How to Get Unstuck in Life
Cameron Peedin
10.27.2024
Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rut, either spiritually, emotionally, or relationally? Do you feel like there is no momentum or forward motion going on in your life?
Maybe you feel stuck in your career or you’re stuck in a specific sin, you’re bored with your calling, your family, your friendships, etc.
We’re going to talk about this today and how to get unstuck and get back to living the life God intended us to live.
Our Inside Matters More Than Our Outside
Many of us look for things around us to change in order to feel better about our lives or situations we are facing.
As a society we concentrate more on the outward things rather than the inward things.
What needs to change is what’s inside you. What I mean by that, is a heart and mind change.
Jer. 17:9 (NLT)
The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
There are changes on the inside of you that only God can change and that only He can do, but we play a part in all of it.
God is limitless in power and can do exceedingly more than we can ask or think.
Ephesians 3:19-20 (NLT)
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
When you think you’ve given God your wildest dreams, you haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of who He really is and His capability to work in your life.
Some of us are not living life to the fullest because we focus all of our attention on changing the environment around us – what we feel and see, and refuse to allow God to change us on the inside – what we think and meditate on.
What I see going on around me and my environment is proportionate to what’s going on inside of me. If my environment is chaotic and stressful, it’s because my insides are chaotic and stressful.
Also, if there is nothing going on inside of you, there tends to be nothing going on around you. Life will seem boring and unproductive.
When there’s nothing going on around us, we have the tendency to forcefully move things around us to get things moving on our own, when in reality, if we start changing things inside us, things around us will inevitably start to change outside.
What’s in you affects what’s around you.
If the word of God is nowhere near you or inside you and if the presence of God is not in you, you will not be effective to the environment around you and everything will seem to be chaotic and out of control.
There are people who let the storms of life get in them, and everything around them is chaotic and becomes a storm, or they create a storm out of nothing. Do you know people like that? Could it be you?
What’s in you becomes your environment.
The law of attraction. Birds of a feather flock together. You attract what you are on the inside. This can be a good thing or a bad thing.
How do I fix this? First I have to go to my power source and let God renew me on a daily basis by His Word and His spirit and transform me into a new person by the way I think.
Rom. 12:2 (NLT)
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
There must be times of personal revival and refreshing in His presence on a regular basis. If you do not have that, you will have no change or momentum in your spiritual life and you will feel stuck.
Daily disciplines in your relationship with Him must be kept fresh and new; then everything around you will have a fresh new perspective and outcome.
Surrounding yourself with leaders and friendships that expand your horizon will give you a fresh perspective where their thoughts and perspectives challenge you. If you’re never challenged, you will never grow.
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read” Charlie Jones
Implementing this into your life will constantly reset the parameters of your mind, pushing you forward to the newness of life and your fullest potential.
If you reset the parameters of your mind long enough, you will eventually reset the parameters of your life. Eventually, you will be able to do things that you never imagined you could do.
God Expects Fruitfulness
God is a God Who is always expanding, multiplying, building, and creating.
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Gen. 1:28 (NKJV)
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
John 15:5 (NLT)
Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
God knows that you need things. There is nothing wrong with having things. You just don’t let things have you.
When things have you is when it becomes unbalanced. “Things” can not become your pursuit.
God should be your priority and your main pursuit in life. He will give you the things that you need as you pursue Him and the things you don’t need won’t really matter.
Those “things” could be a new career, solid relationships that sharpen you mentally and spiritually, a confidence in yourself that you’ve never had, etc.
There are times in your walk with God that you will be tested and tried.
To get the fruit that God wants from you, sometimes you will have to go through trials and tests from the Father in order to prune us.
These pruning times are no fun at all. If we do not allow God to prune us, we will remain stuck in the same old mindset, that same old offense, that same old addiction for the rest of our lives and nothing will change.
What God does to bless you will take you to the very edge sometimes of your will and patience.
If we pour the Word of God into our minds and constantly meditate on it, it has the potential to completely set us free from the stickiness of life.
There is a sacrifice that we have to make in obedience to God. We have to be obedient to what He is speaking to us. Sacrifice and obedience is hard at times. It is taking up your cross and bearing some pretty hard stuff at times.
Luke 14:27 (NLT)
And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
Luke 9:23-24 (NLT)
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. But in the end, there’s good work that you can look back on and say, “Look what God did in me.
God is a God of reward; it’s not just tests and trials.
Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
All life is choice-driven.
God is an “if then” God. “If you… then I’ll”. God responds when we do His will, hard or easy. We have to make the first step toward Him or step out of “the boat” per se, and He promises to meet us there.
God Inspects for Fruitfulness
John 15:1-2 (NLT)
I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.
According to this verse you’re pruned if you do, pruned if you don’t. Either way, you’re getting pruned.
If you aren’t bearing fruit, He’ll cut you> And if you are bearing fruit, He’ll cut you even more so you can bear more fruit.
It’s never God’s will for you to be stuck in your life. It’s our choice to be stuck.
Parable of the 10 servants in Luke 19:11-26
God came to inspect the fruit of what had been given.
One had doubled it.
One had earned 5 to the 10.
One had nothing and buried the talent.
1st Servant:
Luke 19:17 (NLT)
Well done!’ the king exclaimed. “You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.”
Luke 16:12 (NLT)
And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
Whatever you do, serve to the best of your ability, even when it’s not your own. This way when God entrusts you with something of your own, the hard work you’ve done in a business or ministry that was someone else’s, you will reap in your own life.
Have or create good work ethics.
Faithfulness Is the Principle for Movement
It’s not a skill set, it’s not a personality profile, it’s not education, or achievements that God can work with in a person’s life. It’s faithfulness!
Faithfulness in little things is essential to being promoted into bigger things. Why? Because you can be trusted. If you cannot be faithful with little things, God cannot trust you with more.
If you can’t tithe off of $1000, why would he give you a million?
If you have a staff of 5 and don’t treat them right, why should God promote you with a fortune 500 company?
If you’re wanting to be a pastor of your own church one day but you’re not faithful to the church God has planted you, stirring up gossip and division, why would He trust you with your own congregation? What you sow, you will reap.
Galatians 6:7 (NLT)
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.
God is looking at all these things before promotion. Can He trust you?
For some, people are praying for their ship to come in, and in the waiting won’t row that little boat God gave them.
Whatever you’ve been given to do, do it as unto Jesus.
Colossians 3:23 (AMP)
Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men
Your reward doesn’t come from people. Your reward comes from Heaven.
Eph. 6:8 (NLT)
Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do…
If you were to serve people as if they were the embodiment of Jesus Himself, how would you serve and treat them? I truly believe that it would change our church and society dramatically.
Jesus speaking:
Matthew 25:35-36 (NLT)
For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.
The greatest thing I can do is help another person’s dream come true.
Our Vision Statement:
Helping people become who God created them to be!
The characteristic of forward movement is concentrating on the betterment of others, rather than yourself.
You’re never stuck in life, you’re only stuck in your mind.
If there’s ever a time when you feel stuck in life, it’s a time when you quit learning. Always have the mindset of learning something new, whatever it may be. A new life skill, a new revelation of God, a new side hustle, a new hobby, etc.
When you quit challenging your mind, you will inevitably be stuck.
When you get into a state of mind of continuously doing the things that you know to do, things that got you where you are, you will be successful. And you will stay there or be promoted.
When you do not continue the things that got you where you are, or quit implementing godly character into your life that perhaps you had at the beginning, you become stale and stuck in your walk with Him and in life.
If there’s nothing fresh going on inside of you, there’s nothing fresh that’s going to be flowing from you.
You can’t run on the smoke of yesterday’s fire.
There’s a form of Godliness with no power.
2 Tim. 3:5 (NLT)
They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
We can speak truths about God’s Word, when in reality our personal well is running on empty.
Learn how to dig for yourself another well. 2 Tim. 1:6 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you…” Learn how to be a student again. Look for ways to fill your mind with good things that propel you into the direction you need to go in life and in God.
Your mind is the factory for change.
What happens in your mind happens in time. This may take a few weeks, months or even years. But changing the things that you put into your mind will gradually start to change your life in a dramatic way. Take one day at a time.
You can’t choose the thoughts that run through your head, but you can choose what you focus and meditate on.
Prov. 23:7 (NKJV)
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…
If I want to change my reality, I have to change my thought-life first. My thought-life directly affects my reality.
What are you thinking about?
When was the last time you put a new idea into your head and took time to actually think it out?
When was the last time you risked something on a new idea you had or came across? Are you open to new ideas, or are you stuck in the same old way of doing things?
Are you open to listening to different people, or do you only listen to your own ideas or the same people you’ve listened to?
Allow God to Dig and Fertilize Your Life
Parable of the fig tree:
Luke 13:6-8 (AMP)
Then He began telling them this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree that had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it, but did not find any; 7 so he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground [depleting the soil and blocking the sunlight]?’ 8 But he replied to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, [just] one more year until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit after this, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”
Reality speaking:
This tree is a taker, not a giver. This tree is sucking all my resources dry. It’s killing all of my crops because it’s sucking the nutrients dry. Cut it down and throw it out.
Mercy speaking:
Vs. 8 is God’s mercy: 8 “The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. 9 If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”
Justice says you’re a taker. If someone else was in your position, they’d be doing more. They’d be doing better.
Mercy says there’s more things that need to happen in this person’s life that may have not happened yet. 8 But he replied to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, [just] one more year until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit after this, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”
God’s next stage in your life is to make it unstable. The fig tree needed to be dug around and fertilized. It needed to be unstable for a bit.
Many of us have had a pretty stable cushy life. God needs to shake us up.
Hebrews 12:27 (NLT)
This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.
The key to getting the tree healthy again is to create instability around it. When you cause instability, you cause the roots to become unstable and dig deeper to get solid again and go to a part of the earth that has not already been drained of its nutrients, so up through the roots and through the branches it can produce again.
