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WELCOME TO GOD FOCUS THIS MORNING

The title of today’s episode: INTENTIONAL CHRISTIAN PT 1

Being an intentional Christian is all about just paying attention to the leading of the Holy Ghost that is within us. To ask God to help us hear His voice and leading.

The word intentional means: to do something on purpose or to be deliberate.

Deliberate means to do something consciously.

We have to make a conscious decision to spend time with God. Deciding to daily surrender to his leading.

If we are intentional Christians, we will make an effort to always do the right thing. We will walk with a purpose and pay attention to the direction of our path. We will purposely do what is ask of us by God. Both in his written word and by the leading of the Holy Ghost.

I want to start with breaking down I Thes 5:16-23.

I Thes 5:16 Rejoice evermore.

This means we praise him in our storms. We try to find the joy of the Lord even in adversity. Life is all about learning to live in God’s presence. Many live in God’s presence when things are going good for them. But when adversity comes, they try to handle things alone.

Others are the opposite, when things are going well, they forget about God. Then troubles come and they start searching for God’s help.

If we rejoice evermore, we’ll be constantly rejoicing in spite of our circumstances. We find strength in the joy of the Lord. We can rejoice in the knowledge that God is with us. His presence is not a condition of our circumstances.

  I Thes 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

This does not mean that we need to pray 24/7. It means that we are to have an awareness of God in everything we do. To acknowledge that he is there. It means that we can talk to him anytime. In quick bursts. Example: Like asking for help before a big interview for the dream job. Hopefully, many intentional prayers have been prayed and declared over the situation already, but the quick, “Lord, help me to not blow this opportunity. Help me to ace this interview today. But not my will, yours be done.”

This returns us to a place of calmness in God. It lets the joy we find in him become our strength. Notice how I added, not my will but yours be done?

There are times we think that the job we applied for is our dream job and we don’t get it. It is easy to be emotionally distraught and disappointed. However, we look back six months or a year later and realize that if we had been given that job it would have been in the way of our real dream job.

If we had been working where we thought, we needed to be then we would never have applied for the job we landed. Which turns out to be right where we needed to be all along.

We need to have a prayerful attitude all day. Looking to God for direction in all we do. 

 I Thes 5:18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

God sees the big picture of our life. This goes along with what I was saying on the last verse. We need to know that if something we thought we needed or wanted doesn’t work out that it is for our good. Even when we don’t see it at the time. We can be thankful for God using our disappointments to shape our lives.

God doesn’t want us to settle for Ishmael when God has Issac waiting around the corner. We didn’t realize that what we wanted, and he said no was actually Ismael. We can give thanks to God because He knows the difference.

I Thes 5:19 Quench not the Spirit. The Holy Ghost was given to the church to be our guide. It is the still small voice that gives us a sense of direction. It is our guide to right and wrong.

When we quench the Spirit, we are intentionally or unintentionally choosing to not listen. By quenching the Spirit, we are minimizing His role in our daily life. This leads to us walking in our own strength. 

We want to walk by faith and by the Spirit that is within us to guide us into all truth and righteousness. Even when He is telling us to do something that is hard. We need to follow the leading of God’s Spirit.

I Thes 5:20-21 Despise not prophesyings.  21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

These two verses go together. I know that many will tell you that prophecy has ceased. The only prophecy we have is what is in God’s written word. The same people will tell you that God told them to do this or that, they will explain that God told them something was going to happen. That is sort of a contradiction. Prophecy is real.

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. It is still this way today. In our technical world we need God’s guidance now more than ever, we need his prophecy.

Because prophecy will do five different things. It will bring edification, exhortation, comfort, revelation or foretell. It is like our spiritual five senses.

There is a whole lot that can be said about prophecy, and I will try to do a study later and go into detail. For now, let me just say, prophecy is very important to the body of Christ. It is relevant today.

Also let me warn you of something. Not everyone that says they are a prophet is the real deal. Many cults start with people that call themselves prophets. That is why it is important to have discernment, which is given by the spirit of God.

True prophecy with do one of the five things I listed above.  Prophecy will ALWAYS line up with the written word of God. God cannot commit sin. If a prophecy doesn’t line up with everything we know about the character of God and it goes against the written word. We can call that a false prophecy.

This is where verse 21 comes into play.  I Thes 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. God doesn’t mind us asking for clarification. He expects us to use wisdom and seek him for guidance. We are NEVER to blindly follow what someone says without seeing if it lines up with scripture.

I know that people go to fortune tellers and that there has been a lot of false stuff in the world. Just like all the fake faith healing ministries out there. It is the enemy’s job to distract from the real things of God. He wants to give people reasons to be skeptical. Satan cannot create, he can only manipulate and copy the things of God. He is good at his job.

How can we know? Ask God if you are unsure. He doesn’t mind our questions. He knows that we have them. He knows our thoughts before we think them. We can be open with him because he knows us.

The more we walk in the Spirit and stay in the word of God, the easier it is to discern the truth. Prophecy will always line up with the word of God. We hold fast or hold onto that which is good and dismiss the rest.

I Thes 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. In other words, we need to guard our actions. Sometimes we can do something that is completely innocent, but others look at it with eyes of judgment and it could cause issues.

The only example that comes to mind is an action of my pastor from many years ago.  There was a young couple at our church. They had a daughter who was about nine years old at the time. Our pastor’s wife would often babysit for them.

One night, the pastor’s wife didn’t attend service. The couple left their daughter at the church to stay with them that night. There had been recently in our town a story of an assistant pastor in another church being arrested on charges of child molestation.

After service our pastor asked us to stay with him and the girl at the church until his wife came and picked her up. Now the pastor and his wife were doing a good thing. They were helping that young couple out by giving the child a safe place for the night. Since both parents had to work.

But someone may have seen him driving around with a child that was not his grandchild and could have caused a scandal. People may have found out he was alone with the girl at the church for an hour. All sorts of issues could have arisen. The parents trusted him, he was worthy of that trust. But he wanted to guard his reputation since the ministry is always under attack. Because of all the false preachers and teachers in this world.

 Maybe this story falls into, “Don’t let your good be evil spoken of” but really, we need to safeguard our integrity.

I Thes 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The world will always find fault, and we should not be shaken by their opinions. We do not want to do anything to hurt our witness. God will preserve us blameless if we walk intentionally. Being intentional in our Christian walk is always about paying attention to what we are doing by keeping our God Focus.

Until next time,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

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