It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Charisma House (May 3, 2011)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Charles D. “Chuck” Pierce has been used by God to intercede and mobilize prayer throughout the world. He is an ordained minister and serves as president of Glory of Zion International Ministries in Denton, Texas. He also serves as president of Global Spheres, Inc., a ministry for apostolic, prophetic, and intercessory leaders. He had a degree in business from Texas A&M and a doctorate of ministry from the Wagner Leadership Institute. He is the author of numerous books, including Possessing Your Inheritance, Redeeming the Time, and Interpreting the Times.Visit the author's website.
SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Times are changing, and we must stay in God’s timing to prosper in a world where the god of this age is attempting to mold you into the blueprint of the day and cause you to look like the world around you. God has called His people to have transformed minds and to be linked to the Head—not to bring up the rear in producing the changes around us. When we are at the right place at the right time, we can break out of confusing, mind-altering powers that war against God and all the blessings He is ready to pour upon us. The author is writing this book to help us understand how to enter a new level of freedom and victory. This book is like a war manual that will help you stay free from the enemy’s vexing power as you journey through life. This installment of the Time trilogy will teach you how to war in time. Your battles are now! God reconciles our past so that our now opens up to our future. Your defeats in a former season will now become the victories and triumphs for your future.Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Charisma House (May 3, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1616382783
ISBN-13: 978-1616382780
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
THERE IS A MOMENT FOR CHANGE
I do not have time for many outlets or hobbies. My life is mostly travel, ministry, prayer, and family. At one time I painted on canvas. That was an enormous outlet. I still do some yard work when I have a Saturday and observe that Pam, my wife, is behind on maintenance. I travel 70 percent of the time, so that is usually my excuse when people ask me what I do. I actually sleep very little (a five-hour-a-day sleep pattern) and spend much of the night (and day) praying for people. I listen daily for my prayer list to form. Usually the Lord keeps ten people on that list each day. These are people in the throes of transition, ensnared by the enemy, or on the verge. My delight is to seek and know God and worship Him on a daily basis.
One diversion I do enjoy is bowling. Actually, I have bowled for forty years. All of my sons bowl, some better than others, and as a ministry we bowl in city, regional, and national competitions. Our teams are Christian influences (most of the time) when we compete.
So why would I be starting this book this way? Recently, we were in competition on a regional level. In the first game of the nine-game competition, my son John Mark bowled a perfect game, a score of three hundred. He has performed this feat several times, so the perfect score was not the real issue. During the game, the Spirit of God impressed me deeply with these words: “There is a moment for change and victory.” I looked at my score—one hundred seventy. I really could not grasp what I was hearing.
Here at Glory of Zion we have corporate prayer on Tuesday mornings. During our next Tuesday prayer, I heard the voice of God speaking again, “There is a moment for change and victory.” I wasn’t leading in the prayer meeting, and this revelation from heaven appeared not to fit, so like Mary, I just pondered this statement.
Tuesday nights, we have five teams in a very competitive regional league. The league is called “The Money League.” This league pays quarterly and is more lucrative than most leagues in the area. I bowl with one of the owners of a pro shop in our area. She and her husband are great friends of ours. She is a devout Jew. So she understands G-d and recognizes His reality.
In the last game of the night, when we were only a few pins behind, I kept missing my mark. I heard the Spirit of God say again, “There is a moment for change and victory.” Immediately I knew! Sometimes you know—you just know! If we were to increase our winnings and supply line, I would have to change. However, the Spirit of God was saying, “I already have the time for this change and the grace for you to shift.”
After we lost by six pins and I was leaving the alley, I looked at Dora and her husband, Fred, one of the best bowlers I know, and said, “I plan on relearning this game. Yes, I have done this for forty years one way, but there is a moment for me to change, and now is the time.” I knew I would have to change my entire game—my approach, my rotation, the ball, my stance, my release, my timing, and most importantly, my brain. However, I knew that there was a moment, and I did not want to miss this change, even if I had to fail at the beginning to increase at the end.
I am a right hander, but I learned to throw the ball as a left-hand bowler. When you are right-hand dominant and you bowl like that, you throw a back-up ball. This ball looks like a left-hander’s ball, but you are using your right hand. Now God was saying, “There is a moment for change and victory if you will allow Me to reorder your thoughts and movement. If you submit, you will increase! You can continue to try to back up or face forward, reposition, and learn to go forward in a new way.”
For the mind to break out of the last season’s mentality, there is war. Whether bowling or worshiping or learning a new system or way of doing things, there is war! The war is over a greater portion, an increase, a new way to prosper.
As you read this book, pursue this concept in every area of your life; be prepared to enter into your future. Be expectant! When I asked John Mark, “Why do you bowl so well?” he said, “Every time that I begin a game, I see myself bowling three hundred! I may not always bowl a perfect game, but I expect to do so!” In the next chapter, we will discuss expectations.
Time and space are two of the most interesting and difficult concepts to grasp as you move through your life journey. We are in time, but God is not. Though some of us may feel that we were born out of time, we have been set in time and place to understand our Creator and what He created us to accomplish. Acts 17:26 says, “He has . . . determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” When you are in time correctly, you can grasp God and His purpose for your life.
