stand still~ part two

02 Sunday Jun 2013

Tags

armor of God, christian living, christian women, christianity, praise, rejoice, spiritual authority, thanksgiving

Last week I left you with two statements:

~Standing is not passive but active

~Standing is a position of rest and trust

These are absolutely true statements, yet the words rest and active seem to contradict one another. Is rest an activity? Well… if you live in the Costadini household it is!

Rest is a place of trust; we can rest knowing that the promises of God are true. Trusting in Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross, which has provided our every need. So we rest, we cease from striving, knowing that it was a gift and we can never earn it by our works.

Hebrews 4:11 says we are to “labor to enter into that rest”. It might be a fight getting there but when you are there, you rest, you trust, you have a peace.

When we get to that place where we’ve done all; we are now simply required to stand.

What does standing still activity look like?

~Put on the armor of God– Never stand unarmed

Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the full armor of God. Why? So we can resist and stand our ground against the enemy.

~Count His faithfulness

Do you remember the Psalmist (Psalm 77) I wrote about last week, the one questioning the Lord? In verse 10 he comes to the conclusion he was lacking God’s help because of his grief. He quickly gets over it and says: “I shall remember the deeds of the Lord”; and for the rest of the psalm he meditates, he remembers God’s goodness, and the Lord working in the life of the Israelites.

Sarah did this as well; in Hebrews 11 the writer tells us that she “judged (counted, considered) Him faithful who had promised”. Sarah knew the faithfulness of God. While standing you must count His faithfulness. What has He done in your life?

~Rejoice

James tells us to count it all joy in the trial. The joy of the Lord gives you the strength to continue to stand. So start rejoicing!

~Praise & Thanksgiving

God inhabits the praises of His people; your praises release God’s glory, His power in your life. Thanksgiving is the attitude of gratitude. Be thankful for what He has done and is going to do in your life.

~Confess the Word

Hebrews tells us to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised IS Faithful”. Make the Word of God the final authority in your life. Keep speaking God’s Word; He is faithful to bring it to pass.

~Fix your eyes on Jesus

He is the author & finisher of your faith. Isaiah tells us that those who keep their minds stayed on the Lord will be kept in perfect peace. Be immoveable!

~Pray in the Spirit

Jude says: “build yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit”

~Enforce Your Authority

Jesus tells us in Luke “Behold I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over ALL the power of the enemy”. Be bold!

~Determine to live by the Word, faith and love

Faith in God’s Word will only work by love. Walking in love must be a way of life in order for you to resist the enemy.

When we stand well in the trial we are ensured rest, peace, strength, joy and ultimately victory.

Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!

I would love to hear how you stand in a trial.

the power of confession

23 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Maria Costadini in spiritual

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

christian women, christianity, confessions, faith, praise, thanksgiving, vision, word of God

Over the years in ministry I have made an observation in others as well as in my own life. Most Christians do not see their faith through to the end, especially if it’s taking months or even years to come to pass. In my own life, I at times have failed to confess the Word of God until what I was believing for, came to pass.

I was lazy with my faith confession. Who me???? a woman in ministry??? Noooo! YES!!! Just because a person is in ministry doesn’t mean things come automatically; all it means is we have to work out our faith for the ministry AND we have to work out our faith in our personal life.

In this new season I find myself in, I have had the time to spend confessing the Word of God over our life and our planted seed. I have been seeing amazing results.

Here are a few things I have observed:

In the beginning it seems useless….you thought I was going to say something spiritual here! I am saying it seems like nothing is ever going to happen! It feels like you are bird mimicking God’s Word. Thoughts go through your mind “this isn’t working”, “I’m bored”, “why am I doing this, I could be doing something else”. I found that if you stick with it, for me it took about 30 days; you will notice some things will start to happen. So keep on keepin’ on!

Speaking God’s Word is like a fire and a hammer. “Is not my word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29

When you speak God’s Word into your situation it is like a fire and a hammer; it’s flaming hot, fiery, it burns through enemy lines. The hammer pounds, drives, it breaks, scatters it dashes into pieces. The rock here means a fortress or a stronghold; the word “pieces” means fragments. So God’s Word is like a hammer that pounds, drives, and scatters the stronghold or problem into fragments. But it takes repetition; just like a hammer hitting a nail repeatedly will drive it into the wood.

Hear yourself speak God’s Word this will cause His Word, to get into your spirit. Read Romans 10: 8-17; two verses I want to point out: verse 10: “for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made”. Verse 17: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”.

Confession is two-fold: you hear yourself speak God’s Word; it gets deposited in your spirit. The more you hear, the more you believe it in your heart; confession declares, confirms and seals the Word of God in your heart. This can only happen by repetition. Now you believe His Word, with no doubt in your heart, mix your mustard seed size faith with that and watch what happens.

Confession brings joy, excitement, praise and thanksgiving into your situation. I have been doing the same confessions everyday for four months; I am more excited about them today than I was four months ago. When something gets in your spirit you get excited, joy comes, praise and thanksgiving come; I start to get excited I jump up and down, dance around…. Charlie, our dog looks at me….”there she goes again”.

What am I doing? I’m “holding fast the confession of my hope” Heb 10:23. In this verse the words hold and fast are the same Greek word they mean to hold down, keep in memory, to possess, to retain; this is what happens in your spirit. You possess God’s Word it is now yours; you now have its reality in your spirit. Nothing will make you waver from God’s Word.

Confession brings vision. There is a scripture in Psalm 118: 5 “Out of my distress I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free and in a large place”. I thank the Lord daily that He has set me free and in a large place. I then start to imagine what that “large place” looks like; this is vision. What does your large place look like? Start to speak it out; the Lord will show you things, He will help you to see with the eyes of faith; if you can see it in your spirit it will come to pass.

Another scripture I confess over myself and my family is Psalm 5:11-12. “As with a shield you will surround him with goodwill, pleasure and favor. I envision my family and I with a shield or a cloaking device of favor surrounding us; any time the enemy comes at us he bounces right off that shield of favor. Silly as it may sound, but it gives me a visual of walking in God’s favor.

I want to encourage you to speak God’s Word over your life, and into your circumstances. Speak God’s Word over your husband, your children. Even if you are in a good place you can always use favor and blessings. If you continually plant seed, you must continually water that seed with the Word so you will get a continual harvest.

Find scriptures and make your own confessions out of them. If you need some help getting started you can email me maria.costadini@comcast.net