The Presence!

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

The presence of God separates the believer from the infectious influences of the world! And the Presence in us that manifests throughout our day has a drawing effect on those around us. They notice something different about us. No other religion can do to a human what Christianity can. Christians in fellowship with God are bearers of the Presence!

Moses cried out to God when he came down from the top of Mount Sinai after he saw that the Israelites had sinned. He asked God not to remove His presence from the people. And notice why Moses asked this: Then he said to Him, if Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.

The Presence is not a feeling or emotion. It produces feelings and emotions at times. But it’s much deeper than feeling. The Presence exudes from our human spirit and carefully guards us from the effects of the world and the enemy from without. And the Presence moves us away from the tendencies of the flesh and creates in us a hunger and drawing toward the Father.

Carefully guard the Presence! Don’t allow unconfessed sin to remain in your life. Sin dissipates the Presence! If you miss it in some way, immediately confess your sin and the Blood will cleanse you!

Be careful with your words, for strife filled words can grieve the Holy Spirit who bears this Presence within (see Ephesians 4:29-30).

Time spent daily in the Word, in praise and worship, and in prayer will increase the manifestations of His Presence in your life. I have found that praying in the spirit, because it builds up and edifies the human spirit, will increase the manifestation of the Presence. The tell-tale sign of the Presence in you is joy! In His Presence is fullness of joy, pleasures forevermore!

Walk in His Presence today! Court the Presence! Lift your voice in praise to the Holy One. Thank Him for all that He is. Worship Him. He inhabits praise with manifestations of His Presence. Create change in the atmosphere wherever you are today. Release the Presence!

Praise Power

Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls — Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

Praise is the language of faith. When life turns sour, turn up the praise! James tells us to count it all joy when hard times arrive. Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!

Praise brings a manifestation of the presence of God that will give inward strength and that will attack the problem and bring a solution. Enemy armies had surrounded the people of God in 2 Chronicles 20. King Jehosophat and the people began to seek the Lord.

Through the prophet God told them that He would fight their battle for them. All they needed to do was to send the praisers to the front line of the battle and God would do the fighting for them.

They obeyed and the praisers began to sing praise the Lord for His mercy endures forever. As they sang, the presence and power of God manifested and the enemy were slain before they could lift a sword!

God will undertake to bring you out of the hard place if you will choose to put on the garment of praise. There is no feeling in this, it’s a total act of faith! When your flesh is screaming at you and the problems pile up, the best thing to do is to praise. Paul and Silas were set free from prison because they chose to pray and to sing praises to God while sitting in a dungeon.

Stop the complaining and begin to praise God in the troubles of life. God is not partial. He helped His Old Covenant people and fought for them. He will do the same for you!

A New Strength

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-The Living Bible).

Here’s an interesting way to look at a familiar passage. In my Companion Study Bible there is a note by this verse that calls this a katabasis, which is a going or marching down, a retreat, or a gradual descent.

Here in Isaiah, notice that as the believer waits on the Lord he moves from flying to running to walking. In our walk with God, at first we are doing what seems natural, which is relying on our own wits and strength. But as we grow in God, and learn what it means to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, we learn to relinquish the control of life and its circumstances into His hands. We learn to seek God and roll the care of every circumstance onto Him.

Instead of flying in our own strength, we learn to slow down and move into a strength that surpasses our own, and we begin to run. Little by little as we learn that Father knows best, we lessen our striving and begin to enter into the rest of God, the rest of faith. We then begin to walk.

The fast pace become an easy stroll with respect to energy expended. As we wait on the Lord and in prayer and faith place every circumstance of life in His hands, we begin to live in the power of His might! We don’t become as weary as we did before. We go farther with greater energy reserves. And it becomes with us as it did with John the Baptist, He must increase, but I must decrease.

Take time to build God’s strength in you today by waiting on the Lord. You’ll accomplish more, and you’ll walk in a state called rest as the Father works through you with His power. This is the way He created you to live!

Words

Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God's own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin) (Ephesians 4:29-30).

Words are the most powerful force in your life! God used words to create natural things from spiritual things. Your words create things. James tells us that words determine the course of our lives from the cradle to the grave. In the same way that a bridle governs the movements of a horse, and a rudder controls the path of the ship, so our words direct us.

Don’t say a thing unless you want it to come to pass. Be careful to say what you really believe, for words are meant to move us in their direction.

Words can vilify, defame, and wound or they can bless, mend, and heal. Our words have a huge impact on others. We can inspire or de-motivate with a simple comment. The adage sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me is just not true! It takes so much longer to heal from the wounds inflicted with an offensive, hurtful comment than from a physical abrasion.

Make a decision to never use your words to bring harm. Don’t repeat the scandal of the hour. Keep your words positive and winsome. Be a creator of blessing, cheer, and encouragement. One sentence spoken to a person can change their whole day.

Remember that you are a creator today. You’re creating an environment everywhere you go with words. The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary (Isaiah 50:4).

Motivated By Love

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death (1 John 3:14).

The successful Christian life is a life lived in the spirit. That is, a life where the human spirit is allowed to control behavior. Walking in the spirit is allowing the humans spirit, filled with God’s nature to rule conduct. Walking in the spirit is allowing the Word supremacy in everything.

So many of God’s people allow their intellects, their emotions, and their bodies to control them, and the light within them is dim. The wise believer takes time to feed on the Word of God each day and spends time meditating in the Word so that the human spirit can become strong and vibrant.

Walking in love is one of the signposts on the road of the spirit ruled walk. A believer walking in the spirit will be ruled by the love of God. This love is unconditional and self-sacrificing. It loves others regardless of their actions and choices. This love is patient, kind, caring, honest, real, joy filled, hopeful, believing, and mannerly. This love causes a believer who walks in it to live above strife and petty differences. The love of God doesn’t pay attention to the wrongs committed against it, and will treat those who treat it offensively as though they had done no wrong! God’s love rules the believer that walks in the spirit.

Take time every day to meditate in 1 Corinthians 13, and to remind your intellect that love is to rule today. We’re to be clothed with love. When others see us, the first thing they should notice is an unselfish love that puts others first and is kind, winsome, and real.

If you’ll seek to be ruled by love today, you’ll be allowing your human spirit right of way. And the Father and Jesus will direct your steps through the Word. You’ll live above the strife, envy and self-centeredness that is so common. The light within you will overpower darkness!

A Yielded Will

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).

The soul is comprised of the mind, the emotions, and the human will. The soul also has the capacity for imagination. Of these three elements, the will is the king of the soul. The mind, emotions, will, and imagination follows the paths the will allows.

The will is sacred. The Father will never violate the will of a person. He allows us to make our own choices, and then we must live with the results of those choices. Jesus said if any man will let him come unto Me and drink (John 7:37). If you be willing and obedient you eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). Choose this day whom you will serve, life or death blessing or cursing…(Deuteronomy 30:19).

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil gave a test of will to Adam. He failed the test. Since then, the will of man has generally been opposed to the will of God. The will has been tainted by sin and is largely self-centered.

In every gospel, Jesus admonishes believers to subdue the will. He tells us that if we’re going to follow Him we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Jesus spoke these words addressing the will.