The foot that used to be stable isn’t stable anymore. People aren’t stable who you used to depend on. Things that you used to do don’t seem like they’re working anymore and everywhere you look, God’s creating instability, to the point you have to depend on Him and Him alone.
Don’t be scared of this. This is called a deeper depth of the roots of your faith, and out of that will come a fruitfulness that your last season has never produced.
You know what fertilizer is? Animal dung. God says, I’m going to create instability and throw dung on you.
Philippians 3:8 (KJV)
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ
I count it all as fertilizer. God will take the (dung) of life and cause it to grow and mature you. There are things in life that the only way you will grow is if you go through some dung.
What does fertilizer do? It increases the potential of something it’s placed on.
Instability and unpleasant circumstances cause roots to grow and release a greater potential in your life, so that you create fruit again.
You are going to be unstuck in this situation in your life.
Action Points
- Redefining the parameters of your mind and your thought life.
- Examine your environment. Your environment is a reflection of who you are on the inside. Maybe it’s time for God to start a change on the inside of you to affect your environment around you.
- Examine the fruitfulness of your life. Focus on what’s fruitful, and allow God to lope off unfruitful habits or relationships in your life.
- Instability is not a bad thing. Allow God to dig around and fertilize you through the unstable circumstances you’re experiencing that will eventually produce the best possible potential of fruit in your life.
Not a Time To Compromise!
What About Halloween and the Christian?
10.20.2024
God has equipped us with His protection and His power!
Ephesians 6:10-18 (ERV)
To end my letter I tell you, be strong in the Lord and in his great power. 11 Wear the full armor of God. Wear God’s armor so that you can fight against the devil’s clever tricks. 12 Our fight is not against people on earth. We are fighting against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness. We are fighting against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly places. 13 That is why you need to get God’s full armor. Then on the day of evil, you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing. 14 So stand strong with the belt of truth tied around your waist, and on your chest wear the protection of right living. 15 On your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. 16 And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows that come from the Evil One. 17 Accept God’s salvation as your helmet. And take the sword of the Spirit—that sword is the teaching of God. 18 Pray in the Spirit at all times. Pray with all kinds of prayers, and ask for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready. Never give up. Always pray for all of God’s people.
There is an all-out assault on everything godly today.
Our freedoms are on the line.
Our ability to speak freely is on the line.
Our families are on the line.
Our children are being offered as a sacrifice to the gods of deception and sex.
To be nonchalant is to give up in the middle of a fight!
We are not in a physical war, but we are in a spiritual battle!
The spirit of Antichrist is loose worldwide, looking for a global government to lead every nation politically, financially, morally, and spiritually.
The motive behind this spirit of Antichrist is to replace God and His Son Jesus Christ with a new set of standards for living and relating to one another.
Demon spirits that promote immortality in every form and that promote lawlessness are seeking entrance into American life just like they are in the rest of the world!
The goal is for all to be the same. Everyone exactly equal. No one having more than another, and all being told by this global government what they can do, say, think, and value, and what they cannot do.
The goal is a complete absence of morals. Anybody can live any way they choose. Lying, cheating, stealing, lusting, all forms of sexual behavior as legit, and all bowing to the will of the global government for the greater good, and for world peace.
It is a trick, a lie, a ruse, and a scheme to rob God of His place and His Son’s place in the world!
Resist this in how you live, what you value, how you train your children, and how you vote.
1 John 2:18 (NKJV)
Deceptions of the Last Hour
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22-23 (NKJV)
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
The following verses are so applicable today:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (NLT)
Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. 16 For I command you this day to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
17 “But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, 18 then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the LORD, you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Take your authority in Christ seriously today!
Don’t allow Satan and his forces to run over you and you family. Fight for what is right.
Stay silent and you loose what God has given you!
We have spiritual authority over Satan and his forces.
Luke 10:19 (NKJV)
Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Matthew 18:18-20 (NKJV)
Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.
Matthew 18:18-20 (CEV)
I promise you that God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth, but he will not allow anything you don’t allow. 19 I promise that when any two of you on earth agree about something you are praying for, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 Whenever two or three of you come together in my name, I am there with you.
Colossians 1:12-13 (NKJV)
Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
Colossians 1:13 (AMP)
The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
James 4:7 (NKJV)
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you!
James 4:7 (ERV)
So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you.
Ephesians 4:27 (NKJV)
Nor give place to the devil.
Ephesians 4:27 (ERV)
Don’t give the devil a way to defeat you.
Place:
(Rick Renner)
When Paul told us to give the devil no place, that word “place” is the Greek word topos. It describes a specific, marked-off location. But rather than a physical location that we use a map to identify, this “place” may refer to a rough spot in our relationships, our finances, our thoughts, or our personal habits or to lingering areas of disobedience. Whatever it is, it’s an identifiable location that the devil seeks to find and use as an open door into our lives.
— Sparkling Gems from the Greek Vol. 2: 365 New Gems To Equip And Empower You For Victory Every Day Of The Year by Rick Renner
https://a.co/29rLj6Q
Devil:
(Rick Renner)
The word “devil” in Ephesians 4: 27 leaves no question about the devil’s intention to attack us as believers. It is the Greek word diabolos, which is a compound of dia and ballo. The word dia means through, as in all the way through an object. This second part of the word “devil” is from the word ballo, which means to throw, to hurl, to inject, or even to beat. When these two words are compounded to form the word diabolos, the new word categorically means that the devil is one who strikes repetitiously—trying to find a way to break through into our worlds and mess up our lives.
— Sparkling Gems from the Greek Vol. 2: 365 New Gems To Equip And Empower You For Victory Every Day Of The Year by Rick Renner
https://a.co/eNDvR84
Be aware of the background of Halloween!
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. 13 But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things (Deuteronomy 18:9-14, NLT).
I have noticed over the last several years that Halloween has become an overtly celebrated holiday in America with houses being decorated with ghosts and goblins, witches and black cats, Jack-O-Lanterns on the steps, along with lots and lots of blow-up items for the yard and lights in the front yard.
To top it all off, families dress up their kids in their favorite costumes and trick or treat at all the places where candy can be retrieved as a “treat.”
Schools favor the holiday, and offices and businesses frequently allow the costumes to be worn too.
I have some questions.
Should I as a believer dress up my house and yard in Halloween decor just like my neighbors?
Is it appropriate for my kids to dress up for Halloween?
I as a child did what every other child in the 1960’s did at Halloween.
I dressed up like a devil or a skeleton or a ghost or whatever and did the normal trick or treat thing. We were good Baptists, and didn’t think a thing about it.
Our Baptist church celebrated Halloween with all kinds of spooky rooms decorated to scare the daylights out of the kids. After all, it was all fun and play!
Really, it was nothing serious, right?
After I was genuinely saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, I look back with great surprise on what I did as a child, and at what my church and other Christians in my circle allowed on Halloween.
Susan and I raised our children to honor God, and to dislike all things demonic and satanic. We did not celebrate Halloween.
Today, these things are freely celebrated among Christians.
Here are a few things to think about today as our culture celebrates Halloween.
What would it look like if you flew a Nazi swastika on your property during World War ll?
People would think you were nuts, and you would be. What if you flew an ISIS flag on your porch?
Hopefully you are smarter than that!
What signals are we sending to our kids when we allow them to dress up like the enemy of our souls one day out of the year?
And what does it say to our enemy satan and the hordes of demons that do his bidding when we dress up our yards and homes with replicas of the dead, of witches and demons and ghosts and all things spooky?
We can’t see them, but they must be quite entertained at our lack of seriousness about the spiritual battles we face!
And you better know they feel the permission to visit these homes and families and kids that innocuously celebrate Halloween.
For the origins of Halloween historically through the centuries and its celebration here in America, check out this hyperlink from the University of Albany:
https://www.albany.edu/~dp1252/isp523/halloween.html
All things satanic are forbidden to be practiced by the people of God in the Old Testament. I have traveled a good bit in Africa and India, lands where superstitions and all sorts of demonic practices are woven into the fabric of their cultures.
And I have seen how demonic power has wounded these beautiful people.
Americans are naive to the dangers of the demonic world.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NLT)
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. (10) For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, (11) or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. (12) Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. (13) But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. (14) The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things.”
Demon influence and possession are real.
I have cast these foul entities out of people.
They are not nice. They want to steal from you.
They want to kill you and destroy the peaceful life you have.
They wants to fill your body with illness, your mind with confusion, your marriage with trouble, your relationships with strife, your community with anarchy and lawlessness, and they want you to go to hell. You want all that?
I have nothing to do with them, and you would be wise to walk with Jesus and cleanse your home of any demonic symbols and rituals, and not just at Halloween, but all the time.
And we should teach our children to steer clear of these things. And we should teach them to honor God, to love His Word, and to believe His promises, and to ACT like Jesus!
Action Points:
- Am I aware of the authority that Jesus has given me over Satan and the demonic realm?
- Do I actively resist Satan in his kingdom’s desire to invade my life and my family?
- Am I giving Satan a place in any area of my life to hinder me in my walk with God?
- Am I modeling to my family and children what it looks like to resist the devil and have nothing to do with him?
Endnotes
Old and New Testament Scriptures:
Here are scriptures from the Old and New Testaments where God encouraged His people to have nothing to do with any kinds of demonic activities. We would do well to listen and obey them today. King Saul in Israel sought counsel from a witch in Endor. It eventually cost him his life. Read with interest.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NLT)
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. (10) For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, (11) or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. (12) Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. (13) But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. (14) The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things.”
Leviticus 18:1-5 (NLT)
Then the Lord said to Moses, (2) “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the Lord your God. (3) So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. (4) You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God. (5) If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.
Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT)
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, (21) envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 10:19-21 (NLT)
What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods? (20) No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons. (21) You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.
