prayer and word

God wants to bless every area of our life. This is a very important principle that as a woman you must brand with fire on your heart and mind, although reality or circumstances might show the opposite. The only truth is that God wants to bless you in all the areas of your life. Apostle John said: “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

When I went to the doctor in Miami because of the infection, it was the same day we had our first encounter. I wasn’t able to go because of the pain and high fever, but the Lord allowed me to see, on this occasion, that every servant of God must go through trials. For a believer, trials transform into steps to conquer blessings. This happens if they’re faced with the right attitude. You can have an attitude of complaint, or you can blame the Lord he’s failing you. But if you face adversity with the right attitude it can turn beneficial. The Lord made me see that although we want to know him, He doesn’t reveal himself to us in His totality because He is a veiled God. He reveals himself through circumstances.

If we want to know God as Jehovah Rapha (the Lord that heals) He may allow sickness to achieve this blessing. This was what God made me understand. He said to me: “Daughter, I allowed this sickness. I allowed the pain because I want you to know me as the God that heals, God Rapha” (Exodus 15:26).

I had never felt so much physical pain in my life, not even when I had my daughters. It was an indescribable suffering, like a wound in open flesh, a wound that made me remember Jesus’ wounds. How must He have suffered! For a long time I hadn’t prayed for healing miracles, nor had I visualised the sick being healed. But, since the experience of surgery of that moment, I’ve asked the Lord that he always sends His anointing for healing at the meetings, for I know how terrible sickness can be.

Thank God, I’m now healthy. Jehovah Rapha was a facet of God I didn’t know. I had biblical knowledge, God’s logos but not the rhema. I hadn’t experienced it yet.

Two months ago I was counseling a particular case. It was a 35 year old woman who began telling me all the problems she was facing regarding her husband and asked me for help to save her marriage. Her husband was emotionally involved with another woman and wanted to leave his home. This woman was desperate and hurt. For about an hour she spoke about how difficult her situation was and how she felt. Finally, when I was able to speak, I asked her how long had she been a church member. “For 5 years” she replied, so I assumed I was speaking with a mature woman of character who was willing to fight for her family. But to my surprise, she said she would occasionally attend church because she disliked praying and much less, fasting. So I guided her on how to develop her faith by having a devotional lifestyle, changing her attitude and behavior while with her husband, and fighting the good fight. After a while she said, “Pastor, that’s too hard. Let’s just leave it at that.” I felt so deceived and understood how many women want to see a miracle from God yet are not willing to give or do anything for it.

In Judges 4, we see the story of a woman who knew how to please God. She did not have any supernatural powers nor was she super spiritual. She simply knew how to please God. This woman was Deborah and she worked hard as a judge resolving people’s issues. In addition, she was a prophetess and had to face a country at war. A man named Barak, captain of the army, was suppose to go to war against Sisera, Israel’s enemy, however he feared them so he sought Deborah. She did not have anguish nor did she cry or say, “It’s too difficult. I’m just a woman.” On the contrary, she rose and went to war. God did the rest and gave them the victory, all because a woman faced a situation correctly.

Friend, a woman that pleases God is courageous. She does not allow herself to be defeated because she knows that God will fight for her but she must first go to war. A woman that pleases God is not driven by impulses, but in the midst of trial she takes the Word as her life vest. The woman I mentioned earlier did not even try to take the Word to her home, much less fight for what the enemy had stolen from her.

We need to mature, grow in faith, and understand that we have overcome by the power His blood because Jesus already did it. However, an attitude of laziness, complacency, and lack of commitment to God does not help at all.

You want God’s miracle but you are not willing to change your old nature. You want your son to be healed, but you want someone else to go to your house to pray for him because you are too busy to commit and to seek divine touch. You want prosperity and abundance, but why offer and tithe if you are going to lack. No! This attitude does not please God. We cannot be like the ostrich or even like Barak who hid his face and sought someone else to fight his battle. I can pray, the pastor can pray, or even have intercessors around the world, but it is up to you to believe, confess, fight, and prepare the atmosphere for your miracle.

This week I desire with all my heart for you to decide to be a woman that pleases God: willing to fight, conquer, and commit yourself and dreams. Jesus already paid the price. Your part is so much easier; to live a committed life totally dedicated to God.

This month’s declaration has to do with the infinite grace of God which is for each one of his children. The prophet Isaiah recalls the powerful works of God and emphasises what the Lord did with the life of a prostitute named Rahab. We cannot say that she was a good prostitute ; just like we cannot say that one of the two thieves who hung either side of Jesus on the cross was good and the other bad. Both were equally guilty. Both had been judged and found guilty and sentenced to death. One insulted Jesus, but the other begged for mercy. That is why he found grace in Jesus’ sight and the Lord promised him that that very day he would be with him in paradise (Luke 23:39-43). Rahab was aware that God had handed over all of that land to the people of Israel, and she recognised that the God of the Jews is God in both the heavens and the earth. She asked for mercy for herself and for her family (Joshua 2:11-14).

In both cases, these people begged for mercy, and both found grace in God’s sight and were saved, freed, restored and clothed in power. Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace is at work when there is faith. The people who reached grace did not work to obtain it, the only thing that God took into account was their faith. They understood that without faith it is impossible to please God.

Now, the prophet says in Isaiah 51:9 ‘Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon’. The monster is one of the facets of the adversary, and Rahab was one of the powerful instruments the enemy used to corrupt people, which is why her will was completely bent by the adversary. However in her, the light of hope was lit when she saw the two spies sent by Joshua and she received them into her house; one of them represents the word of God and the other represents the Holy Spirit.