Every believer receives a summons from the Holy Spirit to yield the will daily to the Father by yielding it to the Lordship of the Word. No believer can walk closely with the Master until he or she has submitted their will to him in humble faith.

Let’s take time daily to willingly give ourselves to the Father. He will not coerce or force us. We must be willing to daily humble ourselves to and to obedience to the Word and to the inward promptings of the Holy Spirit.

We receive the best that God has according to the yieldedness of our will to Him. May we be able to say what Paul said as he addressed the giving of his will daily to the Father: Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).

The Power of United Purpose

And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them (Genesis 11:6). How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had surrendered them? (Deuteronomy 32:30)Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

Unity is a powerful force spiritually and naturally. People who unite in a common purpose far exceed the ability of a single individual. The devil knows this, so he works incessantly to stifle vision that unites purpose, and works to sow division between believers.

It’s time now for the body of Christ to rise up and fulfill its’ God planned destiny. In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be one so the world would know Him.

Regardless of what church you attend, get behind the vision of your pastor and church leaders. Find ways to assist them in reaching your community for Jesus, and in helping disciple fellow believers.

The Father wants to use you today to bless, to encourage, and to inspire others to greater spiritual maturity. Recognize that we believers, like the individual parts of the human body, are dependent on one another. The health of the body is determined by the combined efforts of each part. If one part suffers, the other parts bear that pain too. And when one part is functioning properly, it aids in the function of every other part. If one part lags behind, the other parts have to work even harder!

Here at Victory Fellowship, let’s unite to grow, connect, and serve. Let’s give God out best today. Passionately express your heart to Him in private prayer. Lift the limits and expect answers! Allow the water of His Word to quench your spiritual thirst and to wash the effects of living in a fallen world off of you. Expect the Word to empower you today and to produce change in you.

Refuse to allow your thoughts and words to be used by the enemy to sow strife or division. Refuse to listen to words of gossip and dissention. Sow words of blessing, love, and encouragement. Look for ways to help others. Put the laws of sowing and reaping to work in your life and in the life of your church family.

Become unity minded. Become others minded. All things are possible to the group of individual who will unite under a common purpose. Let’s go after it with everything within us today!

Equal to the Task!

If you’re going to be used by God, prepare to be stretched! God has an uncanny way of asking us to do what we think is impossible. His call to us is often in a realm way beyond what we think of ourselves and our own ability. Don’t forget, He’s able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think!

When I was 25 years old, I was a maintenance man (ok, a janitor!) in a large local church. I had attended two Bible Schools and knew that I was called to preach. I studied and prayed constantly. The pastor of the church saw an anointing on my life and would allow me to preach on Wednesday nights on occasion.

I received a call one summer day that blew me away. It was the pastor of the large church. He wanted me to assume a pastoral staff position as counseling director for this very large church. To say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement. I was floored! I wanted to give the classic “scaredy cat” answer, “well, let me pray about it!” But I knew intuitively that this was God’s will, so I said, “Yes, I’ll do it.” That’s when the internal fight began.

God had asked me to do something so far beyond me. I had just assumed a job where I had to oversee and train 120 people, and I didn’t know what I was doing myself! I made a decision to do it scared! I knew that if God called me, He would give me the ability to accomplish the overwhelming task before me.

Then one day not long after that the Lord gave me a scripture in during my personal devotions that empowered me and changed my life. It’s 1 Timothy 1:12, and it reads: And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. I read other translations of this scripture that gripped me. Here are a few: Grateful am I to Him that empowered me (Rotherham); I give thanks to Him who puts strength in me (Henry Alford); I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, the source of all my strength (Knox). But the one that struck me the most was from the New English Bible: And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has made me equal to the task!

That went off like a bomb in me. Suddenly I was awed by God’s thoughts about me. When He calls us, He sees what we can’t see in ourselves, and He leads us in a way that will pull out of us what He has put in us when He formed us. He helped me succeed in what I thought was an impossible situation. He did make me equal to the task.

So when an opportunity comes for you to do something that seems impossible to you, do it scared! The Father will give you the ability you need if you’ll walk by faith and believe Him. He will make you equal to the task.

Favor

For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield (Psalm 5:12).

As the people of God, we have obtained favor! When we made Jesus the Lord of our lives, we joined heaven’s team. Before that, we were under the control of the prince of the power of the air, that is, the demonic forces who work with Satan to hinder human life, and to thwart the purposes of God.

Now, we’ve been delivered from the control and dominion of darkness, and have been transferred into the kingdom of God. Now as God’s ambassadors on earth, we live according to His kingdom laws and principles.

An ambassador from one country living in another has diplomatic immunity from many of the laws that govern the country where he resides. Our redemption in Christ is our diplomatic immunity in the spirit realm!

We face life today with Heaven’s backing, living under God’s kingdom rule. We’re the people of God, destined for blessing and victory.

The blessing of Abraham belongs to us as kingdom folk. We’re blessed in our coming and going, we’re the head and not the tail, we’re above and not beneath. That just means that we’re successful in every endeavor. We operate in the wisdom of God.

Face life today knowing that you have heaven’s smile. God is for you! Heaven’s rule is with you! And as the above verse mentions, you are surrounded by the favor of God. Stand firmly today on the promises of God, and don’t be moved by the delay and resistance that comes. The favor of God will make a way through every difficulty and will open up God’s purposes for you. Expect God’s best!

Your Thoughts

What if your thoughts manifested in your life! What would you be physically, spiritually, financially, relationally, if the thoughts you entertain actually played out in real time?

Well, look around, because that is exactly what’s happening! Proverbs 23:7 reveals, For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. In many ways, we become what we think!

My life dramatically changed when I took the Word of God seriously and began to meditate on it. Instead of thinking and pondering my weaknesses and inabilities, I began to make myself think on the Word. Instead of I’m no good, I began to think, I’m a new creature in Christ Jesus. Instead of thinking about all the wrong I had done, I began to think, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.

Instead of thinking the self-pity thoughts, the Lord isn’t doing anything for me, and He really doesn’t care anyway, I began to think, God is working in me to will and to do His good pleasure! I began to think, I am accepted in the beloved! I am an heir of God, a child of God, who is highly loved and valued by Him!

Instead of thinking hopelessly of how all my problems were going to crush me I began to think, if God is for me, who can be against me! He that gave His Son Jesus for me has promised to freely help me in life’s fight. I am more than a conqueror through Him who loved me!

Instead of thinking about all that I didn’t have, I began to think, My God meets all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! Instead of thinking of getting sick when something was going around, I began to think with His stripes I am healed! I could go on and on, but I think you get my point.

It’s easy to focus only on the urgent and not the important. It’s easy to look at what isn’t happening and to look only on the circumstances all around you. But if you want to change, change your thinking! Start meditating on the Word today.

Joshua 1:8 says that we should meditate on the Word regularly and that if we do we will begin to prosper and have good success! Take God at His Word today, and force your mind to think on what God says about your life. Make yourself do it! At first, you may struggle to keep you thoughts away from the negative and keep them on the Word, but just keep practicing it until it becomes a habit.