Ephesians 6:10-18 (NLT)
A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. (11) Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. (12) For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
(13) Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. (14) Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. (15) For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. (16) In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. (17) Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
(18) Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
Revelation 22:15 (NLT)
Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.
Leviticus 20:6-7 (NLT)
I will also turn against those who commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community. 7 So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
1 Samuel 28:5-22 (NLT)
When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. 6 He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. 7 Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.”
His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.”
8 So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman’s home at night, accompanied by two of his men.
“I have to talk to a man who has died,” he said. “Will you call up his spirit for me?”
9 “Are you trying to get me killed?” the woman demanded. “You know that Saul has outlawed all the mediums and all who consult the spirits of the dead. Why are you setting a trap for me?”
10 But Saul took an oath in the name of the Lord and promised, “As surely as the Lord lives, nothing bad will happen to you for doing this.”
11 Finally, the woman said, “Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?”
“Call up Samuel,” Saul replied.
12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, “You’ve deceived me! You are Saul!”
13 “Don’t be afraid!” the king told her. “What do you see?”
“I see a god coming up out of the earth,” she said.
14 “What does he look like?” Saul asked.
“He is an old man wrapped in a robe,” she replied. Saul realized it was Samuel, and he fell to the ground before him.
15 “Why have you disturbed me by calling me back?” Samuel asked Saul.
“Because I am in deep trouble,” Saul replied. “The Philistines are at war with me, and God has left me and won’t reply by prophets or dreams. So I have called for you to tell me what to do.”
16 But Samuel replied, “Why ask me, since the Lord has left you and has become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done just as he said he would. He has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David. 18 The Lord has done this to you today because you refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites. 19 What’s more, the Lord will hand you and the army of Israel over to the Philistines tomorrow, and you and your sons will be here with me. The Lord will bring down the entire army of Israel in defeat.”
20 Saul fell full length on the ground, paralyzed with fright because of Samuel’s words. He was also faint with hunger, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.
21 When the woman saw how distraught he was, she said, “Sir, I obeyed your command at the risk of my life. 22 Now do what I say, and let me give you a little something to eat so you can regain your strength for the trip back.”
2 Kings 21:6-7 (NLT)
Manasseh also sacrificed his own son in the fire. He practiced sorcery and divination, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the Lord’s sight, arousing his anger. 7 Manasseh even made a carved image of Asherah and set it up in the Temple, the very place where the Lord had told David and his son Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel.
The History of Halloween:
https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween 2024 will occur on Thursday, October 31. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.
What is the History of Halloween?
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.
This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.
When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
Did you know? One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.
By A.D. 43, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
All Saints’ Day
On May 13, A.D. 609, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.
By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In A.D. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It’s widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.
All Souls’ Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
How Did Halloween Start in America?
The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.
As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing.
Did you know? More people are buying costumes for their pets. Americans spent some $700 million on costumes for their pets in 2023—more than three times what they spent in 2010.
Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the 19th century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.
History of Trick-or-Treating
Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes.
Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations.
Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
Halloween Parties
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide Halloween parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time.
By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.
Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.
Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday after Christmas.
All Souls Day and Soul Cakes
The American Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling,” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food and money.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry.
On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.
On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
Black Cats and Ghosts on Halloween
Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.
Today’s Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck.
This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats.
We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred (it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe). And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.
Halloween Matchmaking and Lesser-Known Rituals
But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead.
In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.
In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)
Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.
Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.
Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry. At others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.
Of course, whether we’re asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the goodwill of the very same “spirits” whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.
The Origin of Halloween
https://www.albany.edu/~dp1252/isp523/halloween.html
IntroductionHalloween or All Hallows Eve, as it is sometimes referred to, is a lot different now than it may have been celebrated many centuries ago. With October 31st coming around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to find out what the origins of Halloween were. Earliest TracePeter Tokofsky, an assistant professor in the department of folklore and mythology in UCLA states, “The earliest trace (of Halloween) is the Celtic festival, Samhain, which was the Celtic New Year. It was the day of the dead, and they believed the souls of the deceased would be available” (Navarro). SamhainSamhain (pronounced sah-win or sow-in) means “summer’s end” by the Celts. In old Germanic and Celtic societies, what we call equinoxes and solstices marked the middles of the season, not the beginnings.” (Chamberlain) Therefore if there exist an autumnal equinox, winter solstice, spring equinox and a summer solstice, there are also the beginning of autumn, winter, spring and summer. All of these eight dates were important. Summer’s end which meant the beginning of winter was an important time for people who survived on plants grown in the field and animals that were kept in pastures. (Chamberlain) “This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death” (The History Channel Exhibits- History of Halloween) It is most likely this reason that the Druids (Celtic pagans) believed that the spirits of those who died the preceding year roamed the earth the night of Samhain (MSN Learning & Research- Halloween) DescriptionsThe Druids celebrated this holiday “with a great fire festival to encourage the dimming Sun not to vanish” and people “danced round bonfires to keep evil sprits away, but left their doors open in hopes that the kind spirits of loved ones might join them around their hearths”. On this night, “divination was thought to be more effective than any other time, so methods were derived to ascertain who might marry, what great person might be born, who might rise to prominence, or who might die” (Chamberlain). Also during the celebration, the Celts “wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes”. Crops were burned and animals were sacrificed (The History Channel Exhibits- The History of Halloween). The spirits were believed to be either “entertained by the living”, or to “find a body to possess for the incoming year”. This all gives reasons as to why “dressing up like witches, ghosts and goblins, villagers could avoid being possessed.” (Navarro ) Roman InfluenceBy 43 AD, “Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory.” For the 400 years they occupied Celtic lands, two Roman festivals: Feralia (the commemoration of the passing of the dead) and a day to honor Pomona (the Roman goddess of fruits and trees). The apple served as a symbol for Pomona and which might have been incorporated into Samhain by the practice of “bobbing for apples” (The History of Halloween). Christian InfluenceWhen “local people converted to Christianity during the early Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church often incorporated modified versions of older religious traditions in order to win converts.” Pope Gregory IV wanted to substitute Samhain with All Saints’ Day in 835, but All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2nd) which is closer in resemblance to Samhain and Halloween today, was “first instituted at a French monastery in 998 and quickly spread throughout Europe” (MSN Learning & Research- Halloween). In the 16th century, “Christian village children celebrated the vigil of All Saints’ by doing the Danse Macabre. The Seven Brethren whose grizzly death is described in the seventh chapter of the deuterocanonical book of Second Macabees” is also said to have resulted in children dressing up in grizzly costumes to signify these deaths. (Thomas ) Modern HalloweenHalloween came to the United States when European immigrants “brought their varied Halloween customs with them”. In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants including the Irish fleeing from the potato famine in Ireland in 1846. By combining Irish and English traditions, Americans began the “trick-or-treat” tradition. In the later 1800’s the holiday became more centered on community and in the 1920’s and 1930’s, Halloween became “a secular, but community-centered holiday”. In the 1950’s leaders changed Halloween as a holiday aimed at the young to limit vandalism. This all led to what Halloween actually is like today. (The History Channel Exhibits: The History of Halloween) |
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Sources:A Reminder of Death. Navarro, Michelle. Oct. 1997. UCLA. 12 Oct. 2002. <http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/DB/issues/97/10.31/news.halloween.html>Halloween FAQ. Thomas, Patrick. 4 Nov. 1993. Rutgers University. 12 Oct. 2002. <http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/pub/soc.religion.christian/faq/halloween>History Channel Exhibits: The History of Halloween. 2002. The History Channel. 12. Oct. 2002. <http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/halloween/hallowmas.html>History of Halloween 29 Feb. 2001. Indiana University. 12 Oct. 2002. <http://www.iun.edu/~preprofn/Histroy%20of%20Halloween.htm>MSN Learning & Research- Halloween. MSN Encarta. 12. Oct. 2002. <http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761572079>The Origin of Halloween Comes Out of the Sky. Chamberlain, Von Del. State University of Utah. 12. Oct. 2002. <http://www.utah.edu/planetarium/CQHalloween.html>Other Related Links:Halloween Traditions around the World. Flowers, MaDonna. 28. June. 2011. Halloween Costumes Blog. <http://www.halloweencostumes.com/blog/post/2011/06/28/halloween-traditions-around-the-world.aspx> |
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30 Year Anniversary
10.13.2024
Life is a journey, not a destination!
Always learning, always growing, always changing.
Helping people become who God created them to be.
My heart for you:
Born Again
Spirit Baptized
Connect with others
Serve others
This has been my life.
Proverbs 16:3 (AMP)
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
Psalms 37:4 (NKJV)
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
I gave my life back to Jesus Sept. 12, 1976, and received the BWTHS.
For my entire adult life, I have walked with God.
I was religious, I did not know God when I was young.
The Word of God transformed my life.
I was called to ministry in February of 1977.
Bible School, Marriage
I have been in ministry since October of 1981.
I actually started ministry OUT of the will of God. I was an associate pastor of a church in my home town after graduating from Rhema.
I found out during that time that God will bless His Word even though you may be out of place while preaching it.
Everything in life is a learning experience! I learned how to preach during that time.
I ministered healing to people with the laying on of hands; I preached every Sunday night.
I helped people receive the Baptism With The Holy Spirit.
We moved back to Tulsa in 1982.
I became a janitor at Grace Church after moving back, and eventually in 1984 I was promoted to the pastoral staff team doing personal ministry for the pastor.
That was my apprenticeship in ministry!
I learned the value of having a personal time with Jesus.
I learned the value of prayer.
I learned a lot about myself and how loving our Father is to us.
I learned a lot about people and how to deal with them.
I learned to believe the best in people.
I learned the importance of faithfulness and personal integrity.
1988 – Pioneering
In 1988, Susan and I, with two children and one on the way, moved to Mullins SC and started New Life Fellowship.