Times are changing, and we must stay in God’s timing to prosper in a world where the god of this age desires to mold you into the blueprint of the day and cause you to look like the world around you. But we are called to have transformed minds and be linked to the Head—not to bring up the rear in producing the changes around us. Even righteous
Lot was vexed because of his environment in Sodom. When we are at the right place at the right time we can break out of vexing, confusing, mind-altering powers that war against the covenant of holy God and all of the blessings He is ready to pour upon us.
In this season, you must know your belief system. What do you believe in? Whom do you believe in? Everyone has some sort of belief system that they develop for their life. Mine is the Word of God. In this season we must rehearse the Word. What revelation has come to you? That is what you use to war in the world around you. We must meditate on what God says until the power of that revelation enters our bloodstream and cell structure. We also must learn to worship and minister in our homes. Doing so will allow our gifts to be activated in a new way in small groups. When the time comes that we are not free to worship publicly in our church buildings, we will already know how to continue worshiping in our homes. Take the points below and use them to speak into your life and the environment around you.
I Believe the Bible Is the Word of God
I am asked often, “What do you believe?”
This summarizes my belief system: Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Therefore I contend that if faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, then for those who are lost, faith to be saved comes by hearing the Word of God, and for those who are already saved, faith to continue on to spiritual maturity comes by hearing the Word of God.
I believe Father God came as Spirit and hovered over a virgin and impregnated her. I believe the Son was then born to this virgin named Mary and grew in stature and favor with man. I believe that He came unto His own but His own did not receive Him. I believe that He overcame the power of sin in this world and withstood all temptations that would be known to man. He presented who Father was to mankind. He then submitted Himself to Father’s plan, for me. He was then sacrificed, that I could be redeemed from the power of sin. I believe that He overcame death, hell, and the graveand now sits at the right hand of the Father. I believe His Spirit dwells among us to give us the same power to overcome all temptation, sin, and decay of the world.
I believe that I can be a son and receive a full inheritance from Him. I believe that the miracle-working power that was displayed by Jesus Christ, the Messiah, as He rose from the dead is now working in the world today. It is available to each and every one who will submit to the cross he or she has been given. This power enables us to unlock our futures and walk in overcoming victory.
I believe His power is working in the earth to align and redeem nations, forming a joyful house of prayer for each ethnic group. I believe this power continues to work to make Gentiles and Jews into one new man who will be presented to the Father. I believe that if I give my best, monthly, to Him, I will move from blessing to blessing until blessings overtake me.
War With Your Prophetic Word
The Word of God endures forever (Isa. 40:8; Ps. 119:89). The world cannot overcome the power of God’s life-giving Word when released through the spirit of man. The Spirit of God breathing on His Word makes His Word life and power. This Word is not bound by time but transcends from generation to generation and beyond. The deeds of the Word can be shared as a testament from one person and will affect the generations to come. The Word produces works—divine revelation and requirements that we believe will manifest. The Word is synonymous with speech, command, promise, and prophecy. Therefore we must speak the Word or utter our belief. Prophetic utterance is vision being released. “Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish” (Prov. 29:18, amp). Vision produces faith. Within our vision is the allotment for our provision.
Faith Develops and Increases
Faith is linked with an object. This book centers on a holy living God who sent His Son as His perfect reflection for us to believe, just as the prophets have prophesied and the Scriptures have been written. We do not seek God just for information; we seek God so we can respond and relate to Him. God is not important unless He is the supreme importance of our life.
Faith is not the same as belief. Faith is sensitivity, understanding, engagement, and attachment. We can gain more understanding of the object of our faith, or we can resist His plan and lose what we once acquired. A good example is the generation that left Egypt (Ps. 78:14–32; Isa. 63:17). Faith includes faithfulness, strength of waiting, the acceptance of His concealment, and the defiance of history (Isa. 26:13). Faith is preceded by awe or fear—the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10). Without faith, we cannot please God.
Faith is like the numbers of a combination lock. We have many promises, but without combining and mixing those promises with faith, we cannot open up the way to enter the promise. Every time our faith soars, we gain a secret that is like one of the numbers that is necessary to open the combination lock. The secrets of God are with those who fear and reverence Him in worship. Psalm 25:12–15 says:
Who is the man that fears the Lord?
Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
We must learn to see the miracles that are daily with us. There are signposts all along our path. By faith, signs illuminate and keep our path bright. These signposts are like streetlights that guide us through a dark neighborhood. Because “faith cometh,” we must open our eyes to where we are going (Prov. 14:15).
Our faith is linked with the submission of our will. We must learn how to let His will prevail. The will wars against faith. Until the will is yielded, you cannot secure your desire. Our faith is not just our concern but is also His concern. Only in His light do we see light.
