Dangers of preaching out of the soul

I know that I am not worthy of sharing this message because often times what I have preached may seemed to have come out of the soul.  There is something important about analyzing of audience when you are trying to convey a message.  You don’t know who will be listening or reading what you are sharing and how it will impact them.  Certain types of messages may seem good to your soul, but are not often from the Spirit.  A good question you have to ask yourself is, will it do damage to the soul and bring condemnation to them?  People come with a lot of baggage in their souls, and if you carry your own baggage, even as an example, sometimes it can lead to destruction, and cause a lot of harm, and create a painful memory, in the person’s soul, especially if you believe that this person is really speaking from God.  So to put this delicately, we have to be very careful what we say, write, or speak as leaders.  We as Christians are supposed to forgive, and it maybe a lot more difficult when people abuse their position of authority.

There some types of audiences that you need to be aware of when preaching – not a law and probably no Biblical foundation to support this, but some guidelines to know what kind of message is appropriate for what kind of audience as so not to do tremendous damage to the soul to the point where it may become difficult for them to receive healing-Proverbs 13:12 – Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire [for Jesus] comes, it is a tree of life:

1.  Born Again Believers – who have been born again for over 20 to 30 years –

They have probably heard it all and won’t be surprised by anything you say, but there is something new that they can learn from a message.

2.  Born Again Believers – who have been born again for  15 to 20 years –

They may have not heard everything, but can tolerate rebuking and correction most of the time

3.  Born Again Believers – who have been born again for 10 to 15 years –

They might be going through what I like to call Spiritual Adolescence, and they may be easily persuaded by different types of doctrines so they need to be preached the Truth.  They probably cannot tolerate too much rebuking and correction, and if it is constant, they may be led to stray away from the faith if they don’t have some messages that build up or uplift or encourage sometimes.  It may not mean they have itching ears, but they need to be able to trust that what they are hearing is from God.

4.  Born Again Believers – who have been born again for 5 to 10 years –

These are believers who need to be fed the Word of God and need to be taught how to feed upon more than nuggets, and they need to be encouraged and built up and they need not to be rebuked unless their sin is going to damage the way that God has for their life.  Each person and circumstance is different so it cannot be dependent upon a formula, as none of these can, but it takes wisdom on how to counsel these people and how to minister the Word to them, but preferrably they need to be built up and encouraged.

5.  Born Again Believers – who have been born again (Just received salvation up to 5 years)

These are new believers – they need to be built up and encouraged in their faith as much as possible, and need to be fed strong Word of Truth from the beginning so that their foundation is strong.  They do not need to be led into condemnation, and rebuking has to be gentle, and persuasive, instead of harsh, and discouraging.  They need to be counseled and mentored by someone in the same gender as them if they have had issues in the area of lust, and need to be taught properly the Word of God, and be encouraged to build up their faith so that they can know who Jesus is. This would be a good time for them to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, after they have received the Baptism of Water.

5.  Nominal Christians – these are people who say they are born Christians

They need to be taught about what Jesus said to Nicodemus, that we must be born again, and they must be taught that Jesus is not a religion, but a relationship.  These people need to be rebuked because they are taking the name of Jesus in vain and they need to be taught the errors of their ways.

6.  Unbelievers – need to be treated the same way, but not need to have Jesus forced down the throat.  They need to experience Jesus for themselves because the Word of God will have no power over them if they don’t know who Jesus is.  It is different for each person and each person works out their own salvation with fear and trembling so they need to be carefully witnessed to, by planting small seeds at a time, and not be treated as such to “win a soul”.

7. Carnal Christians – various ages – who keep on committing sins that are abominations to God – for example the Church of Corinth.

That brings me to my next point – we are to win souls not crush them and break them and tear them to pieces.  We are to show them the way that they are wrong so that they can come into repentance, but not enter into condemnation, and it takes guidance from the Holy Spirit.  A preacher well intentioned may think they are hearing from God, (just an example)  but then make a comment that a person’s worship is not coming from the heart, and that may be true for some people or for themselves, but it is very dangerous to comment for everybody – especially for people that fall in that 1 – 10 category.  Their hearts are usually pure so they do not to be discouraged in the way the worship God, and I am not just talking about singing, but about their lifestyle of worship.  All preaching must bring hope and bring the message back to Jesus and back to revealing either Jesus, the Father, or the Holy Spirit, or all three included, otherwise it might be coming out of the soul or might even be bringing idolatry.  Some messages are teaching tools in how to lead an effective ministry and for that the audience will have to take in what applies to them.  Preaching should be more about Jesus and less about your own personal life, and you can use examples, but then use them in a way so that it brings people faith and not doubt and discouragement to their souls.  Once the soul is wounded it takes time to repair the soul.  The Old Testament says that – Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully (or carelessly) – but The New Testament says – in 2 Corinthians 4:2 –

² But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

Paul struggled in this area of leading the Church of Corinth because they were doing things like fornicating in the temple and bowing down to idols, and these were things that he had to correct, and he didn’t like doing it, but it needed to be done.

Most likely there are many different types of people in the Church that you are ministering to so it’s hard to tell.  Pray to the Lord and ask Him to impart on you the Spirit of love and Agape when teaching so that you may be revealed what to preach and when to preach it.  Perhaps you end up preaching out of your soul at one time, then you know you can always repent, but pray that the message you preached did not cause a wound in the soul and caused people to lose hope or not to be able to forgive themselves and enter into condemnation. When you do preach it is always good to pray before hand, and sometimes when you preach out of pain God can do mighty things in another person’s life, but it takes a lot of wisdom and discernment, and just being examining your motive in what you are preaching.  Is it to take your mess and turn it into a message?  Will it actually help people’s lives, or will it make them feel so bad about themselves that they don’t want to believe in Jesus anymore because of what you said?  People handle different things differently and it takes wisdom to handle the situation properly.  Many people have left the Church because of strife and offense and the things that people especially ministers have said.  So my exhortation for preachers, blog-evangelists, teachers, apostles, is to be careful in the things you say both on and off the “pulpit”.  As I said that I am not worthy to preach this message because of the way I have been writing this blog at times, and I can think of at least one sermon, which did not bring edification and to build up the body.  It is difficult for bloggers because they don’t know who they are reaching – it could be wicked spammers, or it could be mighty men and women of God, or it could be someone who has just found their faith, so be careful of not preaching out of the soul and taking your own baggage on the pulpit.

1 Peter 5 says –  ¹I WARN and counsel the elders among you (the pastors and spiritual guides of the church) as a fellow elder and as an eyewitness [called to testify] of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a sharer in the glory (the honor and splendor) that is to be revealed (disclosed, unfolded):     ²Tend (nurture, guard, guide, and fold) the flock of God that is [your responsibility], not by coercion or constraint, but willingly; not dishonorably motivated by the advantages and profits [belonging to the office], but eagerly and cheerfully;     ³Not domineering [as arrogant, dictatorial, and overbearing persons] over those in your charge, but being examples (patterns and models of Christian living) to the flock (the congregation).     ⁴And [then] when the Chief Shepherd is revealed, you will win the conqueror’s crown of glory.

