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I awakened the other morning with a Spanish word that I wasn't quite sure what it meant, "basta." It means enough, fed up, I've had all I'm going to take.
I felt from the Holy Spirit, as I was praying, that there was this spirit of weariness that is coming on people. It's actually demonic. It's saying, you're never going to get ahead. It makes you tired emotionally. The Bible says in Daniel 7:25 that he's going to persecute—or Satan will persecute— or wear out the saints. I felt that this was like a wearying spirit.
Some of you are going to relate to this. You just feel so tired all the time, you feel, and it's not a natural tiredness. It's a soul-tiredness, where you just feel like you can't get up, you can't move, you can't do anything, and I literally heard the Holy Spirit say, "Basta!"
"Fed up, get up," to the powers of darkness around you. The Lord would say, "You cannot let yourself go down in your destiny due to the weariness of the battle. You cannot let yourself be robbed of the blessings I have for you because you are too tired to fight anymore."
The Lord would say this morning, "Basta! Stop!" to the enemy. And I want to agree with that, I want to bind that spirit of weariness; I want to bind that which is coming against you. I just feel like the Holy Spirit wants to give you a refreshing. He wants to do something extraordinary for you. He wants to cause you to be able to shake off yesterday's troubles, yesterday's anxieties.
I see you've gotten into panic mode, where you're spiraling down and down and down. I just say to the enemy, basta, stop it, in the name of Jesus. I say to your spirit, rise up! There is a refreshing in the presence of the Lord. There's a rest in God that you can come to.
I'm thinking of Psalm 23, that He's leading you beside green pastures and still waters for His name's sake. I'm feeling something break. It's breaking off of you. It's breaking off you emotionally, It's breaking off you physically, and sometimes, I just feel for the Lord that you cannot separate, and even that's happened to me before, you cannot separate a natural weariness, which we get weary, but from a demonic weariness that is pressing you down. So, this morning, we say enough, stop, basta to what is coming against you.
I speak the peace of God into your soul, and I just want you to receive it. Just receive it by faith, and the Lord would say, "I am giving you an anointing of strength to resist the devil so he'll flee from you, and just enter into My rest."
Well, God bless you. I love that word. I'm applying it to my own life.
Cindy Jacobsis an author, speaker and teacher with a heart for discipling nations in the areas of prayer and prophetic gifts. She and Mike—her husband of 43 years—co-founded Generals International in 1985.
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Over the years, I spent a lot of time flying from place to place to do my job. One of the things you quickly acquire when you fly is noise canceling headphones. The background noise on a plane can drive you crazy. The constant noise makes it especially hard to hear if you are trying to watch a movie or listen to music. The joy that comes from flipping that little switch is remarkable. All of a sudden, your world becomes quieter and you can hear things clearly.
The science behind noise-canceling headphones is actually pretty interesting. Small microphones in each ear of your headphones pick up the background noise, reverse the phase, and then add the phase shifted noise to your headphone mix. Because sound is a waveform, the background noise and the phase shifted noise cancel each other out. You flip a switch and the background noise is gone. If two waves of the same size but opposite polarity hit each other at the same time, the peak of one wave will cancel out the valley of the other wave.
For someone who spends more than enough time in a plane, a set of noise canceling headphones can be a lifesaver. But what happens when you leave the plane? Is it possible to get noise canceling headphones for regular life?
You see, we live in a world of constant noise. It's not just physical noise either, it's also emotional noise and spiritual noise. Physical noise shows up in the form of media, entertainment, life chaos and sometimes airplane seats. Emotional noise comes in the form of stress, anxiety or the weight of expectations in your life. Spiritual noise shows up in the form of oppression or negativity. All that noise adds up in your life and makes it incredibly difficult to hear the voices that actually matter.
Some of this noise is self-imposed. At times, we are intentionally drowning out noise in our life. We self-medicate through any number of means—entertainment, substance abuse, work. Some of it is just the nature of the lives we live. Every day we are subjected to thousands of advertisements through the internet, television, billboards, street signs and many other sources. All that information is processed by our brains, even if only subconsciously.
No matter what it is, that noise makes it very difficult to hear the things that matter. But what if you could flip a switch and shut out all that noise? What if there was a noise canceling option for all the physical, emotional and spiritual noise in your life? What if you knew that at any point in time, you could get clear direction and clear answers, no matter what the situation?
If you are a follower of Jesus, a born-again Christian, then you have access to the world's greatest leader. That access is not found by going to a church building or talking to your pastor or priest, it's found by listening to the leader who dwells within you.
"To them God would make known what is the glorious riches of this mystery among the nations. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27, MEV).
"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that lives in you" (Rom. 8:11, MEV).
We have God dwelling in us! That's a pretty remarkable realization. What makes it more amazing is that the spirit of God that dwells in us was a request from Jesus to His Father.
"The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it does not see Him, neither does it know Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you, and will be in you" (John 14:17, MEV).
