Now we will look at each one of the Spiritual Needs and at how to address each of them.
You will need to do what the Holy Spirit has laid on your heart to do for each of those for which you scored less than 10 out of 10.
Emotional and Physical issues should be addressed by the relevant specialists in their fields but always ensure they align with what you have discovered in God’s Word.
You will need to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ spelled out in the section titled “Escape from Eternal Death” earlier in this book which covers your relationship with Jesus Christ.
You need to spend time communicating with God. You do not need to say fancy words, simply talk to Jesus as though He were right in front of you, because in fact that is exactly where He is. (Looking into your eyes, every second of the day He cares deeply about you.)
Share everything with Him, your worries and fears, your happiness and success, your friends and family members’ situations. Bring all these to Him, by telling Him. Tell it from your heart and do not hide anything. He sees right into your deepest thoughts and desires, so share these with Him, because He wants you to.
Speak to Him and thank Him for what you have asked for. Thank Him everyday, even when you see no change in the situation.
Trust Him to the end. He will come through for you. Pray that He will show you His Will for your life.
The most powerful prayer is to pray the Prayer Jesus Taught us while reverently understanding each word (Matthew 6:9 - 13)
Set aside a time where you do not ask for anything, do not really talk to Him about anything. Just ask Him to be present with you to sit with you and talk to you through your thoughts.
Any emotions and thoughts which suggest you do evil indicate the presence of evil. Tell the evil one that you are covered by the Blood of Jesus and that they have no right to interfere when you are busy with Jesus. Tell them that in the Name of Jesus they have to leave you, and they will (James 4:7)
The presence of God is characterised by pure peace. Confirm whatever you hear from God through discussions with others and by finding supporting, in-context, verses in the Bible (God’s Word) before acting on it.
Often we try to get God to approve of our desired way of having our prayers answered, Do not do this. God has an even better plan for you than you can imagine. Do not limit Him by praying for how He should solve your problem. Let Him surprise you, because He loves to do that.
Jesus made it clear to the disciples that they had to wait in
Trying to operate behind ‘enemy lines’ satan’s kingdom, this earth, without The Holy Spirit living within you, will lock you into religion and will not free you to enjoy Jesus in this life.
If you do not feel fulfilled, then you have either never asked The Holy Spirit into your life or you have offended Him so much He has left you. You will still go to Heaven if you accepted the Free Gift of Jesus Christ as this can only be lost if you openly declare that you do not serve Jesus Christ. But the Holy Spirit will leave your presence when He sees you are not listening anymore.
But even if you ask Him back a million times He will always return, because He loves you and wants to help you, provided you want to listen to His words and change.
Naturally, anything he asks you to do will never contradict anything in the Bible because the Bible is the Word of God. This is why you must get to know the Bible well. It is a sure-Fire differentiator between satan’s trying to mislead you and God’s trying to help you through His Holy Spirit.
This issue has been so fought by satan. he has hidden it, even from members of the Church
There is only one offence according to the Bible that Jesus promises his children will be punished through torture and torment on this Earth. It is so evil in God’s sight that it carries with it the highest penalty second only to spiritual death.
You will be tormented until you forgive others (Matthew 18:21-35), (Matthew 18:34 & 35), (Matthew 6:14-15). satan wants to torment you and because of this he does not want you to discover you can ‘legally’ get out of his hands and live a beautiful life free from this torment.
Forgiving others is not easy to do, especially when forgiving means giving up the right to revenge, and even to the point of forgetting that it happened.
Jesus Christ is the only judge, not you. He may have died for that particular situation for which you hold someone else responsible. You no longer have any right to it. Jesus goes so far as to say that if you do not forgive others, then not only will you be tormented on earth, but God will also not forgive you after your death.
This means that a condition of Jesus’ forgiveness to you is that you must forgive everyone who has wronged you.
Now I know, and you know, that there are situations that you got mad about and then buried in the back of your mind. You cannot remember them, but The Holy Spirit searches the innermost parts of you (1 Corinthians 2:10) and can see each and everyone. If you ask Him, He will show you each one, and He will help you to forgive them from your heart.
When I did this 6 years ago, I did not think there were more than 10 or so people that I needed to forgive. Well about 3 hours later, a lot of tears, much wrestling with myself, often not wanting to forgive people for what they had done to me, my friends, loved ones, etc… (since then I do not let a day go by where I do not clean up the forgiveness problems of the day – in fact I Forgive as I or those I love am wronged – people do not understand it, but then again, that is not surprising – They do not understand God, how can they understand forgiving).
