I am sure from the title that you think I am going to give you an automobile tip. But today’s post is not about cars, but our Spiritual lives or our faith walk. Just as cars cannot go far without oil, neither can we go very far without the anointing of God or our Spiritual Oil.
The Bible talks about keeping your lamp trimmed. Most people today would not understand what it means to trim your lamp. Modern day lamps run on electricity or battery. During the times of the bible people used oil lamps. The lamps would burn by the oil being absorbed by a string known as a wick.
When lighting an oil lamp for the first time, you have to make sure the oil has absorbed into the wick or you are just burning string. Anytime after that first time, you must trim off the edge that’s burnt before you light it or it will not burn well. It is not very bright. We have to keep our wick trimmed.
Our Spiritual lamp we have to remove all the dead stuff, all the past stuff. All the things that are hindering our light needs to be cut off and out of our way so that our light can shine. But an empty lamp will not burn either. It has to have oil.
Our light will not shine as Christian’s if we do not keep our wicks trimmed. We need to make sure to keep a check on our lives. Sin, complacency, or procrastinating can cause our lamps to not burn as bright. We do not want to end up like the five foolish virgins found in Jesus’ parable.
Matt 25:1-10 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. 2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
All ten were good moral women, five were prepared and five were caught unaware. In other words, our morality will not save us. Being a good person will not save us. We have to be filled with oil, in other words, we have to have the Holy Ghost of God living and dwelling within us. Oil is another word for anointing of God or the Holy Ghost. We have to have prepared for the marriage supper of the Lamb, before the trumpet sounds and Christs returns to gather his bride.
We cannot be a light if the light is not within us.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The light of life, is the Spirit of God, the comforter, the Holy Ghost. He has to be within us in order for that light to shine.
Matt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
It is time, in this world of darkness, to go out and let our light shine. Take time to trim our lamps and make sure we have plenty of oil. Our light will keep burning brightly, because our supply is renewed day by day. All we have to do is look to him and let our light shine.
In an ever-changing world full of noise, it gets even harder to find our peace. But God’s beauty is all around us. All it takes is a walk in the woods or by a lake to feel his presence. It is nice sometimes to have peaceful, quiet time alone with God. In the still of the evening, as the sun sets, it is like he is whispering, I am here, and I am listening.
God is always listening. Imagine waiting all day for your child to stop and take time to talk with you and everyday they say, “Thanks for everything you did today, Please, give me this and I need that, good night.” I have been guilty many times of the hit and run prayer.
I am trying to slow down and soak in the beauty of God’s presence. I don’t even have to be at the beach at sunset or walking by a quiet stream. Sitting quietly alone in my recliner with my eyes shut listening for his still small voice to talk to me works on rainy and chilly November days.
“I say, I trust you Lord. The evening news is scary, but I know you will take care of your people.”
Then I listen again. Waiting for him to speak to me. Although I do not hear audible words. He speaks to my heart and I feel peace surround me. It is like a warm blanket by the fire on a snowy day.
Zeph 3:17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
This verse reminds us to find comfort in God’s presence. Think about a baby in its mother’s arms. It sleeps in perfect peace, it doesn’t care about the economy, or rumors of war. It doesn’t worry about its next meal or if it has a roof over its head. It just rests in the safety of its parents arms.
This is how we need to be, not allowing worry, fear or anxiety to overtake us. But to rest in his presence and find peace in his arms. He will watch over us. We have to trust that he will take care of us.
Think about what all God has done for his people over the years. He protected them from a great flood, he set them free from Egypt by destroying their enemy, he proved who he was on Mt. Carmel when Elijah prayed fire down from heaven. He took an army of 300 men and Gideon and defeated a massive army. He caused Jehosophat’s enemies to destroy each other before he reached the battlefield. He sent Abraham a sacrifice of a ram to spare Isaac. Giving Abraham insight as to what God must be feeling when we sent his son Jesus to die for us all. He made an incredible way for us to be free from our enemies. Why should we worry, why should we fear, Jesus is always near and waiting for us to curl up in the peace and safety of his arms.
