dickbraswell

Word for Today:  November 6

There is a real temptation to preach what people want to hear.

The trend is to be popular.  To be liked.  To be respected and accepted.  To fit into a certain “camp.”  To be known for relating to a specific group.  To be “balanced” and non-offensive.

Then we look at personalities such as John the Baptist.  Like Elijah.  Like Jeremiah.  Like Noah.  Like many of the men and women in the Bible who considered it more important to be friends with God than to be popular with men.

I really do want you to like me, but it is more important to speak the Truth than to be popular.

It would be so easy to slip into the painless, cheap, costless and convenient niche.  To fit into the mold of bland, tasteless and ambiguous preaching…  This might satisfy for the moment, but it would be disastrous in the future.

Preachers….we need to preach Truth.  No matter who it may offend, alienate or infuriate.

The approval of God matters more than the applause of men

Word for Today:  November 5

When Jesus came to earth, God stepped out of Eternity into the dimension of Time.

This was a Divine Convergence.  Today God is once again stepping out of Eternity into Time.  We must seize it.  We must embrace it.  We must take it.    God is Here.

There is a definite Work being done in our Nation.  There is a definite work being done in the Church.  We are  in transition.  We are not what we were and we are not yet what we are going to be.  We are in transformation.  Things are changing.  God is doing stuff.   And it is good.  Sometimes it may be painful, but it is good and it is necessary.

There is a Purification taking place.  Conviction is falling and God is peeling off the layers and exposing the innermost secrets of the heart.  We are discovering that what we call “church” may not really be Church.  What we have established in the past and practiced over the years may be miles away from what God expects and what God wants.

God is coming to the Church before He comes for the Church.  His coming to the Church is quite upsetting.  He does not always allow   what we allow.  His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts…   (Isa 55:9)

He wants to bring us Up to Him.  We have attempted to bring Him down to us.  We must be willing to change.  To adjust.  To be tuned up.  To be refined.  To be tempered.

A Spiritual Renaissance is at hand

Word for Today:  November 4

Jesus breaks the shackles of dead religion.

In spite of the horror of a world without God, Religion flourished.  Religion does not need God to flourish.  Most religion is without God anyway.  It is true today and it was true 2000 years ago.

In the Inter-biblical Period, (the time between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament) the Judiastic system continued on its path of rule and regulation and legalism.

Jesus makes us free.

• Free from dead religion and man’s traditions and denominational customs.
• Free from laws and rules and regulations.
• Free from bondage to carnal deacons, elders, ungodly church leaders and unscriptural church government.

Jesus said that we would and could know the Truth (the Gospel) and the Truth would make us free.   John 8:32

The Jews in Jesus’ day lived in total subjection to:

• The Law of Moses
• The sayings of the Prophets and
• The Writings that had been handed down from generation to generation.

There were 613 separate laws, commandments, rules and regulations that every Jew was required to obey and keep.   Every day.   That is why Jesus said of the Scribes and Pharisees:

“They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men’s shoulders: but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers…”  Matt. 23:4

Jesus came from heaven to earth to break the shackles of dead religion.

• Religion builds walls. Jesus builds bridges.
• Religion separates. Jesus joins together.
• Religion kills.

Jesus gives Life

Word for Today:  November 1

I have discovered that there are three main problem areas in the lives of Believers.

These problem areas, if left alone and not controlled, will prevent any Christian from living and walking in victory.   The problem areas are:

• The Flesh… which needs to be crucified and kept crucified.
• The Mind… which needs to be renewed and kept renewed.
• The Tongue… which needs to be controlled all the time.

The flesh is constantly warring against the spirit.  I do not need to tell you this.  You experience it every day.  It rebels against the spirit.   It is at odds with God.  It hates the Word.  It resists the Holy Ghost.  It likes to run loose.  It demands attention.  Uncontrolled, it causes misery, guilt, condemnation, and failure.  The Bible tells us how to have victory over the flesh.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Gal. 5:16

The way to overcome flesh is to walk in the Spirit.  It is our flesh that is constantly giving us trouble.  It is my flesh that causes me the most grief.  Flesh is not sinful in itself.  It was created by God.  It is when we allow flesh to be controlled by a carnal mind and an uncontrolled will that we are tempted to sin… and most often yield to it.

To walk in the Spirit is a choice we make and it means to have our total life (spirit, soul and body) controlled by the Holy Ghost.  Focus today on Walking, Talking and Living in the Spirit…

And your flesh will be no problem

Word for Today:  October 31

Jesus as a Perfect Man

ALL the miracles that Jesus performed while He was on earth were performed by a Human Being Full of the Holy Ghost and Power.  What He did… we can do.  (John 14:12)  What He accomplished as a Man, we can accomplish as men and women full of the Holy Ghost and living in that anointing.

He spoke to storms and they stopped.  He spit and made mud from it, put it on blind eyes and they were opened.  He confronted demon powers and they feared and trembled and begged for mercy.  He touched crippled and broken bodies and they were made whole.   He spoke healing to the sick and diseased and they were healed.  He received sinners and had mercy on the guilty.  He loved the unlovable and had compassion on the masses.  He raised the dead… cleansed lepers… resisted the devil… opened graves… interrupted funerals and restored the dead to their families…   He made wine out of water… friends out of enemies… peace out of confusion and torment… joy out of sadness and Heaven out of hell…  And then He told us that:

greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father… John 14:12.

