Group Praying in Agreement and Authority when someone is addicted to Drugs. Transcript from tape. Side 1: Frank Hunting
This is a study on group praying for for those afflicted by drugs prepared on july 27th 1978.
In this study we are going to look at how we can pray as a group for those who are afflicted by or addicted to drugs.
In the first place we know our enemy.
No. 1 We know our enemy.
If you would turn to or write down and look it up later,
if you turn to Ephesians Chapter 6 verse 12, in the Living Bible there you have it set forth for us very clearly and very plainly.
It says. "For we are not, we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood but against persons without bodies, the evil rulers of the unseen world.Those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the unseen world .
Now let's have a little look, just for a moment at how the devil is able to rule us in this world.
It says there "The great evil princes of darkness who rule this world."
In the case of drugs something like this happens.
The person feels depressed, maybe Christian or otherwise, may feel insecure, they may feel rejected,they my feel inferior.
Now those feelings have become strong, and there may be plenty, as they look at life, as they've seen life, as they have reacted to life there may seem to them to be plenty of good reason why they have these emotional feelings.
Now nobody likes to feel depressed, nobody really likes to be insecure, and none of us are particularly happy at feeling ourselves to be inferior to everybody else and certainly none us enjoy feeling that we have been rejected, we are being rejected by people.
Now to compensate this and easy way that is being taken today to try to compensate or to try to combat or change, or to make different these feelings is to turn to drugs.
And the very words that are used explain this.
That on drugs you go "high" , on drugs you have good ,lovely feelings, while the effect of the drug lasts.
So that's the reason why people turn to drugs and when they do, the evil one, because drugs and all those sort of things associated with them belong to his kingdom.
And when they do, instead of turning to God for the answer, to their depression or their inferiority or their security, or their rejection, instead of turning to God for His answer to these things, turning to drugs they do in fact, without knowing it in most cases, open their lives to the control of the evil one.
And through their minds, through their bodies, sometimes through the chemistry in their bodies, he is able to control them in the way that we call addiction and is often able to do what he is always seeking to do, destroy them.
We in the first place know our enemy!
In the second place we know our victory!
Number 2 . We know our Victory!
And you will find this given for us very clearly, in the 3rd chapter and verse 8 of John's 1st letter.
1 John 3:8
This is what it says.
"The reason the reason the son of God was made manifest visible , the reason why the Son of God came to this earth and lived among us as a human being was to undo, destroy, to loosen and destroy the works of the devil, the works the devil has done. "
Now the reason Jesus came to earth in one area of our living was to undo the works of the devil through drug addiction.
The power that the devil comes to have over people through their turning to drugs to alleviate some feelings that they have had some time or other.
So we know our victory.
Jesus came to undue those works, that power that the devil has.
If we look again we see where He did this,where the victory of Jesus took place.
And its found in Colossians and other places too for that matter,but a verse that sets it forth very clearly, is in Colossians Chapter 2 and verses 14 and 15.
I am reading to you now from the Revised Standard Version.
It says in verse 14. "Having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands,this He set aside, nailing it to the cross."
That's simply saying that everything in your life and mine,everything about us that would separate us from God, that would mean we are unable to come to God, these have been all of them set aside.
They have all of them be nailed to our Saviour's cross.
And then he goes on to talk about the devil, "He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them,triumphing over them in Him, in Jesus or, in His cross.
Now Moffatt translates that this.
It's a good thing to look up the various translations because they are really needed to get all the meanings that are encompassed , contained, in the Greek.
This is what Moffatt says verse 15, "When He nailed them to the cross, when He cut away the angelic rulers and powers from us.
The angelic rulers and powers, Jesus cut them away from us exposing them to all the world and triumphing over them in the cross."
That's Moffatt's translation.
Now the same wonderful truth comes out in Barclay's translation.
"He stripped the powers and authorities of all their power, at the cross."