The revelation brought me to a crossroads.
If I wanted Jesus to forgive me when I did not deserve it from Him, I needed to forgive these people, from my heart, giving up the right to dislike them. I had to then approach them, and lovingly tell them what they had done that had hurt me and then to forgive them openly. (Some of them did not even know that they had even hurt me, but were thankful that our relationship was restored afterwards. satan wasn’t.)
I do not promise you freedom from sickness, pain, psychological, physical and every other problem on this planet that is caused by the tormentor, the devil, God does!!! (Provided you forgive everyone, everything that you are hurting about. Even those you have forgotten hurt you.)
He will place a ‘hedge’ (protective barrier) around you and protect you (job
Of course being the sneak, and a whole bunch of words I would like to use but wont, he has hidden this truth from you – until now …
DO IT!!!
FORGIVE THEM!!!
ALL OF THEM!!!
The way Jesus has forgiven you!
Do not delay forgiving others for any reason; your sanity depends on this, as does your peace, prosperity and well-being.
(Refer to the play on Salvation at the end of this book which helps with more specific directions on how to forgive everyone.)
I warn you, no, in fact God warns you (John 10:10), satan will steal this from your memory as fast as he can so that he can continue to have the right to cause you pain.
Your Spiritual Self Image is what satan wants to destroy. Someone whose self-image is completely destroyed will end up useless to the cause of Jesus Christ. They will believe they can achieve nothing, and even if they could do something “no one would want them to”. This is a lie straight from Hell.
Paul (a great Christian in the Bible) said that he could do all things through Christ who strengthens him (Philippians 4:11-13). Christ will do the work He wants to through anyone who allows Him to. If you do not think you are worth anything you will make sure that Jesus cannot use you, because you have allowed satan to convince you of this.
Well I am afraid there is only one way out of this dilemma. Someone has to give you a good slap on the behind and tell you to stop grovelling in the mud. Pull your head out of the sand and put it in God’s Word.
But alas, you are in control of your own thinking and if you do not want to change and want to stay hurting and sad, defeated and broken, there is nothing anyone, even Jesus, can do for you. You have to want to have a better life.
I said YOU HAVE TO WANT A BETTER LIFE!!!!
If deep down inside you, you do want a better life then listen carefully and do what I am telling you to do. Because, if you do, your life will get better.
You have to let Jesus take control of your life. You have to find someone, at your church, or in your Bible Study group, or a Christian friend at work (who is trustworthy and does not gossip about anyone at all, i.e. a Real Christian) that you can share your life with.
I know that this requires you to make yourself vulnerable and open to be hurt, but this is the only way to do it. You do this as follows:
1. Spend time praying to God to show you who He has singled out to be your ‘encourager’.
2. The Holy Spirit is your ultimate encouragement but having human encouragement is also very important.
3. Family members, both blood relatives and spiritual relatives, should always encourage one another.
4. A Spiritual ‘Encourager’ is one who has a good understanding of the Bible, is sensitive towards people’s feelings even when they have to say something the other does not want to hear. An ‘encourager’ is also a person who you feel good being with.
5. Such an ‘Encourager’ always has things to say that leave you feeling that you are beautiful and precious to Jesus and that they like you even though you have faults. ‘Encourager’s are humble and are painfully aware of their own faults too.
6. Ideally an encourager is the same sex as you are, because cross-sex relationships create far more options that satan can misuse and abuse. Another reason for same-sex partners as encouragers is that men understand men better and woman understand woman better, as do girls understand girls better and boys understand boys better.
7. You need to establish if the person is a gossip first. This is easy, because if you hear them talking about anyone at all in a negative or judgemental way, they are a gossip. Have nothing to do with them.
8. Ask the person what ministry gifts they have from God. If they do not yet know, then they are unlikely to be the ones God has singled out for you. You can test this though by giving them a simple issue you are facing and see if they respond in an encouraging way (even if their answer is not what you wanted to hear). If they do encourage you, they may not realise that they have this gift, but proceed cautiously.
9. When you find someone with a gift of encouraging others, ask them if you can share your life story with them, because you know that you need encouragement.
10. Some may feel that they are over-extended. Do not hold this against them, and do not feel that you are being rejected (which is exactly what satan wants you to believe, because then he will have you back where he wants you.) Simply ask them if they can help you find someone who will be able to help you. Keep going along these lines until you find the one Jesus has singled out for you.
11. It is very important for you to learn to ask the questions. Especially when you think you should not ask any questions. (Not wanting to ask, because you might feel stupid, is a lie from the Devil, and will cause you a lot of pain if you do not ask.)
