Good Morning, today I want to touch on the foundation of a believer. We must first develop enough faith to believe that there is a God and his word is true. We must believe that he wants to save us from our sins. Developing faith is the beginning of having Godly wisdom.
HEB 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Without faith we cannot please God. He wants us to trust him. He wants us to believe in him and his word. Anyone who comes to him must believe or have faith that he is God. Some do not believe that God exists. He is a rewarder of those who believe in Him. Jesus desires for us to have faith and trust him. He will pour out blessings on his people.
Faith mean that we see things with our hearts that we cannot yet see with our eyes. We have to call things that are not as though they already are in our tangible world; like Abraham.
Our faith in God gives us a heart to help others. Our faith is a fruit or byproduct of God’s Spirit indwelling in us. We walk by this faith which helps us to grow and be a light to others.
I want to be found walking by faith and not by how the enemy would spin the truth to make things appear. We can not rely on how things seem, we have to see them through God’s eyes. We need to see them through the eyes of faith. Yes it may seem scary, but faith says that God will not leave us to deal with our troubles and trials alone.
Faith means that no matter what we are facing, we trust him. He will not fail us.
It doesn’t matter how far human beings sink, God is able to reach down and lift them out of their sin. As long as they do not go so far as to blasphemy against the spirit of God or the Holy Ghost. Many Christians have an epiphany moment where they cried out to God and he reached down and lifted them out of the pit.
Psalm 40:1-2 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
God will establish us. He will make sure the foundation under our feet is a solid foundation.
Is 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
We have no reason to fear, God is with us. He will give us strength and will give us the help we need. He will lift us up or hold us up to keep us from falling. We can be encouraged to know that God is with us.
He turns our mourning into joy. He gives us good things to replace the bad things. He gives us beauty for ashes. When the enemy tries to burn down our lives and we are left to mourn over what may have been. God is right there to give us peace and encourage us that he will give us a different outcome.
Is 63:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
Our lives are meant to glorify God. We cannot glorify him if we are sad and depressed all the time. I am not saying we will not walk through times of saddness and mourning. That is just life, but some people choose to live their lives in that state all the time. We were never meant to be void of joy. God will give us joy, if we will delight in him and give him praise. God will give us strength in our struggles.
We can be sure he will never abandon us to be overtaken by the enemy. God is there, all we have to do is call on his name and he will lift us up.
Thanks for watching,
Until next time,
BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS LIKE, SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ENCOURAGMENT
Make no mistake my friends we are in a war for the soul of our nation. Many souls hang in the balance and we have to tip the scales to the right side; God’s side. Far too long we have sat back and watched the enemy take territories, and all we have done is shake our heads and talk about how bad things are getting. Today is the day of salvation. Today is also the day we take our stand. It is time to go to battle.
2 Cor 10:4-5 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Weapons of our warfare are not carnal or physical because our battle is not carnal. Our battle is spiritual. But what happens in the Spirit realm manifests in the physical realm. People don’t show signs of sin in their lives until the enemy has placed sinful desires in their spirit. If they don’t take control and ask God to cleanse and remove the sinful lusts they will manifest in their lives.
Our weapons through God can pull down the strong holds of the enemy. Every thought that goes through our minds needs to be measured against the word of God. The battlefield is our minds. The enemy will tell us lies to see if we will believe them. Accepting those lies as truth is the beginning of our downfall. That is how the enemy gets a foothold.
James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
The body of Christ needs to be restored to shine God’s glory into the darkeness. It is time the church became like Nehemiah. He was trying to restore Jerusalem. The people had a mind to work. They would work with their weapons within reach. One place said they had a tool in one hand and a sword in another. We are fortunate because our tool and our weapon is the same, THE BIBLE. We can study it and learn it. Using it as a tool to further our understanding of God and his plans. But we can also take that powerful weapon and use it to defend against the attacks of the enemy. When he tries to whisper lies, we can combat those lies with the word of God. But that can only happen if we have studied it and know the Word.
The Bible is not the only way we fight our battles. Worship is our weapon too. The enemy hates it when we sing praises to God. The church sometimes forgets what worship is; it is singing praises to God and so much more. Worship takes the focus off of us and puts the focus on him. Worship means getting lost in his presence, when everything around you fades away and it is just you and Jesus.
Prayer is another weapon. We fight our battles on our knees. God will answer when we pray. Prayer is our God connection. It is our communication system that helps us to hear from God. He has promised to fight our battles. But we have to praise and pray for him to lead us where we need to go.
Matt 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
His word says he will open things up to us if we pray. Prayer helps us to boldly approach the throne. The significance of prayer is to help guide us and to reassure us that he is there. He is big enough to handle our biggest problems.
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
The effectual fervent prayer means passionate, not yielding or intense prayer will go a long way in getting God to answer.
