Prayer

When Words Get Used Against Us – Part 2

/ Jelena McClellan / 2 Comments

So if the devil can’t use your own words against you (see Part 1), how about the word of God?

Let’s look at what happened with Eve in the Garden. The devil’s approach here was to question the word of God: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?’ (Gen 3:1).

He didn’t lie to her about anything at this point; he simply asked her a question. He was testing her knowledge of the Word of God and by probing her in such a way he created doubt. We all know what happened after that but there is actually one small thing that we often overlook.

Genesis 2:16-17 says “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

But when Eve is responding to the serpent in Genesis 3:2-3 she says this: “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

Did you catch that?

Two things actually.

Number 1: In Genesis 2:16 it says that God commanded the man. So where was Eve? Was she present when God told Adam not to eat from that tree? We don’t know. All we know for a fact is that God commanded Adam. So that would mean that it was up to Adam to tell her what God had commanded, right?

Which brings us to number 2: Somebody added to the Word of God. Genesis 2:17 only talks about not eating the fruit, but in Genesis 3:3 Eve tells the serpent that they can’t eat it nor touch it. So did Adam add to the Word of God or did Eve?

What’s my point here?

When we add to the Word of God, take away from it or change it, we get ourselves in trouble. Look, we know that Jesus was the Word at the beginning, right? So how are we going to add anything to Jesus, take something away or just change things about Jesus and think it won’t have any negative effects?

Don’t get me wrong, I can only quote certain scriptures word for word. There are a lot more scriptures that I can paraphrase and give you the gist of than I can actually quote them (something I’m working on getting better at). But when I have an issue, I go straight to the Word, I find the scriptures I need, I make sticky notes, I put them in my phone, I write them on my mirrors, whatever I have to do to keep God’s Word in front of me, I do it. And then I quote it during prayer.

So 1st, you need to know the word of God. And 2nd, don’t let the devil twist it around on you! If in doubt, go open your bible or even the bible app on your phone. But don’t fall into his trap and allow him to use it against you.

We talked about 3 different ways the devil uses our words or God’s Word against us, but there is one more.

Have you ever had a situation that you were praying about and you knew what the Word of God says about it so you claim it for yourself and in comes the devil telling you that in your situation it doesn’t apply?

I made my biggest mistake after I had become a born again Christian. It took me several months before I finally turned to God asking His forgiveness. The reason for that was the devil constantly telling me that I should’ve known better, convincing me that I must not have been saved after all or I wouldn’t have messed up in such a way.

So when I would look at scripture like Jeremiah 29:11 that talks about God having a good plan for my life, the devil would say “well, that’s all fine and well, but that doesn’t apply to you anymore. You screwed up, remember?”

Or reading Romans 8:28 that says that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose, I would hear the devil telling me “Ha! What good could possibly come out of this mess you created?”

I’m sure you have had similar “conversations” with the enemy. In the past these comments, these lies, would defeat me because I didn’t know my identity in Christ. I didn’t understand just how much the Father loves me and that nothing can separate me from Him now that I am His.

So first I had to learn who I am in Christ and how God sees me. The next time the devil tried to lie to me about what was mine I told him that he was a liar and that God had forgiven me and His word applies to me and my situation!

Oh really?

That’s when the devil plays little movies in my head, like a “Best Of” my worst moments, biggest mess ups and sins I have committed.

Remember the Blood of Jesus we talked about earlier?

Use it! Plead it! Apply it!

I don’t care how badly you messed up, once you have confessed your sins to the Father and repented, that sin is under the Blood and the devil has no right to use it against you anymore! He will try but you don’t have to let him!

So let’s look at Jesus in the wilderness one more time. He has been fasting, he is hungry, weak, and here comes the devil trying to tempt him. And what does Jesus do? He quotes scripture to the devil. One scripture per temptation.

I don’t know about you, but when the devil comes to attack me, I pull out every scripture I can think of, I rebuke him, I pray in tongues, I cry out to God, I pray hedges of protection around me, you name it, it is happening! And it is exhausting!

Jesus quoted ONE scripture. One for each temptation. He didn’t scream at the devil. He didn’t pray in tongues, He didn’t even pray to the Father for help. We know that He prayed all the time anyway. He was prayed up so to speak and ready to act when He needed to. He quoted one scripture.

And this is Jesus who was fully man, mind you. He has not yet gone to the Cross, so He has not yet defeated death and the grave and taken the keys back from the devil.

