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Word for Today:  May 31

Don’t get discouraged because it is hard.

Remember… situations are not supposed to affect the Believer.  Believers are supposed to affect situations.  Situations changes.  God never changes.  Situations pass, God’s Word never passes.  Remember:  It came to pass… not to stay!

The 3 Hebrews were in a strange land far away from home and they were in the company of a pagan tyrant who set himself up as god.  They lived in the midst of paganism, idolatry, unbelief and outright blasphemy.  They had been taken captive and led away into the headquarters of all that hated their God.  Their hopes and dreams were shattered and their future looked bleak.  But they refused discouragement and they believed God.

Paul and Silas landed in jail because they Obeyed God.  They were persecuted, beaten and locked in stocks.  But they refused to get discouraged.  Instead they considered God.  When they considered God they began to sing and praise Him.  They were anything but discouraged.

How are you?

Daniel wound up in a Den of Lions because he refused to stop praying to Jehovah God.  He used one lion for a pillow, another for a foot stool and another for cover.  He slept and the lions trembled in fear.  Because he refused to be discouraged.

John was left alone on an uninhabited volcanic island to starve and perish in the elements.  The boat was not out of sight before John was “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s Day and fell out in the Holy Ghost.  He saw Jesus.  He was not discouraged or defeated.  He knew that his God was able.

Understand that discouragement will breed self-pity and cause complaining.  Complaining will lead to murmuring and grumbling.  Discouragement will cause you to look at the problem instead of the answer.

Don’t be discouraged

Word for Today:  May 30

What are those things that plague us?  What is it within the Human Experience that brings pain and grief?  What are the things that are burdens and problems to us?  It is precisely here (where we hurt) that God focuses His Grace.  His Provision.  His Relief.  We have seen just how these provisions are met in the Covenant He made with us and that is guaranteed by the Blood of Jesus Christ

What is hurting you?  Where are you broken and wounded and sad?  What has come into your life that produced fear and dread and pain?  What are those elements in the Human Experience that make your life miserable?  Do you understand that every misery and pain in life is caused by the devil?  By the powers of darkness?  By those spirits in high places that purpose to kill, steal and destroy?

If we can come to know God’s Purpose for us, we can get our lives in agreement with it.  Once we come into a living agreement with the Purpose God has for us, we can experience the Abundant Life Jesus promises in John 10:10.

Everybody wants the abundant life, but that will only happen when we are in agreement with the Purpose God.

And until this takes place, true fulfillment in life is impossible.

Word for Today:  May 30

What are those things that plague us?  What is it within the Human Experience that brings pain and grief?  What are the things that are burdens and problems to us?  It is precisely here (where we hurt) that God focuses His Grace.  His Provision.  His Relief.  We have seen just how these provisions are met in the Covenant He made with us and that is guaranteed by the Blood of Jesus Christ

What is hurting you?  Where are you broken and wounded and sad?  What has come into your life that produced fear and dread and pain?  What are those elements in the Human Experience that make your life miserable?  Do you understand that every misery and pain in life is caused by the devil?  By the powers of darkness?  By those spirits in high places that purpose to kill, steal and destroy?

If we can come to know God’s Purpose for us, we can get our lives in agreement with it.  Once we come into a living agreement with the Purpose God has for us, we can experience the Abundant Life Jesus promises in John 10:10.

Everybody wants the abundant life, but that will only happen when we are in agreement with the Purpose God.

And until this takes place, true fulfillment in life is impossible.

Word for Today:  May 26

Declaration Precedes Manifestation

Declare your intentions.  Speak with your mouth words that make things happen.  Faith words.  Word words.  God Words.  Heaven Words.

You and I will never exceed our declarations.  Our declarations determine our direction. Our declarations determine our destiny.  What we speak out of our hearts will create or destroy.  Words are instruments of creation or destruction.  Words make things.

There are Life Producing Forces (seeds) inside every believer.  These forces are put in us by the Work of the Holy Spirit at the time we are Born Again.  They are seeds destined to grow and produce.  They are forces that need to be released into the world.  Into our families.  Into our relationships.  Into the total experience of our lives.