Receiving them in her house was equivalent to receiving these things in her heart. The two spies made a pact of redemption with her, represented by a simple scarlet cord and they told her:’ Tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and bring your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house‘ (Joshua 2:19).

This cord is a prototype of Jesus’ blood. John, the apostle, comments on the way in which believers defeated the monster saying: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelations 12:11).
The grace of God was revealed through Jesus on the cross of Calvary. God had warned the adversary that from the woman’s offspring One would be born who would crush his head, and whose heel he would strike (Gen 3:15). Through faith in Jesus, we are separated from the control of the enemy, as Jesus paid the price that our wrongdoings and sins deserved. ‘ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming the curse. As it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree”’ (Galatians 3:13).

We can declare:’ By his grace I am saved, free and clothed with power.

Ezekiel 22:30  
"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand  before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to  destroy it, but I found none."  NIV.

A few days ago I started to study the book of the prophet Ezekiel. The background to the book is that Ezekiel was prophesying during a difficult time for Israel, given that the whole nation had been taken captive by another nation - Babylon, governed by Nebuchadnezzar, as a result of turning their backs on the Lord.  

Ezekiel prophesies about how, in the Old Testament, God was searching for someone who would intercede for Jerusalem. However the Lord found none. I began to understand that there is a great truth locked in the context of this passage which has to do with three themes: prayer, intercession and the government of the 12.  These are key tools with which we can continue to advance and conquer our nation.

Ezekiel says that the Lord looked for a man who would BUILD UP A WALL.  A ‘wall’ according to the dictionary, is an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes. It protects a city from the attack of the enemy. Nehemiah tells us that when Jerusalem fell, the first thing that was demolished were its walls.  

Moreover, the wall represents the Government of 12. Revelations 21:14 says: "The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."  For this reason the word wisely says: "... and I looked for someone who would build up a wall but the Lord found none"  (paraphrased).

One might ask, ‘why could this man that God looked for so earnestly in the Old Testament not be found?’  The answer is simple: God himself had to send his own Son to stand in the gap and to save humanity. Jesus did raise this wall of protection for the world, because he built up a wall through the selection of 12 people.

The twelve disciples were ordinary men, whom God used in an extraordinary way. Among the 12 were fishermen, a tax collector (who worked for the government of the enemy - Rome), and a revolutionary. The Gospels record the constant failings, fights and doubts of these 12 men who followed Jesus Christ.  

After witnessing the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to Heaven, the Holy Spirit transformed the disciples into powerful men of God, who "caused trouble all over the world" (Acts 17:6). What changed?

The 12 disciples "had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13). I hope that the same can be said about us!

But, how did he choose the 12? He chose them through prayer. Luke 6:12-13 says: "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.

Ordinary, normal men were transformed by the Word that Jesus gave them, but above all, it was through intercession that they were transformed. John 17:1; 6-9 says:  "After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed... I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.  I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours."

The twelve disciples and prayer were the means with which the Lord Jesus could impact and change the course of history. They could have become his legacy, and because of them the Gospel could have been spread.

In the book of Acts we're told about the last thing the twelve did and then it speaks only about Paul. Soon after, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD and the Jews were scattered throughout the earth for 1948 years. We could say that the wall - the government of 12 - did not continue, and as a result Jerusalem was destined for destruction. 20 centuries passed by before God again restored this revelation  which Pastor Cesar is passionate about.

This is why we must do what Jesus taught, the Word says that we must walk as he walked (1 John 2:6). We must intercede for God to take us to get twelve people, and that these twelve will reach the other generations so that God would take us to be people of influence who are humble and who are apart from the Law, and about whom people would say: "HERE COME THOSE WHO MAKE TROUBLE IN THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD."

Hi!!! Colombia and Misión Carismática Internacional (MCI) are really living in times where we have seen the hand of God. First we fought a huge battle in the political sphere of our country. It seemed like everybody was against us but after 40 days we gave birth to a large victory, when God selected Juan Manuel Santos as the President of our county: We really felt the labour pains!!! However on a church level we also saw how the heavens opened for evangelism. In one month we held miracle catches every day and we managed to birth the winning of 15 000 new people. We saw God supporting every ministry.

What was the secret?
Two weapons will help you give birth to your dreams and to the promises of God for your life: prayer and the Word of God. For more than 40 days, 24/7 we dedicated ourselves to pray and intercede, with all of our hearts, and we were able to experience what the Word says: the prayer of a righteous accomplishes... but, to pray isn’t to commit ourselves to repeating something day after day, your prayer should be accompanied with passion, an attitude to stand in the gap, faith that God is working, and perseverance until you see the miracle, and it has an end or a goal.

Prayer has a lot of power, I know that a lot of people know this, but sometimes as Christians we lose the notion of this awesome truth. Prayer moves the hand of God. Prayer causes the giants to fall. Prayer causes the victories to be great. On occasion I hear people say “My God, what should I do!”

Why do so many complain in the middle of adversity? It is because they aren’t aware of the power of prayer, but not just any prayer, not just that bland, apathetic prayer which is more like a recital than a spiritual weapon. Make prayer a weapon, not a pastime, make prayer the way in which God moves his hand, not the way you complete a spiritual obligation.

The Word is the other way to give birth, but the word directed with purpose. In these days of intercession we have always received the direction of our Pastors Castellanos. They bring the word that guides the intercession. This has been key because prayer has a focus and we see the respond of God.

The word must be accompanied by faith, faith that takes us to give birth to our promises and our dreams. When we meditate on the word of God and we persevere in it we find great delight. This is why the psalmist said that those who meditate on the word with perseverance will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither. WHATEVER he does prospers.

Don’t cry anymore, don’t be sad anymore, allow your dreams to be birthed: the Word and prayer will be key to this. God bless you.