If this is true, why do our lives seem to be so lacking the ability to hear His voice? Why do so many stumble around as though they don't know what to do? The problem is that all that other noise is blocking our ability to hear from the greatest leader we have available, the leader within. Because we can't hear His voice, the decisions we make lack wisdom and spiritual discernment. When you lack vision and wisdom, you end up reacting to circumstances instead of being led by faith.
The writer of the Book of Proverbs, one of the most remarkable books written on wisdom in history, speaks directly to what happens when we lack vision.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish; but happy is he who keeps the teaching" (Prov. 29:18, MEV).
When we don't have the ability to see the thing God is trying to get us to see, we go astray. We try our own way. We stumble around hoping for the best but never achieve it. A man named Eugene Peterson wrote a wonderful paraphrase version of that verse that says this:
"If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed" (Prov. 29:18, MSG).
If we can't see what God is doing, we will end up stumbling over ourselves. If we can't hear what God is saying, we will end up wandering in the wilderness hoping that we are headed in the right direction but never knowing if we are. Our lack of seeing and lack of hearing is not because of a lack of availability on God's part. God promised us a helper that would be with us forever. He promised a counselor that would teach us all things. He promised us a guide that would lead us into truth.
It is when we attend to what God reveals that we are most blessed. If we are going to attend to what God reveals, then we need to find a way to hear what He is saying. We need to find a way to flip on the noise canceling headphones for our lives and begin to listen. Because He is speaking.
God has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit who dwells inside of us. But due to the overwhelming amount of noise we encounter on a daily basis, we have great difficulty hearing Him. But, what if you knew that you could have access to the world's greatest leader at any point of time in your day? Well, you can. All you have to do is quiet the noise and listen. Next week, I will give you the 4 questions I use in my life to quiet the noise and listen to the leader within.
Ben Woodwardis a worship leader, speaker, author and songwriter from Australia. As you will find out by reading his book You Shall Know the Truth, he is passionate about helping people discover Jesus through worship and prayer. He lives in Kansas City with his wife, Kathryn, and three children, Eliana, Cohen and Paisley.
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The battle of the Christian life has always been not just to believe, but to keep on believing. This is how we grow strong in faith and see the actual fulfillment of God's promises in our lives.
Today we tend to soft-pedal unbelief as little more than a common weakness. But God takes no such easygoing approach (Heb. 10:35-39).
Rejecting God's promises to us is far more destructive than the sensational sins we often talk about. The Bible says it is a "sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God" (Heb. 3:12, NIV).
The great target of Satan is to break down our faith. He knows all too well that the righteous live by faith, so he aims at cutting our lifeline to God.
Faith is like the hand that reaches up to receive what God has freely promised. If the devil can pull your hand back down to your side, then he has succeeded.
Real faith is produced when our hearts draw near to God and receive His promises deep within us. There, by divine power, His Word will work supernaturally.
The chronic disease that afflicts us is not a lack of effort; it's a lack of real faith. Many times we are treating the outward behavior and not its source.
We are running the race of faith. And we desire to receive not only God's ultimate promise of salvation but also the many other promises He has made to us along the way.
Faith Follows Promises
Because of the unique place God has given to faith, His grace flows along the channels of His promises—not His commands. God's commands show His holy character and reveal our sinfulness, but they have no ability in themselves to empower us to obey.
It is not that we don't know what is right or that we don't desire to live that way. Our problem is mustering the spiritual strength to obey, and the commands of God cannot impart that (Rom. 7:18).
Saints down through the ages have not so much clung to the holy commands of God and the accompanying judgment to all offenders as they have cherished the promises and revelations concerning His great salvation through Christ (Rom. 4:5; 8:1, 3; 1 John 1:9). When trusted, these blessed promises of God release His supernatural grace in and through us.
It is these promises that draw the heart to God in faith. In fact, the great command of the New Covenant is to believe!
The Israelites who left Egypt came up short with regard to possessing the new land for this reason: They heard clearly what God promised, but their hearts did not receive it in faith (Heb. 4:2).
Today it is possible to make a living as an esteemed theologian and yet have no more living faith than a slug. Christians can listen to the Word preached every Sunday—and even have a devotional life of sorts throughout the week—without rising above the cynicism, depression and unbelief that are so prevalent in our culture.
The Word must find within our hearts an atmosphere in which its divine power can be released. That kind of dynamic faith fairly oozes from the words of the great Israelite leader Joshua near the end of his life.
He was one of only two men who left Egypt as adults and actually made it all the way into the Promised Land. His parting instructions reveal the environment in which faith blossoms and grows.
Look Back With Thanksgiving
Joshua begins his farewell with this ringing statement: "You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you" (Josh. 23:3).
In other words, look back and think about all He has done. How can we have faith for the future if we don't look back often and thank God for all He's given us in the past?
A lack of gratitude is, in fact, one of our besetting sins. In most of our churches, there is no outpouring of vibrant thanksgiving and praise each Sunday because we are too preoccupied with our problems.
Give Him praise! Let Him know from the depths of your heart how much you appreciate His goodness!
Whether it is part of your religious tradition or not, get past your self-consciousness and formality to praise the Lord. Refuse to be embarrassed or hindered by anyone.
