ARMED AND STRONG IN THE LORD
9. Hearing from Jesus
*A concise explanation from the Lord: 
Sweetheart, I love to whisper in your ear words that give you strength. You don’t have to know all that is needed right from the start; all that you are going to need to know to get you through this battleground called Earth. But whatever you do need to know I can show you and tell you, right at the time, or perhaps a bit before, so you can make great headway. I’m so very near to you, all around you, inside of your mind and heart and whole being. I love being near you, for then neither of us has to feel troubled in heart. –You know that I am close and will protect you from the big and bad things that would really throw you off course; and I can guide you and then I’m happy because I want you to be safe and fully protected. And this can happen all the better the closer you are to Me and the more I can tell you, right in your ear.
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*Keys to claim in prayer, to receive empowerment to fight with these new weapons and stop the enemy’s attempts to hinder our using them:
At every opportunity, at every turn, no matter what the problem, difficulty or uncertainty, the keys of prophecy will help you to hear clearly from Me and know what to do.
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Some specifics that help explain more:
•	Ask Jesus to speak to you in answer to a question, or give Him opportunity to say anything He wants to say—either personally and privately to you, or while you are with others.
•	Ask Jesus to allow an angel or spirit being to speak to you on a topic that you need insight on or guidance in.
•	Dreams (pray for them each night to be good or what you need to teach and show you something, or reveal something the Lord wants to tell you in this “virtual reality” way of learning. Then pray about their meaning).
•	Be alert for supernatural messages or signs of some sort that the Lord is using to get our attention or to answer a question or to warn us of danger or trouble.
•	Receive and pray for visions from the Lord that show His will, expose the enemy, and shows us inspiring things from Heaven; vision that teach, reveal, instruct, warn, uplift, and give faith and joy.
•	Ask someone else to receive a message from the Lord for you, and prayerfully read it or listen to it, letting the Holy Spirit confirm it in your heart, and explain any deeper meanings to you.
•	Receive stories and parables from Heaven to give insight or comfort; or as a way to teach and preach the Good News and alert people to the truth.
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*True stories of victory, showing these fighting methods in practice:
	I have a paralyzed vocal cord that has made it very hard to talk, as you need two vocal cords that vibrate together in order to talk. [It seems that a very bad virus that I had in ’96 had caused one of the cords to stop working permanently.] During a united prayer meeting, the Lord actually gave me my voice to give a prophecy where He said, “I can heal anything, just as I have healed this one who can now speak.” Boy, were we all amazed! 
(ML 385)
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It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, "God … if You still speak to people, speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey." As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought, Stop and buy a gallon of milk. He could always use the milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home. As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, Turn down that street. "Okay, God, I will." He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop. Again, he sensed something, Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street. The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or already asleep. He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside.  
A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it? What do you want?"  The man was standing there in his jeans and t-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. "What is it?"  The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, "Here, I brought this to you." The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway speaking loudly in Spanish. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her, holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face. The man was half speaking and half crying: "We were just praying. We had some big bills this month, and we ran out of money. We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."  His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I ask Him to send an angel with some. ... Are you an angel?" The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had with him, and put it in the man's hand. He turned and walked back toward his car, tears streaming down his face. He knew that God still answers prayer. (GV 64)
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Three wishes granted -- through prophecy
	Because of strained relations in the past, I really didn't want to go see my relatives, even though it had been 16 years since I had visited them. A little while ago I was very sick in bed for a week, unable to hardly walk or move with severe pain. I prayed and asked the Lord why this illness was happening and what I wasn't yielding to in my life. I got as clear as day that I wasn't yielding to even praying about the possibility of visiting my parents, and that the Lord wanted me to do that. So I promised the Lord that I would yield and bring it before Him in prayer. When we did so, He confirmed that it was His will for me to visit them, and said beautiful and amazing things about my visit and what a tremendous victory and testimony it was going to be.
	A week or so later, I phoned my father and he was delighted that I was coming. The next day we received an emergency call from my father saying that within a matter of hours after I had called him, my mother had unexpectedly gone into the hospital having developed a bad case of pneumonia. This prompted further prayer on whether I should leave sooner than I had planned or if I could leave down the line a little, as my mother had been in and out of the hospital and on death's door a number of times over the past 20 years. This second prophecy session definitely had more of a sense of urgency about it, indicating that this harvest was ripe, was ready, and if left to wait would rot; that there was no need to wait or delay and that I should leave in ten days. However, it also stated that my mother would not die before I arrived. So with that, I was on my way in ten days time!
	When I arrived my mother was still in the hospital, however, she had miraculously recovered from the pneumonia, and was now off the life support system she had apparently been on for a number of days. I heard that they didn't think she was going to make it. But miraculously she got it together and everyone told me they felt it was because I was coming. When I walked into the hospital room I didn't even recognize her. She was only 61, but looked about 80. She was thrilled to see me, and the next day she came home from the hospital. She needed a little assistance getting around, but she had a walker which enabled her to get around the house.
