1 John 2:14 - I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one., who is the image of God, should shine unto them
Man was created to be a winner. The Bible tells us so. We read in Genesis, for example, that man was originally put on this earth as a dominating lord. God gave him dominion over the earth and everything that crept flew crawled and breathed there.
Man didn't even know what losing was until he separated himself from God through disobedience in the Garden of Eden. When that happened, he ran headlong into defeat. He was forced to accept failure as his lot in life, lowering himself to a subordinate position—a position he was never meant to occupy.
It's a sad story. But if you're a born-again child of God, your story has a happy ending. Through faith in Christ Jesus, you've been made a winner once again!
In fact, God has guaranteed your success. Let me show you what I mean. Imagine you're about to tackle a really tough job, and before you even get started on it, God speaks to you right out loud and says, I just want you to know, I'm going to personally see to it that this project you're working on succeeds.
Well, let me tell you something. You do have God's promise that you'll succeed. He said in His Word that you're an overcomer! In Him, you can overcome any problem the world throws your way (1 John 5:1-5).
It doesn't matter how much you feel like a loser. It doesn't matter how many times you've failed in the past. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then you've become more than a conqueror in Him (Romans 8:37).
Does that mean you won't have any more trouble? No. It simply means you can go through that trouble and emerge triumphantly.
If you've been feeling like a failure lately, renew your mind to the Word of God that says you're a success. Every time a challenge comes up, respond by saying, "Well, praise God, I can beat this thing because I'm an overcomer in Jesus!" Let that Word from God abide in your heart. It will make a winner out of you.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 - If our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them
Since God doesn’t save anyone against their will, does it really do any good to pray for people who consciously refuse to receive Jesus as Lord?
Yes. Yes! Yes! It does!
You see, in spite of the fact that most all unbelievers who have purposely refused to receive Jesus as Lord think they’ve made that decision of their own free will, the truth is, they haven’t. The Word of God says they’ve been blinded by Satan. He’s blocking their perception of the truth. So their decision hasn’t been freely made at all.
That’s important for you to grasp. Because through the prayer of intercession, you can interfere with the satanic forces and help take those blinders off! You can also change circumstances with your prayers and help create situations that will bring them in contact with the Lord. You’re well within your spiritual rights when you do that.
I prayed with a friend of mine once who’d been praying for his lost brother for years. Jesus said in Matthew 12:29 to first bind the strong man and then enter his house and spoil his goods. So we said, “You spirit blinding the eyes of __________, you stop what you are doing to keep him out of the kingdom of God. In Jesus’ Name, you stop now!”
Jesus also said in Matthew 9:38, “Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” So we prayed, “Lord, send someone to ______________ with the Word of God. You know who he will listen to. We claim __________________ for the kingdom of God. We believe we receive his salvation and deliverance. In faith, we praise You for it.”
In almost no time at all his brother called him. “What have you been doing up there?” he asked. “In the past few days, everyone I’ve come across has started preaching to me!”
Our prayers had interfered with the forces Satan had been using to blind this man to Jesus and created the circumstances to bring him into the kingdom. Sure enough, within a few days, he was born again.
Use this same prayer for your loved ones and believe when you pray and you’ll see the same results.
Don’t sit by and let the devil take your friends and loved ones without a fight. Pray. Pray! Pray! Come against the “god of this world.” Take off the blinders and open their eyes to the glorious gospel of God.
Ephesians 3:20 - Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us
As a believer, you have the power of the Holy Spirit inside you. But that power won't go to work until you put it to work!
The Holy Spirit won't just muscle in on you. He won't come in and turn down the television set and jerk you up off the couch and say, "Now you listen to Me."
No, He's a gentleman. He's sent to help you to do the will of God, to strengthen you, to counsel you...but He won't do a thing until He's asked.
That's why the book of James says if you're in trouble or afflicted, pray. It's prayer that puts the power within you to work.
Just think about that. The Spirit of Almighty God. The Spirit that hovered over the face of the deep and carried out God's Word at Creation, that same Spirit is inside you—waiting for you to call on Him!
If Jesus came into your house and sat down at your table, you'd put aside everything to talk to Him, wouldn't you? You wouldn't just rush through and say, "Jesus, I'm so glad to see You. I wish I had the energy to talk to You, but You wouldn't believe what kind of a day I had today. I mean, everything in the world went wrong and now I'm just too tired to do anything but lay here and watch TV. Maybe we can spend some time together later."
You wouldn't do that, would you? No! If Jesus were sitting there in your room where you could see Him, you'd fall on your face and begin to worship Him. You wouldn't care how tired you were or what kind of day you had. You'd jump at the opportunity to fellowship with Him.
