Warfare Prayer

Used with the permission of Victor Matthews
Heavenly Father, I bow in worship and praise before you. I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as my protection. I surrender myself completely and unreservedly in every area of my life to You. I take a stand against all the workings of Satan that would hinder me in my prayer life. I address myself only to the True and Living God and refuse any involvement of Satan in my prayer. Satan, I command you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to leave my presence with all your demons. I bring the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ between us.
Heavenly Father, I worship You and give You praise. I recognize that You are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise. I renew my allegiance to You and pray that the blessed Holy Spirit would enable me in this time of prayer. I am thankful, Heavenly Father, that You have loved me from past eternity and that You sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to die as my substitute. I am thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ came as my representative and that through Him You have completely forgiven me; You have adopted me into your family; You have assumed all responsibility for me; You have given me eternal life; You have given me the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ so I am now justified. I am thankful that in Him, you have made me complete, and that You have offered Yourself to me to be my daily help and strength.
Heavenly Father, open my eyes that I might see how great You are and how complete Your provision is for this day. I am thankful that the victory the Lord Jesus Christ won for me on the Cross and in His resurrection has been given to me and that I am seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. I take my place with Him in the heavenlies and recognize by faith that all wicked spirits and Satan himself are under my feet. I declare, therefore, that Satan and his wicked spirits are subject to me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am thankful for the Armor You have provided. I put on the Girdle of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sandals of Peace and the Helmet of Salvation. I lift up the Shield of Faith against all the fiery darts of the enemy; and I take in my hand the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. I choose to use Your Word against all the forces of evil in my life. I put on this Armor and live and pray in complete dependence upon You, blessed Holy Spirit.
I am grateful, Heavenly Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ spoiled all principalities and powers and made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in Himself. I claim all that victory for my life today. I reject all the insinuations, and accusations, and the temptations of Satan. I affirm that the Word of God is true and I choose to live today in the light of God's Word. I choose, Heavenly Father, to live in obedience to You and in fellowship with Yourself. Open my eyes and show me the areas of my life that do not please You. Work in me to cleanse me from all ground that would give Satan a foothold against me. I do in every way stand into all that it means to be Your adopted child and I welcome all the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
By faith and in dependence upon You, I put off the fleshly works of the old man and stand into all the victory of the crucifixion where the Lord Jesus Christ provided cleansing from the old nature. I put on the new man and stand into all the victory of the resurrection and the provision He has made for me to live above sin.
Therefore, today I put off all forms of selfishness and put on the new nature with its love. I put off all forms of fear and put on the new nature with its courage. I put off all forms of weakness and put on the new nature with its strength. I put off all forms of lust and put on the new nature with its righteousness, purity, and honesty. I am trusting You to show me how to make this practical in my daily life.
In every way I stand into the victory of the ascension and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby all the principalities and powers were made subject to Him. I claim my place in Christ as victorious with Him over all the enemies of my soul. Blessed Holy Spirit, I pray that You would fill me. Break down every idol and cast out every foe.
I am thankful, Heavenly Father, for the expression of Your will for my daily life as You have shown me in Your Word. I, therefore, claim all the will of God for today. I am thankful that You have blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I am thankful that You have begotten me unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I am thankful that You have made a provision so that today I can live filled with the Spirit of God with love and joy and peace, with long-suffering, gentleness and goodness, with meekness, faithfulness and self-control in my life. I recognize that this is Your will for me and I therefore reject and resist all the endeavors of Satan and his wicked spirits to rob me of the will of god. I refuse in this day to believe my feelings and I hold up the Shield of Faith against all the accusations and distortion and insinuations that Satan would put into my mind. I claim the fullness of the will of God for my life today.
In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I completely surrender myself to You, Heavenly Father, as a living sacrifice. I choose not to be conformed to this world. I choose to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, and I pray that You would show me Your will and enable me to walk in all the fullness of Your will today. I am thankful, Heavenly Father, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, to the casting down of imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge God, and to bring every thought into obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in my own life today I tear down the strongholds of Satan and smash the plans of Satan that have been formed against me. I tear down the strongholds of Satan against my mind, and I surrender my mind to You, blessed Holy Spirit. I affirm, Heavenly Father, that You have not given me the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind. I break and smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my emotions today and I give my emotions to you. I smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my will today, I give my will to You and choose to make the right decisions of faith. I smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my body today, I give my body to You recognizing that I am your temple. I rejoice in Your mercy and goodness.
Heavenly Father, I pray that now and through this day You would strengthen and enlighten me. Show me the way Satan is hindering and tempting and lying and distorting the truth in my life. Enable me to be the kind of person that would please You. Enable me to be aggressive in prayer and faith. Enable me to be aggressive mentally, to think about and practice Your Word, and to give You Your rightful place in my life.
Again, I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and pray that You, blessed Holy Spirit, would bring all the work of the crucifixion, all the work of the resurrection, all the work of the glorification, and all the work of Pentecost into my life today. I surrender myself to You. I refuse to be discouraged. You are the God of all hope. You have proven Your power by resurrecting Jesus Christ from the dead, and I claim in every way this victory over all the satanic forces in my life. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving. Amen.

Jo’s Note: My desire is that you all receive living hope from this prayer.

