War

This is the Truth Network. For me, it establishes a tone that we really rise to, a level that we come up to. We're speaking of believing God for things we never thought possible.

It didn't occur to us. That is in a setting, in a culture, in a world where frankly we relate well, we relate better to things that we can envision easily, something that's not so much of a stretch, something the soul imagines easily. It is humanly possible, in a natural sense, can be accomplished.

But today I really want to say this. This is where we are. We are in a prophetic time, and that means the fulfillment of prophecy, Bible prophecy, which is, in my thinking, the perfect time to believe God for even more, greater, higher inspiration for things that we never imagined were possible.

My name is Shirley Weaver, the podcast is Running With Horses, and this is where we are determined to reach beyond the norm, beyond that soulish agenda, that level. And we do use 1 Kings 18 as an example, but there are so many. In God's Word, that just being one and that one, of course, the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and really what followed was supernatural, I mean no question at all.

The hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he outran the horses in a race back to the city gates. And the more I learn about this time in history, the more I am certain that this generation uniquely is born for such a time as this, as this time. And it's also the more that I see the believer's role as a catalyst for Bible-sized outcomes. We've said earlier our motivation is to pray big prayers, so we're believing beyond the norm, for the supernatural, for outrageous displays of God's power, which you know is going to include his love for the whole world. So we are connected to the love of God through the power of God in the sense of what we're discussing today.

So it's not one or the other, it's both the power and the love of God. So we receive inspiration for things we never thought possible. And our perspective is our culture, because your culture is maybe different from my culture depending on the geographical location where you live. So the perspective is of course the culture, but also the whole world. Jesus said, go ye into all the world.

So we include the whole world in our every thought. And so first, on today's podcast, I really want to acknowledge this biblical reference to wars and rumors of war. Obviously, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia that is being played out in the nation of Ukraine, but also in truth, many places around the world are suffering from the effects of an armed conflict. For one, there's been an entire year of conflict in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is Africa's second most populous country and really a linchpin of security in the region. This conflict has left thousands dead, has forced over 2 million people from their homes, and has pushed parts of that country into famine. I mean, it's a desperate situation for the people there. And whoever they are, and whatever their situation, God's love is watching them.

He cares about them. That's why we get involved. That's why we keep a prophetic eye out on the horizon and we keep our ear to the ground. You know, to hear what is taking place in the whole world, from our family to the whole world, Matthew 24, 6, Mark 13, 7, essentially say this, the same thing. You will hear of wars, rumors of war, but see to it that you are not troubled.

See to it that you are not troubled. These things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. The end is not yet. And the end spoken of there is the end of the age, not the end of the world, as some people would express that.

We're really looking at the end of this age in Bible prophecy, which is the point that I'm making. And the takeaway for you as a believer is that believing God for things that you never thought possible, for supernatural outcomes, divine interventions, you actually have a role. I have a role. Every believer has a role.

What is that role? Well, the believer's role is as catalyst for these biblical-sized outcomes in your nation, in a distant place. And you always begin that process with discernment.

You discern the times as it was said in the Old Testament of Issachar that he had an understanding of the times and he knew what Israel ought to do. That's you. That is in your DNA. That power belongs to you as well as it did to Issachar. It's part of your spiritual inheritance.

So you have that capacity by virtue of the indwelling Spirit of God, the Spirit of God on the inside of you. So that discernment belongs to you because we've said before, and you know this, every voice that you hear isn't necessarily the Lord speaking. Now all of us have heard a great deal about Ukraine from many sources. Listen, all of those voices, all of those sources are not accurate. They are not speaking an accurate picture.

Many of them are. We need to discern which voice to hear. In Ethiopia, by contrast, the conflict there, you may hear nothing at all.

In a public sense, on a public platform, you may have never heard of the conflict that's being played out there now. But when you pray, you pick up on these things, right? You hear the Spirit of God and he is not bringing this to your attention just for information.

He brings it what? Those big prayers. He's after those big prayers.

You hear by the Spirit, you pray by the Spirit, you hear and pray by the Spirit of God, which is big, vast, and then you pray from there the same way, in the same kind, after the same pattern. Because you see, God has given you this authority. He's given you governmental authority is a way of looking at it. All government is God's idea. The corruption of government is not of God. It originates from a very dark, dark source and is the perversion of something God has set in motion for good and to bless and to benefit everyone under the jurisdiction of that particular government. The distortion and the corruption is something that, prophetically, is being spotlighted right now.

