Cindy…
Well, good morning. How is everybody?
I thank you, Father, for this time together, that we can gather together in your name. And we speak things that you want spoken forth today, that your will and purpose would be manifested. We are encouraged that we have the opportunity and the privilege of doing that. So thank you for everything you’re going to do in us and through us today and the glory that’s going to be on display and the wisdom, which is your eternal purpose.
Annie led group in worship…
Cindy shared…
When I was thinking and praying about what to share today, I remembered to a time back in May when my mom texted me and asked me a question. She said, “What passage does it say that Satan has to restore seven-fold or seven times?” She said, “I can’t seem to find it.” And so I texted her and said, “It’s Proverbs 6:30–31: People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving. Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold; he may have to give up all the substance of his house.”
After I replied, it kept visiting me. I kept hearing, “seven times, seven times, seven times.” And then my mom texted me back and said, “Well, what do you think that means?” My mom knows the word of faith. She’s been listening to Jesse Duplantis and he was saying, “It means more than just seven times. It means seven-fold.” And she goes, “What’s your opinion?” Right away I got really set on what I was going to say. It just came out of me: “I really don’t care if it’s seven-fold or seven times. It’s the complete house.”
It was quickened to me that the Devil is a thief and a liar. He owns nothing and he has no authority. So that leaves him with nothing. So, he just doesn’t go, “Well, I think I’m going to steal, and I think I’m going to lie.” He has no other option. He has to do it because otherwise he has no standing. He only has deception.
And the Lord said, “See, he can’t even steal without a lie.” And I was just thinking, “Oh Lord, we are going after the lies. Not like going after what he stole but going after the lie.” And He took it even deeper with me. I’m going to read what I wrote to my mother. It has to do with your purpose. Because who cares about all the other things. I told my mom, “Don’t go after the gold. Go after His purpose for your life. Reclaim it.”
The thing which always prevails, which causes everything to work to your favor, that thing for which you are fitted out for… the blessing of God. And so it says, “The Lord has made everything to accommodate itself and contribute to its own and, and His own purpose. Even the wicked are fitted for their role for the day of calamity and evil.” That’s Proverbs 16:4.
So “we know that all things work together for good to you who are called according to His infallible purpose.” So, even the Devil coming after you has to work. He’s fitted out for your purpose. We were talking about binding yesterday and I heard this, “Bind the Devil to your purpose. Bind him.” “I bind you. You work for me.” So anything that comes against us and causes that distraction, contradiction, we just laugh in the heavens like God laughs. And all the angels laugh because it’s a law. It has to work for me. And you stay in the secret place. You lift up the name of God and you say, “I am called according to God’s purpose. I will not bow to this inferior thing in Jesus’ name.”
I love the book that Pastor Ken brought up the other day. It’s called “In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunities Roar.” So First Peter 5:8 says to “be sober-minded, be watchful, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” Well, those are the people that are believing the lie. He isn’t a lion. He is nothing. He owns nothing. He has no authority. He’s a deceiving liar, and he’s come to steal your purpose.
So when we go out on the streets, we tell people, “Jesus loves you. Do you know God’s got a good will and purpose for your life?” And it just lights them up. People are like, “What!” Because they need hope. They need to know they’re on this earth for a reason. God has authored purposes for every single person. And the Devil’s one thing that he comes to do is to steal their purpose and to get them to agree with him, that the thing that their personality and their bent and who they are is twisted. And they’re not good. But if they turn to God, everything straightens out. And their purpose is made known.
Prayed…
Father, we value people. We value what you have placed in them.
Lord, we want to see those things coming out… and we know that you will make your Son shine on anybody who gets out into it …
But you’ve called us to go out into the world and be salt and light, to be a source of hope for people to let them know that they are of infinite worth and value and that Jesus paid a ransom to buy them back. And that their purpose be reclaimed. We go after that thief. We thank you, Lord, that he is exposed. Lord, today in our lives, in the lives of the people we love, and the lives of the people that we are praying for… and the people in Afghanistan are called according to His purpose, they have set their feet on that foreign land because they were called. So we declare in the mighty name of Jesus, that all things are working together for good for them. Everything has to bow their knee to the name of Jesus. Thank you, Father.