The Holy Ghost is in you. He's waiting on you. He's ready any time of the day or night. He's saying, "I'm here to help you and strengthen you. I want to comfort you today. You know that problem you've been having? I want to help you get that out of your life.
The Holy Spirit has some things He wants to show you—things you've been trying to figure out on your own. He's waiting there with the power to overcome every obstacle in your life. Take time to pray. Pray in the spirit. Pray with understanding. Pray and activate the power that works within you today.
Philippians 3:13 - But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before
Failures and disappointments. Aches and pains from the past that just won’t seem to go away. Most of us know what it’s like to suffer from them but too few of us know just what to do about them. So we limp along, hoping somehow they’ll magically stop hurting.
But it never happens that way. In fact, the passing of time often leaves us in worse condition—not better. Because, instead of putting those painful failures behind us, we often dwell on them until they become more real to us than the promises of God. We focus on them until we become bogged down in depression, frozen in our tracks by the fear that if we go on, we’ll only fail again.
I used to get caught in that trap a lot. Then one day when I was right in the middle of a spell with depression, the Lord spoke up inside me and said:
Jonah your problem is you’re forming your thoughts of the past instead of the future. Don’t do that! Unbelief looks at the past and says, “See, it can’t be done.” But faith looks at the future and says, “It can be done, and according to the promises of God, it is done!” Then putting past failures behind it forever, faith steps out and acts like the victory’s already been won.
If depression has driven you into a spiritual nose dive, break out of it by getting your eyes off the past and onto your future—a future that’s been guaranteed by Christ Jesus through the great and precious promises in His Word.
Forget about those failures in the past! That’s what God has done (Hebrews 8:12). And if He doesn’t remember them anymore, why should you?
The Bible says God’s mercies are new every morning. So if you’ll take God at His Word, you can wake up every morning to a brand-new world. You can live a life totally unhindered by the past.
So, do it! Replace thoughts of yesterday’s mistakes with scriptural promises about your future. As you do that, hope will start taking the place of depression. The spiritual aches and pains that have crippled you for so long will quickly disappear. Instead of looking behind you and saying, “I can’t,” you’ll begin to look ahead and say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me!"
I Samuel 30:6 - David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. BUT David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
I read a fable about a dog who loved to chase other animals. He bragged about his great running skill and said he could catch anything. Well, it wasn’t long until his boastful claims were put to the test by a rabbit. With ease the little creature out-ran his barking pursuer. The other animals, watching with glee, began to laugh. The dog excused himself by saying, “You folks forget that I was only running for fun but he was running for his life!”
Motivation and encouragement make a difference in almost everything we do. In fact, it determines the way believers live their lives in the Lord. In the above scripture, David was greatly disappointed because the enemies took his wives’ and children including those families who were staying with him. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. Furthermore, David was greatly distressed and discouraged because the men were talking of stoning him. My dear ones note the David reaction towards this situation. The word states “but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. With that encouragement along with few of his men he pursued the enemy and destroyed them completely. The Word also states that “nothing was missing, young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken”.
My friends, I don’t know your situations, positions, and dispositions. You may be battling with some addiction/ sin or behavioral problems. Added you may be greatly discouraged with your actions and condemning yourself. These actions would not produce any good result in you but get you into further discouragement. My dear ones, our Lord is waiting for you to supply His strength. David found no hope in him but he encouraged himself in the Lord his God. This should be our attitude and we must encourage ourselves in the Lord. Then the joy of the Lord would become our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).Proverbs 24:16 states” for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again”. Surely dear ones we will rise again and our God has not and never will give up on us. Therefore, encourage yourself in the Lord and overcome those sins and troubles.
In his testimony, Dotson spoke directly to Christian workers. “Continue on in your ministry with people like me,” he urged,” no matter how frustrating. We may have lots of setbacks. But don’t give up; there is power for change in even the most frustrating person through the sacrifice of Christ, the One who really sets us free”. And he closed with this “Thank you for not giving up on me”.
Instead of giving up on a person, give that person to God.
[ecko_quote source="Luke 17:32"]Remember Lot’s wife.[/ecko_quote]
I read a story about a relay athletic who was participating in the final 4x100 meters relay at one of the Olympic Games. The team was going strong and had high prospects of winning. As the race started, the team was well ahead up to the 300 meters’ mark. However, the one who is to hand over relay baton was not looking at the fourth runner who was supposed to take relay baton from him. He was looking towards his friend who was participating in another competition in the adjacent athletic track. The third runner could not hand over the baton properly and it fell down as the race was almost over at the 300-meter mark. The entire team was disappointed and so was their country and supporters on the field.
