Why so Negative?

Negative news sells but why?  Could it be that people like to gossip and hear about others are suffering to feel better about themselves?  Or is just the nature of humans to hear something that is negative because of the shock value that it generally brings? I tend to believe that people like to use this type of information to help them feel that though they may be suffering, that someone is in a worst situation than what they are experiencing, which makes them feel better about themselves as a result. 

I believe that humans in their fallen state like to gossip and talk about what is wrong with a person before finding anything good to say because it appeals to the sin nature that we all have been born into.  Do you ever find yourself having a difficult time resisting the urge to gossip?  When the rumors start flying isn’t easier to participate than to resist the temptation?  I know from my experience it always has been a difficult one to stand up against.  When God allows us to hear something that is negative could it be that He is asking to stand in prayer for the person or people involved so that He can get glory out of a situation that the enemy of mankind, the devil is trying to snuff out and defeat.  Because the believer who is truly linked to Christ, has the spirit of an Overcomer living inside of them.  For Christ overcame it all to give us life.  Thus if we will tap into that power source that He provides we can overcome any and all opposition that opposes us and instead of becoming a casualty that the devil is able to sway and defeat, we can provide light in the darkness that reflects the Overcoming King who is able to shine through us into a world that needs hope and belief that there is One who truly cares.  

 

So the next time you are faced with an opportunity to fall into the trap of gossip and negativity just recognize it for what it is and resist the temptation.  The Bible says to “submit yourself unto God, resist the devil and he will flee from you”.  For to become like Christ we must take on His nature.  And as we recognize the devil and how he tries to play us then we are no longer held in bondage to this because “light and darkness cannot be in the same place” So shine the light on these situations and resist the devil and victory will be yours.

Why is Sacrifice Necessary?

What does the world have to offer that people try to run after it and thinks that it will provide them with the satisfaction that they seek?  Jesus said to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.  Could the answer that we all are seeking is to know God and to be in His presence, because in the presence of God there is fullness of joy.  Money, fame, possessions are all nice to have and enjoy, but if they are you are pursuing than you are not in a place that God would want you to be.  Greed will eat your soul alive and as you continue to try and feed it, you will find that you can’t be satisfied and eventually it will lead you to the death of you.

However if one should pick up his cross and follow the example of Jesus Christ, by laying everything down, by not making your pursuit of worldly possessions your goal in life, but instead be willing to get to know the Savior of mankind with all your heart and soul, then the things that God will bring unto you will be able to meet not only your needs , but the needs of others because your heart will be free to give unto those who are less fortune than what you are.  The biggest thing that God is after is the heart of man because He wants relationship with us.  If we get our hearts aligned with Him and His way of doing things than we can enjoy life to the fullest because we will no longer be controlled by our sinful passions and desires and will live a life that is full of peace and joy in Him. 

Remember the two great commandments that Jesus Christ taught.  To love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your strength and your neighbor as yourself.  Love covers a multiple of sins and if we as the Church are going to be relevant in the world we live in today than we need to allow His love to permeate us and be the reason why we exist so that the power of the cross can be properly demonstrated in a world that is looking for an answer to its sufferings and the power of evil which is keeping them suppressed.   For all of man is yearning to know God and we as His body must be willing to lead the way to hope and freedom by laying down our lives so that His name and person will be lifted up so that all men will see and know of the hope of salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ.  Will you join me in this crusade?  The choice is yours.

In the Beginning

When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden there was no rules stating on how they should live their lives.  They were in a perfect relationship with the Father and thus they communed with Him constantly.  The Ten Commandments were not necessary because they were loving the Lord their God with all their heart and each other as Jesus spoke about in the New Testament.

When they fell into sin they became separate from God and lost that intimacy with the Lord.  They could not find their way back as their spirit man lost the connection to the Lord.  But not only was that affected but so was their soul, which is their mind, will and emotions.  The Lord had to find a way to get His creation to realize just how far they had fallen.  He was able to begin that process by establishing the Law of Moses.

When the Ten Commandments came into play they were able to show mankind just how holy and good God is and how far we were separated from Him.  Before that time there was nothing established that could show us just how much we needed Him.  The Ten Commandments spoke to our souls and awakened us to that need. 

As men like Moses, David and Jeramiah tried to live up to what was laid out by the law they all fell short.  No matter how hard they tried God saw that mankind could not live up to the holy standard that He had set for them so He then proceeded to put phase two of His plan into action, the death of the Son of God.

