A Sword
Every thing that God has me share and write in these testimonies and audio's are things that I have learned, received, heard, and seen out of this apostle-prophet ministry, and done as God has revealed them to my spirit and led me to. They are not things that I have read off the pages of the bible and then applied them in a legal sense, because it says that the letter of the Word will kill. They are not even things I have seen people walk through and decided to try it myself - which would be nothing but flesh and an emulating spirit. But as God has revealed these things to my spirit and then led me to walk them out, I have in obedience to God done just that.
Jesus told us in Matthew 10:34 that He didn't come to send peace on the earth, but a sword, and set at variance, or set apart, members of a household. And in another account in Luke 12:51, Jesus asks a question, "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division....." You can read on, but the sword that it is talking about in these two instances, which divides or brings division, is in the family between mother, father, daughter, son, and in laws. And that sword is put there so there will be no bondage's to any person in the flesh.
I was raised in a very close knit family. We all lived in Dallas, (grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.) or surrounding suburbs, so even distance-wise we were close also. But you can live miles and miles apart and the bondage's are still the same - deep and rooted. And all of those bondage's that have been there throughout my entire life have had to be overcome. And God started in l985, right after coming to this ministry, putting that sword that is mentioned in Matthew and Luke, between everyone of my family members and yes, even friends. And needless to say, when God started doing it, the war was on.
Flesh loves to be bound to flesh, but when the Spirit of God starts taking over a person's life, those fleshly bondage's will have no place in a person's life. When it says in Corinthians we are to know no man after the flesh, not even Jesus, that includes husband, wife, children, parents, brothers, sisters, or any one else. We are to know Jesus, the One raised from the dead and every one else after the Spirit also. And that was surely not how I was brought up. Because living in the society we live in and even in the religious communities we have been brought up in, we are taught how close the 'family ties' should be and how important 'friends' are. And if those relationships are in the flesh, all they will do is 'bind' you up.
A popular song that was, and may still be, in the charismatic churches was "Bind Us Together, Lord." Well, Jesus didn't come to bind us together - He came to loose us from one another. I've said before that religion and Christianity are totally opposite. One is flesh and it ministers and produces death in you; the other is the Spirit and it ministers and produces life and peace in you. One will put you in bondage, the other will loose you from those bondage's. And once your eyes get open, it's not hard to see the difference between them.
Jesus is after making Christians, people who can walk even as He walked, and whose dependence is on the Lord Jesus - the One raised from the dead and no one else. And as I just stated, this was so opposite from how I was raised. People like to have control over people and even like to be controlled by people, that if they ever meet a person who Jesus is Lord over, they think you are in rebellion and full of pride and you don't have any love. Flesh likes and wants to be needed. But a person walking in the Spirit and after the resurrected Christ will have no confidence in any flesh. And this is what Jesus is after doing with every person who will lay down their life and pick up the life of the Lord Jesus, daily.
When God first started putting a sword between my mother and sister's, which was really not too long after coming to Water of Life, they had no idea what was going on with me. They thought I had become the most indifferent and aloof person, who had lost all her love for them. And the reason was because their flesh didn't like what was happening to me - they were losing control over me.
God brought my heart to a place to where I didn't do things just for the sake of doing them, but He brought it to where I would do what He would tell me to do. And if He said not to go somewhere or to go somewhere, I had to obey what He said. And it really started with my family. When they would have all their little 'get-together's' and the Lord would tell me not to go, it made them furious, because after all, we were such a close knit family and this 'division' was something they never expected to take place. And you know, I could have rebelled and told the Lord I didn't like what He was doing with me and my family and I wasn't going to let that happen between us, but I knew it was God. I also didn't want my blessings cut off either. And that is not to say my soul didn't struggle over this, because at times it did. There was much persecution because of it and that is really what my soul didn't like, and that persecution was for righteousness' sake because I was doing the will of God. I also knew it was the only way I was ever going to overcome those bondage's with them (or to them). And the whole purpose for God dividing every person is to overcome the spirits that have you bound to them, so that you can be free to obey the Spirit of God in this earth. And if you like being bound, God just might leave you that way, but I didn't. He did say in Hosea that Ephraim was joined to his idols, let him alone.