	A week passed and everything was going well. My mother was slowly getting better, but was still extremely weak. It was about halfway through my visit when one evening I noticed she was hardly there; she was barely eating anything and was so weak.
	The next morning my father came into my room and said that my mother seemed to have taken a turn for the worse and I'd better come right away. As I went into her bedroom, she was tossing and turning, and I could tell she was very distressed. I was trying to find out what was wrong, but it seemed difficult for her to talk or convey to us what was wrong.
	My mother kept pleading with my father, "I don't want to go back to the hospital. I don't want to go back on life support!" My father was trying to console her that he would be with her and that she wouldn't be alone, but she was pretty insistent, saying, "No, no, no! I don't want to go!" At this point I was just praying, "Lord, You have to do something. I don't want to see her go back there either."
	My father then left the room to call the ambulance and to get ready to go to the hospital, but unbeknownst to us at this time, the ambulance had apparently gotten lost trying to find our house. Left alone with my mother, I was trying to make her comfortable, talking to her, telling her I loved her and trying to otherwise reassure her. Then, right out of the blue with my eyes wide open, I had one of the most vivid visions I've ever seen. It was of my grandmother (my mother's mother) and my auntie (who had died a few years ago) in Heaven, making what seemed to be the final touches on a sweet little cottage which I assumed to be my mother's house there. There were a group of other people with them who I didn't recognize. My grandmother and auntie were saying to each other, "Come quickly, we have to finish up! We have to be ready to meet her!"
	I was shocked and awed by the whole vision. I thought, "Oh, my God, she's going to go!" Then, before I could do or say anything, my mother suddenly sat right up in bed, her eyes wide open, in one of the most coherent and alert states I'd seen her in. She looked straight at me and said, "I feel like crying because I'm going to miss everyone so much!" With this comment, I realized she was either seeing the same thing I was seeing, or she knew she was going. Then she lay back down and closed her eyes again.
	As she lay there, I laid my hand on her forehead and started praying, as well as trying to communicate with my mother through my prayers, telling her that I loved her and that she could let go now and she would go straight into Jesus' arms. I prayed that the Lord would take her now so that she wouldn't have to suffer anymore. Then she calmed right down, and stopped her tossing back and forth.
	At this point I was pretty much an emotional mess, so I left the room to take a breather in my room, and my father went back in to be with my mother. My brother had also arrived.
	A few minutes later my brother came into my bedroom crying, and fell into my arms. He told me that our mother had died. I cried tears of sadness, happiness, relief and rejoicing for her all at the same time! As my brother is a born-again Christian who believes in the gifts of the Spirit, I told him about the vision I'd seen. He right away exclaimed how beautiful it was, and told me that I just had to tell my father about it. We went back and forth about it, me saying that he probably didn't even believe in visions, and my brother insisting that I just had to tell him.
	So I went out to the living room and said, "Dad, I have something to tell you. This is not easy for me, because I don't know if you'll believe this or not, but I had a vision before mom died." From there I went on to tell him all about it. His reaction was amazing, he absolutely flipped out! He said, "We've got to tell everyone about this! -- This is incredible!" He was so encouraged and his whole face lit up! I was so thankful for my brother's faith and encouragement to share it with him.
	Then my father called the vicar, a woman priest, who came over immediately. Then my father, right in front of the vicar, tells me, "Tell her your vision!" Meanwhile I'm thinking, "Gee, thanks, Dad! She's really going to flip out over this one!" But anyway, I swallowed my pride and told her the vision. She was quiet for a moment, slowly nodded her head and said, "Well, yes, we would like to believe that these things happen. We hope that this is so…" Such little faith! I just looked at my father and he looked at me.
	Later I said to my father, "Dad, I'm not sure if we should have told the vicar my vision. I don't know if she believes in that sort of thing." He said, "Well, it happened, so you have to tell people!" He was like a new babe, so excited by what the Lord had done, wanting to tell everyone about it, ha!
	Then I had the faith to tell him about the prophecies we'd received for my trip. I explained about prophecy, how different people had prayed and heard from the Lord for me, and I proceeded to share excerpts of the prophecies with him. Such excerpts were: that my mother was "on the door of the Kingdom," that this was going to be a tremendous "witness and testimony," that the "Shepherd was gathering in His sheep," and I needed to leave "in ten days' time," and that "my mother would not die before I arrived," etc. Well, he absolutely flipped out -- he was completely sold on it! It was like the whole spirit world was suddenly opened to him. My home country's primary religion hardly even believes in the spirit world!! Yet he was open for anything -- anything! He was converted, a totally changed man!
	During the remaining evenings before I left, my father had the idea to type up all that had happened and had now affectionately coined it "the testimony." We sat down together and typed up the events that had happened surrounding my mother's death, which included my sickness, hearing from the Lord that I should visit, the prophecy excerpts received, my vision, how the ambulance got "lost," which I now believe the Lord engineered as my mom did not want to go back to the hospital, etc. He planned to photocopy this and mail it to the ones he felt could receive it, but that hadn't been able to attend and hear it at the funeral.
	Had the ambulance come directly to the house, the paramedics would have preempted or interrupted the vision, and my mother probably would have died in the ambulance or at the hospital. However, by the time it arrived, she had passed into Jesus' arms.
	My father told me later that my mother had three wishes before she died. One was to see me again. The second was to have family photos taken, which we had taken the day before she died, and the third was not to go back to the hospital on life support. So the Lord granted her three wishes.
	My father's sweet parting words and request to me was that if I received any other words from the Lord, any other visions or any direction for his personal family, could I please write and tell him. He's very open and receptive. (GV 4)