They are in you.  They are in every Believer.  However, seeds are worthless unless they produce.  One seed is not sufficient to sustain life by itself.  It takes many seeds which are planted in good ground to bring forth a crop that is sufficient to sustain victorious living.

The real challenge is to grow these seeds into maturity.  As God plants these Seeds in us, the enemy plants weeds. The purpose of the weeds is to choke out the seeds.

These seeds are the building blocks of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus prayed for the Kingdom to come and for the Will of God to be done ON EARTH just as it is presently being done in Heaven.  These Seeds will produce God’s Kingdom on earth when and if they are planted in good ground and if proper conditions for growth are present.

Seed Time produces Harvest Time

Word for Today:  May 25

The Church.

Jesus gave a powerful prophesy concerning the Church in Matthew chapter 16.  He said the Church would not be intimidated or overcome by the powers of hell.  He said He would build His Church and when He had it built, it would withstand and overcome all the powers of darkness.  He said His Church would be built on the revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God… the Savior, the Messiah, the Promised One, the Redeemer and the Conqueror!  Notice four basic facts about this Church:

• Jesus will build it.
• It will be built on the Revelation that Jesus Christ is Messiah.
• It will have and exercise power over the kingdom of darkness, over hell, over demons and over the devil.
• It will have in its possession powerful Kingdom Keys that Believers can use to bind and loose.

When Jesus foretold the Birth of His Church, He said:

Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with Power from on High….  Luke 24:49

Therefore, one major characteristic of His Church is POWER from on HIGH.  That “power from on high” is still to be the means of changing the world.  “Not by (human) might or by (human) power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord…”

What the Church did then, is what the church is to do today.  How the church did it then is how the church is to do it today…

In and by the Power of the Holy Spirit

Word for Today:  May 24

Don’t get discouraged because you are having a hard time.

Remember… situations are not supposed to affect the Believer.  Believers are supposed to affect situations.  Situations change.  God never changes.  Situations pass, God’s Word never passes.  Remember:  It came to pass… not to stay!

The 3 Hebrews were in a strange land far away from home and they were in the company of a pagan tyrant who set himself up as god.  They lived in the midst of paganism, idolatry, unbelief and outright blasphemy.  They had been taken captive and led away into the headquarters of all that hated their God.  Their hopes and dreams were shattered and their future looked bleak.  But they refused discouragement and they believed God.

Paul and Silas landed in jail because they Obeyed God.  They were persecuted, beaten and locked in stocks.  But they refused to get discouraged.  Instead they considered God.  When they considered God they began to sing and praise Him.  They were anything but discouraged.

How are you?

Daniel wound up in a Den of Lions because he refused to stop praying to Jehovah God.  He used one lion for a pillow, another for a foot stool and another for cover.  He slept and the lions trembled in fear.  Because he refused to be discouraged.

John was left alone on an uninhabited volcanic island to starve and perish in the elements.  The boat was not out of sight before John was “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s Day and fell out in the Holy Ghost.  He saw Jesus.  He was not discouraged or defeated.  He knew that his God was able.

Understand that discouragement will breed self-pity and cause complaining.  Complaining will lead to murmuring and grumbling.  Discouragement will cause you to look at the problem instead of the answer. God knows you, where you are and what you need.

TRUST HIM

 Let this MIND be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…   Phil.  2:5

          If the Bible says we can have the mind of Christ and if we are instructed to have the mind of Christ, then we need to know what kind of mind Christ had.

Jesus had the right kind of mind.  It was the kind of mind that God wanted Him to have.  It was the kind of mind that kept Him in victory.  It was the kind of mind that allowed Him to continually walk in the Spirit. 

This is the kind of mind that God wants you and me to have.   I believe this is the kind of mind Jesus had:   

1.  Jesus knew Who He was. 

There was never any doubt in His mind as to Who He was or what He was here on earth for.  He had a single mind.  He had a clear mind.  He had a focused mind.  He knew He was the Son of God.   He knew what He was born to do and His mind was set on accom­plishing His mission.  We need to have this kind of mind.