There are numerous incidences that have taken place over the years, but one of the beginning ones where God started putting this sword between me and my family members was in May 1987. (And there were probably some prior to this one, but this one just came up in my spirit to share.) It was when the Lord told me not to go to one of my younger sister's bridal showers she was being given by my mother's friends. It didn't bother her, but it did make my older sister so mad. This spirit in her would pursue me and call me almost everyday telling me I needed to go to that particular shower, because after all, this was my younger sister. I told her what Jesus said in Luke 8 and Matthew 12 when they came and told Him that His mother and brother's were wanting to see and speak with Him, and that is, "My mother, brother's and sister's are those that hear the Word of God and do it."
After she saw she couldn't control me with her anger, she got real nice and said, "Lisa, we just miss you and want you to come." Up out of my spirit I told her what she missed what not being able to control me. I mean the Spirit of God nailed her right on the spot. If people can't control you with their anger, then they get real nice, or vice-versa. And both of them are the Jezebel. And yes, this spirit has operated in me. But thank God, He has come to set us free by the power of the resurrected Christ. And what the Lord is after is liberating every person, so that they can be free to obey God and walk upright in this gospel and not have any flesh hinder them.
There may be people saying, "I just don't believe God would have you do something like that, because God ordained the family." And that is exactly why you wouldn't believe God would have you do something like that - unbelief! And also the family that God ordained is the body of Christ - those in heaven and earth (Ephesians 3:15). Then there may be others who absolutely would believe God would do this because they believe every word of the bible, until it hit their own home or some family member that they loved being bound to. And I will say, I never heard or read of this prior coming to Water of Life. And I don't believe Doyle has mentioned these verses too many times over the years, but when he did, I was brought face to face with the Words of Jesus.
In the beginning, I went through some painful days, months and years of this taking place in my life, because the soul will always have a struggle with the ways of the Spirit - until you overcome your soul. If your soul has not struggled with any of the ways God has dealt with areas in your life, you might could say it hasn't been dealt with. Because the soul is not in a perfect state starting out - it has to be purified by faith in obeying the truth, the gospel, through the Spirit (I Peter 1:22). And that soul will war against the Spirit until you overcome it (Galatians 5). And when God starts putting the sword between every person you know, you will 'feel' it.
So after God started separating me and my mother and sister's, He then started putting the sword right in my own house - with JR, Travis and Amy. More unpleasant and painful times.
And before I go on with that, I'm going to say something about when my dad and mother divorced, and how it hit the idolatry in my heart concerning the family. (Although I didn't know at the time that was what it was.) But it broke my heart. In this nation we live in, and maybe all others, the family is probably one of the biggest idols there is. Everything is centered around the family and the kids. And even though we didn't have the 'ideal' family, this was imbedded in my heart. (And the only 'ideal' family there is, is when you all walk in the Spirit and obey God.) Anyway, after my parents separated and then were divorced, I thought, "Well, I will have a fairy tale marriage, and nothing will ever happen like that to me." So when God takes a hold of my life, what does He do? He starts putting a sword between me and everyone of my family members. Why? To deal with the idolatry in my heart over 'the family'. Taking out my fleshly concept of marriage and family, so that He can bring one forth by the Spirit.
And the role of the 'mother' as we know it to be with her kids, is one big door for the Jezebel spirit to operate through because of the idolatry. Everything is for 'the kids'. We worship our kids and want everything for them - everything but God. And this spirit operating through that mother's heart (and it can do the same through the dad's) will have a control on those kids until the Spirit of God deals with her heart and then brings her heart to where it will minister the Spirit of God to those children, and not the cares of the world, the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life. And it will cause a war, but Jesus will always give you the victory if you stand fast in your believing the gospel. Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe. And when you minister the Spirit to them, their flesh will hate it. They will think you have gone crazy. But you will have to overcome their soul and the things in their flesh that resist the Spirit of God, just like you do with your own soul. And God will have you confront those spirits that they are walking in, but one thing you can be assured of - you will always overcome them by the mercy and grace of God.