It doesn’t matter what things look like, we have to walk by faith and rely on our God to supply what we need. Everything we need can be found in Him.
I want to talk to you about Purity. Our lives are so full of contamination we do not know what it is like to have pure air, food, water or soil. We are overrun by chemical companies and people with not so pure agendas against us. Hopefully, that will change in the near future.
I want to talk to you about our spiritual purity. Our God is a God of purity. He doesn’t want us to allow our spiritual lives to become contaminated. Just as in the natural, our spiritual airwaves, our spiritual food and water and our soil. The enemy has bombarded our minds with music, movies and TV that is full of things that will contaminate our spirit.
So many churches have let down on the standards of purity that is in God’s word and they are feeding people only half truths and contaminated spiritual water. Any pastor that stands in the pulpit week after week and doesn’t warn his people about sin, is the problem. We need the old fashioned preachers that preach hell so hot that it makes us want to live right.
As charcoal is one way to neutralize many contaminates, God’s word will neutralize the things of this world. Charcoal is made from burnt wood. It has to go through the fire in order for charcoal to be formed. As we go through the fiery trials of life, the impurities get burned out of us. What is left behind can help someone else to figure out how to be pure in the sight of God.
I Peter 1:6-8 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Gold, when it is mined out of the earth, contains impurities; the gold is heated until it is in liquid form. As the liquid is heated, the impurities burn up. Then the gold is ready to be used, it is shiny and pure.
When God’s Spirit comes into our lives, we should shine with the love of God. I never want to leave out how important the blood of Jesus is to the process of us cleaning up our lives. The blood of Jesus neutralizes the sin in our lives.
Hebrews 9:22 – And almost all things are by the Law purged with blood: and without shedding of blood is no remission.
As the body of Christ, we have faced some rough times lately, but we have stood as a whole and prayed for our country. We have stood against the enemy and all the evil in this world. God has honored our efforts and will continue to work things out as we go forward if we stand strong and keep up the good work. We are too close to the final harvest to allow the enemy to destroy the crops.
Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
We cannot get battle-weary and give up. We are too close to everything being like we have prayed for so long. If we get weary now and give up, too many souls will be lost. Too many are depending on us to stand strong and hold the line. Keep standing strong against the enemy.
Matt 11:28-29 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
As most of you know, I normally use the King James Version. All the scriptures I use come from there unless I tell you differently. I really liked how the message version summarized these verses. I am going to share that with you.
Matt 28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” –THE MESSAGE
I love how it says that if you come away with me, you will recover your life. Because our lives should be so wrapped up in Jesus that we must be with him to find our lives. When it says I will not lay anything heavy or ill-fitting, I think about how a soldier’s armor is built to fit them like a glove. When we put on the whole armor of God, it fits us perfectly.
We truly have freedom in Jesus. If we can keep our focus on him, we will not become battle-weary. We will recover our pure life with no contamination from the world.
The Hebrew word for God our provider is Jehovah Jireh. Many take this to mean monetary things. Although it does mean he will give us what we need to sustain us financially, there are many other things it can mean.
Jesus always came on the scene and read the situations. He knew immediately what everyone was in need of that day. The woman with the issue of blood. It was not lawful for her to be near a crowd. When Jesus asked who touched him, I can imagine her heart sinking within her. She probably thought he was going to condemn her.
Luke 8:43-48 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, 44 Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?46 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. 48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
Jesus told her that her faith had made her whole. He didn’t condemn her like the Pharisees would have made a large display of their disapproval. Jesus could see her need and offered no condemnation. He provided what she needed in that moment beyond her healing. He offered her compassion. He gave her comforting words and told her that she was made whole.
The story of Abraham taking Isaac up to the mountain top to sacrifice his son. It is another story of provision. Abraham’s faith in God was strong. He probably didn’t know exactly what God was going to do. But he trusted the process. He walked into the testing time with great faith in God. He knew God as Jehovah Jireh. He had waited many years and the Lord gave his Isaac as just the right time.
