Watchman’s Adventure: How Jesus uses the Sword of the Spirit (updated 2015-10-28)

Further to what he posted on 12/04/2010, the Biblical truth observed then had truly come to pass. Here is the summary of the original post with the latest update:
In the example of Jesus he observes the following:
1. Jesus knows His authority. He uses His authority calmly and confidently. He does not need to say twice to the demons to get them to obey His commands.
2. He knows where His authority comes from and He is confident of the ultimate sovereign power of the source of authority (God Himself). He does not fear that the authority may not work.
3. He always sees the real root of the problem and addresses it directly. He speaks to that root.
4. He is a spiritual man and He sees, hears and talks to the spiritual beings as though He is talking to the physical beings.
5. He knows His authority covers the natural realm as well as the supernatural realm and effectively uses the same authority to address it, for example, the wind, rough waves, demons, unclean spirits, the functioning of the body, creation etc.
The watchman concluded then that he would choose to go the Jesus way, i.e. issuing simple command with the authority of Jesus, effective and straightforward, to malfunctioning parts, demons and even natural elements.
Since then, the watchman has witnessed that when given the opportunity to put into practice by faith, the words of God came true: Diseases healed. Demons cast out. Oppression and depression lifted. Believers set free. Reconciliations. Restorations. Renewal. Transformations. In most occasions all that was done was giving a simple command in the name of Jesus and ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit by believers, just as Jesus has commanded.
Updated Conclusion:
1. The power of the name of Jesus is real and totally effective.
2. Believers are to walk by faith in the unseen Holy Spirit.

How does a watchman hear God’s voice? (a testimony)

How does a Christian hear God’s voice? Today I share my own testimony. For years I sought to hear God. I first encountered God in my spirit and was filled by the Holy Spirit in 1983 in a Spirit-filled church during a six-month work assignment living in a hotel. My spiritual journey stagnated when I returned to my home-base and attended a traditional Evangelical church and its Bible school classes for ten years until my transfer to another town. I spent another ten years in another similar traditional Evangelical church without being taught or built further in my walk in the Spirit. I was taught and trained of many theological studies and their traditional church, Bible school belief, and religious work practices. I was not taught anything about and/or how to practice and minister in the Holy Spirit and the power of God in the supernatural reality. I was filled with head knowledge of the Bible but did not encounter the mighty power of spiritual reality of God and His words. Jesus has said that the flesh (head knowledge of the Bible) profits nothing, and the words He has spoken to us are Spirit and life. In my professional and business venture I have experienced this truth (realizing only after having a major and devastating failure and its resultant significant monetary loss).
I have discovered that it is absolutely essential for a born again Christian to know God and hear Him and the only way is through the Holy Spirit. I arrived at the watershed of my Christian walk when I invested my life saving and knew I had failed even though I was armed with the Bible and the words therein and all my education and professional knowledge and experience. I could not carry on not knowing God is Spirit. Jesus has said that the Holy Spirit would tell us the future. What does He mean? I wanted to know. That started my seeking to hear God’s voice. My journey to become spiritual rather than carnal. The rest is history.
I summarize below the journey:
1. I was introduced to a worship place which emphasized on worshiping God in the Holy Spirit.
2. The grace of God gave me the strength and determination to be humble and hang on despite my dislike and prejudices and critical views of the place.
3. I continued to practice what I learned there at home.
4. I read the Bible to confirm what I learned and practiced.
5. The steps I have practiced over the years: seek God diligently, listen to the voice/words in my spirit, and ask to see visions, record down what I receive (in words, pictures, diagrams, or any other journal ways.)
Last week a friend sent me a link to a book. The friend wrote this remark to me: “Over the years you have shared with us what you have received concerning how you have heard God’s voice, and you tried to teach us the whole process but I did not understand them until I read this present book which has confirmed what you have received even then.”
Here is the link to the book the friend has sent. I pray you may find it simple to apply. For those who are already walking in the Spirit and hearing God in your own way, my prayer is, “Press on.”
http://www.cwgministries.org/Four-Keys-to-Hearing-Gods-Voice
Download MP3: To listen later or transfer to your portable player, right-click here and select “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…”. (On a Mac, hold the Option button while clicking on the link.)
======================
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit [it is of no account]. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life [providing eternal life].