Change only comes to our lives when we change what we’re thinking. So don’t put it off. Start today to meditate on the Word. Say what God says about you.

Refuse to give in to negative circumstances and feelings. God will honor His Word in your life if you will honor Him with your thoughts. Watch carefully what you think on today. It determines your tomorrows!

Acceptable Suffering

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24).

There are two kinds of suffering mentioned in the New Testament. First there is the substitutionary suffering of Jesus on Calvary as He became our sin and sickness and defeated Satan for us. Because Jesus took our place, we need not remain in sin or sickness, for Jesus bore them both for us. We are freed from the penalty of sin, and healing is made available to us by faith in Jesus sacrifice. And we have been freed from this kind of suffering.

The second kind of suffering is circumstantial suffering. Though Jesus went through tough circumstances, we are not immune from suffering for the cause of Christ. This kind of suffering stems from the persecution that we endure for our godly stand and lifestyle.

Paul told the young minister Timothy: Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). Again, he is not referring here to suffering with sickness, disease, accidents, and poverty, but with persecution from others because of a relentless, unwavering stand for Jesus.

In Philippians 3:10 Paul mentions the fellowship of His sufferings (circumstantial sufferings) in the context of having personal intimacy with Jesus. In Acts 5:41, the early Apostles went from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. In 1 Peter 4:16 we read, Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

Jesus mentions a special blessing on those who are persecuted for knowing Him in Matthew 5: 10-12, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Our easy, feel good, entertain me, please me, accept me culture cuts across the grain of the attitude the New Testament portrays for a committed, godly believer. Those who have been snatched from the fires of Hell by the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice should be glad to suffer shame for His name!

As the spirit of anti-Christ increases worldwide, you’ll receive from the world less and less compliments for your walk with God, and more hostility and rejection. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So the next time you’re ridiculed in the office, the classroom, or some social setting, claim the promises of God, for GREAT is your reward in heaven!

Emotionally Free

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

We are spirit beings, who have souls, and live in bodies. Our souls are made up of our mind, our emotions and our willpower or volition. I want to discuss the use of our emotions, but let me mention a few things first.

God gave us every sense to be used for His glory. With our spirit, we contact the spiritual world. We can discern the voice of God through our conscience, the voice of our human spirit. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes to live in our human spirit.

With our bodies, we contact the physical world in which we live; the five senses enabling us to enjoy God’s beautiful creation. He created every sense to be used.

With our intellect we think and reason, exploring the vastness of God’s creation, and we are constantly learning more and more about its’ complexity and the simple synergy with which every organism works. From the farthest galaxy seen from the Hubble Telescope to the smallest matter seen with the most powerful lens, there is a Divine design to all of creation.

God also gave us emotions. They have a purpose in us and the Father expects us to use them for His glory and for our benefit. Our emotions are a gauge that we can use in our relationships. Happy, sad, exuberant, melancholy, exasperated, or joyful; the Father wants our emotions to work but not to rule us.

I have come across so many people who have emotions that are numb. They feel nothing. They live from day to day with no real emotions about much of anything. Psychologists sometimes call this the flat effect. I call it just being numb.

Here’s what happens. If a person has a traumatic experience, and they try to keep from feeling the pain of the trauma by shutting off the feelings or emotions it produces, then they also shut off every other emotion. They way emotions works is that when you shut one down, you shut them all down. For some reason with emotions, you just can’t turn one off and keep the others running. You either feel the good and the bad, or you turn then all off and don’t feel anything!

A lot of people lead emotionally numb lives and it is not the will of God. God created emotions so that we could feel relationships with others and with Him! Through the years many people have told me that they never feel the presence of God. When I inquire, they also tell me that they don’t feel much of anything ever emotionally, and that’s when I see that there’s a big problem.

If you find yourself emotionally numb, go back and make sure that you’ve really forgiven every person that has emotionally wounded you. Forgive them from your heart and release them. Release from yourself every hurtful thought created by any incident with any person. Sometimes people let these hurtful feelings and thoughts pile up, and they don’t know where to begin.

Here’s an exercise that may help. Start with each close relationship in life, beginning with parents and go on to siblings, friends, teachers, bosses, relatives, and those you’ve loved. The people closest to us are the ones that have the ability to wound us the most emotionally. We must choose to forgive each one. Make an itemized list of the hurtful thoughts that come to mind when you think of each relationship in your life that has brought you emotional pain. Take the list and purposely forgive each item listed, releasing the person from the judgments you’ve had against them because of what they said or did to you. Ask the Father to forgive you for holding offense, and then pray for God to bless and help the person, even if you don’t think they deserve it! Pray for their salvation if they don’t know the Lord.

Emotions will wake up if you release hard feelings and grudges that lie deeply buried. Work on it! The Father doesn’t want you ruled by feelings, but He does want you to experience them in relationships!

This won’t happen constantly, but at times the Father also wants us to sense Him with our emotions. And He wants the Holy Spirit to be able to use our emotions as He uses us to minister to others. The Father sometimes wants us to feel what He feels when we minister to or pray for others, and we can’t do that unless our emotions are free! Start the process today of releasing the weights from your emotions so that the Father can use you; spirit, soul, and body!

Putting Off and Putting On

That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Putting off and putting on are terms Paul used to describe the change in a believer's life after salvation because of mind renewal. Before salvation, we’ve trained our bodies to yield to certain appetites, we’ve trained our minds to think in certain ways, and we’ve trained our emotions to act and react certain ways.

Stopping these learned behaviors is called putting off the old man with his deeds. The sin nature that produced appetites, thoughts and emotional responses has been removed by the new birth! We have become new creatures in Christ, and our daily lifestyle must be retrained to yield to this new person that we’ve become inside.

Developing new habits that reflect the new person that we’ve become within is called putting on the new man.

This process occurs in us as we feed on the word and purpose to live a life of obedience to God. A key to putting off and putting on is in understanding the fundamentals of how behavior changes. We can’t stop a habit by constantly refusing to act it out. That keeps the attention on the habit.

Habits change by being replaced. When we make the decision to renew our minds with the Word, we decide to act on what we read and meditate on in scripture. For instance you read in Ephesians 4:29 that you are to refuse to allow yourself to speak any hurtful words to or about others. You meditate and think on this scripture over and over again for a period of time. And you may find that you still slip up and say things that shouldn’t be said and you repent. Just keep that process up, and the habit of hurtful speech will be broken and replaced by a habit of blessing with your words.

At first, it’s hit and miss. You may take a step forward and then a step backward. The key is persistence. Just keep on meditating in the word, and acting on it by repenting when you miss it with your words, and soon you’ll be catching yourself just before you begin the tirade of negative speech.

Putting off the old man and putting on the new man is a process that continues throughout our lives as we grow in Christ. His plan is that by the time He comes for us, we act just like Him in our thoughts, our words, and in our responses to others!

The foolishness of God

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:25-29).

It’s not talent, skill, mental acumen, or social standing that causes God to place His anointing upon our lives. It’s faithful, obedient hearts that catch His gaze. Regardless of what “side of the tracks” we come from, there are no special privileges due to social or financial standing, or even natural abilities in the kingdom of God.