12. Understand that satan only tries to stop you from getting what God wants you to have, so that you can blame God for not giving it to you, when God tried to get you to ask the questions but you chose to listen to satan and not to ask. The only stupid question is the one not asked.
13. Share your problems with your encourager, and especially the desires that you have for things you want to do for God.
14. Allow them to speak to your heart and accept that which they say as being from the Lord. Do not be blind though - make sure that what anyone says is an instruction from the Bible is in fact in the Bible. You are responsible for yourself, and therefore you need to check these things.
15. Be careful not to put your encourager on a pedestal, do not make of them any more than what they are – a brother/sister who loves you and helps you. Sure you can encourage them in return, but do not allow them to be seen by yourself as some great person. You may be guilty of giving the praise that is due to God who is working through them to the person, instead of to God who is using them. Many great Christians have suffered huge embarrassment because others praised them instead of God.
16. On this note, please do not see me any more than what I am. A Christian brother whom God for some unbelievable reason has chosen to use for this task. I am not worthy of it and I am definitely not capable of such great work. I give Him all the glory and honour for this work and pray that you thank Him for it and leave me out of the picture. I do not want to incur the wrath of God for stealing His praise (the purpose behind which he created the entire universe). Our God is a jealous God, so please, please, leave me out of it.
17. Praise Him who has made all things and has given us the capacity to think and commune with Him.
18. Spend time regularly with the person who encourages you in your spiritual growth. Make sure you let them know how much they mean to you in their guidance and support. But again, do not praise them: - encourage them. (The difference between praise and encouragement is this: You Praise someone because of what they have done for example “God the message I have received is so useful and helpful, thank you for this message and your encouragement”, you encourage the one who was used by God by saying “Thank you for being such a useful and obedient servant of God that you should pass on His message to me.” Do you see the difference?
19. If you find that your encourager is breaking you down (simply criticising without giving any direction on how to go about growing and getting better) then break contact with them in a kind and understanding way and do not discuss your issues with them any longer.
20. Find someone else by following these points again.
Now here I have a very serious warning for you.
satan will try to make you feel that the whole world is against you.
He will try to get you to read into what someone says instead of just listening to the exact words they are saying. If you have any doubts about what someone means, do not let satan stop you from asking them what they mean. He is the master of causing misunderstanding and he does not want you to find out what was really meant by those who speak to you in love, he wants you to believe the thoughts he placed in your head.
Rather ask what someone means if you get a feeling that someone was being unkind. You will very often find that the thought you got in your head is not what the other person meant. Do not be trapped by satan because you kept your mouth closed.
For some reason, God has chosen prayer, as the means by which His Children (Christians) have their needs met.
Non-Christians go out and fight their way through life getting what they want. Sometimes it is handed to them on a plate; sometimes they never seem to get anywhere.
One thing is certain it is more difficult for a Christian to get any problem solved than for a non-Christian. The reason is simple. We are on enemy soil, and the enemy is aware of us as well as what we need and those desires we have expressed (satan and his demons cannot read our minds).
It is important to realise that your prayers mobilise God’s army of angels to deliver your needs.
Some people have often wandered why it is that God seems not to simply provide everything without us having to pray for it. The reason I see for this is that God created the entire universe so that he could be praised.
Praise is the one thing God cannot give himself. Praise comes from external sources. The angels have good reason to Praise Him. They have seen His Might and Power, His Glory and Majesty. We who have not seen these things are the only ones who can give God True Praise, which is based on having Faith in that which we cannot see until God provides it into reality for us.
Well that still does not answer why God wishes us to pray before we receive.
This answer is also simple. God wants you to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was He, who provided what you needed. So He waits for you to ask, so that when you receive what you asked for, you will know it was God who has provided the answer to your prayers.
I am sorry to say that it is to our utmost shame that even some Christians still refer to ‘luck’ or ‘coincidence’ as being the cause of their receiving what they needed. They forget that they had asked God for this very thing and then give the Praise, the one thing God created us for, to everyone and everything else but God. satan laughs with delight when we serve his purposes like this.
Nevertheless, even though we hurt God so much, and succeed in assisting satan in stealing God’s Praise, God remains faithful and continues to meet our needs.
I think we need to stop being concerned about what others think of the phrase “Praise God, do you know what he did for me? …” and start thinking about the one who Loves us so much.
I hope you feel as ashamed as I do right now by these words. I am really going to have to do some work in this area.
