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Believe Him!
Hearing Him!
God has been speaking to Leola as she reads His Word and teaching her things she ought to know (Isaiah 43:19). To her surprise, God is not teaching her friends the same things. She was naïve in believing God teaches everyone the same truths. As she sits on her ‘have-to-have-it’ couch, staring out the window, she ponders what God is teaching her and why her friends do not agree. Why do they disagree? The Words are right there in black and white or are they grey? Is she hearing wrong? Is it the truth? She is not sure just yet! She talked to her friend about what little she knows but her friend vehemently disagrees with her. Leola is not sure what to think and she is hurt beyond measure! Her friend has been a Christian longer than her so she is confused about what to believe. Is God saying something different to her? She is afraid to talk to her about it again because she cannot defend this truth wholly but soon she will be able too.
Leola has discovered the Holy Spirit brings her to Scriptures that seem to be controversial with her friends. Why is He doing this? She is a relatively young Christian compared to her friends. Friends are important to her because she is an extrovert who gets her energy from friendship. No friends, no energy! Elohim was about to turn that concept upside down but first He is going to teach her about the benefits of controversy! Leola continued to fight for her friendships rather than the truths she was being taught BUT Elohim continued to teach her without fail and she believed Him but kept her mouth shut about what she was learning until the day she was challenged and the Spirit set her soul on fire to speak the truth whether her friend would hear it or not!
The Lord equips us to perform His will. He will bring you to truths designed to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up but it will be because He needs you to know it. We are being inundated today by watered down truths spoken to alleviate conviction of sin and make us feel comfortable in our current belief. Disciple of Jesus does not equal comfort! We feel uncomfortable letting God tell us what to do! We feel uncomfortable implementing the truth into our lives when no one around us is. We want to be clones of our Christian friends so we can feel accepted. Jesus says to those who believe, “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32) The truth shall make us free to believe Him over people. It shall make you free to do what He wants you to do and to be able to stand in what you are doing. It shall make you free to be His disciple not your pastors or your friends. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means you believe Him!
Choosing Him!
Leola was in agony because her friend did not want to have anything to do with her again but she was at peace with it. During, her sometimes heated discussion with her friend, God supplied her with information she didn’t know before to solidify this new truth. She was surprised by her reaction to her friends exit from her life – peace along with grief. Now she was beginning to learn what being a disciple of Jesus Christ meant. The next time she walked into her church building she saw life in there differently. She had lost a friend and wondered how many more she would lose before the Lord took her to be with Him. Leola has walked away from Christians who were using her to forward their own ministry but this was her first loss of a good friend over the truth. Someone she cared about! Someone she admired! This loss threw Leola into another training session with Jesus about peace in the controversy over God’s truth. He taught her the difference between fighting for His truth and her own. Today, Leola knows the difference and accepts it whole heartedly. She is making new friends who enjoy and support her in everything she is doing for the Body of Christ. She believes Him in everything He teaches her!
Abiding in the Words of Jesus is not easy and it can be controversial even inside the Body of Christ. You will lose friends who want to live a comfortable Christian life. You will lose friends you thought had a zeal for the truth. You will be questioned about what you believe. Take heed of what you hear because you DO want to hear more. If you choose your friends over Jesus, what you know will be taken away and you will get your wish to be like them. Jesus wants to reveal the truth to you, should you not know it? Believe the Words of our Saviour!
This week’s meditation verses: Mark 4:24; Luke 8:18; John 8:31-32; Isaiah 43:19
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Who am I?
The Question!
Leola is still pondering what she learned from the play last week about rising out of her sin. She knows she can change but she is not at all sure what to change first. Obedience is coming little by little and not easily. She begins her reading in Matthew 16 this morning sitting on her ‘have-to-have-it’ couch with the sun shining directly on her. Leola admires the sun and looks down at the Word. The first Words that jump out at her is the wicked and adulteress generation seeks a sign (v4). She raises her head to look out the window and ponders this in her own life. Is she seeking a sign from Jesus for her own use? She doesn’t know the answer to this question! Is her faith contingent on miracles or signs rather than who Jesus is? Is this who she is, a Pharisee? Maybe, but she doesn’t know the answer to this question either!
Reading on she comes across a ‘Jesus question’ she cannot skip over, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (v13) She doesn’t know because she never asks! She wants to know who Jesus is but can it be done? If she knows who He is what significance will the answer have in her life? Leola has never much liked herself because she has always been told she is unlikeable. She never thought much about who she is because her life won’t make much of an impact anyway! Perhaps, she thinks, the real measuring stick IS Jesus and compared to Him she is nothing. Jesus is now pointing this out to her but only putting a small longing in her heart she cannot define. Forty-five years of thinking she is nothing has impacted Leola’s life so much so Jesus will have to do a mighty work to change it around! Leola depended on what others said to define who she is and she didn’t like who they told her she was. She never once thought it could be any other way. What others defined her as must be the truth, right, because they can see her better than she can see herself? As a result she only ever asked the question, “Who do people say I am?” but never, until now, will she ask, “Who am I?” and expect to learn the answer!