If you are a pastor, preacher, minister, leader, blog-evangelist, apostle, or teacher here is a prayer for you –

Heavenly Father,

Forgive me for anyone I have wounded grievously in the soul for the efforts of preaching and doing ministry work.  It was not my intention and I can only do what I can by the hearing and discernment of Your voice.  It is Your will that I should humble myself down before You and surrender the ministry into Your hands and cause only words that come out of Your mouth to be spoken or written to the people.  In their heart transformation let the people  not experience unforgiveness or bitterness in their own hearts toward anything being shared or spoken.  If there is any bitterness or unforgiveness in my own heart let it be washed away and cleansed by the Power of Your Blood and by the renewing of Your Spirit, and let it cleanse out all impurities of the soul that keep me from ministering what is Truth to Your Word.  Thank You for the Spirit of wisdom to help discern what types of audiences I am speaking to and what kind of messages need to be preached.  I lay everything down before Your feet, and remove any pride, critical, judgmental nature in my life and help me to be more like You each day.

In Jesus Mighty Name I Pray,

Amen.

 

When you have failed a test

This blog posting is kind of like a follow up to “When everything falls apart”, and “The Tests of Life”.  We know that when students go through tests at school.  Have you ever known you were going to have a quiz, but you didn’t have time to study for it?  You just go to sleep and hoping that everything comes by “osmosis” or something like that?  Well God tests and sometimes He chastens us too, and sometimes this test may be foretold in advance [i.e. Jesus wilderness, and the Israelite wilderness] We go through difficult things, and it is about our attitude primarily and what we do and say during these times of chastening and testing.  Sometimes we do not know what direction it is going to come, and we know that the enemy goes around like a roaring lion seeing who he can devour, but we also know God has His plan, which is different for testing.

Women, not intended to stereotype, in general tend to be more emotional and they tend to cry more and be more expressive in their emotions.  Sometimes we find women yelling, and getting angry too, but as believers it is hard to control these emotions without surrendering to the Holy Spirit.  But whether you are a woman or a man, you do get tested by the Lord, and even through the best of intentions you try to obtain a peaceful attitude through the Holy Spirit, but it is the times when you are spiritually undernourished that you go through certain things and you cannot seem to find your way out of the wilderness experience that you are in.  One thing to understand is that God is through His Holy Spirit giving you a slight nudge in what to do in the beginning, and if you don’t listen to that nudge, which is like Question No. 1, and then He gives you another nudge, but this time this one may be a little bit softer than the other nudge.  That is like Question No. 2.  Then by now if the principle of chastening, and disciplining has come into picture, there will you will start receiving a wrong answer mark or an “X” by your “Questions”, and that begins the consequences of sin.  The good thing about the “X” is that if you realize it soon enough you get it erased, and just for another opportunity to do the same question again.  But if you you continue to answer questions wrongly, then the “X”‘s get more and depending on how much you have prepared for the test, and how much you ask the Teacher to help you, you yourself will get up getting upset and failing.  The Good News is that you always have a do over, but you have to ask the Teacher to help you study and you have to ask for tutoring and to go in for “Office Hours”.  The Good News is that the Office Hours are 24/7.  This Teacher is Jesus and through the Holy Spirit He teaches you, but it will have to be at a time, when He is not grieved by you getting upset with Him for the difficult test.

The problem is that most times we don’t depend on the Teacher alone, but we depend on other people, and trying to please them, we try to please other people.   If Job actually listened to the advice of His friends, would He have been actually able to hear from God?  Maybe, because the Word does say, “God works out all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” But this was a test.  For Job, it was unexpected, but for some people, God may tell you, “Be watchful, lest you enter into temptation”, and if you don’t listen you are going to end up in trouble.

Part of the problem, is that we don’t have the wisdom our own to figure out the problem, so that’s why we are supposed to go to God, and you may just want someone to pray for you, and they go about giving their advice and telling you how to solve the problem.  Sometimes there are times where people have been thrown everything, which comes there way, and they think as Christians, “I should have been able to handle this better”, and that’s where pride comes in.  Because it is not us, but Christ who lives in us that equips us to handle problems, and because when we don’t listen to the small nudgings, we get overwhelmed, over stressed, and overburdened by our problems.

Hebrews 12, my favorite Chapter says –

³ For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. ⁴ You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. ⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

⁷ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? ⁸ But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that wemay be partakers of His holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

¹² Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

So basically what it says here is that you have to endure the chastening, and some places says rejoice, because you are not illegitimate, and you are sons.  So basically when you have a pop-quiz/test like this, and you fail, realize that it’s ok because even though you will have to go through test again, you are building up your relationship with the Holy Spirit to the level of intimacy because in truth, we all fall down, and especially when you are pursuing the path of Holiness, there may be so many things that come against you, but if you trust in God, then there will be a peacable fruit of righteousness and to forgive yourself and to accept His grace, which calls us unto redemption.  We are not guided by our feelings, and we may have bad days, and areas of struggle, and areas of weakness, but God is equipping us, the one’s whom He loves to be a bride ready to be established for His Kingdom.

If you need to repent for failing a test here is a prayer for you:

Heavenly Father,

Please forgive me, I’ve run a muck today, and not listened to Your voice, and obeyed Your commands.  I acted impatiently, hastily, and not out of love, but I really need You to forgive me, and cleanse my heart with Your Blood and to give me a clean heart and a new heart and to pick up the pieces, dust them off, and continue to spin that Potter’s wheel.  I thank You that You are still with me, and that You are teaching me and training me to be a glorious vessel for Your Kingdom, and I abide in Your Truth and wisdom, to know that You are guiding my path.  Help me to be able to discern Your voice more clearly from now on, and to make wise decisions to pass the tests and to surrender my emotions to you, so that I can have the complete wholeness of Body, Mind, Spirit, that you have promised in Your Word.  Thank You Heavenly Father.

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.

God is faithful to answer the prayers whatever they may be, if you continue to wait on Him.  He will always be with you.

 

God justifies the harm of the righteous from the wicked with His wrath

There is a very serious danger going on in our society right now.  There are very serious lusts and degrees of sins, and while we say that grace does cover and grace washes over our sins, but it is the BLOOD OF JESUS, that cleanses from all unrighteousness, it is those who choose to follow God, and continue in no longer sinning.

Galatians 5 says –

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,^[c] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders,^[d] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Colossians 3 says –

⁵ Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, [lustful] passion(s), evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (emphasis added)

Matthew 5 says –

¹⁹ For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

We have a society that is based on lewdness, evil thoughts, fornications, etc., and even those that are sinners, unless they come into repentance, wrath is waiting for them.  You don’t want to see His wrath.

I posted a video called the Jealousy of God, and He is so jealous for His bride, the bride of Christ, that He will not tolerate any evil to come to her, and when people harm and persecute the Church, watchout, fury from the wrath of God is waiting for them.