When Issac asked where the sacrifice was, Abraham answered the Lord will provide.
Genesis 22:13-17 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. 15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Have you ever thought about the ram? God provided it for a sacrifice instead of Issac. But if it had been caught in the thicket any other way than by it’s horns it would not have been suitable for a sacrifice.
As a type and shadow of Jesus our spotless sacrifice, the animals they brought for sacrifice had to be without blemish. God allowed the ram to get caught in the thicket but to not have any other cuts or blemish. What God provides for us is always without flaws. He is the perfect planner and knows what we have need of before we even ask.
When Israel left Egypt, they could not have even begin to imagine what all they would need. God provided everything. He was their light to guide them, a cloud to keep them from being overbaked by the sun. He met their needs for food and water. He protected them from the Egyptians enslaving them again.
We should not try to put limits on God. He is limitless, all powerful. There is nothing that he cannot do. We do try to limit him because we want him to work in a way that seems logical to us. But he sees the big picture and knows what is best for us.
I hope what I have said today will help you to think about the Hebrew name for God our provider in a different way. I hope it will expand your thoughts about Jehovah Jireh. Not only does he provide for our financial needs, but he is our healer, protector, encourager, teacher, friend and the savior of our souls.
Whatever you need today, look to Jesus and trust in him. He will be there with the answer at just the right time. Because he is Jehovah Jireh.
We are all broken or have been broken in many ways. Until Jesus. I was thinking about the wholeness of God. Wholeness is completeness, having our mind, body and spirit healed and aligned with God’s will for our lives. Jesus said to many people go and sin no more, in other words they brought on brokenness by sin. Others he healed them and told them to be made whole. It is easy to sit in judgment and think that something we did caused our problems. Sometimes it is not because we have committed a sin, but because we are under attack of the enemy. The cause is not as important as the wholeness.
In John chapter 5 is the story of the pool of Bethesda.
John 5:5-10 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
You can almost guarantee when Jesus moves, the enemy will come along and try to steal your joy. Think about this man, he suffered for thirty-eight years, he miserably laid by this pool every day. Wishing and hoping for a miracle. He was focused on being the first one in the pool after the angel troubled it. But someone always beats him to the water.
Think about the excitement when he realized the water was troubled. Yes, could this be my turn, he would think? Only to have those hopes dashed, as someone else beat him to the water and was rejoicing that they were healed. All the many people over the years, all the disappointments. His whole life was about his brokenness. Emotionally, that had to take a toll on him. Laying there day after day. Physically he needed healing too. This is why Jesus asked if he wanted to be whole. Jesus had the power to make him whole and complete.
Jesus healed him and told him to take up his bed and walk. In other words, now that you are healed, you do not have to stay here any longer. Go on your way. But almost immediately, the enemy came and started in on the man. The Pharisees started with their legalism. Telling him he could not carry his bed on the Sabbath.
Satan always comes along and tries to steal our healing, but putting symptoms back on us. He will always send people to speak negatively. We cannot allow the enemy to steal our joy, our healing, our peace. We have to hold onto that wholeness.
Matt 9: 10-13 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
The Pharisees wanted to tell everyone else what to do. They wanted to inflict their rules. They were in need of being made whole also, but in a different way from the man at the pool. They needed spiritual healing and didn’t even realize it.
When they gave him a hard time about eating with publicans and sinner, he replied those who are whole do not need a doctor, but those who are sick. In other words, you will never win the lost if you do not treat them with respect and without legalism.
Psalms 147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
He is the great physician, He has just the right remedy for whatever ails us. Wounds at that time were wrapped in clean cloth they called this binding up a wound. He has the power to heal and make whole every broken or wounded place.
Col 2:9For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.
We have wholeness within us if we are a child of God. In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead and he dwells withing us. So it stand to reason that we have all we need already within us. We just have to learn to yield ourselves to his spirit. Then and only then will we walk full in the completing of his work within us.
Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
We are complete in him, or we are made whole in him.
The title of today’s episode: INTENTIONAL CHRISTIAN -PART 3
For two days I have shared with you about being intentional in our faith walk. If you missed them, go back and check out the other two videos. Today I want to talk about being intentional with your circle of friends and sphere of influence.
Everyone in our life is there for a purpose. Some are there to strengthen us. Some are there for us to help. Some are sent by the enemy to test us and draw us away from God. Others God allows, because they are sandpaper people. These are the people that rub us the wrong way and drive us to our knees. They are in our lives to remove our rough edges and teach us how to walk in love, even when we don’t necessarily feel it.
The word separate means two distinct units or things. It means to have a boundary between two things as a divider to make one thing become two.
2 Cor 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
I have often heard this verse used by people trying to keep a Christian from marrying a sinner or someone of a non-Christian faith. This is true in that case, it is not good to marry a sinner or someone without your same belief systems. One will always end up caving in and going along with their spouse. Sometimes it is a good thing and they both end up being followers of Christ. But more often than not the Christian will backslide to get along with their spouse.
This is true for your friendship circle. I have a lot of people that I have worked with over the years, and some are outer circle friends, some are closer circle friends. I have friends that do not believe like I do that I love dearly and trust. We have open dialogue and have agreed to disagree. But we still have discussions about God and faith. A little closer to me are those who believe in God and the power of prayer. But there are few that are my inner circle of friends, my prayer partners. I know they will run headfirst into a battle with satan himself for me. All these circles are separate in my life.
The closer and smaller the circle the more influence. I only allow the inner circle to influence my life’s choices. The outer circles are there for me to influence. Those whom I have agreed to disagree. I still love them are want what is best for them, but I don’t go out drinking with them on Friday night.
I said all of that to say this, we cannot allow the outer circle of people to get in the way of our faith walk. We have to be intentional about who we allow to influence us. But we cannot be like some who legalistically says, The bible says we need to be separate, so I cannot have anything to do with anyone who doesn’t believe like me. I cannot have a discussion with someone from another denomination, they may confuse me and cause me to fall.
Being intentional means to be secure in our belief system. We need to know why we believe like we do. Then we would not be swayed by another denomination that doesn’t believe like we do. We will not be swayed by a sinner.
We will never win the lost or confused if we do not keep an open dialog with them. They will never find Christ if we are not walking in God’s love and being kind to them. It is all about balance.
2 Cor 6:14-16 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
We need to be intentional about our belief in God. Many have sold out to a denomination or religious idea. They have specific ideas of what it means to be a Christian. We have allowed these denominations to become our god in many ways. We have taken the beliefs and made them our idea of Christ. We see HIM through the filter of our church doctrines.
It is time to see the real him. Christianity is not as complicated as we have made it. The modern church has become like the Pharisees adding rules and ideas that are supposed to help us in our walk with God. When all they do is add heavy burdens to young backs.
How do we fix it?
Question everything we have been taught except the basics of the plan of salvation. Do not get caught up in legalism. But we cannot compromise either. We cannot go places that are complete darkness under the guise of trying to build a relationship with someone.
The word says to not touch the unclean thing. Like my example of going out drinking on Friday night. I could go and sit at the table and sip soda. But the atmosphere would not be good for me. It would hurt my witness if others found out I was there, even if I didn’t do anything wrong.
The word says let not your good be evil spoken of, so we have to guard our actions.
Prov 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Iron sharpeneth iron, but if your friend is not the same as you, if they are not iron, then you don’t get any sharper and you could do damage to them. We have to walk carefully. We have to be intentional about our relationships with people. We have to understand our purpose in their lives and them in ours.
Before you allow someone to give you advice, consider the motivation of that advice. If we are not intentional about those around us, we will be influenced by the wrong people. Think today about your sphere of influence and your circle of friends. Share the good news of Jesus with someone outside of that circle today.
