-
Spiritual Strength
I have been going to church for 15 years. There have been times when I have not attended due to circumstances beyond my control but overall I have attended one church or another for that time frame. I have been teaching Bible Studies for at least 10 of those 15 years. I claim my blessing from God, for the great understanding of the Holy Bible, and the great zeal for applying it into my life, even when it hurts.
The application of the Bible is how we can gage our maturity in the words preached to us by the Holy Spirit and by the Book that is meant to teach us maturity. The Holy Bible is a circular book. It gives us information to apply into our life, then, to do it Biblically, we have to go back into the Bible to understand how to apply it. Do we see the people in our church doing it that way? Are our fellow pew warmers and example of that?
Let’s look at what kind of people are sitting in the pews next to us right now. As I see it there are three: those who love Jesus but don’t know Him, those who know Jesus but don’t love Him and those who love Jesus and know Him.
Those who love Jesus but don’t know Him are those who are sitting beside you because their mom sat beside you. They love Jesus because their mom loved Jesus. They love Him because people told them loving stories about Him. They may have seen His work or heard about His work in the lives of others but they know it not in their own life because they know Him not. It’s sad but very common. Is this you?
Or maybe this is you. Those who do not love Jesus but know Him are also sitting beside us in the pews. They are the ones who know Jesus but do not believe who He is. They have also been in the church for a long time based on their knowledge of Jesus. But the more they know Him the more they hate Him. Their hatred is not something they keep to themselves, they want us to hate Jesus too. They are the false prophets among us. They love Him not.
And then there are the people who love Jesus and know Jesus. These are the ones sitting beside you who worship Jesus with all their being. They want to know Jesus and they want to love Him more. They are addicted to the way they feel about Jesus. They have the spiritual strength we envy.
Guess what. You don’t have to envy it, you can have it too. You can know those who love Jesus for no reason of their own and those who hate Jesus because their knowledge is not perfected about Him. It is all about your knowledge.
We know that it takes time to learn. Knowledge lingering around in our heads without pondering its importance to our life causes our knowledge to be incomplete. No mystery is solved, no problem worked out, no advanced knowledge gained, no spiritual growth resulting in no spiritual strength.
A Christian without spiritual strength is a weak Christian. Someone who is swayed by a false prophet into hating Jesus. Someone who is lulled into thinking, the Jesus they love, is their Jesus and not their parents. We got out of the mud with our spiritual strength would it be a good thing to land back in there again. It would be tragic to say the very least.
Spiritual strength comes from loving Jesus and knowing Him or vise versa knowing Jesus and loving Him. Any other way will not give us the strength we need because we will not even know we have it. Do a search this week on strength in the Bible. Learn about the strength we have in us as a result of the Holy Spirit bringing it with Him. Then believe it so you can use it to ward off deception.
-
The 4 Ways I love Differently
In The Different Way we talked about being different than the world in three ways: walking in the Spirit, walking in kindness and walking in love. All of the things God takes us through result in love, not only for the brethren, but for Him. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). You can fake it ’til you have it with your brethren, but you cannot fake it with Jesus. Loving Jesus is a tight rope most people will not walk because they choose not to. We will walk the tight rope and follow the narrow path of Jesus because we love Him.
Love is a tight rope because so many people enjoy their hatred. It is a comfort blanket for them, but they will throw that blanket on you if you cross their path with the wrong colour shirt. The tight rope in our world is not others behaviour but ours. Are we strong enough to handle someone with pent up anger going off on us? Is our love of Jesus strong enough to continue loving Him, in spite of what He has allowed to happen in our life? Well, the amount of love you have for Jesus will determine how much you will be able to handle what comes your way.
There are many ways in which we should love Jesus. We don’t just love Him with an emotion we love Him with our actions. Jesus told us, if we love Him we will do His commandments (John 14:15) therefore love for Jesus is proven to Him by what we do, not what we say, hence the tightrope. Let me count the ways, for you, that I love Jesus.