Through His Word, we have power to overcome the enemy’s plan. This season is supernatural! I am a pray-er and love to meet corporately with others to pray. Each time we meet for corporate prayer, we discuss what the Lord was saying from heaven and prophesying to us during the week. Then we pray. We watch and war with this revelation. First Timothy 1:18 admonishes us, “According to the prophecies previously made concerning you . . . you may wage the good warfare.”
God’s people must leave religion and their natural way of battle and enter this supernatural season with sharpened weapons. This is a season of breaking new ground, a time for us to gain new vision. For you to see the necessary action for breakthrough, you must extend your hand through the darkness and into the heavenly realm. You will touch God in a new way. That divine touch is like lightning connecting from one world to this world. You become God’s lightning rod. The Lord will give you strength by touching you with His hand. He will release the sword of revelation, which will connect with you to do war. Every dark, evil, watching force cannot hide when His light invades the realm of Earth and illuminates your spirit with revelation. Revelation produces faith, and faith overcomes.
Lift Your Hands for a Fresh Touch
Prophecy is the life flow of God’s voice and heart to His people and the earth realm. Recently I heard Him say, “Do not let your hands grow slack at this time. Slack hands will not be able to grab the weapon that is needed to defeat the enemy. I am bringing new strength into your hands. Your hands will be free as you ready yourself for the battle ahead. There’s a new watchman call that I’m placing upon My people, and they will stand, observe, and see in ways they’ve not seen before. They will know the order when things are not in order. You must be able to watch and see the slightest ‘out of order’ issue that would keep Me from moving you and yours forward. Don’t major on minors but see with My eyes, for I am setting many bodies in order. One of these is yours! I am setting groups in order. I am setting towns in order, and I am setting cities in new order. This is not a time for slack hands. This is not a time for manipulation and rearrangement or justification. You must see the way I see things; otherwise you will find yourself saying, ‘What happened to the glory in my boundaries?’ Raise up your slack hands now, and I will energize them, and you will be ready for the battle ahead.”
I am writing this book to help us understand how to take a word like this and enter a new level of freedom and victory. This book is the third of a series. The first two books, Interpreting the Times and Redeeming the Time, helped us to understand time. This third book is to extend a call to you. This call is for you to prosper. This call is for you to soar above all the atmospheric forces around you that would rob your faith and vision. This call is to withstand and overcome the vexing power of an enemy who opposes God in you—the Hope of Glory! Throughout this book, I want to encourage your spirit man to rise up and be filled with His Spirit. Look at your hands now and say, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO PROSPER!” This book is like a war manual that will help you stay free from the enemy’s vexing power as you journey through life.
War in Time
This installment of the Time trilogy will teach you how to war in time. Your battles are now! Your battle is not in the past. Some of what you are warring through originated in your past. But God is one who reconciles our past so that our now opens up to our future. He will bring your past in front of you so your defeats in a former season will now become the victories and triumphs for your future. This book is meant to educate and encourage you on how the enemy attempts to deflate your spirit man so you cannot soar in the heavenlies with the One who paid the price to make you free to rise to your royal state.
In a crisis season, the strategies of heaven must invade your sphere of authority! Everyone has a portion. You have been positioned in a sphere of authority. You must understand your sphere of authority and know how to operate with others in that sphere. It is from this sphere that you will watch the formation of your new. A sphere is a circuit of motion, revolution, or orbit. A sphere is also defined as a vast expanse where your heavenly realm appears. My favorite definition of sphere is “a circuit of action, knowledge, or influence that is both linked to the functional area of your involvement and every territory that is affected by you exercising authority.” Within this expanse is an order of society that you can influence. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul talks about what his sphere of influence includes and where he does not have certain authority to rule. This is where you enter the new!
For you to see what is happening new around you, you must shake off all discouragement, disillusionment, and disinterest. You must tell your emotions not to resist the new. You must believe that God has more for you. In other words, your latter can be greater than your former! You must go up into a new spiritual realm. Actually, you must go beyond where you have been in the past.
As you read this book, I will be addressing each of the points that I will briefly outline below.
Ten Key Revelatory War Points
1. How to enter the new season that has begun It takes a war to break out of one season and enter another. We all go through transition times. (I write several chapters on this in the other two Time books.) Every transition time has three phases, and each phase has a warfare element involved. John the Baptist was a transitional prophet between the old covenant and new covenant. He announced in the wilderness who was coming. Jesus served the world transitionally between the wilderness of the old covenant and through the warfare of the cross of redemption up to the time when the Holy Spirit came to be our advocate in the world. In our lives, transitional times are filled with warfare but lead to the breaking of a new day (Ps. 110).
The Word of God is written from a Hebrew perspective. In Hebraic terms, we have entered a season linked with the number 70. This book is being written as we proceed into 2010. In the Hebrew perspective, the year is 5770. (This will be explained in detail as you read.) The number 70 in Hebrew is ayin. In Hebrew, ayin means “eye.” In the season of ayin, or “the eye,” God will create new vision in you for your life, family, ministry, and land where you are positioned. All seventies are linked with breaking captivity from one season and entering a realm of greater freedom. As you refresh and clear your conscience, you will see clearly. Holy Spirit is ready to give us Father’s eyes to see the world around us. I will explain other seasons as you proceed in the book.