After I finished shooting Episode 223 Intentional Christian Part 3 for this morning. I felt like God really wanted the one I had planned on for Friday. I thought about it and prayed into it. I feel like someone really needed this video today about peace. So they will be uploaded out of order. But I this is God’s channel. I want to always do what I feel he wants for me to do.
There are three main types of peace. Peace with God, Peace with yourself and peace with others.
First, I want to discuss Peace with God. If we surrender our lives fully to God we can have a peace that passes all understanding. There is a comfort in knowing that God is not separated from us. When we walk in sin, God is separated from us. If we do not repent of that sin and make things right, we will end up in hell for all eternity.
The peace in knowing we can say and truly mean, “It is well with my soul.” is the greatest peace known to mankind.
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
When the Spirit of God comes into a believer’s life to dwell, He brings peace.
Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
The second type of peace that is a little harder to achieve is peace with ourselves. It is easy to look around and get caught up in the opinions of the world. We compare ourselves to how the super model looks and we feel bad about ourselves. We look at the rich and famous and their home, clothes and cars. It is easy to then have a tainted view of our own surroundings. We find that when life doesn’t go the way we wish that we internalize it and allow fear, anxiety and depression to take charge of our thinking and our words.
When we fall into this pattern of behavior, we are not having any form of peace with ourselves. We cannot even allow the peace of God to flow in our lives. There is no peace in fear of the unknown. It is easy to get caught up in the what if’s and become anxious. When we realize that God loves us and that he made us all unique it is a little easier to find peace.
We are in charge of our thinking. We are the only ones that can control the words of our mouth that are poisoning our lives. We can find peace within ourselves when we learn to see ourselves through the lens of God’s word.
Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Peace is a fruit of the spirit. The more we walk in God’s ways the more we develop the fruit of our Christian walk. It all starts with Peace with God then it carries over to peace with ourselves. We soon learn to forgive ourselves. We learn to accept who we are and our limitations. Embracing what God made us to be and do will give us that peace with who we are and why we were created in the first place.
The third type of peace is having peace with others. It is impossible to get along 100 percent of the time with certain people. They are miserable and want everyone around them to be miserable. They hate us for being happy and do not want to hear or embrace our answer for their misery. The answer of Jesus Christ.
Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
We need to try to walk in peace with everyone. Sometimes the only way to have peace with someone is to part ways. This is never easy, we have an instinct to want to be liked by everyone. It doesn’t mean that we cannot pray for them to find Jesus. But when their presence steals your peace on a normal basis, it is time to pray about cutting them out of your life. A move like this should only happen when you feel like God lets you.
Romans 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
God wants us to try to get a long with people and have peace if possible. Sometimes it is not possible. That is when we turn it over to God and just let the situation go. Once in God’s capable hands we will get peace about the situation even if we don’t have peace with the individual.
God always works everything out for our good. He will either change them or remove them from our lives. We can walk in peace of all types as long as we have Jesus.
Do you have peace with God? Do you have peace with yourself? Do you have peace with others? Something to think about as you go about your day.
The title of today’s episode: INTENTIONAL CHRISTIAN PART 2
Yesterday, I started talking to you about being an Intentional Christian. Before I get into today’s video, I want to review what it means to be intentional.
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 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.
One way to be intention is to acknowledge God and give him thanks.
COL 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Many think that Thanksgiving is only a one day of the year holiday that falls before Black Friday. But Thanksgiving is a state of the heart. It aligns with gratitude. To be in a place that God can use us we have to be humble. He cannot use those with a proud spirit. Many verses speak about how we are to be humble.
I CHR 16:8-12 Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. 9 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. 10 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. 11 Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.
12 Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
When we share what he has done for us. It is life and encouragement to others. This is why we are to testify about His wonderful works in our lives.
We need to have a grateful heart. There are a few simple things we can do to develop a grateful heart.
One is to pay attention and look for opportunities to show people you care about and appreciate what they did for you. Simply meaning it when you say thank you. But think about the words when you say them, show sincerity.
