Words are Landmarks

The words you speak are a creative force in your life. They become absorbed into the atmosphere of your life. Words contain the contents of your heart. Proverbs tells us to keep our heart with all diligence because the issues of life come out of it. Jesus said we speak from the abundance of our heart. Don’t take your words lightly today. Jesus said we would be justified or condemned as a result of our words.

Words create life direction. From the time we’re born, until the time we go to be with Jesus, words accomplish things. You never live beyond your words.

It is not possible to walk in prosperity and talk poverty. I t is not possible to walk in health and talk sickness. It is not possible to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power and talk weakness and failure. It is not possible to be love and forgiveness ruled and at the same time talk bitterness and anger.

A major force in the kingdom of God and in the kingdom of Satan is words. Don’t allow your words today to correspond to the will of the kingdom of darkness. Instead, defy feelings and thoughts that oppose the will of God. Speak boldly aloud what you believe based on the Word of God. When you do this, you put God’s power into operation in your life and circumstances, and the Satan’s attacks will become dormant against the power of the open Word of God through your lips!

The more you talk about something, the more real it becomes in your life. At first, the things of God may seem vague and distant to you. But ignore this perception and speak out loud that you are the righteousness of God in Christ; that you are more than a conqueror; that you are healed by the stripes of Jesus; that God meets all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus; that if God be for you, no being can be successful against you; that the peace of God rules you; that the love of God dominates your mind and actions; that God’s protection and favor surround you every day; that the angels of God are presently working on your behalf, ministering for you because you are an heir of salvation; that your flesh and your mind do not rule you, but your spirit rules your life; that you are walking in the spirit and you are not fulfilling the works of the flesh; that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

I started speaking the Word out loud to myself over 32 years ago. The Word did not seem real or true at the time. My circumstances tried to erected walls between me and God’s will through His Word.

But I began to speak the Word and defy all my thoughts and feeling to the contrary. Little by little, the reality of the Word began to settle down on me and rise up in me. Now, the things of the Word and of the kingdom of God have become absorbed into the very fabric of who I am. My mind, emotions, will, and body have become accustomed to yielding to my human spirit through the Word. Life has become a restful walk with God as my Father, Jesus my Lord, and the Holy Spirit as my helper and guide.

Your Words set the landmarks in your life. You never rise above them. You will be in your tomorrows what you believe and speak in your todays. Begin today to cooperate with the principles of God’s kingdom. Set your mouth in line with God’s will in every area of life. If you do, one day, you’ll look around, and you’ll see the product of your Words. And you’ll be blessed!

Don't Get Slack

Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time (Deuteronomy 4:39-40).

The blessings of God are not automatic. They are conditioned upon our obedience. Israel was promised untold blessings in the land of Caanan. But the Father was very clear with them that if they disobeyed, the curse would come upon them.

We have a tendency to get slack when things are going well and the outward pressure lessens. Don’t yield to that! Keep yourself stirred up in God all the times.

Over the years I’ve watched people get slack with the Word, with meeting together with other believers in church services, with meditating in the Word, and with their prayer life. For a while it seemed all was well, but eventually that slackness cost them dearly. It cost them in sickness, in financial loss, in their marriage, with their children. So pay the price now to walk with God, or there could be an even greater price to pay for catering to the flesh and getting slack!

Keep yourself strong spiritually by staying in the Word and fellowshipping with other believers. Don’t compromise when things are going well! Notice what God told Israel in Deuteronomy 4:9 : Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren.

These are serious times and we need to give our attention daily to keeping ourselves attuned spiritually to the Father so that His voice is clear, and so that we’ll be well prepared for the days ahead.

Don’t be like the frog who decided to take a bath in the cool water of the black cauldron in the farmer’s yard. When the farmer lit a fire under it, the cold-blooded frog was unaware of the danger he was in until his blood was almost boiling. His temperature rose with the temperature of the water in the cauldron!

Walking closely with the Father pays rich dividends both now and in the life to come. Don’t compromise!

30, 60,or 100

But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred (Mark 4:20).

What we do with the Word determines our contribution in the kingdom of God. The Word is designed to take the Father’s place in our hearts during our earth walk. He and His Word are one!

Notice what Jesus said in Mark 4:24 (Amplified): And He said to them, be careful what you are hearing. The measure of thought and study you give to the truth you hear will be the measure of virtue and knowledge that comes back to you — and more besides will be given to you who hear.

We only get out what we put in to the kingdom of God. Remember that the Word is like a seed that germinates. The seed takes time to grow large enough to be seen. Jesus said that the mustard seed is a small seed that eventually grows a tree so large that the birds have a place to nest and the animals have a place to shelter.

The kingdom of God starts out very small in your life when the Word is planted in you. But as you spend time in the Word, aligning your life with it, the Word slowly grows until it’s large enough to be seen in you. Eventually others can partake of the benefits of the Word in your life as you minister it to them!

A little attention once in a while with the Word may cause you to be a doer of the Word 30% of your time. The rest of your time is then spent in unbelief and the flesh! No wonder the uncommitted have problems!

The sixty fold hearer Jesus spoke of is a doer of the Word 2/3 of their time. That means that a third of their time they are probably in the flesh and responding to problems just the way an unbeliever responds. That means basically that 1/3 of this person’s time creates problems for them.

But the 100 fold hearer is a person who acts on the Word all day long! They don’t cater to the flesh and unbelief at all! This person walks in love 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! In every situation of life this productive believer asks himself, what does God’s Word says about this, and this believer constantly adjusts His behavior to line up with God’s Word. This believer walks in love, walks in forgiveness, and only speaks what God’s Word says about the circumstances around him. And this believer is quick to repent when he misses it and sins!

Let’s give God’s Word the first place status that it should have in our lives! Let’s refuse to compromise with the flesh, the world, or the devil at all! To receive God’s best you must give Him your best! Press towards the mark!

God's Will for Healing

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed (Matthew 8:1-3).

Faith begins where the will of God is known. If you are uncertain as to the will of God for your healing, you will not be able to exercise the faith necessary to receive the healing that belongs to you.

As a young boy in a denominational church, I always heard the sick prayed for with the faith destroying prayer, Lord if it be Thy will. If a person was healed, then it was the will of God. If a person was not healed, then it must not have been the will of God to heal that particular person.

This kind of behavior takes all responsibility off of the individual, and makes God totally responsible for everything that happens in life. And this type of believing is a dangerous fallacy! When the will of God is determined on a case by case basis, there can be no faith on the part of the individual to be healed by the power of God.

But we can know the will of God through the Word. God’s Word is His will! If you want to my will about a matter in my life, then simply listen to what I say or write! If you want to know God’s will in a matter, go to His Word! His Word is His will.