Many of us go through an identity crisis with or without Jesus. The spectacular advantage of following Jesus is His way of teaching us ‘who we are’ with Him in our life compared to who we were without Him. He created both of us and He knows how to bridge the gap. The difference can be staggering in some cases yet minor in others. If this is true than how do we respond to this revelation? We must be trained by Elohim to put less emphasis on who others say we are and more on who He says we are. He has gifted us differently than anyone else therefore we are created to walk in those gifts for His purpose. I cannot tell you enough about how different we are from others therefore we cannot compare ourselves to anyone we can only compare ourselves to Jesus. Who we are is who He says we are! To discern who we are we must ask, “Who do we say He is?” The answer to that question forms who we are!
Over the years Jesus has changed me so significantly I think it is noticeable yet many people have missed it. I wonder why? The face I wear in public to show everyone ‘life is great’ but behind it the cracks are numerous. My family sees the changes because they are close to me but the only person who sees every change is Elohim. He knows me better than anyone else, He sees me! Him and I are the only ones who know the extent of the transformation in me and we are the only ones who know who I am. Never will I allow another to define who I am. Others define who we are based on their history not ours. They see us through the vision of their own life and what they want from us! The whole answer cannot come from any other person, it can only come from Jesus!
The Whole Answer
Still sitting in the window, the sun making her red hair appear gold, Leola closes her eyes to ask Jesus the most significant question of her life, “Do You see me?” She waits but there is no answer! The answer to this question, many years later, will significantly change her life but for now there is another teaching for her! She lowers her head to read on. But who do you say that I am? (v15) A good question she is not sure she can answer! Again she looks out the window to ponder this question. Who is Jesus and how important is knowing who He is? The questions Jesus asks His disciples make them first think and then answer, if they can. They always elicit the truth from their soul but this time the answer came from the Spirit because they couldn’t possibly know the answer without Him. Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (v16) When the Spirit revealed who Jesus is to Peter and he confesses it with his mouth Jesus, in turn, tells Peter who he was. Leola knows Peter does become the rock but not without rolling of a cliff a time or two first (Read Acts). She prays, “Lord, You are the Son of the Living God! Please tell me who I am?” Leola’s own voice said within her, “Find Me and you will find you, for in Me is you!” After ten years of studying Scripture to find out who Jesus is Leola can testify, indeed she is finally discovering the new Leola Elohim has created just for her! Bridging the gap has been a process she could only do with guidance of the Holy Spirit. Instead of looking at herself through the eyes of people she now sees herself through the eyes of the Father. The significance of having this information for Leola leads her to actually like herself! A first in her life!
Others vision of us can cause untold damage to our soul but who we are can be changed! Not liking ourselves leaves us susceptible to false teachers who prey on our insecurities, the devil who plants lies about who we are and consequently a rebellion against Elohim. Who we are does not depend on our work, our family, our spouse or anything else outside of Jesus. It is extremely important for us to know who He is because within Him is the truth of us! Who do YOU say He is? Do not delay in discovering who Jesus is because He IS the whole answer to the question ‘Who am I?’
This week’s meditation verses: Matthew 16
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The Real Measuring Stick!
He Has Risen
Leola is very excited about this Sunday’s performance at church. They have been talking about it for months and practicing too. She knew the significance of this weekend but the promise of it was still lost to her. The daily Bible readings have done something to her yet she couldn’t use words to describe it to anyone. She was just living day-to-day trying to measure up to some standard she knew nothing about. She knew she didn’t worship God enough, didn’t tell the truth enough, coveted someone’s stuff, lied, stole, and other sins she can’t control. The Scriptures remind her constantly about her total lack of strength to avoid these sins. Her character needs a lot of work because she tries to not sin but she sins all the more. She is a wretched body of sin!
She sits, not in her own seat, but near the front between two women with children. Leola longed for her children and her husband to come to church with her but she knew her example would not be the cause of them coming. She knew she was lacking in all the things God saw righteous – everything! The lights went out and the sanctuary went silent. One light appear shining on the cross at the back of the platform. There was a man on it with what looked like blood all over him, Jesus! The commentator appeared on stage to announce the play, “He has Risen, We have Risen!” Leola started crying and never stopped during the whole play. Her heart ached to rise from the dead!
Our state of ‘risenness’ is measured, not by what we aren’t doing, but by what we are doing. There are many promises in the Scriptures Elohim will complete but we spend more time concentrating on the negative words in the Scriptures, such as the ten commandments, which leave us open to the devil to move us right into that sin. We know the more we try to concentrate on avoiding sin the more sin springs to life. (Romans 7:7-9) We need to measure the good in us rather than the bad that the good springs to life. The real measuring stick for us is Jesus and the good He did on the cross for us.
We Have Risen
The play ended and Leola went through what looked like a box of tissue beside her on the seat. The whole time she was watching the play she felt alone in the sanctuary. Someone handed her the tissue but she doesn’t know who she just began using it. “Jesus rose from the dead even after He took on everyone’s sin therefore we need to rise out of our sin too! The Scriptures make us aware of sin but we do not have to be sin. When we take on our sin we are making the cross of no affect,” the commentator said.
