Trials, Troubles, Pain, and Sickness means God knows you have the character to make it through

Whenever you go through trials, trouble, pain, and sickness, God knows that you have the character to make it through.  He is using it as an opportunity to challenge you to push through and fight through the thoughts, and negative emotions that weigh you down.  If you’re a born again believer, God has put the seed in you to go and bear fruit for the Kingdom of God, so that you can be a bold conqueror and when you get there you can say, “It was the LORD God who got me through this thing, and it was He who equipped me to face this battle.”  If you are going through sickness, pain, struggle, that means that you are not alone, and God knows your ready for it, He knows you can handle it because He will not give you more than you can handle.  Sickness, Trouble, pain, and disease do not come from God, and is not in His nature.  He loves His children and does not want to see harm to them.  In fact, when you go through these things, it is like the father or mother who gives his child to the doctor to get vaccination shots to give them immunity to the disease.  They are injected with the disease and then they built up an immunity to it.  In the same way, Jesus Christ, is our vaccination, because He has given us His Blood for the disease.  So now it takes His Blood working through your spirit man, and going through your soul and your body to make it whole so that it can be used for his glory.  God does not abuse His children.  He loves them.  He cares for them deeply, with an ever consuming Jealous passion, that keeps Him wanting to protect you, and keep you from harm.

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I believe that the reason that we go through most of the stuff that we go through is that the Word of God may become real to us and that we may apply it in our lives so that we may be a blessed and living example of the glory of is His Kingdom on our lives.  He trusts us so much with His Holy Spirit, that He has given us all strength to get through any situation, or else we wouldn’t be here.  It is our faith that needs to be affirmed of this.  We need to grab hold of and seize our faith in Jesus Christ, and His Word, so that it becomes life to us.  It becomes life to all that hear it, so that it becomes life to all our flesh.

Most of our battles, if not all, come from our mind, which has thoughts that are destructive to our bodies.  When we have these thoughts, and we do not renew our minds with the Word of God – the seeds that give life and Word to those to hear and obey the Word then we will delay the seeing of the glorious blessed life that He has planned for us.  The problem is that many of us want to obey God out of fear of judgment, or choose to accept Christ out of a fear of going to hell, when actuality, there’s a different purpose and reason to God.  He wants to reveal more of His loving nature then to take out His rod in anger.  It’s like if your child did everything that you ever wanted, was kind and obedient, and loving, and went out of his/her way to show you how much they loved you, wouldn’t you just get a kick out of it?  Wouldn’t you be delighted in that child?  If your child did whatever you told them, but never wanted to spend any time with you, and told people, you were mean, crushing, judgmental, and you were harsh and strict, instead of loving, wouldn’t it grieve you even if you knew that was not your heart when you disciplined the child.  Yes there are some unruly children, but even Supernanny shows us that there are better ways to teach children good behavior that will last them longer, then abusing them.  That’s really not the nature of God.  Depending on how unruly the children are there are different ways of dealing with them because they have different natures, you want to show them, the love and the compassion that you have for them.  If your child is crying all the time, and upset all the time, after a while you become divided in your heart with compassion for the child and irritation because you find that all they do is cry, and you just want them to grow up and be mature so you can talk to them and tell them what’s on your mind, so that’s why you have conversations with God.  God doesn’t want to go to Him and grief and suffering, crying out all the time.

That’s what brings into mind these Scriptures from Isaiah 22:
Therefore I say, “Turn your eyes away from me,
Let me weep bitterly,
Do not ^[e]try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” – This is God crying for Jerusalem

¹² Therefore in that day the Lord ^[m]GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.
¹³ Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,
Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating of meat and drinking of wine:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
¹⁴ But the LORD of hosts revealed Himself ^[n]to me,
“Surely this iniquity shall not be ^[o]forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord ^[p]GOD of hosts.

