"Who Will You Serve? Learning to Walk Out Your Spiritual Authority"

Prophets are often living parables, walking out and experiencing a prophetic word firsthand, before they are released to communicate that specific prophetic word. This is why so many strange and unusual circumstances happen to them. It is not just another strange and bewildering incident that occurs, but the Lord is divinely ordering their steps for this very purpose. Somewhere, somehow, God is in that situation with a potent word, not just to the prophet, but also through the prophet.

From a Heart of Stone to a Heart of Flesh

One day, I was led by the Spirit to pray a specific prayer over myself for (what seemed like) no particular reason at all. I began to call out daily to the Lord to "Create in me a clean heart" (Ps. 51:10). I couldn't point to anything outrageously wrong with my heart at the time, but then nobody really knows their own heart except God alone. Jeremiah wrote, "The heart is deceitful above all things..." (Jer. 17:9) – mostly because we can't see what's in there until the light of God comes and reveals it.

After finishing a conference in Perth, Australia, I had a powerful encounter from the Lord in the middle of the night, and what happened next explained why I had been led to pray what I prayed.

In this encounter, He picked me up out of my bed in the most tender embrace. While He did so, something from Him tangibly dropped into my heart. I'm not referring to my physical heart, but to my inner man and the very core of my being. I was absolutely undone like I've never been before. Until that exact moment, I was completely unaware that my heart had half died until it was resurrected by that powerful encounter. Sadly, my heart had turned to stone and I didn't even know it (Ezek. 36:26).

What caused my heart to die like that? I learned later how I had subconsciously deadened my own heart in response to pain, grief, betrayal, and so much more. When your heart dies and turns to stone, you don't feel this happening to you. As a matter of fact, you won't feel anything at all. You don't feel pain, you don't feel empathy or compassion, you stop crying, and you generally stop caring. Even worse, you stop feeling the presence of the Spirit and you can't discern as sharply. You begin to go spiritually and emotionally blind on the inside.

After this encounter, which was incredibly beautiful, came the most difficult work of dealing with every reason that my heart died in the first place. This involved highly-skilled inner healing and deliverance ministers, as well as professional Christian trauma therapy. Healing has cost me much time and money and has been a slow process, mostly because the pain of healing is often worse than what caused the damage in the first place.

Still in my own journey and now noticing far too many people who love Jesus yet they too are going dead on the inside, I've asked the Lord to speak. We have high hopes for 2020, but a dead heart can't carry a blessing from God, at least not for very long. A blessing from God can actually crush you and become a curse to you when you don't have the heart for it.

Here is what He said:

1. Make No Excuses

I touched on some of this last year, but it still needs emphasis this year. We read in Luke 14:16-24 about the man who invited many to a great supper but how "they all with one accord began to make excuses" (v. 18). One said he bought five yoke of oxen and was going to test them, then another said he bought a field and needed to go look at it, and another said he just got married and couldn't come. Maybe I'm reading into this, but who buys land and that many oxen without viewing and testing them first? And then why would you not take your new wife to a party? Was something defective with her? I doubt it. It was just an excuse.

You see, excuses come in justified packages. They justify themselves and parade about as totally legitimate. We use excuses to get out of crystal-clear invitations and directives from the Lord. We use excuses to live below our worth. We deceptively believe this is okay, but it's not. It's covert disobedience and cuts short the plans and purposes of God in our lives.

My husband, Ron, has said many times, "Your heart will determine the borders and parameters of your life." We also read in the Proverbs 4:23, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." You might have big dreams and a big call from God on your life, but a small heart leads to a small life. A broken heart leads to a broken life.

We are commanded to be wholehearted in our devotion to God, but you cannot serve the Lord wholeheartedly unless your heart is whole. It's not that you don't want to, you simply can't. You don't have the heart for it. Pain, therefore, is not a justifiable excuse to avoid your healing journey. All growth requires you to walk through something and not avoid it. Growth hurts, often intensely, and so we ask for His grace instead. The Bible encourages us with powerful promises to the overcomers. Those who overcome get nations and the hidden manna (Rev. 2:17, 2:26).