When Jesus was speaking of His coming back and our readiness, He spoke about Lot’s wife. He cautioned us that we won’t even find time to get anything from anywhere and it would be too late. Therefore, He asked us to be watchful and give our undivided attention to Him. Looking at Jesus is a fundamental principle in our Christian journey; or else we will never progress in our walk with God. Often times, I have seen Christian people focusing on other people/troubles/health and the needs of this world. Jesus said, “but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).He said He will surely take care of those matters but we must seek Him and Follow Him with all our heart.
Further, some believers constantly keep observing what others are doing in the Fellowship/Church. Particularly, if they have enmity or disagreement they focus their attention towards them. They act and react on others' behavior. They follow closely (through Facebook/WhatsApp/Twitter...) and note every posting they make. These things only produce hate, jealousy and anger towards them. They are bound to ruin their peace and fill their hearts with hate. They would not progress in any way. They would keep defending their position and cause. I consider them lost in following others. My dear ones please remember, Satan always lets you keep your attention on everything but Jesus. Forsake that behavior and follow the Lord, then the peace of God will reign in your heart.
If your brother and sister have hurt you, your reaction should be leaving your burden at the foot of Jesus, He will take care of it. Furthermore, it is said in the scripture “do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written “it is mine to avenge; I will repay” says the Lord” (Roman 12:19-NIV).
Our only job in this world is to follow Him with our undivided attention. No excuse permitted…Remember Lot’s wife! Apostle Paul summarised our Christian walk in this way “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
Image Source:
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[ecko_quote source="Ephesians 4:26"]Be angry, and do not sin” do not let the sun go down on your wrath[/ecko_quote]
Few things are more destructive to Christians who anger. Anger causes us to lose our self-control and to say and do things we would otherwise never consider saying or doing. Anger, if allowed to remain, turns into bitterness that eats away at our hearts. Scripture consistently commands believers to put away anger and lists it as one of the sins of the flesh (Eph 4:31).
At times, we try to defend our anger by citing Ephesians 4:26. As additional proof, we argue that Jesus cleansed the temple in “righteous indignation”. Ephesians refers to anger that does not lead to sin. Jesus was capable of being angry without sinning. When Jesus cleared the temple, Scripture does not indicate that He was angry (Matt 21:12; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-46)
We must be careful not to justify our anger with Scripture. Ephesians 4:31 commands us to put away all anger. That does not mean that we cease to have strong convictions or lose our desire for justice. It does mean we refuse to allow others’ sins that cause us to sin. Anger does not bring about God’s redemptive work; far more often it hinders what God is working to accomplish.
If you feel that you have a righteous anger because of something that has happened, see if you are holding anger in your heart without sin. Is your anger turned into bitterness? Is it causing you to make an excuse for your ungodly behavior? You must examine any anger within you and allow God to remove any sinful attitude that your anger may have produced.
Even the best-motivated anger can sour, and we are therefore to put it aside at the end of the day. Taken to bed, it is likely to give the devil an opportunity to use it for his purpose. If anger is prolonged, one may begin to seek vengeance and thereby violate the principle taught in Romans 12:17–21.
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Source: Pastor Jonah - UEC Ministries and Henry T Blackaby and Richard Blackaby
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[ecko_quote source="Judges 6:39"]Please don't be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew[/ecko_quote]
There are degrees of faith. At one stage of Christian experience, we cannot believe unless we have some sign or experience a great manifestation of feeling. We feel our fleece, like Gideon, and if it is wet we are willing to trust God. This may be true faith, but it is imperfect. It always looks for a feeling or some token besides the Word of God. It marks quite an advance in faith when we trust God without feelings. It is blessed to believe without having any emotion.
There is a third stage of faith which even transcends that of Gideon and his fleece. The first phase of faith believes when there are favourable emotions, the second believes when there is the absence of feelings, but this third form of faith believes God and His Word when circumstances, emotions, appearances, people, and human reason all urge to the contrary. Paul exercised this faith in Acts 27:20,25, “ And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away”. Notwithstanding all this Paul said, “ Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me”.
We read of Moses in Exodus that he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Exactly the opposite was true of the children of Israel in the record. They endured only when the circumstances were favourable; they were largely governed by the things that appealed to their senses, in place of resting in the invisible and eternal God. The children of Israel did not believe till after they saw, when they saw Him work, then they believed. They really doubted God when they came to the Red sea; but when God opened the way and led them across and they saw Pharaoh and his host drowned- “then they believed”.
