Your Enemies are Already Armed

I keep learning interesting things about the way creation works, so I am here to report.

Things keep getting better for me. My second godchild is due next month. I am practicing several musical instruments every day. I’m learning to play pieces I wrote. A number of problems are fading out of my life.

The house my sister lived in is finally vacant. Her name is not on the title, and I am getting it repaired. It was such a mess, it was hard to figure out what to fix first.

The roof was shot due to lack of maintenance, so water was leaking in, and when you have leaks, you can’t fix the walls, because the water will mess them up again. The plumbing had at least two major leaks in it, but the house was so full of rat urine and manure, plus insects, that I didn’t think a plumber would be willing to go under the floor until the other problems were fixed. The interior walls were coated with black mold, and I didn’t want to send anyone to work in that environment until it was cleaned out.

I eventually decided to start with a termite tent and follow up with a mold team and a roofer. That was after paying a thousand dollars to get abandoned junk hauled to the dump. Every single interior wall had to be removed, including ceilings. The floors and subfloors had to come out, too. The mold people had to cease work because the floors were shaky, so we put a new subfloor in (including shoring up rotten joists) and sent them back in.

This change has been a tremendous relief to me. My father is not happy about it, though. All I can think about is the stress of waiting to get in there and fix it, and I’m thrilled that it’s finally happening. It’s wonderful to be able to go in there without a mask to keep the microbes and mold out, and I like not having to shower after I leave. He thinks about the unnecessary destruction and the waste that occured in the past, so it’s hard for him to be happy about what’s happening in the present and future.

Christianity is about the present and future, and that makes sense, because we live in the present, and we are GOING to live in the future. We can dwell on the past in our hearts and minds, but we can’t go there and fix it.

I am getting a better understanding of God’s grace. I will try to pass it on.

“Grace” does not mean patience or the ability to trust God while you live in defeat. It doesn’t mean a state in which you are safe from judgment. Grace means anything God does for you, which you don’t deserve. If God regrows your severed leg, it’s grace. Manna was grace. Casting out demons is done by grace.

“Falling from grace” does not mean sinning. Jimmy Swaggart didn’t “fall from grace” when he sinned with a prostitute. Falling from grace means choosing to do things in your own strength, rather than relying on God’s undeserved help. When you choose to do it on your own, God stops helping you, so the grace is gone. You have fallen from grace and into pride. When you try to do things for yourself, it’s pride.

Adam had everything handed to him. I’m sure he had to get up every morning and do things, but he did not work hard, and he had no problems. Hard work came after he fell from grace. It was a curse. Instead of picking food from trees, he had to dig in the ground like an animal, every day. And the food he got could not be compared to the food God had given him in the beginning.

Adam and Eve sinned, not by trying to fight God, but by trying to help him. Satan said the fruit would make them wise, and it seemed obvious to them that they would be better at what they did if they were wise, so they ate.

God did not need their wisdom. He had his own plan. He did not want them interfering. But like Moses striking the rock at Meribah (instead of speaking to it), they chose carnal action over God’s help, and they were barred from their intended destiny.

The church fell from grace in the early years A.D. Jesus taught the disciples about grace, but eventually, pride and self-help worked their way into the church. Miracles ceased. Tongues ceased. Prophecy ceased. These things were still available, but we turned from them. We started relying on hard work. We were taught that poverty and disease were normal, and even that they were gifts from God. We brought back the pagan “gods,” called them by new names, and worshiped them as saints. And for maybe eighteen hundred years, the church has been a joke, like the blinded Samson, going in circles and producing nothing of value.

God has given us a lot of tools that connect us to his power. The old church used them, but they fell into disrepute. Effort and suffering were celebrated. God’s help was criticized as “cheap.” God wanted virtuous people who earned their blessings! That was what we were taught. Of course, if you earn your blessings, God owes you, and you should not thank him, because he is just paying a bill. He is no better than a man who sends a monthly check to Mastercard. Is that something to cheer about? Are we really supposed to praise God because…he reluctantly gives us what he owes us? That’s ridiculous. We praise him because he gives us what he, himself, deserves. We are never good while we are on this earth, but he is eager to treat us as though we were, as long as we repent, submit, and do things his way.

Over and over, the Bible calls us “heirs.” Heirs do not earn. But it says, “The WAGES of sin is death.”

