Refine Prayer – Colossians 2 – Maranatha Vision Project

Refine Prayer – Colossians 2

Refine means the ongoing process of purification: to remove unwanted, wretched elements from a person’s life; making small, subtle changes over time, transforming us from sinners to saints; the Holy Spirit conforming us evermore to the ways and wisdom of Jesus Christ; to empty us of depravity and fill us with dignity; to clarify and cleanse, to filter and temper, to tune and prune.

Abba Father, I love you. We praise and worship you today in the Holy Spirit and in Jesus’ Truth. Wherever your Spirit dwells, we will find freedom. We are free citizens in a holy dominion of perfect, perpetual, eternal life. Father, this world is crazy busy, filled with myriad deceptive delights that distract us from listening to your voice, to participate in and practice rest in your refreshing presence. Oh my soul, find rest alone in Yahweh, for my salvation comes from you, Jesus. You are my Rock and Redeemer, my Fortress and Friend, my Savior and Shepherd, and in your presence I stand strong, unshaken.

Thank you for this new week brimming over with fresh mercy and beautiful grace. Thank you for the breath in my lungs, the beats of my heart, and the strength in my bones. Thank you for rescuing me from death. Thank you for restoring me to abundant life. Thank you for my relationships and resources, gifts and skills, past and future, dreams and destiny. Refiner’s Fire, shape me on the forge of your mysterious will. Have your way in me, Ancient Master of All My Days, have your way in my heart, thoughts, and desires. Not my will, Sovereign Salvation King, but yours alone be done in me and through me for your greater glory. Light of the Nations, I want heaven to fill the earth, capturing the devotion and worship of my generation today. True Light of Zion City, let the nations discover you; Radiance of Yahweh’s Glory, flood the peoples with surefire shalom.

Father, we grieve together today over the fall of Lucifer all those many millennia ago…

Outcast Dragon > “Son of dust, weep for the king of Tyre. Tell him, ‘The Lord God says: You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; your clothing was bejeweled with every precious stone—ruby, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald—all in beautiful settings of finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. I appointed you to be the anointed Guardian Angel. You had access to the holy mountain of God. You walked among the stones of fire. You were perfect in all you did from the day you were created until that time when wrong was found in you. Your great wealth filled you with internal turmoil, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you out of the mountain of God like a common sinner. I destroyed you, O Guardian Angel, from the midst of the stones of fire.Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. Therefore, I have cast you down to the ground and exposed you helpless before the curious gaze of kings. You defiled your holiness with lust for gain; therefore, I brought forth fire from your own actions and let it burn you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all those watching you. All who know you are appalled at your fate; you are an example of horror; you are destroyed forever.’” (Ezekiel 28:12-19 TLB)

What was it like Father to create someone so beautiful, anointed, powerful, sacred, and set apart? Someone designed to worship and protect, only to watch him turn away and revolt? It wasn’t just him, the Dragon had great influence in heaven. He courted the hearts of countless of your fiery servants away from your love, poisoning their praise, and they fell far, far away from you, as far away as someone can travel between realms.

Honestly, Lord, what was he thinking? How veiled and terrible is the slow burn of pride. Did the devil think he could win? Did he think he could defeat you Father? Oh my soul, how pride makes us blind, deaf, and mute. How pride and lust sink in and find a seat at the table of my life, masquerading as light only to corrupt me into a shade of my intended design, stumbling into a head first fall, when on the contrary, I am wired to arise with hands raised, symphonies of worship overflowing from my mind, heart, and tongue.

The dragon fell, the Lake of Fire & Brimstone was created so the devil had somewhere to go. Even in that place of utter catastrophe was your mercy at work, creating a space where he could still live, while instead, you could have annihilated him from existence with a single command. Here did the fury begin, here did the anointed one sell his birthright for chains and flames. And out of these ashes of rejection did your Son, the Living Word of God, shine the brightest, set the nations ablaze with a story so far beyond our comprehension that you have captured many hearts for eternity in every generation.

The moon and stars they wept, the morning sun was dead. The Savior of the World was fallen. Jesus’ body crucified on Calvary’s cross, his precious blood poured out for us, the weight of every curse piled upon his shoulders. One final breath he gave, as Heaven looked away, the Son of God was laid in darkness. A battle in the grave, the war on death was waged, the power of hell forever broken. The ground began to shake, the stone was rolled away, his perfect love could not be overcome. Now, Death, where is your sting? Our Resurrection King has rendered you defeated! Forever Jesus is glorified! Jesus is lifted high! Jesus has risen, and he is alive forever! And so we sing, “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah to our King, for the Lamb has overcome the grave!” (“Forever” by Kari Jobe)

Father, we rejoice today at your perfect love and triumphant victory. Through your power, we have deep, immovable roots in Christ, we have become vessels of your glory’s fullness, and we are filled with a courageous confidence in our permanent deliverance. We are no longer slaves to fear, for by the blood of the Lamb of God, we are beloved, adopted, anointed sons and daughters walking in the freedom of your Holy Spirit.