Journey to see God: What God detests

Time of the season to read what God says about what He detests.
Isaiah 8:19-20 New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁹ Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?
²⁰ Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 (NLT)

¹⁰ For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering.^[a] And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, ¹¹ or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you.

Footnotes:

1. 18:10 Or never make your son or daughter pass through the fire.

Leviticus 19:31

“Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead. I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 20:6

“I will also turn against those who commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community.

Leviticus 20:27

“Men and women among you who act as mediums or who consult the spirits of the dead must be put to death by stoning. They are guilty of a capital offense.”

2 Chronicles 33:6

Manasseh also sacrificed his own sons in the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the Lord’s sight, arousing his anger.

Isaiah 19:3

The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will confuse their plans. They will plead with their idols for wisdom and call on spirits, mediums, and those who consult the spirits of the dead.

Jeremiah 27:9

“‘Do not listen to your false prophets, fortune-tellers, interpreters of dreams, mediums, and sorcerers who say, “The king of Babylon will not conquer you.”

Isaiah 14:9-10 (NLT)⁹ “In the place of the dead^[a] there is excitement over your arrival.The spirits of world leaders and mighty kings long dead stand up to see you.¹⁰ With one voice they all cry out, ‘Now you are as weak as we are!

 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

2 Kings 22 (NLT) God praised this king.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath. ² He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn away from doing what was right.

2 Kings 23:23-25

²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Josiah also got rid of the mediums and psychics, the household gods, the idols,^[a] and every other kind of detestable practice, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land of Judah. He did this in obedience to the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord’s Temple. ²⁵ Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.

Footnotes:

1. 23:24 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung.

What God declares

What does God want from His people? One word the watchman has received today is ‘DECLARE’. What God declares and what He expects His people (witnesses) to declare.
GOD DECLARES HIMSELF:

Psalm 111:6

He has declared to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations.

Isaiah 43:12

I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” Says the Lord, “that I am God.

Isaiah 44:8

Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’”

Isaiah 45:21

Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.

Isaiah 48:3

“I have declared the former things from the beginning; They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

Isaiah 48:5

Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.’

Isaiah 43:21

This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.

Psalm 147:19

He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel.

GOD’S WITNESSES DECLARE GOD:

Exodus 9:16

But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

John 17:26

And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Acts 9:27

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

Acts 15:14

Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.

Romans 9:17

For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”

Luke 8:47

Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.

John 1:18

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

John 17:26

And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Psalm 9:11

Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion! Declare His deeds among the people.

Psalm 22:22

I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.

Psalm 40:5

Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

Psalm 40:10

I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly.

Psalm 66:16

Come and hear, all you who fear God, And I will declare what He has done for my soul.

Psalm 118:17

I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the Lord.

GOD’S WITNESSES DECLARE GOD’S WORDS:

Deuteronomy 5:5

I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:

Psalm 2:7

“I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

Matthew 12:18

“Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.

John 16:14

He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

Acts 20:27

For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

Acts 26:20

but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

Jesus said: Who are the overcomers?

Who are the overcomers? We read what the Bible says.
Psalm 112:5-7 New King James Version (NKJV) He will never be shaken because his heart is steadfast and trusts in God

⁵ A good man deals graciously and lends;
He will guide his affairs with discretion.
⁶ Surely he will never be shaken;
The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.
⁷ He will not be afraid of evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Psalm 119:133 God’s words overcome evil.

Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark 9:23-24 Turn to Jesus and you will overcome your unbelief

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jesus told His disciples He has overcome the world (ruled by Satan)

John 16:33

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jesus’ disciples overcame too! So can Jesus’ followers today -those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (Revelation 12:17)

Revelation 12:11 end time overcomers against “the great dragon, the serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9)

“And thy overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and thy did not love their lives to the death.”

James 4:7

Therefor submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.