Way 1: I love Him with my marriage and family.
My husband Bill and I have had many problems, during our 25 years of marriage, common to man. Jesus has had to step in many times to help us avoid murdering each other. He has stepped in the middle, with me, regarding my children and their spouses. I am not proud of the things I have said and done with my kids in the past but today I am very proud of who I am with them. BUT I can only be to my family what they see want me to be. If they don’t have a relationship with me they won’t see how much I love Jesus. The family members I know, and those who choose to have a relationship with me, are privy to my love of Jesus even if they don’t love Him. Those who choose not to have a relationship with me still receive kindness, but they won’t know my love for Jesus nor my commitment to them through loving Jesus. My husband and my children know I love Jesus because they have a relationship with me.
Way 2: I love Him with my friends
I don’t have many friends but those I do have at this moment I want to influence by the way I love Jesus. I love talking about Jesus so the friends that I choose are following the Way as well. Someone who isn’t, would not be able to handle how much I talk about Jesus, either they will get saved or they will run. I tell my friends, when I die the thing I want people to say about me most is that I loved Jesus well. My friends know I love Jesus because I talk the talk and walk the walk.
Way 3: I love Him with my Biblical studies
I could not and will not love Jesus unless I keep up my study of the Bible. I would not have the strength I have today, without it. I have been through some very disturbing things lately but Jesus has been comforting me with His Word and His commands to me. If I didn’t study the Word, I would not have known to do what I have done to quell the disturbing spirit within me. His Word has sometimes been my only solace. It has been the dictionary I have used to write all of my Strategic Life Skills Sessions. His Words put my soul on fire to put women’s lives in order. Jesus knows I love Him because I love His Word.
Way 4: I love Him with my ministry
Long ago when I was first saved Jesus called me to teach life skills from His Word. I have been waiting and growing along the way, writing life skills workshops, blogs and books. The time is fulfilled for me to walk in my ministry. I know this because I know my Jesus. I love Him enough to know He is calling me out onto the tightrope of ministry. I know I will have to fight fear, anger and hatred from people along the way too. The previous years of training and learning have prepared me to call on Jesus instantly when someone attacks me or my family. I am ready and willing to start the ministry Jesus has entrusted to me. Women will know I love them because I audaciously love Jesus.
It is my love of Jesus that makes me different from you and it will make you different from me. Being different is exactly what God is calling us to do. I am so in love with Jesus that I would stand in front of gunman to save your life as He commands. I wish that I could give up my salvation to give to you. He wants us to show our love differently to people, so they see Him. He wants us to do our ministry differently, so they see Him. If He wanted all of us to be the same, He would have created us the same. He didn’t, and I am so grateful for our differences because it makes life sweet. I love to look at women and see how God has formed them in such a delicate way. It thrills me, to no end, knowing Jesus is for me and He has made me for Him.
Loving Jesus means loving everything about your life, every aspect, every intricacy, every crook and cranny, every disturbing thing and every lovely thing. He created all of us to love with love in mind. We are always on the tightrope path to were Jesus wants us to go. I think we should just hang on and enjoy the ride. Take the blindfold off to see what He has in store for you and for me. The best places in the world are the places Jesus takes us. Fall in love with Him today and you too will see those places.
-
The Different Way
Jesus calls us to walk a different way. How can anyone tell we have worked hard to be different than we were yesterday? Our last blog we talked about having a different character in this blog we are going to discuss the different way we act. We know our different character will manifest itself in the way we act. That is the different way. The way people see us, good or bad. Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-20 that false prophets and true prophets will be known by their fruit. The different way with God, always manifests itself as good fruit. We can go the different way producing good fruit when we walk in the Spirit, when we are kind and when we love our brethren.