To know who this is talking about – we turn to John 8:

³⁹ They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. ⁴⁰ But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. ⁴¹ You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but ^[l]He sent Me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand ^[m]what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks ^[n]a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of ^[o]lies. ⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? ⁴⁷ He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

This Jerusalem at this time in the Scripture has not accepted Jesus, that’s why they are like, “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”  The iniquity they had was building a man-made fortification system.  We trust in man-made things to protect us, instead of the LORD GOD who will protect us.  This is a strong statement of Jesus for the Jews in John 8:47 – He said that they are not of God. So how can that be, that they believed in YHWH, and were still not of God?  They were following man made traditions, and they still wanted to kill Jesus.  The enemy had taken what was originally intended for good, and perverted it, like has been done in many Scriptures, and even in our thought life when we read the Scriptures, and even when we don’t read the Scriptures.  I would have to speak to a rabbi to find out what the Jews thought about Isaiah 22.  What was their sin, that was so unforgiveable?  Their unbelief was one, and sometimes as Christians we do that too.  We believe God, but do we really believe God?  Will we fight for what we believe?  Will we fight for the Truth?  Will we proclaim the Gospel on the mountain tops and shout it in the valleys?  We have lost our first love and lost the passion and love for Christ because we have been so provoked and consumed with fear, and reverance of God, that we lose sight of His nature, and His kindness.  We lose sight of the fact that He is not angry with us, and does not look down at us with a magnifying glass and say, “Who can I fry today?”  That’s not the nature of God.  That’s what Jesus is talking about.  Don’t think just because the Bible says something, that the way we interpret it, or the way others interpret it is what it really means.  In the temptation in Luke 4, the enemy used the Bible to attack Jesus and make Him try to commit suicide, and to test His powers.

¹ Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around ^[a]by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. ³ And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” ⁴And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”

⁵ And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of ^[b]the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and ^[c]its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ Therefore if You ^[d]worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” ⁸ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

⁹ And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; ¹⁰ for it is written,

‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’

¹¹ and,

‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

¹² And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

¹³ When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

First, he attacked His appetite, and His identity.  Then he attacked His authority and power of influence, and finally he attacked His identity and His life using the Word of God.

We go through the same thing.  The enemy has no new bag of tricks, it’s all the same, it’s all been done before.  There’s nothing new under the sun.

Sometimes we go through things just to be a blessing to others, so that when others see what we’ve been through they can rejoice and say God is Good all the time.  God is definitely good all the time, and He wants us to know that He accepts us and loves us and cares for us, and desires to delight in Him.  So when we begin to see the fullness of Christ, we will change…but first we have to change our perspective on God’s character, that God in both the Old Testament and New Testament is a kind, gentle, steadfastly loving, with loving kindness God,  then He can give you the stamina to be able to push through whatever it is that you need to go through.  Most Christian people are struggling with not knowing who God is, and because of that they don’t know how to make it when times get hard.  They think that God does not love them, that He doesn’t care for them, but the Truth is that He does.  He cares because He is the great shepherd, the one who loves His people, and that means all who believe in Him.  He loves even those that don’t believe in Him because He wants them to come to Him.  So cast your fears and cares aside, and lean on the God that loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you!!!  And now He’s the only One who is still alive!!!

Obedience to God is more important than Grace

Yes we know that Grace is part of Jesus’ nature, but Obedience is much more important.  I’ve already posted videos on The Call to Obey, and the Obedience to the Holy Spirit videos.  But as I am learning on the Christian walk, that your immediate initial reaction in most cases is probably the best.   God gives you many warnings, and you end up debating with God and get out of the hedges of protection.  Your angels may still be with you and this message is not to condemn.   There are many times I’ve written a blog posting or even done things in life without being obedient to the LORD, thinking that it wasn’t Him talking, it was me. Here’s what we learn about Obedience like a donkey.

¹² And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”

¹³ So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to give me permission to go with you.”

¹⁴ And the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.”