Jesus Words to this leper in the above verse clearly show the will of God to every person in need of healing. I am willing, be cleansed is God’s will for every person touched by sickness and disease. How do we know this?

The character of God never changes. For I am the Lord, I do not change (Malachi 3:6). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If it was Jesus’ will to heal this man in Matthew 8, then it is still His will to heal today.

God has no favorite children. He loves us all the same! What He will do for one, He will do for all! For there is no partiality with God (Romans 2:11). Jesus healing this leper is proof positive that it is His will to heal all!

Never pray if it be your will when praying for healing. If it be your will cancels faith! I never put an if in my prayer when praying the prayer of faith! In fact, the only time I put an if in any prayer I pray is when praying the prayer of consecration to do the will of God.

Jesus prayed if it be Your will in the garden of Gethsemane when facing His hour of greatest trial. And it’s ok to pray this way where we’re seeking to find God’s will for our lives. But this is not necessary in matters where His will is clearly stated!

Faith begins where the will of God is known. Let Jesus’ Word to this leper be His Word to you concerning your life. Here Jesus say to you today, I am willing, be healed! And exercise your faith in Him to heal you by believing you receive your healing the moment that you pray. It’s the prayer of faith that heals the sick! God’s wills you to be healed!

A Church Member is With the Lord

It is with great sadness that I tell you that one of our church members, June Carlyle, died today. Pastor Mike and I were at the hospital speaking to her family before she went to be with the Lord. I'll perhaps share more later. She was just in church with us this past Sunday in our second service.

Please pray with me for June's family and particularly for her daughter Brandi. We know that the Word declares that for us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Our God is a Father to us and is able to touch in ways no one else can when these kind of things happen. Pray that He ministers to every member of June's family.

Let me take this opportunity to remind us all to pray over our family members by name each day, asking and claiming their protection from any kind of harm. And let's pray for each other, that the Lord would make us a blessing as we have been blessed. All around us are so many needs in so many lives. The Father wants to touch others through you today!

I leave you today with the comfort of the scriptures:

2 Corinthians 5:1-9 (NLT):
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.

Healing in the Atonement of Christ

Healing is provided for us in the atonement of Christ! Let me show you the evidence!

The Passover sacrifice offered by the Israelites the night that the firstborn of Egypt died is a type of Christ. Notice 1 Corinthians 5:7: Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. In Exodus 12 you find that the Israelites were instructed to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb to give them strength for their journey out of Egypt. This is a type of Jesus being the life and health of our physical bodies! In 2 Chronicles 30:20, the Israelites were healed while partaking of the Passover sacrifice!

In Numbers 21: 8-9, the Israelites were healed while they looked at a serpent that God had Moses put on a pole and hold up for all to see. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Jesus referred to this serpent on a pole as Himself being made our sin in John 3: 14: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. If the type, the serpent on the pole, brought healing to every Israelite that gazed upon it, how much more will Jesus, the anti-type (the fulfillment of the serpent on the pole), minister healing and life to those who come to Him!

Then in Isaiah 53, the great redemptive chapter, we find healing clearly shown in the sacrifice of the Messiah! He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows (pains) and acquainted with grief (sickness). And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains); yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

The words sorrows and griefs should be translated respectively pains and sicknesses in these verses! Any concordance will bear this truth. When Jesus bore our sins, he also bore our sicknesses. He dealt with both the sin and sickness problem with the same sacrifice at Calvary!

Some folk tell us that Isaiah 53: 3-5 is speaking figuratively of our spiritual sins and our spiritual sickness. And that he healing mentioned in Isaiah 53:5 is really spiritual healing. But we don’t need spiritual healing, we need spiritual transformation! We don’t get healed spiritually; we become new creatures in Christ Jesus!

The Father obviously knew that some people would try to spiritualize the healing mentioned in Isaiah 53 and He left us a Divine commentary. Notice Matthew 8: 16-17. It refers directly to Isaiah 53:4! When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

Exercise your faith in the Father to heal you today! Believe you receive the healing that Jesus provided in His sacrifice for you. With His stripes you are healed!

A Word From the Lord

The Lord gave me a tongue and interpretation during our 2.14.2009 Saturday night service. My secretary has transcribed the interpretation. I've had several folk ask for this, so here it is.

In these challenging days, the Lord has committed to care for us. We can trust Him with all that we are and all that we have. Regardless of what you're facing in life, commit yourself to your Father. He has made a covenant with you and promised to provide for your every need.

Interpretation of tongue - Pastor Mitch Horton 2.14.2009:

For you will be infused with my power. For this will be a day of light, and yet darkness. It will be a day of judgment, yet mercy. It will be a day of power, and yet great, great, great struggle. For you are living in a time that the opposing forces of good and evil, of my kingdom and my enemy, have joined, and there will be a struggle. They have joined in a battle that will not be delayed. The things that my prophets have spoken will surely come to pass. And you find yourselves in this era of time. I have placed around you a bubble of my glory, an endowment of my presence, a protection from my guardian angels. And no enemy will be able to harm you if you'll simply abide in the shadow of my wing. The place of surrender is the place of protection. The place of surrender is the place of power. The place of surrender is a place where you will do exploits for me. I'll call you to pray, and then I'll answer the prayer when I deem it's right( just at the right time). So be those that are submitted and yielded, for I will infuse you with my strength.

Healing is the Will of God

Most people know that God can heal them. But they are not sure that it is God’s will to heal them. And it’s not what we know God can do, but what we know He will do that inspires faith. Faith rests in knowing the will of God, not in the ability of God alone. Faith begins where the will of God is known.

Many people have religious roadblocks in the way of receiving their healing from the Lord. They quote the scripture taken out of context, “Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6). And the religious roadblock tells them that God sometimes uses sickness to chasten the believer. But God does not make people sick. And He is not a child abuser! We would be accused of child abuse if we harmed our children physically, but people refer to God as a child abuser when they say that He puts sickness on us to teach us a lesson. God chastens us in our spirits through His word!

Other people say that God puts sickness on us to teach us to trust Him. Still others tell us that God lets us get sick so that we can glorify Him in the sickness. And I’ve heard others say that “I’m in God’s hands, and nothing can come into my life except it come through Him first.”

But what does the Word of God teach? It teaches that “…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). It teaches that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17) It DOES NOT teach that God puts sickness on His people!

Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There is no sickness in heaven, and it is His will that there be no sickness on the earth! Moses admonished the Israelites to keep the Word of God in their hearts “that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth” (Deuteronomy 11:21).