Song of Solomon 8

For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy as cruel as the grave;
Its flames are flames of fire,
A most vehement flame.

Vehement means hot, fiery, passionate, intense.

The fireman in the Fantastic Four is nothing compared to the the vehement God who is known as Jealous and who as wrath.

Jesus cried vehement tears to the Father for us – Hebrews 5:7.

Psalm 58 says –

vs. 9 -Before your pots can feel the burning thorns,
He shall take them away as with a whirlwind,
As in His living and burning wrath.
¹⁰ The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
¹¹ So that men will say,
“Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”

Proverbs 11 –

The desire of the righteous is only good,
But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

People don’t see the power of our God, the One who with the touch of His finger can send a forest ablazing, or the touch of His feet can cause the earth to shake like a drunken man tossed back to and fro.

This is a very powerful God, but still people play games, they revel in their sin, and drunkeness, and fornication, without any consideration for their very souls.  They behave like pigs, and one sermon I listened to about the Presence of Pigs, said that if you are in the presence of pigs, you begin to tolerate evil.   God does not tolerate evil, and sometimes He wants to hug us and love us, but that treasure is only for the righteous, but the wicked have to suffer in the punishment of His wrath, when He comes to judge and vindicate and bring justice to His Bride.  We are the Bride of Christ, and we belong to Him.

I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness, “Repent, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!!!!”

Loving like Jesus Loves pt 2

For the people that didn’t see my first blog posting here is the link –

https://kingdomofgodservantv4.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/loving-like-jesus-loves-pt-1/

 

To recap – I briefly introduced a comparison of Jesus portraying love like it mentions in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and how we can incorporate those qualities in our life as a means of self-examination.

Now I will continue where I left off, and I pray that this blog posting will touch your hearts because I think it is an area we all need to grow in.

1 Corinthians 13:5-8

(Love) -it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

⁶It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

⁷Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

⁸Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].

Love takes no account of the evil done to it or it pays no attention to a suffered wrong – It was very interesting that God challenged me in the same area that night I posted the last sermon.  I am not going to go into what happened, but it was a small thing, and my actions showed that I hadn’t yet learned what I was preaching through blog, but at least I was aware that this was an area where I was failing to meet God that night and I was able to ask for forgiveness in that area.  When I think about this passage, I think about two people in particular.  One is Jesus, who I mentioned before, and the other one is Paul.

Here is Paul in the Message translation talking about the woes of sufferings he had to endure from 2 Corinthians 11 –

^3-27I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.

^28-29And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.

How many of us can say we even have been through all that and Paul’s anger was not against those other people, but he was angry that still people would not believe the reason why he was sent.

But no one takes the place of Jesus, and what He went through for us.  We get a traffic ticket – we blame the cop.  We get into an accident we blame the other driver.  Imagine all those women that are being raped and abused everyday and the torture that they have had to go through and if it weren’t for people like Joyce Meyer and Paula White showing them that through Christ we can learn to forgive to that level.  To pay no attention means to not even consider it.  That’s why in Romans 8 it says, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is about to be revealed in us.”

Love does not rejoice in injustice or unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail:  God is a God of Justice.  When people were looking at the Casey Anthony trial, there were varying opinions and people were taking side, and the news was spreading like wildfire.   People were looking for justice to prevail. You may ask, “how can God take sides?”  That’s a part of our limited understanding of God that we can comprehend with our minds, but as children of God, we are His favorite ones, so He will always take the side of the favorite one, but we have to have compassion on the other people as well, and pray for God to give them grace, and a second chance because we too were once sinners, yet He died for them as well.  When Barabas was chosen instead of Jesus, the world made it’s choice, and it was the last chance and the final call for the Jews to come to repentance, but because they didn’t and God knew they wouldn’t Jesus was laid up on the Cross be a slaughtered lamb for the sacrifice.  He did it out of His mercy and Grace and for the sake of Justice to see that all the wrongs would be made right.

Sometimes Christians see things happening around them to wicked people and they think, “Oh they deserved that.”  It’s sad to see that even in churches, there are Pastors who are sinning and we blame the media for picking on them and singling them out when in fact they were the ones sinning.  This was a topic discussed in one of our Bible studies.  The world has sort of twisted justice to take the form of social justice and civil rights to the extreme where they are trying to get unrighteousness to be justified.  Some of the things that they are doing and even if they are  Christian, only with a repentant spirit and realization of God’s jealous love for them, will be able to see what true righteousness and justice is all about.  God’s kind of justice and righteousness is different because is based on the truth, and that Truth is solely based on God’s Word and revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Love bears up under anything and everything that comes:   We have it so easy in America and in developed countries, where we have luxuries at our disposal.  Even the internet is a click away.  We did not have to struggle the same way that the first century Church did, and maybe that’s why we’re not seeing the same kind of Revival and Power in the Church because people have settled for Microwave Christianity.  Just 30 seconds to 5 minutes and you’re done.  No more waiting for the stew to boil and wait on the Holy Spirit.  We are caught in a cycle of do, do, do, and less be still and know because we are so caught up in our jobs, and our daily ‘idols’ and ‘gods’ that we refuse to see God for who He truly is and what He has called us to do.  So if we have a headache, take some tylenol.  If we have physical pains take painkillers and go see the doctor.  We would rather go see the doctor then go see God, the Great Physician and Healer.  When Asa was diseased in His feet, and He did not seek the LORD.  Here’s the passage. I think it’s important we take a look at it.

¹¹ Note that the acts of Asa, first and last, are indeed written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.

Who is to say that if king Asa had sought the Lord in the time of His malady instead of turning to the physicians, then the Lord would have had mercy on him, and healed his feet?

So to get this verse to take it to another level and correlate it back to love.  How much are we willing to do for love?  How far are we willing to sacrifice for love?  Whether it be love for God or love for neighbor.  We find it easy to sacrifice when it comes to love for our self, but actually when we sacrifice out of love for others, it takes it to another level.

We are called to love no matter what the cost.  But are we doing that?  Are we loving no matter the cost?  I sometimes have this struggle that I want to show Agape for other people, but sometimes because of the physical limitations of my body, I feel that I am not equipped enough to handle whatever needs to be done, so in essence I stay in my comfort zone, and that’s a dangerous place to be in.  We are to go and get out of our comfort zones.   How many times have you tried to go to your neighbor or kids down the street and minister the gospel to them?  What have you gone out of your way to love someone and do something for them?

This love, love for God should bear up no matter what happens.  Let us all strive to reach that kind of love in our lives.

