dickbraswell

Word for Today:  August 31

The world will never understand a spiritually minded believer.

We simply believe what the Word says about who we are, what we have and what we can do.

• The Word says we are kings and priests. Therefore, we act like kings and priests.
• The Word says we are healed and not sick. Therefore, we act like we are healed.
• The Word says we are the head and not the tail. Therefore, we act like we are the head.
• The Word says we are above and not beneath. Therefore, we act like we are above our circumstances and situations.
• The Word says we are rich and not poor. Therefore, we act like we are rich.
• The Word says we are more than a conqueror. Therefore, we act like overcoming conquerors.
• The Word says we can do all things through Christ and nothing shall be impossible to us. Therefore, we act like nothing will ever be impossible for us.

We have the courage and the faith to attempt the impossible, see the invisible and obtain the supernatural.

So don’t worry about being “misunderstood…”

Word for Today:  August 30

Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 1Cor. 4:2

There are so many times pastors are tempted to quit or to compromise when they see many of God’s Army who have defected and gone AWOL.   But when we see those who are Faithful… those who have remained steadfast and unmovable… our hearts are encouraged and we know that we must persevere… we must go on.

We cannot quit.  These are members of Gideon’s Three Hundred… they never stop to consider the opposition, the magnitude of the problem, or the impossible odds… they simply stand.  They stay.  They stick.

One individual has often done what a whole congregation was not able to do.  One family has often done what an entire nation could not do.  One church has often done what an entire denomination could not do.

Gideon’s three hundred easily did what the fearful Twenty-two thousand who departed in a hurry for home, could not possibly have done.

Folks, hundreds of years have passed since Gideon’s time, but the Three Hundred still remain.  The brotherhood has been perpetuated and their spiritual posterity continues to live.  The tenth leper who returned to thank Jesus for his healing was a member of this band.

The 120 who took time to leave the stuff at home and the work at hand to head into Jerusalem and wait for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost belonged to this band.   Paul and Silas, singing and praising God with bloody backs, locked in stocks in a midnight prison, were members of this band.

Thank God for those who are “Found Faithful.”

They are in the Gideon Group

Word for Today:  August 28

We want to discover what really happened at Calvary.

We have read about the Crucifixion, heard sermons on the Crucifixion, studied about the Crucifixion, but in reality very few know and understand what happen on the Cross.  What we believe about the Cross will determine the depth of our Revelation of Jesus.

Justice had decreed that sinful man must pay the penalty for his transgression.  The Human Race stood guilty before God of Spiritual High Treason.  Man had turned away from God and embraced the devil.  However, the human race was impotent, helpless and incapable of meeting the demands of justice.

“I owed a debt I could not pay,

He paid a Price He did not owe,

I needed Someone just to wash my sins away,

And now I sing a brand new song:  Amazing Grace!

Christ Jesus paid the Price that I could never pay!”

And so out of the Heart of God comes the solution to the human problem.  Jesus steps forward and declares:  “Here am I, send Me…”  And so toward the Cross He goes.

Calvary is center stage for the entire human race.  What happened there is the pivotal point of all history.  Calvary is more than the death of Jesus at the hand of His enemies.  Calvary is more than the suffering and horror of such inhumanity and torture.

• Calvary involves Jesus and it involves God.
• It involves man and it involves sin.
• It involves time and it involves eternity.
• It is the place of a divine Exchange

Here, Jesus became what man is in order than man can become what Jesus is.  

“God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him…”  II Cor. 5:21

Word for Today:  August 27

We are under a Divine Mandate from Heaven to get with it or get out of it.

We are not on a vacation and we are not seeking a blessing… We are not striving to get God to do something for us.  Folks….it is harvest time.

We do not need squatters or homesteaders.  We need goers and doers and givers and pray-ers…. We need laborers because it is harvest time.

What is it going to take to bring Revival to the Church?  What are the prerequisites for a Spiritual Renaissance… an Awakening?

Do we have to bottom out before we get up?  Are we so slow that IT must happen everywhere else before IT happens to us?

• We have built nice buildings, but this didn’t work.
• We have upgraded and acquired the latest and most sophisticated technology.  Didn’t work.
• We have established great programs, but this didn’t work.
• We have brought in outstanding “world-class” preachers and evangelists and teachers, but this didn’t work.
• We have hired world-class staff members and revolutionized our “worship” and music.
• We have established educational programs and Bible Institutes and recreational projects and we have preached on TV and Radio, we have published books and pamphlets, but none of these have really produced New Testament Results.
• We have promoted, organized, educated and funded but this didn’t work.

What will it take?  I’ll tell you what it’s going to take.

• It is going to take hungering and thirsting for God.  It is going to take passion and desperation.
• It is going to take seeking God and searching our hearts.
• It is going to take rearranging our priorities.
• It is going to take repentance and humility.
• It is going to take praying and forgiving.
• It is going to take loving.
• It is going to take a divine visitation from God.
• It is going to take a Holy Spirit Out-Pouring.
• It is going to take a Pentecostal renewal.

Only God can do what must be done to wake up the Body of Christ.  And when we make our Move

God will make His.

Word for Today:  August 26

We have no right to call ourselves something we are not.