Sickness came with the fall of man, and its’ cure is found in God’s remedy for the fall, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! To listen to some people, it sounds as though God and the devil have changed jobs over the last two thousand years. To them, God is the one who makes us sick, and the devil is the one who heals us! But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

For me, the will of God concerning my healing is settled by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 8. Jesus came down from the mountain where He was ministering the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples, and there was a man stricken by leprosy waiting for Him at the base of the mountain. The leper said to Jesus, “…If you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’” If Jesus could tell this leper that it was His will to heal him, then He must also tell me that it is His will to heal me, or He is partial and treats some people better than He does others. Romans 2:11 reads, “For there is no partiality with God!” Again, if it’s the will of God to heal the leper, then it must be the will of God to heal me!

If it is the will of God to heal some and not all, then there is no basis for faith in God to heal except through some special revelation. That’s the reason we sometimes hear the faith destroying prayer for healing, “Lord if it be thy will…” Folk that pray that way for healing simply do not understand the Word of God on the subject. We as Christians know the will of God through His Word. His Word is His will for us!And His will is healing and health!

Healing By Faith

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:1-3).

Jesus sacrifice on the cross provided both forgiveness of sin and healing of sickness and disease for us. The same kind of faith that brings the new birth to us also provides healing for our physical bodies. The same faith we exercise to be forgiveness when we sin is the same faith we exercise for healing. Let me explain.

When you’re born again, the confession of your mouth that comes from the faith in your heart brings salvation into your life! That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10).

Faith is released with words. Be careful with what you say. Words carry what you believe! And words bring your salvation into a real experience in your life. It works the same way with healing. If fact the Greek word for salvation includes everything that salvation brings us, including healing!

So you could read this verse in Romans this way: That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be healed. For with the heart one believes unto health, and with the mouth confession is made unto healing!

The same faith that saves from sin also heals disease. Here’s how it works. When you sin, you go to 1 John 1:9, where the Word says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. After you act on that scripture, you probably don’t feel forgiven initially. You’ve confessed your sin. You’ve asked for forgiveness, but the emotions retain the remorse of failure.

And that’s where faith comes in focus. You then say out loud, Lord, I thank you that I’m forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. And you stand your ground on the word where God says He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse confessed sin. It may take a while, but eventually the feelings of failure subside, and the peace of God returns. The bottom line here is that you must believe you’re forgiven before you feel forgiven.

Faith for healing works exactly the same way. You go to the Father with the symptoms that are attacking your body. You remind Him of what His Word says about you. That Jesus took your infirmities and bare your sicknesses the same time that he took your sins. You command the sickness to leave your body. You resist it in the Name of Jesus! Then, you ask the Father for complete healing and according to Mark 11:24, you believe you receive your healing.

Then, just as you do for forgiveness of sin, you stand against thoughts and feelings that tell you that you’re still sick. Your faith in the Word declares that you’re healed while the symptoms are still raging. You continue to voice aloud the promises of God for health! And healing eventually manifests in your body! Your faith in the Father through the Word for healing will make you whole! Act on the Word for healing today!

Cast Your Burden on the Lord!

Cast your burden on the Lord [releasing the weight of it] and He will sustain you; He will never allow the [consistently] righteous to be moved (made to slip, fall, or fail) (Psalm 55:22 - Amplified).

We are not designed to worry. Worry is really faith in reverse. Worry is allowing the spirit of fear to dominate and rule the situation. Fear attracts the demonic the way that faith attracts God! Don’t allow worry to rule any area of life. Worry is a weight that drains energy needed for productive activity!

The antidote for worry is releasing faith in God’s Word about the situation at hand. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones (Proverbs 3:5-8).

We’re to refuse worry just as we would refuse the temptation to sin. Worry is the enemy seeking intrusion into your life. So Peter tells us: Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully (1 Peter 5:7 - Amplified).

Paul gives us the practical side of replacing worry thoughts with faith. Don’t worry over anything whatever. Tell God every detail of your need in earnest and thankful prayer (Philippians 4:6 – J.B. Phillips Translation).

To release worry and the spirit of fear that motivates it, go to the Father and tell Him every detail of what bothers you. Itemize it in detail. Tell Him what concerns you about the issue and what fear is seeking entrance. Tell Him every detail of your need. Once you do this, ask Him to intervene and to solve the problem. And right there believe that you receive the answer. If you believe you receive, then act like you receive the answer by praising and thanking the Father for working out the details of the situation.

Then every time the issue comes to mind, and every time the spirit of fear seeks to come back, don’t pray about it again. You’ve already cast the care of the thing over on the Lord. Just simply remind the Father of what you’ve already prayed and believed for, and then spend time in praise and thanksgiving instead of worry. Do this every single time the thought of the situation comes back.

You’ll find that the peace of God will guard your faith like a company of soldiers. And if you do this day after day, the day will come that you will see the manifestation of the answer to your prayer!

Avoid Burnout!

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28) He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak. Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:29-31 - Living Bible)

Susan and I are out of town on a short get-away to rest. We’ll be back late Thursday night. Pastor Mike is ministering tonight and I know he will bring an good word! I am very thankful for our excellent staff at Victory! They are the best!

A pastor’s life has the potential for constant high stress. And if I want to keep at this call lifelong, I must make sure that I get appropriate rest daily, a day of rest weekly, and then periodic times away from normal routine. Creativity is the results of tranquility. If you avoid adequate daily and weekly rest, and if you avoid vacation times away from normal affairs, you’re setting yourself up for burnout. Burnout is an irritable; caustic I don’t care attitude than slowly creeps in and steals initiative and motive.

In 1991, I was in a traveling ministry and had also started a business. Susan was working the midnight shift at a hospital and we had three small children. I was up many nights after midnight dealing with the details of my new business after caring for my three children (feeding them, bathing them, and reading to them and praying with them before they went to sleep). Then I was up early the next day to spend some time with the Lord before working at my business all day.

Eventually, burnout knocked at my door. It was hard to overcome, and I made a promise to myself to never go there again. I’ve come close a few times and it’s always due to lack of periodic activity change. During this burnout time in my life, I found the book, How to Beat Burnout by Frank Minirth. The principles in the book helped me to overcome burnout, and to stay rested.

I want to leave you with an excerpt from the book I just mentioned. It’s a burnout inventory. If you agree with most of the following 24 statements, you need to make a change and soon, or personal calamity will be a part of your future! Take your breaks, daily, weekly, and periodically take your vacations!