God the Father had to find a man who could pick up the mantle that Adam had lost but every man after Adam was stained by the sin nature Adam had created by his disobedience so He had to find one who did not have that nature to pick up where Adam dropped the ball.

God knew that before Adam fell that He would have to send His Son to take Adam’s place, after all Adam was created in their image and since that image had been marred the only one who could fulfill the legal requirements of being sinless would have to come from the Godhead. Obviously God the Father could not go or the Holy Spirit, so Jesus chose to take the assignment and bring redemption for mankind by hanging on a cross and taking the punishment that man deserved for losing its position as God’s children through its disobedience. 

God’s plan has been to bring His children back into right relationship with Him since the Fall of Adam.  What He wants us to have is the same relationship with Him as it was in the Garden, where we are walking with Him and have deep intimate conversations with Him.  We are seated with Him in heavenly places so let us continue to pursue that which He died to give so that we may one day have the testimony of Enoch, “for he walked with God and he was and was not.”  In other words God will rapture us to Himself because He can’t wait to have us in His presence all the time.

Deliverance

Jesus Christ came to set men free from the effects of sin and the symptoms of that include sickness, depression, fear, and ultimately death.  When a person gets born from above and accepts Jesus as his Savior one’s spirit is alive unto God but their soul is not.  The soul of man contains one’s will, emotions and their mind or how they think.  And this is where deliverance needs to come so that the believer may walk into the fullness of who Christ made them to be.  The apostle Paul wrote that we need to renew our mind by the washing of the Word of God.  Deliverance will come as we align ourselves with God’s Word and the Spirit behind the Word.  

I am one who believes that a Christian can be oppressed and held captive by a demon in their thinking or in there body.  The spirit of a Christian cannot be held captive because the Holy Spirit lives there but the other parts of a man which includes his body and soul can be troubled by evil spirits.  I have seen this personally with people who have been under severe depression and yet were born again.  The spirit of depression held them in such bondage that suicide was one of the thoughts that was entertained.  God brought a supernatural deliverance during the night and they were free from the powers of hell as the Holy Spirit power surged through them.   Per Dr. Lester Sumrall, who was one of my father’s in the faith, there is seven steps to demon possession.  These steps are, regression, repression, suppression, depression, oppression, obsession and possession.  

As one can see from this list the steps of demon possession starts from a place where a person back slides from where they are in God and as the spirit of heaviness weighs them down they are further submerged into the darkness that the enemy brings. At the first couple of levels a person can get them own self free, but as they slide further down into the deception of the enemy the bondage becomes too great for them to get themselves free and it is at that point they need someone else to free them.
It is at that point those who are ministering deliverance need to be led by the Holy Spirit.  It is easy to do things in the power of the fleshly nature and not to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is revealing to help bring about the deliverance that the individual needs.   In fact one can bring harm instead of help because of this.  I have witnessed some of these moments and the wounds that are caused in the emotions of people can help to further strengthen the stronghold, instead of freeing a person.

Prayer is one of the weapons one can use when it comes to bring deliverance and with that comes the authority that a believer has in Christ.  When setting captives free don’t mess around with the spirit but command that spirit to lose its hold over the individual by using the authority that Christ has given you.  Praying the Spirit is also a most powerful way to tap into the mind of the Holy Spirit and follow His leading as you look to set the captive free.  Remember not all deliverance is instantaneous, sometimes deliverance can be a process so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results.  Remember you can only set someone free who wants to be free.  You can’t violate their will.  When deliverance is a process it is because there may be more than one evil spirit involved and one has to get to the foundation of that evil to bring complete freedom.  So you may be engaged and free them of some spirits that are a part of the main culprit but until he is found out freedom will not come.
As a believer don’t be afraid to minister in this area.  Like anything else it takes time to develop your gifts in this.  Continue to surround yourself with men and women of faith who have journeyed down this path to learn how to be more effective.  Let the Holy Spirit lead you and as you are obedient you will see captives get free.

Is Love a Weapon?

When one thinks of love in general one does not really think about the power it truly possesses to change the lives of people.  When I think of weapons I think of things like guns, or missiles, or cannons.  Thinks that can destroy or move an object out of my way.  But when one thinks about the Love of God and the power it possesses one begins to realize that it is the most powerful force in the universe when it is operating within the faith of God.  Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 13:13 faith hope and love abide but the greatest of these is love.  The Bible also declares that God is love.  Christ spoke of the love of the Father God between Him and Christ and prayed in John 17 that the love they have for one another would be manifested in the life of the Church among believers.