After a year and a half, I turned the church over to another pastor.
1990 – Traveling ministry.
Susan and I traveled for 2 years. I started a small business on the side to earn money to take care of my family.
1992 – Associate Pastor
In 1992, I became associate pastor of Abundant Life in my hometown, Florence, SC
In 1993 – I pastored Abundant Life Church in Florence, SC for the entire year while Carl Morris took his family to Lieopaja, Latvia for one year to start a church.
In November of 1993, I was praying and heard the words – already existing church – and knew that my next ministry move would be to take over an already existing church.
May 16th, 1994, I told Carl Morris, who had come back from Latvia, that there was a church somewhere that has no pastor and I am that pastor to take it over. That was the very day that this church lost its pastor.
The 2nd Sunday of October in 1994, I became pastor here.
God gave me a verse of scripture just for me:
Luke 16:10-12 (NKJV)
He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
The Lord found me faithful in Tulsa.
I was faithful in starting the church in Mullins.
I was faithful in the traveling ministry.
I was faithful over another man’s church.
Now, I have been here for 30 years.
Helping people become who God created them to be,
My heart for you.
Born Again
Spirit Baptized
Connection with others
Serve others
Worldwide Change is Here!
10.6.2024
Introduction
Jesus’ return is the backdrop for the crazy time we are experiencing!
Jesus is returning to earth the second time!
Acts 1:9-11 (NLT)
After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”
Ephesians 1:10 (J.B. Phillips)
For God had allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in Him.
During a transition time between King Saul and King David, the sons of Issachar had insight into the changes coming.
1 Chronicles 12:32 (NKJV)
…of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command;
1. We are living in between the age of Grace and the age of Divine Judgment.
We are right at the end of the church age where we have been for 2000 years, and are entering an age of judgment just before the second coming of Christ and his 1000-year rule we call the millennium or the millennial reign of Christ.
Hebrews 6 mentions some of the fundamental doctrines of scripture that we should be familiar with:
Hebrews 6:1-2 (NKJV)
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
One of the major doctrines of scripture is eternal judgment.
Sin will be judged on every level:
Each individual will be judged. (That’s why we preach the gospel):
The gospel is good news to a sinner!
Our present American culture resists any idea of future judgment.
The major mindset is that everyone is going to heaven.
https://www.barna.com/research/americans-describe-their-views-about-life-after-death/
Most Americans do not expect to experience Hell first-hand: just one-half of 1% expect to go to Hell upon their death. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) believe they will go to Heaven. One in 20 adults (5%) claim they will come back as another life form, while the same proportion (5%) contend they will simply cease to exist.
Hebrews 9:27-28 (NLT)
And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, …
(28) so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.
All of us individually will one day stand before Jesus and give an account!
Don’t be scared. Jesus took your judgment!
Believers will be judged or rewarded:
2 Corinthians 5:10 (AMPC)
For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or
evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing].
Nations will be judged:
Matthew 25:31-33 (NKJV)
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
God has given us much. “To whom much is given, much is required…”
There are those with loud voices in the media and online that want you to believe that America has rejected its Christian roots. If we stay silent and let them lie this into existence, then America will be judged if we stay on our current course.
Some believe we are now under judgment.
We have killed 64 million babies; in public schools we are grooming our children to be sexually immoral. Marriage is no longer a given, and the original design has been perverted to include same sex marriage. We are worse than Sodom and Gomorrah!
Satan and the antiChrist will be judged.
This globalist cabal that is seeking to undermine our election process and take away our constitution, Bill of Rights, and hence our freedoms, will be judged right along with the antiChrist!
Revelation 20:10 (NLT)
Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Hint – Don’t take sin lightly. Deal with it quickly. Satan will gain a toehold in your life if you do not deal quickly with sin.
So because of this living in between, things are going to feel a bit awkward and strange if you compare now to the previous years of your life.
It seems as though we have turned a corner, and things are proceeding rapidly to their endgame.
2. The only unchangeable thing is the word of God.
If you base your life on anything but the Word of God, you are going to fail.
Isaiah 33:6 (NKJV)
Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation; The fear of the LORD is His treasure.
Matthew 24:35 (NKJV)
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Psalms 119:89 (NKJV)
Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.
Isaiah 40:8 (NKJV)
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV)
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
The Word will give you stability. It will give you hope, and faith will rise within you!
Spend MORE time in the Word than you do in the news or on social media, etc…
Turn off social media, news, etc. They have become mechanisms of control…
Instead of being guided by circumstances, feelings, or thoughts, you decide to let God’s Word guide your life.
Smith Wigglesworth quote about the Word of God:
Read it through; write it down; pray it in; work it out; pass it on. The Word of God changes a man until he becomes an epistle of God.
Read it, memorize it, meditate it, believe it, work it in, walk it out!
3. Great pressure is here to stay.
Luke 21:8-13 (NLT)
He replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and saying, ‘The time has come!’ But don’t believe them. 9 And when you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place first, but the end won’t follow immediately.” 10 Then he added, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 1) There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven.
12 “But before all this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons, and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers. 13 But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me.
Luke 21:14-19 (NLT)
So don’t worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you, 15 for I will give you the right words and such wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to reply or refute you! 16 Even those closest to you—your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends—will betray you. They will even kill some of you. 17 And everyone will hate you because you are my followers. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish! 19 By standing firm, you will win your souls.
Luke 21:25-28 (AMPC)
And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth [there will be] distress (trouble and anguish) of nations in bewilderment and perplexity [without resources, left wanting, embarrassed, in doubt, not knowing which way to turn] at the roaring (the echo) of the tossing of the sea, 26 Men swooning away or expiring with fear and dread and apprehension and expectation of the things that are coming on the world; for the [very] powers of the heavens will be shaken and caused to totter. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great (transcendent and overwhelming) power and [all His kingly] glory (majesty and splendor). 28 Now when these things begin to occur, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption (deliverance) is drawing near.
Learn to pray and expect God to answer!
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Matthew 6:33-34 (NKJV)
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
4. Sin, sexual depravity, and lawlessness will become the norm in society, while living godly will be set aside.
The Globalists’ plan is to remove any faith in God from the people. They want your faith to be in them and their system that controls you.
So, schools are teaching and encouraging homosexual, lesbian, polysexual, and transgender ideology, and these kinds of ideas are promoted on all social media sites, on Youtube, Instagram, Reels, and Tic-Toc – all aimed at tainting the minds of the young and moving society away from the Biblical ethics of the 10 commandments that made us great.
People are easier to control when they have no standards.
Jesus said that when He returns, It will be like it was in the days of Noah:
Luke 17:26-27 (NLT)
When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 27 In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.
In Noah’s day, the entrance of fallen angels and human relationships producing giant offspring that were barbaric and ruthless had proliferated all over the world.
This was the reason for Noah’s flood.
The fallen angels took on human form, and lusted after the women of the time. They corrupted the human DNA structure and compromised God’s order of humanity.
They also spread an anti-God ideology that took God out of the equation of human life, and wickedness and depravity spread profusely.
They taught witchcraft and introduced occult ideas that pandered to the dark side – fallen angels and demons were worshiped and allowed into mainstream society.
God HAD to judge it.
God was being replaced by another way of thinking and living that did not include Him.
The people of the day were not aware of what was coming. They were just living life like normal. And sin and alternate lifestyles, where any kind of sex was okay, were being normalized.
The people had no expectation that a crisis was looming.
Likewise, in our day, these same things are beginning to happen.
There is now a rash of alien or UFO encounters being talked about.
Sightings are being reported all over the place.
The ideology is being spread.
As it was in the days of Noah.
Check out Rick Renner’s latest book: Fallen Angels, Giants, Monsters, and the World before the Flood.
Most people have no idea what is coming before Jesus returns. You must warn them!
It will be like it was in the days of Lot:
Luke 17:28-30 (NLT)
And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building—29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
As in Lot’s time, all morals are acceptable. Homosexuality, lesbianism, transgender, and binary sexuality are accepted as an alternative to heterosexual relationship and marriage. And this is being taught in public education.
These things brought judgment in Noah’s day, and in Lot’s day.
It is a good thing that people are rising up to resist the moral decay being presented to our children. Boycott with your money places that are spreading family-destroying ideals.
Boycott businesses that promote these things boldly.
That rainbow that God put in the sky as a promise to never use a worldwide flood to destroy the earth is a reminder of God’s faithful promises. Now it is used as colors on a flag to promote what judgment destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah!
Behind this is the antiChrist spirit seeking to remove from the world any Judeo-Christian moral ethics. The goal is to sanitize the world of Christian moral beliefs. This will create persecution.
Just like in Noah’s day, and Lot’s day, most people have no idea about what is coming. Warn them.
Luke 17:28-30 (NLT)
People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building—(29) until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. (30) Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
5. An Endtime Timeline of Events from the Bible:
Here is a quick quick reminder of what is coming…
From Daniel 9 we learn that there are 7 years of time when God deals with Israel that are not yet fulfilled. God showed Daniel 490 years of Israel’s future of which 483 are fulfilled. And that time clock stopped when Jesus was crucified.
An undetermined time of 2000 years now has elapsed, and we may be the generation to see the last 7 years fulfilled.
A huge sign of Jesus’ soon return was in 1948 when Israel became a nation again after almost 2000 years.
They will never leave that land!
In 1967, Israel regained control of Jerusalem for the first time since AD 70.
In 2017, the US recognized Jerusalem and relocated their Embassy there.
When Jesus returns, He will rescue Israel from a terrible war that may have started last year!
There will be an agreement of peace of some sort that will seem to bring hostility to an end. It will most likely be an agreement to house a Palestinian State right there beside Israel, and there will be a pseudo peace that will not last long.
