Tag: Spirit of God

Prison Ministry Report 6

It has been a while since I wrote my last report. Many of the Friday meetings were canceled for various reasons and some I could not attend.

We have two consistent attendees coming to our Bible study. Friday I was by myself, and there were four girls. Two of the girls were contentious because of personality conflicts, so please pray for MJ and Yumyum. MJ has been in the hole (isolation) many times for anger mismanagement issues. MJ means well but is getting on Yumyum’s nerves. MJ was in my previous reports if you would like to know more about her.

I felt led to teach a lesson about bondage and how to become free. Many of them are in bondage to drugs and alcohol, and in MJ’s case, she is in bondage to anger from the many hurtful situations in her life. She is getting better, but it will take time. I taught the girls how to take authority over their thoughts using the power of Jesus in them. You can’t control your thoughts with your own willpower or positive thinking. The following outline is what I taught.

BONDAGE TO FREEDOM

Luke 13:10-16 — Disabling spirit (vs.16, Satan bound a woman for eighteen years) (I explained how Satan uses spirits to keep us in bondage, and only Jesus can set us free. She had to go to Jesus for healing, so we need to go to Jesus and seek release from the oppressive spirits controlling us.)

Mark 9:14-29 — Jesus Heals a boy with an unclean spirit – deaf and dumb/mute spirits. (I explained that believing as you pray is necessary to remove unclean spirits and to ask Jesus to help your unbelief (vs. 24).)

Luke 11:24-26 — Unclean spirits coming back with worse spirits. (I explained that once you release an unclean spirit, you need to replace it with the Holy Spirit or a clean spirit. I used several examples, like asking God to remove the spirit of addiction and then replace it with the spirit of self-control and power.)

1 Timothy 4:1 — Deceitful spirit. We talked about finding a Bible-believing church, that not all churches honor the truths in the Bible. I also had them read 1 John 4:1-3, to test the spirits to see if they are from God because many Christian leaders appear to be Christian but are not following the truths in the Bible.

I had them turn to pages 13 and 14 of my Hope for Complete Healing booklet, and we read about how to remove evil spirits tormenting us and how to know if we have one. (You can read this in the section called 2–Removing Blocks to Healing, number 7 of the Seven Prayers That Heal The Heart.) I then took them through the Meekness/Gentleness/Faithfulness section (because Suzette was looking at it), and I explained how to pray to discover the memories and unhealthy beliefs that cause an inferior spirit or superior spirit of bondage. We went through the list of other possible unclean spirits, then I took them through the list of good spirits to replace the unclean spirits. Then we read the scriptural truths at the bottom to replace unhealthy beliefs. We also discussed healthy pride versus self-centered, sinful pride because MJ was confused.

2 Timothy 1:7 — replacing the spirit of fear with the spirit of power, love, and self-control.

John 15:26 and Romans 5:5 — How the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and will help us. He pours God’s love into our hearts, but if we have unforgiveness then His love can’t flow out of us.

Romans 8:2, 13; Gal 5:16-17; Eph 3:16-17; 1Cor. 15:45; and Rom. 8:11 — Spirit of life and how Jesus is the life-giving spirit, and how to walk by the spirit and deny the flesh.

Romans 8:15 — Spirit of slavery vs. the spirit of adoption.

1 Corinthians 2:11-12 — Spirit of God in us that helps us to understand the secret things of God.

2 Corinthians 4:13 — Spirit of faith

This study was fascinating to put together, and I could have gone over so much more. Thank you for following my ministry and for praying for me and Sandy and the inmates who come.

Prison Ministry Report 2

It is a privilege to be a servant of God and to minister to those in need. Are you ministering to anyone in need? Ponder the following Scripture and ask yourself, “How am I serving Jesus?” Matthew 25:41-46 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Yikes! These Christians are in the second group.