We are living in intense times. The enemy is working overtime to destroy the body of Christ. He knows he is about to lose his foothold. Every day, he is roaming around trying to cause division and trouble. He is doing all he can through his people to destroy God’s people. Things look dark and may look darker before the light shines brightly. Look at Egypt, their darkness was so thick that they could not even get out of bed. But in Goshen where God’s people dwelled there was light. God will never leave us groping in the dark to find our path. He is the light of the world and he lives within us. We will always have light, even in the darkest world.
We have brace ourselves and make 100% sure our foundation is strong. If our feet are planted on a solid foundation, it doesn’t matter how much the enemy roars. We will be left standing strong when the enemy has given up.
The phrase brace for impact often is used when there is about to be a crash. It means get yourself in a position of protection. It is used on airplanes when they are about to crash. It means that people make sure they are buckled in and they bend down, using their arms to cover and protect their head. It is more broadly used in our society to mean get ready to ride out a difficult situation.
When one braces for an actual impact bracing will reduce injuries from a second impact. Like being belted in a seat will keep you from being tossed about, holding your arms over your head keeps them from flailing about and getting injured.
When we brace for impact, it could mean that we are preparing to deal with an attack from our enemy. We can be prepared by praying more and asking God to reveal what we need to know to face each day.
The enemy is seeking for anyone he can destroy. We have to make sure we are in a position of protection. Are we in communication with the one the can keep us safe from all the attacks of our enemy.
1 Pet 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Just because Peter used the analogy of a lion doesn’t mean we should be afraid of the enemy. He was speaking on some of the other attributes of a lion, like how they quietly sneak up on their prey. They will wait quietly for just the right moment to pounce. We have to be wise and know that the enemy is working hard to get us in a weak position. This is why he sometimes attacks on multiple levels.
But there is hope. Our God will fight our battles.
Ex 14:14 The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
We cannot allow ourselves to be overtaken by the enemy. We have to put on the whole armor of God and stand. It is time that we double down on prayer and seek God even more than ever before, He will protect us from the enemy.
We must overcome evil with good. Negative emotions or actions can cause us to want to lash out at people. Retaliating against the people when the enemy is at fault is the wrong thing to do. Look at Jesus and what all they did to him and he said, Father forgive them they do know what they are doing. That was because Jesus understood that they were being driven by our enemy satan.
Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
By putting on our whole armor and preparing to stand against the enemy is our way of bracing for impact in the spiritual realm.
Have you ever been in a place you question what is going on with your life? You are doing all the Christian things. You are praying every day for guidance. Then you realize that somewhere along the line you have taken back control from God. We surrender our lives when we become saved. We tell God, you are now Lord of my life. But slowly we take back control and start making our own choices. Maybe Paul was trying to tell us every day we must surrender control. That is why he said I die daily.
There is never a time we should get ahead of God because then we are leading and not following. We are not leaders of Christ but followers.
Psalm 37:23-24The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
I can see a young child at the beach trying to step everywhere their father had stepped. Because his height is greater it is hard for the child to step that far. They almost have to jump to reach the next step. We sometimes have to take a leap of faith that God will lead us as we go. We do not know what each step will bring into focus. We must trust God.
Be not weary in well doing, if we continue we will reap the reward. Allowing Jesus to be our guide we cannot go wrong. But sometimes he says, stand still and we have to wait on Him. He will always refresh us if we wait on him.
In other words trust in the Lord, don’t follow our thoughts or ideas, in everything we do we must acknowledge him and he will keep us on the right path.
Prov 3:5-8 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
As we acknowledge him in every aspect of our lives, he will give us direction and guidance. We have to keep our heart set on Jesus. If we can keep our heart right and focused on the things of God then it makes it easier for God to direct our steps, because we want to go where he leads us.
Prov 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.
Every day our prayer should be Psalm 119:133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
Being a goal-oriented person who loves a to do list, it is hard for me to give up control, even to God. I often have way more on my list than I can accomplish in a day. I struggle at times finding quiet time alone with God, except in my car. The Lord and I have some good times driving along. The quiet time alone with God is how we gain strength. I can always tell when I haven’t had enough quiet time. I can see that I am starting to take back control. When this happens I have to have a long talk with my Lord and tell him that I surrender all, all over again.
Then he will reach down and fill up the empty places in my thirsty soul, before encouraging me to once more go out and reach the lost before it’s too late. You too can surrender it all to God once again. He is waiting to guide your steps, if you will let him.
Thanks for watching,
Until next time,
BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS LIKE, SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ENCOURAGMENT
How often does something come into our lives that shakes us? The enemy will often send adversities to trip us up. If he can’t stop us, he will do all he can to slow us down and get us to become self-centered. We will start to be concern about our situations or how we are feeling physically as he attacks us with sickness.