A Jewish temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
The Globalists, headed by the person the Bible calls antiChrist, will renege on their peace with Israel
A one-world government will be in force.
The world leader we call antiChrist will violate the rebuilt temple and break his agreement with Israel.
This will begin a time of great persecution of Jews and Christians. It will probably be because of our moral stance against sexual sin.
War, inflation, famine, death, martyrdom, and solar disturbances are a part of this time.
Several years into this 7-year period, the wrath of God begins. Nature turns violent. This is called the Day of the Lord.
Revelation 8 begins the trumpet judgments on earth after the antiChrist begins his reign. This is the beginning of the wrath of God.
Meteorites hit the earth. This begins the wrath and judgment of God. These things are coming.
Judgment is coming. We must pray and share Jesus with people!
I believe we will see a prewrath rapture.
We leave in the rapture when the sun, moon, and stars darken with some kind of cosmic disturbance.
Thomas Horne had a vision about 5 years ago with a date and name of an asteroid (Apophis- the Greek god of destruction) that hits the earth – April 13, 2029. That could be the fulfillment of Revelation 8.
Thomas Horn – The Wormwood Prophecy
The Messenger.
Be ready. Don’t just think about today. Think about your future in eternity.
Luke 17:31-35 (NLT)
On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. 32 Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! 33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. 34 That night two people will be asleep in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.”
(Referring to the rapture of the church).
In some ways, life will go on just like it has for generations.
Don’t get caught up and too immersed in the culture.
Lot’s wife looked back because maybe she missed the old life “Her heart was attached to something that was judged in Sodom.”
Don’t cling to the old.
My opinion: Our American idols are being judged. Money. Sports. Recreation. Leisure. Hollywood.
Will it ever get back to normal? Who knows. Probably NOT!
We are to seek first the kingdom of God!
What we are dealing with is setting us up for something else.
The elites that are pushing the antiChrist one world control have found out how easy it is now to control people with health issues. Science or no science.
They have learned the art of brainwashing people to accept what science rejects.
Don’t be a part of the herd mentality.
It’s time to bring yourself into an internal separation from what your flesh likes and what you have to have to be happy.
Honor God. Honor His Presence. Honor His purity!
6. The Holy Spirit will manifest strongly again.
Joel 2:28-32 (NLT)
Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. 29 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike. 30 And I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth— blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives. 32 But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD
will be saved, for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape, just as the LORD has said.
These will be among the survivors whom the LORD has called.
Isaiah 60:1-3 (NKJV)
Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will
arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Ask for the Holy Spirit to be poured out once again all over the world, and in your life and in your church.
Bottom line, be a person of the WORD. God honors His Word.
As all of this comes, He will make a way for you.
He will provide, protect, and preserve you if you will trust Him.
Action Points:
How to prepare:
1. Judge sin in your life and ask God to help you overcome it. Get rid of idols you may have…
2. Read and live by scripture.
3. Pray with the expectation of answers.
Seven Tips to Help Your Marriage!
9.22.2024
Susan and I were married on this date in 1979 – 45 years ago today!
I want to talk to you today about how to strengthen your marriage.
The family unit is the glue that holds any human society together. And marriage is the foundation of the family.
If marriage loses its value, then that society is in danger of collapse. Marriage and family are God’s plan to pass values and morality from one generation to the next.
As goes the family, so goes the nation.
In our nation, we have more couples living together without marriage (yes, the Bible calls this fornication) and having children than ever before.
40 to 50% of first time marriages end in divorce. 60 to 67% of 2nd marriages end in divorce in America. And in recent years, the very idea of marriage being a relationship solely between a man and a woman has been challenged.
We are a nation in great danger. Our moral fabric is coming apart!
The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord
(Proverbs 18:22-NLT).
Genesis 2:18-25 (NLT)
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. 23 “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” 24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
Seven tips to help your marriage:
1. Nurture yourself spiritually every day.
Your spiritual life directly affects your closest relationships.
1 John 1:7 (NLT)
But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Without Jesus’ influence on us, we are inherently self-centered.
The natural me and you, without Jesus’ influence, are selfish, stubborn, and proud.
How about family devos?
Rub off the rough edges by rubbing up to Jesus in the Word and prayer every day.
The Dynamo principle is personal time with God.
The Manna principle – no one can feed you inside like God’s Word will.
Get your love and significance needs met by Jesus, and then He will help you love your spouse.
2. Keep friendship alive.
Friendship revolves around common likes.
Communicate regularly your desires, joys, disappointments, ideas, concerns.
Share heart secrets. You can’t demean or force this. A person is made comfortable by your reaction and demeanor.
Do things together…eating, shopping, projects around the house, hobbies, cooking.
3. Express affection daily.
Touch and Words are important.
Men: open the door for your wife.
Hold hands.
Hug and kiss each time you leave or arrive at home together.
You can never wear out “I love you.”
Husband – your wife “needs” the affection.
Wives – your husband “needs” affirmation.
Ephesians 5:33 (NLT)
So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her
husband.
4. Put the other person first
Practice the golden rule-
Luke 6:31 (NLT)
Do to others as you would like them to do to you.
Put your spouse above yourself.
Romans 12:10 (NLT)
Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each
other.
Romans 12:10 (AMPC)
Giving precedence and showing honor to one another.
Romans 12:10 (MSG)
Practice playing second fiddle.
Romans 12:10 (NIV)
Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10 (NCV)
Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves.
Philippians 2:4 (NKJV)
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4 (AMPC)
Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not [merely] his own interests, but also each for the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4 (J. B. Phillips)
None of you should think only of his own affairs, but consider other people’s interests also.
5. Don’t ignore problems – work on them.
“Marriage problems” are really two people who individually have problem
issues in their lives…
Hints to solving marriage problems:
5. Don’t ignore problems – work on them.
“Marriage problems” are really two people who individually have problem issues in their lives…
Hints to solving marriage problems:
1. Stop looking at your spouse’s problems – look at your own!
2. Don’t justify your faults and magnify theirs.
James 5:16 (KJV)
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
3. Practice listening – stop talking.
James 1:19 (NKJV)
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
4. Develop a devotional time with the Lord.
5. Love is not a feeling.
Love is a choice. When Jesus said love your enemy, He was not talking about a feeling. He was emphasizing a choice to do kind things to your enemy.
6. Discuss solutions – not just problems.
7. Forgive.
Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV)
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Colossians 3:12-13 (NKJV)
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
Humble yourself
Proverbs 3:34 (NKJV)
Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble.
Be honest with yourself. Ask the Lord to show you your weak areas.
Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Psalm 90:8 (AMPC)
Our iniquities, our secret heart and its sins [which we would so like to conceal even from ourselves], You have set in the [revealing] light of Your countenance.
If you don’t feel good about yourself, you generally tend to be critical of others.
NEVER go to bed angry. Clear each day’s offenses THAT day.
Ephesians 4:26-27 (NLT)
And don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still
angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Get outside help if necessary.
6. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Make daily communication a priority matter.
If you’re too busy to talk each day, you’re too busy!
Go below surface talk…share your heart.
Be aware of each other’s emotional needs – men vs. women.
Don’t discuss sensitive issues when physically exhausted.
7. Keep your bed wrinkled!
If there are rocks in the bedsprings, there are problems in the marriage!
Having regular sexual relations is a sign of a good relationship.
Hebrews 13:4 (NKJV)
Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
1 Corinthians 7:3-5 contains 3 principles of sexuality in marriage that it would
be wise to apply:
1 Corinthians 7:3-5 (NLT)
The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. 4 The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
1) The principle of need – vs. 3
2) The principle of authority – vs. 4
3) The principle of habit – vs. 5
* Set standards concerning your relationship with the opposite sex.
Action Points:
1. Have you decided to make yourself an easier person to be with?
2. How can you be a better listener and communicator?
3. When was the last time you asked your spouse, what can I do to make your life better?
Guidance – How Do You Make Decisions? (part 2)
The Logos and the Rhema
9.15.2024
Introduction
One great desire that I have had since I’ve known Jesus is to know how to correctly hear the voice of God.
It is more important than ever today to know the voice of God.
There are challenges now and in our future that we have never navigated in this way. The world is changing.
God does not lead us from the outside. He leads us from within, first of all by the guidance of His Word, then by the Holy Spirit’s influence.
Or – by the Logos and the Rhema.
Romans 8:14-16 (NKJV)
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (15) For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (16) The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God
Proverbs 20:27 (NKJV)
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
There are two ways we receive direction from God – General Guidance and Specific Guidance.
Or – by the Logos Word of God and the Rhema Word from the Holy Spirit.
Logos:
The sum total of all that God has said.
(Olive Tree Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary) In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world’s life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man’s salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds. – A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the term Logos around 600 B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe. This word was well suited to John’s purpose in John 1.
Rhema:
The Word of God spoken to the heart by the Holy Spirit.
Through the Logos and Rhema, God wants to direct your life!
If you will obey the word in daily life, the Logos, then when you need it, God will give you a specific word, a Rhema…
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)
For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (AMP)
And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].
The Word of God here is Logos – the sum total of all of the expressions of God.
Colossians 3:16-17 (NKJV)
Let the word (logos) of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17) And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
James 1:22-25 – NLT
But don’t just listen to God’s word (logos). You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (23) For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. (24) You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. (25) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
John 14:26 (NKJV)
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
John 16:13 (NKJV)
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
2 Timothy 3:16 (NKJV)
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
Inspiration
theopneustos; divinely breathed in: — given by inspiration of God
2 Peter 1:20-21 (NKJV)
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
General guidance with the Word (logos) would be:
Treating others the way you want to be treated. The golden rule.