2. How to see and open your eyes to a greater dimension of the demonic realm you will see beyond the dark structures that attempt to produce fear in your life. You will move in faith against what you have discerned and view your battles from God’s heavenly perspective. You will say, “I now see what was attempting to discourage and stop me from advancing.” When you see these foes in a new way, you will not be overwhelmed. Remember, Elijah saw the “word and the demon gods” that Jezebel was aligned with and ran from his position of authority. (See 1 Kings 19:1–3.) His actions postponed the Lord’s plan to change the government of Israel. You will learn to see and take your stand against what has opposed you from having victory.
3. How to hear the Spirit of God You will begin to perceive the prophetic revelation you need to break forth. While you are praying, Yeshua, who is at the right hand of the Father, will open the way for you to have an audience with the King. He will hear and respond. You will become alert and look again at what He has already said to you in the past seasons. He will refresh you with His voice, and you will gain the revelation you need now to see a manifestation of His grace and promise in your life. You will progress in your spiritual life and process. The Spirit of God is ready to manifest in new ways.
4. How to colabor with angels and ministering spirits God has released engineering and conducting angels. The Spirit of God wants many things engineered (as in construction) and conducted (as in electricity) in this season. We are entering into a new building season. To build means to add “sons and daughters” to what is being built. There is a new apostolic leadership arising to lead the body of Christ into this kingdom season. The apostolic leaders who are being raised up today will be downloading heaven’s building plan for His kingdom projects. Invite these angels as messengers to bring God’s plans. Angels will be ministering to us with fire in this new season. We will see great demonstrations of power, including unusual miracles.
5. How to receive your new assignment and go forth into new mission fields God will be sending some of His people into dark structures. Do not fear the darkness. He will give you night vision to see a path of righteousness through any unrighteous structure. This will be like moving in the Gulf Stream through normal ocean currents. The Gulf Stream is a warm stream that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, goes through the Florida Straits, and then moves into the colder waters of the Atlantic Ocean. God is parting waters. Dark spirits that have stopped us from advancing in certain areas to bring forth the harvest commission of the Son will now let go of harvest gates. First Corinthians 16:9, which says, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries,” will become a reality in this season. The Word of God will enter places that have been closed and groups of people who have resisted freedom. Demon forces will part like the Red Sea and will be held back while God’s children go into their new assignments.
6. How to see and get into the next move of God Do not look at just jumping in the river in this season, but go to the source—the place where the river is beginning. Go to the high places. Topple old thrones of iniquity, follow the river down, and break all dammed structures. Find the supply sources that have been withheld from you in the last season. God is opening your eyes to see those in need. A new move of God initiated by compassion is being released in the earth. This move will be filled with healing power. Entire neighborhoods, tribes, and cultures will experience a power release. Heaven will and is now invading your atmosphere and is filling your mouth with the Word that will transform cultures, structures, and territories.
7. How to express joy in a new way There is a shout rising from us that will cause God to meet us with His shout. He will open the fountains of the deep to release the revelation about how we are to enlarge our tents and walk forward in this season. There is a shout deep in your belly where the springs of living waters exist. Play skillfully with this shout as it rises and flows from your mouth. (See Psalm 33.) There is a new drink (spring) bubbling up within us that will expel bitterness, pain, and sorrow. How do we get joy unblocked and flowing in a new way and gain strength for our future? This is not a time to grieve. His joy will be your strength! When the Lord had determined to relieve Saul of his kingly duties, Samuel grieved over the loss of what could have been. Therefore the Lord asked Samuel a question: “How long will you grieve?” Grief moves us from shock to denial through the pain and guilt of the past season. We move up and down the emotional scale from anger to depression to bargaining to reflection to loneliness. We forget that God’s plan is for “joy to come in the morning”!
8. How to gain new vision and see your provision God will open our eyes to things we could not see in the last season so that He can activate the vision within us and finish what He has begun in us. He is Alpha and Omega. Alpha will show you how to begin what needs to be finished. Omega will show you how to walk things to the end. Poverty and infirmity blind our vision. Therefore, you will overcome and disconnect these two demonic spirits’ handshakes and enter into new thought processes.
9. How to have a renewed mind and a restored, alive human spirit filled with Holy Spirit
There is a path of freedom. There is a path of deliverance that leads to your destiny. God is making our minds new. The crowns you received in the last season need to be cast at His feet. Those crowns were meant to be given to our Lord and not worn into this season. He is fitting us and giving us new crowns to present to Him. He is putting new turbans on
our heads and developing a new mind-set for a new season. Your spirit was meant to soar! We must learn to have a soaring spirit.
10. How to understand the enemy’s vexing power How do you detect a curse working against you? How do you discern a vexing power that is stopping the anointing within you from flowing and breaking you into the prosperity that God has for you? How do you break the powers that have fragmented you and kept you from expressing God’s plan of wholeness and His holy character in your life? You will see Babylon arise in a new way. Do not fear. The kingdoms of the world are becoming His. This will happen as we are sent, as Daniel was, to be the greatest influencers in the Babylonian system. Dark watchers exist to colabor with familiar and familial spirits in our lives. You will see the dark watchers. You will be delivered from familial spirits that are holding iniquitous family patterns in place.