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Messages others received on these ways to fight and win in the Spirit 
Abide in My Words, and let them abide in you. Let them dwell in you richly. Drink them in, eat them, imbibe them; but do not neglect My voice. Listen to it. For I speak to you through My Word, and I speak to you through the gift of prophecy, and I speak to you in the whispers in your heart and in your mind when you commune with Me, and when you stop here and there and look up--in those times when your receptivity is highest and those that help you can whisper in your ears and place things in your heart and mind and can give you direction. So exercise these gifts.
	Know and understand that My Word is first and foremost, for I exalt it even above My Name. But for further strength and help and guidance, listen to My voice and listen to the whispers, and you shall have strength that you know not of. It shall make your task easier, for you will be allowing us to direct you more from this side, and we will work together even better.
	So tune in! Fine-tune and hear the voice of the Lord your God, and of those whom He has sent to help lead and guide and instruct you. For we are in it together, and together we will march forth to victory, and together we will win the world for Me! And we will do it so much more effectively if you will tune in, if you will get your radio signals from Heaven and your instructions through My Word, through My voice and through the whispers.
	As you exercise this gift of prophecy, you will have a clearer understanding and greater faith. As you see those things work that I say unto you, and the fruit that it brings forth, and the joy and encouragement and instruction that it gives unto you and others, you will see how much easier the job can be if you let us participate.
	So come on! Let's work together!--You working together there and we working together Here, all of us working together. For it is our work and it is your work and together it is all of our work. For we all seek the same goal--to bring forth My light and love to the lost, to bring great joy to the world, and to proclaim My truth unto the ends of the Earth! (ML #2995)

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Quotes from Jesus and Bible verses to memorize:
Willingly give Me your thoughts in humility, and through the power of the keys you can know My mind.
PSA.119:24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.
PRO.1:23 I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
For I speak to you through My Word, and I speak to you through the gift of prophecy, and I speak to you in the whispers in your heart and in your mind when you commune with Me. (ML 2995)
Listen to My voice and listen to the whispers, and you shall have strength. It shall make your task easier, for you will be allowing us to direct you more from this side. (ML 2995)

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How Jesus taught or fought with this Spiritual weapon:
JOH.6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
JOH.6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
JOH.6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
JOH.6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
JOH.6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
JOH.6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
JOH.6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

JOH.14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
JOH.14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

JOH.16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
JOH.16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
JOH.16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
JOH.16:15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

JOH.17:13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
JOH.17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
JOH.17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
JOH.17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
JOH.17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
REV.1:9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

REV.19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
REV.19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
REV.19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
REV.19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
REV.19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
REV.19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
REV.19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
REV.2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
REV.2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;