¹⁵ Then Balak again sent princes, more numerous and more honorable than they. ¹⁶ And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me; ¹⁷ for I will certainly honor you greatly, and I will do whatever you say to me. Therefore please come, curse this people for me.’”

¹⁸ Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. ¹⁹ Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.”

²⁰ And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you—that you shall do.” ²¹ So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.

Balaam, the Donkey, and the Angel

²² Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. ²³ Now the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back onto the road. ²⁴ Then the Angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. ²⁵ And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again. ²⁶ Then the Angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. ²⁷ And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff.

²⁸ Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”

²⁹ And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!”

³⁰ So the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?”

And he said, “No.”

³¹ Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. ³² And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. ³³ The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”

³⁴ And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”

³⁵ Then the Angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you, that you shall speak.” So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

³⁶ Now when Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, which is on the border at the Arnon, the boundary of the territory. ³⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not earnestly send to you, calling for you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?”

³⁸ And Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you! Now, have I any power at all to say anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak.” ³⁹ So Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kirjath Huzoth. ⁴⁰ Then Balak offered oxen and sheep, and he sent some to Balaam and to the princes who were with him.

Many times God will tell you don’t go there, and then you go, or he’ll tell you don’t take that street, and then you take that street, and he’ll tell you don’t make that turn, and  if you don’t listen and obey your going to end up in more trouble than you realize – you’ll end up in a crash, and if you listened in the beginning then you wouldn’t have had to go through all that.  Obedience is the most important thing and for obedience it takes discernment.  People have been given wisdom as it says in James to make wise decisions, and one person’s disobedience can have consequences, so obedience is very important.

Grace is very very important and vital to the Christian faith, but obedience to the Lord is very important.  We are all learning to hear the Lord’s voice, but the Lord does give you warning, and when you make mistakes – All things work out together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, but you can’t just willfilly disobey the Lord and get away with it.  He will keep warning you and warning you until you wake up and if you don’t listen, then there’s nothing you can do except get hit unexpectedly with something you thought just came out of the blue, and it can cause damage that wouldn’t have been there if you didn’t disobey.

Disobedience can cause a domino effect.  Eve’s disobedience led to Adam’s disobedience, which led to the downfall of the whole society, and when you disobey, it’s not just hurting you, it’s hurting people way down the road that you cannot see and effecting people throughout generations.  If one person disobeys in one area then it hurts people way down the road that you cannot even think about.  You have been given blessings, but even those can be taken away from you if you don’t obey.  I’m sorry to say that but it’s the truth.

For example, you have a car, but then you go and like I said in the previous example you don’t listen to him, and then your car ends up in damage.  Yes your lives are spared and that’s what is important, but if you listen to the Lord at each and every time.  Obedience is not always doing what you don’t feel like doing, or in other words just because you have a natural inclination towards something doesn’t mean you have to go against it.  As you draw closer to the Lord your natural impulses will be more like His, but sometimes He’ll tell you things that will just boggle your mind, and it’s something you don’t want to do like giving something away.

Discernment is the key and prayer is very important.  Sometimes like it says in following the Cloud example, you go where the Holy Spirit tells you to go and you do what He tells you to do, and if He hasn’t told you then don’t do it, and just wait.  Go with whatever seems good to the nature of God.

Also we need to spend more time in prayer.  The more time we pray, and really set apart time favorably in the morning especially if you are going to go outside of the house .  Now this is not going to be something where you can decide hey, this is what I am going to do, but it is something that the Lord will lead you.  Jesus said to follow Him, and that means to obey Him.  That means following the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Yes you can pray for Grace, and God will do it for those who He loves, but when you have looked back and seen where you have not gone where God wants you to go, then you will come back with regret and remorse, which is really what repentance is all about, so that you can change your mind for the better.  So this is my own personal warning for you guys.  Yes Grace is important, but Obedience is more important because take a look at Achan and Ai, the whole town was punished for one man’s disobedience, and also Balaam and the donkey is another example.  Even the Apostles were obedient to the Holy Spirit, and that’s when they found Grace, when they truly repented turned around and followed after the Lord.  We are not all perfect, and it does take discipline and discernment to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, but learn to be obedient because even Jesus said I do nothing unless I see the Father doing it. Any time you think you should or shouldn’t be doing something then it’s the best time to listen and obey.