I do not have time for many outlets or hobbies. My life is mostly travel, ministry, prayer, and family. At one time I painted on canvas. That was an enormous outlet. I still do some yard work when I have a Saturday and observe that Pam, my wife, is behind on maintenance. I travel 70 percent of the time, so that is usually my excuse when people ask me what I do. I actually sleep very little (a five-hour-a-day sleep pattern) and spend much of the night (and day) praying for people. I listen daily for my prayer list to form. Usually the Lord keeps ten people on that list each day. These are people in the throes of transition, ensnared by the enemy, or on the verge. My delight is to seek and know God and worship Him on a daily basis.
One diversion I do enjoy is bowling. Actually, I have bowled for forty years. All of my sons bowl, some better than others, and as a ministry we bowl in city, regional, and national competitions. Our teams are Christian influences (most of the time) when we compete.
So why would I be starting this book this way? Recently, we were in competition on a regional level. In the first game of the nine-game competition, my son John Mark bowled a perfect game, a score of three hundred. He has performed this feat several times, so the perfect score was not the real issue. During the game, the Spirit of God impressed me deeply with these words: “There is a moment for change and victory.” I looked at my score—one hundred seventy. I really could not grasp what I was hearing.
Here at Glory of Zion we have corporate prayer on Tuesday mornings. During our next Tuesday prayer, I heard the voice of God speaking again, “There is a moment for change and victory.” I wasn’t leading in the prayer meeting, and this revelation from heaven appeared not to fit, so like Mary, I just pondered this statement.
Tuesday nights, we have five teams in a very competitive regional league. The league is called “The Money League.” This league pays quarterly and is more lucrative than most leagues in the area. I bowl with one of the owners of a pro shop in our area. She and her husband are great friends of ours. She is a devout Jew. So she understands G-d and recognizes His reality.
In the last game of the night, when we were only a few pins behind, I kept missing my mark. I heard the Spirit of God say again, “There is a moment for change and victory.” Immediately I knew! Sometimes you know—you just know! If we were to increase our winnings and supply line, I would have to change. However, the Spirit of God was saying, “I already have the time for this change and the grace for you to shift.”
After we lost by six pins and I was leaving the alley, I looked at Dora and her husband, Fred, one of the best bowlers I know, and said, “I plan on relearning this game. Yes, I have done this for forty years one way, but there is a moment for me to change, and now is the time.” I knew I would have to change my entire game—my approach, my rotation, the ball, my stance, my release, my timing, and most importantly, my brain. However, I knew that there was a moment, and I did not want to miss this change, even if I had to fail at the beginning to increase at the end.
I am a right hander, but I learned to throw the ball as a left-hand bowler. When you are right-hand dominant and you bowl like that, you throw a back-up ball. This ball looks like a left-hander’s ball, but you are using your right hand. Now God was saying, “There is a moment for change and victory if you will allow Me to reorder your thoughts and movement. If you submit, you will increase! You can continue to try to back up or face forward, reposition, and learn to go forward in a new way.”
For the mind to break out of the last season’s mentality, there is war. Whether bowling or worshiping or learning a new system or way of doing things, there is war! The war is over a greater portion, an increase, a new way to prosper.
As you read this book, pursue this concept in every area of your life; be prepared to enter into your future. Be expectant! When I asked John Mark, “Why do you bowl so well?” he said, “Every time that I begin a game, I see myself bowling three hundred! I may not always bowl a perfect game, but I expect to do so!” In the next chapter, we will discuss expectations.
Time and space are two of the most interesting and difficult concepts to grasp as you move through your life journey. We are in time, but God is not. Though some of us may feel that we were born out of time, we have been set in time and place to understand our Creator and what He created us to accomplish. Acts 17:26 says, “He has . . . determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” When you are in time correctly, you can grasp God and His purpose for your life.
Times are changing, and we must stay in God’s timing to prosper in a world where the god of this age desires to mold you into the blueprint of the day and cause you to look like the world around you. But we are called to have transformed minds and be linked to the Head—not to bring up the rear in producing the changes around us. Even righteous
Lot was vexed because of his environment in Sodom. When we are at the right place at the right time we can break out of vexing, confusing, mind-altering powers that war against the covenant of holy God and all of the blessings He is ready to pour upon us.
In this season, you must know your belief system. What do you believe in? Whom do you believe in? Everyone has some sort of belief system that they develop for their life. Mine is the Word of God. In this season we must rehearse the Word. What revelation has come to you? That is what you use to war in the world around you. We must meditate on what God says until the power of that revelation enters our bloodstream and cell structure. We also must learn to worship and minister in our homes. Doing so will allow our gifts to be activated in a new way in small groups. When the time comes that we are not free to worship publicly in our church buildings, we will already know how to continue worshiping in our homes. Take the points below and use them to speak into your life and the environment around you.
