As many of you know by now that seeing in the spirit is one of God's ways to help us renew our minds, give us direction, and connect to the reality of spiritual substances and beings. The devil uses God's ways too in order for him to be effective in spiritual warfare! That's why your mind is the battlefield and the battleground for both realms, the Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness. God wants to wage war too with your way of thinking and how you see things in the eyes of implanted doctrines in you. God wants you to be conformed into the image of his glorious Son Jesus Christ and the enemy wants you to be like him. Your identity is at war!
“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:15-17
That's why the word of God commands us to TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST, wow every thought man, that's lots of work. Yes, it may be lots of work but because it is critical and dangerous we need to stay alert. Why? Because if you allow the thief to just come in for one time only, you will regret your whole life later. One moment of apathy can cause you a lifetime of sorrow and regret. That's why not everyone will be a hero of faith because not everyone wants to live the life of heroes. What if David the shepherd spared the bear and the lion once? NO MORE FLOCK, end of his business. Take captive every thought for God's sake because what you will tolerate, you are sleeping with and you will bear its fruits, good or bad.
Seeing visions in your mind is so powerful, God knows that and so does the enemy. Man's fall started by seeing and meditating on the wrong vision. Eve SAW that the fruit of the forbidden tree was so delicious and appealing. Job made a covenant with his eyes not to fornicate in his mind with a virgin by looking at her and lusting over her. Visions are a gateway of access for life or death, for light or darkness, for blessing or curse. You choose, I choose, we choose!
Seeing visions can be a detailed topic and can cover many categories. I only want to target in this devotion the powerful tool of inner visions that I call the scenarios of the mind and how to master those and subdue them for the glory of the Lord. I want you to be seasoned in this, be aware of it, and learn the ways of the Spirit. Your life is about to change right now!
I opened up to the concept of the importance of inner scenarios through this experience and that many of them happen because of a spiritual trigger in the spiritual realm.
One day after a Church meeting, my brother in the Lord and I decided to go visit another brother to have lunch with him and spend the day at his place. That brother we were going to visit that day was always welcoming and we never heard him say no to us, always welcoming. My friend was driving the car heading to that place and I was sitting next to him and on that day I was wearing an earring. As soon as we were close to his place, my mind drifted to a mind scenario for seconds, some call it daydreaming. I saw this man we were going to visit that day looking at me and rejecting me and saying you're not welcome here because you are wearing an earring, that was it! I felt that this played scenario in my mind meant something but didn't know what was it all about, plus it was my first encounter with this understanding. I didn't tell my driving friend anything but in less than a minute, my friend's phone rang and it was the man calling him and rejecting our visit last minute. No!!! We were almost there. So we head back to our homes!
Let me unpack to you what happened here and I know your own scenarios will start making sense from now on. In that daydream, my spirit man was picking from the Holy Spirit a prophetic revelation for something to come which is the rejection of our visit. My weak mind and sometimes carnal was picking on truth in the spirit realm and translated this into my mind in the form of a scenario trying to tell me something. It was like a story but the main FOCUS AND HIGHLIGHT was “the man rejecting me” and of course, the earring in the scenario had nothing to do with it and that man didn't see me wearing an earring plus he is not like that. So the focus in this scenario was on the feeling of rejection of the visit. It is important to always follow Holy Spirit in our spiritual encounters and sense the focus and the highlight whether in our visions, dreams, bible reading, etc! From that day on, I started watching and paying attention to my daydreams because many of those happen in my mind because there is a spiritual trigger behind them in the spirit realm from God or the devil, and myself. It is important not to make every daydream important but be sensitive and master it with the Lord because that will change your life. It is a very powerful tool when there is really something playing.
Now that you know about this, I want to teach you how to push forth your transformation by going back into the spirit realm, in your mind, with Holy Spirit and altering the scenarios played. In my case, that daydream was forth telling me that our visit will not occur that day, so the type of this daydream was forth-telling and I can do nothing about it, just pick up the revelation and reveal it maybe. Other scenarios are an invitation for you to be Christlike or a sinner and they happen a LOT, every day.
For example, if the devil played in your mind a scenario that you will be crippled with chronic pain and showed you yourself as a patient in a hospital, with a pale face, surrounded by doctors and suffering pain and hopelessness, of course, if you are mature enough you know this is not God's will for you and you follow Holy Spirit on how to respond, capture the thought, reject and fight it. One of the ways of fighting back is PUSHING FORTH YOUR TRANSFORMATION by going back to that given sick scenario and MASTER it and changing it for your glory. This is binding the devil and plundering him. For instance, you can tell Holy Spirit, Lord let's go back to that scenario and shift it for my benefit, change the curse to a blessing. Here you follow the Lord, wait on him, and allow the creativity of the Holy Spirit to shift this to your blessing. Without talking, gently SEE how Holy Spirit alters this scenario for you, the Lord may replace the scene with the enemy stricken in the bed of affliction instead of you and you are watching and mocking him, or you may see yourself in that same hospital room doing a check-up and you hear in this scenario the doctor telling you wow you have a vibrant health and he has never seen someone like you before.
Let the Holy Spirit turn what was meant for evil to be for your good. Push forth from your spirit man the glorious transformation you want to see, and be INTENTIONAL by adding faith to it. It is awesome to pray God's promises, like “By his stripes, I am healed” but it is more powerful to SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING. See the promise, live the promise!
I pray this teaches you something today about the supernatural realm.
God bless you
Tony Francis
In Christ Everything Is Brand New
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
When you give your life to Jesus Christ or genuinely accept Him as your personal Lord, Savior, Master and Ruler of your soul (being born again), you will pleasantly experience certain changes in your life which makes you a new creature and gives you a brand new beginning. We shall discuss some of these changes that you will experience in this message.