Look Ahead With Anticipation
Next Joshua turned his attention to the future. At the end of his years, he was still invoking the promises of God and boldly declaring that "the Lord your God Himself" would conquer the remaining Canaanite nations (Josh. 23:5).
Every one of us can point to things in our lives that are not yet the way God wants them to be. He wants to root out things that hinder and mar our Christlikeness.
God also wants to use us to bless and encourage other people in ways we have never dreamed. And He will do these things as we live in this blessed atmosphere of faith!
Among the many definitions of faith, perhaps none is more important than Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Faith is the ability of the human spirit to receive impressions from God that are born of His Word and made alive by the Holy Spirit. We simply know that something is going to happen, for God's Word has been received and has activated this spiritual sense called faith.
The natural senses have to do with present and visible things. But faith has to do primarily with these future and invisible things that God has promised us in His Word.
Back in the most difficult days of pastoring the Brooklyn Tabernacle, my wife, Carol, and I were struggling to stay afloat with maybe 40 people attending on Sunday mornings. When our daughter, Chrissy, was about 2 years old, we noticed a lump under her eyelid.
I'd spent time praying about the problem. But I knew there was no faith in my heart, only apprehension.
We scraped up the money, and I took her to a doctor who recommended surgery. I knew what God had said in the Bible about healing; but I was filled with doubt and fear. I needed true, living faith, not theoretical faith.
The following Sunday, we were worshiping together at the end of the service. Suddenly my heart was flooded with a kind of divine light, and I was overcome with God's awesome greatness, which makes everything on earth seem minuscule.
I envisioned my daughter being prayed for, and I saw her being healed! It was a real picture before the eyes of my heart. God had birthed something within me.
A teen-age girl brought my daughter forward. We gathered around her, anointed her with oil and prayed together for God to heal her. Within 48 hours, the lump was entirely gone, with no medical intervention of any kind.
Now what would happen in our churches if people came to each meeting with great faith and belief that God was about to do something wonderful? Unfortunately, many Christians who strongly defend the verbal inspiration of Scripture are the most unbelieving and cynical about God ever doing a new thing in His church.
My question is: If Jesus is the same today as He was in the Bible we defend, why shouldn't we believe Him to do great things among us and through us, so we can touch people's lives in powerful ways as did the first-century apostles?
Peter was no perfect saint, but God chose him and used him mightily on the day of Pentecost. God can do the same with us if we look to Him with childlike faith in our hearts.
Look Inward—But Carefully
In addition to looking back and looking ahead, Joshua called the people to take stock of their obedience. They were to obey the law of Moses and to separate themselves from the idolatrous nations that were among them (Josh. 23:6-8).
This separation from ungodly things was for the purpose of maintaining the strength of the Hebrews for battle. Alliance with sinful things saps our strength and leaves us weak before the enemy.
Joshua knew this all too well from what had happened back at Ai (Josh. 7:1-26). After the stirring victory at Jericho, the army suffered an unexpected and humiliating defeat because the sinful disobedience of one soldier, Achan, had separated the people from God's holy companionship.
Introspection is a two-edged sword. There are special times for looking inward—for example, when receiving communion (1 Cor. 11:28-32) and at other moments of divine searching.
However, if this process consumes us, Satan can gain the upper hand, keeping us preoccupied with our failures rather than with Christ's pardon and power. The apostles called people to cleanse their hearts before God and then move on to faith and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Look Away to Jesus
Joshua's final instruction is stated very simply: "Be very careful to love the Lord your God" (Josh. 23:11). Our gaze must always be upon Him, for He is the one who will perform everything.
Satan wants us to focus on the problem, not the Provider. If we stop spending time with the Lord in prayer, the concerns of the physical world snatch our attention while the spiritual senses deaden and the promises fade.
The number one reason Christians today don't pray more is that we do not grasp the connection between prayer and the promises of God. We are trying in vain to pray "because we're supposed to" without a living faith in the promises of God concerning prayer.
When real faith in God arises, a certainty comes that when we call, He will answer. Soon we find ourselves seeking Him for wayward children to be saved, for a greater sense of the Holy Spirit in our church services and for spiritual gifts and power to be released.
Strength to keep believing often flows into us as we just take time to wait in God's presence and worship Him. His promises become wonderfully alive as the Spirit applies them to our hearts.
God Is Waiting for You
Let us not be hesitant about trusting God. What really matters isn't our efforts, but the wonderful truth that God is a faithful God (Heb. 10:22-23).
It is not what happens to people that makes for tragedy in their lives; it is the missed opportunities to see God help them due to their unbelief that is the real tragedy.
Joshua must have had God's faithfulness in mind when he ended his speech that day with this great crescendo: "You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed" (Josh. 23:14).
We, too, can finish our race in life with the same powerful declaration. Only keep believing in the God whose promises are forever true.
Jim Cymbalahas been pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle since 1972. He is co-author with Dean Merrill of Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. He lives in New York with his wife, Carol, who directs the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. Dean Merrill assisted in the writing of this article.