Deep Roots > In the same way you received Jesus our Lord and Messiah by faith, continue your journey of faith, progressing further into your union with him! Your spiritual roots go deeply into his life as you are continually infused with strength, encouraged in every way. For you are established in the faith you have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to him! Beware that no one distracts you or intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from Christ’s fullness by pretending to be full of wisdom, when in reality, they are filled with endless arguments of human logic. For they operate with humanistic and clouded judgments based on the mindset of this world system, and not the anointed truths of the Anointed One. (Colossians 2:6-8 TPT)

Glory Fullness > Jesus Messiah is the complete fullness of deity living in human form. And our own completeness is now found in him. We are completely filled with God as Christ’s fullness overflows within us. He is the Head of every kingdom and authority in the universe! Through our union with him we have experienced circumcision of heart. All of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the Anointed One, has accomplished for us. For we have been buried with him into his death. Our “baptism into death” also means we were raised with him when we believed in God’s resurrection power, the power that raised him from death’s realm. This “realm of death” describes our former state, for we were held in sin’s grasp. But now, we have been resurrected out of that “realm of death” never to return, for we are forever alive and forgiven of all our sins! (Colossians 2:9-13 TPT)

Permanent Deliverance > King Jesus canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained souls — he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation. Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!(Colossians 2:14-15 TPT)

Father, build your kingdom here, let the darkness fear. Show your mighty hand, heal our streets and lands. Set your church on fire, win all nations back. Change the atmosphere, build your kingdom here we pray. Come set your rule and reign in our hearts again. Increase in us we pray, unveil why we are made. Come set our hearts ablaze with hope, like wildfire in our souls. Holy Spirit come invade us now. We are your Church, and we need your power in us. We seek your kingdom first, we hunger and we thirst. Refuse to waste our lives, for you are our joy and prize. To see the captive hearts released, the hurt, the sick, and the poor at peace. We lay down our lives for Heaven’s cause. We are your Church, and we are praying for revival. Unleash your kingdom’s power, reaching the near and far. No force of hell can stop your beauty changing hearts. You made us for so much more than this, awake your kingdom power in us. Fill us with Christ’s strength and love, for we are your Church, and we are ambassadors for your hope here on earth. (“Build Your Kingdom Here” by Rend Collective)

Father, we pause now, we interlude, we selah in your presence. Whatever is going on, whatever battles we face, whatever we wrestle, wherever we wander, however we struggle, your hope is an anchor for our souls, your presence is the confirmation of our faith, and your voice is the shepherd of our decisions. You are here, we are not alone, never forsaken. We are set free by the blood of the Lamb. Your kingdom is coming today, and your will is being accomplished all over the world. I am a drop in the ocean, just a star in the sky, a grain of sand on the beach of what you are up to worldwide in this generation. We want to reflect you, be refined by you, be filled with your Spirit, and let go of whatever does not belong in our hearts, values, relationships, calendars, and plans.

Because one day soon, whether that be tonight or in a thousand years, your triumph will be final and your victory complete.

Triumphant Liberation >I saw an Angel descending out of Heaven. He carried the key to the Abyss and a chain—a huge chain. He grabbed the Dragon, that old Snake—the very Devil, Satan himself!—chained him up for a thousand years, dumped him into the Abyss, slammed it shut and sealed it tight. No more trouble out of him, deceiving the nations—until the thousand years are up. After that he has to be let loose briefly. I saw thrones. Those put in charge of judgment sat on the thrones. I also saw the souls of those beheaded because of their witness to Jesus and the Word of God, who refused to worship either the Beast or his image, refused to take his mark on forehead or hand—they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years! The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were up. This is the first resurrection—and those involved most blessed, most holy. No second death for them! They are priests of God and Christ; they will reign with him a thousand years. When they are over, Satan will be let loose from his cell, and will launch again his old work of deceiving the nations, searching out victims in every nook and cranny of earth, even Gog and Magog! He’ll talk them into going to war and will gather a huge army, millions strong. They’ll stream across the earth, surround and lay siege to the camp of God’s holy people, the Beloved City. They’ll no sooner get there than fire will pour out of Heaven and burn them up. The Devil who deceived them will be hurled into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, joining the Beast and False Prophet, the three in torment around the clock for ages without end. (Revelation 20:1-10 MSG)

So now, Lord, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and with the wind at our backs, and in your strength alone, we will rise on the wings of the dawn. Together, we will take back all the enemy has stolen. This victory is only found in the blood of the One Who Is Worthy. I know you have not forgotten all that is lost and broken. So come, brothers and sisters, come nations and peoples, come one and come all, and see the turning of the tides. Come, and see Yahweh’s sons and daughters arise. For how could he who did not spare his own Son not freely give us victory against the darkest of nights? By the blood of the One Who Is Worthy, we will take back all the enemy has stolen. We will plunder the deepest pits of hell, and we will rise on the wings of the dawn. You are worthy, Jesus, you are worthy. (“Take Back” by Will Reagan & United Pursuit)

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is Jesus who comes in the name of Yahweh. With all angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we praise the Lamb of God, we praise the Lion of Judah who was slain for the sins of the world. And we sing together, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God Almighty who was, and who is, and who is to come, world and age without end.” And we say, “Maranatha!” Jesus has come, Christ will return, come quickly, Shalom Messiah!

Amen. So be it. Grace & peace.

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Maranatha Vision Project > teaching disciples how to journey in Jesus’ freedom.

+> James Harvey, Blazing Trees CEO/Founder

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