1. More and more, I find that I can hardly wait for quitting time to come so I
can leave work.
2. I feel like I’m not doing any good at work these days.
3. I am more irritable than I used to be.
4. I’m thinking more about changing jobs.
5. Lately I’ve become more cynical and negative.
6. I have more headaches (or backaches, or other physical symptoms) than usual.
7. Often I feel hopeless, like “who cares?”
8. I drink more now or take tranquilizers just to cope with everyday stress.
9. My energy level is not what it used to be. I’m tired all the time.
10.I feel a lot of pressure and responsibility at work these days.
11.My memory is not as good as it used to be.
12.I don’t seem to concentrate or pay attention like I did in the past.
13.I don’t sleep as well.
14.My appetite is decrease these days (or, I can’t seem to stop eating).
15.I am unfulfilled and disillusioned.
16.I’m not as enthusiastic about work as I was a year or two ago.
17.I feel like a failure at work. All the work I’ve done isn’t worth it.
18.I can’t seem to make decisions as easily as I once did.
19.I find that I’m doing fewer things at work that I like or that I do well.
20.I often tell myself, Why bother? It really doesn’t matter anyhow.
21.I don’t feel adequately rewarded or noticed for all the work I’ve done.
22.I feel helpless, as if I can’t find a way out of my problems.
23.People have told me that I’m too idealistic about my job.
24.I think my career has just about come to a dead end.

If you agree with most of these statements, you’re in the burnout mode and need to change!

From How to Beat Burnout, Minirth, Frank B (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1986) p. 37-38

An Example of Change By Meditating

The Word cancelled fear in my life! Due to circumstances when I was young I developed a fear of rejection. I developed a self-consciousness that feared people’s responses to my words and actions. I would walk into a room and immediately size up who was there and how people viewed me. My thinking had a default setting that assumed others did not like me and wanted nothing to do with me.

When I entered ministry as a young man, this rejection syndrome worsened. I would preach and then have a terrible next day while thinking of all the reasons no one received what I was saying. The focus was all on me and not on the blessing the Lord wanted me to be to others.

The Father began to show me the self-centered thinking that was producing these emotions and feeling of rejection. He gave me this scripture on day: But as a matter of fact, it matters very little to me what you, or any man thinks of me – I don’t even value my opinion of myself (! Corinthians 4:3 – J.B. Phillips).

I began to see that my thoughts and emotions were fear based instead of Word based. I had developed a habit of allowing my mind to set me up to be dominated by the fear of others rejecting me! This was a deep seated ingrained behavior in my life. I knew that there was no way that I could survive in ministry with this kind of thinking ruling me.

I cried out to the Father and He showed me this scripture in 1 Corinthians and then led me to 1 John 4:18 in the Amplified: There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].

I began to meditate daily on these two scriptures. I let them revolve over and over in my thought life. I said them slowly to myself. I spoke out loud when alone. I did this several times a day. This type of meditation dropped the Word down deep into my personal belief system, my underlying thought patterns, or as Ephesians 4:23 calls it, the spirit of my mind.

I also developed a siege mentality with respect to my wrong thinking and emotions. Your mind will try to convince you that what it is thinking and what your emotions are feeling is reality. And often they are not. So I deprived my mind and emotions of power over me by following the principle of a siege.

Enemy armies in Bible days would often siege a city in order to conquer it. Cities in that day had very high walls erected all the way around them to keep out predatory animals and enemy forces. Sentries were stationed on top of the walls providing a lookout for detecting the enemy. This made a city basically impenetrable.

An enemy army would simply surround the perimeter of the walled city far enough away as to be immune to arrows shot by the troops on the wall. And they simply cut the supply lines of food and goods to the city. It may take as much as two years for the city to run out of food and supplies, but eventually the enemy would defeat the city. The only factor was time and the siege.

Using this principle along with meditation on the Word cured me of this fear of rejection. My mind and emotions would tell me people did not like me, and I would simply call the person or see them personally and engage them in conversation. I was really conversing with them to see if my mind and emotion were telling me the truth, and I found that the majority of time they were not!

So the siege began! I refused to give in to my thoughts and feelings of rejection! Every day I would siege my thoughts and emotions, refusing to allow the thoughts to remain in my mind, and refusing to believe what my emotions told me. I meditated on the Word and then purposely called people just to talk to them to prove that my perceptions of rejection were wrong!

The siege worked. Now the Word has replaced the fear of others! Meditation on the Word along with actions that demonstrate belief in the Word will change your wrong belief system and produce a change in your behavior. The Word did it for me! And the Word will work for you too!

Meditation in the Word

There is no real change in the life of the believer without meditation in the Word. Meditation means speaking the Word aloud slowly or revolving it around in the mind over and over again. The Word will not affect you until it gets from your head to your underlying thought patterns, the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23).

Notice Psalm 1:1-3: Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

Notice that meditation in the Word cause a person’s whole life to blossom like a well nourished tree on a river bank! That’s because meditation moves the Word from the conscious mind to the spirit of man, where these underlying thought patterns are closely aligned. Once the Word replaces these wrong underlying thought patterns, life changes!

Notice Joshua 1:8: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. I want you to see here that meditation in the Word produces the ability to do according to all that is written therein!

Start in the New Testament with the scriptures that include the Words in Christ, in Him, or in Whom. You’ll find these in Kenneth Hagin’s mini book In Him. Start to speak them out loud, and let them revolve over and over in your mind. Take ten or fifteen minutes a day to meditate on the word.

For me, once I did this, I then began to find scriptures that related to problem areas of my life. Scriptures that had to do with anger, unforgiveness, gossip, healing, answered prayer, etc. I would look them up, write them down, and take them to a quiet place and meditate on them. My life changed!

Meditate in your car, as you go to sleep at night, or take a break during the day. Go to a quiet place, close you eyes, and speak the scriptures to yourself.

Make meditation a daily practice. The Word will begin to replace wrong thinking and believing. The wrong underlying thought patterns will be replaced with the truth of the Word. Your behavior will slowly conform to your new belief system. And you’ll be a changed person! 21 to 28 days begins the formation of new habits. So give yourself a month or so, and you’ll begin to see changes in your outward conduct. The Word meditated upon and acted on brings tangible results!

The Word Will Change Your Belief System

The Word has the power to produce deep and lasting change in the believer. The implanted word saves the soul or renews the mind. When it comes to us changing, we will not change until our belief system changes. Let me explain.

We have basically two kinds of thought; conscious thoughts, and underlying thought patterns which some term your belief system or your core values. The Bible calls this your conscience. These core beliefs, or belief system, or underlying patterns of thought operate almost automatically. And they are at work just under the conscious level and they motivate us in all of our behaviors; our actions, words, responses, how we see the world, how we see ourselves, how we treat others, and how we relate to God.

These deep underlying thoughts are what control us. And there is no personal change of lasting value until these underlying patterns of thinking change. Notice 2 Corinthians 10:3-6: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

The strongholds mentioned here are really fortresses of thought that are built up in these underlying thought patterns. The arguments mentioned are the patterns of thinking that precede behavior. These must be challenged and changed before we act differently.