If this is a repeat for some of you then I apologize, but this needs to be ingrained into our spirits.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for keeping each of us alive today, and thank You for the grace and favor you have given us this far, forgive us Lord for when we have not been obedient to You.  Lord God, help us to trust in You even more Lord God.  We repent for everytime we have strayed away from Your will and Your plan and Your purpose, and from every prompting of the Holy Spirit.  Thank You for protecting us and thank You for guiding us.  Help us to see the good in our situation.  May You we learn how to listen to Your voice always. Forgive us for any rebelliousness.  I apply this post with the Blood of Jesus.

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.

Once Saved Always Saved?

 

This video touches and answers all the questions in one piece about the age old “Once Saved Always Saved” question.  There’s so much that can be said, but what’s most important is to lay down and start over again each day.

 

Heavenly Father,

Forgive us today for being selfish and/or greedy with our prayers.  Forgive us for any area where we have failed You and not lived according to Your purposes.  Forgive us for being soulish, and selfish, and help us to seek more and more after You.  We don’t take You for granted.  Help strengthen the body of Christ in the last days, and let us lay aside every sin, that has become a snare for us.  Help us to forgive where we have had grudges.  Help us to lay everything down before Your feet, and let Your Holy Spirit work go before us.  Thank You for this young man, who put things into proper perspective.  We’ve seen it one too many times where people have lost their souls because they think just because they believe, but they don’t do.  If we have fallen away in this area in any way, if there are things that You have told us to do, that we have not done, forgive us for that.  Forgive us for all the things that have defiled our minds, feelings, and behaviors.  Forgive us when we have not acted out of love.  Forgive us when the fruit of the Spirit has not been cultivated within us.  Help us to be true worshippers Lord, and help us to enter in by the narrow gate.  Have mercy upon us Lord.  Let the light of Your grace, justice, and mercy be upon us Lord God.  We repent for all of our selfish prayers, but thank You for sending this young man as a prophet to speak the Word of Truth into our lives, that we need to hold on to You, and that this is a race, and that we need to keep our eyes on the prize.  Help to refine us and purge away the dross in our lives.  Help to purify us and make us like gold.   Help us when we are weak, and deliver us from temptation, and rescue us from evil.  Help us to pray like You want and not like we want.  Thank You for hearing our prayer and supplications.

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

 

Amen.

Guidelines for a believer to endure through the Christian walk

Recently I read a book called Hinds Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard, and it was a wonderful read.  One of the things that I learned is that no matter what turns and twists come in the way, as long as the main character keeps her eye on the Shepherd and her promise for the Lord, she will do whatever He says.  It was difficult for her and hard for her to do, but she did it because she loved God.  One thing though is that through the different trials and tribulations, there were enemies coming after her and some in her own mind that kept her from going from time to time, but because the Shepherd was kind, patient, gentle, and authoritative with her from time to time and He always showed that He loved her, then she was able to make it through anything.

Similarly in our Christian walk, we have Jesus who comes into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is there to help us walk the Christian life. He is there for to establish a relationship with God and to teach us and to guide us.  The wonderful thing is that there is room for error.  There is room to grow.  Luke 2:40 says – ⁴⁰ And the Child grew and became strong in spirit,filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

The first step to know if you are on track is to examine –

1) Your faith walk – Ask yourself what do you believe to be true about Jesus and does that line up with the Truth?

That leads up to the second thing to focus on –

2) Reading the Word of God – Do you take time to read, study, and look for rhema or revelation in the Word of God, and get to know who Jesus is?