We are blessed enough to be operation under totally different circumstances than Jesus at that time. We operate under the authority and anointing of the resurrected Jesus, while He had to deal with this situation as fully man.

And the reason why He did that was the same as with everything else He did while he was fully man. To set an example for us on how to do it and to show us that it is possible. He didn’t do anything out of His own power or we wouldn’t be able to do it because we are not Jesus. Everything He did was based on God and He gave us access to that same power. He gave us access to God so anything Jesus did, we can do also.

Maybe it is time we rethink how we battle and warfare. Maybe it is time we truly understand who we are in Christ and what great power and authority He has given us. Maybe it is time to take back ground the devil has stolen from us.

Are you ready?

 

When Words Get Used Against Us – Part 1

/ Jelena McClellan / 1 Comment

The other day God was speaking to me about the wilderness, so to get a better understanding of it, I started to look up people in the Bible who had a wilderness experience. The first one I started with was Jesus. Now there are a lot of things we can look at when it comes to the timing and circumstances of Him going into the wilderness but today I want to focus on something else.

I want to look at the attacks of the enemy today.

When you read about Jesus in the wilderness, it doesn’t give you a lot of details to work with. The Gospel of John doesn’t mention it at all, and the other three have slight variations. Only Mark mentions the wild beasts that surrounded Jesus while he was in the wilderness, but based on what we know, Jesus was alone in the wilderness, in a somewhat dangerous place, he was fasting for 40 days and nights so since Jesus was fully man we know he was hungry, he was weak, maybe even scared.

Any time I have ever fasted I am not just physically weak but also emotionally. There is a lot going on when we stop satisfying “king stomach”. So chances are that Jesus was not just weak from hunger but maybe also concerning his emotions.

Those conditions make us vulnerable.

I have heard many accounts of people who had a great time with the Lord during their fasts. They hear Him loud and clear as He speaks to them regarding certain issues and they receive the breakthroughs they have been praying for.

Me, not so much. Fasting for me usually means a dry time where it feels as if God has completely forgotten about me and I’m all alone. I know that is not the case but it sure feels that way. By now I have also learned that a time of fasting in my case usually brings attacks from the enemy. I guess he knows I am weak and vulnerable. Maybe even cranky and irritable so it seems to be an opportune time for him to strike, right?

That’s what he did with Jesus. He tempted Him while he was in a weakened physical state.

So how does the devil attack us? We know he is the father of lies but that doesn’t mean that’s the only tool he uses.

Usually the first thing that happens is that he makes us use our own words against us. Let me give you an example:

Years ago we had a very rough time in our marriage and so I constantly went before the Lord and prayed for His help. I quoted scripture, stood on it and was confident that God would work out our situation according to His word. So far so good. But then something would happen and I would either break down into a sobbing, crying mess or I would blow up and vent, but either way the words that were coming out of my mouth were detrimental to the prayers I had spoken. Things like “this will never change”, or “I give up” were my go-to things.

Why is that an issue?

In the natural I didn’t pray and then say those things at the same exact time but God doesn’t exist inside our understanding of time. He is eternal. He sees my past, my present and my future – all at the same time.

So when I’m praying and I’m full of faith and standing on His word for deliverance He is ready to move. He might even assign some angels to help me with my situation. But at the same time He hears my words cancelling my prayers so everything He wanted to do to help is now put on hold.

Are you with me so far?

Ok, so the first way the devil attacks us is by getting us to speak negatively about our situation.

Let’s say we learned from our mistakes. Maybe we heard a few messages on the power of the tongue and we are trying really, really hard not do speak death anymore.

Can the devil still use our words against us?

Sure can! Imagine him standing there with a recorder and so here you are going through whatever it is that you’re dealing with right now and every time something happens he tempts you and tries to make you open your mouth to speak death over the situation again. But this time you keep your mouth shut! Or maybe you have even learned to praise God in the midst of your storm so instead of speaking death you are doing the opposite. You are praising God for what He is about to do in your situation.

But the breakthrough doesn’t come. Why? Because the devil is playing back all the negative words you have said about your situation in the past.

He is the accuser of the brethren, right? That is what he does, according to the bible, day and night. So your prayers come up before God and He is ready to move on your behalf and here comes the devil and he plays back what you said. Boom. Prayers cancelled. Again.

Why? You did so good! You didn’t curse. You didn’t complain. You didn’t speak death. You praised. You stood on God’s word. You did everything you were supposed to do and still nothing happened.