We have the power to bless and curse, and to declare things into existence. It took me a long time to accept that, because the prosperity preachers love this stuff. They use it for stupid ends. They tell everyone they’re going to be millionaires, and they say their churches will be huge and rich. They rarely mention love or helping the needy. They don’t even talk that much about evangelism. They are not interested in bearing fruit. They just want to fatten up the barren tree until it becomes grotesque.

Jesus spoke to a tree, and it dried up within a day. He spoke to devils, and they had to leave. He spoke to limbs, and they grew back. We have the same right to speak things into existence, and to dominate the fallen spirits. These days, I do these things.

One of the curses Satan sent me was the curse of being bullied and manipulated. When I was a kid, my mother and I were abused. We were always shouted down and forced to serve the selfish. Later on, I was abused by teachers, friends, love interests, and employers. I can’t tell you how many pushy, overbearing people have entered my life. Sometimes they were obviously hostile, so I felt no remorse about fighting them, but the most effective ones did things for me and made me feel that it would be wrong to reject them. These days, I speak defeat to the spirits that run these people, and then I speak defeat to the people themselves. It works. I have had problems with an idiot in the morning, spoken defeat to them, and then seen them crumble in the afternoon. You really have to see it to understand how wonderful it is.

You can speak healing to your heart, mind, and body. You can speak the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit to yourself. So now I don’t just ask for things. I speak defeat and victory, and the results follow. The Bible says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.” It’s true. God spoke the world into existence, and he lives in us.

I am careful not to sit around mimicking the TBN preachers. I don’t say, “I speak a new jet helicopter to myself. I speak a Rolls Royce with Clemson’s colors on it to myself.” I try to use wisdom and discernment.

In order to make this work, you need faith, and you can get it by daily prayer in tongues. God may drop faith on you without prayer in tongues, simply to get the job done, but you should not count on it.

I do these things daily, because as far as I can tell, that’s the best way. It’s like manna. You can’t rest on last week’s dose. The enemy curses you every day, so you should fight every day. If you learn to live this way, you can’t stop, because as soon as you do, there is a backlash effect. You have to keep going forward.

God created us in order to REPRODUCE. Does God sit around asking for things all day? No. He DECLARES. He BLESSES. He CURSES. We are supposed to be like our parent, so we are also entitled to do these things. It is part of our purpose.

I have no remorse about speaking defeat to people. Most people serve the devil. To let their aggression succeed is to give him the victory. I speak God’s revelation, faith and contrition to them, too, so hopefully they will change course, but regardless, I am not going to be their diaper or punching bag.

I’ve been criticized. People have said this isn’t a loving Christian approach. Well, they’re wrong. I can’t help it if they want to dwell in ignorance and confuse Jesus with Stuart Smalley. Jesus has killed a lot of people, and the Bible says he will kill many more. He is the one who filled hell. He isn’t winnie the Pooh. He is love, but he is also perfect justice. I am not going to latch onto the easy part of Christianity and ignore the obligation to be hard when God requires it.

I have gotten a fresh revelation of the importance of cutting pushy, selfish people out of my life. I have cut off dozens of people in the past, with little or no warning, so I feel good about that, but some people get through the lines. Some genuinely like me yet remaind fundamentally selfish and poisonous. They do things for me. They make me feel indebted (which is something NO REAL FRIEND EVER DOES). Over the last month or so, I’ve taken a much harder line against them. I do not need high blood pressure. I do not need belittlement or discouragement from people who have no respect for my age, intelligence, character, or education. I don’t puff myself up over people, but if you have a two-year degree or no degree at all, and you can’t begin to match my accomplishments, and you’re talking down to me, you need to put a sock in it and get real. I don’t go up to my pastor, who has spent many years serving God, and try to make him feel guilty, dumb, unsuccessful, or insignificant. I see no reason to let others treat me that way.

I need to try to allow more good people into my life, but it’s even more important to increase my efforts to expel the parasites. They keep good people away from me, and they will be replaced by their betters. I’ve done a pretty good job of spraying the weeds, but God has shown me that I need to do more. I am way too tolerant of leeches and ticks.

I hope this information will be helpful to people. I present it as a witness. I have seen it work in my life, so I have no qualms about recommending it.