Luke 6:31 (NKJV)
And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
Being kind to others:
Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV)
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Forgiving:
Mark 11:25-26 (NKJV)
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Tithing, giving:
Malachi 3:10 (NKJV)
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
Luke 6:38 (NLT)
Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
So, if for instance, I know to tithe and give, but I don’t do it, and I run into a financial hard place, and then ask God to meet my needs, is He going to give me specific guidance? Not until I repent and obey the logos! You don’t have the Holy Spirit speak the Rhema specifically very much at all until you get committed!
Working hard:
Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NKJV)
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
If I choose to not apply myself in my work by being late or wasting my time, will God speak a specific thing if I am not giving my best efforts?
Being Unselfish:
Philippians 2:3-4 (NLT)
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Putting God first:
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
If you constantly neglect your relationship with the Lord by ignoring the Bible, by by reading and putting it into practice, and by praying, and also by attending and being involved in a local church – you will have trouble and may not hear what you need when challenges come your way.
Disciplining your children:
Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Loving your spouse:
Ephesians 5:33 (NKJV)
Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Seeking to live a sexually pure life:
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NKJV)
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Refusing to worry:
Philippians 4:6 (NLT)
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Specific Guidance: Rhema
When the Holy Spirit quickens a thought to your spirit, and gives you specific direction about a situation or issue in life.
Ephesians 6:17 (NKJV)
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (Rhema) of God;
The sword of the Spirit or Word of God here in Ephesians 6:17 is Rhema – the Word of God quickened to you personally by the Holy Spirit. It is made real to your situation by the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 37:23 (NKJV)
The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord, and He delights in his way.
Psalm 32:8 -9 (NKJV)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. (9) Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.
Proverbs 16:9 (Passion Translation)
Within your heart you can make plans for your future, but the Lord chooses the steps you take to get there.
John 16:13-15 (NKJV)
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. (14) He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. (15) All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
1983 “jog.” Exercise regularly for the rest of your life…
I still obey this to this day – 41 years later!
1984 “what’s first in your life make first in Your day!”
I still obey this 40 years later!
1977 – I had been working on getting the word into my life for 5 months…
Example : My call to ministry. February 8, 1977. 2:00 pm
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, says the preacher!
I enrolled in Bible School…
When I was 21, I had been married 5 months – I heard deep within – go to Rhema…2nd Bible school
Associate pastor of a church I attended said I should stay there and be trained…
2. You cannot hear the voice of God if you neglect the Word of God!
If you’re not walking in the general guidance of the Word, in the areas that you KNOW about, then you’ll not be in position to receive more specific guidance from the Lord.
Proverbs 4: 20-22 – NLT
My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. (21) Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, (22) for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.(23) Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
James 1:22-25 – NLT
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (23) For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. (24) You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. (25) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
E.W. Kenyon
Our attitude towards the Word determines the place that God holds in our daily life!
If I know that God tells me to love my enemy and I refuse to do it, then I am not walking in general guidance.
I know that I am not to gossip and I do it anyway, then I am not walking in general guidance.
If I choose to defy feelings and do something kind for a person who injures me, then I am walking in general guidance, the logos of God.
If I will walk in the Logos, the general guidance, God will give me specific guidance when I need it. He will give me a Rhema.
Example – 1983 – I was an associate pastor…and God allowed me to pastor the church for one year while the pastor went on a one year missions endeavor to start a church in Latvia.
In fact, before the pastor went, God began to give me specific guidance…I would see myself pastoring his church – I would see myself in his pulpit preaching.
Then, the pastor took me to lunch, and told me he was leaving…
During that time of beginning to pastor his church, God quickened this verse to me:
Luke 16:10-12 (NKJV)
He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
Since I obeyed that, then towards the close of that year, when the pastor was about to come back to his church, God gave me 3 words. They were for me a Rhema – the Word spoken to my heart – about my next assignment. The words were already existing church.
It took 11 months for those words to come to pass.
And, here I am, 30 years later.
You could never convince me that I was not in the will of God!
So, if you will obey the word in daily life, the Logos, then when you need it, God will give you a specific word, a Rhema…
Action Points:
1. Are you obeying the general Word of God as you go about your daily life?
2. By obeying the Word that you know, are you a candidate to receive the specific Rhema Word of God spoken by Him to you about your personal situation?
3. Are you willing to to begin today to allow the Logos, the general Word to be your guide?
Guidance – How Do You Make Decisions? (part 2)
The Logos and the Rhema
9.15.2024
Introduction
One great desire that I have had since I’ve known Jesus is to know how to correctly hear the voice of God.
It is more important than ever today to know the voice of God.
There are challenges now and in our future that we have never navigated in this way. The world is changing.
God does not lead us from the outside. He leads us from within, first of all by the guidance of His Word, then by the Holy Spirit’s influence.
Or – by the Logos and the Rhema.
Romans 8:14-16 (NKJV)
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (15) For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (16) The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God
Proverbs 20:27 (NKJV)
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
There are two ways we receive direction from God – General Guidance and Specific Guidance.
Or – by the Logos Word of God and the Rhema Word from the Holy Spirit.
Logos:
The sum total of all that God has said.
(Olive Tree Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary) In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world’s life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man’s salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds. – A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the term Logos around 600 B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe. This word was well suited to John’s purpose in John 1.
Rhema:
The Word of God spoken to the heart by the Holy Spirit.
Through the Logos and Rhema, God wants to direct your life!
If you will obey the word in daily life, the Logos, then when you need it, God will give you a specific word, a Rhema…
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)
For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (AMP)
And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].
The Word of God here is Logos – the sum total of all of the expressions of God.
Colossians 3:16-17 (NKJV)
Let the word (logos) of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17) And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
James 1:22-25 – NLT
But don’t just listen to God’s word (logos). You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (23) For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. (24) You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. (25) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
General guidance with the Word (logos) would be:
Treating others the way you want to be treated. The golden rule.
Luke 6:31 (NKJV)
And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
Being kind to others:
Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV)
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Forgiving:
Mark 11:25-26 (NKJV)
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Tithing, giving:
Malachi 3:10 (NKJV)
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
Luke 6:38 (NLT)
Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
So, if for instance, I know to tithe and give, but I don’t do it, and I run into a financial hard place, and then ask God to meet my needs, is He going to give me specific guidance? Not until I repent and obey the logos! You don’t have the Holy Spirit speak the Rhema specifically very much at all until you get committed!
Working hard:
Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NKJV)
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
If I choose to not apply myself in my work by being late or wasting my time, will God speak a specific thing if I am not giving my best efforts?
Being Unselfish:
Philippians 2:3-4 (NLT)
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Putting God first:
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
If you constantly neglect your relationship with the Lord by ignoring the Bible, by by reading and putting it into practice, and by praying, and also by attending and being involved in a local church – you will have trouble and may not hear what you need when challenges come your way.
Disciplining your children:
Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Loving your spouse:
Ephesians 5:33 (NKJV)
Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Seeking to live a sexually pure life:
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NKJV)
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Refusing to worry:
Philippians 4:6 (NLT)
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Specific Guidance: Rhema
When the Holy Spirit quickens a thought to your spirit, and gives you specific direction about a situation or issue in life.
Ephesians 6:17 (NKJV)
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (Rhema) of God;
The sword of the Spirit or Word of God here in Ephesians 6:17 is Rhema – the Word of God quickened to you personally by the Holy Spirit. It is made real to your situation by the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 37:23 (NKJV)
The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord, and He delights in his way.
Psalm 32:8 -9 (NKJV)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. (9) Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.
Proverbs 16:9 (Passion Translation)
Within your heart you can make plans for your future, but the Lord chooses the steps you take to get there.
John 16:13-15 (NKJV)
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. (14) He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. (15) All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
1983 “jog.” Exercise regularly for the rest of your life…
I still obey this to this day – 41 years later!
1984 “what’s first in your life make first in Your day!”
I still obey this 40 years later!
1977 – I had been working on getting the word into my life for 5 months…
Example : My call to ministry. February 8, 1977. 2:00 pm
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, says the preacher!
I enrolled in Bible School…
When I was 21, I had been married 5 months – I heard deep within – go to Rhema…2nd Bible school
Associate pastor of a church I attended said I should stay there and be trained…
2. You cannot hear the voice of God if you neglect the Word of God!
If you’re not walking in the general guidance of the Word, in the areas that you KNOW about, then you’ll not be in position to receive more specific guidance from the Lord.
Proverbs 4: 20-22 – NLT
My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. (21) Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, (22) for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.(23) Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
James 1:22-25 – NLT
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (23) For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. (24) You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. (25) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
E.W. Kenyon
Our attitude towards the Word determines the place that God holds in our daily life!
If I know that God tells me to love my enemy and I refuse to do it, then I am not walking in general guidance.
I know that I am not to gossip and I do it anyway, then I am not walking in general guidance.
If I choose to defy feelings and do something kind for a person who injures me, then I am walking in general guidance, the logos of God.
If I will walk in the Logos, the general guidance, God will give me specific guidance when I need it. He will give me a Rhema.
Example – 1983 – I was an associate pastor…and God allowed me to pastor the church for one year while the pastor went on a one year missions endeavor to start a church in Latvia.
In fact, before the pastor went, God began to give me specific guidance…I would see myself pastoring his church – I would see myself in his pulpit preaching.
Then, the pastor took me to lunch, and told me he was leaving…
During that time of beginning to pastor his church, God quickened this verse to me:
Luke 16:10-12 (NKJV)
He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
Since I obeyed that, then towards the close of that year, when the pastor was about to come back to his church, God gave me 3 words. They were for me a Rhema – the Word spoken to my heart – about my next assignment. The words were already existing church.
It took 11 months for those words to come to pass.
And, here I am, 30 years later.
You could never convince me that I was not in the will of God!
So, if you will obey the word in daily life, the Logos, then when you need it, God will give you a specific word, a Rhema…
Action Points:
1. Are you obeying the general Word of God as you go about your daily life?
2. By obeying the Word that you know, are you a candidate to receive the specific Rhema Word of God spoken by Him to you about your personal situation?