Love believes the best of every person- This is a very nice thing to know that Jesus believes the best out of us, and that He wants to see us succeed and prosper in all that we do, say, or think.  But are you pointing out other people’s flaws instead of looking at the best of them. I think this is a flaw of human nature, that people tend to look at other people and see what’s wrong with them, instead of believing the best of every person.  We should look at every person and think that they are a too good to be true story in progress.  Even when telemarketers call, do we have this kind of love, not to think that they are pushy, and unscrupulous and greedy, but actually to see the best in every person?   Anne Frank said, “I think basically people are really good, down at heart.”  Anne Frank was a young girl who died in a concentration camp during the Holocaust and she wrote a diary of her life in The Secret Annex.  Most of us under terrible and abusive circumstances would refuse to believe the best of every person.  We would be bitter and resentful.  Some people might think that it is being naive, but actually it is the opposite.  The Bible says we are to be cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves.  This takes wisdom.

Love’s hopes are fadeless under all circumstances – This means that even if you don’t have what you desire right now, you still believe and hope in the Truth of God’s Word.  Hope is a desire or expectation for a certain thing to happen and it is supposed to be fadeless.  I actually have a funny story about my experiences with hope.  I sometimes go by the expression, hope for the best, and expect the worst, but that is a contradiction in terms based on the definition.  So sometimes I get on the scale, and I say, “I expect that I have gained weight, but I hope that I have lost weight.”  Then I get on the scale and then I lose weight and I am so “happy”.  Do you know what that was there?  That was false hope.  That was hope based on circumstances meaning that my happiness is dependent upon the weight on the scale.  True hope means that whatever goes on, whether my weight goes up or down, I will not lose my joy.  Joy is not dependent upon circumstances.  Circumstances means things going on around you that you have little or no control over.  As Christians we have hope in our salvation, and this means no matter what happens we don’t lose that hope.  Hope also means to trust or to anticipate.  We are to trust Jesus and anticipate good things for our lives.  That’s why God says His plans for you are not to harm you, but to prosper you, but to give you a future and a hope.

Love endures everything [without weakening] – This one really got to me.  Try lifting a 200 pound weight without weakening.  Tall order right?  Well spiritually we are supposed to be athletes and soldiers and we are supposed to endure without weakening.  Hebrews 12:11 has a good verse on the subject, “No discipline is joyful, but is grievous and painful, but in the end produces peacable fruits of righteousness to those that have been trained by it.”  When you discipline yourself it is like you are chastening yourself, but that produces righteousness after successive trials, of going through obstacles.  Soldiers have to go through tremendous and vigorous training and that makes them stronger, and stronger to the point that even the weak one becomes strong.  A team is only as strong as it’s weakest player so as the Body of Christ, we should be strong enough to endure whatever comes our way.  The Bible calls us to pray that we be able to endure the time of trouble, so that we can be strong in that day.  Jesus says whoever endures to the end (endures in His faith), will be saved.  It means not giving up, even when things are hard and difficult, even when obstacles come your way.  There is so much God has in store for us, if we could only open our eyes and see.

⁸Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]- This is the best one.  The best way not to fail God and to fail His tests is to be consistently acting out of the fiery passion of Agape love that God has for us and for His people.  The reason why this kind of Agape Love, never comes to an end, is because it is carried to eternity.  In the rest of the passage in 1 Corinthians 13 it says that you can prophecy, speak in tongues, but you don’t have love then you are nothing but a sounding brass and clanging cymbal.   This kind of love covers a multitude of sins, and if you have this kind of love then you can fulfill the law because the law was made as an expression of love and Jesus nullifed the law through His work on the Cross.  When you love someone you cannot sin against them, and when you love God you cannot sin against Him.  When you love yourself, you will be able to receive the love that God has for you and take it to the next level and desire to become holy like Him because His grace cleanses you of all unrighteousness.

This is my prayer that all of us desire, yearn, and seek for, and strive after and go for and pursue this kind of love:

⁷ Many waters cannot quench love,

Nor can the floods drown it.
If a man would give for love
All the wealth of his house,
It would be utterly despised.

Heavenly Father,

Stir up in us the passion, the love, the zeal, the fervor, for your kind of love so we can reach the nations.  Take us out of ourselves and our own comfort zones and let us live out daily for the love transformation in our lives.  Change our hearts, and make us hungry for Your Word, Spirit, and Power to be made manifest in our lives and the loves of others.  Let us be like living vessels without any bitterness and let us live out the calling of 1 Corinthians 13.  Lord, teach us and guide us with Your Holy Spirit how to live out the daily lives each day.  Show us what we are supposed to do.  Lord God, Thank You for being the Lover of our Souls.  Forgive us if we fallen away or drifted away from your love and awaken the love.  Awaken the love in all of us.  Stir it up Lord.  I seal this prayer with the Blood of Jesus as you help each of us this day and everyday.

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jealousy of God

 

 

I know a lot of people cannot understand how God can be jealous, and what it means to be jealous.  The thing is that it is a different kind of jealousy than human jealousy.  It is above that standard.  This sermon based on the revelation of Exodus 34 and Song of Solomon 8 builds again on the foundations of the Justice of Christ, and the Treasures of Love posted on in the previous blog postings.  This sermon after watching it – it really shook me.  I did not know what to do with it or myself.  I knew that something needed to change, and I knew it was me.  It stirred up in my heart and continues to stir up this passion and zeal for God, but sometimes we get so caught up in our “idols” or “gods” that we lose sight of what is really important.  That is this love for God and this fire and zeal for the jealous God, and to hunger and thirst after Him, and to be holy like He is holy.  This speaker points out that God is Jealous and that He is also Grace.  I am hoping you are touched the same way, and maybe even to a greater extent than I am.

 

 

Sermon on Sanctification through Christ

How sanctified are you?

 

This is a sermon that is an audio file – .mp3, and it talks about the three aspects of sanctification.  For those interested in listening to the sermon click on the link above.  There is a mystery story in the beginning, which is revealed in the end.  I pray that we all learn more about this process of sanctification, and not only just learn, but to be able to apply and use.  Approximately 37 minutes.

Loving like Jesus loves Pt 1

I need this message more than anyone else I know.  I pray that this message might move you and transform your heart in some way to give the gift of love like Jesus had for us.

Most Christians know these verses about love:

⁴Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

⁵It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

⁶It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

⁷Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

Jesus displayed all of these characteristics.  He was patient and kind, He watches over us and forgives us of every kind of mistake we make over and over again.  He is not envious, and He is not jealous in the sense that He wants or needs anything else from anyone else, but only His role as part of the Godhead, He pursues us with a passionate love for His bride because He does not want anyone to take us away from His kind of love because that was part of His mission to restore love upon this earth.  Jesus was not boastful, proud, or haughty because He took the form of a bondservant and was completely submissive and knew who He was.  That’s why He was able to say with boldness and declare in front of the temple that He had come to fulfill the Scriptures in Isaiah.  He was blunt and honest when He came.  He is not rude and He does not act unbecomingly.  His love is not self-seeking, He actually came to fulfill what the Father required of Him.  He is not touchy, fretful or resentful and He actually warns people against being fretful.  Some of His last words were “Forgive them, they know not what they do.”  He did rejoice at injustice and unrighteous, but He rejoices when right and truth prevail.  He bore up under anything and everything that came and was/is ready to believe the best of every person, and His hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and He endures everything without weakening.  Isn’t that nice to know that He believes the best out of you, that He thinks highly of you.  He sees you as His treasure.