Now the devil claims to have power, he bullies that he's got power, he threatens that he has power, he lies and deceives and makes people believe he has power, he gets us looking at the situation, in this case he gets us looking at the person, and he'll say "that person is addicted, there's no power on heaven or earth that can set that man free.he is addicted! There's nothing you can do about it!"
And so we believe his lie.
And our God shrinks to the size that you could put him in a match box.
And we believe the devil's lie.
Not God's truth.
"He stripped the powers and authorities of all their power.
and publicly put them to shame and through the cross led them captive in His triumphal train."
No2. We know our victory.
Number 3. We know our authority.
This is made very clear in chapter 10 of Luke verses 17-20.
And this was a battle that the Disciples had in a head on confrontation with the powers of the evil one in the form of demons.
"The seventy returned with joy saying "Lord, even the demons", the demons from very hell itself, the demons who are the slaves and servants of the devil,the demons who are evil,evil active agents of the devil in this world,"these demons are subject to us, subject to us in your name "
" In your name" and He, Jesus said to them " I saw satan falling like a lightning flash from heaven.Behold I" who? Jesus! " I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions and physical and mental strength and ability over all the power, all the power that the enemy possesses and nothing in anyway shall harm you."
There we have our authority delegated to us by the Lord Jesus Christ but only made to operate as we believe the Word of God as we assert our authority.
As we in our assertion of the authority, make the devil submit to what is true, that he is defeated, he must yield, he must give way when the power and the victory of the cross is brought down on him.
Number 3 . We know our authority!
Number 4. We know our weapons!
We know our weapons!
And we turn now to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 10, verses 3 to 5, and it's very admirably spelt out for us, what this passage is saying,in the Living Bible.
Here is what it is saying. Now this ought to give you a lot of comfort what it is saying and teaching.
'It is true that I am and ordinary, weak human being,(now I guess you're feeling that way about yourself, that you are an ordinary weak human being, so was Paul, but the difference between him and so many other Christians was this) but I don't use human plans and methods to win my battles.(He knew he wasn't fighting against flesh and blood so he didn't use human plans and methods) I use God's mighty weapons , not those made by men, to knock down the devil's strongholds.(Now we are concerned about the stronghold that the devil has in the life off a human being through drugs) These weapons can break down every proud argument against God and every wall that can be built to keep men from finding Him.With these weapons I can capture rebels and bring them back to God, and change them into men whose heart's desire(the deep down desire) is obedience to Christ."
Well as far as I know there are 8 of God's might weapons.
You may use one singly at one time or several or all of them according to the need.
Hère they are.
God's mighty weapons.
1. Faith that brings God into the situation.Faith that brings Almighty God into the situation.
2. The Word of God. The Living Word of God.
3. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit controlling, leading and giving insight.
The Holy Spirit.
4. Intercessory prayer.Now intercessory prayer is prayer that identifies with God's will, God's purposes in the life of that person for whom we are praying.And in the case of someone afflicted by drugs is God's will that that person be free from the power that drugs have in the person's life.
We are in intercessory prayer to identify with God's purposes in the life of the person for whom we are praying.
5. The realisation of and the exercising of our delegated authority and power over the devil.We've already had a look at that in Luke 10: verses 17-20.
6. The word of our, or my testimony.Revelation Chapter 12 v11.now in this case if you are a bit baffled as to what the word of your testimony is to be it is this.
The word of your testimony is to be in this case, is to be the actual power of God to set this person free.
That Jesus is victorious that whatever the power,that the devil has in this life through drugs,Jesus has defeated the devil , Jesus has made the devil yield his power,and we are declaring that.
We are saying that, we are believing that and we are saying what we believe.
7.
The 7th mighty weapon that God has given us is the Cross and the Resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ.
The Cross and the Resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ.
Brought out in passages like Hebrews ch2 v 14.
Colossians ch2 v 14 and 15,
Revelation Ch:12 v11,
1st John 3:8 , passages that you have already had.
8. And the 8th mighty weapon that God has given us is The Power and Authority of Jesus name.
The Power and Authority of Jesus name.
