Priscilla Shirer – Oneness of Purpose

“Because this is war. The fight of your life. A very real enemy has been strategizing and scheming against you, assaulting you, coming after your emotions, your mind, your man, your child, your future. In fact, he’s doing it right this second. Right where you’re sitting. Right where you are.”
― Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer

Would you just let me read the word of God to you.
Listen to verse 13, it says, but now you have been united with Christ Jesus once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near through the blood of Jesus.
For Christ himself has brought peace. There’s the peace rock to us.
He united every group into one group with his own body on the cross.
He broke down the wall of hostility that once separated us.
He did this by ending one system to put in place another system together as one body.
Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross.
He brought good news of peace to you who are far off and peace to you who were near.
Now, all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
So now you are no longer strangers or foreigners. You are citizens with God’s holy people.
You are members of God’s holy family together.
We are his house built on a foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
He is the chief cornerstone in other words, we’ve got ourselves a peace rock and in these times of deprivation and hunger and thirst.
Spiritually speaking, in these times where we are so segmented to our own corners.
When we are being pitted against one another, it’s time that we remain connected to the cornerstone so that we can all come to the living water and drink freely and fully and have our soul satisfied.
So if you are a black American, like I am so proud to be, then rejoice in your individuality.
If you’re a white American or a Hispanic American or Asian American or Native American or wherever you fall on the spectrum of ethnicity, be proud of your individuality of the unique expression and the unique experiences and the unique, unique style and nuances that are unique to you don’t assimilate don’t change, be exactly who you are and let’s give each other the margin to be who God has uniquely created us to be.
But as my dad would say, unity does not mean sameness.
It means oneness of purpose that even though we are different, we can all come to the water.

“A prayer that’s seeking passion should not be about manufacturing a better feeling or jostling up a better mood. It’s simply about holding out your open hands—in thanksgiving first, in gratitude for God’s faithfulness and His goodness and His assured, accomplished victory over the enemy. Then asking. Asking for what He already wants to give you. Then waiting (expecting) to receive the promise of newness and freshness from His Spirit as you go along, more each day—praying until, as the prophet Hosea said . . . He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. (Hos. 6:3)”
― Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer

I want to tell you briefly that division is one of the major strategies of the enemy to keep us from experiencing the victory.
That is rightfully ours as sons and daughters.
If he can divide you underneath the roof of your own home, listen, if you are married or you have Children, make sure that you are fighting against the schemes of the enemy to bring division underneath the roof of your own house.
If you’re in a church where you’re experiencing fracture and dissension and division, would you recognize that it’s not her?
That’s your problem or him. That’s your problem because we do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the powers against the Principalities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness that are in heavenly places.
She is not your problem, your coworker.
You know that one, that one co worker that if he says one more thing to you, you go knock him out.
That one. That person is not your real problem.
Anything you can see or relate to with your five physical senses. Ain’t your real problem.
You have an enemy and your enemy is invisible.
And because he’s invisible, invisible, he wants you to think he’s also fictional, but he’s very real.
He’s not a caricature that just fits into a kid’s storytelling book.
No, he is the master of disguise and he does not want you to recognize his fingerprints of division and derision and a lack of peace and contention.
So if you recognize his fingerprints in your marriage, then stand firm against the scheme of that enemy.
If you recognize his fingerprints in your relationship between you and your teenager man, stand firm against the schemes of the enemy.
If you recognize that in your church or in your denomination or between denominations, come on, y’all, we gotta stand firm against the schemes of the enemy.