We can have hope in Jesus. Looking to him will give us the strength we need to stand on his promises. We have to use the word for our foundation. We have to stand on the promises in the Bible.
If our issues is financial, he is our provider.
Phil 4:19-20 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 20 Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
If the enemy comes to tell you that you are depressed and that you are losing your mind. If we are not careful we will fall into this trap and start speaking that we are going crazy. This is a lie from the pit.
2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
If we have accepted depression, suicidal thoughts will soon follow, because the enemy will drag you so far down that you feel there is no way out. But that too is a lie of the enemy. God has a plan for our lives and it is not to be stuck in depression.
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Jesus died so that we would not have to fight our battles alone. Everyone in life will have battles. If we are just or unjust, however, the enemy will try to magnify the issues of the just. We just have to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might and resist the enemy. Tell him we are not going to believe his lies.
We all have things come up when our bodies get out of alignment with the way they were designed to operate. When this happens, we must speak the word of God over our bodies, we must come into alignment with what the word says about our condition.
Is 53:3-5 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
He bore our sins, our sickness and our pain in his own body. His sacrifice was to give us an abundant life. Are we going to align our thinking with the word of God or the lies of the enemy?
Now is the time for us to come together and fight the lies of the enemy. The truth needs to be known. God is a God of love and truth. He never made a promise that he will not keep.
I want to leave you with one final scripture today to uplift and encourage you.
Isaiah 40:28-31 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
As children of the MOST HIGH GOD, we just have to keep trusting and waiting upon the Lord he will renew our strength. We may sometimes feel like we wait and wait and nothing happens. But actually, he is giving us strength minute by minute, just to keep holding on until whatever we are praying for comes to pass.
Be encouraged, God is on our side, He will never leave us to fight our battles alone.
THE TITLE FOR TODAY’S EPISODE: I DON’T NEED A SAVIOR
In our world there are people that are blinded by the enemy. They actually believe in their self-sufficiency and feel like they don’t need a savior. They will say, “I am a good person.” I have to ask, good by who’s standards. The word of God says that we all have sinned and fallen short.
How do we get through to those who are satisfied with their life of sin? Let us look at a few verses.
Many times, when we try to witness to this type of person, they will say that they are not condemned of their sin. As Christians we feel conviction by the Holy Ghost when we step out of line. Sinners do not have that tugging of the Spirit to make them want to step into line. But God’s Spirit will draw them to him. They must be willing to yield.
John 3:17-20 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
When they say they are not condemned, they mean that the enemy has them blinded to the fact that they are lost. They are blinded to the fact that they need God.
John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
We need to point out that God’s wrath will abide on the unbeliever. They will not see everlasting life. The gift of God is eternal life. We cannot receive his gift if we are not willing to give up the old ways of doing things.
Society has told people that God is Love and he will not let anyone perish because of that Love. They completely miss the fact that God gives us free will. He will not override that will, we have to choose him.
Matt 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This verse explains what happens when someone resist God’s invitation. That doesn’t mean that God is not loving. It means he loves people enough to give them their choice. If they choose to not follow Christ, they automatically default to being a follower of satan.
2 Pet 2:4-6 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
We need to share our own experience. We need to tell them how God has changed our lives. Sometimes it takes someone hitting their rock bottom before they will listen. We just have to show them love and pray for them to hear the whisper of God. Hopefully, they will come to the realization that they do very much need a savior.
Human beings have an overwhelming desire and thirst for knowledge. History has judged Eve too harshly. She made a bad choice and trusted the wrong voice. If we are honest, I don’t believe one of us could say that we haven’t been taken in by someone who was manipulative.
But I want to discuss with you today the garden itself. God gave them everything they needed. There was peace in the garden. It was a place that God came down and talked to Adam and Eve. He desired people to commune with and he wanted to be their God.
When given a chance to be thankful for what God had done for them, they were disobedient. It should not have mattered the amount of knowledge that the tree would give them if their friend asked them to not eat of that tree. Even the threat of death didn’t stop them from seeking knowlege.
Adam can blame Eve all he wants, but he knew they were being disobedient. That is why God kicked them both out of the garden. That didn’t stop God’s desire to communicate with mankind.
He made a better way. He sent Jesus to die for our sins, so that his spirit could dwell within us and commune with us. God is still wanting someone to talk with, just as he came down to the garden and talked with Adam and Eve, he wants to talk to us.
Prayer time should not just be a quick thank you for what you have done, here is my wish list, thank you, Amem. Prayer time should be us quietly worshipping until he speaks to us. Now more than ever before we need to know his voice. We need to not be deceived by the sneeky snake.