What the Father does in us and through us is all a work of His grace of which we cannot boast. He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.

God has a purpose for you as a member of the body of Christ. That purpose is not rooted in your natural heritage or background, and does not depend on natural strengths. That purpose was programmed into you from eternity past when God planned your life.

Moses was a murderer with a stuttering problem at age forty and years later was called by God to lead his generation. David was a shepherd little known by his fellow man. Joseph was ridiculed by his brothers and sold as a slave and did prison time. Amos was a farmer. Elisha was called from the back of a plow to lead a nation spiritually. Peter was unstable, but used by God to lead the church after the resurrection of Jesus. Paul was one of the most educated men of his day but counted his education as a pile of trash compared to knowing Jesus.

When God called me, I was an awkward introvert with no plan for my life. None of us can trust who we are in the flesh, talented or unskilled. It’s the power and grace of God that make us what we are in the family of God. So we can’t boast of anything God does through us. We’re merely the pipeline for the glory of God to be revealed to our generation through the good news of the gospel.

Don’t allow who you are naturally, good or bad, strong or weak, keep you from the glorious things that the Father has called you to do. You’re His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has planned for you to fulfill. Don’t look at yourself or you’ll get discouraged; don’t look at others or you’ll envy and compare; but look unto Jesus. He’s the beginning and ending of all you are and all He’s called you to do.

Saving the Soul

So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls (James 1:21 – Amplified)

The Holy Spirit working with the Word can change elements of your personality! When I first came to Jesus, I was obsessed with inferiority, rejection, fear, phobias, and basic insecurity.

As a result of many childhood traumas from friends and acquaintances, I learned that you just couldn’t trust people in general, and that the best policy is to stay away from them as much as possible.

When I came to Jesus I began to devour the Word of God, and learned that God’s Word is more true than my feelings and personal perceptions. I began to speak God’s Word out loud, positively affirming what God says I have and what He says I am. Nothing seemed to changed for a while, but as I persisted after months and months I noticed that the basic pessimism that ruled me most of my life began to give way to a new confidence that came from the Word. The inferiority, the rejection, the fear, the phobias, the insecurity began to be replaced with boldness and confidence.

An added ingredient in the change in me is that over time, I came to know that the Father loved me no matter what I’ve done. And I began to take time to talk to Him about things that bothered me, hurts that I had experienced, and perceptions in life that I knew were distorted by my personal hurts.

I would take time to pray in the spirit and pout my heart out to the Father and I found that as I did, He began to minister His love to my spirit, and to nurture the emotional wounds created in my soul from incidents in my past.
He saved my soul! He restored my mind and emotions! He brushed away the hurt and pain, and replaced it with a joy and confidence that came from knowing that He is for me in life’s fight.

Take time each day to build the Word into your spirit through meditation and to confess verbally what God says about you. Take time to pour out your heart to Him and to pray in the spirit. You’ll find the enormous power of the Word of God lifting you from personal insecurities to a new boldness and confidence rooted in the love of God and in who you are in Christ Jesus!

Perfecting Holiness

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1).

This is a day to cleanse ourselves. To be the salt and the light we’re called to be, we must look and act different than the world. In Exodus 33 Moses told the Lord that it was His presence that made the Israelites different from the heathen nations surrounding them. In Acts 4 people notice that Peter and John had been with Jesus. They acted differently than their cultural norm.

Salt is a purifying agent, a preserving agent, and a taste enhancing agent. If salt loses these properties isn’t much good for any purpose. As we walk in holiness, we change the atmosphere wherever we go, bringing purity, keeping the world from being completely corrupt, and we enhance the quality of life!

Light provides life. Without the light of the sun we light could not exist on earth. Darkness produces death. Darkness recedes when light appears. The greater one is in you! That light within is no brighter than the holiness that we walk in.

Our power is in our purity and holiness. We lose our power when we compromise. And our world desperately needs to see the light and experience the salt of godliness!

I’m reminded of Smith Wigglesworth, who walked with the Father so closely that when he sat on a train with others, conviction would permeate them. His consecration to holiness produced tangible power that affected people when they were in his presence!

Make a choice today to refuse to compromise with the world and the flesh. Wash yourself daily with the water of the Word to keep the impurities out. Guard your eyes, your ears, and your thoughts. Keep your fellowship intimate by spending time alone with the Father every day. Remember, you become like the people you hang around! Be a bearer of the Presence!

Break Up Your Fallow Ground!

Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you (Hosea 10:12).

Fallow ground is unproductive, untilled ground. When I was young my dad bought some land in the “country” and built a house there. There were fields of various kinds of produce surrounding my house. One field sat unplowed for a long time. The government paid the farmer to allow it to lie “fallow.”

The ground in this unplowed field had a thin crust over it that made it difficult for water to permeate. When it rained, the water simply ran off into the lowest place. Weeds grew in abundance there.

I noticed that when the farmers would plant crops in an adjoining field, some of the seed would be thrown over into this “fallow” field. They never germinated because the ground was so hard. The seed just lay on top of the soil and produced nothing.

Jesus mentioned four types of heart soil where the seed of the Word is planted. In Mark 4 He mentioned wayside, stony, thorny, and good ground. Fallow ground is much like the wayside, stony, and thorny ground.

Hosea was encouraging Israel to break up their fallow ground or to allow the Word to penetrate their hearts. And it is wise for us to check up on the condition of the soil of our hearts, and make sure that our ground is not “fallow.”

Sin in all its varying forms, unforgiveness, pride, worldliness, self-centeredness, and refusing to walk in love are a few ways that our heart soil can become fallow. The word just won’t produce fruit under these conditions. And the Holy Spirit’s voice is easily “muffled,” just like water rolling off fallow ground!

Breaking up “fallow” ground involves allowing the Father through the Word and the Holy Spirit to show us areas of disobedience, confessing it, and forsaking it. Repentance plows the soil of the human heart and allows the Word to germinate.

If you’ve noticed “weeds” growing in your life, sins that easily ensnare you, or if you notice a hardness in your attitude towards others, let me encourage you to take Hosea’s advice and do some spiritual plowing. The results will be that the seed of the Word will more easily germinate in you and produce a harvest of right living.

Taking a Break

Then Jesus Said, Let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile. He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and His apostles didn't even have time to eat (Mark 6:31 - NLT).

My vacation has only just begun and it’s already made a difference! We all need the relaxation and rest that comes from taking time away from the normal routines of life.

Our culture does not value rest as it should. And I am a “delivered” workaholic! Twenty years ago I was not able to take a vacation and enjoy it because my sense of personal value was all tied up in performance and works. I would become agitated and upset just a few days into a vacation back then.

Now I am settled in who Jesus is to me, and I know that He loves me, not based on my performance, but based on the fact that I am a human being made in His image. And I’m able to take a break from normal routine without that deep seated feeling of agitation and the need to be doing something.

Paul held a pastor’s conference in Ephesus in Acts 20 and admonished the pastors to take heed to themselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit made them overseers. There’s a lot of wisdom there.

Before a pastor can really help others, he must take care of himself spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and in his personal relationships with his family.