They led an 'up and down' life because of this kind of faith; it was the kind of faith that depended upon circumstances. This is not the kind of faith God wants us to have. The world says “seeing is believing” but God wants us to believe in order to see. The Psalmist said, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”.
Do you believe God only when the circumstances are favorable, or do you believe no matter what the circumstances may be?
Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe – St. Augustine
May God give us faith to fully trust His Word though everything else witnesses the other way.
Source: Pastor Jonah - UEC Ministries and Streams in the Desert
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[ecko_quote source="James 1:22"]But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves [/ecko_quote]
God says, if you want to understand His Word, you will need to put it on like your shoes, go out and try it for size. We are to read it, do it and then report on it. It's because understanding comes by experiencing it. After you have had the experience, no one can argue you out of it.
A lot of King’s Kids (believers), not knowing that have been in Bible study groups where they have studied ten years, and they are looking forward to another ten years’ study to give them an understanding of the Word of God. Yet they are no further along in bodily health and prosperity, nor will they be until they become doers of the Word. King’s Kids hear the Word and goes right out and do it, so they will not forget what it is all about.
Doers of the Word are always in trouble, about to get out of trouble, or on the verge of getting into more trouble. That is how doers of the Word operate, knowing that what the world calls trouble is just raw material for God’s glory.
A woman went shopping one afternoon, and one person snatched her handbag and flew down the street with it. Well, the woman was sold out to Jesus, and instead of chasing after the purse- snatcher or calling the police, she reached down in her heart for the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. She got hold of one of the Psalms in the process, the one that says” Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust (Psalm 91:3-6). Sooner than it takes to tell it, the woman saw that the Scripture was her gurantee that God would protect her from the thing that had just happened to her, so she reminded Him of it. “I am covered with feathers!” she yelled at the top of her voice.
The purse-snatcher was so confused that he dropped the purse and took off at the double of his former speed. And so the Word of the Lord delivered the woman from her enemy, according to His promise, because the woman did not just hear it, she acted on it.
In the midst of trouble, the doer of God’s Word acquires experience to give him hope for the next time. It is a constant and glorious regenerative process. A hearer, on the other hand, is exercising only his hearing mechanism. His ears get bigger while the rest of him weakens. His feet go to sleep and stay there, and he deceives himself by saying, “well, I know my heart is right, so I do not have to be a doer of the Word. I will just let other people tend to that. I will stay where I am comfortable and safe. When a man has that sort of attitude, he is not benefited, and God is not glorified.
When we become doers of the Word and not hearers only, we never find ourselves dying of boredom in a channel somewhere. Being King’s Kids in action is a lively business. It can get you thrown out of some interesting places, but it can introduce the power of God in some interesting places too. It is worth the risk. When the power of God is manifested through a King’s Kid in action.
Source: Pastor Jonah - UEC Ministries and Harold Hill
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[ecko_quote source="1 Thessalonians 5:16-18"]Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you [/ecko_quote]
How can you know that you are in the centre of God’s will at every moment and have no doubts about it? The answer to this great question is clearly given in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians: “Rejoice evermore, Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you (1 These 5:16-18)
These verses are clear to understand without any Greek interpreter. They guarantee that we are in the centre of God’s will at all times when we are rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks. We protest, “that is too simple; I have got to do something about and louse it up somehow”. But it is right there in the Word of God. Crystal clear!
An important part of doing God’s will has to do with the use of a very small organ of our bodies, the tongue. The tongue has everything to do with the course of our life. In the Book of James, God says “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. … and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell (3:2-6)
Here God is saying that the tongue directs the course of our lives much as a rudder does a ship, or a bit in the horse’s mouth guides the horse. A couple of ounce of steel in a thousand- pound horse does not sound crucial, but that is how you steer him. The tongue is to the body and to the Christian life, as the rudder is to the ship, and the bit to the horse. When the tongue is used negatively, as “a world of iniquity”, it produces a lot of things that are second best.
If I am a Christian and I am complaining and grumbling, the world does not know that I am any different from pagans. My spirituality is gone, my testimony has departed, and my effect in dispelling the world of darkness has flown the coop because I have chosen to magnify the problem by motor-mouthing about it instead of magnifying the answer by praising Jesus.
When, right in the midst of whatever is going on, I say “Lord, I am going to thank you for one reason, because “You said to, “immediately I enter into a new dimension. Do you think it sounds scary, altogether crazy, to praise God when things are falling apart all around? That is all right. Nowhere does God say that praising Him will make any sense to finite minds; He just says,” Do, it. And then you can know that you are in my will”. Where we are in His will, we are in line to experience perfectly answered prayers.
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