Just as Adam and Eve got kicked out of the place God created, many church leaders have listened to the enemy and have eaten the forbidden fruit. These evil pastors have large followings, because they give people a feel good fifteen minutes. He never tells them to choose life and not death. The best way to know if what is being preached at your church is God’s truth, is to know the word for yourself and ask God himself for direction.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
God gave the church his spirit, not just so that we could witness, as some say. But he gave us his Spirit so that we can be connected to God. He didn’t fill us with His Spirit just so we could speak in tongues and rejoice, but so that we could be empowered by God to do his will. So that we could be led by His Spirit. If we will listen to the leading of the Holy Ghost we will not be misled by the snakes of this world.
The Holy Ghost is not given to us so that we can become self-righteous and judgmental. He came so that we could have a connection to God. One that will lead us to fulfillment. God’s desire is to have a relationship with us. His Spirit will show us things to come. If we take the time to sit quietly and wait up on him to speak to us through that still small voice.
God desires for us to worship him in Spirit and Truth. He doesn’t want us going through the motions. He wants us to be led by His Spirit and not our will.
WELCOME TO GOD FOCUS THIS MORNING, THE TITLE OF TODAY’S EPISODE: PREVENTION
There is an old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Which means we have to take action now and not put things off because they will always get bigger. Sometimes we have to press through a little bit of pain or being uncomfortable to prevent something worse.
Prov 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
For example, someone who has knee replacement surgery. There is a long process of recovery. Physical therapy is painful and it is hard to push through, I am told. But I know a woman that refused to do her therapy and she cannot bend her leg. That in it’s self-causes a lot of issues she would not have to deal with if she had simply pushed through the pain of therapy.
The enemy comes along and causes issues. He starts to build strongholds. We can either fight to break the stronghold or our future self will suffer the consequences. Future generations of our lineage will have to deal with the same issue. It is called a generational curse and many people have had to fight things that their parents and grandparents refused to conquer. For example, alcoholism.
The enemy will always try to get us bound up in things that keep us distracted from growing in Christ. We cannot run this race until we can walk. In order to walk we may have to do some spiritual therapy. We may have to do some stretching and strengthening of our spiritual muscles.
Do not allow the enemy to trip you up. Prevent the stumbling blocks of the enemy from becoming strongholds. He is determined to bind us up. We have to be just as diligent and determined to not let him get the upper hand. We have to fight that good fight of faith and stand strong. Allowing God to keep our feet on the right path.
Stumbling is all a part of the therapy; we may even fall down. There is no shame in stumbling, we are human. But we have to make a course correction and stay diligent about our course.
Being vigilant about our faith walk will prevent the enemy from getting a strong hold.
Every day we have choices to make; do we have bacon and eggs for breakfast or grab a sweet roll and hit the road. Most of us live our lives at a fast pace. Every minute is accounted for and then some. With jammed packed schedules it is easy to allow the enemy to place small annoyances in our way.
As children of God, we cannot lose our focus on what really matters; our faith walks and spending time with God. It is easy to fall into frustration when everything we do or say gets turned into a mess. This is when we need to stop and find a quiet place to pray. Ask God for his strength and help. We cannot be a light to the world if we lose our God focus. He must be the center of our day.
Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Developing an attitude of gratitude will go a long way with keeping us on track. When we focus on things above, we keep our focus right. Negativity has no place in the life of a Christian. The very description of the word means that Satan is in charge of our words. He subtracts and divides, he creates negative things. He makes thing appear worse than what they really are.
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
One way we can have an abundant life is if we pray and speak life. Positive words will always keep our focus going the right direction. Speaking faith, speaking life is the very foundation of our relationship with God.
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
People need to be built up. They need encouraged in their faith. When we speak life and positive things it will encourage and edify others. It all comes down to the choices we make do we choose positive life affirming words or negative things that will draw the enemy.
It is best if we choose to speak life, speak words of grace and speak Jesus.
All through Bible history God’s people would do the right thing for a while and have a firm grasp on their God focus. Then the enemy would come along and offer them shiny choices and before long they would lose their focus. Before long they had completely abandoned God and were worshipping a false idol.
There are many passages about choosing the right path and choosing to live for God. It is a choice we make daily by our actions. We need to be found doing what God has created us to do, time is short and the world needs Jesus.
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Elijah on the top of Mt. Carmel said something similar when Israel started following the prophets of Baal. Right before God sent fire down to prove he was God, Elijah said,
1 Kgs 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
When you wake up, thank God for allowing you to see another day. Develop an attitude of gratitude. This will start you on the path to making the right choices for the day. Some choices doesn’t have long term effects. It doesn’t matter if you have bacon and eggs or opt for the sweet roll on the road. But it does matter that we choose to stay connected to God. Each day we must choose to follow closer than we did the day before, that is the only way we will win the lost to Jesus.