3) Prayer and Fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit – do you know how much the Holy Spirit is a comforter and loves those who love God?  He wants to spend time with you.  Talk to Him, reach out to Him, get to know Him.  Do not grieve Him for He is sensitive.  Obey the quiet and gentle nudgings of the Holy Spirit as they lead and guide you.

4) Examining your love walk and relationships – How do you walk in relationships toward others?  Do you show forgiveness or do you hold on to grudges?  Are you incorporating the God kind of love – Agape, with others.  Do your love toward God, even to others?  The one commandment that Jesus gave was to love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.  When you judge others you bring condemnation to yourself.  So be quick to forgive.  Let your heart not be burdened by other people’s mistakes.

5) Do not give into condemnation, but allow repentance – God gives us the grace to make mistakes that even when we aren’t obedient because we are still growing He still gives Jesus’s nurturing heart that says, “Have they condemned you?” to the Adulterous woman, and after her saying “no”, she said, “Neither do I condemn you” – “Go and sin no more”.   We all have sinned and will probably keep on sinning because the Word of God says that a man that says he does not sin is a liar.  No one is perfect like Christ, so the ability to repent and pray to God concerning the issue.  Allow yourself to make mistakes and if you do make mistakes don’t let anyone make you think that you don’t love God or that you have to prove your love to Him.  The Holy Spirit knows that you love Him if you are led by the Spirit.

In Romans 8:1 it says There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Later on the Word says in the same Chapter –

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”^[c]

³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 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.

6) Trust God, His Holy Spirit, and His Word and not man – Let God be true and every man a liar.  It is good to listen to pastors at the local church or on television, but be like the Bereans and search out the Scripture and test everything they say to see if it lines up with Scripture.  Keep a guard on your heart and your mouth so when someone else says something that does not line up with Scripture accept their right to make that mistake and even though they may be preaching a lot of things based on their personal experience and what the Word of God says, then when they twist Scripture, don’t get offended – if you can correct them, but don’t let it develop a root of bitterness in your heart.  I’ve learned this from personal experience- i.e. Post on Dangers of Preaching out of the Soul.

7) Allow God to change your heart and to take on the Fruit of the Spirit – Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control that are seeds which are already implanted in your heart.

8) Through praise and worship of God be built up in the hope of an eternal calling and an eternal hope and purpose to know that despite all that we go through and suffer it is worth it – ¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

God knows you so well – He knows every sin before you even commit it – He knew that Adam was going to fall, He knew that the Israelites were going to be complaining and murmuring all the way along the wilderness.

9) Stay humble – the beautiful thing about making mistakes and realizing that you have made mistakes lets you know that you are not perfect and that no one else is.  The Bible says that the sin that God hates the most is Pride- or exalting the self.  If we exalt the self- instead of the Spirit we’re in for a time when God will humble us down with His super nail file, or sander until we are His perfectly shaped vessel.

10) The Greatest Law – Love never fails !!!!  Jesus’ love never failed you, so if you let His love grow in you then it will never fail you or let you down.  It will cause you not to make mistakes.

If there is an area where you are failing here is a prayer for you –

Heavenly Father,

If there is an area where I am missing the mark and not changing cause me to see it according to the way You see me as a redeemed child of God.  Help me to grow and to change and to nourish and to grow closer in an intimate walk with You.  Help me to seek after You with all my heart until I find You and help me to be able to live out this Christian walk.  Lord God I thank You for being patient with me even when I have been judgmental and critical of others, judging others for their failures, and if there is any area not please reveal even that to me.  Help me to stay humble and obedient to the Law of Your Love, and the quiet promptings of the Holy Spirit.  Help me to grow and be patient.  Help me to endure through all the sufferings and trials and tribulations and persecutions that come.  I thank You that You are the rod that carries me and the staff that guides me through the wildernesses and this bold adventure you have called my life.   Thank You for picking me up when I fall down.  Help me to walk the Christian life.  Thank You Father, You are gracious and slow to anger,

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.