The Spirit’s Way
Different is walking in the Spirit. Even your brethren will see you do things differently because you follow the Spirit rather than the world. The Spirit manifests Himself in you making you think different than others therefore you see you have become different. You look for Jesus in everything because the fruit the Spirit has produced in you something you want. You are addicted to the good fruit. Honey comes from it rather than mustard. Everyone’s good fruit is the work of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and our bad fruit is the work of our flesh. We walk a different way because we are killing our flesh. We have seen the result the fruit of the Spirit has had in our lives so we want to keep walking that way. How much fruit we produce is based on the percentage in the way we walk. If we are walking in the Spirit, we will produce good fruit, but if we are walking in the flesh, bad fruit. The fruit you produce as a result of the way of the Spirit will make you so different you will ooze kindness with those around you.
The Way of Brotherly Kindness
I know that some people will equate love with kindness but I see them as different. Kindness is a precursor to brotherly love. When I don’t know you, I am kind toward you, but once I know you it will be deeper. Kindness is more of a superficial way of treating unknown people. We are kind to people when we don’t know exactly what they need, so we guess, and we deliver. We can guess that a homeless man, who has no coat, needs a coat, so we give him one. When we continue to walk the way of the Spirit kindness toward people will make us different than others. We are kind to everyone no matter who they are, even when everyone else hates them. The need to be kind will be something you will not be able to squelch because the Spirit will give you the power and the prodding. When you go the way of the Spirit to kindness you begin to walk in love as well.
The Way of Brotherly Love
While kindness is superficial, love is deeper. We will be known to be a disciple of Jesus by our deep love (John 13:35). God is giving us information, by revelation, that can be used to know them better. We are drawn back to the people who need our kindness, by the Spirit, over and over again. We are beginning to feel more than a need to provide for them, we are feeling a deep need to see their lives improved. The way of brotherly love goes deeper than kindness and goes deeper into the trenches as well. Kindness provides a fish while love teaches them how to fish. Love is an endless action meant to improve lives. This different way of love manifests itself by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the mission of the Father. It is specific to the plan of God for us and for those we are called to manifest this different way of love too. It manifests itself as speaking the truth (all of it), reprimanding for sin, teaching ways to escape temptation, teaching every commandment in the Word of God, revealing every promise and all done with kindness.
Different in God’s way does not mean the same as the worlds way. It manifests itself in a way that set us apart from others. They witness this different way and they want it too. People are changed when we choose to walk the different way. When we choose to walk by the Spirit it is the way of life for both us and those we are called to serve. When we choose to walk in the way of kindness we see how people react to our actions. When we choose to walk in the way of love we are responsible for people seeing Jesus in this world. Every word we say, every action we take show the way to Jesus. Being Jesus in this world is the goal of being different otherwise there is no different way. Walk in the different way to manifest Jesus to people.
-
A Soul in Sync
I want to first start with a description of what the soul is because I keep forgetting myself. Our soul is our life and defines who we are, what we believe and what we stand for. It is our volition (desire), our mind (intellect), and our emotion. Our soul is moulded by experience, knowledge and understanding. God gave us talents that we nurtured with our soul. The Bible talks incessantly about soul, heart and mind being something that we need to guard. Our soul is what the world is after. They want us to think like them and in doing that we become them. They will not be happy until we are all like them. We are called by Jesus Christ to think differently from the world.
One Foot in the World One Foot in the Church
Our soul is sanctified (separated) from the world for us to think like Jesus., to take on the mind of Jesus. This is not as easy as it sounds. We read in the Bible we are being called out of the world but the world will hate us (John 15:19). This is why some of us have one foot in the world and one foot in the body. There are some who are just dipping their toe in the body because their soul is weak. A weak soul is a direct result of quenching the Spirit. A weak soul will not be allowed in the New Jerusalem because a weak soul has a penchant for sin. It follows its flesh and makes the flesh its master instead of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21).
Sanctification Not a Choice; Soul Sync a Choice!