When God started leading me down some righteous paths to overcome the bondage's I had with Travis and Amy, they were around six years old and three and a half years old respectively. So there was not even that many years of bondage to them, but it was the 'spirit' behind the 'mother' role that God was after in my life and that I have had to overcome. And it did 'rip' my heart out and that was the purpose of it. God says He makes sore, and binds up: He wounds, and His hands make whole - (Job 5:18). And then also the role of the 'wife'. And the only way to be a godly wife and godly mother is to obey God and walk by faith - in the Spirit, and let the power of God deliver your heart from all of its worldly lusts and desires. And if you are not walking in the Spirit, walking by faith - then your role as a wife and mother is totally in the flesh and totally opposed to the Spirit of God, even if you think you are the best wife and mother there is. It is really that simple.
God is after conforming every person to the image of Jesus and making every person to where they can walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh in whatever role He has placed you in, whether it be a mother, father, daughter, son, etc. And every bit of these paths have been to perfect my faith and love, and to overcome all of these fleshly bondage's, and to overcome the Jezebel spirit. You will never know how bound you are to something, or how much something has you bound, until God leads you to overcome it. Then you will be convinced. And you may be saying, "Well, I just don't have the bondage's that you do." And I would say to you, "Just wait until God starts leading you out from under them, then you will know how bound you are." Because I certainly do not think I'm a unique case. The human race is a bound people, and they don't know it and wouldn't even believe it if you were to tell them. And the reason they wouldn't believe it, is because they are 'Born-again and speak in other tongues' - so they couldn't possibly be bound!!
But God has put this sword between every relationship I have had with every single person. Doyle wrote a book called, "Jesus Did the Father's Will." (The Spirit of God had him to write four other books also and they have ministered to my heart on more than one occasion.) In "Jesus Did the Father's Will", he wrote, "God will test your spirit every way. He will test you in every relationship. He will test everything you do to find out if you will listen to Him." (How true this has proven to be in my life.) "If you always do what pleases Him, then, after you pass the test, He will say, 'Well, the test is over, and now the blessings are yours'."
In the process of being led down these righteous paths, though, I have overcome many spirits and it has gotten somewhat easier - it's just taken a lot longer than I ever thought it would. I have had to guard my heart in not getting offended at God or man, and not letting resentment or bitterness get in my heart over the pressures that have come because of how God has led me. About a year ago I overcame some of these paths that God had been leading me down, and then a couple of weeks ago, I overcame even some more. And it did make the devil mad. The past two weeks have been nothing but pressure and hell for me, but thank God His grace is always sufficient. I just keep praying and reading those Psalms out loud and overcoming more and more of this Jezebel spirit.
I have shared this many times, but it has come up in my spirit to share again and I am going to. But in August of '89 God delivered me from a root of the Jezebel spirit. When this root came out, I was finally able to use my 'will' to stand fast and believe the gospel. This spirit had so paralyzed my 'will' that I couldn't stand and believe God for hardly any length of time. And it was frustrating, because I really wanted to be able to. There have been people that have tried to 'break' my will and break me down, but ever since that time there has been no person that could succeed in doing it. And the reason is because it's God in me and He gave me that will and I use that will to believe Him and to believe this gospel. Now there are things in my soul (which is the will, intellect and emotions) that God has delivered me from and taken out of me that were not God, but what I am talking about is things that are God in my life that no man can take from me or out of me.
You know, I do thank God for His mercy and grace upon my life and for writing in my heart what has been written in Doyle's heart by the Spirit of God. I thank Him for revealing this gospel to me, as much as He has. Because the amount of the kingdom of God that is in me, no man can take from me, and that is a blessing indeed.
In closing, there is something else that Doyle wrote out of "Jesus Did the Father's Will" that is worth repeating:
"Let me say this, no one who reads this book or listens to my tapes or comes to Water of Life Church receives anything from me. What you receive through me are the works of the Father working in me. He shows me what to do, or I will not do it. So do not say, 'Doyle, I want to thank you.' Thank God, instead. I appreciate your graciousness, but I appreciate much more your obedience to God.
Nothing would make me happier than to see everyone who reads this book walk in the Spirit, obey God, cast out devils, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, walk in prosperity, preach the gospel, and get people to speak in tongues. If all you say to me is, 'Hi, Doyle' and do those things, that will be enough. Forget the rest, because I will sit and marvel at what God has done in your life. That would make me happy.
I do not need your compliments. The compliment is to see my letter written in you, read by the the world. That is what Jesus did. When you get Christ in you and the kingdom of God in you, you will not want man's honor. You will only want the honor of God."
This is what I am after in my life, how about you? Well, until next time, God bless you.