The Word divides soul from spirit in us, and is able to analyze these underlying thoughts in a way no psychologist or psychotherapist ever could. For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12- Amplified).

Reading the Epistles in the New Testament will give you the will of God for the believer in most of the areas of life. If you’ll read them slowly and prayerfully, making a decision to line your lifestyle up with what you read, you will be challenged to change! Ask yourself while reading; is there an attitude or motive that I need to change; is there some sinful activity that I need to forsake; is there something that I’m not doing that I must begin to do; is there some promise here that I must embrace?

If you’ll do this, the power of the word of God will begin to change you. It will analyze your thoughts, your motives, your actions and reactions, your beliefs and all your conduct. It will detect wrong underlying patterns of thinking. The Word will convict you to change! The Holy Spirit will urge you and motivate you to challenge hurtful underlying patterns of thinking.

Tomorrow, I discuss the part that meditation in the Word plays in changing these underlying patterns of thinking. Meditation in the Word is the key to permanent life change!

Change Your Personal Belief System

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23). Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls (James 1:21).

Most of our behavior is motivated by our belief system which is our personal and mostly unconscious set of rules we have about the universe we live in. This belief system is also called conscience in the Bible. I sometimes refer to it as our underlying thought patterns.

Our belief system is created by our life conditionings; our relationships with our parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coaches, boyfriends and girlfriends, pastors, authority figures, etc. And every single relationship leaves a print on your life which may be a good or bad imprint on your belief system.

We must retrain our belief system so that it lines up with the Word of God! It’s trained by meditation in the portions of the Word of God that directly deal with each false belief.

For me, I had a false belief that work determined value. I had to replace that false belief with the truth of God’s Word that I am saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), that I am excepted in the beloved and dearly loved by God (Ephesians 1:6), that He loves me and has good plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11).

I had a false belief ingrained in me in my childhood that I could nothing right so why should I try. I had to replace it that the truth of God’s Word that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Now I really believe that I casn do anything that God calls me to do!

I had a false belief ingrained in me that people did not like me. God gave a scripture to use that replaced this false belief: It matter very little to me what you or any man thinks of me. I don’t even value my opinion of myself. He that judges me is the Lord. Now I can be myself, I can express my opinions to those who disagree with me, and I can walk into a room of people I don’t know and be perfectly at peace without the feeling of inferiority and rejection.

I am not the same person I was when I was young. The Word changed my belief system and that changed my behavior!

Meditation is designed by God to create beliefs deep within our spirit and soul. God told Joshua to meditate in the Word day and night so that he could be a doer of the Word (Joshua 1:8). David said that meditating in the Word would cause us to prosper in all we do (Psalm 1:1-4).

I have spent much time meditating on scripture that refute the false beliefs that life entrenched into my spirit and soul. I can tell you from experience that your behavior (your actions and responses to others, your attitudes about yourself, God and others, and your motivations) will change as you take the time to meditate in the Word.

Find scripture that deals with your false beliefs. Write them down and go to a solitary place. Close your eyes and say the Word over and over to yourself. That is way we scripturally meditate. Do this day after day. After the first 30 days you will notice that you are changing. I have done this for many years. The results are awesome. You don’t have to be stuck in negative thinking and wrong behaviors. Meditation will plant the Word in your belief system and transform you. Start today!

Changing What You Believe About Life

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18 – NLT). Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith (Hebrews 12:2 – NLT).

Mind renewal is essential to change. We live the way we think. We have both conscious and subconscious thoughts. Probably 80% plus of our behavior comes from these subconscious thoughts. That’s the reason that often there is a disconnect between what we know and what we do. Paul said it this way in Romans 7:15: I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate (New Living Translation).

Subconscious thoughts are really our belief system, which is a collection of thoughts that determine how we view ourselves and others and how we approach life in general. We could also call these subconscious thoughts or belief system our conscience. Once you’re born again, God wants to revamp your conscience or belief system! When you conscience or belief system agrees with His Word, you’re going to change from glory to glory!

As I mentioned yesterday, our belief system is developed by our associations with our environment. Much of what we believe about ourselves is set at a very early age.

In my own life, I was brought up in a Christian home with godly parents who took me to church three times a week. My Father was a deacon and my mother was a Sunday school teacher in a Baptist church. I thought for years that my home life was as good as it could get. We didn’t have bickering and quarreling in my home. My mother loved my father. My parents loved me. But they are human, and being human they were not perfect people. They are fallen human beings who have been redeemed. I can see now how my mother and father were influenced by their families before marriage and passed those influences into my life.

For affirmation as a four and five year old, I would clean the bathtub and sink in our bathroom and wait to hear my mother’s gleeful response: Mitch, you did such a good job. Since I craved affirmation, I found that hard work would produce it.

My dad valued work so much that most of life revolved around it – just about all the time! My belief system from childhood equated work with personal value. And that reinforced in me the belief that you’re only valuable if you are accomplishing things every single day. And if I tried to rest, I felt the deep seated sense of failure and emptiness.

As an adult I became a workaholic. I loved work because it gave me a sense of worth. Make sure you praise your children, not just when they perform well, but also when they fail. Otherwise, you may be developing a workaholic like I became. At age thirty, I allowed the Lord to begin the process of delivering me from getting my value out of my work alone. Today, I can work, rest, and have leisure each day. My affirmation in not in accomplishment, but it is in who I am in Jesus.

I’ll go into more detail tomorrow. I also had to overcome perfectionism and a deep seated sense of rejection as the Lord began to show me my wrong belief system. And as my subconscious or belief system or conscience was changed by the Word, I changed!

What traits did you absorb from your family that need to be changed?

Don't Pass it Down!

I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations (Exodus 34:7 –NLT).

On Wednesday nights I’ve started a series on living free from fear and living a life motivated by love. Last night I mentioned that our family of origin is where our deep beliefs and behaviors are formed that we carry through life. God told the Israelites to model Him to their children in their homes from the time they get up until the time that they go to bed (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9) . The reason for this is that children learn by absorbing their environment.

What kind of environment were you raised in? What do you really believe about life, about yourself, about how others think and feel about you, about how God the Father thinks and feels about you? The answers to these questions usually lie deeply buried in your underlying thought patterns, your belief system. And the answers to these probing questions are seen by how you currently relate to those closest to you.

Can you face the reality of need and character flaws in your own life without feeling that you’re a complete and hopeless failure? Can you love others even when they fail you? Do you force others to conform to your opinions if they are allowed in your inner circle, or do you allow space for them to be themselves and for personal quirks and differences? Do you believe the best of others, or are you generally suspicious and untrusting? Do you think and feel that God is loving and affirming of you? Do you believe that He cares enough for you to help you today?