2. Who Will You Serve?

During my second year as a Christian, age 19, I was attending a house prayer service when one of the women in attendance looked over at me with concern. She said, "I see a spirit of sorcery standing over you," and when she said this, something picked me up and threw me against the wall. (You can read about this in detail in my first book, The Intercessors Handbook.) Next, I went into a lengthy, grand-maul demonic manifestation, one that is hard to explain given my absolute love for Jesus, as well as being baptized in the Holy Spirit. The women, all versed in spiritual warfare, were helpless to deliver me and I endured over three months of intense battle until the Holy Spirit rose up within me and set me free.

When that demon entered my room to torment me once again, a sense of faith suddenly filled my heart. This was not my faith, but His faith speaking through me. I then spoke to the spirit with perfect authority, "I will not serve you. I will only serve the Lord Jesus Christ." It left immediately and never returned. I also lost all fear of the demonic and had a sense of spiritual authority that I did not have before.

I've pondered this scene for years. I've pondered the statement that came from my own mouth by the Holy Spirit for years. I was being spiritually and supernaturally bullied into submission and felt terrified and hopeless until the Holy Spirit came to my rescue. Then a few months ago, I had a dream that I knew was from the Lord.

In the dream, I watched an older man experiencing something similar. I've known this man for several years and would describe his faith as just nominal. There is nothing about him that shows he is passionate or vibrant for the Lord. In the dream, he was being savagely bullied by a demon, and he was out-of-his-mind terrified. I watched as he submitted to the spirit and went limp in his Christian faith. I woke up hearing the clear voice of the Holy Spirit asking me this: "Who will you serve?" I responded back, "I will only serve the Lord."

Are you being spiritually tormented? Have you been subjected to a demonically induced terror? For some of you, this is happening in your dreams or it's happening to you when no one is watching. I know that I know that if you didn't carry something from God that severely threatened satan's kingdom, this spirit or these spirits would leave you alone. The spirit realm often knows who we are in God well before we do.

At the same time, you cannot consent to demons. What I mean is you can't submit to spiritual harassment and then go dormant in your faith to avoid it. Elijah asked the Israelites at the stand-off between him and the prophets of Baal, "Who will you serve?" And in fear they answered not a word. They went dormant, limp, and were double-minded. Still, God proved Himself to be God in the face of the prophets of Baal. My point is this: you must learn how to walk out your spiritual authority.

Here is the word of the Lord about this:

• What beat others won't beat you, and;

• Satan tried everything to defeat you. You won't be defeated. You're being weaponized.

My simple prayer for you is this: "Holy Spirit, I ask You to come to the rescue."

Jennifer Eivaz, Executive Pastor
Harvest Christian Center, Turlock, CA
Email: info@jennifereivaz.com
Website: www.jennifereivaz.com

Jennifer Eivaz is a minister and international conference speaker with a heart to equip the Church in the supernatural and raise up passionate and effective prayer. She is a regular contributor to Charisma Online and The Elijah List. She has been featured on several Christian television shows, hosts the podcast Take Ten With Jenn, and authored several bestselling books. Jennifer lives with her husband, Ron, and their two children in Turlock, California, where she serves as an executive pastor at Harvest Church.

Jennifer Eivaz's Itinerary:

February 21-22 2020
Demonstrate 2020
Manassas, VA
(for more itinerary information click here)

March 5-7, 2020
Inner Healing & Deliverance Institute
Jennifer Eivaz, Katie Souza, Apostle John Eckhardt
Harvest Church
Turlock, CA
(for more itinerary information click here)

March 20-21, 2020
Paradigm 2020
Encourager Church
Houston, Texas
(for more itinerary information click here)

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