Under His Wings

I wouldn’t want you to think that breaking your hip bone is just one big barrel of wonderful fun, but it isn’t all bad. I’ve always wanted to visit Buckingham Palace at the changing of the guard but it looks as if I‘ll have to settle for the changing of my nursing shift. I still have to have ‘round the clock attention because nobody trusts me not do something stupid and break the other leg. Each nurse brings her own ideas of what is required to keep my system and the house system running smoothly. My refrigerator has never been so clean; my pantry has never been so organized. My daughter, winner of the blue ribbon for organization, keeps the meds, the food, the scheduling of people visits, the cat’s and my contentment all running without a hitch.
In an hour I’ll counsel a dear couple because I stubbornly refuse to leave them hanging out to dry while I lie around in bed waiting for my body to be happy again.
Laney, oldest grand girl from Sacramento and Lizzie second oldest grand girl from Azusa Pacific just left after two days of taking care of their gramma’s every need. My king size bed last night was covered with grandkids and family. I cannot tell you how deeply their coming has helped to heal my broken heart as well as my broken hip. The pain level still runs high without medication but hopefully I’ll be able to kick the drug habit as the pain diminishes. Kate Walker, our pastor’s daughter, begins her vigilance of four days over me this evening.
I’ve taken a three week break from teaching my teenagers. Jerry Parks, preacher’s son, who murdered a man, went to San Quentin when he was a kid and was miraculously exonerated before being taken to death row, has been teaching my kids. He’ll do anything to keep young people from screwing up their lives like he did. The kids love him and I may never get my job back. I’ll head back into 1 John 3 with the Wednesday girls next week. I’ve missed them so much.
As I tell you every week I am one blessed lady. I cry a lot but it’s because of His amazing grace.

Hymn of the week:
Under His Wings
Under His wings; Oh what precious enjoyment;
There will I hide til life’s trials are o’re,
Sheltered, protected, no evil can harm me.
Resting in Jesus I’m safe ever more.
Under His wings, under His wings,
Who from His loves can sever?
Under His wings my soul shall abide,
Safely abide forever.

My dear friend, Floyd, consummate, southern gentlemen to the core, slipped forever into Jesus’ embrace this week. He and Judy had come to visit me from Texas just a short time ago. Ted was there in the cloud of witnesses to greet yet another one of his brothers in Christ.

Love,
Jo

Hellos and Goodbyes

Ted and I were high school seniors and just one day away from graduation. We were strolling down the main street of our east Kansas town at lunch time when a lady whose name I can’t remember stopped us and said, “Ted, I could lose my job with the draft board for telling you this, but I just dropped your army summons notice in the outbox at the post office. You will receive it tomorrow. If you want to be in some branch of the service other than the army you need to be on the next train today to Kansas City to sign up. You can graduate from high school by proxy.”
The “next train” left in two hours and with it my reason at that point for living. Somehow I put one foot in front of the other and faced the long, hot, humid summer on our farm with my aging parents, dog, multiple cats, horse and single shot rifle (I still have the rifle.). I waited by the mailbox every day for Ted’s letters from his assigned navy post while my parents listened to every radio broadcast that included news from the South Pacific where my brother, Bob served our country in the Air force.
My first “goodbye” to Ted behind me, my life became a series of hellos and goodbyes (Whose life doesn’t?) interspersed with attempts to find a purpose to live without my steady Teddy. That “Purpose” unfolded as Jesus revealed Himself to me when I was nineteen.
Fast forward to today: It’s midafternoon of day thirteen since three screws were inserted into my hip to hold it together temporarily until that day when we all will receive our glorified bodies. I aced the physical therapy exercise this morning so I am now at home, breathing our clear mountain air with Bootsie (half of my cat team) curled up beside me. Dee has good smellin’ stew in the crock pot. I am one happy mama. Dee has been with me every day at the hospital and there aren’t enough words to tell you what that means to me. It will be weeks before I can walk without pain, a limp, a grimace and someone to keep me from falling and breaking another bone that’s connected to the hip bone.
I forgot to tell you what Gary, my longtime radiologist friend quipped, “Jo, you’ve been sideswiped by another vehicle in your NASCAR race. You’re now in a pit stop receiving speedy repairs and will be starting the next lap of your race before you know it.” Ok, Gary, I’m counting big on your knowing what you’re talking about.
I can’t count the visitors who have come to both hospitals. The drama in their lives comes with them. I love them all and perhaps have been able to add some perspective along with some laughs about the pesky interruptions that plague us all. God’s Word, our Anchor, hasn’t gathered any moss.
All my life I have noted that when an aging (note how I avoid the word “old”) person breaks a hip, one quarter of those afflicted die, OR soon after they break something else; therefore I’m practicing keeping one eye peeled for objects that might trip me up and the other eye fixed on Jesus Who is waiting with open arms to welcome me home with a final “HELLO”!

Hymn for the week: BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
Fearing neither clouds nor winters chilling breeze;
By and by the harvest and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Going forth with weeping,
Sowing for the Master,
Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping’s over He will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Love,
Jo

"Holy Crap"

“It’s just a dream. I’ll lay here for a few minutes, open my eyes and this pain will go away”…..but it didn’t. For no good reason, I had pitched forward in my own living room and landed on my hip. It was broken.
Hours later after the normal ER madness I was on my way by ambulance to a Bakersfield hospital for surgery. Afterwards a man we know well, head of radiology, gave the straight scoop to daughter, Dee. “This is the least of invasive hip surgery, requiring only three screws, physical therapy for weeks and patience. She will heal well. By the way, she has sexy bones.”
My boys bought me a laptop so you can contact me by email.
The funniest response Dee received when she spread the news flash was, “HOLY CRAP”! That about says it. God’s holiness is threaded in and out of that other four-letter word.
The Lord’s My Shepherd, I‘ll not want. He makes me down to lie in pastures green. He leadeth me the quiet waters by.
Love, Jo