Brown's morning devotion 5-2-07

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful, brilliant and bountiful Wednesday. Praise the Lord it is midweek. Praise the Lord for the way that He empowers us and anoints us to live as the over comers. In 1 John we read, "Great is He who is in us than he who is in the world." Our Lord Jesus came to destroy the powers of the enemy. He broke the chains and the shackles of sin. What a Savior! Every time Satan met Jesus it was one of his worst days. The Lord displayed and demonstrated His awesome power before him. Satan trembled and stills trembles at the name of Jesus. In Matthew 12:29 we read, "For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man like Satan and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house. During the brutal reign of Joseph Stalin, who murdered 30 million Russians and bought godless communism to Russia, Stalin, let it be known that he planned to murder the Jews of Russia. When the believers in England heard this report, they committed themselves to fasting and prayer for the Jews of Russia praying in the spirit, they found the Demonic forces that drove Joseph Stalin. Three weeks later, Joseph Stalin had a brain hemorrhage. 16 gifted brain surgeons worked on him for eight hours, and still Joseph Stalin stepped into eternity, on March 5, 1953. Jesus said to his church, what ever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. The apostle Paul writes in Romans the eighth chapter the 26th and 30th verses.26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groaning that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own Will. 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. Note, that our weakness in this verse is in our minds. We do not know what we should pray for. We have a language barrier with heaven, therefore, the Holy Spirit makes intercession to God in heaven for us, saying, Father, heres what your child is trying to say. As we go on, we can see that the New Testament church was under extreme persecution. King Herod had executed James, the brother of John. The King then arrested Peter and placed him in a maximum-security prison, where he was guarded by four squads of four soldiers around the clock. What was the churches response? They prayed to God without ceasing for Peter’s deliverance. They didn't have political influence or financial wealth, but they knew the power of prayer. What was Gods response? Angels were released to help Peter escaped from prison. It tells us this in Acts 12:11-15, Our prayer of faith and in faith, also has the power to release the angels of God to defend us, guard us, and guide us. King David wrote he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. Psalms 91:11 the phrase to keep is a military expression meaning, to guard by force. We have that power, through prayer. Uniquely enough, the church that was praying for the deliverance of their pastor, Peter, was shocked when it happened, so shocked that when Peter knocked on the door, they thought it was his Angel and not the man of God himself. The early church had waged war in the heavenlies but they hadn’t prayed with a sense of expectation that they would win. Do you? And God finished this heavenly battle by judging Herod. Acts 12:23 says, Then immediately the Angel Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. Prayer is a weapon of attack, and praise is also a weapon of attack. The enemy is Satan and his kingdom. Praise gives strength to the body of Christ to conquer the Prince of darkness.
Thank you for praying for me fervently, passionately and faithfully. We will be going to Boston today for my pre-op appointment tomorrow. We'll return back on Saturday. I'll be preaching on Sunday. We'll go back to Boston on May 10, 2007. My surgery is scheduled for Friday, May 11 at 1:30 p.m. I'm blessed to have you all praying for me. I'm an unworthy and sinful man, but the Lord is gracious and kind and very merciful. In Chapter 2 of Mark we read about four friends who brought their friend to Jesus. The man was paralyzed and was carried by his friends. We read there that Jesus saw "their" faith and offered healing and salvation to the man that was paralyzed. Often my faith is frail and fragile but I'm blessed to have you as my friends whose faith is strong and fervent. Have a wonderful day of walking with the Lord and serving Him with joy. I'll write you next Monday, until then....may Jesus be praised. Amen.

Brown