Leola left the play with a new perspective. She had been spending too much time measuring herself to the sin listed in the Scripture rather than the promises of God to encourage her. She looked inside her Bible to see what she had underlined and found the verses she underlined were the verses about sin especially the sin she deemed herself guilty. She needs a new Bible because she has learned the lesson well. When she purchased the new Bible the first thing she did was go to Romans 4:13-25 to underline and colour in the words. She went to the front of her Bible to add these verses to the front in red. She wants to spend the rest of her life remembering this point – He has risen therefore we have risen! The writers of the Words of God wrote these Words to encourage her not discourage her. They want her to measure herself to the cross, the real measuring stick. This Easter weekend will be the weekend she changes the way she measures herself with her new measuring stick – the CROSS!
When we measure ourselves to sin we will see the devil in us but if we measure ourselves to Jesus we will see Jesus in us. Let us begin this Easter to measure ourselves with a new measuring stick!
This weeks meditation verses: Romans 4:23-24
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Piece of Purpose!
The Puzzle
Waiting is not an easy thing to do. All of her life she has gone and done what needs to be done. Leola didn’t do anything without purpose. As a single parent her purpose was to provide for her sons so she went to school. As a married woman her goal was also to provide for her husband and children. Leola is an action person who always believed there was a purpose for everything even before she called herself a Christian. Now she knows God, she is pondering her Christian purpose. Can it be the same as her secular purpose? Does God even have a purpose for her?
An inner city agency has requested volunteers from her congregation to help with their goal in serving the community. Leola’s heart is burning within her! Leola has always been a worker bee! Work that needs to be done; it gets done. In groups she will take the lead when there is clearly no leader. These are traits she has utilized all of her life. She hasn’t done too much volunteer work but her heart is aching to do something so she goes to volunteer night at the agency to see if there is anything she can do. As much as she loves her own kids she is uncomfortable with other people’s kids. What is God calling her to do? What does she want to do? Should she work with kids just because the help is so desperately needed? Leola is anxious to do something, anything!
Are you wondering around going from one volunteer agency to another trying to find your purpose? Do you know God has a purpose for all of us BUT it is not the same as someone else’s? Just because an agency is desperate for volunteers is God calling us to fill the spot? We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) Just because God says we are to remember the widow and the orphan does not mean that we are called to serve them as our vocation! Jumping into something, we are not called to do, will result in failure and frustration. If we do not have the courage to quit it will lead us into a very discouraging life. Elohim wants us to know we will do something for Him but it will be according to His purpose and we are to wait for Him to lead us into that purpose!
The Piece
Her anxiety and need to do something resulted in her taking a volunteer position working with tween girls. Leola was well out of her element and she knew it. She struggled every week to do what was required of her. She hated every minute of it except the teaching portion! The leader of the agency visited her on one of those frustrating afternoons after class to check her progress. Leola told her about her struggle with the girls but how much she loved teaching. There were four weeks left to the class so she gathered up her courage to resign. Leola knew she is gifted by God to ‘teach’ but who did she want to teach? She definitely knew who she didn’t want to teach!
Leola was puzzled about what God would do in her life! Watching the news one night God revealed to her who she was going to teach. It was the same old, same old night! Feed the family, do the dishes, do the homework, do the prep work for tomorrow all while listen to the background noise except on this night the noise was funneled straight into her ears. She walked into the living room where her husband was watching TV and asked him to turn it up. There she saw a scene that broke her heart and made her instantly break into tears. Women, dead, by the hands of their abuser. A statistic flashed onto the screen so staggering it threw Leola headlong into a heart break she still feels today for the women who have and are being abused. The God Leola was beginning to love has implanted a passion in her for the welfare of women! Another piece to the puzzle of purpose revealed!
What functional gift has God given you?(if you don’t know – take a Spiritual Gifts Assessment on the internet) For what people group has God implanted a passion in your heart to serve? The answer to these questions will determine what God is asking you to do? We cannot fail if we follow Elohim to what He has dropped into our heart! Piece by piece He reveals to us what purpose He has called us too! God will take one piece of His purpose for us and work it together for the good until His whole purpose for us is revealed!
This week’s meditation verses: Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11
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With God as Your Teacher…
A look through the large picture window in Leola’s living room tells her it is a gloomy rainy day with no hope of sunshine. It’s a cold gloomy day inside Leola’s heart too. She has been true to her words to read the Bible every day although it has done nothing to defrost her frozen in time heart. She had hoped for something different but her thoughts were getting worse. She sits staring at the drops of water outside hitting her window and rolling down to the ledge wishing she was one of those drops with no feelings and no expectations. She is feeling crushed by her feelings of hopelessness. There is no hope for tomorrow to be different and no hope for the future to get better. The Bible to this point has not told her what to do about the condemnation of sin she is under. If this is what understanding is Leola wants none of it!