Being sanctified is not our choice, it belongs to God alone, but after salvation we have the choice to live in the world or live in the body of Christ. We can choose to have our mind changed by God or we can choose to have the same mind as the world. The choice is ours to sync our soul with His Spirit or to sync it with the World. When we sync our mind with the Spirit we can expect change, we can expect wisdom, we can expect understanding and we can expect Jesus to move in us. We cannot expect any of this with the world. I do not need to go into a list of things the world expects from us but God expects Jesus from us. We are to have the mind of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16) therefore the deeds of Jesus. We are to sync our mind with the Spirit and bring our body into submission with our soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).
A Mind Meld with the Master
I know you are reading this thinking how impossible it is to kick habits, change ways, and most ridiculous to think like Jesus! God sent His only Son as an example to us but He also wrote this great book called the Holy Bible that we would have a reference book. Paul told Timothy All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). ALL Scripture can be used to train us up into the mind of God and that is exactly what we will do. We are going to create a mind meld with the Master that we will be equipped for every good work the Master sends us to do. God is more than willing to reveal Himself in the Scripture and reveal Himself in us to others. I pray that He reveal Himself in you just as He is revealed in me!
Action
For this week pray to the Master He would give you an open heart for knowledge while we mould our mind into the mind of Christ using Scripture to solve about worldly issues. Pray for me also to bring today’s problems to Him for solution. If you have an issue that keeps plaguing you please IM me or send me an email at Kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com and I will point you in the direction of Jesus and His Word for correction advice.
I know that if we choose life in the Word we will find solid Biblical strategies to improve our life. I ask Jesus to reveal himself in you just as He is revealed in me.
-
Cry out to Him and See!
There is nothing like a death in the family to make us evaluate (or me anyway) the things we are doing. We watch as people walk through the room and how they react. We react with curiosity about how they have impacted the lives of those they knew. We evaluate how they have impacted our life. The only real way we can know what they have done for others is to listen to stories and listen intently to how people felt about that person. This is a skill that we must learn to utilize as we get older because we learn much about ourselves and about others. We can know someone all of our life and still not know the impact that person has had on others outside of our own relationship with them.
This begs me to ask of myself, “How have I had an impact on those in my life?” Have I created an atmosphere of love or contention? Have I taught my loved ones that I am determined or lazy? BUT the biggest question is, “Have I shown (not told) them that I love Jesus?” Will that be the first thing people say or will they have to find out from the pastor during my service. I have no other desire for you to know anything other than my love for Jesus and how I work that out in my life. What I want you to see is I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my friends and anyone whom I can touch through my teaching of Jesus Christ and my writings about how we can learn from Him.I want you to see my passion for the Word when I teach you what Jesus has been teaching me. I want you to see my determined devotion to Him while I help you learn what I have learned. I want you to see my steadfastness in doing what Jesus has asked me to do. In this you will find out that I have dedicated my life to knowing Jesus by studying His word so I can be of use to the women in the area in which Jesus has placed me. I cry out to God daily for them and I ask Him to position me to be of the most use to them.
How can we go forward when we feel like we are not doing enough? Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Cry out to Jesus and ask Him daily what He has planned for you. He will reveal in you just as He will reveal in me just exactly what He wants us to learn and how He wants us to use that knowledge. Then we must do it!
-
My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
-
Excited to Learn? YEAH!
Knowledge is one thing but understanding is a whole new ball game. I love it when I begin to understand something whether related to the Word of God or at my job or even just reading a book that is hard to understand. I ponder stuff all the time and ask why a lot. Jesus is so patient with my questions and my lack of knowledge that it just blows me away when He teaches me something new. I do not deserve to know this much or to understand anything He is teaching me because I am so dim witted sometimes. How many times does He have to teach us something before we learn it? Well, let’s see what the Word has to say about that.