You missed the Blood of Jesus.

When you got saved and became a born again Christian, the Blood of Jesus was made available to you. So you go before God and you confess your sins and they get covered by the Blood of Jesus so now you are made righteous, right?

But did you also put your words under the Blood?

keep quiet

Imagine you sit in a court room and you want the judge to move on your behalf. You have your evidence as to why the judge should decide in your favor – your prayers, your worship, your praises,… – but then the opposing party comes and says, “That is all fine and dandy but our of their own mouth came this and that so if they don’t even believe that you, as judge, would do that for them, all their evidence is null and void”.

This would be the time to object and bring in the most powerful evidence on earth – the Blood of Jesus. So you repent for what you said and then you put all your negative words, your whining and complaining, your unbelief, whatever it is, under the Blood of Jesus. Now it is gone. The devil can’t use it anymore. You just took away the case he had against you.

Ok, so now we have dealt with our own words of the presence and the past.

But the devil doesn’t give up so easily. Do you ever wonder how many more times he is going to come against you before he finally gets tired of losing? I sure do. I keep thinking, dude, Jesus already won this. You might shake me a bit but we both know how this is going to end so why don’t you just give up and move on already?

Luke 4:13 tells us that “when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” Now this is Jesus we are talking about and still the devil hadn’t gotten the message that there was no point in pursuing his attacks. He simply quit for the time being only to return at an opportune time.

He is looking for weak spots. Don’t give him any!

Continue with part 2

Waiting on God’s Promises

/ Jelena McClellan / Leave a comment

Some of you are currently pregnant – and I’m not just talking to the women out there.

Before you want to get all upset because you think I’m writing about some sort of new “trend” on the left or whatever other type of abomination you might be thinking of, let me assure you that I’m right there with you!

I am not talking about a natural pregnancy, but a spiritual one. Allow me to explain:

During worship a few Sundays ago, I heard the Holy Spirit say “You’re pregnant!” and my first reaction was “I better not be!” That may seem a little harsh but being that we already have two children and the last pregnancy was a high risk pregnancy which put my life and our daughter’s life in danger, unless God is working a miracle, there is no way that I could be pregnant.

So after the first few seconds of being in shock, the Holy Spirit continued to speak to me and explain more of what He was talking about.

Some of you, me included, are currently pregnant with a promise from God. If you are anything like me, you might be getting impatient because God promised you something years ago, and you have been waiting and waiting but nothing seems to be happening.

If you have been waiting to see a promise from God come to live, being birthed so to speak, then this word is for you.

Think about a natural pregnancy for a minute. There is a time when the seed is planted, then we go through a lengthy period of time during which that seed grows and develops into a baby and finally this child is born into the world.

So what does that mean in regards to a spiritual pregnancy?

Sometimes God gives a promise, He plants a seed, but it is nothing that we can see overnight. It takes time, in some cases years, before we finally see that promised being birthed into the world.

But just as life begins at the time of conception, so does the life of the promise God planted in us at some point. We just can’t see it yet.

During a natural pregnancy the first trimester is considered to be a risky one. Once we make it past the 12 weeks, we feel better about it and don’t worry as much about losing the baby. And in most cases a lot of the problems like morning sickness and the total fatigue that comes with the first trimester, are starting to ease and we get to enjoy the pregnancy a bit more.Think about the time right after God gave you a promise seed? Did the enemy attack you?

In my case it was only seconds after God spoke to me about something, making me a promise, when Satan started to speak lies to me, telling me that it would never happen, that I wasn’t good enough, that I was too young and that I should just give that stupid thought up.

He was trying to make me abort this spiritual pregnancy. Don’t let him!

Praise

So after we make it past the first trimester, we start to feel more confident in the promise, right? Maybe we struggled with it a bit in the beginning but we are starting to make peace with it and even look forward to it. We are getting excited about what the promise is and we start to make preparations.

In the natural, we might start to think about names, pick out colors for the nursery, start buying items we know (or think) we will need, read books to prepare ourselves and maybe even take some birthing classes or something along those lines.

When we look at a spiritual pregnancy however, do we really prepare for the promise God gave us?

For example, when God told me about the ministry I was to have and that it included writing and teaching about Him, I more or less expected somebody to just offer me a book contract. Crazy, I know, but then again, nothing is impossible with God (see Luke 18:27), so why not?