She doesn’t know how to fix herself! She has never watched a Christian fix themselves before. Her lack of hope invades her mind constantly. The past three years of reading the Bible and going to church have done nothing to help her as a matter of fact she is beginning to believes Scripture and church are making it worse. She has read through the Bible once, gone to multiple Bible studies and hooked up with many Christians over the years but none have admitted to trials or conviction of sin. She knows of no one who is worse off than her! She now believes her public plastic face will be the only face she will wear. Her hidden grief is almost intolerable!
We go to church and we discuss our problems with people but do we truly understand it is God who is supposed to teach us His ways not man. Sometimes it is easier to turn to man. I am completely guilty of this concept. We either do one of two things as growing Christians – we go to people or we ask our own soul! It is very peculiar that we do those things because we have known they are not successful yet we continue. Man wants what he wants and he goes the way he wants to go and our soul knows no better. We have no escape outside of obedience to God yet we try to make a way. We rely on man and his miracle pills when we expect them to fix us.
We are God’s children and as such we must learn from the Spirit what to do and how to do it. He says to us “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” (Psalm 32:8) We can count on Elohim to instruct us and to counsel us. He has counselled us to be convicted of our sin and then He instructs us in the way we should go to escape the sin. This is not an easy task but we can do it! We must do it!
At the end of one of her mind numbing days, talking about her problems with any old person, she retires to her have-to-have-it couch with her promise to read the Scriptures. Tonight, she is going to let gravity choose her reading because this is the way she rolls. She doesn’t actually care about what she is about to read because her grief has made her apathetic. She opens the Bible and drops it on her lap but doesn’t begin to read. Leola sighs and stares. It is still raining out so she listens to the sound of it hitting her front window while consorting with it. If it isn’t raining, it is raining! Each rainy day is running into the next and her grief is beginning to overwhelm her to the point of giving up. Being in Heaven will be much better than being here.
She finally looks down to see what gravity has done for her. At this point in her walk she doesn’t realize that gravity was created by God for His glory and He will use it for His glory too. Psalm, why does gravity always bring her to the Psalms? She chose Psalm 32 for her reading. As she read the tears ran down her face like the rain on her window. This God she didn’t understand and didn’t really know had written about her grief over her sin long before she was even born. She read the Psalm three times stopping each time on verse 8 to soak it in. Her grief over her life did not stop that day but God revealed Himself to her as her teacher. She would submit to Him more and more each day being instructed how to change her life one minute at a time instead of expecting a miracle. With God as her Teacher she would learn her lessons well!
We are more than capable of overcoming sin if we allow Elohim to instruct us in the way we should go. Let the Spirit counsel you within your conviction then allow Him to instruct you in the way out of sin! With God as your Teacher you will learn each lesson well!
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A Pill isn’t a Miracle it’s a Pill!
The Pill
Leola Lurned is comfortably lounging on her have-to-have-it sofa gazing out the window into nothing but feeling fully aware nothing is where she is right now and nobody is who she is. A squirrel catches her eye jumping from branch to branch with an agility and freedom one only can wish for. A perfectly timed commotion is exploding on Television beckoning her attention. Loud chaotic music with a flashy background announces a dangerously handsome man onto the screen. He is lovingly unfolding a miracle happening in the lives of millions of women, he summons Leola to want it. A ‘miracle’ contained in a little white pill, taken three times a day, will give her energy like never before. She will climb to the mountain top and back down again without even breaking a sweat. Momentarily encouraged by this she looks down at the well-rounded stomach she has been developing for months and says, “Now that WOULD really be a miracle from God!” She places her order without another thought. Leola needs that pill to change her life!
She waits weeks expectantly for the miracle pills to arrive. She dreams about the mountain she will climb and how wonderful it will be to have the freedom she so desires. Finally, the miracles arrives. She is giddy at the prospect of beginning so she downs the first one as soon as the foil’s off the bottle. Days go by, following every direction to the letter, without improvement. She quotes in her mind the words of all the pill popping guru’s “It takes 30 days for them to work!” Those days are followed by weeks and then months with simply no change. She becomes withdrawn and anxious. Her resentment of being deceived again is leading her into a deeper depression than ever before. Her darkened bedroom is her comfort right now.
Have we become so complacent about miracles we would honestly believe a life changing miracle from God would come in pill form? The ‘Miracle Pill’ is designed by the devil to make you think it has the power to heal but in fact it is a placebo! There is NO shortcut to a mind well healed only the painful, long narrow road. We want to believe the miracle pill can take us down this road in a chauffeur driven Cadillac but it is the miracle of Scripture taking us down this road in a rusty old Pinto, low in gas and leaking oil (2 Timothy 3:16).
The ‘miracle pill’ is a pseudonym for “the easy way out!” Our life skills are NEVER developed easily yet we keep expecting they will. Life itself is not easy, let alone the skills to live a righteous life. We will have weight problems, muscle problems, people problems, illness, anxiety and a multitude of other issues. Life causes mind altering catastrophes resulting in mind altering consequences resulting in a mind altering experience. Pills cannot take this fact away. Our life skills will not improve until we do the work to improve them. There is no miracle pill just the power of Scripture!