We read those passages in Matthew and Mark, don't let your heart be troubled. These things must come to pass. God is bringing so much to the surface under the spotlight of the Spirit of God. As tyrants rule, they inevitably overstep their bound.

As corruption finds an expression, it inevitably goes too far. In the endgame, the bottom line will be that the author of everything, all creation, everything in the universe, really laughs at the stupidity of these puny-minded, the tyrants and those that are corrupted, those who govern illegitimately. He laughs.

He laughs. Psalm 2 and many places throughout the word, we see that the Lord God is not turning a blind eye to these things. There is a plan in place not only to turn around the tyrants' rule and overthrow the corruption but also to bring forth salvation and deliverance in a path and on a scale and in a way that we never thought possible. And we have this opportunity to believe God in these ways for things we never thought possible because spiritually every Christian believer has governmental authority in prayer. It's the authority to govern in the spirit realm. It's authority that includes dominance and a say-so within the boundaries that God gives to us. This speaks to the message that God has given you.

He has authorized you to speak in a certain way with a certain message at this time. You have a prophetic utterance. You are inspired prophetically and as you release what God puts in you to say, it has a prophetic impact. And listen, it also releases government because it governs your word's rule.

They take on a governmental role, a governmental dominance and say-so within the boundary of what God has given you to speak. Now you cannot do everything but you can do something. So what is your role when you hear of wars and rumors of wars? Your role first and foremost is prayer, not in a small way, on a limited scale.

But remember, we are running with horses. The hand of the Lord comes upon us with supernatural inspiration and we expect and believe God for things that we wouldn't ordinarily entertain or even think possible. We establish the source of what we are hearing. We discern that it is the Spirit of God and not another voice speaking to us.

We discern that it is our Commander-in-Chief speaking and that he has given us authority to speak with authority, to pray big prayers. You know, your authority released out into the spirit realm and therefore into the earth settles the issue. It establishes the boundaries. It literally bonds the work of treacherous and murderous spirits, spirits of treachery, murder, the spirit of the tyrant and the bully. It establishes boundaries for those spirits, hems them in, corrals them so that they do not operate with liberty. All of this because of God's plan to involve the believer in settling the outcome that he desires because apostolically, don't you love the ministry that God breathed through apostolic voices in the earth? It sets in order and that apostolic voice originally and foundationally is the Lord Jesus Christ and all those whom he chooses. It sets in order. It establishes the boundaries.

It settles the issue. I'm speaking of the authority that you have in prayer. Now the opposite, sort of a disclaimer here, the opposite is true of spiritual governance that looks something less than this kind of bold, expected leadership. It's actually, I mean to my eye, from what I've experienced, it's more like fellowship. It's not leadership. It's fellowship for the sake of fellowship in the name of fellowship which is so sweet but listen, it's not world changing.

It's sweet but it's not world changing. You are called as a believer, the church is called as the body of Christ to establish world changing release. That's the mission.

That is the plan. That's why you're anointed. That's why you're empowered. That's why you have the Holy Spirit. Like Issachar, you discern the time and you know what you should do.

Issachar knew what Israel ought to do at that time in his day in Israel. Today you pick up that mantle and we really must. It's not an optional thing, it's really we must. So let me just revisit here, I don't want to move too quickly away from just initially I mentioned a soulish kind of pursuit, I don't want that to sound mysterious in any way. It's just for our purposes right here as we're talking, just casually I would say, it's just how we think in the natural. It's the rabbit holes we go down. It's the rabbit trails we chase.

It's the little things. It's the insignificant, inconsequential things that we become myopic about. It becomes our focus. It drains our energy and occupies our time, our interest. It pulls us into a place of concentration on something that is not of that much value. It really, if you think about the soul, which consists of, and I love this definition of the soul, I heard it years ago and I've used it ever since, the soul consists of the mind, the will, the emotions and everything that has ever happened to you and your response to it.

Everything that has ever happened to you and your response to those things. Things that happen to us tend to leave us with at least some residue of the fear of man. Our behavior conforms to the fear of man instead of the fear of God on some level, at least as a residue.

