That's it! But even if I get cancer, if I lose my job, if I can't pay my rent, if my spouse leaves me, ... I WILL STILL FOLLOW YOU. WHY? Because our love of God should not be about what we think God should be doing for us. He already did it all. Why do we want more conditions to follow Jesus Christ? I think we all better stop this idea that we will follow God when it suits us.
This is why third world countries flourish in the gospel - they have nowhere else to go. We do, and that is the problem.
It is time for all of us to lay prostrate on the floor, yes prostrate, and ask God for forgiveness. We have sinned and we have chosen the world's luxuries over God. Would you give up all you have to follow Jesus? If you hesitate, then you have a problem.
Lord, the time has come for us to come back to you alone, naked and without anything. Please help us to desire You and You alone God. When we take our last breath it will ONLY be You before us. Please forgive us for putting conditions upon You and for putting so many other priorities before you. Help us THIS DAY Lord to come back to You, broken in your presence. May we seek you again first, before we do anything else in this world. Please, Lord, help our heart's desire to be You. Amen.
This is the beginning of revival in your heart. A revival, if only one person, is better than none. Let it start with you and I. If God does not come through the way you want Him to, will you still follow Him? – I pray that you do.
Wow, Brad, is that the great news? Let me explain what some preach from this passage, GUILT!
Jesus says in Matthew 5:28
But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
NIV,
"But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
So, does this keep us out of heaven? Well, if you interpret the above passage with none of God's grace then yes. I know many drunkards, sexually immoral, slanderers, and swindlers who will be in heaven. Why?
Because of the last part of the passage above in 1 Corinthians 6:11
Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
, NIV:
"And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
No one can lead a perfect life after they become a believer. It is ONLY by God's grace that we are saved (see Ephesians 2:8-9
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
).
When we get to heaven, it will not be of ANYTHING we did, but it will be in whom we put our faith and trust. He purchased what we could not. The more we rely on the Holy Spirit the less we will sin, but we will still sin till God calls us home. The sin we do cannot separate us from God, but the sin we do can make our lives miserable here on this earth. We can have dysfunctional families because of our sin. We can have all sorts of abuse from our sin and on and on. But that sin will never separate us from God when we have BY FAITH put our trust in the Lord.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,* neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
NIV
If people are constantly bringing up your sin, then they are the older prodigal brother who never loved the Father in the first place. Maybe today, if you are the prodigal older brother, you too may need to be broken into a thousand pieces like the younger brother. The younger brother only loved His Father when he was truly broken. Then, when he was broken, he saw that the Father did not condemn him or bring up his past, but loved him and gave him his inheritance back.
May the Lord bless you in a mighty way for helping us to help others. May we all feel like the younger brother who came over the last hill, and instead of experiencing shame we experience true love, redemption, joy, and hope for a glorious future. Please pray that many more would be written in the Lambs Book Of Life. Thank you again for helping us to keep on keepin' on.
Here is the dilemma of our lives. How do we earn a living, use the best of our talents, and not cave into pride?
It is OUR choice whom we will serve because each of us has a Free Will. Many Christians are saved, but have no power from the Holy Spirit in their lives. Pride is of the flesh and is powerful for self, but destructive to a Spirit-led life. Let's look at what the flesh desires.
"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." Galatians 5:21
What does the Spirit desire?
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" Galatians 5:22, 23
So how can we live by the Spirit and not the flesh?
Living by the Holy Spirit means that we give up OUR rights and invite Jesus to have full control of our mind, will and emotions. Our Flesh is our body, muscles, joints. Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. Our Spirit is the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ when we are saved and we ask for the Lord to give us His Spirit. So we are distinctively three parts. The battle is in our soul. The soul will either gravitate to the deeds of the flesh or to the fruit of the Spirit.
"But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit," Jude 1:20
To build up our faith we need to pray IN the Spirit and not the flesh. Praying in the flesh we can all do. We just pray with no emotion and our prayers feel as though it is a rote prayer. Praying in the spirit is a wonderful gift Jesus has given to each of us.
It is only when our mind is free and uncluttered that the Holy Spirit can start to crucify the deeds of our flesh. We need to get in a quiet place and ask the Lord to pour out His Holy Spirit upon us. We need to allow the Spirit to teach us and lead us into all truth. I have been praying and the Lord will bring up someone for me to call or a scripture passage to go to. That does not happen when I pray in the flesh. The key to praying in the Spirit is surrendering all you have and all you will be to the Lord. When your total dependence is on Him great - and I mean great - things will happen.
"Lord please help EVERYONE reading this right now to be able to pray IN the Spirit. Through your Spirit, may all the strongholds people have been bound by, be stripped away and crucified. We cannot do it by Will Power, but only by the power of your Spirit. Forgive us, Lord Jesus, for a heart that many times wanders and does not seek you. Help us today to start a new path to you that is not side-tracked any longer. I know that so many reading this, Jesus, want to be close to you, but they do not know how. I pray right now that those who try to draw close to you today in prayer - that you Jesus, will reveal to them the peace that comes through your Spirit." Amen
Please find a quite place to pray, worship, praise, and thank the Lord. Abundant life is in the Holy Spirit, NOT the flesh.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (NIV)
You feel this tug of war in your spirit. Sometimes you choose to side with the Lord and sometimes you take sides with Satan and his demons. I don’t have to tell you when you take Satan’s side; you already know.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9
"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
, NIV)
You see, it is our choice what side of the rope we are on each day. Also, each day we can waver back and forth to what side of the rope best fits our desire. The rope represents our life and that there are forces we cannot see struggling for our minds. Everything we do is a condition of our heart.