2.  Jesus knew His Father. 

He was intimate with Him.  He knew His will and He knew His heart.  He was in agreement with His Father.  He talked with Him and He loved Him and He had continual fellowship with Him.  Jesus had a perfect revelation of God. Jesus really knew His Father and this “knowing” was deeper than a mere acquaintance or shallow understanding.  

We need to have this kind of mind. 

3. Jesus knew the Word. 

He knew the Word because He was the Living Word.  He was familiar with God’s plan and purpose for Israel, the Gentiles and the future.

Jesus lived the Word. Jesus spoke the Word.  Jesus thought the Word.  Jesus used the Word as a weapon against the devil.  Jesus released the Word from His heart in Faith and miracles hap­pened.  The sick were healed.  The blind received their sight.  The lame walked.  Those who were demon pos­sessed were set free.  The powers of na­ture obeyed the Word that Jesus spoke.  Jesus knew the Word. 

 We need to have this kind of mind.

4.  Jesus knew what He could do. 

He was certain and sure of His author­ity.  Jesus knew He had power over all the power of the enemy.  He never doubted what He could do and He was not afraid to do it.  Jesus knew what He could do and He knew the limitations of the devil.  He knew about spiritual warfare and He knew He could and would win every conflict and conquer every de­mon.  

We need to have this kind of mind.  

5. Jesus had a winning mental­ity. 

In His Mind, He never considered defeat.  Even in the times of great con­tradictions, He maintained His win­ning mentality.  Even before and dur­ing the crucifixion, He never conceded to defeat.  He exercised victory over death by willingly giving up the spirit of life. 

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.   Luke 23:46 

No man taketh it (life) from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I re­ceived of my Father.  John 10:18 

 We need to have this kind of mind.

6.  Jesus had a Faith Mind with Faith Eyes. 

He lived by Faith and He walked by Faith.  One time He used His faith to pay His taxes.  

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.   Matt. 17:27 

He used His Faith to stop a storm. 

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.   Mark 4:39   

He used His Faith to see things that were not and to call things that were not as though they were (Rom 4:17).   Jesus had a mind that was filled with the Word. 

We need to have this kind of mind.

          The believer’s main problem is a mind problem.  The battlefield is in the mind.  If you can understand the place the mind has in spiritual warfare, you will be able to fight and win the Good fight of Faith that was discussed in the first part of this study.

For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds…  Hebrews 12 

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind…  2 Thes 2:1-2 

 And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the re­newing of your mind…  Romans 12:

But let him ask in faith, noth­ing wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.  For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord…   James 1:6-7 

For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace…  Romans 8:6  

          There are TWO LEVELS of mind operation: 

• The carnal and

• The spiritual. 

The natural man is carnally minded and the regenerated man should be spiritually minded.  Many who are born again are still thinking with an “unsaved” mind.  They have re-created spirits, but their minds are still carnal and they function in a body that is ruled by their unrenewed mind.  They are saved, but they need to get their minds saved.

          God wants you to think right.  Your biggest problem is a thinking problem.   In fact, you are the sum total of what you think.  Where you are, How you are and What you are, are determined by how you think with your mind.  

What you will be is determined by how you think.  Good and evil, success and failure, victory and defeat all emerge from your thought process.  Victory living comes from victory thinking.  Success living comes from success thinking. 

The highest quality of life comes from thinking and living out of a renewed mind.  The mind can only be renewed through Revelation Knowledge that comes from the Word of God.

          Man is a triune being.  Just as God is revealed through the mystery of the trinity, man is understood through his triune nature.  Man is a spirit.  Man has a soul.  Man lives in a body.  Therefore, man is (1) Spirit (2) Soul and (3) Body. 

The spirit is the real man.  The soul is man’s mind, will and emotions.  The Body is the physical, biological living taberna­cle of flesh in which the spirit, mind and soul live.

          Your mind is the key to the power that is in you.  That is why Satan at­tacks the mind… he knows if he can get you to faint in your mind you cannot draw from the Power that is within you. 

Now unto him that is able to do ex­ceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us… Eph. 3:20   

Understand that your real temptation is to faint in your mind.