If we are calling ourselves “Church” then let’s be the Church.  If we say we are “going to Church” then let’s have Church.    If we are not willing to be the church let’s close the doors and do something else.

If I understand what Church is, Real Church cannot and will not be ignored.

Church is too alive to go disregarded by the world.

• We have been crippled by “organized religion.”
• We have been entertained and educated, fed and socialized.
• We have been patronized and petted.
• We have been disgraced by thieves who call themselves spiritual leaders.
• We have been nice and sweet and wimpy in matters concerning hell, the devil and demons as well as Spiritual Gifts and Spiritual Manifestations.

Some have been so intent on preserving “order” until every service is controlled and computerized and God is not even given a chance.

Many services have become stereotyped.  Preaching has become professional.  Service time has become show time.  Where is God?  Where is His Power? Where are those who will not let up until they touch the Hem of His Garment?

Selfishness, pride, the lust for power, the love of money and the desire to be seen of men have poisoned good preachers and turned them into false prophets.

Because the church has not been the church, the masses have continually been deceived.   We need some “Ananias and Saphirra meetings.”  We need some “sons of Sceva” services.  We need to shake and quake at the awesomeness of God and fear lest we offend Him.

As I look at the Book of Acts and consider the birth, development and growth of the New Testament Church, I have had to re-evaluate what we are, what we are doing and how and why we are doing it.

“Church” is not church if it fails to comply with the New Testament pattern.

Word for Today:  August 29

I was in a meeting one time and various pastors were testifying.  They were telling (bragging) of the growth and expansion of their respective churches.  They were sharing how many new members they had added over the past year.

One pastor stood and testified:   “We have just experienced the greatest revival in our history.  When I came to my church we had about 500 members.  But I began to work very hard.  I preached with all my heart.  God began to move.  Now, after a year of hard work we are greatly blessed with seventy-five members.

Started with 500 and lost 425.    But 75 are there for every meeting.  75 tithe.  75 pray and seek God.  75 are in Sunday School.  75 give to missions.  75 volunteer for all work that is necessary.  75 visit.  75 are soul winners.  75 are doing more than 500 ever did… Glory be to God.”

Jesus experienced such a sifting of His disciples.  The first mass exodus came when He began to go deeper into spiritual things.  He said that if they followed Him they would have to eat His body and drink His blood.  They would become partakers of His divine nature.  This was too much.  Many fell away and never followed Him again.

He asked His own inner circle of twelve, “Will you also go away?”

Then after His Resurrection, He met 500 of His followers in Galilee and told them to go into Jerusalem and wait for the Promise of the Father… the mighty Baptism of the Holy Ghost…

And yet, when this Outpouring took place, only 120 of the 500 were present.  380 did not find it convenient to do what Jesus said do… and they missed the mightiest visitation of God in history.

Wonder where the 380 were?

Word for Today:  August 24

Jesus Paid it All.

The devil and all demon powers are forever dethroned and defeated.  At the fall of Adam, satan gained control and dominion over all the earth.  At the Resurrection of Jesus,  satan was factually and actually dethroned and defeated.   he is stripped of all his power and authority.  Relegated to the role as the mother of all losers.

The Resurrection of Jesus was and is the final proof of satan’s downfall and defeat.  Because Jesus lives… sickness, sin, defeat, sorrow, death, sadness are all forever conquered.  We (Believers) have been redeemed from satan’s dominion and we have legally become the masters and rulers of satan and all his demons.  We have power over the devil because Jesus rose from the dead.  We can cast out devils. We can heal the sick.  We can call things that “be not” not as though they were.  We can overcome poverty and distress and pain and need.  Because Jesus is alive… we are filled with Resurrection Life.

There will be no judgment for us like it was for Jesus.  God will not forsake us.   For us there will be no Cross… no crown of thorns… no separation from God… no suffering in hell… no guilt and no condemnation.

Jesus paid it all… All to Him I owe…Sin had left a crimson stain… He washed it white as snow

Elvina M. Hall  1865

Word for Today:  August 24

Word for Today:  August 23

It’s up to you.

You are Born Again to release God’s power into the earth.  It is up to you and up to me.  It is up to the church.  The Power of God will not prevail in the earth until and unless we release it.  And it will not happen unless we make it happen.   It will not come out of the Church until it comes out of you.   All of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God.

For the earnest expectation of the creature (creation) waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Rom. 8:19

Nothing is too hard for God and God lives in you.   The Bible says that with God all things are possible.  Paul wrote that:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me… 

The Word declares that if “You can believe (have the God-kind of faith) all things are possible to him that believeth…”  Mark 9.

When we got saved, God made a Divine Deposit in us.  Our body became the Temple of the Holy Ghost.  We are no longer our own because we were bought with a price…  We are to glorify God with our bodies.  We are Born Again to release the Power of God into the earth.

God is calling us to be channels of His Power.  We are the only restraining force holding back all the relentless powers of darkness that are poised to overthrow every kingdom and nation.

Why is it that atrocities such as those that are widespread in other parts of the world are not happening here in America?  Because we are called to be the nation from which God will demonstrate His power on earth.

God has sovereignly raised up this nation to release His Power into the Human Race.  And

It starts with you and with me