Jesus is our Example.  Jesus is our Pattern.  Jesus is the guarantee that we can overcome the devil and take dominion over the powers of darkness.

What He did… He has enabled us to do

Word for Today:  October 29

_{Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.   Joshua 1:1-2}

_{Notice what God tells Joshua: “Take possession of what I have given you.”  Every place… I have given unto you…  It is there for you.  I have saved it for you and provided it for you.  It is a land of abundance.  It is a land of plenty.  It is a land of rest and success.  It is a place of healing and health.  It is a land of safety and security.  It is a land of deliverance and protection.”}

_{God has purchased awesome possessions for you through the Blood of His Son, Jesus.  The victory has been won and the prize has been captured.  It is for you and it is for me.} 

_{However, you will never have these possessions until you go over and take them.  They will never benefit you until you make up your mind to get up, go over and take possess them.  By action, by force and by faith.}

_{The devil is “squatting” on what is legally yours.  he will stay there and laugh at you until you get up and go over and take it back.  he will homestead on it until you get mad enough, brave enough, faith-filled enough to go in and kick him out.  Get up and go over.}

_{And take it back} 

Word for Today: October 26

The Bottom Line

The sum total of your life is the result of what you have chosen and what you have refused.  And your future will be determined by what you choose and what you refuse.

You are not a “Victim of circumstances” you are a “victim” (or a victor) of the choices you have made and the temptations you have refused.

Everything you are today is the result of choices you have made.  Everything you have today is the result of what you decided to choose and what you decided to refuse.

• Your problems are not the result of your environment.
• Your problems are not the result of your family.
• Your problems are not the result of your ancestry.
• Your problems are not the result of your race.
• Your problems are not the result of your economic situation.
• Your problems are not the result of your lack of education.

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:  Deut 30:19

Your problems and “circumstances” are the result of what you decided to choose and what you decided to refuse.   Choose life and blessing.  Refuse death and cursing.

The choice is yours to make

Word for Today:  October 23

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh… Gal 5:16.

Right living is a decision.  People choose the way they live.  They can determine what they do, what they say and what they yield to.  The devil has no power to make anyone sin.  Sin and sinful living are the results of decisions and choices that are made.

No temptation is irresistible.  No trial is too much or too great or without a way of escape for the Believer. (1Cor 10:13)  The bottom line is the quality of life you are now living is the direct result of decisions you have made.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace…     Rom 8:5-6

In this hour of compromise and moral failure, decide to live right.  Decide to resist the wrong and embrace that which is good, honorable and right.

It takes no courage to get drunk or smoke dope or pop pills or shoot up.  It takes no talent to be mean, ugly and violent.  But it takes old fashioned backbone and intestinal fortitude to resist the temptations of the flesh and to stand for God and what’s right.

If you want to live and not die… choose to live and choose to live right.   Walk in holiness, purity, honor and integrity.  Determine to present your body to God as a living sacrifice.  (Rom 212:1)   Refuse to hang out with so those who tempt you and lure you do stuff you know is not in the will of God.

Walk in the Spirit.

And you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh

Word for Today:  October 22

The Power of death and the Power of life is in your tongue.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue… Prov 18

It matters how you talk.  Choose to “speak the Word only” and speak only what the Word declares.    Confess what God says and not what you feel or how you feel or what others think.

• Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth… Pro 6:2
• The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life… Pro 10:11
• A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth… Pro 12:14
• A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth…. he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life… Pro 13:3
• A wholesome tongue is a tree of life… Pro 15:4
• A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth… Pro 15:23
• A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. Pro 18:7
• A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue…  Pro 18:20-21.

Words kill or words give life.  Words bring success or words cause failure.  Words initiate healing.  Words make things start or cause things to stop.  Words are carriers.  They bring in and they carry out.

What you say is important.  Your words will imprison you or set you free.

What you say is what you get

Word for Today:  October 21

Jesus’ self-emptying.

(Jesus) Who existing in the Form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation (Kenoo) and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross…  Phil. 2:6-8

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call His name Immanuel…  Isa. 7:13

The Kenosis of Jesus is a Foundation Truth that many have failed to grasp.  Kenosis or “self-emptying” simply declares that Jesus willingly “emptied” Himself of His God Characteristics and condescended to the stature and state of a man… a human being… born of a woman… and came to earth to live and die as part of God’s Plan to Redeem Man from Adam’s failure.

Jesus laid down and left in heaven certain characteristics and privileges He exercised as God.  He willingly emptied Himself of His God Form… His God Power… His God Knowledge… His Eternal Life.  He became subject to sickness, disease, death, failure, sin and any and all human liabilities and limitations imposed by Adam’s sin and failure.  The Scripture tells us that:

He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin… (Heb. 4:15)

Jesus willingly and obediently subjected Himself to the possibility of sin and the possibility of failure when He put off His God Characteristics and took on Himself the form and limitations of humanity.

But He was Victor over temptation.  He was Victor over sin.  He was Victor over every human weakness.  He was Victor over all…

Even death and the grave