Wide is the road leading to destruction but narrow is the road leading to life! (Matthew 7:13-14) If you consider all the books in the world today how many of them will lead you to a miraculous healing like the Scriptures contained in the Holy Bible! We can read all the self-help books and listen to all the guru’s but we will still not find healing as thorough as the healing from God through His Words. We can talk all day about the benefits of reading Scripture, but until you take the time to read them, the benefits will escape you. Stop asking humans questions and start asking God the questions! Stop guessing what God wants from you and start desiring the truth from God. The narrow road is narrow because it takes guts to walk it, day in and day out, but the reward is freedom. Isn’t freedom what we are truly looking for? Freedom from food, freedom from drugs, freedom from pain, freedom from emotional pain, freedom from anxiety or depression. Are we not willing to work for freedom? If you were kidnapped and locked in a small room would you not do everything you can to get free? You would think about it constantly and act on those thoughts every chance you had. Well, my lovely, you have been kidnapped by the devil and locked in that room, but you have given up trying to get out! You shake the door knob once a week without escape. You return to your comfortable seat in the corner with your knees curled up to your chest for another week brooding about the darkness until you can shake the doorknob again next week!
The Escape
In Leola’s deepest depressed state she hears a voice as clear as day, “Put your trust in Me!” Her mind went straight to the Bible on the table in her living room. She slowly extracts herself from her comfortable bed with legs weak from inactivity to reach for Him! Sermons have taught her how important Scripture is to a Christian but she had no evidence of it working in her life. Her Bible has become a piece of furniture to dust. Her walk with God had been relegated to a weekly sermon having little effect on her. She sat on her have-to-have-it sofa and let gravity open the Bible. Gravity reading the Bible has been her typical ten minutes of Bible reading in the past, why change now. Psalm 119 opened and she began reading the power given to people by the Words of God. The miracle of Scripture appeared to her on that very page. More than murdering the man with the pills she wanted to be free from the devils oppressive words to her. She wanted out of the locked room and she knew it was going to take more than a pill. Her hard won realization ‘a pill is not a miracle it’s a pill’ began her journey toward freedom. Shaking the doorknob once a week was not going to be enough, she needs to shake it every day no matter how hard it gets because freedom is at the end of the long narrow road! Her vow to herself to shake the knob every day for the rest of her life ultimately led her to encounter the miracle of those Words every single one of those days!
The miracles from God, to assure our freedom, cannot be found in a pill. Man makes pills, God makes miracles using His Words!
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How far away is improving our life skills from applying the Words of God?
Our life skills, in my vision, are more advanced than brushing our teeth. It is caring for our everyday life from the time we wake up until we retire at night. They engulf our every decision for today and the future. They are personal and social, mental and physical, financial and environmental and, of course, moral. I also know that the actions we take are based on what we believe is right whether it is morally right or not. Moral laws are defined in this area as well. If you do not believe in God then your moral compass doesn’t always point to North but if you do then your compass should always point North.
So then, how far away is improving our life skills from applying the Words of God into our lives? Closer than you think. Accepting Jesus as Saviour has put us in a position to improve our life skills the Spiritual way. God is very interested with our everyday life from the time we wake up until we retire. How do we know? How can we tell? There are two topics prevalent in the Scriptures; our mind and our actions. These topics are talked about so much it is hard to miss it even if we aren’t looking.
Our Thinking Process can be Transformed!
How does God approach this topic in His Words? We can see right from the very beginning of man that our mind is a horrible place to be. Sin began with Satan deceiving Eve’s with her thinking (Genesis 3). Her mind was on what she was doing for God then Satan got her thinking about forbidden areas. Then that was all she could think about. Have you ever had food in front of you that you are trying to stay away from but cannot stop thinking about it? The minute your thinking changes from ‘stay away’ to ‘it’s okay’ you’re done. You eat until you are delighted but later the delight fades, a bellyache ensues or a guilt trip invades. We are peculiar creatures. In spite of our peculiarity God still transforms us.
The truth about our thinking process being transformed is found ‘literally’ in the Words of God! We are called and will be raised up on the last days (John 6:44) so we need to set our mind on the Spirit (Romans 8:5-6). This takes our thinking process (our choice) in a whole new direction from inward/worldly to heavenly! The Father endows us with grace that instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts living a righteous life (Titus 2:11-12). The Spirit teaches us what to think about with many different methods designed to transform the way we think. We can do exactly this because we are endowed now with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). We are able to do exactly what Elohim is instructing us to think about due to the fact that we do have the mind of Christ. If we choose to take on the mind of Christ our thinking process will be transformed beyond what we ever think possible as a result our actions change.
Our Actions Reflect our Thinking Process!
