season until he figured out what to do.

DOES THE DEVIL HAVE MORE POWER THAN GOD?

No! A definite NO! The problem is that we haven’t always known what to do with the authority we have been given. For instance. I got so tired of this group of kids, cussing me as I tried to preach. We would take them out one at a time, but there would always be one to fill that place and finish what the other had started.

ONE NIGHT IT OCCURRED TO ME

What if I bound the devil to silence? So I did that! I said, “Satan, I bind you to silence while I preach!” All of a sudden, the cursers couldn’t speak. It was so bad, they picked up any paper they could find and wrote four letter words at me holding them up…which I promptly ignored!!! They didn’t know what to do and I had learned something!!

I HAD A WORD OF KNOWLEDGE

One night as I was giving the altar call, as usual, they all got up to walk out on me, letting me know all this “God stuff” was a farce! When they did, something came to me. I said…

“Wait!!!” They all stopped.

I said, “You don’t know but you may walk out this door and there will be a rival gang waiting on you. And they will attack your second in command. When they do, you will try to help him and they will stab you!”

They all listened. Then they all burst out laughing and walked out. Waiting outside the church was a rival gang. Just as the Holy Spirit told me, it happened. They attacked the second in command. The leader of the kids tried to help him and they stabbed him 7 times.

The police saw this happening from across the street where they had been parked. They turned on their light and the gang fled. One of my leaders pulled the stabbed kid into the church foyer. He was bleeding all over the floor. He started crying, “God, Help Me!!!” (A part of me wanted to say, “Which god would that be?”)

This kid asked my youth leader to pray the bleeding would stop. The leader prayed and the bleeding stopped. It turned out that every major organ was missed!!! God’s grace!!!!

KIDS BEGAN TO GET SAVED

One at a time, those kids began to get saved. As soon as they would get saved, their case workers would pull them out of church and even move them. (A number of them had been in trouble with the law) This happened several times. Then one day they were all gone and it was as if they had never been there.

I FOUND OUT THAT I HAD THE ABILITY TO EXERCISE AUTHORITY AGAINST THE ENEMY THAT WAS STRATEGIC TO ME AND THE WORK I DO

This was a tremendous lesson for me as a minister. I had never felt like I was important enough to be targeted in that manner. Truth is, anyone who will do the work of God is a threat to darkness and is targeted not only for their warfare but for their work.

MANY ARE AFRAID…

I say that because many are afraid to do spiritual warfare due to being targeted by the enemy. But the truth is, if you are going to work for God (and every Christian is supposed to) you are a target. In other words, you might as well learn to fight appropriately since you will be in the cross hairs if you are going to work for God.

Matthew 12:26-30 (NKJV) 26If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

 

REMEMBER THE STRONG MAN?

The strong man is a demon power. He may be lower level devil but he is guarding something. It could be he is guarding a lost person, a lost tribe, nation, future work or a present work.

Jesus is very clear that he must bind (engage with authority) the strong man if we are going to take what has belonged to the devil.

PEOPLE ARE WORTH IT

It is worth it when you see a lost person found, a sick person healed, a demonized person set free. I would do it all again to see the results I have seen in the spirit in the fight for the lives of people.

I hope you will hang with me as we continue with “War in Order”.

Blessings,
lisa

© Copyright Lisa Swayze 2017