What we believe about ourselves, others and God is rooted in how we were treated in our family by our primary caregivers, which for most people would be their mothers and fathers. And we usually end up acting just like our mothers and fathers unless we determine on purpose to change! The verse I related at the beginning of this blog speaks of trans-generational sins that are passed to children through the influence of the home. Unless you take definite steps to curb it, you too will repeat the failures of your parents and will also replicate them in your children!

But there is a way of escape from this cycle! The new birth frees us from sin! And mind renewal through the Word of God can change the course of our personal journey in life. We can literally change what we were destined by conditioning to be! I’ll deal more with this in tomorrow’s blog.

Let me leave you with some signs of a functional and a dysfunctional family. What did you experience in your home as a child? You will live it out in your life unless you take measures to change it!

A functional, loving family environment is exemplified by:

Unconditional love, unconditional acceptance, forgiveness, laughter, time to work and play together, attention, fun, freedom to express emotions appropriately, sense of personal worth, compassion, comfort, honesty, freedom to have your own opinion and your own identity, objectivity, affirmation, friendship, appropriate responsibility, loving correction.

A dysfunctional family environment is exemplified by:

Alcoholism, drug addiction, workaholic tendencies, divorce, eating disorders, sexual disorders, absent father, absent mother, neglect, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, domineering father/passive mother, domineering mother/passive father, condemnation, rejection, destructive criticism, manipulation, neglect, unreality, denial, lack of objectivity, warped sense of responsibility, control, guilt, hurt and anger, loneliness.

What has influenced you? We’ll talk about it more tomorrow!

Encourage Yourself

We all have those days when it seems as though we will never succeed. Struggle after struggle leaves us depleted of energy. David faced this in 1 Samuel 30: 1-6.

While David and his men were out fighting, the enemy came and destroyed the city where they lived. When David and his men returned home, he found the whole city burned to the ground. And the wives and children of he and his men were missing, having been taken captive by the enemy army.

They wept until they had no more tears, and David’s men were so upset that they thought of stoning him! Now that’s a pretty desperate situation. Instead of giving in to the situation and walking away defeated, this passage reveals that David encouraged himself in the Lord! And the end of the story is that David and his men found the enemy army, defeated them, and rescued their wives and children without a single one being harmed!

Had David remained discouraged, they would not have recovered their families safely. Attitude when faced with a crisis determines the outcome. When the stakes are down, and you feel discouragement taking hold, find a way to encourage yourself in the Lord. Let me give you several suggestions.

First of all, watch your mouth! It can really get you into some deep trouble. Don’t speak unless you can talk in faith. Doubt thoughts will die unborn as long as you don’t give life to them with your words.

Secondly, remind yourself of the promises of God. God says to the believer in Psalm 91:14-15: Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. God promises in Psalm 34:19: Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Thirdly, consciously remember the times that the Lord had answered prayer and delivered you from difficult situations in the past. In Psalm 42, David reminded himself of what God had done in his past when facing thoughts and feelings of oppression and discouragement.

Lastly, force yourself to praise and worship during difficult times. The sacrifice of praise will allow God to fight the battle for you, will strengthen you, and will chase away doubt, fear, and discouragement.

God hasn’t brought you this far to let you down now. Encourage yourself in the Lord your God! Make yourself do what you know you should!

A Life Changing Prayer

Our iniquities, our secret heart and its sins [which we would so like to conceal even from ourselves], You have set in the [revealing] light of Your countenance. (Psalm 90:8 Amplified).

We see life through colored glasses; the glasses of our own experience. We’re often not aware of traits, thoughts, dispositions, motives and idiosyncrasies in our lives until something outside of us reveals it. God has designed us to assume the environment we find ourselves in during the formative years of maturation, and we become blind to the familiar. The skinny of this is that what may be normal to me may be out of sync with the way God intended.

Years ago I began to feel uncomfortable within and I knew God wanted to take me somewhere that I’d never been. I came across this verse in Psalms 90 and began to ask the Lord to show me things that He would like to change about me. When you become comfortable with the Lord, and know that He loves you and wants your best; that He will never reject you; then you can really open up to Him and pour out your heart.

I also found Psalm 139: 23-24 (New Living Translation) which reads, Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. (24) Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. I used this verse as a prayer and began to ask the Lord to show me anything that I needed to change. It’s a great way of humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God!

At first, nothing changed. My life seemed unaffected. But after a few weeks, the glasses began to be removed from my eyes, and I began to see things about me that I did not realize were there. A deep root of pride that I did not want to admit I had; perfectionism that put great demands on me and my family; and a performance orientation that drove me to stay busy to feel ok. I began to see these things as tentacles that wrapped around my consciousness and wove into the fabric of my whole life.

I pressed into God, confessing what He showed me was there. And He began to take me on a journey of loving Him that is still slowly releasing me from the hold these dispositions had on my life. The Lord used His Word backed by His unconditional love to begin within me a process of change. I’m still in process, and He continues to remove scales from my eyes about me.

Let me encourage you to pray these two scriptures over your live. You may think you don’t really need to do this. That’s what I thought, but my eyes were blinded by my pride.

It’s so freeing to be able to be honest and real about yourself, and to know that your Father only wants what’s best for you. It starts with a choice to be willing for Him to expose you to yourself. The resulting change really is from glory to glory.

More on the Inward Witness

The voice of God to the believer is more of an impression or inward witness (See Romans 8:16) than a voice. When I was a child in a denominational church I would here the phrase the Lord spoke to me and said…It filled me with wonder as to how God really speaks. What does His voice sound like?

God on very rare occasions speaks in an audible voice. This happened when Jesus was baptized by John. Then there is also the voice of the Holy Spirit that can speak within our human spirit. But normally, we can expect to be led by the Holy Spirit by the inward witness (Romans 8:14).

Here’s how it works. In 1992 I was Associate Pastor of a church in my hometown. After a short term missions trip, the Senior Pastor decided to move he and his family to Europe for one year to start a church in one of the Baltic States. And he left me to pastor in his place for the year he was absent. As the year of 1993 drew to a close, I wondered what God had for me to do when the pastor returned and assumed his daily duties as Senior Pastor.

My custom is to spend time each morning praying in tongues after I read and have a personal devotional time with the Lord. In November of that year I was praying in tongues and at the same time thinking in the back of my mind about what God had for me when the Senior Pastor returned. As I prayed the phrase already existing church seemed to float up from somewhere inside me (from my spirit). As I prayed day after day this thought kept coming back. Then, over a period of weeks and then months it continued and grew into the inward knowing that my next assignment was that to pastor an already existing church.