3. Are you willing to to begin today to allow the Logos, the general Word to be your guide?
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Casting Our Cares
Meera Short
1 Peter 5:6-7 NKJV
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7 AMPC
Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you,
7 Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.
I am wanting to discuss today something that I truly believe we all must battle with: the anxious thoughts that we are bombarded with in our daily lives and how we can unburden ourselves from them. The everyday grind of life seems to bring pressure, and it seems to be intensifying. We have pressure in our relationships, with our jobs, with school, with our finances, with health, just living in our current world brings daily pressure. Three key areas that I want to examine are:
1- How are we to be as we face our cares?
2- How do we cast our cares?
3- What makes it all work?
1- How are we to be as we face our cares?
Be Humble:
I want to bring attention to the entire verses of 1 Peter 5:6-7. The beginning of this verse, in fact if we look at verse 5, begins by telling us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. We are called to humble ourselves under His care. When we submit to His Lordship we can receive His grace. Humility simply means that I am to think more about what He wants and less of what I desire. As we go through this, it doesn’t mean that we are removed from whatever situations we face, it just means that He comes alongside us, if we are not antagonistic towards His ways, and He carries us through whatever we are facing.
Verse 8 (NKJV): Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Be Sober:
To be sober is not to be drunk. A drunk person is disoriented. They see things, hear things, and believe things that are not there. They are loose, their thinking is impaired, their judgment is misguided. They laugh when they shouldn’t, cry when they have no reason to cry; there simply seems to be a false sense of reality for people who are drunk. A drunk person becomes irrational in their thinking. Decisions can be made that cause much pain when someone is drunk. So, to be sober implies that one must have clarity of mind and be mentally sharp.
Be Vigilant:
This means to keep a careful watch for possible danger or difficulties. To be on guard, alert and active. A person who concentrates on noticing danger, a person who avoids danger.
The adversary, the devil, is set against us because we are righteous. His goal is to destroy us and displace us. Just like he did to Adam and Eve. But God in His mercy, showed His fatherly love, He came and covered them. Even though they had to leave their pristine environment, Father came and covered them, He provided for them, and still showed up to meet with them.
2- How do we cast our cares?
The word “care” used in this scripture means to worry or be pulled apart. It speaks of being anxious or having anxiety. Anxiety comes from the Greek word merimna – merizo which means to divide or draw in different directions or to be apprehensive.
We cast them:
Let us first examine the word casting. It means to throw upon with force, forcefully throw off a load. The Greek word picture of this literally means it’s like taking a heavy bundle and throwing it on the back of a camel. This word is used only two times in the New Testament.
Luke 19:35
Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.
The people took their garments and threw them on the donkey’s back for Jesus to sit on.
So, we have here the picture of taking a back-breaking load, one that has us bent over, and throwing it on Jesus’s back.
Psalm 55:22 NKJV
Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
To have a sense of care/concern is normal. We are to be concerned about the well-being of others, (1 Cor 12:25). 1 Corinthians 7:33-34, when you’re married you’re concerned about the needs of your spouse. This is legitimate care and concern.
The cares in this passage of scripture speaks of the anxiety that I am referring to, the stuff that torments us and pulls us apart internally. This can come from fear of loss, fear of betrayal, fear of lack, fear of rejection, fear of not knowing, fear of the unknown. These are things that cause us to lose trust in God and inflict harm to ourselves and others.
Jesus warns us that the worries of this life and the cares of this world will render God’s Word inoperative and unfruitful in our lives.
Matthew 13:22 NKJV
Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
Worry means to choke or to strangle. The root of this word, the etymology of it, comes from an old German word “wurgen”. It means to kill by gripping or squeezing the neck tightly. Webster’s 1st definition of this word means to harass by tearing, biting, or snapping, especially at the throat. To subject to persistent or nagging attention or effort – to afflict with mental distress or agitation, to make anxious.
It is a foreboding or brooding fear. It is like having an unreasonable amount of anxiety about things which one has no control over.
FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real!
Someone has written that an average person’s anxiety is focused on:
• 40% — things that will never happen
• 30% — things about the past that can’t be changed
• 12% – things about criticism from others, mostly untrue
• 10% — about health, which gets worse with stress
• 8% — about real problems that will be faced
Charles Spurgeon “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows but only empties today of its strength.”
I can tell when I have truly begun to cast my cares because of my sense of peace. My heart begins to recall every incident that God has brought me through. Hope becomes renewed, and joy surfaces.
3- What makes it all work?
Love makes it all work:
1 John 4:7-21 (MSG)
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.
Perfect Love casts out all fear. Love is perfected in us when we love others.
When we walk in love we are not fearful of others. Love will cause us to treat others with the highest integrity, decency and respect. Love will cause us to consider others better than ourselves, we will treat others with the best intentions. When we do this, we have no reason to fear others and what they may do to us.
Proverbs 28:1 NKJV
The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
Jesus cares for us. He is thoughtful. He comes alongside and quickly and readily accepts what we load unto His shoulders.
Hebrews 7:25 AMPC
Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them.
Psalm 68:19 NKJV
Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Selah
Isaiah 64:4 MSG
Since before time began no one has ever imagined, no ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who happily do what is right, who keep a good memory of the way you work.
My Responsibility:
1- Am I walking in love?
2- Am I reminding the Lord of His promises?
3- Am I thinking of the size of my problems or the size of my God?
Guidance – How Do You Make Decisions? (part 1)
9.1.2024
Intro
It is more important than ever today to know the voice of God.
There are challenges now and in our future that we have never navigated in this way. The world is changing.
Romans 8:14-16 (NKJV)
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God
Proverbs 20:27 (NKJV)
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
Proverbs 20:27 (TPT)
The spirit God breathed into man is like a living lamp, a shining light searching into the innermost chamber of our being.,
When I was a young believer, I heard people say that God spoke to them.
What did He sound like?
How can I know I am hearing from God?
If I could hear God speak and listen to what He was saying, I could be successful in life.
I wondered how to tell the difference between my thoughts, thoughts that came from God, and thoughts that came from outside of me.
I wanted to know how to hear the voice of God in the details of life.
Once I learned, my life was transformed.
How do we know which way to go?
How do we know how to respond?
How do we know what God is saying to us right now?
Thank God, we are not alone! We have the Holy Spirit to aid us!
How Do You Make Decisions?
How do you find the will of God in a matter?
How do you know the voice of God?
Do you know the difference between the voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of conscience, or the voice of your own reasoning?
Do you look for an open door?
Do you look to others for direction?
Or do you do what Gideon did in Judges to make decisions about God’s will?
Years ago, people would call it “putting out a fleece.” That is, ask God to do something you can see to know what He wants you to do.
Judges 6:36-40 (NLT)
Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.” 38 And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” 40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.
I missed God by doing something just like this after Susan and I graduated from our 2nd Bible school. I basically said, “Lord, if you want me to do this, then make that happen.” That was acting just like Gideon laying the fleece on the ground looking for an outward sign to hear from God!
People try to receive guidance in many different ways:
Parents
… my mother.
Superstitions
Outward circumstances
Logic and reasoning alone…
…Sometimes God will ask you to do something that seems illogical.
Acts 9. ‘Go into the city, and you will be told what to do…’
Buy a house 32 miles away.
Counsel from others.
Horoscopes.
Occult (fortune-telling, palm reading, etc.)
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NLT)
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. 13 But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things.
Notice the scriptures about guidance:
Jeremiah 10:23 (NKJV)
O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
Proverbs 20:24 (NKJV)
A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way.
Psalm 37:23 (NKJV)
The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord, and He delights in his way.
Psalm 32:8-9 (NKJV)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. 9 Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding, which must be
harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.
Proverbs 16:3 (AMPC)
Roll your works upon the Lord – commit and trust them wholly to Him – He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and so shall your plans be established and succeed.
Proverbs 16:9 (NKJV)
A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9 (AMPC)
A man’s mind plans his road, but the Lord directs his steps.
Psalm 18:28 (NKJV)
For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
There are two kinds of guidance that God gives:
General guidance
Specific guidance
General guidance is the guidance of the Word of God in our daily lives.
General guidance is obeying the general Word of God every day.
General guidance is walking in love towards others, walking in forgiveness.
Specific guidance is when the Holy Spirit quickens a thought to your spirit, and God gives you specific direction.
Example : When I was 21, married 6 months – go to Rhema…
Associate pastor of the church I attended said I should stay there and be trained.
Colossians 3:16-17 (NKJV)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
James 1:22-25 (NLT)
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
John 16:13-15 (NKJV)
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
John 14:26 (NKJV)
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
If you’re not walking in the general guidance of the Word, in the areas that you KNOW about, then you’ll not be in position to receive more specific guidance from the Lord.
Proverbs 4:20-22 (NLT)
My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. 21 Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, 22 for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. 23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Putting God’s Word first daily is allowing Jesus to rule your life, and it is the first step in hearing the voice of God.
You cannot neglect the Word of God and hear the voice of God!
E.W. Kenyon:
Our attitude towards the Word determines the place that God holds in our daily life!
Action Points:
- Can you tell the difference between God’s voice, your mind, and information that you receive from a source outside of you?
- Do you look for circumstances to guide you the way Gideon did?
- Do you practice obeying God’s Word throughout your day?
Be aware of the deceptions of the day!
8.28.2024
The world is full of deception and delusion right now, and God wants us to navigate through it by learning to hear the voice of truth from the Holy Spirit within.
The time just prior to Jesus’ return is typified as a time of unusual deception and that’s the reason we so need to learn how to be guided and alerted by the Holy Spirit!
Learn to listen within you when you hear anything from any source – news media, Facebook, Reels, Instagram, websites, podcasts, magazines, newspapers, YouTube, Twitter.