Example: Have you ever gone through a drive thru at a fast food restaurant? The cashier hands you the bag with your order inside and says, with a tone like they don’t care, they mumble, “thank you have a nice day.” You don’t feel like they meant it, but were being coerced to say it.
But you go through another time and the person is friendly and smiles. When they say the words, they are intentional and act like they mean it. It makes you want to go back to that restaurant.
We need to pay attention to our attitude when we say thank you and be intentional.
We need to talk to God outside of our prayer time. Remember yesterday, pray without ceasing. We need to be intentional to acknowledge God is with us.Make a habit, before your feet hit the floor each morning to focus and thank God for waking you up. Thank him for the blank slate ahead of you. Depending on your day this could also be a good way to get your mind set ready for your devotional time and prayer time.
Some people get all legalistic that you should read your bible and do your study at the beginning of the day. But not everyone is wired to do that and not everyone’s life is structured so that can happen. I think God understands if we don’t spend two hours in devotions every morning. As long as we start our day with gratitude and with prayer. But we need to find time in our day to be intentional about our study of the word and devotions.
You don’t have to be knelt down at an altar or on the floor to pray. It is good to have times that you are not distracted by anything else. But sometimes we just need to talk to God while we do routine tasks.
I used to drive an hour each way to work and back. That was my time to talk to the Lord and reflect on the things that I needed to do. I always, have worship music going, anytime I am in my car. I would sing and worship the Lord. Many prayers have been said behind the wheel of my car.
Sometimes, I have had to pull over when I was going through something that made me need to really dig down and pray hard. There is nothing wrong with pulling over in a safe place and focusing on prayer and worship. At one point in my faith walk, I considered that to be enough. It is like I checked off my prayer box for the day.
Our walk with God is not a check list. It is the way we live our lives. It should be intentional. Prayer time should be about lifting up others and asking God what he wants in our lives. This should come before any request we have of our own.
The second point under this category is at night, after your day is done. After you’ve said your prayers. Take a moment to just thank God for your day. If it was good then thank God for a good day. If it was a hard day or what we would consider bad, then Thank God for it also. (In everything give thanks) But we can thank him for helping us through it. We can be grateful that it was not worse. Then say I release the stress of this day to you Lord. I am thankful for a good night of rest ahead. Because he is better able to deal with it than we are capable.
I COR 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Understanding we have victory through God, will give us the encouragement we need to face another day. We have victory. There are times when we may not feel very victorious. Even in those times we have victory because of the blood of Jesus. We often don’t see things clearly because of our emotions. We can’t see the big picture of how things are going to work out. We feel like we are defeated, but that is the enemy’s way of distracting us from the goodness of God.
God is faithful to pull us through anything we face in life. When bad news hits us like a semi-truck, we don’t feel victorious. We feel pain that has flattened us and taken the wind from our lungs. God is right there making sure we have air in our lungs to just keep breathing.
He already sees the way we will rise from our ashes and hurt. He sees us victorious. Even when we cannot imagine ever being in a place of victory. The same thing goes for anyone struggling with an addiction. God sees them on the other side of that struggle. He sees them victorious. But they cannot imagine a time that they will have victory.
Job is the perfect example of this, he had the victory. God knew that he would not let his circumstance dictate his victory. Satan tried everything. To everyone things looked like Job would never have victory again. But he held onto God through the process. He came out the other side victorious. Victory was always there; they just couldn’t see it for the circumstances. (We walk by faith and not by sight)
God’s love is unfailing. Being intentional means we walk in God’s love. We show the world His love. It takes practice to be intentional. The more we pay attention to the leading of the Spirit the more of a light we are to the world.
Walking in love means we do things out of our love for God and man. Even if we don’t want to, even when we don’t feel like it. Love is an action word, a verb. Love is not a flowery feeling with the birds always singing, while butterflies dance about. Sometimes love hurts. At times it means doing the right thing through our pain.
Love is being genuine to the truth of God’s word. Standing for the right thing even if it disappoints someone or hurts their feelings. Walking in love is truly the way to be intentional as Christians.