I received this first in November of 1993, and then in May of 1994 I told the Senior Pastor that somewhere in the world there was a church that had no Pastor and that at some point in my future I would pastor that church. Five months later I became Pastor here in Garner. The unusual thing I found out was that the very day that I told the Pastor that there was a church without one and that I was to pastor that church is the very day that the Pastor here in Garner left! Talk about a confirmation to what God spoke to me!

No person on earth or any demon from hell could ever convince me that I am not in God’s will. I got the witness about it months before it happened, and God confirmed that witness with “signs following!” Life is exciting when you choose to live this way. Take time to pray in the spirit and allow the inward witness to work for you!

Guidance

Here’s a practical tip for receiving guidance from the Lord. Notice that 1 Corinthians 14:2 in the Amplified reads, For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].

The Holy Spirit dwells in our human spirit. As the above verse reveals, when we pray in tongues or in the spirit, we are praying about things of which our minds are unaware; we are praying about secret truths and hidden things. 1 Corinthians 14: 14 reveals, For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody].

Since the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit, when we pray in tongues, we are tapping into a resource of knowledge available from no other source. God is omniscient, that is, He knows everything that is to be known. And He dwells in our spirit! The answer to the issue of guidance in any area of life is inside of us by the Holy Spirit! We just need to learn how to draw it out!

1 Corinthians 2:11 reads, For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Here is how to practically apply all this to receive guidance.

When you have a decision to make, take some time each day to pray in the spirit about it. Take ten to twenty minutes to pray. Tell the Lord that you want to pray about this certain thing, and that you are seeking to know what to do. As you pray in the spirit, think about all various possibilities of what you could do one at a time. As you think about the various choices you could make in the matter one at a time while praying in tongues, what do you sense inside. Is there peace, or unrest or nothing! Just keep doing this day after day and eventually you’ll find where peace is in the decision.

Colossians 3:15 tells us to let the peace of God rule (Greek- be umpire or call the shots!) in our hearts. Romans 8:16 mentions the witness of the spirit. Follow this inward witness, or the peace of God when decision making. And you find where this peace is and what decision to make by praying in tongues about a matter until the way of peace shows up! Sometimes it takes longer than others, but you’ll always get the answer. Jesus said My sheep know My voice. Follow the inward witness! Take time pray in tongues! I’ll give some examples of this in my next blog.

Just to Know Him

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 84:10)

God called me into the ministry soon after my 18th birthday. I attended several Bible schools, and eventually became one of the pastoral staff ministers at a large church. Image was a big deal to me. I always dressed sharply, and I wanted to look like a professional. Ministry was a big deal to me. I had to be in ministry, because that’s who I am. How wrong I was.

In 1986 or so God begin to speak to me deep inside and I began to know that I would go through a grueling test that would deal with the deep root of pride in me. It happened a few years later. After I planted a church in a small city in South Carolina, I turned it over to another Pastor and began to travel and minister. I knew God was up to something in me.

While building the traveling ministry, I felt impressed of the Lord to supplement my income during the week with some type of job and then preach on the weekends. The Holy Spirit led me to start a small painting company which prospered. And there God dealt with the me in me, that is, the self-will and pride.

Instead of looking polished and professional, most days I looked disheveled and spotted with paint! My image of me was crushed. I was no longer a minister. I was a painter. That knocked the wind out of my sails! At one point, ministry opportunities grew sparse while my business increased significantly. I felt that I was a failure, and that God was finished with me. It was in this moment of my life that the above scripture was emphasized to me.

One particularly hot summer day, I was high on a ladder grinding decades old paint off of a house. I began to cry as I thought about where I was in contrast to the ministry experiences I had in my past. It was a real crisis moment for me, and I knew that the Lord was requiring an attitude change in me. With sweaty skin covered with flecks of old paint in the blazing sun high atop a ladder I cried out to God. Lord, just to know you is more important than ministry or image or anything else in life! If this is your plan for me, so be it! Just to know you is more important than anything I personally want .And then the verse from Psalm 84 came to me.

I resigned myself that day to follow God wherever He took me, ministry or not. I don’t need an image. I don’t need to be in ministry. I need a real close relationship and fellowship with Jesus. That’s what really produces ministry anyway!
The Lord did open ministry back up to me shortly after this experience, but everything was different. I didn’t need to be in ministry anymore. I needed my fellowship with Jesus. Who needs image and prestige when He who is the sum total of everything is inside of you? Life and ministry is all about knowing Him intimately.

Don’t fight the hard places in life, you may find the voice of God speaking into your need through them. I’m still willing just to be a doorkeeper if that’s where His presence and blessing is. Pursue Him, not image. Seek to know Him.

The Word Will Keep You

I had something happen to me almost 30 years ago that taught me the power and the importance of the Word in my daily life. I was twenty years old at the time and had been walking with God for two and a half years.

The short of the story is that my Pastor, out of a desire to manipulate and control, said some caustic and biting things to me in a meeting that I had asked for to talk to him about some concerns (many years later, his behind the scenes misdeeds were exposed). The things he said to me almost sent me into a state of mental shock! Satan used his words to drive my mental state into a frenzy for well over a month. I was young and very impressionable, and my Pastors’ words carried weight with me. Day after day his words played over and over in my mind.

I learned the absolute power of the indwelling Word of God through this experience. When the enemy would remind me of what the Pastor said and accuse me so terribly, I would refute the overwhelming thoughts and feelings by saying Romans 8:38-39 over and over to myself. 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.

The enemy would use the Pastor’s words and my fickle emotions against me from the time I got up each day until the time I went to bed! I seemed as though I was going to lose my mind as the thoughts and feelings bombarded me! This verse came to my rescue and became my life raft in the storm. The more I reminded myself and God of what He promised in caring for me and never leaving me, the less the thoughts and emotions from the Pastor’s words affected me. In fact, I was able to forgive him and walk in love toward him as God’s Word helped me endure the demonic accusations and look beyond the feelings to God’s truth about me.

One day, over a month later, the daily oppression ceased, and my inward peace returned. It was the power of God’s Word that sustained me. I found that God’s Word really is full of life and power and that the Word is stronger than any force that seeks to overpower me. God through His precious Word to me became my friend that sticks closer than a brother. It is true that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

When you find yourself in a hard place, take the Word with you! Don’t be caught without it. My hours and days of meditating on the Word before this experience sustained me through it. Build the Word into your inner consciousness, and you’ll be insulated from the assaults of the enemy. Forever, O Lord, your Word is settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89) Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35). …The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63) The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever! (Isaiah 40:8).

The other thing I learned from this experience is to never use my office of Pastor to try to control and dominate people. As a Pastor, I’m to be an example, not a taskmaster.