I Believe the Bible Is the Word of God
I am asked often, “What do you believe?”
This summarizes my belief system: Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Therefore I contend that if faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, then for those who are lost, faith to be saved comes by hearing the Word of God, and for those who are already saved, faith to continue on to spiritual maturity comes by hearing the Word of God.
I believe Father God came as Spirit and hovered over a virgin and impregnated her. I believe the Son was then born to this virgin named Mary and grew in stature and favor with man. I believe that He came unto His own but His own did not receive Him. I believe that He overcame the power of sin in this world and withstood all temptations that would be known to man. He presented who Father was to mankind. He then submitted Himself to Father’s plan, for me. He was then sacrificed, that I could be redeemed from the power of sin. I believe that He overcame death, hell, and the graveand now sits at the right hand of the Father. I believe His Spirit dwells among us to give us the same power to overcome all temptation, sin, and decay of the world.
I believe that I can be a son and receive a full inheritance from Him. I believe that the miracle-working power that was displayed by Jesus Christ, the Messiah, as He rose from the dead is now working in the world today. It is available to each and every one who will submit to the cross he or she has been given. This power enables us to unlock our futures and walk in overcoming victory.
I believe His power is working in the earth to align and redeem nations, forming a joyful house of prayer for each ethnic group. I believe this power continues to work to make Gentiles and Jews into one new man who will be presented to the Father. I believe that if I give my best, monthly, to Him, I will move from blessing to blessing until blessings overtake me.
War With Your Prophetic Word
The Word of God endures forever (Isa. 40:8; Ps. 119:89). The world cannot overcome the power of God’s life-giving Word when released through the spirit of man. The Spirit of God breathing on His Word makes His Word life and power. This Word is not bound by time but transcends from generation to generation and beyond. The deeds of the Word can be shared as a testament from one person and will affect the generations to come. The Word produces works—divine revelation and requirements that we believe will manifest. The Word is synonymous with speech, command, promise, and prophecy. Therefore we must speak the Word or utter our belief. Prophetic utterance is vision being released. “Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish” (Prov. 29:18, amp). Vision produces faith. Within our vision is the allotment for our provision.
Faith Develops and Increases
Faith is linked with an object. This book centers on a holy living God who sent His Son as His perfect reflection for us to believe, just as the prophets have prophesied and the Scriptures have been written. We do not seek God just for information; we seek God so we can respond and relate to Him. God is not important unless He is the supreme importance of our life.
Faith is not the same as belief. Faith is sensitivity, understanding, engagement, and attachment. We can gain more understanding of the object of our faith, or we can resist His plan and lose what we once acquired. A good example is the generation that left Egypt (Ps. 78:14–32; Isa. 63:17). Faith includes faithfulness, strength of waiting, the acceptance of His concealment, and the defiance of history (Isa. 26:13). Faith is preceded by awe or fear—the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10). Without faith, we cannot please God.
Faith is like the numbers of a combination lock. We have many promises, but without combining and mixing those promises with faith, we cannot open up the way to enter the promise. Every time our faith soars, we gain a secret that is like one of the numbers that is necessary to open the combination lock. The secrets of God are with those who fear and reverence Him in worship. Psalm 25:12–15 says:
Who is the man that fears the Lord?
Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
We must learn to see the miracles that are daily with us. There are signposts all along our path. By faith, signs illuminate and keep our path bright. These signposts are like streetlights that guide us through a dark neighborhood. Because “faith cometh,” we must open our eyes to where we are going (Prov. 14:15).
Our faith is linked with the submission of our will. We must learn how to let His will prevail. The will wars against faith. Until the will is yielded, you cannot secure your desire. Our faith is not just our concern but is also His concern. Only in His light do we see light.
Through His Word, we have power to overcome the enemy’s plan. This season is supernatural! I am a pray-er and love to meet corporately with others to pray. Each time we meet for corporate prayer, we discuss what the Lord was saying from heaven and prophesying to us during the week. Then we pray. We watch and war with this revelation. First Timothy 1:18 admonishes us, “According to the prophecies previously made concerning you . . . you may wage the good warfare.”
God’s people must leave religion and their natural way of battle and enter this supernatural season with sharpened weapons. This is a season of breaking new ground, a time for us to gain new vision. For you to see the necessary action for breakthrough, you must extend your hand through the darkness and into the heavenly realm. You will touch God in a new way. That divine touch is like lightning connecting from one world to this world. You become God’s lightning rod. The Lord will give you strength by touching you with His hand. He will release the sword of revelation, which will connect with you to do war. Every dark, evil, watching force cannot hide when His light invades the realm of Earth and illuminates your spirit with revelation. Revelation produces faith, and faith overcomes.