If your spiritual nature is trained and full of the Word of God, you will be able to sense deception when you see or hear it!
We are surrounded by deception today!
Listen to the these passages:
Isaiah 5:20- NKJV
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Matthew 24:4 – NKJV
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you .
1 Timothy 4:1-2 – Passion Translation
The Holy Spirit has explicitly revealed: At the end of this age, many will depart from the true faith one after another, devoting themselves to spirits of deception and following demon-inspired revelations and theories. Hypocritical liars will deceive many, and their consciences won’t bother them at all!
2 Timothy 3:13- NKJV
But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
John 8:44 – NKJV
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Revelation 21:8 – NKJV
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers [occult practitioners, witchcraft], idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Matthew 24:24 (NKJV)
For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Listen to Daniel Webster’s 1828 definition of deceive:
1) To mislead the mind; to cause to err; to cause to believe what is false, or disbelieve what is true; to impose on; to delude. 2) To beguile; to cheat. 3) To cut off from expectation; to frustrate or disappoint; as, his hopes were deceived. 4) To take from; to rob.
Deception is first seen with Satan tempting Eve by distorting truth in Genesis 3:
Genesis 3:2-5 (NKJV)
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Today, deception and truth twisting have permeated the world.
And this is a precursor for what is coming.
*Ok, are you ready for me to be tough with you for a moment?
Prior to 2020, we were a society that could voice our opinions, disagree with others without recourse, and generally believe media outlets and government officials. And we trusted much of what we saw and heard on social media.
Now over 4 years later, censorship of information has become a mainstay with the news media , social media, and now selective information is given out by our government that must be checked and verified before it is believed!
In October of 2020, thousands of accounts were banned from Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook.
Factcheckers began to censor inappropriate content on social media sites that did not agree with a certain vein of thinking.
In an eerie way, the mainstream legacy media began to say exactly the same words and use the same phrases to explain what was happening during the Covid-19 lockdowns and the riots that blanketed major cities in America. It was as though someone or some entity was giving out a script behind the scenes that was being read! (6 or so families own world media). – See The Killing of Uncle Sam by Rodney Howard Browne.
Unless you were alerted or were looking at other information sources, you may not have noticed.
I noticed, and let me share with you how and why I noticed.
When you decide to seriously get into the Word of God and to pray, you alert the Holy Spirit in your life and He will manifest Himself to you when you need it!
Let me use the Covid-19 as an example of deception and false reality that is beginning to permeate so many areas of life.
And, let me again mention the WORD God gave me about Corona on March 13, 2020:
Nefarious:
extremely wicked or villainous; iniquitous:
a nefarious plot.
OTHER WORDS FOR nefarious:
heinous, horrible, odious, outrageous, shameful, vicious, vile, abominable, atrocious, base, corrupt, criminal, degenerate, depraved, detestable, dreadful, evil, execrable, flagitious, flagrant, foul, glaring gross, infamous, infernal, iniquitous, miscreant, monstrous, opprobrious, perverse, putrid, rank, rotten, treacherous, villainous, wicked.
When I heard that one Word from the Lord to me – I knew He was seeking to make a point and get my attention about what was happening with Covid.
There was an undercurrent with it that was more than about a physical virus.
As the weeks, months, and now years progressed, information has become twisted with partial truths and many times outright false information and lies!
The Holy Spirit showed me that what was happening was not truth. It was twisted and had a motive to it. The motive is to ensnare people into believing something that is not true by making it believable through repetition!
We’re living in a time right now that a false reality is being created by those who control the public narrative.
We are a generation that is undergoing what some call 5th generation warfare, that is pointed towards swaying the public belief a certain way – either for or against a certain thing. The end result of this is the control of a group without a shot being fired.
Quote
Robert Malone – 5th Gen Warfare Terms And Tactics
The most effective 5th Gen warfare strategies employed by those lacking integrity are not purely based on pushing false narratives, mis or dis information. The most effective strategies mix truth with fiction, and act to increase confusion and disorder in the thoughts and minds of those being targeted, so that they are not sure what or whom to believe.
Listen carefully – if all you listen to is the main media outlets and their opinions, then you are most probably a deceived person.
CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Tic-Toc,
Twitter has come alive with balanced, free speech since Elon Musk bought it last October!!
I have added to my sources of information the following sites because you can no longer trust that what you are hearing is truthful!
Rumble.com, MeWe.com, Telegram.com, Gab.com, CitizenFreePress.com, Whatfinger, Populist Press, Join1440.com,
Are you awake and aware of the deceptions all around us?
If what I am saying to you today is new, then you just may be deceived and not know it.
3. Refuse to be a delusional person!
Another characteristic of the days just prior to Jesus’ return is delusion.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 – NKJV
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Delusion:
1. An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Example – masks.
Micron – 1/25,000 of an inch.
Holes in a mask. 60 to 80 microns.
Corona – 5 microns.
2. A false belief that is resistant to confrontation with actual facts.
Mass formation psychosis.
Why is censorship necessary today if what is being said over and over is factual?
The truth needs no help. It will always reveal itself!
3. A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.
The results of misinformation – lies that are spoken over and over again are delusions!
People begin to believe what they hear over and over…
The AntiChrist is typified in Scripture as a deceptive person that will create delusional living.
The spirit of antiChrist is preparing the entire world for a future of global deception.
The antiChrist will one day rise to power in the Middle East, and will aid Israel with some kind of treaty.
This person will be a deceiver par-non! Listen to the scriptures:
Daniel 8:25 – NLT
He will be a master of deception and will become arrogant; he will destroy many without warning. He will even take on the Prince of princes in battle, but he will be broken, though not by human power.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 – NKJV
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
1 John 2:21-23 – NLT
So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
1 John 4:1-6 – (Modern English Version)
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world, and therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 (Passion Translation)
The Holy Spirit has explicitly revealed: At the end of this age, many will depart from the true faith one after another, devoting themselves to spirits of deception and following demon-inspired revelations and theories. 2 Hypocritical liars will deceive many, and their consciences won’t bother them at all!
When was the last time you knew that you heard something that you know is false?
If it is not really recent, like today or yesterday, you are probably a person vulnerable to being deceived.
This is not just with spiritual things. This is stuff you hear in the world all around us. The spirit of antiChrist is setting the stage for the world to be controlled. Misinformation abounds!
2 Timothy 4:1-4 (Passion Translation)
Timothy, in the presence of our great God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is destined to judge both the living and the dead by the revelation of his kingdom—I solemnly instruct you to 2 proclaim the Word of God and stand upon it no matter what! Rise to the occasion and preach when it is convenient and when it is not. Preach in the full expression of the Holy Spirit —with wisdom and patience as you instruct and teach the people.
3 For the time is coming when they will no longer listen and respond to the healing words of truth because they will become selfish and proud. They will seek out teachers with soothing words that line up with their desires, saying just what they want to hear. 4 They will close their ears to the truth and believe nothing but fables and myths.
The real truth of God’s Word is sometimes tough to hear! It will challenge you!
If you are not challenged by your pastor’s preaching then you’d better wake up and check it out!
So, are you going to stand strong as a believer when it is not convenient?
Are you going to stand strong when it goes cross grain to what is popular? If not, then you are open to being deceived and deluded!
And, you may be one of those who will fall away from God when the going gets tough and persecution is at the door.
This may come quickly. Are you willing to be persecuted for what you believe?
Here is a list of behaviors that the spirit of antiChrist motivates:
Lying, abortion, same sex marriage, pornography, living together without marriage, relative values or values that change from person to person and in different situations, socialism, communism, control, atheism, lawlessness, fear, godlessness, amorality, homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, binary and fluid sexuality, pedophilia, polyamory, polygamy, divisiveness, inequality, rioting, violence, racism, borderless nations, compliance without questioning facts, and a one world government.
The spirit of antiChrist is already prepping the world for deception and delusion. Will you resist or will you be one the gives in to it?
Face the Future With Faith! (part 5)
Faith and Words Go Together
8.21.2024
Review
(Part 1) 7.17.2024
As world conditions deteriorate, now is the time to build your faith in God’s Word.
1 John 5:4 (NKJV)
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Jesus gave you faith when you were born again!
Faith is developed two ways: learning the Word, and then exercising it against the circumstances of life.
(Part 2) 7.24.2024
There is no faith in God that is not directly attached to His Word!
(Part 3) 7/31/2014
What kind of faith do you have?
The “Thomas” kind of faith
Thomas’ faith only believes when it sees and feels.
Abraham’s kind of faith
Abraham’s faith is believing right now that you receive what God has promised you and that He is answering your prayers, even if you can’t see or feel it.
(Part 4) 8.14.2024
Faith is always past or present tense.
Hope looks to the future to receive. Faith is NOW!
Believing you receive what you have asked for from the Lord before you see or feel it is the key to receiving from Him!
8.21.2024
Faith and Words Go Together
Faith must have actions that move it!
Do my actions show that my faith is active?
James 2:14-26 (NKJV)
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
One major way to act your faith is to say what you believe!
Mark 11:23 (NKJV)
For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
It is 3 times as important to say what you believe than it is to believe it!
Faith comes out of your heart to the Lord with words!
Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV)
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Faith uses words to bring what you believe into physical manifestation.
2 Corinthians 4:13 (NKJV)
And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak.
Romans 10:6-8 (NKJV)
But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
Words reveal what is in your heart!
Matthew 12:34-37 (NLT)
You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.
Look back to what you’ve been saying, and you’ll know what you are believing.
What we believe we talk about.
You can’t say one thing and believe something else…
What are you saying deep inside with your self-talk?
I’m not worth having much. Poverty, just-making-it mentality.
Health. Grandpa had it, dad had it, I will get it.
You can school yourself into believing. So and so has said that so much they really believe it.
Instead of saying what you have, say what you believe, and life will change!
Saying nothing means there is no faith.