Since we are all sinners (Romans 3:23
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
) and our hearts are deceitful, we can easily wind up on Satan’s side of the Tug of War game. But the Lord’s side is the only side we will have victory.
Today, Satan and his demons desire for our hearts to be self-centered. We may gravitate to do what we feel we deserve, no matter what the cost to others. We may take shortcuts and not be entirely truthful. We are all a selfish group of men and women who need a heart transplant every day. But in order for anyone to get a heart transplant, they need to go to the hospital.
Most of us wait too long to get the help we need and Satan wins another battle. No matter how deep we are in the pit, no matter how far we have fallen, it is never too late to get on the Lord’s side of the rope.
And that is just the beginning. When we get on the Lord’s winning side, we still need to fight. We still need to pull our weight on the rope. Fight for purity and righteousness. Fight for the desire to be on the winning team and not get lulled onto the losing team.
All of us have a choice in every decision we make today. Today has enough decisions of its own; don’t get bogged down with the future. The future is in God's hands. Right now, as you are reading this, you are already in the war for the day. Do you know whose side you are on? Please don’t be on the side pulling against Jesus and other believers. It is easy to do when we are leading a sinful life and don’t care. Plead your case to Jesus. He always hears you and wants to restore you to His side. Remember, in one breath Jesus can obliterate the other side if he so chooses.
Even though the lion hunts, God brings the lion its prey. Don’t ever be so arrogant that you think all your hard work, long hours, and playing politics will get you the next big deal or the next championship. We do what we can with the talents God gave us BUT the victory is the Lord’s and the Lord's alone.
You can work 24 hours a day, give it all you can - and if God does not want it to happen, it won’t. If you want to get mad at God, then transfer that over to Satan who has twisted you into thinking that God does not love you. That is a lie of Satan; it is not from God. God is the only place you can turn to. Today, stop believing a lie that you are the master of your ship and in control of your destiny. All we are called to do is put our hand to the plow with our talents, but it is God and God alone who sends the rain. Oh, and by the way, STOP trying to make this life heaven. When you look to death and heaven as your reward, then nothing on this earth can steal your joy, nothing! That is true victory.
Jesus could have stopped all the insults, pain, and suffering with one call to his angels who would have wiped out everything and everyone. But if He had done that, we would have lost the chance to be saved. Jesus took the punishment (that we deserved) in order to sacrifice Himself so we could be saved with those who believe in Him.
If we were to go toe-to-toe with people who hurl insults and mock our integrity, we would lose a chance to minister to them. Usually these people are in the dark and don't know the Lord. Our sole purpose here on earth is not to get more money in our bank account and build our careers to great heights. Our mission, once we are saved, is to be a light to others.
If you have been in the work force for awhile, you know by now that it isn’t us who builds our success. God either has His hand on it and it grows or He takes it off for a time and it falters. Do not let your pride let you think that you are the one who built a successful anything. Then when insults come, we won’t hurl any back.
"Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly".
Let’s pray that we would have the faith to not strike back; to know that God will use us in a mighty way when we don't let our pride ruin our testimony. This is what Jesus would do. He would pray for those who persecute him. There are many in this world who have no clue of eternity and Jesus.
Wouldn't it be a shame if we let our pride get in the way of helping others come to know the Lord? In the whole scheme of things we are just as bad as everyone else; so don't judge others or think of ways to get back at someone. If you are saved, you didn't deserve it and you can't earn it; but God saw fit to save you. That’s God's grace.
That alone should be enough.
The next time things seem out of control - Pray
The next time people hurl insults at you- Pray for them
The next time pride rears its ugly head - Pray for calmness of spirit
The next time you think everyone is against you - Think of the cross
Have a great day and don't worry, Jesus knows what is going on and will always right injustice. Check your pride at the Cross.
We will sin until God calls us home. The most important statement that Jesus says to Simon (Peter) is, “That your faith may not fail.”
Are you getting close to giving up on this Christianity thing? Are things not turning out as you have planned? Satan wants you to give up. We are not on this earth for long. PLEASE hang in there. God loves you and desires that your faith will not waiver even though your circumstances may tell a different story.
Just remember your circumstances do not dictate the way you are living your Christian life. You may be failing in every category, but that doesn’t mean that God will not reveal to you something miraculous out of the pain and defeat. Believe in Jesus who desires that you find strength in the storms of life so that your faith will be refined. Don’t let the evil one give you a lifeline to an easy way out. That lifeline may seem an easy way out now, but you will regret it. Just keep hanging on everyone. Jesus WILL save YOU.
