Be Careful With 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 something 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).

The Sucessful Believer Lives From the Spirit Nature Within

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 daily 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!

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!

Counted Worthy to Suffer Shame for His Name

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!

Freedom From Emotional Pain

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, and discern God through our conscience, the voice of our human spirit, and through the Holy Spirit who comes to reside in us in the new birth.

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 affect. 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 them 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!

Exercise Your God Given Authority!

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19).

No one has more authority over satanic forces than you, the child of God. The lowest member of the body of Christ has just as much of this authority as the most spiritual.

  

Serpents and scorpions in the above verse are referring to the demonic forces that are seeking to hinder the purposes of God in the earth.

  

Exercise your authority over these forces today that are seeking inroads into your home, your family, finances, your church, your nation, the purposes of God at large, and that are seeking to hinder your walk with God.

  

Jesus has given the church the exclusive use of His name against these diabolical forces. Walk in purity and holiness, and command these forces to stop in their maneuvers against you and the kingdom of God of which you are a part.

  

Satan wants us to get so busy that we don’t take the time to be proactive in the exercise of our rights in Christ against him and his kingdom. As a result we can see darkness increasing in our communities, nation and world. If we believers don’t take our place and stand against the forces of Satan then who will? We have been commissioned with authority, and the Father is looking to us to take our place. He wants us to work with Him in the salvation of the lost, and in the advancement of His kingdom all over the world.

  

The Father is depending on you and me today to pray and ask Him to manifest Himself and His kingdom all over the earth. We have not because we ask not. Let’s take our place and push back the forces that are seeking to destroy all that is holy and pure.

  

Remember that God gave authority over the earth to Adam when He created Him. When Adam sinned, he transferred that authority to Satan and his kingdom. Jesus returned to the church the authority that Adam gave away! God needs you to take your place in His family today. Don’t sit back. Don’t remain idle spiritually. Be aggressive. Let’s push together, walking in the light, and pushing back the darkness with the name of Jesus, the force of our praying (praying in the spirit too!), and with the power of a godly life!