I think I want a cookie, I get a cookie and eat it! Don’t think that we do anything mindlessly because as we think we do! It is a Biblical principle (Proverbs 27:3). You might say this verse has nothing to with actions! How will we know what a man thinks other than his actions? Only the spirit of the man knows what the man is thinking (1 Corinthians 2:11) therefore since we are not his spirit we are only privy to how he thinks by observing his actions. Since our thinking process is transformed by the instruction of God what must follow is our actions being a reflection of that change. I think I want a cookie, Spirit lead sugar fast, Spirit power upon me, no eating the cookie! It is that simple but that hard. Our Spirit is telling our soul what to do and our soul is telling the body. The body wants that cookie so the soul must repeat itself but if our soul is weak the Spirit will endow us with the power needed to resist the temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) and a way out is provided. Can you guess what the way out is? You guessed it – Romans 8:5-6. Why would fighting a temptation be about the mind? Because as a man thinks so he is! Paul talks about this in Romans 7:13-25. He delights in the law of God according to his inward man (spirit) but another law is present in his members (body) and it is warring against his mind. Our mind caught in the middle between Spirit and body but can take control of our body. The arm does not punch unless the mind tells it too nor does the foot stomp. As we transform our mind into Spiritual things our body will throw an absolute fit. What do you mean I cannot hit that person? I need to hit him! Did you hear what he said? Yes, I did but the Spirit is telling my soul to restrain you, arm, because it will hurt that person and drive him away from God. Transformation complete in that situation!
As in Water, Face reflects Face!
The topics, the mind and the body, are talked about so much it is hard to miss them in Scripture even if we aren’t looking. As in water face reflects face; so a man’s heart reveals the man (Proverbs 27:19). We are revealed for every human to see by our actions but God searches the heart and tests the mind (Jeremiah 17:10). If we modify our life skills we need to start with the mind knowing that any action we take has started in our mind. The best place to go to learn the right thing to do in every subject is the Scriptures. We will not only get a life lesson but find love too. Search the Scriptures and see for yourself.
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Our Knowledge of God and Understanding our Plan Perfects Us!
Knowledge and understanding are the best tools for planning our future but how do we get them. Solomon, the wise king, said, “Without counsel plans go awry but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.” (Proverbs 15:22) Why, this was the wisest man alive saying this! If the wisest man alive says we need help with out plans, so be it. Let’s get some help! Our knowledge of God and understanding our plan perfect us, but where does our help come from? Sing the song!!!! Our help comes from the Lord!
Know what you’re doing!
Knowledge is most important to have when we decide we are going to do something. For me the knowledge of God is my most important asset so I depend on the Holy Spirit to provide many answers about who God is. I use the Internet for research and I listen to speakers. If we go back two weeks we asked ourselves some questions. We began looking at how much we have learned over the last year then last week we looked at how to make a plan for change. One of the goals I talked about is ‘knowing God better.’ For all of us to know God better we must know Him in a personal way for every day living. This even includes the teachers of the Word. We must know Him personally so we are proving out our faith as not to be disqualified from being respected as a teacher. In my plan of action my first go to is the Scriptures but yours might be to listen to a teacher. Either way we are getting the knowledge we need. Let’s say you are learning about human trafficking, abortion, church, women, men or children. No matter what topic you are learning you need knowledge to continue in it. Regardless of our task or career we must obtain knowledge or we will be deemed incompetent. I design cars as my day job for which I learn daily to complete the tasks I am assigned. Obtaining knowledge is how we are able to complete a task or a goal or even make a plan. We do not know everything and are not expected to know everything that is why we need Elohim. Leave perfection to Him and learn all you can about what you are currently doing.
Understand WHY you’re doing it!
Learning is one thing; understanding is a different animal all together. Solomon said, “Get wisdom and in all your getting get understanding.” [Paraphrased by me] There will be no wisdom without understanding and no knowledge is remembered unless it is accompanied by understanding. It is questioning the people who know, which leads us to an understanding. Some people understand quite quickly while others are involved in a lengthy process to understand. Our understanding depends on what we are learning and how we learn. There are visual learners who must see it to understand it. There are auditory learners who need to hear it and there are kinesthetic learners who need to touch it to understand it. These are not the only factors by far. God has gifted us to do a particular job for Him and He has gifted us to learn how to do the job in a specific way. We understand the way He wants us to understand and what He wants us to understand. We need to get the understanding. It is not good enough to get knowledge. We cannot go through life lacking understanding of our own plan and why we got to where we are. Failure will plague us if we choose to ignore the answer to the questions ‘WHY?’ God is not going to zap understanding into us! He can and maybe Has for certain topics or questions for us but on the whole He makes us work for our understanding through a process that really drills it into us. Sometimes He gives us quick ways to understand (thank You Jesus for the Internet) and sometimes He takes us on a journey to understand. He knows us, our mind and our purpose therefore the journey is always a means to His end. Leave perfection to God and understand all you can about why you are doing what you are doing!
My Understanding from My Knowledge
I have come to a much-needed understanding that perfection is from God alone. I am a carnal perfectionist! I like to do perfect work with no mistakes and no criticisms but it is impossible to do without the Father. I have also come to the understanding that if not for our imperfections we would have no advancements which has given me great ease to be imperfect. We can improve our life skills significantly if we give ourselves permission to use God’s knowledge and understanding to advance our plan. Our plans do not have to be perfect off the start they just need more knowledge and understanding to get us to where we want to go. All knowledge about God comes from God. Elohim will lead you to all the knowledge and understanding you need to be able to do His works (all of our works should be His works). He is perfect and His ways are perfect so to be the perfect person (obedient) He has asked us to be we need to get knowledge and understanding while working our plan out with God. Jesus has called us to be perfect and we can be under His tutelage!