Isaiah 59:19 says:

So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.

Jesus became that standard.  Why was He that standard? Because He had the Agape, self-sacrificing unconditional love, which is talked about in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

A standard was something an army raised up in battle and I think it was to signify who they were and each army had a symbol.   You can do some more research on that of what you want.

So as we look at these verses more closely, take time to examine your own heart and see if there is anything where you need the Holy Spirit to help you work on so you can be more like the image of Christ.  How else will they know us unless we are Christ-like examples?

Love endures long:  Fellow blog followers have read my previous posts on endurance.  How much would you be able to endure, and would you be able to go through while still being patient and kind?  I’m going to break this apart into going into detail more about patience and kindness and summarize at the end with endurance.

Love is patient:  Would you be able to wait at the doctor’s office for two, or three, or maybe four hours?  Would you be able to wait 3 hours in traffic?  Would you be able to put on hold for an hour and a half?  I know it seems like I am going to extremes here, but Jesus was extreme so we are called to be like Him so I want to exaggerate on purpose.  The world is patient for things that they really want like staying in line overnight for 6 to 12 hours for Black Friday Sales, or even waiting in line to for concert tickets and to get the best seats for the artist.  If people can show that much enthusiasm for worldly things, then how much more enthusiasm should we show for Godly things?  I know I get frustrated on the phone if I have to wait for 5 to 20 minutes.

How about waiting for healing or an answer to prayer?  You’ve waited over 10 years for your loved ones to be saved, or a long time for that healing or financial breakthrough.  How long would you be willing to wait?  Patience and long suffering is a fruit of the Spirit.  Now this is just a theory, but I believe one of the reasons that the thief on the cross was able to enter Paradise without water baptism, was because the thief on the cross had fellowship in Christ’s sufferings when he realized that he was a sinner.  It’s just something I came across when I was thinking about the Scriptures.  Most people are patient to a degree, but they cannot do it without grumbling and complaining sometimes and even with myself I often have to catch myself and ask, are you grumbling and complaining?  Are you patient?  If you need help in this area ask the Holy Spirit to help you.

Love is kind:  The word kind means “friendly, generous, and nice” and even some cases “gentle”.  This is the primary characteristic trait people usually see when you are a Christian.  They usually tell you how sweet, and how nice you are.  But what separates you from the world and unbelievers?  Is that fact that you can endure whatever circumstances and still remain patient and kind?  That’s why these things were put together.  There is a movement going out called Random Acts of Kindness, and I don’t know if it was started by Christians or not, but it is not just acts of kindness in themselves that set a Christian apart, but suffering a long time with patience and kindness.  Take for example you have a painful disease such as fibromiyalga, or multiple sclerosis, or lupus, or any other long term life affecting disease that causes a lot of pain.  Maybe you even might have vertigo and occasional dizzy spells.  Would you be able to tolerate it at it’s worst and still bear with it and be patient and kind, or would you be grouchy, complaining, or wallowing in self-pity?  Take for another example you are a caregiver and you have given your life up to take care of a needy person, would you be able to maintain patience and kindness without complaining?  I know that God has promises for healing, but I think for those people that are suffering with diseases, which are not part of God’s will and they should never give up on the promise, but they will have to get to the point where they say, “If you don’t want to heal me right now, then that’s ok, I can wait.”  Some Christians look down on people that suffer physically for their problems saying that they don’t have enough faith to get healed, or that they are operating out of sin and unforgiveness, but sometimes it is that God is developing the fruit of longsuffering or being patient so it is not completely their fault.

Love is not envious or jealous:  Do you crave what other people have?  Someone once said that the two primary things that motivate the stock market are fear and greed.  I am assuming that you are beyond the point of wanting someone else’s clothes, car, house,  or job because those things are for worldly people, but do you crave other people’s anointing?  Do you desire where they are in their ministry and what they may be doing, and haven’t gotten there yourself yet.  I have posted a youtube sermon called “God made you unique”, and for that reason I want to express again that we are each individual creatures with a distinct and definite purpose.  So to crave what other people have is not meant to be from God.  The only thing that we should be craving that someone else had, is what Jesus had, and that is the Holy Spirit, but even with the Holy Spirit, the gifts and calling are unique to each person.  God has a unique plan for each one of you.  Sometimes people even crave other people’s healing, and other blessings.  Your blessings are unique to you, and the more you give the more it will be returned to you.

Love is not boastful, vainglorious, or does display itself haughtily and not conceited (arrogant, inflated with pride):  When you are boastful, vainglorious, or haughty it means that you have issues with pride, and pride comes from soul issues, that you have not laid at the altar.  Ask yourself this question, if someone pays you a compliment, do you let it get to your head?  Because this is a sign of pride.   Paul said we should boast in Christ, and I believe he also mentions boasting in sufferings for Christ’s sake.  Pride leads to a person’s downfall.  lucifer fell because of his pride.  We as Christians, even pastors may think, “Oh, I don’t have any pride,”  but when you keep going on and on about the success of your ministry or the success of how God’s using you, or anything where you lay credit to yourself, then you can see that this is an issue of pride in your life, and it needs to be laid down at the altar, and be repented for.  If you have issues in this area ask the Lord to help you lay down this area of pride in your life, for the Bible does say, “those that are humbled, will be exalted.”  We all need to be like Jesus in this area.  He was so obedient to the Father that He laid down His life.  He washed the disciple’s feet, and took on the role of a bondservant.  This a characteristic trait we all need to have.  We need to stop bragging about ourselves because we are nothing without God, and God made us who we are.  I’ve seen people, and they don’t realize it in themselves, that think they are living a Christ-like life but you see them bragging about what a difference they’ve made in other people’s lives and I harbor no resentment against them, but I pray that even they can see where they cannot see it themselves.  Lord, help each one of us with this today.

Love is not rude:  We know that the world can be rude, with foul language, and hand signals, honking, rude driving behavior, but we as Christians are supposed to know better.  It says not to behave unmannerly.  How many people do you know that when you say “Thank You”, they say, “You’re Welcome”.  Sometimes, they say, which is the rudest thing you can say to a person besides nothing else at all, is “Uh-huh.”  I think it also becomes an issue to be expected to be thanked in some places because true modesty is about doing things without receiving a reward, and even if you are not thanked.  Jesus did what He did on the Cross for the people, and aside for some of the disciples, the crowd was not appreciative.  It is more than actually saying “Please” and “Thank You”, but it is the way you treat people who are in service to you.  Do you treat them with respect?  I can remember one time I was at a restaurant, and it was after New Year’s, and they asked what my resolution was, and I explained, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, but I was tested on that very resolution that night, and I failed because, the salad came out too early, and I didn’t have time to finish my meal.  Everything was at once, and the manager was nice, but I kind of felt like I was a hypocrite, talking about the “love verses” and not acting out of love.  We have to often catch ourselves in the act of behaving rudely.  Some people behave rudely and they are also mean, and unkind.  Jesus was neither of those things.  He had to be careful because the throngs were pressing up against Him, and they were pushing Him aside, and He still showed graciousness instead of rudeness.  Lord help us at all times not to behave rude or unbecomingly.