Walking in love is not about saying the right things only, but in how we act out or do the right things with honesty.
1 JOHN 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
People can go through the motions of showing love to someone, but it’s fake. If we are intentional and just love people it will go a long way to winning the lost to Christ.
Ask yourself what you need to do to be intentional about your faith walk. Then go out today and share your faith with someone.
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.
Today is Veteran’s Day. I honor all those who have served our military. My dad and father-in-law, my Grandpa Long, my Uncle Brian and many cousins and friends. I also want to ask you to pray for those who are currently in the military. They signed up to serve our country, not knowing what they would face or where they would be sent. That is an act of faith.
As Christians, we become soldier’s in God’s Army not knowing what is facing us. But we step out in faith. We should be just as willing to go and do what the Lord wants us to do.
Today, I want to talk to you about acts of faith. The word of God is full of people that stood strong for the cause of Christ. The Old Testament is full of people that stood against false gods and the spirits behind them to worship Jehovah. When I think about Old Testament acts of faith, Elijah on Mt Carmel is one of my favorites. His faith in the one true God was strong. But no one would have known how strong, if he had not been willing to take a stand against all the prophets of Baal.
The New Testament example that we often use is when Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on water toward Jesus. This act of faith is often used to remind us that we all lose our God Focus at times. When storms of life come up, we can easily get our eyes on the storm and lose focus. I think this story is in the word to remind us of the beauty and strength of being the one to take that chance and step out in faith.
Time and time again, God proved who He was with many miracles. But behind every miracle was someone willing to trust God. Gideon would have surely lost the battle if he had gone in with a great army. Because God would have not fought for him. But he went in the name of the Lord and was obedient in faith.
I think about Jesus healing the man that was so sick his friends carried him to Jesus. But when they could not get to him, they climbed up on the roof and lowered him to Jesus. If it had not been for his friend’s acts of faith, he would not have received his healing.
James 2:14-17 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Our faith in God means nothing if we have not the works that come with obedience. Faith without works is dead. In other words, you can have faith that can move mountains, but if you don’t use it, it profits nothing. The mountain never moves.
Matt 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Jesus’ example to the disciples, was the mustard seed. All the faith in the world would not move that mountain, unless you say to the mountain, be thou removed. Faith is a word of action not a state of mind.
What does it mean to have faith as a grain of mustard seed. Many use the size of the mustard seed to mean you need just a little faith. Some bible translations even now say if you have a little faith as a mustard seed. But Jesus wasn’t talking about the size of the seed, but the purity.
The mustard seed, even though it is tiny, it will not mix with any other herb. It stays pure. If our faith is as a mustard seed, then it will be pure and not mix with doubt and fear. As the enemy tries to plant seeds of doubt and fear, our faith will say, satan I will not be afraid because My God has got this situation under control. Keeping our faith pure so that God can work his miracles.
We often talk about the great big miracles of the Bible. We talk about the faith of those who have gone before us. But the big miracles, like Elijah calling fire down from heaven, were all built on the many small steps of faith he had taken his whole life.
Each step makes us stronger and gives us better understanding of our faith in God. When we take that next step, we grow in wisdom and understanding. We also grow stronger in our faith.
I think about my grandpa saying that when he was starting his faith journey, he would take his Bible to the woods and pray and ask God for understanding. He said he would kneel down one place, and he would feel like God would nudge him to get up and move somewhere else. He said he didn’t know for sure at the time if it was God, but he did it just in case it was God. What difference would it make in that case if he had been wrong? But through obedience, he learned God’s voice and how to walk out his faith walk.
In order to be that soldier of faith, we need to be obedient and willing to walk by faith. Even when things are dark. Even when the storms are raging. Even when our natural eyes and mind do not see the way out of the storm. Stepping out in faith, walking out the acts of our faith will always bring the miracles we need.
GOD FOCUS--Psalm 34:3 O magnify the Lord with me.... 