I want to start with Proverbs 6:6 when Solomon calls someone a sluggard. Lazy people cannot learn so he says to them go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. He wants us not to be lazy and learn fully what we need to learn. Wisdom does not come in one day so the fact that he refers to us becoming wise tells me that he knows we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Psalm 106:35 tells us that they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. That is us Christians. We mingle with the world and learn their ways in time and act like them but we need to mingle with God and learn His ways so we can become knowledgeable about the things of God. To do this we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
The Bible was written for us to learn from and Paul needed to tell us just that in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The length of time it takes us to learn is shown here in the term perseverance. Why would we need perseverance if our learning were going to be quick? Again, we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Proverbs 1:7 says that the beginning of knowledge comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord is not based on what you don’t know it is based on what you do know. We cannot gain a fear of the Lord until we know the Lord. He has buried many secrets in His Word that He expects us to uncover. It takes learning to uncover those secrets. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction – be not a fool and fear the Lord. Take time learning and be taught often.
Read books but always come back to the Word! These are just a few verses that tell us about learning. Jesus taught us the whole time He was on the earth so that we would have a mentor; someone to teach us the ways to walk. Jesus said take His yoke upon us and learn from Him for He is gentle and lowly in heart and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Our learning begins and ends with Scripture. We can be taught the Bible from others but the truth can only be found in one place – the Holy Bible. It tells us that we need no other teacher (1 John 2:27) than Jesus and that God will send no one else to tell us the truth (Hebrews 1:1-3) because Jesus has told the truth to us, recorded and distributed it to us that we may learn. When the mystery of the truth is revealed to us it is an exciting thing to comprehend because it has taken us time to learn and we were taught often!
Be persistent this week to spend time in the word with the FULL understanding that it will take time to learn and we will need to be taught many times before we understand. God will reveal His mysteries to us if we persist.
-
The Rewards for Study
I don’t know about you, I am an instant gratification person! Well, that might be a little strong but I like to see the reward from my work. I am a hard worker and I can see the reward sometimes but there are times when I work hard and see nothing, if you know what I mean. I don’t see the reward right away and it bothers me! I see that sometimes when I study the Bible! We have been talking about studying the Bible but do we know what we get out of studying the Bible? What is the reward and exactly when will we see this reward? Does each person get the same reward? Let’s see what the Bible says about that….
2 Timothy 2:15 says rightly dividing the Word of Truth, which is studying the Word and knowing it, means we can present ourselves approved to God an unashamed worker. If we diligently study the Word, God will approve us along with the rest of those who study the Word. Each of us will receive the same reward. This is an amazing thing all by itself because everyone will stand before Jesus one day but we will already be approved before we even stand before Him. That is a great thing to know while I live here on this earth but I must continue to study the Word to continue in that approval.
Joshua 1:8 Meditating in the Word, day and night, will surely help us do all that is written in it therefore we will be rewarded with a prosperous way and good success in what we do. If we meditate in the Word and do the Word, God will make our way prosper and give us good success along with the rest of those who do that same. Each of us will receive the same reward. Another great thing to know while here but I need to continue to meditate on His Word and observing to do all that is written in it to continue going in a prosperous way and having good success in that way!
John 8:31-32 A Disciple of Jesus who abides in His Word shall know the truth and that truth shall set him free. The reward for abiding in His Word is freedom. Abiding is more than just doing it is living. If we spend our days abiding in the things of Jesus we shall know the truth, which in turn shall set us free. Each of us will receive the same reward. Oh, freedom is the greatest thing to know but we must abide and continue to abide to know this freedom in the truth.
Proverbs 25:2 God takes glory in concealing a matter so that His kings can search it out to our glory. The reward for searching out a matter is glory from God. We should never be satisfied with our current knowledge but always searching out the matters of God. If we spend our days searching out matters from the Word we will obtain glory from God just like the rest of us kings who do the same. Each of us will receive the same reward. How wonderful it is to know that Jesus will see me as a king and bestow glory on me as long as I continue to search out the matters of God.