So then why are Prayer Partners so important? God says through Jesus, that, “Wherever two or more of you agree on anything in My Name, it will be done for you by My Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 18:18-20)
Why two or more? Two reasons really. The first is that there are witnesses to remind you that this was God’s answer to prayer and not just pure ‘luck’. The second is that it would be difficult to ask for something not allowed in the Bible or according to His will, if you are together with someone else who loves you and loves God.
I must also say something about the word ‘agree’ in this text. Too many people pray together and say ‘Amen’ at the end of their prayer, agreeing that what was prayed for will be done, when in actual fact both people had a different picture in their head of what was being agreed upon. Which picture is God supposed to provide?
It is important that you discuss what you will be praying for and the exact outcome you are seeking. As you discuss the details of the outcome you seek, the Holy Spirit will confirm within you, whether or not He will be doing this or not. You will know this by your confidence in the result you are speaking about.
For example I might pray,
“Father, please could you help me to get a car, (I have confidence),
that can go 250 Kms per hour, (No confidence),
that has an air conditioner, (I have confidence),
and black leather seats (little confidence),
and that has low Kms, (I have confidence),
and it should be a metallic colour, (I have confidence).
I should then revisit this picture and pull out the areas in which the Holy Spirit has indicated a problem (The parts where he did not make me feel confident)
WARNING!! THE ABOVE ONLY WORKS IF: you open your discussions by (all prayer partners) asking that The Holy Spirit guide you in your prayer before you begin discussing what you will agree on. If you do not do this satan will destroy tour prayers with doubt and unbelief.
Now the prayer reads:
“Father, please could you help me to get a car,
that has an air conditioner
and is a metallic colour.”
Now I am in agreement with God’s will. (Matthew 21:21-22) Jesus also said if you ask according to His will you will receive what you ask for. (John 15: 7-17)
Now sometimes our desires are such that we are confident in all of these but our prayer partner is not. They should be honest enough to tell us the parts where they do not feel confident (The confirmation of the Holy Spirit).
Most critical of all; if you do not conclude your prayer with “In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen” then you have simply worded a wish. It is the “power and authority of Jesus Christ” which the Father acts on, not yours. The word “Amen” simply means “It is done”, or “it is now real” or “it is now created”.
Do not just say “Amen”. Say it and mean it. Saying “Amen” means that the request you made in prayer is already reality, therefore you must believe it until you see it and not believe it only when you see it. Seeing is not believing. Believing will bring it into reality for you to see it.
Prayer partners are there to pray in the hard times, rejoice when God answers our prayers and to encourage when we get despondent.
Ensure that you share your answers to prayer with your prayer partners.
A good idea is to make a logbook of all your prayers (Remember to give details) and date them. Read the log book from time to time and you will see how God answers these prayers (He does not answer them in order mind you, and seldom the way you expected Him to, but He answers them.)
A Prayer Log book is a powerful source of encouragement when the dark clouds gather and you seem to be in trouble.
Take the trouble to do make this logbook and give God the Praise and the Glory for each answered prayer.
I would like to point out a very important point with regards to Bible Study Groups. The purpose is not for one person to try to open the scriptures to others. No. The purpose is for each person to hear what God is saying to them through the Holy Spirit for He is the only One who can reveal the scriptures (John 14:26).
Have you ever wondered why it is that non-Christians cannot understand the Bible? It is because they do not have the Holy Spirit revealing the things of Heaven, locked up in the Word of God to them.
Again, have you ever wondered why, every time you read the same scriptures in the Bible, you find a different meaning to the one you received the previous time? This is because the Holy Spirit reveals to you, the message you need for the time and situation you are in now.
You see the Bible is a Living Book to those who have the Holy Spirit, who reveals God and His will for our lives. For others, and this includes those Christians who have not asked the Holy Spirit to take over their lives, it is simply a Historical Record, with lots of good ideas and morals in it.
So then the first thing we need to recognise is that it is highly unlikely that we will all get the same revelation from the Holy Spirit in the same passage of scripture. So trying to be the Teacher is pointless.
The format of a Bible Study should be as follows:
Prayer:
That the Holy Spirit would teach each one of us what we need to know and that satan may not interfere with our thinking, nor with our communication with God and one another.
Scripture
A few versus at a time (rotate the readers if you like) and then tell each other what you understood by these scriptures and what God was saying to each one of you individually. This can continue for as long as you choose.
Studying of themes and books:
There is not a problem with studying themes and books, provided that every scripture reference referred to is dealt with as above. Consider the theme topic or book as if it were one of the points of view, (as if an extra person were present). If a person in the group has created the theme, that is fine, but ensure that the Holy Spirit is in charge and not this person.