And the passages that we are to soak right in to very depths of us are John 14:13,14.
John 15:16,
Ephesians 1:21,22.
Phillipians 2:9-11.
So in the 4th place we know our weapons.
We know our weapons.
The invincible weapons of God.
And in this case as we apply them,to somebody afflicted by drugs we are learning how to use the weapons God has put into our hands.
5. We know God's power.
God's power is greater than anything we see.
It is greater than the power of evil in any life that we see.
God's power is greater than any circumstance, any situation we see.
It is greater than anything that we look at.
All to often, all to often, when we look at some person who is being controlled by some evil,when we look at some person who in one way or another is being pushed around by the devil, or by their circumstances or by their past life or whatsoever, we get to looking at the person and we look so hard at the person,and their problems and their needs becomes so big that we cannot see God and our God shrivels up into a tiny little God that you can put in a matchbox.
And the devil wins his victory.
We cannot exercise the faith , we do not exercise the mighty weapons that God has given us.
Now one of the contributing factors to that is,usually we can only see one or two or three ways at the most that God can do anything.
Noe God has a million ways we know nothing at all about,whereby He can exercise His power.
What He needs is not us knowing how He is going exercise His power but our Faith.
When we give Him our Faith then He works in ways of which we may know nothing.
So we are to give Him our Faith and let Him work it out in His way.
I'm going to turn over now to the other side(cassette tape) and we are going to look specifically at the one for whom we are going to pray.
What I've said are the general principles , the general basis from which we operate.
The foundation, foothold if you like Victory from which we are to operate in the life of particular persons who are afflicted by drugs.
Foot note: Please see my earlier blog introduction to this topic.
http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/group-praying-in-agreement-and.html
I will be presenting side 2 of the tape on how we actually are to pray in this situation as soon as I can set aside the time to transcribe from the tape with my 2 finger typing. I welcome any emails from people if they want more information about this subject and other relevant subject matter.
Side 2 link
http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/group-praying-in-agreement-and_27.html
geoff thompson
This is a study on group praying for for those afflicted by drugs prepared on july 27th 1978.
In this study we are going to look at how we can pray as a group for those who are afflicted by or addicted to drugs.
In the first place we know our enemy.
No. 1 We know our enemy.
If you would turn to or write down and look it up later,
if you turn to Ephesians Chapter 6 verse 12, in the Living Bible there you have it set forth for us very clearly and very plainly.
It says. "For we are not, we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood but against persons without bodies, the evil rulers of the unseen world.Those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the unseen world .
Now let's have a little look, just for a moment at how the devil is able to rule us in this world.
It says there "The great evil princes of darkness who rule this world."
In the case of drugs something like this happens.
The person feels depressed, maybe Christian or otherwise, may feel insecure, they may feel rejected,they my feel inferior.
Now those feelings have become strong, and there may be plenty, as they look at life, as they've seen life, as they have reacted to life there may seem to them to be plenty of good reason why they have these emotional feelings.
Now nobody likes to feel depressed, nobody really likes to be insecure, and none of us are particularly happy at feeling ourselves to be inferior to everybody else and certainly none us enjoy feeling that we have been rejected, we are being rejected by people.
Now to compensate this and easy way that is being taken today to try to compensate or to try to combat or change, or to make different these feelings is to turn to drugs.
And the very words that are used explain this.
That on drugs you go "high" , on drugs you have good ,lovely feelings, while the effect of the drug lasts.
So that's the reason why people turn to drugs and when they do, the evil one, because drugs and all those sort of things associated with them belong to his kingdom.
And when they do, instead of turning to God for the answer, to their depression or their inferiority or their security, or their rejection, instead of turning to God for His answer to these things, turning to drugs they do in fact, without knowing it in most cases, open their lives to the control of the evil one.
And through their minds, through their bodies, sometimes through the chemistry in their bodies, he is able to control them in the way that we call addiction and is often able to do what he is always seeking to do, destroy them.