So I’ll miss the flock! But I know that if I’m going to continue to be an effective pastor I must do as Jesus told the disciples and come away and rest awhile.

I’ll continue my blog during vacation though. I enjoy staying connected with you.

Hunger and Passion

I’ve posted this blog for Sunday on Saturday night before retiring for bed. It will serve as my Sunday post. Contained below are some lists that I read during my ministry this weekend in our services at Victory. Apply them to your spiritual life and take inventory of where you are in God.

I’ll be leaving on vacation after I minister on Sunday, and will post blogs during my vacation, hopefully daily, as I’m able to connect to the internet. I’ll miss my church family, and will be back in services on the 25th.



Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6).

Years ago the Lord spoke to me and said: You are filled with what you’re hungry for. Our appetites cause us to gravitate towards them. The things we give attention to fill us with desire or hunger for them. Be careful as to what you give your attention!

Demas was a close companion of the Apostle Paul. Demas traveled with one of the most anointed, faithful men of God of the new Testament Era. No doubt Paul was one of the most godly men in the history of Christendom. Paul was one of best teachers in the church, and had signs, wonders and miracles following his ministry. Yet we still have Demas, one of his companions in labor who fell away from God.

For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world (2 Timothy 4:10). Wuest translation reads: For Demas let me down, having set a high value upon this present age, and thus has come to love it.

If Demas, a man close to perhaps the greatest Apostle of the Christian age could fall away from God, then it shows us the importance of checking up on ourselves and making sure that we don’t become lukewarm, leave out first love with Jesus, and likewise become cold and complacent.

We all must guard ourselves from becoming complacent in spiritual things. If we do, we could lose ground spiritually. We must not allow ourselves to become complacent, to develop complacency, or to allow spiritual things to become commonplace. Notice the definitions of these words:

Complacency
Quiet satisfaction, contentment, the quality or state of being satisfied: a calm sense of well being and security; self satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.

Complacent
Marked by satisfaction and pleasure at one’s own personality, accomplishments, or situation; satisfaction about the security of one’s own position; careless acceptance of events around one; disinclined to act, to change, or to guard.

Commonplace
Anything common or ordinary; neither new nor interesting; obvious or trite.

It’s a wise thing for all of us at times to take a spiritual inventory. Here we are in the middle of summer, many taking vacations and relaxing. In fact, I’m leaving for vacation after preaching our 2nd service tomorrow. But we must NEVER let up in or take a vacation from spiritual things. Here are 10 symptoms of complacency setting into a life. Take an inventory of your own life as you look at them:

Complacency Symptoms

1. Lack of spiritual hunger.
2. Little concern for the unsaved.
3. Lack of intimate fellowship with believers.
4. Prayerlessness.
5. Slack attendance and involvement in a local church.
6. Legitimate activities consume time needed for spiritual nourishment.
7. Stinginess.
8. Little spiritual growth in the last 6 months.
9. A general feeling of self-satisfaction.
10. Nonchalant and tolerant attitude toward personal sin.

In contrast, here are 9 signs of signs of spiritual hunger and passion (first love status – See Revelation 2:1-5) that should be found in your life:

Signs of First Love

1. You can’t wait to have some time to read the word.
2. You long for a place to pray alone during the day.
3. Worship is a passion.
4. Church services are crucial to your walk with God.
5. You long for fellowship with other believers.
6. You look for opportunities to witness about Jesus.
7. You draw back from anything that would compromise your closeness with Jesus.
8. Nothing is more important to you than spending time with the Lord.
9. Joy is a daily response to the Father.

I read an excerpt in our weekend services from George Whitfield’s amazing life during the 18th century Great Awakening in America. TO keep himself spiritually sharp, Mr. Whitfield would judge his actions for each day at night before he retired. Here is the list of his 15 criteria for judging himself*:

1. Been fervent in private prayer?
2. Used stated hours of prayer?
3. Used [spontaneous vocal prayer] each hour?
4. After or before every deliberate conversation or action, considered how it
might tend to God's Glory?
5. After each pleasure, immediately given thanks?
6. Planned business for the day?
7. Been simple and self-controlled in everything?
8. Been zealous in undertaking and active in doing what good I could?
9. Been meek, cheerful, and affable in everything I said or did?
10. Been proud, vain, unchaste, or enviable of others?
11. Been self-controlled in eating or drinking? Thankful? Temperate in sleep?
12. Taken time for giving thanks according to William Law's rules?
13. Been diligent in studies?
14. Thought or spoken unkindly of anyone?
15. Confessed all sins?

* Taken from the book How Saved Are We? By Michael Brown, p. 109

Let's continue to nurture our hunger and passion for Jesus each day. Let's make sure we love Him now as much as we did when we first met Him. And let's be careful that we not become lukewarm and complacent, treating spirtual things as commonplace. Jesus deserves our ALL!

Faith Encouragements

All things are possible to him who believes; All things are possible with God; This is the victory that overcomes the world-our faith; Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one; Fight the good fight of faith; But without faith it is impossible to please Him; The just shall live by faith; As you have believed, so let it be to you; Daughter, your faith has made you well; Be it unto you according to your faith.

The above references point to the importance of faith. And the key to faith is believing that right now (not some time in the future) I receive what the Father has promised me in the Word. Faith believes, says, and acts as though God’s Word is true right now! Hope is continually looking for the manifestation of an answer, while faith stands and acts as though the answer has come. So if I’m looking for a manifestation to prove an answer, then I’m still in hope and not faith, and I will not receive what God promised!

When you’re actually standing in real Bible faith, there is an inward excitement. That’s because you know that the Father has honored His Word to you, not because of any physical or circumstantial change, but simply because He said it! Joy is a byproduct of faith. Faith does not have the foreboding, gut wrenching thought that says what if it doesn’t work? The only possibility that faith sees is the answer! When thoughts of doubt come, faith pushes them away and refuses to speak them. And in return faith speaks out loud what it believes to counteract the thought of doubt.

Faith calls those things that be not as though they were. Faith looks beyond the seen and felt, and speaks what it believes. And faith also acts what it believes. In Romans 4, Abraham looked beyond his 100 year old body and beyond his wife’s 90 year old body. He looked beyond his present circumstance and chose to keep his attention fixed on God’s promise to him.

He remained in faith in spite of the looming circumstances by praising God for honoring His Word. His praise life moved his faith and kept him from looking at the wrong thing. He just kept looking at God’s Word to him and praising Him for doing what He said!

Act your faith today. Look beyond the present circumstance. Imitate the faith of Abraham and praise God for honoring His Word, even when nothing seems to be changing. Faith works! God honors His Word when really believed. All things are possible to you today. Don’t quit. Choose to look beyond and believe you receive!

Encourage Yourself

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God (1 Samuel 30:6).

David and his men came home from a battle to find their wives and children missing, and their city burned. His men blamed him for what happened and wanted to stone him. Even his friends and best buddies turned against him. But David found a way to keep himself strong. He encouraged himself in the Lord!

When hardship is pressing, and the test is of long duration, you must find a way to keep yourself encouraged and not lose strength. I’ve used David’s example many times when pressed. I’ve learned to encourage myself. And here’s how.