We know that all of these rewards are contingent on us continuing in mining for the treasures of God. He wants us to study so that our soul will be overtaken with doing the right thing, the will of God. Our soul will always want to do the ME thing but God wants us to do His thing and that is why we study the Word; to know God and to love Him so much that we do His will out of love.
Please don’t study the Word for your head or for the world, study for your heart and God will reward you mightily with approval, freedom, glory, a prosperous way, good success and so many more. Study the Bible to find other rewards and be further rewarded.
-
The Yay’s and the Nay’s have it! Or do they?
In spite of what people may say God has gifted each one of us with gifts to be able to do our jobs. Our jobs consist of how we make our daily income as to not starve to death. We have what the world will call natural talents but we Christians know that these gifts are from God and are for His glory to do His good works. We get excited because we will be able to use them for the good of the Kingdom. When you attempt to activate these gifts inside the Body of Christ we will come across the nay’s and the yay’s in spite of what the Father has told us to do. Should you listen? Yes! Should you obey? Now that is another story all together!
The nay’s are the hardest to ignore. They are persistent and loud. They come from people who love you and people who hate you. They come from those who want to be you and those who just want you to go away! The goal of the nay is to stop you in your tracks – not to redirect you or help you – just to stop you! Stopping you could also mean many different things. It could be because they have a belief system that is built on false precepts and you are challenging those precepts. It could be that you ‘going’ might mean where they are in their eyes isn’t good enough. It could be that they actually have a good misguided heart and don’t want you to be hurt. The problem with each one of these is they are disobedient to the plans of the Father. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:23 get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me! Peter was concerned about the things of men rather than of the thing of God. I am convinced there is a lot of people just like that. They set out to be stumbling blocks to people because they are not dealing well with their own stumbling blocks. It may be their thought processes, their beliefs or they just might be full of spite from their own lack of success! None of this is our problem unless they are successful at stopping us! I think we should listen but with our Spirit to discern the truth! I say, get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to God and to me. Then I will put the things of God on my mind and keep moving even if I am scared!
The yay sayers may very well be hard to ignore as well! How many times do we need to be patted on the back for a job well done before we become prideful and expect the pat? Sometimes the yay’s are for us to participate in something ‘not’ in the plan of God for us. Quite often this is the case and it keeps us from doing what we are suposed to do. We spend a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t please God and ironically enough, doesn’t even please us. We clean when we hate cleaning, we take care of kids when we hate it, we lead but are not gifted for it, we preach but are not called to do it. There is just so much we do that doesn’t give glory to God because He has not asked us to go man has and we don’t have the words or the guts to say no. Every now and then we need to do stuff that is not appealing to us but the majority of the time we need to do what God has called us and gifted us to do. God does not gift you to be a door matt He gifts you to empower the Body of Christ. We cannot do that if we are not joyful in our work. Jesus said in Luke 9:24 that if you lose your life you shall live. Losing your life means dropping your own selfish plans and standing behind God’s plan for you even against other Christians who are not willing to lose their lives. All of God’s work is good but not all of it is beneficial to us or the Body of Christ when we are doing it. We need to listen with our Spirit for direction and do what we are told.
The nay’s and the yay’s can be considered but should never be held up before God’s plan for us. He may very well have sent those folks to us to test our faith or to actually get us to stop doing something He never told us to do nor gifted us to do. We need to know our Father so that we can tell the difference between a nay for men or for God and the yay from men or from God. Our lack of knowledge of the Father will always put us in a tricky position discovering what is of God and what is of men. We will be thrown to and fro if we don’t make sure that what we are doing is of God. For us to be successful at doing the will of God we need to put the nayers and the yayers behind us and God in front of us. As long as we are following God we will do exactly what He wants and not worry about what man wants from us.