Love does not seek it’s own rights or it’s own ways:  We often see people talking about women’s rights, civil rights, and things of that of that nature, and that is good to stand on principle if it is for a greater purpose of mankind, but when you are pushing your own agenda. You can’t have that it’s my piece of pie.  You can’t do that it belongs to me.  It’s mine, It’s mine, It’s mine.  This is self-ishness.  If you are an only child, and when your first younger sibling is born, you end up sharing everything.  You share the same toys, the same food, the same parents, which leaves less time for one of them because, siblings often compete for attention, especially when there is two.  This was the case with Jacob and Esau.  They fought for attention and blessings, and there was a sibling rivalry that lasted generations.   If instead you said, here’s mine, take mine, what’s mine is yours.  I used to think that God was mine, and I didn’t want to share Him, especially when I was a believer, but that was before I knew about the Body of Christ as one body.  How many times, do we stand in the grocery store and let other people go in front of us.  I remember one time I was not feeling well in a grocery store.  I actually felt like I was going to pass out.  There was a woman waiting there for her father, or her family, and I got in the line and said to her, “I was here first” and basically pushed my way through.  She was so mad at me and I didn’t know her, but I repented for that and I prayed for her because I knew I wasn’t showing Christ-like love to her and was being a bad example.  But this taught me that along with suffering long, enduring without weakening and not seeking my own rights, is something that we need to prayerfully consider as Christians.

Love is not touchy:  I split up touchy and fretful/resentful for a reason.  Women you know what I am talking about?  We can be pretty touchy monthly.  Maybe husbands know more about this than women.  Women can be fine, some women, for about 3 weeks, and the fourth week they interrupt like a volcano, and you do not know where it came from.  Touchy can also be moody.  It means going from one extreme to the other.  Bipolar disorder is a disorder of moods, and in some cases it is different, but for people with no history of mental illness, there is no reason why they should be screaming at someone.   Sometimes certain medications these days can affect, how moody and cranky you are, but I don’t know how many people will take this into consideration.  Our soul consists of our mind, emotions, and will.  We control what we think, and what we think controls what we feel, and what we feel controls our choices if we are led by the soul, but to be led by the Spirit, we surrender our thoughts to God, and think about things pertaining to God, and our emotions to God, to the point we will be able to make wise decisions.  We are supposed to be stable, and sober minded.  The more you are intimate with God the easier that this becomes.

Love is not resentful:  Have you ever seen Eeyore the donkey on Winnie the Pooh?  Some Christians behave like that, so down cast and sad because they have become bitter and resentful.  It starts with the seed and then it grows and grows and grows until it bears bad fruit.  Don’t let your heart become bitter, let it become better.  I’ve done already a post on forgiving others and receiving forgiveness so for the sake of time and space I will not get into that right now.

Love is not fretful:  Being fretful, means being full of fear.  When the disciples were in the boat and the waves were crashing in the sea, Jesus told them not to be afraid.  He told them to fret not many times in the Bible.  What does it mean?  It means to fully trust God, and it means that you can still feel fear but do it anyway.  People have many fears, and I will talk about one of the ones that has become the most difficult for me.  That was the fear of walking.  Something so simple that people take for granted.  I was not able to walk some years ago and had to relearn how to walk, and then sometimes because of weak muscles and balance issues, even though the doctors said there was nothing wrong, I was not able to walk because I had let fear come in my mind.  I started having panic attacks.  I have come to the conclusion that if there ever comes a time when I am not able to make it somewhere God will provide a way out, and I have not fallen yet.  To read the full the story on that you’d have to read my biography if and when I ever write one.

Since I am already at 3000 words or close to it, I’ll have to continue on another time….but take some time and meditate on the things I have said, and I’ll continue some other post(s) on the subject.  This was a very difficult area for me to examine myself in after I learned about in Bible Study.  I had to take time to really examine myself and look at myself, and you kind of have to watch everything you say and what you do because God is watching you too.   So are others, and to be able to completely love like Jesus did would be to exhibit self-control and repentance in certain areas of the life.  I know I am not perfect, but I desire to be like Christ, as I encourage you all to do as well.  The world is waiting for us to show what Christ is like to the world.

Heavenly Father,

I pray for all of us, to receive Christ-like loving attitudes, that can change and shake the world into a revival.  Let the heart of a every believer be changed, into more and more resembling your love.  Let us be like you.  Let all that I have said not just be head knowledge, or a nice read, but let it cause a heart transformation, not only in myself, but in believers of Christ, and unbelievers too, so that they can fully know how much You loved them to die for them, and how You rose from the grave to have evidence, of the living life that they have.  Let us not get to that place, where we have done so many things for You, but then You say that You never knew us, Lord.”

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.

 

 

 

 

Signs you are becoming too religious

Christianity is not about religion, but it is a relationship with a Person, who is Jesus Christ, and that is the basis and foundation of Christianity.  The Pharisees were religious people and they were considered enemies of Jesus, but so many Christians are becoming religious in their walk of faith.

Here are some signs to see if you fall in to that category:

1.  You feel like you must read the Bible everyday to earn points with God- There is distinction between reading the Word to get a rhema, and to get an insight, but to feel like it’s like an obligation or something that you do to put a checkmark on your to do list, then you know you are getting into muddy waters.

2.  You pray because you feel like you are forced to pray and that the desire to communicate doesn’t come from your heart:  This is another to do thing on your checklist.  Jesus warned of not doing vain repetitions as heathen do, but he actually showed us how to pray.  Praying without ceasing actually means to be in constant communication with God and to have your minds continually set upon Him.  It doesn’t necessarily always mean interceding for others or making requests or supplications.  Yes it is good to pray in the Spirit, but even Jesus had conversations with God that we know nothing about because He was in constant communion and fellowship with Him.  The Father never left the Son up until the point where He was crucified.

3.  You feel like God cannot interrupt your plans and the way you decide to worship and pursue Him – You have those set songs on your youtube, or cd player, or music device, and unless you listen to those specific songs in that specific order you feel like you are not going to experience God.

4.  You judge others and are very critical of people that don’t have as a high a standard then you do – You are in danger of becoming self-righteous if you hold yourself in higher esteem than other people.   The Bible says that we should hold people that have less honorable positions of higher esteem, and Jesus even said, that He came for the sick who are need of a physician, but not those that are well.