I forced myself to praise God, not because I feel like it, but because I know that praise brings the manifestation of God’s power into my situation. Israel won battles without lifting a sword by putting the praise team on the front line! Praise brings God’s presence, where there is fullness of joy. Joy produces strength.

One other thing I do is to remind myself of times in my past when the Lord has answered prayer and delivered me from a difficult situation.

Many years ago I endured a severe test while pioneering the church in a small city in South Carolina. Nothing was going my way. I was challenged from all sides. To deal with the pressure, I would take long walks alone and praise God for honoring His Word. Then I would remind myself of all the times that the Lord has answered prayer and had helped me in my past. I would start with the beginning of my walk with God and go from their, sometimes speaking aloud of the Lord’s mercy time after time.

By the time I was finished, time after time I found new zeal and fresh strength. The Lord did not bring me this far to let me down now! This exercise enabled me to press through the hard place to victory.

Go read about how David encouraged himself in Psalm 42, and go and encourage yourself in the Lord today!

The Confident and the Ashamed

And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28).

Two classes of believers will stand before Jesus when He returns; the confident, and the ashamed.

The confident are those who loved not their lives to the death. They resisted the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. They kept the world at a distance by bathing themselves daily in the Word of God, and by constant communion with the Father. When they did slip up and sin, it broke their hearts and they cried out to Jesus, confessing their sin, and asking for His power to overcome the weakness and to walk in the spirit.

The ashamed are those who were born again, but did not take advantage of their rights and privileges as a child of God. They were rarely found bathing in the cleansing lather of the Word. The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things overpowered their desire for God, and they mostly walked in the flesh. Church attendance was hit and miss since they did not value the power of the spoken Word of God through the ministry gift of a pastor.

For the ashamed a guilt conscience was their constant companion. They knew what to do but rarely did it. They were saved so as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:15).

Jesus blazing eyes will look into yours and mine one day. He will look deep into our souls with His piercing gaze and immediately discern the thoughts and motives behind every word and action in our lives!

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army had a vision of the rewards seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3). He saw multitudes of believers who had arrived in heaven, and Jesus was there, going from person to person. In His hand was a torch.

As Jesus approached each person, the flame from the torch would immediately consume all wood hay and stubble their earthly lives had produced (1 Corinthians 3:12). All that was left was gold, silver, and precious stones.

Some people touched by the torch had nothing left when the smoke cleared. No precious stones were found. Others had a pile of beautiful gems at their feet after the fire.

One other notable thing happened in General Booth’s vision. As Jesus approached each person, He heard either guttural sobs of remorse for opportunities not taken, or he heard ecstatic shouts of joy.

A hymn sang in my church as a boy went; must I go and empty handed, must I meet my Savior so, must I go and empty handed, must I empty handed go. We are each day accruing by our actions and motives either gold, silver, precious stones, or wood hay and straw. What will be left at your feet to present to Jesus when the smoke clears?

I want to be in the company of the confident and not be one of the ashamed when I meet Jesus. Come with me on the journey for God’s best today. Let’s consecrate ourselves to the Father. Let’s be the good ground believers found in Mark 4 who acted on the Word with all their hearts. Forget the failures of the past. Reach forward today in repentance and consecration and let’s go for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ!

How Do You Treat Jesus?

And the King will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me (Matthew 25:40).

We are the body of Christ and are interconnected. The way we treat fellow members of the body of Christ is the way we treat Jesus Himself! John said that if I can’t love my brother who I can see, then how can I love God who I can’t see?

Do we reach out to the sick, the poor, the hungry, or the imprisoned? Are we kind, compassionate, and understanding throughout the day as we interact with fellow workers and family members?

Our spiritual activities have little impact if they are not translated into our actions and reactions towards others. Prayer meetings, church services, fellowships, bible studies, bible reading, are wonderful activities. But do we go from these legitimate activities and show the love of God to regular folk that we meet in our daily contacts?

This is where the rubber meets the road. Let’s choose today to be the hands, arms, eyes, and ears of Jesus. Be aware of what you say and how you say it to every person you encounter. Remember that you are an extension of Jesus and His ministry. The world understands Him by seeing how we act! What are our actions telling others about Him?

Jesus appeared to Paul when his name was Saul and he was persecuting Christians. He said to Saul, Why are you persecuting me? Saul had never seen Jesus, but Jesus took personally everything Saul did as he harmed believers.

Jesus never changes. He still takes personally our actions towards our fellow man. Let’s face today with a new sensitivity to how we treat others. And let’s be aware that we represent the Son of God with every look, reaction, word, and deed!

God is a Shield

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him(Proverbs 30:5).

When the harshness of life settles in like long monsoon rain, it gives hope to know that God your Father is taking good care of you. Some tests are of long duration. These are the times you must be rooted in the fact that God your Father always has His eye on you, and He has made promises to shield you and deliver you from the day of test. Tests and storms may come to your life, but the Father has promised that you’ll come through them every one. We must never forget that underneath us are the everlasting arms.

Years ago, during a particularly grueling trial, it seemed as though I would never see the end of the difficulty I was in. The Lord urged me time and again to go to His Word, and there He met me. What He shared has become very close to me now, and I often reflect on the verses He gave me. I’ll share them with you today the way the Lord gave them to me. If you’re in a tough place, and the test is hard, take my word for it, you will come though this thing on the other side as a better version of you than you are now! As you read the following, know that God keeps His promises!

For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock (Psalm 27:5 NIV).

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles (Psalm 34:17 NIV).

A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all (Psalm 34:19 NIV).

The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him (Psalm 34:22 NIV).

The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him (Psalm 37:39-40 NIV)

And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me (Psalm 50:15 NIV).

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah (Psalm 46:1-3 NIV).

Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation (Psalm 91:14-16 NIV).

Fear Brings a Snare

The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe (Proverbs 29:25).

Fear and faith are both great motivators. One produces freedom and growth, the other produces bondage and lack. Fear can paralyze a human personality.

Fear attracts Satan and his kingdom the way faith attracts God and His power. Paul told Timothy that fear is a spirit. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7). I resist fear the same way that I resist the devil.

I’ve learned to resist fears that come. Fear is like Satan coming with a package for you and asking you to sign for it. Fear comes with all kinds of things attached to it; fear of failure, fear of success, fear of sickness and disease, fear poverty and lack, fear of calamity. Phobias plague humankind.

Identify your fears and stand against them. I’ve found it helpful to speak God’s word out loud as an antidote for fear. I then express in clear terms what I believe. Often I pray and stand in faith by speaking out loud.

When I was young, I had my palm read at a Methodist church Halloween carnival (how absurd!). I was 12 or 13 years old at the time, and the person told me that my “lifeline” on my hand was short and that I would die young. Immediately fear seized me! Fear of dying young lingered in the back of my mind until I was Spirit Filled years later. When I learned that God promised long life, I took the Word of God and chased that fear away!

Another antidote for fear is action! If a fear tells you not to do a certain thing, do it anyway! I just simply refuse to allow fear to rule me.