Don't Be Passive

We are either aggressing or regressing in our walk with God. If we are not passionately pursuing Him, then we are by default backing away. We must fight spiritual passivity.

In 2 Timothy 2: 4-6, Paul uses three excellent analogies of how we are to pursue our walk with God. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.

We are to conduct our selves like a soldier. A soldier has submitted himself to his superiors. He is ready at a moment’s notice to act without delay. He has been trained to engage the enemy and win. He has learned how to work as a team with his fellow comrades. He has disciplined himself for had times.

An athlete has disciplined his body through hours of exercise. He has learned to endure and to push himself beyond what is average. He strictly controls his diet and regiments his whole life in pursuit of his dream of winning the competition.

A farmer is diligent with growing his crops. He is up at sunrise ready to tend the fields. He sows his seed early and watches over it as it grows. He removes all obstacles of growth from the tender plants so that he can receive a full harvest in due season. He works hard!

So we are to fight like a soldier, prepare like an athlete, and work like a farmer. There is no place for slackness in the kingdom of God. Don’t allow yourself to be mediocre spiritually. Jesus shed His blood to redeem you from the world, the flesh, and from Satan’s dominion. Passivity dishonors His work at Calvary. Give God you best today.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14).

Is Their Blood on Your Hands?

When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul (Ezekiel 3: 18-19).

We are responsible to minister to those around us as the Lord leads us. If we do not, then their blood is on our hands. Kenneth Hagin relates a story in one of his books of an unsaved man in his community he went to see who was ill with a terminal condition, but who that day was up and sitting on his front porch. The man was not a Christian, and the conversation opened an opportunity for brother Hagin to minister to him about salvation, but he didn’t do it. The Lord urged him, but he just did bring it up. A short time later, the man died, and Rev. Hagin said he remembered the conviction rise up in him to share Jesus with the man, but that he just didn’t do it. He said he thought no more about it.

Not long after the man’s death, Rev. Hagin was conducting a meeting, and at the close of the meeting during a time of prayer, he had a vision and Jesus appeared to him. In the vision, he said Jesus pulled back what looked to be a curtain and he saw this man in the flames of hell. Jesus told Rev. Hagin that he was holding him personally responsible for this man going to hell since he had felt led to talk to him that Sunday night, but refused to yield to the leading to do so.

We are responsible to minister to those God brings into our lives. The Lord wants to stir up evangelism in our day. Jesus said that the love of many believers would grow cold because of the increase in sin.

We should look for and believe for people to minister to each day. If each believer in America would do his or her part to win souls on a daily basis, we could change the course of our nation rapidly. As goes the church, so goes the nation.

All believers have been called into the ministry of reconciliation. The great commission has been given to every member of the body of Christ. Let’s repent for the times we’ve failed to witness as the Lord has directed. And let’s begin today to look for opportunities to be the salt and the light we’re called to be!

The Indwelling Word

I’ve been reminded recently by the Lord of the importance of meditating in the Word daily. Like no other generation before our time, we have an overload of information. As Daniel said it would be before the coming of the Messiah, knowledge has taken a quantum leap! With so much available from multiple sources, it’s now necessary to become selective in what we read, hear, and watch.

The most important information that we need each day is the WORD! God’s Word is my standard that keeps distractions out, and keeps me focused on the necessary and important. As Isaiah 33:6 states, Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation...Without the Word, our lives will be like sand bombarded with a flood of water; we’ll be unstable!

The Word insulates us from the harsh environment of the world, where fear and doubt try to steal into our minds. The Word washes the debris from our thoughts that may get temporarily lodged there through daily interaction with so much stuff! And we’re admonished to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom or practical application (Colossians 3:16).

Joshua tells us that meditation in the Word will bring prosperity and success into daily life (Joshua 1:8). David encourages that meditation in the Word will cause us to be like a tree by a river bank that has a great supply of nourishment, and from that association with the river, all that we do will prosper. Solomon tells us that the Word is even like medicine to our flesh (See Proverbs 4:20-22)! Isaiah relates that the Word will give us perfect peace (Is. 26:3).

If it’s available, what would keep us from pursuing that which would better us? Jesus said the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of money, and the desire for other things could steal what the Word wants to do in us (Mark 4). The enemy knows what a power house for God we will be if we act on the indwelling word, so he’s real busy these days cooking up some interesting distractions. Don’t buy his game of bluff!

I’ve made a fresh decision to take time each day to meditate. To take scripture and let it go over and over in my mind while a taking a quick break, or when going for a walk or jog. To speak it out loud in my car, or to let it revolve over and over in my mind when I’m going to sleep, or when I wake up at night. The more opportunities we give the Word to dwell in us richly, the more success, favor, health, life, light, peace, and rest we will enjoy. The Word will NEVER leave us empty like so much in this information age. Let’s let it dwell in us – RICHLY!

Promotion

For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the judge: He puts down one, and exalts another. (Psalm 75:6-7)

We cannot promote ourselves into the place that God has for us. This promotion comes from the Lord. But we can do the things that place us in position to be promoted in God’s timing for us.

Paul said in Romans 1:1, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. Notice that Paul was called to be an apostle. That calling happened eons ago in the mind and heart of God. But then Paul says he was separated to this call. God has a plan, a call, for all of us. There is a Divine purpose for our lives that was determined before we were born (See Psalm 139).

But we must be separated to that call or Divine purpose. And the separation to the call is when we actually begin to function in the will of God for our lives. And that separation has more to with us than with God. God calls and it’s up to us to respond. Jesus said it this way, “Many are called, few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14). Being chosen means entering into the call that God has for us.

God doesn’t look for ability but for availability when He separates us to the call for our lives. And the number one character trait God looks for is faithfulness when looking to promote us. It’s the faithful man that will abound with blessing. (Proverbs 28:20). It’s required in stewards that a man be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2). Paul told Timothy to look for faithful men to help him in ministry (2 Timothy 2:2). And Paul himself was placed in ministry, or you could say, he was separated to the call of God upon his life, because God counted him faithful (1 Timothy 1:12).

Are we faithful now in the small things? Promotion comes when we are faithful where we are. He looks for us to be faithful in our attitudes and words; faithful to submit and yield to others in positions of leadership. If we can’t be faithful in helping another person in ministry, how can God trust us with our own (Luke 16:12)?

God has required faithfulness in me before each time of promotion in my life. I’ve been at the place of discontent with my lot in life so many times. Each time, the Lord kept me there until I could say, “Lord, if this is you plan for me, I will stay in this place the rest of my life; I want what you want for me.” And when I stopped striving, and focused on being faithful, promotion came. The call comes from the Lord, but the separation to that is determined by my faithfulness.