A LIVING SACRIFICE

...And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelation 12:11

The Holy Spirit has been speaking and making it clear to me about the last of these three phrases ~
"...and they did not love their lives to the death."
I have heard this verse quoted so often the last many years in the church. It's great, it's a powerful verse. But always the last phrase is left off when quoted.

In times when the we are to be stepping into more power, more authority in the earth, one of the ways we overcome our adversary is by not having a grip on our own lives. That includes our possessions, our positions, our agenda, wanting things done our way, and our very life. The early church lived this way, they knew that Jesus had laid down His life and they were willing to do the same in the face of power-hungry political leaders. We have little precedence for this in our American society. But we have to look at Jesus, who is our Master. He spoke in Matthew chapter 10, the whole chapter, about this mindset. Notice verse 24
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. "

Paul wrote about this in Phillipians 2:5-8
5 "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."

It's called being a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1) It is a way of life, to be ready to die, but being alive and empowered by the ways of the Spirit in us. The whole New Testament is full of these kinds of passages. Humility, serving, giving, martyrdom, loving. It's LOVE. This is true LOVE, to lay down our own life for another. God has shown us this and it is our calling. God is love.

Spirit of Elijah

Tonight we had Bible study. It is good going through the book of Hebrews, absorbing the whole context of a large passage of scripture and being stirred up to search out other related scriptures in the Bible. During the evening, often people commented on current affairs, their lives, the state of our country.

At the end, we began to pray for each other and America. It was then that I felt very strongly that the Holy Spirit said, " pray for the spirit of Elijah to come." We need, all across our nation, and here at home, we need this voice to sound. This voice will call for repentance, for an end to our idolatry, and our sin. He will be able to expose it, for often, we don't even realize it when we have idols. They are just a part of everyday life to us. Elijah will tear down the altars of Baal and the works of Jezebel, who tries to silence the voice of the prophetic. The spirit of Elijah will call for mountains to come down, for valleys to be lifted up, for the crooked places to be made straight, for the rough places to be made smooth, and then the glory of the Lord will be revealed. This will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

Our land needs this call to go from shore to shore. We need to hear it over and over again. Only when God's people repent and turn from their wicked ways, only then will we see Godly men in government, and be able to return to the nation we began as.

And God needs to have a man, men, or a people - a voice that can speak truth with no fear of losing his status or his followers. This is one of our weapons against our enemy, satan. We overcome by (1) the blood of the Lamb, (2) by our testimony, AND (3) BY NOT LOVING OUR LIVES TO THE POINT OF DEATH ! I don't really know of many Christian leaders who would speak the truth, because they would be afraid of losing their followers who would probably cause them to lose their funding. Many are afraid of being politically correct. Many are afraid of being swallowed up by the media elite. WHO IS NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK THE WORD OF THE LORD ? who will lose his life?

The Holy Spirit says: "pray for the Spirit of Elijah to come"