We in the first place know our enemy!
In the second place we know our victory!
Number 2 . We know our Victory!
And you will find this given for us very clearly, in the 3rd chapter and verse 8 of John's 1st letter.
1 John 3:8
This is what it says.
"The reason the reason the son of God was made manifest visible , the reason why the Son of God came to this earth and lived among us as a human being was to undo, destroy, to loosen and destroy the works of the devil, the works the devil has done. "
Now the reason Jesus came to earth in one area of our living was to undo the works of the devil through drug addiction.
The power that the devil comes to have over people through their turning to drugs to alleviate some feelings that they have had some time or other.
So we know our victory.
Jesus came to undue those works, that power that the devil has.
If we look again we see where He did this,where the victory of Jesus took place.
And its found in Colossians and other places too for that matter,but a verse that sets it forth very clearly, is in Colossians Chapter 2 and verses 14 and 15.
I am reading to you now from the Revised Standard Version.
It says in verse 14. "Having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands,this He set aside, nailing it to the cross."
That's simply saying that everything in your life and mine,everything about us that would separate us from God, that would mean we are unable to come to God, these have been all of them set aside.
They have all of them be nailed to our Saviour's cross.
And then he goes on to talk about the devil, "He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them,triumphing over them in Him, in Jesus or, in His cross.
Now Moffatt translates that this.
It's a good thing to look up the various translations because they are really needed to get all the meanings that are encompassed , contained, in the Greek.
This is what Moffatt says verse 15, "When He nailed them to the cross, when He cut away the angelic rulers and powers from us.
The angelic rulers and powers, Jesus cut them away from us exposing them to all the world and triumphing over them in the cross."
That's Moffatt's translation.
Now the same wonderful truth comes out in Barclay's translation.
"He stripped the powers and authorities of all their power, at the cross."
Now the devil claims to have power, he bullies that he's got power, he threatens that he has power, he lies and deceives and makes people believe he has power, he gets us looking at the situation, in this case he gets us looking at the person, and he'll say "that person is addicted, there's no power on heaven or earth that can set that man free.he is addicted! There's nothing you can do about it!"
And so we believe his lie.
And our God shrinks to the size that you could put him in a match box.
And we believe the devil's lie.
Not God's truth.
"He stripped the powers and authorities of all their power.
and publicly put them to shame and through the cross led them captive in His triumphal train."
No2. We know our victory.
Number 3. We know our authority.
This is made very clear in chapter 10 of Luke verses 17-20.
And this was a battle that the Disciples had in a head on confrontation with the powers of the evil one in the form of demons.
"The seventy returned with joy saying "Lord, even the demons", the demons from very hell itself, the demons who are the slaves and servants of the devil,the demons who are evil,evil active agents of the devil in this world,"these demons are subject to us, subject to us in your name "
" In your name" and He, Jesus said to them " I saw satan falling like a lightning flash from heaven.Behold I" who? Jesus! " I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions and physical and mental strength and ability over all the power, all the power that the enemy possesses and nothing in anyway shall harm you."
There we have our authority delegated to us by the Lord Jesus Christ but only made to operate as we believe the Word of God as we assert our authority.
As we in our assertion of the authority, make the devil submit to what is true, that he is defeated, he must yield, he must give way when the power and the victory of the cross is brought down on him.
Number 3 . We know our authority!
Number 4. We know our weapons!
We know our weapons!
And we turn now to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 10, verses 3 to 5, and it's very admirably spelt out for us, what this passage is saying,in the Living Bible.
Here is what it is saying. Now this ought to give you a lot of comfort what it is saying and teaching.
'It is true that I am and ordinary, weak human being,(now I guess you're feeling that way about yourself, that you are an ordinary weak human being, so was Paul, but the difference between him and so many other Christians was this) but I don't use human plans and methods to win my battles.(He knew he wasn't fighting against flesh and blood so he didn't use human plans and methods) I use God's mighty weapons , not those made by men, to knock down the devil's strongholds.(Now we are concerned about the stronghold that the devil has in the life off a human being through drugs) These weapons can break down every proud argument against God and every wall that can be built to keep men from finding Him.With these weapons I can capture rebels and bring them back to God, and change them into men whose heart's desire(the deep down desire) is obedience to Christ."