For consider him that endured such con­tradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Heb. 12:3   

            And when and if you faint in your mind:

• You forget what you know (the Word).
• You become caught up in the prob­lem.
• You will be moved by circumstance and sit­uation.
• Doubt is born and fear will set in.
• You fall into this seven-fold tempta­tion cycle:

1.  Discouragement

2.  Depression

3.  Despair

4. Resignation (“Nothing matters, nothing will ever    change…  it will always be this way”)

5.  Acceptance of Failure

6.  Condemnation, guilt, inferi­ority

7.  Defeat.  Probable Death.  Possible Suicide

              How you THINK determines and defines what you are.

For as he thin­keth in his heart, so is he… Prov 23:7.     

              You are constantly becoming exactly what you think.  You mind is your “thinker” and it must be disciplined and controlled if it is to think right.  You actually have to train your brain.  In the world system your mind is trained by education, by experience and by reason.   In the walk of faith your mind is trained (renewed) only by the Word of God. 

Be not conformed to this world (kosmos) but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…   Romans 12: 2 

              What do you think most of the time?    What you think de­termines what you are. You can program your mind with doubt and unbelief and sense knowledge or you can renew your mind with the Word.  You have control over what you think. 

Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God…  II Cor. 10  

              You think what you see and you see what you think.  You have two kinds of eyes.  You have natural eyes and you have faith eyes.  Natural eyes see things as they are.  Faith eyes see things as they can be and as God wills them to be.   

              A mind is a “terrible thing to waste!”  A mind that is renewed by the Word sees though faith eyes.  It sees what the Word says and rejects anything and everything that does not agree with the Word.

          Most believers need to change their minds.  You have the power and the ability to change your mind.  If you are not thinking right, you will not be talking right.  If you are not talking right, you will not be living right.  If you are not living right you are in defeat and failure.  You are dying and not living. 

If your mind is focused on wrong things, you need to change your mind.  It needs to be changed so that it will think in agreement with what the Word says. 

See what the Word says about the following, and if you need to, change your mind. 

• Change your mind about Who you are.
• Change your mind about God. (His Character and His Nature)
• Change your mind about the Word.
• Change your mind about the Church.
• Change your mind about Prosperity.
• Change your mind about Healing.
• Change your mind about the devil.
• Change your mind about Faith.
• Change your mind about Giving.
• Change your mind about Confession.
• Change your mind about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
• Change your mind about Speaking in Tongues.
• Change your mind about the Gifts of the Spirit.
• Change your mind about demons.
• Change your mind about Heaven.
• Change your mind about Hell.
• Change your mind about the Future.
• Change your mind about Eternity.
• Change your mind about Sin.
• Change your mind about Judgment.
• Change your mind about the NOW.

It is going to be absolutely necessary for you to control your thinking and your imagination if you are going to Live and keep from Dying.     

The best way to do this is to get in the Word and get the Word in you… in your mind, in your heart and in your life.   Work on it.  You will not regret it!

Word for Today:  May 23

God is able.

Most every Christian will agree that God is Able.  To settle for anything less would degrade the concept of Christianity.  God truly is able.  Paul declares in Ephesians that He is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…” However, the majority of believers would agree with the FACT that God is Able but I want to add a new dimension to this confession of faith.  I want to declare that God is Able and God Will.  God Will do for you what nobody else or nothing else can.

The fact that GOD IS ABLE is the Magna Charta of the New Testament Church.     This is the Emancipation Proclamation of the Body of Christ:  God is Able.  This is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for the Christian:  God is Able.  Confess “GOD IS ABLE!”  Now add to that confession:   “… AND GOD WILL!”

As we begin this day, I want to begin it with high hopes… with Great Expectations.  With great faith.  With awesome Dreams.  I want to take you with me into the place where you can rest and know that God is Able and…. God will!  No matter what.  No matter who.  No matter where.

God wants to encourage you.  He has set aside this day and this moment to build you up and strengthen you and to help you.   He is able to deliver you out of your fiery trial and out of your furnace and out of your Egypt.  And He Will.  He wants you to know that.  He wants you to know that today.

God wants you to get out of hoping and praying into confessing and believing.

And then from confessing and believing into Receiving and Possessing.