5.  You become unteachable – You are so set in your doctrines, and whenever someone points out something that may be a different angle, you say, “No, no, it can’t be this way”, and that the doctrines you are following are the only right way.  Paul warned against divisions and factions and separations in the Church.  There is a distinction to be made between apostasy, (the falling away of the Church), and denominationalism.  The problem is that we have been sidetracked by so many different kinds of  dispensations all of which bear fruit, that we can’t tell the difference between good fruit and bad fruit and so we are easily deceived, but if Christ is preached in according to the full incorruptibility of the Truth of the Gospel then the fruit will be evident of itself.  I was asking the Holy Spirit about this, that how come there are so many divisions of dispensation, and one Holy Spirit?  Some people say that Law is the only way, and some people say that Grace is the only way.  We know that the Blood of Jesus is the primary way, so I was asking Him about it and I came to the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, that there was some wheat sown in the ground, and some tares.   The parable says if you have good wheat and bad tares, you let them grow up together until harvest time, and then the angels will take up what is bad and cast it into the fire.  There may be different doctrines, but the ones that bear fruit will reveal the characteristic and nature of God.  It has to go by primarily what Jesus said, and secondary by what anyone else said because Jesus is the primary authority on the matter even though the whole Bible is in the inspiration of God, and no Scripture is of private interpretation.  The Bible also says that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched out everything in the Scriptures to see if it was Truth bearing.

6.  You look at people that are not Christians or those who have fallen away as not worthy to be loved because of their sin. – This is a very dangerous way of thinking and can really grieve the Holy Spirit.   When Whitney Houston passed away some people were gossipping about the problems at the end of her life, but one very wise person pointed out that it doesn’t matter what happens at the end of a person’s life, and there are lessons to be learned, but each person is to be appreciated.  This is very important because the same way which you judge you will be judged, and God had mercy on you when you were a sinner so why shouldn’t you have mercy on sinners when they are sinners, because we are all sinners without the Blood of Christ.

7.  You have become so detached from the world that you become heartless to the things going around- This is based on selfishness too, but the heart of it is religiousness.  Because you want to be separated, and set apart for the things of God you make yourself numb to all that’s going on around you because you don’t want to have anything to do with the world, and the people of the world.  You don’t want to take part in the world’s sins.  Jesus wasn’t like that – He ate with the outcasts and the sinners, and He was called to bring sinners to repentance.  Sinners are supposed to turn their lives around and make change. Now if a righteous person doesn’t repent and turns back into sinning there is judgment for him as well.

8.  You become all knowledge with no heart – This can be a very dangerous place to be in, especially for people that have been in ministry a long time, or people that have read their Bible so much, that they think that it can’t hold anything new for them.  With this kind of knowledge the Bible says you become puffed up and in sorts conceited.  You think you know everything and have no need for God and His Word.  You think that because you have studied everything that the Holy Spirit can’t give you fresh new insight.  You come to the point where you know all about Jesus, but don’t know Jesus, you don’t have an intimate walk with Him.  This is what is meant by Matthew 7:23- the “I never knew you” passage.

9.  You become ritualistic- This means everything has a set pattern.  While it’s good to have structure, order, and discipline, we can get to the point where we put God in a box and God is not in a box.  It takes time to figure out how God operates and to listen to Him.

10.  You cannot tell the difference between conviction and condemnation – A person who is walking closely with the Holy Spirit will be able to discern the difference between conviction and condemnation.  According Romans 8:1 there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus for those who do not walk after the dictates of the flesh, but  are led by the Spirit.  (paraphrase) And according to James 3:1 -NOT MANY [of you] should become teachers ( self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation].  So fellow blog evangelizers make sure you have strong footing in your relationship with the Lord and not to judge anyone or you will be judged in the same respect.  This is when you are becoming to legalistic when you are following God’s word and when you strictly adhere to God’s law and beat yourself up for every mistake you make and don’t allow room for mistakes or error.

11.  There is no transformation in your life – You may know everything, but since you became a Christian, your life doesn’t bear fruit, and you have the same testimony you had ten years ago and your walk is not growing.  People can’t tell the difference between you and an unbeliever.  They may think you are just sweet, nice, or a good person, but they don’t see the light.  This may be especially true with your family.  Your family may see you as the same person you were several years before and you may not have changed at all.

If any of these things is true here’s a prayer for you-

Heavenly Father,

Forgive me for becoming too religious and not seeking a true and intimate relationship with You.  I may not know how to do it and I may be caught up in my ways, that I don’t know how to change.  I can’t do it without You and I claim Your Blood to wash over my life and give me a fresh start and new direction.  You take over my life and I surrender to You this moment forward.  Let Your Spirit operate in me and dwell inside me and show the power of a transformed heart.  I admit that I am not perfect and that I am still learning, but help me to not always be learning but never come to the knowledge of truth.  Holy Spirit help me walk the Christian life and call me into my purpose and destiny and help me not to become lukewarm but to become hot in love with God.  Renew my heart and renew my spirit and take control from this moment forward.  I turn my life over to you.

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen.

 

 

Keep your eyes focused on the Love of Jesus

There are so many times believers, including myself, have gotten caught up in Spiritual Warfare.  It is true that there is an enemy after our soul, and after our mind, and even to bring discouragement to us and to bring sickness, and disease on our flesh so we have to equip ourselves with tools, and not give up and fight the good fight of faith, but there is a season for that, and that can usually be avoided if we keep our eyes focused on the love of God.

You read my post on the “Tests of Life”, and God is testing us.

Deuteronomy 8, says –

² And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ⁵ You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you…

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ¹² lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ¹⁴ when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

In these passages after the Israelites went through the wilderness, God told them why He had to test them, and to know what was in their hearts.  When God put hearts, [not just physical, but spiritual], they were made to love Him, and to love Him, with all of our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our strength.

Each of us has to go through training and tests in the wilderness, and some of us come in and out of wildernesses, but that wasn’t God’s intention.  After Jesus was baptized as recorded in the book of Matthew, and the Holy Spirit rested upon Him, He was still tested in the wilderness in the same manner and affect of that the Israelites were tested in the wilderness.  I would even venture to say that it was a form of redemption for the Israelites.  This passage in Deuteronomy 8, is where He got the Scripture – “Man does not live by bread alone.”  He is an example of the total obedience.  Why was He completely obedient?  Because He had complete love or Agape.

Agape – unconditional self-sacrificing love that comes from God alone.

The New Covenant commandments are based on two basic principles – “Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as you love yourself”  With these commandments, the Old Covenant laws have been summarized.

Jesus knew that the Father loved Him, and He had no doubt in His mind that the Father loved Him.  He knew that God the Father, loved Him so much, despite what He was going to make Him through, because He was the one person on earth, who knew His complete beginning from His end to resurrection of life for the eternal Kingdom.  The only time that He was hesitant, was when He asked for the Father to take the cup away from Him, and I would venture to say that it had to take place that way for Him to show the meaning for the example of what surrender to will was really about.  He still lived in a body, and He still had emotions, and He was still a man, though being completely divine as well.  The Holy Spirit never left Him, but He still experienced the stress of the world, upon His soul even before the cross.  He took the fears and stress of the world upon Him, at that moment in the Garden of Gesthemene, where He cried out to His Father, so much so that He would be shedding tears of blood.