Lift Your Hands for a Fresh Touch
Prophecy is the life flow of God’s voice and heart to His people and the earth realm. Recently I heard Him say, “Do not let your hands grow slack at this time. Slack hands will not be able to grab the weapon that is needed to defeat the enemy. I am bringing new strength into your hands. Your hands will be free as you ready yourself for the battle ahead. There’s a new watchman call that I’m placing upon My people, and they will stand, observe, and see in ways they’ve not seen before. They will know the order when things are not in order. You must be able to watch and see the slightest ‘out of order’ issue that would keep Me from moving you and yours forward. Don’t major on minors but see with My eyes, for I am setting many bodies in order. One of these is yours! I am setting groups in order. I am setting towns in order, and I am setting cities in new order. This is not a time for slack hands. This is not a time for manipulation and rearrangement or justification. You must see the way I see things; otherwise you will find yourself saying, ‘What happened to the glory in my boundaries?’ Raise up your slack hands now, and I will energize them, and you will be ready for the battle ahead.”
I am writing this book to help us understand how to take a word like this and enter a new level of freedom and victory. This book is the third of a series. The first two books, Interpreting the Times and Redeeming the Time, helped us to understand time. This third book is to extend a call to you. This call is for you to prosper. This call is for you to soar above all the atmospheric forces around you that would rob your faith and vision. This call is to withstand and overcome the vexing power of an enemy who opposes God in you—the Hope of Glory! Throughout this book, I want to encourage your spirit man to rise up and be filled with His Spirit. Look at your hands now and say, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO PROSPER!” This book is like a war manual that will help you stay free from the enemy’s vexing power as you journey through life.
War in Time
This installment of the Time trilogy will teach you how to war in time. Your battles are now! Your battle is not in the past. Some of what you are warring through originated in your past. But God is one who reconciles our past so that our now opens up to our future. He will bring your past in front of you so your defeats in a former season will now become the victories and triumphs for your future. This book is meant to educate and encourage you on how the enemy attempts to deflate your spirit man so you cannot soar in the heavenlies with the One who paid the price to make you free to rise to your royal state.
In a crisis season, the strategies of heaven must invade your sphere of authority! Everyone has a portion. You have been positioned in a sphere of authority. You must understand your sphere of authority and know how to operate with others in that sphere. It is from this sphere that you will watch the formation of your new. A sphere is a circuit of motion, revolution, or orbit. A sphere is also defined as a vast expanse where your heavenly realm appears. My favorite definition of sphere is “a circuit of action, knowledge, or influence that is both linked to the functional area of your involvement and every territory that is affected by you exercising authority.” Within this expanse is an order of society that you can influence. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul talks about what his sphere of influence includes and where he does not have certain authority to rule. This is where you enter the new!
For you to see what is happening new around you, you must shake off all discouragement, disillusionment, and disinterest. You must tell your emotions not to resist the new. You must believe that God has more for you. In other words, your latter can be greater than your former! You must go up into a new spiritual realm. Actually, you must go beyond where you have been in the past.
As you read this book, I will be addressing each of the points that I will briefly outline below.
Ten Key Revelatory War Points
1. How to enter the new season that has begun It takes a war to break out of one season and enter another. We all go through transition times. (I write several chapters on this in the other two Time books.) Every transition time has three phases, and each phase has a warfare element involved. John the Baptist was a transitional prophet between the old covenant and new covenant. He announced in the wilderness who was coming. Jesus served the world transitionally between the wilderness of the old covenant and through the warfare of the cross of redemption up to the time when the Holy Spirit came to be our advocate in the world. In our lives, transitional times are filled with warfare but lead to the breaking of a new day (Ps. 110).
The Word of God is written from a Hebrew perspective. In Hebraic terms, we have entered a season linked with the number 70. This book is being written as we proceed into 2010. In the Hebrew perspective, the year is 5770. (This will be explained in detail as you read.) The number 70 in Hebrew is ayin. In Hebrew, ayin means “eye.” In the season of ayin, or “the eye,” God will create new vision in you for your life, family, ministry, and land where you are positioned. All seventies are linked with breaking captivity from one season and entering a realm of greater freedom. As you refresh and clear your conscience, you will see clearly. Holy Spirit is ready to give us Father’s eyes to see the world around us. I will explain other seasons as you proceed in the book.
2. How to see and open your eyes to a greater dimension of the demonic realm you will see beyond the dark structures that attempt to produce fear in your life. You will move in faith against what you have discerned and view your battles from God’s heavenly perspective. You will say, “I now see what was attempting to discourage and stop me from advancing.” When you see these foes in a new way, you will not be overwhelmed. Remember, Elijah saw the “word and the demon gods” that Jezebel was aligned with and ran from his position of authority. (See 1 Kings 19:1–3.) His actions postponed the Lord’s plan to change the government of Israel. You will learn to see and take your stand against what has opposed you from having victory.
3. How to hear the Spirit of God You will begin to perceive the prophetic revelation you need to break forth. While you are praying, Yeshua, who is at the right hand of the Father, will open the way for you to have an audience with the King. He will hear and respond. You will become alert and look again at what He has already said to you in the past seasons. He will refresh you with His voice, and you will gain the revelation you need now to see a manifestation of His grace and promise in your life. You will progress in your spiritual life and process. The Spirit of God is ready to manifest in new ways.
