Welcome to God Today. I so appreciate the God TV leadership team for providing this on a daily basis for the people of the Body of Christ around the nations. Thank you, God TV! My name is Mike Bickle, I am from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. We do 24/7 prayer and worship for 18+ years now.
One of the things that people ask me is, “How do you guys stay motivated to do this?” We have some 100s on our staff and we are mobilized around the clock. We are weak and broken people like everywhere. In the grace of God we’re strong, but in our humanity we are broken. One of the things we deal with commonly, and you do – everyone does. When the devil accuses us, when the devil highlights our failure and tries to get us to cower and draw back in shame – that is one of his absolute most tried and proven strategies. He has been so successful at it, he is so consistent at accusing us, that out of Revelation 12:22, he is called “the accuser”.
He accuses night and day. He tries to get us to relate to God based on how well we’ve done, who we are, and what our track record is. Who we are in the natural. Beloved, that is a lie. We will never be able to be confident and overcome shame if we relate to God based on our track record or who we are in our natural abilities and strength.
Here is the good news. We relate to Him based on who He is and what He did. The word of God makes it clear that there is no condemnation. For a genuine believer, our weaknesses are still there. But, there is a “yes” in our spirit. The grace of God is far stronger than any failure, any sin that we will even stumble in. The devil is a liar. He accuses, he twists the story, he changes the narrative so that we try to relate to God based on what we do. Don’t buy it.
Rebuke and resist the spirit of shame, despair, accusation. We all know those feelings. They are devastating. They make us want to quit. We say what God says. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He delights in showing us mercy. He is love. His cross has provided mercy for everyone of our failures. Beloved, we can run to Him in confidence. We can stand before Him knowing who He is and how He views us through His own grace. If we can live in that reality, we can say goodbye to shame, the spirit of despair, the spirit of accusation and judgment.
That is the way to live, that is the way to live with a heart alive in God. We have to do it. We have to do it everyday because if we don’t do it, the enemy’s narrative gets right in there and it lies to us. I want to encourage you. Stay true to what the Word of God says about you. Lord, I ask you for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Show us what you see and feel when you look at us, through your son Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ name. Amen.