-
What Will it Take? Part 3
I have asked you what it will take to get you to read the Bible – what was your answer? I have also asked you what it will take to get you to study the Bible – what was you answer to that question? Now a new question if you can handle it. What will it take for you to memorize the Bible? I am not asking you to memorize the whole thing just parts of it. What is your biggest excuse for refusing to memorize Scripture? Actually, no matter what the excuse, there is no excuse for not knowing the Word of God. In Proverbs 1:7 Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that fools reject wisdom and instruction. I am going to tell you on this day that memorizing Scripture is part of this knowledge because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to hang onto for future use. Shall you present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God or not?
I hear all the time that people have “life verses” that they have memorized but I am confused about what exactly that means, or more so, what does it mean to them. They memorize a verse like Romans 8:28 but miss the verses before and after where it says that we are predestined to do good works. They memorize Jeremiah 29:11 but skip the fact that God said seek me first and you shall have this. Seeking Him means knowing everything that He says not just what we want to know at that moment or even for life. Has our soul been so spoiled by what we have been feeding it that we want to have life verses that tell us that we are only going to have good things for the future. What about memorizing Hebrews 4:12 or Psalm 149:5 or Isaiah 49:2 or even Jeremiah 23:29 and John 12:48? We are going to be judged by the Words of Jesus when we stand before Him and if we have never buried them in our soul we will not even know what we will be judged by. This is what the Word means to us right here and right now. It is not about our soul here on Earth it is about our soul in Heaven. Paul said to bring your soul into submission (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). Do not run aimlessly through life only putting fluffy verses into your soul, run to win this race to Jesus. Put verses into your soul that change you, encourage you to keep going and keep you on the pavement. Since our life is constantly changing so should our “life verse or verses” change. Challenge yourself and your soul to memorize a whole Psalm this week. Some good ones would be Psalm 8, Psalm 91, Psalm 100 and the all-favourite Psalm 23. Bring your soul into submission so that in the future you will be able to continue running through that desert.
A time is coming when you will not feel the Father around or Jesus or the Holy Spirit because your soul is inundated with worldly woes. Are you prepared for that? Will your whole Spirit come to a stand still? Will you wish you had prepared yourself? Yes, you will unless you let your soul whining take over. Will God be to blame if life happens and you have not prepared your soul to handle it with dignity? You won’t be alone. There are many Christians out there who have not prepared their souls for what is about to happen but that is still no excuse for them to be unprepared. What is it that you are preparing for? Are you preparing for financial disaster, a death in the family, kids coming or kids moving out, job or job loss? Jesus tells us that where our heart is, that is where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21) but our heart is supposed to be in Heaven and we are supposed to be preparing ourselves for when Jesus comes again. We are being sought after by a roaring lion to be devoured and the only way to beat him at his game is the Word. He will continue to come after us but if we know the Truth it shall set us free from the oppression that he has laid upon us. We are not without power but it is not our power that can beat the devil it is the power of God that beats him. The power of God is His Word and it is sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to the separating of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12).
If you know the things of God you shall present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God! Is that not what we want? Therefore there is nothing in this world that should stop us from becoming mature and running the race well. Memorizing Scripture will give us this knowledge we need to present ourselves mature because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to fight the devil with in the future. I cannot say this enough – reading the Bible, studying the Bible and knowing the Bible is the only way to mature in the things of God. It is disappointing to find Christians who are not hell bent on knowing God. Yes, it is work but how well do you know how to search the Internet or run your computer? Do you think that will give you a free pass into the New Jerusalem? How many songs can you sing from memory? What is stopping you from singing a Psalm instead of a song? Can you see how weak your current excuse is, if you just ponder that excuse for just one moment? When Jesus comes He will take no excuses, only the Truth and His Word will judge us! Ignorance of His Word will not save us, it will kill us. We are to bring our soul into submission and make it do what Jesus wants us to do! Unless you read, study and know Scripture you will never know what that is! What will it take for you to understand that God’s will for us will not be thwarted by stubbornness? He knows what you will and won’t do and He will pull you along kicking and screaming if He has too so why don’t you just do what He wants! He wants you to know Him and to know Him you need to read the Word, study the Word and know the Words.