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The Great Plan to Walk out the Door!
Last week we talked about putting questions to ourselves in this New Year. When we question ourselves it leads us into a plan resulting in change but what if we don’t know how to plan. Didn’t James say, “we do not know what tomorrow will bring so don’t make plans!” We could use this verse as a great excuse to avoid making plans yet we would be incorrect. James was talking about bragging about the future. Planning is a whole new ballgame God has a hand in. Before you begin your plans though there are three directives from God we need to think about; count the cost, commit them to the Lord, and watch them.
Luke 14:28 says, “Count the cost”
A lot of people never reach their goals because they never first counted the cost of getting to those goals. Let us use the goals of last week as our examples for this week. If I am to know God more I need to count the cost of doing that in my daily life. What will it take to know God better? Reading the Word. How much reading? This will take the rest of my life and it is unreasonable to think that I will be able to spend all day just reading. A good way to start is five minutes per day. This is the beginning of a plan but what is the cost of this plan. We need to be alone, we need to make the time and we need a Bible. The cost of getting to know people better is ‘shutting up’ to hear them talk about themselves. The cost of knowing ourselves better is probably a box of tissues. No matter what the plan is there will always be a cost to be counted otherwise the plan will fail. Do you think Jesus knew the cost of His plan? He did! Regardless, the plan still went forward and many people benefited from His obedience to God! When you count the cost and you are not willing to spend it then you are not willing to purchase your goal either but if you are willing many people will benefit.
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit them to the Lord.”
If you have counted the cost and decided you are willing to spend the time, the resources and the effort it is time to commit the goal to the Lord. Is it what you are being called to do? Has the Spirit been leading you to do what you are about to do? This is the stage of goal setting most people will forgo because the goal they have is not the goal God has for them and they know it. If you know it right now stop going so time is not wasted. If you are sure the directive is from the Spirit then let’s go! Commit the thing to the Lord every time you work on it. Each time you create a plan or act commit it to the Lord too. It is in doing this He establishes our plans. His way of establishing our plan is to give them a nay or a yay. We can only know the difference when we know Him. If we go in the directions He guides us into we will get to our goal. Elohim will establish our plan if the goal is His. To commit your work to the Lord is to commit your goal to the Lord and follow Him throughout the whole process. You will go in directions you never dreamed and accomplish more than you ever imagined.
Proverbs 21:5 says, “Diligently watch them!”
We can count the cost and go! Commit them to the Lord but if we just let them work themselves out they are bound to fail. We have to work our plan from the time of conception until fruition. When we start slacking in our work the goal starts to fall apart. This is where the hard work and commitment come into play. Without hard work there is no plan and without commitment our hard work will go nowhere. Diligently watching our plan means knowing it location and its direction. Where are you right now in the plan? Beginning, middle or end? Determining that information is important because the work changes as the plan continues. There may be days we work endlessly and stand still. There may be days when we think the plan is working on its own and everything in between. If we do not know where we are with our plan we will not know how hard to work or for how long, leaving us lagging in our commitment to it as well. This lagging is not in our plan but in God’s plan too. This is very costly for us for our future. Not only for our goals but for our residence on the New Earth too. If we cannot be trusted with the small stuff we will not be trusted with the big stuff (Luke 16:10). I do not want to be stuck with the small stuff for eternity, do you? Let us watch our plan so it goes exactly where Elohim wants it to go.
Planning is time consuming and tedious work but avoiding it will leave us with failed goals all of our lives. We can talk about a goal and dream about the fruition of the goal for years but the day we start planning the goal is the day we get one step closer to completing the goal. I know there are a lot of folks out there who have trouble planning their goals as a result they have trouble accomplishing their goals too. Once we get used to planning, it then becomes the first thing we do outside of going to the Father with our petition to adopt the goal as our own and the direction He wants us to go. He does not come down and move our feet for us He expects us to move our own feet. Just put one foot in front of the other and you too will be walking out the door.
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What Kind of Questions do You Put to Your Self?
Happy New Year to you all! It is now 2017 and another year has come and gone. I am not one for resolutions but I am the kind who looks back on the past year to see what worked and what didn’t. As a result of the look at the past I put questions to myself. Normally, I keep asking myself questions until I get to the root of what needs to change. What kind of questions do you put to your self? What are they based on? Are they based on past failures or past successes? Do they lead to more failure or more success? Do you ask anything of yourself?
There are three questions we should ask ourselves once a year at the very least.
- Did I know God better?
- Did I know people better?
- Did I know self better?
Do I know God Better?
We are in an age where knowing God is not a good thing to the world but Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:24 we would be inundated by false Christ’s and false prophets that would fool many, even the elect, if that is possible. How are you preparing yourself so you are not fooled? Eating solid food is the most important part of not being fooled in your ignorance. I can tell you that I do not like being fooled. I have heard some untruths about the Lord and believed them only to discover I had been fooled. How did I know I was fooled? I set my face to knowing God the Father, God the Man, God the Spirit. To know God better you have to ask yourself how well you know all three.