1) You Now Walk In A New Way
“By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh” (Hebrews 10:20)
By the death of Jesus Christ, the veil that hindered access to the Most High Place in the temple was removed. You now have direct access and can walk into God’s presence at any time. You no longer need an intermediary or High Priest or Pastor to intercede on your behalf.
2) You Are Now In A New Covenant With God
“For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Hebrews 8:8).
Have you entered into this covenant? Have you begun walking in a new and better way?
3) You Are Now A New Creature
According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, which is our text for this message, when you are born-again, you become brand new on the inside. The Holy Spirit gives you a new life and you are not the same any more. Please note that you are not re-educated or remodelled or rehabilitated or reformed. You are totally re-created (a new creation), living in vital union with Christ, according to Colossian 2:6-7.
At conversion, we are not merely turning a new leaf, but we are beginning a new life in new hope under a new Master, Jesus.
4) You Have A Brand New Name
“He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat, of the hidden manner, and will give him white stone, and in the stone, a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that recieveth it” (Revelation 2:17).
The name of every believer will be written on each stone as evidence that he/she has truly given their life to Christ and worthy to be declared worthy to receive eternal life. God will give us new names and new hearts. Are you ready to receive yours?
Also Revelation 3:12 says that “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the City of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name”
Revelation 3:12 is telling us that the New Jerusalem is the future dwelling of the people of God. This means that we will have a new citizenship in God’s future kingdom, where everything will be new, pure and secure. Won’t you rather have a new Name in God’s future kingdom where everything is pure, new and safe?
5) You Will Receive A New Commandment
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).
We are commanded to love one another based on Jesus’ sacrificial love for us. It is only such love that will win souls for Christ and keep us Christians united. We are expected to be living examples of Jesus’ love just as He was the living example of God’s love. Do people know that you are a follower of Jesus by your love for others?
6) You Find New Mercies Every Morning
“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
God’ mercy is always available to His children because His steadfast love and mercy are greater than any sin. God promises us His forgiveness. When you trust in God’s faithfulness day by day, gives you confidence in His great promise for the future.
Are you positioned for God’s mercies which are new every morning?
7) You Will Have A New Heaven For The Whole Eternity
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1).
God has promised that He would create a new earth which is eternal (Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). What we don’t know is where the new earth would be or what it would look like. However, God and His children (those whose names are written in the Book of Life), the overcomers, will be united to live in the new earth together forever.
I will be one of them………hope to see you there!!
8) You Will Experience A New Birth
“Jesus answered and said unto him, (Nichodemus), Verily, verily, I unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
The Kingdom of God is a personal experience. It is not ethnic or national. The entrance requirements are ONLY found in Jesus. These include Repentance and New Birth (Rebirth). This, you will have when you are born again.
You can only enter the kingdom of God by being spiritually reborn.
9) You Will Receive New Life
“Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
.The water baptism you receive when you give your life to Jesus symbolises the death and burial of the old way of life you had before giving your life to Jesus. Coming out of or being raised from the water symbolises resurrection to New Life with Christ.
With your old sinful life dead and buried, you can resist sin and begin to enjoy your wonderful new life with Christ.
10) You Now Have a New Heart
“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).
By “one heart”, it means a singleness of purpose – the One and Only True God, no more other gods. We must turn from our sins and the Holy Spirit will enable our new life. God will then give us new purposes, motives and guidelines as we enjoy our wonderful new heart.
Have you received your new heart yet?
11) You Have A New Spirit
“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27)
No matter how impure our life is right now, God promises you a new or fresh start. Jesus can wash away your sins and give you a new heart for God to have His Spirit within you.
Why would you want to continue to patch up your old life when you could have a brand new life?
12) You Will Be A Completely New Person
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Apostle Paul did not give up in the face of persecution. Instead, he concentrated in experiencing the inner strength from the Holy Spirit (Eph 3:16, Col 3:10). You also should not allow anything to force you to quit. Rather renew your commitment to serve the Lord. Never allow the intensity of today’s pain force you to forsake your eternal reward. Your very weakness allows the resurrection power of Christ to strengthen you moment by moment.
13) You Will Sing A New Song Joyfully
“And they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
Psalm 40:3 also says “And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD”.
It is not easy to wait for God’s help, but when you do, the benefits are usually more than the waiting. For example David received the following benefits for waiting on the LORD:
a) He was lifted out of his despair
b) God sets David’s feet on the rock
c) God gave him a firm place to stand
d) God put a new song of praise in the mouth of David
More often than not, blessings are not received unless we go through the trial of waiting
We always need to praise God for what He has already done in our lives, what He is currently doing in our lives and praise Him in advance of what He is yet to do for us. In this way, He will do more for us with a joyful song in our mouth.
14) You Will Live In New City
“And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them; and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and He, their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more deaths, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:2-4).
New Jerusalem is the New City where God lives with His people. Where He lives, there is joy, peace, security and love. It is described as a place where God will wipe away tears “from their eyes”. There will be no more deaths, sorrow, crying or pain forever. What a wonderful truth and place to be!
We may not know as much as we would like to, one thing is so sure that eternity with God would be more wonderful than we could ever imagine. Where else would you rather be?
Until you have Jesus Christ in your life (being born again) God’s continued presence can never abide with you. Today, accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour. Ask Him to forgive your sins and become the Master and Ruler of your soul henceforth. If you have backslid, retrace your steps back to Him right now and rededicate your life to God. However, if you have a living relationship with God, then tell others about Him – How everything concerning their lives will become new with wonderful lives in Christ. Congratulations if you have just accepted Jesus Christ into your life. Now look for a Bible believing church in your neighborhood to attend and grow in the Word of God.
God Bless You
#PathofLife