Back in the 1990’s I took a group from our church on a missions trip to Guatemala. The ministry we worked with had a beautifully refurbished DC-3 aircraft for transportation to hard to reach areas. The short of the story is that during a storm the plane crash on top of a mountain! I was one of those who went to the crash site to try to help survivors. When I reached the site, aircraft parts littered the cornfield where it had crashed. The fuselage had broken into several pieces; the aircraft parts were everywhere. I could hardly believe what I saw.

Then I had an unusual experience. A fear grasped me. Suddenly I heard the words, “You better cancel your next missions trip.” I had another trip scheduled to India a couple of months away. I recognized the enemy’s ploy. I spoke out loud, I would rather die than to be ruled by this fear, I resist that thought in the name of Jesus! I’m going on my next trip. I refuse this fear. God my Father will take care of me. Immediately the fear vanished like ice on hot pavement!

Don’t allow fear to remain in your life. Treat it for what it is, the enemy seeking to rule you. A good acronym for FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. Years ago a friend told me, fear is always based on a lie; deal with the lie and the fear will die.

Feed your faith on the Word and starve your fears. Refuse to give them place. Act in opposition to them. Speak out loud what you believe and keep it up throughout the day until the fear leaves. Action, faith, and words will defeat fear every time!

Relationships are Risky

Relationship carries with it the element of risk. There is usually risk associated with everything that is worthwhile in life. During a television interview in 1981, Kenneth Hagin was asked what one trait he would desire most for his graduates. Without hesitation he replied, The willingness to take risks. I was in the audience that day during the taping of this interview, and I was waiting for the typical spiritual response when Kenneth Hagin was asked this question. I was surprised and challenged by his answer.

By personality I am a risk taker. Some are not. I’ve been willing for most of my life to go where I believe the Lord is leading me, knowing full well there are no guarantees. That has brought me to where I am today.

Relationships carry with them the risk that you could be rejected; that the person could mistreat you or take advantage of you. When you choose to be loved by the Father, He will so fill you with His personal love and acceptance that you’re just simply satisfied within yourself by Him. You don’t relate to others out of need, but out of a full, satisfied heart.

In that context, you can bear any kind of treatment. Yes, it’s emotionally wrenching at times when people respond to you out of their personal hurt or judgments based on past relationships, but there is such rich gain in being with others that to me it just makes it worth it. The truth of God’s Word lived in the context of relating to others over a period of time has the potential to produce radical personal transformation.

I’ve been rejected in relationship often. I think it just goes with the territory of being a pastor. None of us are fully mature, and when you’re ministering and living out of His life, sometimes darkness is exposed. Sometimes it is exposed in me and I have to be willing to lay the wrong thinking, the wrong emotions, or wrong actions at the foot of the cross. The cross is where what I want to do and how I feel about a situation meets the Word and God’s will for me. And I choose God’s way over my thoughts and feelings.

Darkness is exposed at times in another person while I am relating to them. I must choose to remain loving, caring, and real. I must choose not to judge them, but rather lovingly woo them. This can be the difficult part of relationships. My cross is where I chose to defy my feelings and love and reach out. I must be willing to stay with truth in love and not force my will on the other person.

We carry with us baggage from past relationships. We carry judgments about people and about life in general. And those judgments produce expectations that people may mistreat us again the way others have in the past. We must be willing to lay these judgments down by forgiving those who have mistreated us. We must be willing to risk closeness again though these expectations tell us that we’ll be harmed again.
That’s where the love of God come shining through. God’s love poured out in our hearts is the antidote for trouble in relating to others. I must recondition myself to act, respond, and abide in love. That’s where my spiritual growth occurs. For without love, I am walking in the flesh and in darkness.

Though this may be long, listen again to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in these several translations tied together. Make a choice today to risk close relationships. There are worth it!

Let me describe love. It is slow to lose patience; love stays in difficult relationships with kindness, and it always looks for ways to be constructive. There is no envy in love. It is not possessive and never boils over with jealousy. Love makes no parade of itself; it never boasts, nor does it puff up with pride. Love is never arrogant and never puts itself on display, because it is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love never gets irritated and is never resentful. Love holds no grudges, and it keeps no record of evil done to it. Love refuses to be provoked and never harbors evil thoughts. Love is not rude or grasping or overly sensitive, nor does love search for imperfections and faults in others. Love does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love celebrates what is real and not what is perverse or incomplete. Love never does the graceless thing. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. Love never insists on its own rights, never irritably loses its temper, and never nurses its wrath to keep it warm. Love is not touchy. Love can stand any kind of treatment because there are no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust. Love bears up under anything; it perseveres in all circumstances. Love’s first instinct is to believe in people. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best in him, and always stand your ground in defending him. Love never regards anyone or anything as hopeless. Love keeps up hope in everything. Love’s hope never fades. Love keeps on keeping on! It trusts in God in every situation and expects God to act in all circumstances. Love goes on forever. Nothing can destroy love. Nothing can happen that can break love’s spirit. In fact, it is the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

Virtue Maintains Freedom

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34).

Freedom is an expensive thing. Its cost is blood. Our spiritual freedom was won by Jesus spilling His blood for us. The freedom that we have to worship, to express ourselves, and live as we please has cost many thousands their life. Let’s take moment and thank God today for the privilege we have of living in a free country. And let’s remember that with freedom comes responsibility.

We’re responsible as citizens of a free society to uphold the law and to honor God. No nation can remain free if it does not adhere to moral law, and each citizen be held responsible for his own actions.

Back in 1983, during the cold war, the Christian school in our church had a guest speaker from Russia speak to the high school. He was a former military man in his country. This man was not a Christian, but had a message for America. I will never forget his words. He said, “If you want to remain a free country, you must be a moral people. If you lose your morals, you will one day lose your freedoms!” His words have resonated within me since that day.

I’ll leave you with a few quotes from our civil leaders of the past. Let’s remember to pray for our president and leaders daily.

It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favors. (George Washington - 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation).

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (John Adams - 1798 Address to the Military).

The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. (Benjamin Rush- 1806).

Statesmen my dear sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people, in a great measure, than they have it now, they may change their rulers, and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. (John Adams -1776 letter to Zabdiel Adams)

Relationships Directly Affect Spiritual Life

Our life challenges are spiritual in origin. Paul told the believers in Ephesus that we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against demonic forces that can’t be seen (Ephesians 6). Paul told the believers in Corinth that we have mighty spiritual weapons with which to fight these battles (2 Corinthians 10).

Our spiritual weapons are the Word of God, the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and praise and worship. The foundation that these spiritual weapons operate on is love. When we step out of love into any realm of self-centered living, we immediately lose our spiritual power and authority over Satan and his emissaries.

The believers in Ephesus had great spiritual truth. They were a well taught body of believers. They had some of God’s choicest servants ministering to them. Yet they were spiritually paralyzed because they had left the love realm and had become involved in strife.

Listen to Paul’s heart impassioned call here in Ephesians 4:25-32 (Amplified) for this body of believers to step out of the flesh into the spirit: Therefore, rejecting all falsity and being done now with it, let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one body and members one of another. When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down. Leave no such room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God's own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin). Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.