Paul says in Romans 8, ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And in one of the Psalms, David says that nothing can separate us from the Presence of God’s Spirit, not even hell.  [Psalm 139]

That doesn’t mean we should strive to aim for hell, but David new that nothing could separate him from the Presence of the Spirit.

When Jesus became sin for us, and took upon sin for us, and became the New Blood Covenant Sacrifice, the Father looked upon Him and He had to hate His only begotten Son, and it tore Him away from the Father for one moment in time.  And after it was done, He said, “It is finished.”  He knew that the Father loved Him, even though He was called to die, and to be hated, and to be separated from the love of the Father, who none of us will know, unless we choose not receive the gift of eternal salvation, which Jesus promised in redemption, He still was completely obedient to the Father’s will and that was out of complete Agape.

So what separates us from fully realizing the impact that this kind of love God has for us, even as believers?  What makes us think that we have an enemy so big, that God’s love and His redeeming Blood Covenant, cannot fix?

Sometimes we are so caught up in Spiritual Warfare, that we forget to realize, what exactly has been done for us, and how much God does love us, and that it is not just an emotion, or feeling that we experience, but it is through the example of what Jesus did for us at the Cross by becoming the Blood Covenant.

When Peter was walking on the water and he had his eyes focused on Jesus, everything around him seemed insignificant, but it was when the waves were coming, and when he took his eyes off of Jesus and on to the waves, that Peter was not able to walk on the water anymore and had to ask Jesus to rescue him.  That’s the way it is with most of us, we get all excited, when we begin to walk, and then when trouble comes, we shift focus, and keep our eyes of Jesus, that we get overwhelmed by the things around us, and that may be sicknesses in our bodies, financial troubles, stresses of life, or anything else that seems to be a distraction to deter us away from the Kingdom of God.

Love is not an emotion it is a lifestyle, and an attitude.  We are to live with the God kind of love, and needs to be shared with others, but unless we come to the full realization of exactly what has been done for us, that how deeply and immensely we are loved by Jesus, by what He did for us, and by the Father having had His Son slain from the foundation of the world, we will struggle with the things that come from day to day life, and even though we have an enemy, our weapons our useless, unless we have that firm foundation of how much we are loved.  The price that was paid for us was expensive, and we are now bondservants of Christ, and slaves to Christ.  Granted He is still our friend, and that is the foundation of love, and He knows us now as friends and not as servants, we must return the favor in submitting to Him as our Master and in turn our bridegroom.

When an engaged couple meet when they are dating, they first become friends, and they are known as friends.  In the ancient Jewish culture, a man had to pay a ransom for the woman, to purchase her away from the ownership of her parents,  and he paid that to the father of the bride.  So when the couple decides to become engaged, the woman no longer belongs to her parents, and now belongs to her husband, and takes on his last name.  So when the Bridegroom purchased the Bride with the cost of His Blood, He purchased her and redeemed her, so now she belongs to Him.  Often we see in movies and hear in songs, that women say, “I would do anything for you because I am so in love with you.”  Young girls are so passionate in their affection they will say, “I will go to the ends of the earth for him” and they right love letters to the young man.  How much more are we to be passionate and in love with the one who we follow, trust, and are supposed to love with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  He is jealous for us, and He doesn’t want anything to get in the way of His relationship with us.  His love is an all consuming fire.  His love is so passionate and jealous for us.  That is why He died for us, so that He shows us that He does love us, and to become the Blood Covenant that the Father sees.

Before a man and women get married, they have to check to see if their blood types are compatible so that when their children are born they are born without defect.  The Bride has to have the right kind of blood to match the Bridegroom, and in this case, she takes on His blood, and in essence has a blood transfusion, so that there is a filtering of the old blood with new blood.  When someone has a kidney failure and has to go on dialysis, their old blood, goes through a machine and is purified and put back into the body so that it becomes pure and clean and rid of all toxicity in the blood, and that new blood brings back life to the kidneys and to the body.  Depending on the severity of the trauma, the blood has to be purified in many treatments, but if done successfully, and if the kidneys are strong, then the blood stays clean, and the person has to monitor their lifestyle.  In the same way the Lord has given us a blood transfusion, and gave us new blood, because the old blood of our flesh was sacrificed, but it takes a constant process of letting the new blood flow through us because it comes from a pure heart and loving veins, and it shows us what the love of Christ has done.

When we aren’t focused, we can’t see properly, and we need to change our perspective.  Instead of looking at things from our own eyes, we have to see them from God’s eyes.  That takes knowing God’s heart, and the key to God’s heart is love.  This Agape love, of God towards us and us towards God, is an opening door for many miracles in life.  They may not always be tangible, but they are miracles in the spirit because then the old man and the old nature is dying away, and the new nature and the new man is becoming more and more real.  We must come to that level where we say, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in us.”  To do that we must always come back to the Cross, and to focus on the love of Jesus.  Let us not be distracted by trying to ward off an enemy, but let us rather be focused on our love walk with Jesus, and our intimacy and fellowship with Him.  We need to spend time with Him even when our flesh is sick, or doesn’t feel like it.  Whenever we’re going through something uncomfortable, let us remember that “Greater is He [the Holy Spirit who comes through accepting Jesus] then he [satan, accuser, devil] who is in the world.  We do not need to be afraid of anything the enemy can do because our God is greater, and the enemy has to ask permission from God to even touch us because God is sovereign.  This is part of the test of life and it is a love test.  How far are you willing to go for love?

So when you are overwhelmed by the enemy, just reexamine your life, and instead of engaging your life in Spiritual Warfare, see if you can allow God to bring back His love into your life.  Seek Him, Pursue Him, and Find Him, the One who loves you.  That is my Valentine’s Day message.

 

 

 

 

Prayer for people with heart problems

Heavenly Father,

I pray for all the people that are plagued by sickness and disease.  Please remove the sickness from them and apply the blood of Jesus over their lives so that they may be healed and made whole.  Your word promises that we are healed by the stripes of Jesus.  For those suffering heart problems, let your miracle working power be in their lives and transform the damage that has been done and let them be free from any harmful medications LORD GOD.  Reach out Your merciful peaceful gentle kind hands and show pity and touch them and make them whole.  Let them know that they are not alone, and even though everything may be coming against them let them know that You have not forgotten them, and that they are on Your mind and heart even though everything in the world is getting ready for You to come.  Teach people the right way to eat and exercise and what nutrition that they need to receive, and allow them to learn how to take care of the temple, and do not chasten them quickly for disobedience in regards to eating.  Be gracious Lord and merciful, and show Your everlasting favor upon the people.  Clear their arteries and remove any inflammation in their bodies.  Give them their heart’s desire because Your Word says that those that delight in the Lord, will get the desires of their heart.

Thank You Lord for Your Awesome Mighty Miracle working hand!!!

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.