It is of extreme importance that Bible Study Themes and Books being discussed should be considered as incorrect.
The purpose of the Bible Study would then be to ascertain how accurate the writer in fact is. This is done by reading the Scripture verses provided and then using a Bible Concordance or Computer Bible Program to find other verses in the Bible to prove the points made in the theme or book as either true, partly true or false.
Remember that Bible Study is centered around the fact that the Bible is 100% accurate and any book or theme or statement, if it contradicts the Bible scriptures is then incorrect.
Bible Study is not about people and how well they do or do not know the scriptures. It is about allowing God to open His scriptures to you as individuals, and as a Group, and to give all an opportunity to be used to build up the others.
Written Notes:
The Bible tells us that satan comes to Kill, Steal and Destroy (John 10:10). He will do whatever he can to ensure that you cannot keep what you learn at Bible Study. He will steal it from your mind, by helping you to forget it.
The easiest way for him to do this is to get you not to write it down, so that you can look at it again later.
If you write it down satan will try to get you to write it on a piece of paper where it can get lost easily. Or he will get you to stuff it in a drawer somewhere, never to be found again.
You will find that if you have a Bible Study book (preferably A4) into which you can both write your notes and stick in pages, you will always have something of value to go back to. You should date every thing clearly, so that you know when you received each of the messages from God. Another useful addition is to write down who was present at each Bible Study.
Make a few key notes and stick these on the inside of a cupboard door you open often to remind you.
It is essential that next to each note that you make, that you also include the scripture reference(s) that you were reading when you got this message.
(The back of this book is a useful place to keep your Prayer Log because you can use this for closing prayer at the Bible Study and you can share with those at the Bible Study, the answers you have received to these prayers.)
Some people choose to make notes in the columns of their Bible. In my view there is nothing wrong with this. The problem I have encountered is that there is usually not enough space to write down a clear message, which I can understand when I come back to it.
Some people like to write dates next to the verses in the Bible that have particular significance to a situation or person they are praying for. Again there is no problem with this.
Remember to go back through this book from time to time, especially when you are experiencing tough times in the spiritual, emotional and or physical areas of your life. (but again I stress that this book is not a living book, it only points to the living book. So re-read this book from time to time but read the living book – the Bible – every day.)
Closing Prayer:
Thank God for his Holy Spirit and the insight you have received. Ask Him to help you apply what you have learnt in your life.
Pray for those who need prayer.
Have some social time afterwards:
Spend some time just talking to each other and encouraging one another before leaving the Bible Study. If you can afford it, let each person take a turn at providing something to eat and someone else can provide something to drink for those present.
Make sure you have everyone’s contact details so that you can keep in touch in case someone for some reason experiences trauma or travel problems. The rest of you will be able to stand by them. And support them.
Bible Study should be informal and is best done in people’s houses. Allow the children to be a part of your Bible Study if they are old enough to understand.
You will never know what spiritual age your children are at. They might even be more spiritually mature than you are.
Children might however choose to have their own Bible Study while the adults are busy with theirs in the next room.
Young Children can be taken care of together, by a different member of the Bible Study each week, so allowing ever family to always attend, and giving every person a chance to participate most of the time.
The most important thing about Bible Study is to enjoy finding out the exciting life Jesus has called us to, and to be in His presence together.
Enjoy
No one wants to hear that they need problems in their lives; in fact, this world teaches that we should strive to have no problems. So we run around, chasing our tails, working our guts out, trying to make ends meet, when we have the wrong thinking in our head.
You need problems to grow.
I mean, you really need problems in your life.
Did you decide I had finally lost it?
Well consider this question first.
God, who knew the future, before creation, also knew the problems you have had to face, are facing and still will face and yet still created. Why would a loving God do such a thing, as place you in a position, where you would endure physical, mental and emotional problems?
Well the answer is only obvious when you stop looking at your problems from a physical perspective.
Once again, as is so often the case, those who do not have the Holy Spirit within them cannot see this truth. I will attempt to explain it.
A baby in its mother’s womb decides that it is now too cramped, or something else has become a problem and it then fights its way out of the mother’s womb into this life. It fights to take its first breath. It then has a whole life of fighting to move out of places where it is uncomfortable.
Looking at this we see a pattern. A situation arises which makes us uncomfortable. We try to ignore it and it gets worse. We try to run away from it and it gets worse. We get frustrated and angry that this situation does not want to just go away, or at least if we run away from it, that it just won’t stop following us. And finally we accept that the problem will not go away and then finally...we do something about it.
But now….