“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8-9
The strategy of the adversary is to make people think that sin is insignificant. He tries to mislead them in their emotions and in their affections to get them involved in wrong relationships. This makes them follow the path of bitterness and frustration. He knows that if he can control a married couple and make them give in, they will be without protection. The main desire of the enemy is to divide couples, to bring confusion to homes, and to destroy families in order to exert control over the family members.
Who is our true enemy? We have to understand that our enemy is a spiritual being created by God, who was in charge of worship in the Heavenly Kingdom. Because of his authority and holy life, he was respected. However, he was the first being who gave place to pride in his heart. His haughtiness made him rise in rebellion against God with an attempt to organize a rebellion.
As a friend and Pastor of mine used to say, everything originated from the moment God planned to create man. God the Father called for a meeting with the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity was speaking about a man created from dirt, but made in God’s image and likeness. He would dominate and rule over all things. This protective cherub, as Satan was known, was prostrated, worshipping the Lord when he heard what the Trinity was planning. Disagreeing inwardly, he said, “I am against God’s idea of creating a being from dirt which will be above me!” He clung to the argument that mud could neither be perfect nor be positioned above him. This made him rise up against God and negatively influence the angels under his own leadership by telling them, “Do you know that God wants to position other beings above us? He intends to make some simple humans, created from the dirt, to rule over us.” This is how he persuaded the majority of the angels to overthrow God in His Kingdom. But the Lord brought fire upon them and consumed them to dust.
Because of this, the Bible says that the adversary became hateful. The indignant angels were kept by God in eternal prisons until the Day of Judgment comes. This angelic being that rebelled against God was expelled from His Kingdom, thus becoming His everlasting enemy. Satan was the first to come to the Garden of Eden, and he succeeded in seducing the woman to disobey the divine mandate. Nevertheless, a permanent war between the adversary and the woman was declared by God. Then, God warned him that she would crush his head, and to her He said that he would bruise the heel. With this, God suggested the coming of the Messiah, who would be born of a woman. When this took place, the head of the enemy would be crushed, though the enemy would bruise the heel. This was what happened when one of the nails was hammered into the feet of Jesus Christ.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
“My sister Jennifer went on a missionary trip to Africa. On her way back, she began to feel sick whilst on the airplane. When she got to Brazil on March 10, 2011, my parents took her to several doctors, who some days later discovered that she had caught three types of malaria in Africa. Doctors warned us that the following forty-eight hours would be critical. She could either recover or die. Twenty-four hours later, doctors said that Jennifer’s body was not responding to the medicines, that her organs were no longer functioning properly, and that she had only a few hours to live. My mother called us all to the city of Curitiba in Brazil to say goodbye to her. While we were there, some people gathered in front of the hospital at nine o’clock at night to raise a cry before God for Jennifer’s life. She was only twenty-two years old. A similar case had never been diagnosed before in Brazil.
When I found out the seriousness of the disease that she had and the high risk of death, I left all of my grief and my desperation at Jesus’ feet. I cried in agony of death, only God knows the depths that my heart suffered. However, I placed all my trust in the blood of Jesus. When I arrived at the Intensive Care Unit, I began to speak in faith. There was no more time to cry for her life, but only to prophesy and declare the power of the blood of Jesus. I still remember Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ declaration of power for that day on Facebook, “The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, gives life back to me and my family.” I cried out to the Lord to exchange her contaminated blood for the blood of Jesus, and to remember the purpose that He had for her life. Suddenly, she showed a very strong reaction. Her chest jumped with the intensity of a mighty wind. When I went out of the ICU, the Holy Spirit filled my heart with joy, and I knew that Jesus had healed her in spite of the fact that my natural eyes could see nothing as of yet.
One of the doctors who was taking care of Jennifer told me that more than 100,000 malaria parasites per blood drop had been found. The following morning, March 16, I spoke with the same doctor once again, who was very surprised because the organs were beginning to function normally, except for her kidneys, her fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit was now lower, and her blood pressure was improving. The miracle was taking place! When I came back in the evening I began to declare that Christ Jesus had made her whole by His blood and that soon she would be out of hospital. I declared this even though she was still in an induced coma. During that night, the fever lowered even more and her heartbeat had returned to normal. I believe that when Jennifer’s body jumped in her bed, God’s breath of life entered her body again. God is real! His Word is true, and He performs impossible miracles again and again. The power of the blood of Jesus defeats death. On the morning of March 18, doctors turned the machines off, because all her organs were functioning normally.
We are grateful to Pastor Cesar Castellanos for his teachings on the power of the blood of Jesus and the power of dreams as well. Thanks to the intercessors, many doctors were surprised at Jennifer’s resurrection. But, the greatest surprise to me was a doctor’s e-mail from the Clinics Hospital in Curitiba.” (Luciana Bonilaure)
Below is the message from Dr. Angelica, who is a professional holding various degrees in Human Genetics issued in Germany:
Dear Luciana,
I work in Curitiba as an investigator, and I obtained my doctorate degree in Human Genetics with the susceptibility to serious malaria of African origin caused by the Plasmodium falciparum. This was the malaria that affected Jennifer, and it is the one that kills most people in the world, mainly kids under five years of age. What happened to Jennifer is most definitely a miracle! An inversion of a multiple organic failure is only possible by a divine intervention.
Warmly, Angelica
Dr. Angelica, Beate Winter Boldt, Sciences of Health Division in Hospitals and Clinics, Federal University of Parana, General Carneiro Street, 181 80060-900 Curitiba, PR- Brazil.
TODAY’S DECLARATION
“My rock, my shield, my strength is the Lord Jesus who keeps me out of the enemy’s reach.”
Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Four.
TODAY’S BIBLE READING
- Old Testament: Jeremiah 26-29; Ecclesiastes 8
- New Testament: John 4:1-14; James 5:7-12