This is a tough Scripture to read. I am afraid that people who say they are Christians may be in the second group who are going to hell. I know that faith saves us and not our works (Eph.2:8). Serving God and ministering to others is the demonstration of our faith. If you are not currently serving in some capacity in the church or community, earnestly seek God to reveal where He can use you, then go. Examples are, Gideons International, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, food banks, making lunch for the needy, and helping in homeless shelters. There are many places you can serve. Jesus said in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” If Jesus is your life through believing and receiving Him into your heart, then you are anointed to proclaim the good news to the poor, set the oppressed free, pray for people, and so on.

Ministering to Inmates

The fourth week with the inmates was beautiful. We are trying to establish a core group of girls to disciple so they can then support one another throughout the week and be a witness of God’s goodness for the other girls on the block. We had four girls in attendance, including a new girl who was raised in a Christian foster home but rebelled. She knew the Lord as her savior and lead her cellmate to the Lord. We were happy to see Destiny come back; she is so eager to learn more about Christianity. Sandy reviewed her previous lesson in the Beatitudes for those that missed it and then finished her lesson. I reviewed my previous lesson in Matthew 7:13-14 about how Jesus is our life and will lead us to the path of life and keep us on it (John 14:6; John 10:10). I continued the discussion by explaining that once Jesus becomes our life, we have His Spirit and will understand the mystery of God (1Cor 2:9-12 ). Wrapped up the discussion by explaining the power of the Spirit of God in us helps us understand the Word of God which teaches us how to live the Christian life (Ps. 119:105; 2Tim. 3:16; Heb. 4:12). We ended by discussing Joshua 1:8, “This Book of the Law [God’s instructions] shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

The fifth week was right before Christmas. I taught about why Christ in Christmas. We had six girls with one new girl who did not know about the Christian faith but wanted to just listen. We began by understanding that God is a spirit and the trinity nature of God (John 4:24; 1Cor. 2:11-14). I explained that Jesus was the image of the invisible God and how His birth was predicted (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1:34-35; Col. 1:15&19; Heb. 1:3a). Next, we discussed why He had to be born and how He came to earth to be tempted as we are, yet did not sin, and how he helps us not to sin (Heb. 2:17-18; Luke 4:18; Acts 26:18; 1John 3:5-8; John 8:12). Ultimately, the purpose why Jesus came to earth was to make atonement for our sins (John 1:29; 2Cor. 5:21; 1John 4:9-10; John 3:16).

Sandy ended by doing a paper communion, which was interesting because we can’t take anything in except paper and Bibles. She explained what communion was and the power of prayer (James 5:16) and how our prayers are incense in a bowl before the throne of God. Revelations 8:3 states, “And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.” So, Sandy had small pieces of paper with a picture of bread, and she asked us to write on the back something for which we are thankful. The second small piece of paper had a goblet on it to represent the wine. On this piece of paper, she asked us to write what we want God to do for us. We put these pieces of paper in an envelope and sealed it. Sandy was going to take them home and burn them to represent the smoke of our prayers going up to God’s throne. One girl was very confused because she wanted God to bless her and didn’t want her prayer to be destroyed. This is an unusual type of communion that Sandy put together for the inmates, but it was meaningful to them.

All verses are from the English Standard Bible. If you find my posts and website helpful, please share this link with your friends and family; hopeforcompletehealing.com. The information is copyright protected. Please do not reproduce any part of the posts or my book without proper citation to Joyce Hanscom and this website.

I have written Breaking Mental Strongholds which you can order on Amazon. To learn more about it, read my post called Breaking Mental Strongholds Book. Also, check out Fighting Unseen Battles on Amazon. To learn more about this book, read: How to Fight Unseen Battles.

Contact me at hopeforcompletehealing@gmail.com, and ask for a PDF of Eight Life-changing Prayers from the Bible. The prayers are for the Spirit of wisdom, renewal, spiritual strength, knowledge of His will, virtues of God, non-believers, 23rd Psalm, and victory. I will also send you the Lord’s Prayer Model to pray effectively. Please leave your name, so I know you are a real person making the request.