Once you have discovered how much you know and how much you don’t know set a goal for 2017 to know Him better. I do know how hard it is but it determines life or death, hope or despair. You have to choose life and hope over death and despair! Start out by committing to five minutes per day of Bible time or God time. You can spend one minute reading and the rest thinking about what you read allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you. I have been a Jesus follower for 15 years but I have not read the whole bible 15 times only three and studied the different books or words thousands of times. I am reading through my fourth time chronologically, which is very exciting. My next time will be with an Archeological Bible because I want to know history and geography much better. I will assume that will take me a couple maybe three years to read. There is no time limit reading the Bible and there is no set schedule for this daunting task but there is a need to do so! Without this task you will never know God better. Not everything you learn will be found in the Bible but it is the only place to start learning Him better.
Do I know People Better?
The second important question I ask myself is also about knowing God better. Since God has created all of us we need to know each other better to know God better. The one goal I set in 2016 was based on Ephesians 4:29 to make sure every word I utter is to build up not tear down. On the whole I was successful especially if I look back on pasted years. Since gossip is not allowed in my conversations I had to learn to listen more so I would be able to talk about other things giving me the opportunity to know people better.
Sometimes our goals have to be sought out and tested over the years before we are able to make them happen. A goal to know people better might start with a goal to talk less and if you are an extravert (like me) that will take some time. It is doable though and very rewarding when we are able to succeed. Our friends become true friends, our family becomes new to us and our encouragement to people has real meaning. These might be daunting goals for 2017 so we need to start small and test our goals first. Pay attention to your daily activities for the next couple of times you meet with people including your spouse. Who does most of the talking? What do you know about them? What do you talk about? What are you thinking about? If you discover that more corrupt words come out of your mouth than encouraging words you are not alone. I discovered that to be true for me many years ago and have been working on it for just as long. I have made great progress and am pretty happy with my words now. I still revert back to my old self sometimes but on the whole encouraging words are first out of my mouth rather than corrupt words. That is a complete turn around for me so if I can do it you can as well but you have to start. Set a goal for 2017 to lead you in this direction and you will know people better.
Do I know Me Better?
Unlike knowing God and people better this is more of a self-serving goal. To know God better or to know people better we need to know how we do this best. How best do I worship God? How best do I make people feel encouraged? These are things only we can discover about ourselves because outside of our Lord we know us best. No one spends more time with us than us! The big question is, “Do you spend enough time with you to actually know these answers?” If you are avoiding yourself you will never know God or people better because you will never know how to know them better.
Set goals this year to discover who God created you to be. How are you gifted? What do you do best? How do you learn best? You are new in Christ and discovering the new you makes life very exciting. It is like opening Christmas presents every day. To get to the new you we have to shed the old and that may be where the stumbling block resides. Colossians 3:1-17 is a very good start to learning more. There are plenty of good things we already know about ourselves and I suggest you start there. Discover the good and use it to discard the bad. Are you tenacious? Use the tenacity to learn. Are you passionate? Use the passion to discover. Are you quick witted? Use your wit to wade through your trash. Set your mind to performing your utmost best to discover who you are this year and why you exist today. Why has God seen fit to allow you to live today and not 100 years ago? He has a plan that includes everyone in the world but you are special. You have your own plan, no one else can complete, and this plan is why you need to know yourself better.
Knowing more should be a daily goal!
To overcome in God’s economy we should set knowing more as our daily goal. It has been my goal for as long as I can remember to learn something new each day but I have centered it over time. I do not spend my days learning useless information about events or details that will not move me closer to knowing God, people and myself better.
To improve our life skills we need to govern the way we spend our days. When I look at each day my goal is to have improved my outlook on life from the day before. Do I have more hope today than yesterday? Why, no matter what the answer. We tend to think because we are followers of Jesus Christ that hope is a by-product but it is not! We have the hope that we will live with Him forever but is that hope grounded in how we are living on a daily basis?
Let me write out my goals for 2017 regarding these questions for you so you see where I am going this year.
- How will I get to know Elohim better: by reading, studying the Scriptures and communing with Them to understand end times better. (I focus on topics)
- How will I get to know people better: by enjoying their presence at all times while listening and asking more questions. (‘enjoying them’ is new for me)
- How will I get to know me better: by focusing more on my daily tasks for God opposed to the future. (I am future task oriented so God has put it on my heart to concentrate on today and let Him worry about tomorrow)
I am gifted by God to be able to set goals but that doesn’t mean that I have the stamina to stay the course on every goal I set. Elohim has said ‘no’ to many of my goals forcing me to change direction. If you are not a goal setter, learn, because goals are how we get work done. Ask yourself with each thing you want to do in your life how you can realistically get to that place then begin setting small goals that will take you in that direction.
We are here to accomplish something greater than what we can ever imagine! When we set out mind to know God, people and ourselves better that greater accomplishment will eventually be revealed to us!
