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, and 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).

Lifting the Limits

Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel (Psalm 78:41). …But with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). …If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23).

The children of Israel limited God with their disobedience and their unbelief. Though He had miraculously delivered them from Egyptian bondage and met their needs in supernatural ways, they continued to whine and complain when difficulties came.

God is limitless. He is Almighty! He has all power. He is the source of all that exists. He is eternal, with no beginning and no end. He knows everything! The angels in revelation sang out, The Lord God omnipotent reigns!

This being true, it’s time for us to take the limits off of our lives. God has taken His “Almightiness” and has pointed it towards our need by reminding us that with God all things are possible, and with all things are possible to Him who believes! It’s possible to for your prayers to be answered. It’s possible to overcome that weakness of the flesh. It’s possible to overcome that inability and do what’s in your heart! It’s possible to overcome the problem in your marriage. It’s possible for your children to turn around and obey God. It’s possible to be healed of that chronic illness.

The first step is repentance for our disobedience. The second step is a positive exercising of our faith. God is not a man that He should lie! If He says it He will do it, if He’s spoken it, He will make it good! His word will not return to Him void! It produces results!

Let’s refuse to limit God with our unbelief. Let’s act on the Word in every circumstance. Let’s believe we receive God’s best in every area of life. Let’s speak God’s Word and agree with what He says about or past, our present, our future, our health, our finances, our marriage and families, our children, our jobs, and our relationships. Let’s expect answers to our prayers. Speak to the mountain looming in your way and expect it to be removed as Jesus said it would. Believe in your heart that what you say will come to pass! God cannot lie!

We lift the limits by acting in obedient faith in the faces of great difficulty.

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 dependant 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 Church, let’s unite to Grow spiritually, Connect with others, and Serve others with passion through the giftings that the Father places within us! 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!

Do it Scared!

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!