Over time, it tends to build up and over time, the soulish area becomes dominant. Clearly the Lord set in order our lives as born-again believers that his spirit, living in the human spirit, would dominate the soul and the flesh. That the soul and the flesh would align with the spirit, the human spirit, which is aligned with the spirit of God.

And in that way, you can see pretty easily, you can discern and begin to realize the things that are actually distractions. They don't get to the heart of the matter or accomplish anything of eternal value. Ecclesiastes 3, we read, God has set eternity in their hearts. God has set eternity in your heart. He has set into motion eternal things. He has put you in a place that you are moving toward eternity, which of course is endless, with him in his presence. He has set that in your heart, in this sense, in your spirit, so that you're moving along that path, not a soulish, just living in the now path. So I just really believe we can develop that thought and utilize that perspective to accomplish things we never thought possible. And this brings us to another really important point about praying big prayers. It's the matter of right teaching.

You remember in our first episode, we sort of cast the vision and laid out what we wanted to accomplish in this new podcast. And in that episode, I said, primarily, you've got to have right teaching. The matter of right teaching points to effective discipleship. The way we are discipled and trained is the way that we go. And our example, of course, is that Jesus discipled those that God joined with him. He put them together, and he did that in small groups and in groups. Basically there was an inner circle of three, and then, of course, the most well-known group of 12 disciples.

But you know, there were many more who were disciples, who followed Jesus, and who, as followers of him, were disciples of his teaching. The principle is, as the twig is bent, so grows the tree. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. So the way that you are bent matters, because to become a tree of righteousness, your discipleship, the way that you're trained, and the pattern and example that's set before you matters a lot.

It makes a difference. What you conform to, whether we conform to basic, very humanly possible, very soul level ideas, or if our teacher is one who displays exploits, and who reaches to press for the prize and not settle for less, believing God that the hand of the Lord that came upon Elijah that day before he outran horses back to Jezreel, that same hand is available to you, the hand of the Lord upon you. As I said, we have the love of God in our heart, and we are compelled to go, but as we go, we have the power of God. We pray that prayer, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

There's that word again, eternally, forever and ever, amen. So again, right teaching is critical, it's important. Your teachers are important. The example that's set before you is important. How will you know them?

You know them by their fruit. We know one another by the fruit of our lives, and that's how we discern those who know how to believe God for great exploits and beyond the norm, beyond the soulish area. You know, I think we should pray. I think we should pray right now and believe God together this way.

Father, in Jesus' name, we release faith today regarding the possibilities that you have in mind. As we hear these prophetic warnings that we will hear of war and rumors of wars, that we guard our hearts and are not troubled understanding these things must come to pass, and that you have an agenda, a calendar for how this age will conclude and the next age will become the new, the place that we will dwell throughout eternity. God today, we pray for those. We pray big prayers for those who are caught in these conflicts, the innocent, the victims, God, those who are vulnerable.

We pray for the children. We pray, Lord, that you protect and guard them and supernaturally, supernaturally put your hand on them and deliver them from the enemy of their life, the enemy that has been released against them for destruction. And Father, we take authority over the tyrant and the spirit of the tyrant and those who mean destruction and who plan to gain personally, to benefit personally, and to become powerful rulers over illegitimately, not by God's authority, our plan, and we govern them right now. We take authority over that spirit. And we hem it in, we bind it up, and we stop the advance of the spirit of death, the spirit of hell.

We stop that advance now in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, we say that the blood of Jesus is against those forces of darkness. The blood of Jesus is against the bloody tyrant, the bloodthirsty terrorist. The blood of Jesus is against the spirit of murder.

The blood of Jesus is spread right now as a blanket of protection over the innocent and against murder, against killing, against trafficking. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, we declare it. We believe you, God, that you in us, you are greater than the spirit that is in this world.

We believe you for exploits. We believe your kingdom comes, your will is done right here on earth just like it is in the blueprint of heaven. We believe it, we declare it, and we thank you, God. More revelation, we pray. Give us more revelation to see what you see, hear what you're saying, and do what you tell us to do no matter what. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. I'm glad you're here for this podcast.

If you haven't heard our earlier episodes, we're brand new. This is episode number five, and we are, as I said, determined to see the outcome that God desires and to raise our level of understanding and faith-based belief that God can do His plan. So, we'll see you next time. Blessing to you, to your household, to your nation, let the kingdom of God come in Jesus' name. See you next time.