4. How to colabor with angels and ministering spirits God has released engineering and conducting angels. The Spirit of God wants many things engineered (as in construction) and conducted (as in electricity) in this season. We are entering into a new building season. To build means to add “sons and daughters” to what is being built. There is a new apostolic leadership arising to lead the body of Christ into this kingdom season. The apostolic leaders who are being raised up today will be downloading heaven’s building plan for His kingdom projects. Invite these angels as messengers to bring God’s plans. Angels will be ministering to us with fire in this new season. We will see great demonstrations of power, including unusual miracles.
5. How to receive your new assignment and go forth into new mission fields God will be sending some of His people into dark structures. Do not fear the darkness. He will give you night vision to see a path of righteousness through any unrighteous structure. This will be like moving in the Gulf Stream through normal ocean currents. The Gulf Stream is a warm stream that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, goes through the Florida Straits, and then moves into the colder waters of the Atlantic Ocean. God is parting waters. Dark spirits that have stopped us from advancing in certain areas to bring forth the harvest commission of the Son will now let go of harvest gates. First Corinthians 16:9, which says, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries,” will become a reality in this season. The Word of God will enter places that have been closed and groups of people who have resisted freedom. Demon forces will part like the Red Sea and will be held back while God’s children go into their new assignments.
6. How to see and get into the next move of God Do not look at just jumping in the river in this season, but go to the source—the place where the river is beginning. Go to the high places. Topple old thrones of iniquity, follow the river down, and break all dammed structures. Find the supply sources that have been withheld from you in the last season. God is opening your eyes to see those in need. A new move of God initiated by compassion is being released in the earth. This move will be filled with healing power. Entire neighborhoods, tribes, and cultures will experience a power release. Heaven will and is now invading your atmosphere and is filling your mouth with the Word that will transform cultures, structures, and territories.
7. How to express joy in a new way There is a shout rising from us that will cause God to meet us with His shout. He will open the fountains of the deep to release the revelation about how we are to enlarge our tents and walk forward in this season. There is a shout deep in your belly where the springs of living waters exist. Play skillfully with this shout as it rises and flows from your mouth. (See Psalm 33.) There is a new drink (spring) bubbling up within us that will expel bitterness, pain, and sorrow. How do we get joy unblocked and flowing in a new way and gain strength for our future? This is not a time to grieve. His joy will be your strength! When the Lord had determined to relieve Saul of his kingly duties, Samuel grieved over the loss of what could have been. Therefore the Lord asked Samuel a question: “How long will you grieve?” Grief moves us from shock to denial through the pain and guilt of the past season. We move up and down the emotional scale from anger to depression to bargaining to reflection to loneliness. We forget that God’s plan is for “joy to come in the morning”!
8. How to gain new vision and see your provision God will open our eyes to things we could not see in the last season so that He can activate the vision within us and finish what He has begun in us. He is Alpha and Omega. Alpha will show you how to begin what needs to be finished. Omega will show you how to walk things to the end. Poverty and infirmity blind our vision. Therefore, you will overcome and disconnect these two demonic spirits’ handshakes and enter into new thought processes.
9. How to have a renewed mind and a restored, alive human spirit filled with Holy Spirit
There is a path of freedom. There is a path of deliverance that leads to your destiny. God is making our minds new. The crowns you received in the last season need to be cast at His feet. Those crowns were meant to be given to our Lord and not worn into this season. He is fitting us and giving us new crowns to present to Him. He is putting new turbans on
our heads and developing a new mind-set for a new season. Your spirit was meant to soar! We must learn to have a soaring spirit.
10. How to understand the enemy’s vexing power How do you detect a curse working against you? How do you discern a vexing power that is stopping the anointing within you from flowing and breaking you into the prosperity that God has for you? How do you break the powers that have fragmented you and kept you from expressing God’s plan of wholeness and His holy character in your life? You will see Babylon arise in a new way. Do not fear. The kingdoms of the world are becoming His. This will happen as we are sent, as Daniel was, to be the greatest influencers in the Babylonian system. Dark watchers exist to colabor with familiar and familial spirits in our lives. You will see the dark watchers. You will be delivered from familial spirits that are holding iniquitous family patterns in place.
Here is my review of this terrific read on spiritual warfare:
First of all, I would like to extend a heartfelt “Thank you” to Chuck Pierce and his publisher for sending me a copy of "Time to Defeat the Devil" to review for them. I am truly grateful for this generosity. I really appreciate the time, effort and expense it takes to make a reviewer copy available to me.
“Time To Defeat the Devil” by Chuck D. Pierce is a comprehensive Bible study/tactical manual for engaging in the Christian life. Although this volume is specifically geared toward the subject matter of spiritual warfare, it becomes very plain very quickly that every Christian is already engaged in a battle on this plane. The objective is to develop a warrior lifestyle rather than to approach specific events or circumstances as if they are a battle.
I would have liked to see this book be more interactive with the reader. Although a fascinating read with valuable information, I believe this text will only appeal to a more mature Christian audience, and this material needs to get out to the masses.
Comments