You are BORN AGAIN by the Word. 

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor­ruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.   1Pet. 1:23   

          The Word initiates and completes the New Birth.  That is why Satan hates it so much. The Word quickens the dead human spirit and brings it to life… (Zoe: the God-kind of life).   

He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.   1John 5:12   

          The Word is impregnated with the same kind of life that God has.  When you are born again, your human spirit is made alive, re-created and made perfect, sinless and complete.     

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.   1John 3:9  

          This verse refers to your human spirit that is re-created, made perfect and “fixed” so that it (the spirit; not the mind or body) cannot sin.  This passage of scripture is speaking only of your spirit-man… your natural man (flesh) and your un-renewed mind is subject to sin and certainly capable of sin.    

          The devil wants to keep the Word out of you because the Word working in you makes you like God.  The Word in you gives you the God-kind of life..  The Word makes your spirit man perfect, sinless and untouchable by Satan and demon powers.  The Word makes you eternal.  The “real” you (your re-created human spirit),  will never die nor will it ever be subject to or dom­inated by death. The “real you” lives and overcomes because of the Word that is in you.  

          Let’s notice some sequential events that give us a better understanding of what being born again means:

First:

          You were born, in the natural, dead in tres­passes and sin.  

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: Eph. 2:1   

          You came into this world through a natural birth.  You were born with a dead spirit, an unrenewed mind and a sin-dominated body.  You were born with the fallen and sinful nature of your fa­ther, Adam.  You received, through your natural birth, the sinful, natural, death-doomed nature of Adam.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.   Rom. 5:12     

• Your natu­ral man was ruled and controlled by the flesh and was guided by human reasoning through a carnal mind.

• You were bound, controlled and owned by the devil.  You were condemned to live under the law of sin and death. 

• You were motivated by fear, subject to worry, anxiety, confusion, frustration, despair and, ultimately, death. 

• You were constantly and continually the victim of sickness, dis­ease, depression, and failure. 

• You were sad, mad, mean, uncontrolled and miserable.   You were of the earth;  you were “earthy.” 

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.   1Cor. 15:47  

• You were subject to all the consequences of the curse that came as a re­sult of the fall of Adam. 

Second:

          When the Word broke through and into your dead human spirit, light came in.

The entrance of thy words giveth light…   Psa. 119:130.

Then when the Word came in, you willingly mixed what you believed about what the Word says with your “measure” of faith.

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.    Hebr. 4:2   

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.   Ro 12:3 

The Word that came in impregnated your dead spirit with the Life of God and you were instantly and miraculously born again.  You were regenerated. You were “re-gened” with the genetic signature of God Himself!  You became a New Creation in Christ.  Your dead Adamic human spirit was recreated in the image and likeness of God Himself.  You were saved.  You were born into the family of God.  You be­came a child of God. 

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.  1Pet. 1:23  

Your natural man (the old man of the flesh) was crucified, slain and buried.  And you are now alive with the Life of God.  What a miracle!   

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.  Gal. 2:20   

 Your old carnal mind is presently in the process of be­ing renewed by the Word of God.  Your recreated human spirit is now filled with the Life of God.  The Seed of God is in you.   You are growing stronger each day and you are being conformed more and more into the Image of Christ.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.   2Cor. 3:18  

Word for Today:  May 22

The seed and the ground

Jesus gave us the parable of the Sower and the Seed.

This parable is found in all three synoptic Gospels.  We need to consider some characteristics that identify a seed and also some ground conditions that are necessary for the seed to germinate.

Jesus said that the Word is the seed.

The ground is the heart.

He pointed out that the condition of the ground in which the seed is sown determines the extent of the harvest.  Good ground produces a bountiful harvest.

The Seed is the Word and when the Word is sown in good Ground (the proper heart condition) then the Word will produce “after its kind.”  Ideally, Word production is the production of the Will of God.

Whatever is in the Word will be grown in the earth.  Whatever is in the Word will be produced on the earth.  Jesus prayed in the Model Prayer “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”  When our heart condition “draws out” what God has placed in, then God’s Will is accomplished on the earth.

In Real Time.  In the present.  In the now.

When and where it is most needed