Well as far as I know there are 8 of God's might weapons.
You may use one singly at one time or several or all of them according to the need.
Hère they are.
God's mighty weapons.
1. Faith that brings God into the situation.Faith that brings Almighty God into the situation.
2. The Word of God. The Living Word of God.
3. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit controlling, leading and giving insight.
The Holy Spirit.
4. Intercessory prayer.Now intercessory prayer is prayer that identifies with God's will, God's purposes in the life of that person for whom we are praying.And in the case of someone afflicted by drugs is God's will that that person be free from the power that drugs have in the person's life.
We are in intercessory prayer to identify with God's purposes in the life of the person for whom we are praying.
5. The realisation of and the exercising of our delegated authority and power over the devil.We've already had a look at that in Luke 10: verses 17-20.
6. The word of our, or my testimony.Revelation Chapter 12 v11.now in this case if you are a bit baffled as to what the word of your testimony is to be it is this.
The word of your testimony is to be in this case, is to be the actual power of God to set this person free.
That Jesus is victorious that whatever the power,that the devil has in this life through drugs,Jesus has defeated the devil , Jesus has made the devil yield his power,and we are declaring that.
We are saying that, we are believing that and we are saying what we believe.
7.
The 7th mighty weapon that God has given us is the Cross and the Resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ.
The Cross and the Resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ.
Brought out in passages like Hebrews ch2 v 14.
Colossians ch2 v 14 and 15,
Revelation Ch:12 v11,
1st John 3:8 , passages that you have already had.
8. And the 8th mighty weapon that God has given us is The Power and Authority of Jesus name.
The Power and Authority of Jesus name.
And the passages that we are to soak right in to very depths of us are John 14:13,14.
John 15:16,
Ephesians 1:21,22.
Phillipians 2:9-11.
So in the 4th place we know our weapons.
We know our weapons.
The invincible weapons of God.
And in this case as we apply them,to somebody afflicted by drugs we are learning how to use the weapons God has put into our hands.
5. We know God's power.
God's power is greater than anything we see.
It is greater than the power of evil in any life that we see.
God's power is greater than any circumstance, any situation we see.
It is greater than anything that we look at.
All to often, all to often, when we look at some person who is being controlled by some evil,when we look at some person who in one way or another is being pushed around by the devil, or by their circumstances or by their past life or whatsoever, we get to looking at the person and we look so hard at the person,and their problems and their needs becomes so big that we cannot see God and our God shrivels up into a tiny little God that you can put in a matchbox.
And the devil wins his victory.
We cannot exercise the faith , we do not exercise the mighty weapons that God has given us.
Now one of the contributing factors to that is,usually we can only see one or two or three ways at the most that God can do anything.
Noe God has a million ways we know nothing at all about,whereby He can exercise His power.
What He needs is not us knowing how He is going exercise His power but our Faith.
When we give Him our Faith then He works in ways of which we may know nothing.
So we are to give Him our Faith and let Him work it out in His way.
I'm going to turn over now to the other side(cassette tape) and we are going to look specifically at the one for whom we are going to pray.
What I've said are the general principles , the general basis from which we operate.
The foundation, foothold if you like Victory from which we are to operate in the life of particular persons who are afflicted by drugs.
Foot note: Please see my earlier blog introduction to this topic.
http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/group-praying-in-agreement-and.html
I will be presenting side 2 of the tape on how we actually are to pray in this situation as soon as I can set aside the time to transcribe from the tape with my 2 finger typing. I welcome any emails from people if they want more information about this subject and other relevant subject matter.
Side 2 link
http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/group-praying-in-agreement-and_27.html
geoff thompson
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