The believers in the church in Ephesus had allowed the enemy to seep into their relationships and bring strife, envy, unforgiveness, malice, lying, gossip, and foul, offensive, anger filled words. Satan was unopposed. They had lost tremendous spiritual ground to demonic forces.

This clearly applies to our day. Satan is unopposed in most church because the believers’ authority over him has been neutralized by these flesh manifestations. Where there is unforgiveness, envy, backbiting, strife, and gossip, the Holy Spirit is quenched and spiritual gains are lost.

Don’t allow the enemy to use you to hinder spiritual effectiveness. Refuse to yield to strife and envy. Refuse to say anything behind the back of anyone that you wouldn’t say to them face to face. Refuse to sow discord or to speak negatively about anyone to others. Refuse the tendency to bear a grudge.

Don’t allow your ears to participate in gossip. Believe the best of every person, period. If you’re not satisfied with some area of church life or ministry, go to your knees in heartfelt prayer, asking the Father to intervene and bring change. Go from that place of prayer with expectations that God is working. Speak words of encouragement and consolation, not of strife and discord. Honor your prayers with your words and actions.

See the end from the beginning. Act to others as though you believe that God is working in them and in situation that you encounter. This is the love way. This is the path of spiritual freedom and power.

Remember that demonic forces sow discord, envy and strife. Recognize Satan’s work and resist him, binding him with the name of Jesus and by your loving words and actions.

We cannot separate our relationships and daily life from our walk with God. They are intertwined. How we deal with the relationships God places in our lives shows what kingdom rules us. The kingdom of darkness breeds discord, strife, and broken relationships ruled by walls of separation. The kingdom of God breeds love, peace, joy, right living, transparent relationships, and intimacy. Which kingdom rules you?

Personal Security Enhances Relationships

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4-6).

We usually project into our relationships what we feel about ourselves. If I don’t feel accepted by God and others, then I will withdraw and I will have the tendency to criticize others in my thoughts. A person may have a genuine motive of concern and a heartfelt desire to relate to me, but if I think negatively about myself, I will judge their actions toward me in a negative light.

Until we know that we are loved by the Father and fully accepted by Him, relationships will be difficult. The best thing that I can do to help myself in relating to others is to come to a clear understanding of how the Father views me.

The greatest change came in my own life when I saw that in Christ Jesus I am totally forgiven of all my past failures; that my past deeds are remembered no more by the Father; that I am accepted in the beloved; that God is now for me and not against me; that I am His workmanship, His own handiwork; that the Father has given me the same standing in heaven that His Son has before the Him.

These truths free me from condemnation and fear. They breed within me faith and trust. Self-doubt is such an enemy of relationships and closeness. The fear of being rejected taunts us all. Knowing that you are adopted into the family of God and with that adoption comes all the privileges of a natural born son or daughter to God.

Years ago the Father challenged me with 1 Corinthians 4:3-4 in the J.B. Phillips translation: 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. Paul was challenged with his past in city after city as he travelled. He once persecuted believers, committing them to prison or having them stoned. No doubt that children and family members of the deceased reminded Paul of what he did to ruin their family life. Paul had to forgive himself and rely on the mercy of God. He had to choose to no longer judge himself. He had to choose to believe the best of himself and others.

Love believes the best of every person. Love expects the best and never thinks the worst. Start with yourself. Believe that the Father loves you unconditionally and accepts you right now just the way you are. Believe that He has cleansed all your misdeeds and now treat you as though you had never done wrong. Instead of expecting to be rejected by others, choose to believe the best of them. Expect to be excepted when you walk into a room full of people. Expect others to be pleasant and kind when you engage them in conversation.

We usually receive what we give. Expect to be used by the Lord to encourage others today. Expect Him to give you the tongue of the learned, that you would know how to speak an appropriate word of encouragement to each person you meet today (see Isaiah 50:4). Think about yourself the way the Father thinks about you. Believe the best of others and look for the best in others today. Relationships are easier when you’re confident in who you are in Christ Jesus!

Stop Hiding

So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself (Genesis 3:10).

One of the results of the fall is a fear of relationships. In their sinless state, Adam and Eve were love dominated and fear free. The first result of the fall was hiding. They hid from one another, and they hid from God. Innocence turned to shame. Faith turned to fear. Trust turned to suspicion.

This fear of relationships and the resultant hiding still rules sinful man. And those who come to Christ must renew their minds to the love of God or this tendency to hide will still dominate their relationships.

My late friend Jack Frost would put it this way: When Adam sinned, he put a roof up and walls around himself to keep God and others out. Most people live with the roof up to keep God out, and the walls up to keep others out. Jesus came to demolish the roof and give us unlimited access to the Father in unbroken, intimate fellowship. We’ve been given the invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace for every need.

Jesus also came to take down the walls that separate us from one another. Jesus prayed for the church in John 17 that we would become one with each other just as He and the Father are one.

Most people hide. Fear rules them and keeps them isolated from others. The only way to overcome this ingrained fear of close relationships is to open up and fully accept the love the Father has for you. God created us to be nurtured from childhood in an atmosphere of unconditional love create by two loving parents who walk closely with the Father. The parents receive the love that the Father has for them, the parents love each other, and the then the parents model this unconditional, self-sacrificial love to their children. That’s the way God intended for us to grow. Sin ruined God’s plan and stunted our growth, keeping parents from the unconditional love that should be demonstrated to their children. As a result, our homes are broken and fear filled.

In Christ we learn that the Father loves us with an unconditional, self-sacrificial love. This love is not based on our human performance, but on Him and His character. Fear has taught us to hide from others until we work to earn their approval. As we mature in Christ, we learn that the Father loves us, period. We can’t earn His love. His love for us is free. And He loves us when we perform well and also when we miserably fail. He doesn’t reject us when we sin, but has made a way of escape from its penalty of condemnation and fear. Our lawyer Jesus serves as our defense attorney when we sin and as we confess our sins, He pleads our case before the Father, cleanses us from sin, and restores our intimate fellowship with the Father. Our misdeeds are erased, never to be seen by the Father or others. This gives boldness to no longer hide but freely expose ourselves to God and to others.

If you know that you’re freely loved and freely forgiven by the Father, there is no reason to hide. There is no fear in love. If you still hide from others, the reality of the love that the Father has for you has not yet penetrated your spirit and my mind. When being loved unconditionally by the Father becomes a settled fact within you, fear loses its grip and you are free to come out of hiding.

Knowing you’re loved by the Father creates an atmosphere in your life of openness, honesty, and realness. Hiding ceases. Exposure to others is no longer scary. You’ve found the safe place called love. That safe place enables closeness with God and closeness with others.

Perhaps you’re still caught in the clutches of the fear of relationship and the walls are up and the roof is on in your life. Ask the Father to reveal His unconditional, self-sacrificial love to you. Get alone with your Father and pour your heart out to Him in sincerity. He will love you, forgive you, restore you, and brush your fears away. You will find Him to be sincere and tender, honest and real. And in this place of intimacy with Himself, the Father will help you take down the walls that isolate you from others. Start the journey to personal freedom today!