I pretty much wanted the result without the preparation. Comparing my behavior to a natural pregnancy, I would’ve been very unprepared, had I done nothing at all to prepare to welcome my children into the world. I would’ve been in a full-out panic mode, completely overwhelmed and probably would’ve felt like a huge failure.

But in my mind, going into ministry was going to work without me having to work for it or prepare for it, simply because God could do whatever He wanted.

Thank God He is a good, good Father and knew better than to let me go right ahead. He knew of course that I needed time not just to study but also to grow in my faith, learn a few things (or a lot) and let go of bad habits.

By nature I am a very blunt person. If you do something that makes me angry, I will let you know in no uncertain terms! I also tend to take things very personal which means I get my feelings hurt very easily.

Think about being in ministry for a second and then think about having a temper and getting your feelings hurt over everything. That does not sound like a winning combination to me. So those are things that I had to work on over the years – old ways I had to get rid of.

So there are things happening inside of you that nobody else can really see – yet. People might talk about how you changed but can’t quite put their finger on what is different about you. But you know. You can feel that promise seed growing and growing and you know that soon everybody will be able to see on the outside what has been happening on the inside.

Once you’re finally in your last trimester it feels like you have been pregnant forever. At least for me it did. Neither one of my pregnancies was easy so I didn’t really enjoy that time and was just looking forward to the end of my pregnancies and to meet my babies. I was very impatient.

And many of you are the same way with your spiritual pregnancies. It feels like God’s promise is never going to be fulfilled because  you’ve already been waiting for it for so long and maybe you’ve even had to fight one spiritual battle after another to hold on to that promise seed and you’re just tired and ready to give up.

I am right there with you!

But guess what? We are almost there!

So when it is time for your baby to be born – for your promise seed to be birthed – you have one last struggle ahead of you: The birthing process itself.

For some people this is very easy and smooth, for others it is a battle.

A lot of times the enemy will attack right before your breakthrough and throw everything he has at you in an attempt to make you give up so close to the end because you just can’t see how close you actually are. All you see is the warfare going on all around you and you’re tired and running on empty and you just want to be done.

Don’t. Give. Up. Now!

You are so close!

You know the saying “the night is darkest before the morning” and all the other cute little things we like to tell each other to keep each other motivated?

You are right there! Right at that spot.

There comes a point of no return when no matter what the devil throws at you, he can’t stop the promise of God being birthed into your life.

Remember that when you feel like nothing is happening and you’re frustrated because you have been waiting a long time already, God has not forgotten about you. The promise seed He gave you is growing on the inside of you and He will bring it to pass.

And just like soon-to-be-parents, use the time to prepare. Learn. Study. Get ready. Draw close to Him. Use that quiet time with God and let Him continue to grow that promise seed until He brings it to fruition.

Be blessed.

You may be stuck, but you’re not helpless!

/ Jelena McClellan / Leave a comment

We all get into these situations where we feel like we have nowhere else to go. No matter which way we try to turn, we run into a dead end and sooner or later we realize that we are stuck.

That feeling of being stuck is not a good one to have because  we begin to feel helpless, frustrated, depressed even.

The more we struggle to get ourselves unstuck, the worse the situation usually gets until we are completely and utterly desperate and just ready to give up.

So why do we get stuck?

Sometimes we try to get ahead of ourselves, or rather ahead of God.

I am one of those people who grow impatient and then try to do everything on their own, but it is “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).

Other times everything seems to have slowed down or come to a complete halt and we think that we are stuck when in reality we are right where God wants us to be.

Have you looked around? Maybe there is something you need to learn and until you do God will keep you exactly where you are because He loves you and doesn’t want you to get hurt.

Sounds contradicting, I know, but you don’t know what lies ahead of you. Maybe there are some bumps in the road, obstacles to slow you down and potentially hurt you, if you were to go full speed ahead, so God keeps you where you are at for the time being, until these roadblocks have been removed or diminished.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” (Romans 8:28).

And some times we simply made such a huge mess of things that we can’t see any way out anymore. We make mistake after mistake and don’t realize that we back ourselves into a corner where we start digging ourselves a hole that we can’t escape from.

Feeling stuck is not fun – at least not for me – especially if it lasts for weeks and even months, but no matter how bad your situation is, or how deep the holes is that you find yourself in, you are never too far away for God to reach you and nothing is ever too difficult for him.

You may be stuck, but you are not helpless:

“My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth,” Psalm 121:2.

Make it your habit to use prayer as your first response, not your last and watch Him get you unstuck, because “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds,” (2 Corinthians 10:4).psalm 121-2