If we as Christ followers could truly tap into the love of God the way Jesus did we would be able to change entire cultures and atmospheres  because the love of God brings the manifest presence of the Lord unto the seen.  The Bible also teaches us if we hate our brother but say we love God we are a liar and the truth is not in us.  As we learn to pray for those who misuse use and who brings us harm we are manifesting forgiveness which is tied back to love.  For Christ and the Father God want us to show this love to the world at large.  If we are able to do just that we will change the world, because the most basic need of humans is to be loved by someone. God created that need within us so that we would seek Him out.  As we give of ourselves to others we are motivated to do so by love.  Love is a weapon that some may call a weak approach, but in reality it is the force that when used in the context God calls us to walk in that has and will continue to revolutionize mankind and bring the kingdom of Heaven to earth.  Who will want to join me in this?

The Kingdom of Heaven. What is it?

If you read through the Bible you see the phrase " The kingdom of Heaven is near or is upon you", what does that really mean.  For the past year the Lord has been teaching me about the Kingdom of Heaven and I am not saying that I fully understand everything about it what I do know I would like to  now share. 

Most people believe that we as believers are looking to make our way to heaven and that once we get saved and give our lives over to Christ that we must hold on and wait for Christ return or our passing from this life into the next.  Along the way we are suppose to help others find Christ but basically our mindset as believers has been one of holding the fort.   This is not the Kingdom of Heaven!  The Kingdom of Heaven is summed up in the Lord's prayer, " Our Father who  are in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven..."  Does Christ suffer sickness, fear, depression etc., in heaven?  No.  Christ has called us to be ambassadors of heaven to bring the atmosphere of heaven to earth.  He has called us to represent Him where ever we go. We are called to engage this world systems and to make it like Heaven.  After all, the Garden of Eden was like Heaven on earth before the fall.  Now if that was God the Father's originally plan for the earth than what we are called to help bring about is the reestablishment of this planet.  

That means we as believers need to bring heaven into our workplaces, into our homes, into government, educational systems, media and business.  We are called to be salt and light.  Is salt and light needed in heaven?  No these things are needed where things may be rotting and where darkness dwells.  God has called us to be Kings and Priests unto Him.  We as Kings exercise authority to make changes in the place that He has called us to dominate.  We are priests because we change the spiritual atmosphere where we are at by our worship to God. 

Church are you ready to renew your mindset and begin to think Kingdom?  I challenge you to pursue this.  If you do, it will change the way you see things and will help you realize the potential that God has given unto you.

Why Christians Should not Fear Death

When it comes to living in this world fear of death is one thing that dominates how we all have to deal with.  When one thinks about all fear whether it is of heights, or being in a tight crawl space or flying it all centers around the fear that death could be involved if the situation lives up to what our imagination has visualized.  Fear is the devil's faith.  God's faith is based on the fact that He wants us to believe Him for what He has promised us from His written Word.  Now I have been through the Bible quite a bit in my life time and I have yet to see where God wants to bring us harm.  The Bible declares in John 10:10, " That the enemy comes to kill, to steal and to destroy."  That is what the devil's faith will produce if we adhere to what he is preaching and wanting for us to confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts for.

God wants us to confess and believe upon the promises that He has given unto us.  Stand upon God's promises for the Bible declares the following in Deuteronomy 30:19, " I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live".  Fear or faith is a choice which one has to make.  The more one fills oneself with what the world has to offer the more fear will dominate.  It is just like body building.  It depends on how often you work those muscles that determines how strong one will be.  I know that spending time with the Lord in His Word and prayer will build muscles that exercise the God type of faith that He wants for us to have.  Fear and the death it produces will dominate if  a person won't lock into the God way of doing things.  So if you want fear and the death to continue its reign of terror in your life than don't spend anytime with the Lord of the Universe and you will continue to enjoy the  results of what these two deadly fruits will produce.  But if you want a different path than choose to try the God of the Bible's way.  I highly suggest that you choose Life.  For God's way suggest that the closest that death will ever come to you is as a shadow (Psalm 23:4).  Life through Christ has overcome death.  Praise His name!