My pastor continues to preach messages that stretch the congregation. I've studied the Word since I was a kid, and have gone through times when I wondered if I'd ever hear anything fresh from some preachers. Praise God, there's always more to learn.

I'm becoming more and more aware that there is power in prayer and in the Name of Jesus we scarcely understand, let alone exercise. I've read of Christians that remind me of Jedi Knights (you can tell what movie I saw last weekend. Part of the $60 million it made over the holiday weekend was mine - ha!)

These people exercise the Power of God in such a way that they just speak and things happen...like Jesus. People sense the Holy Spirit's presence when they walk by...like Jesus. They're always in the right place at the right time to do something great for God...like Jesus. When they speak people hang on their every word because it's authoritative revelation...like Jesus.

We've been going through Matt 18:18-20, the famous binding and loosing passage. From this we've learned some principles. Some sound revolutionary, but upon further reflection we learn they are true.

First we learned that the earth governs the heavens. The action on Earth precedes the action in Heaven. Earth binds and looses first, then Heaven acts. Yes, we're being stretched already.

In Isa 45:11 we find a most interesting passage. "Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: 'Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; and concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.'" We command God? Think about it. We're not bossing God around, making the decisions. We're "loosing" the power of God on the earth. We're calling upon God to do what he already wants to do. In fact, He wants to do it more than we do, and stands ready. He's appointed us as his agents on Earth, and He gives us direction on how to pray. We use the power of the Name, the authority of Jesus to bring down power, and things WILL happen.

This is how Peter commanded the lame man, "In the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk!" He didn't gather the intercessors and beg God for 3 hours. He spoke with the authority of Jesus, and the man jumped up. He COMMANDED that man to walk.

Now can we just throw this kind of awesome power around as we will? Of course not. We've been given a spiritual expense account of power to use in the Master's Name. We can't write a check without proper authority. Put another way, we can't spend the money on something outside of His will. He won't honor the "check". That brings up tomorrow's principle, the law of harmonious will.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2002

Answers

This I think is beginning to happen with christians who, having been attacked enormously by satan, learnt to command evil things to leave. Eventually they pursue this line of action and they will be commanding things in the whole universe to happen. When one commands a lame man to walk and he walks, and you have say thousands of such people on earth, then you can expect a real paradigm shift.

There is tremendous power in the name of Jesus when used in accordance with God's perfect will, to bind and to lose.

I believe in his name. Amen.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002