The FAITH DRIVEN Life!

I'll Give You What I Do Have!

2011-09-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

“Peter and John were going to the temple courtyard for the three o'clock prayer. At the same time, a man who had been lame from birth was being carried by some men. Every day these men would put the lame man at a gate in the temple courtyard. The gate was called Beautiful Gate. There he would beg for handouts from people going into the courtyard. When the man saw that Peter and John were about to go into the courtyard, he asked them for a handout. Peter and John stared at him. "Look at us!" Peter said. So the man watched them closely. He expected to receive something from them. However, Peter said to him, "I don't have any money, but I'll give you what I do have. Through the power of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, walk!" Peter took hold of the man's right hand and began to help him up. Immediately, the man's feet and ankles became strong. Springing to his feet, he stood up and started to walk. He went with Peter and John into the temple courtyard. The man was walking, jumping, and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God. They knew that he was the man who used to sit and beg at the temple's Beautiful Gate. The people were amazed and stunned to see what had happened to him.”
Acts 3:1-10 GWT

This morning while I was getting ready the Lord brought a passage of scripture to remembrance and began speaking to me about it! The above passage was what was brought to mind. As I began thinking about it, I started seeing a different side of this passage. I don’t know about you, but growing up in children’s church, this was a bible story that was told to simply talk about the works God did through the disciples, but today I saw it in a new light as a message to the church of today!

In the world today there is such a push for the visual and monetary things. So much emphasis is put on the label of clothes, rather than the person inside. A large emphasis is put on the outward presentation, whether it is false advertisement or not. And, sadly, this mentality has slipped into the church. Gone, it seems, are the days where people would come into four walls with a dirt floor and prostrate themselves in the presence of God without a second thought, crying out for his holy fire of revival to engulf the world that surrounds. This focus, of God’s presence being the only thing of value, has been replaced with the progressive movement to be just as fancy and cool as the world and its concerts. We’ve replaced the cry of believers for revival, with the high-pitched jamming of electric guitars, the real glory-cloud with an imitation known as a smoke machine, and the light of the world with the coolest light show in town! Don’t get me wrong, I am not against making the inside of the church beautiful and cutting edge, but in pursuing that we have lost the very thing that matters most.

In Acts 3, we see that this lame man came EXPECTING to receive something. He thought all he needed was something of monetary and earthy worth. Many church people are conditioned this very way, they think all they need is the cool building that they go to called a church, that temporarily meets their needs. But, if you look in this passage, Peter states, "I don't have any money…” In other words, “I don’t have what you THINK you need…” “I don’t have the newest/coolest/most valuable thing on the market…” But He goes on to say, “…but I'll give you what I do have. Through the power of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, walk!" The passage goes on to say that this man went forth jumping and praising God and all who saw it were amazed! Peter had come to the realization that no matter how much you meet the fleshly and physical needs and wants of the people, it will NEVER compare to the life-changing experience of their bodies coming in contact with the POWER of Jesus Christ, the tangible presence of God’s Holy Spirit, and His anointing.

It is time that we, as the church, come to this realization that no matter how much you push the things of monetary value to fill the four walls you call a church, you will never be fulfilling the command God gave us in Mark 16:15-18 to go into all the world and Preach the gospel, heal the sick, to DEMONSTRATE His power in the earth! If you aren’t actively demonstrating the power of Jesus Christ in your church, then you are actively disobeying what God called us ALL to do! If Peter and John had simply given the man something of monetary and earthly value, they would have made an impact as long as that thing lasted, but they knew that in order to change a life they had to give something more, even if it meant some people thought they were strange. They knew, if they were to impact that man in a meaningful and eternal way, there was nothing they possessed in the natural that could do that. However, they knew there was one thing in their possession that would change not only that man’s life, but the lives of countless others, and that was the Power of Jesus Christ that they had been given the authority to walk in!

We have to make a decision that gone are the days of putting presentation above demonstration! Today, we need to make a commitment to quit hiding the power of the Holy Ghost in a back room and let him work in and through us to reach people with something that will TRULY transform their lives!

Actively Demonstrating,

JRT

Timing is Everything!

2011-08-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

How often do we hear the expression "timing is everything" in our lives? It seems to be one of those that you hear normally in a negative sense, because you're late turning in a project or paper in school and the professor looks at you merciless and says, "Jessica, timing is everything in life!" But, the expression also evokes a positive sense!

The past weeks I have really had my eyes opened to the positive side of "timing is everything." As many are aware, July 21, 2011 I packed my bags and hit the road with the family caravan for the 18 hour drive to Broken Arrow, OK to attend Rhema Bible Training Center. What many may not know is the long path that lead me to this point.

As a child I grew up attending every Kenneth E. Hagin meeting possible with my family, along with other meetings by other prominent ministers (Kenneth Copeland, and so forth). But the main ministry I grew up under was that of Dad Hagin, because that's where my Father's roots were from graduating RBTC in '81. As a kid I wanted to go to RBTC so I could learn from Dad Hagin, just like my daddy. I remember being a child, crying in a bathroom somewhere, for God to use my hands and voice to touch the nations. At that point in my life I had never been anywhere outside the US, but I had a burning on my heart for the lost around the world. Growing up, I had people I "adopted" as aunts and uncles in my life who were traveling ministers. They spoke into my life and spoke to me about things only God knew, things I had cried to God about in the midnight hours, and spoke to me about the things God would do through me. I was full of big dreams and just knew I was going to change the world with the Gospel (the faith of a child is a wonderful thing).

Then, my teenage years hit and what was so important to me at one time began to grow dim, because I allowed the voices of peers to outweigh the voice of God. I began to believe there was no way I could ever change the world, I mean I'm scared to talk in front of people for an oral report in a class of 20, how could I ever preach a sermon? But still, something inside pressed on my heart to go to Rhema. Then High School graduation hits, and I'm heading to college. College is an environment that is designed to challenge everything you believe. I faced difficulty during this time as voices were speaking to me, pressuring compromise, and such. And, I didn't make it out unscathed. I had times where the devil really hit me hard and mocked my dreams and made me feel unworthy to ever walk in the place I dreamed of walking as a child. I remember so vividly the moment where I knew I had to be as serious as death itself in my walk with God, I was with some friends, and then something very unusual happened. People (people I didn't know well at all) started pouring out their hearts, sharing their deep, dark secrets with me and I knew I had the truth they needed. At that moment a still small voice on the inside spoke to me and said, "I didn't call you to be like them, I called you to make them like you, spotless in My sight." I knew in that moment, more than ever before, that if I were ever going to be satisfied in life it was going to be because I was reaching the lost with God's love, mercy, and redemption.

Even after that epiphany, I still felt like the big dreams I had, would never happen. I mean I was graduating from college and just didn't see where Rhema was going to happen anywhere in the near future. But a few months later, a ministry team that I've always loved and respected came to our church. They had a word for me about leaving some things behind and "stepping it up." I knew right then what that meant, I needed to go to Rhema, I didn't know how or when but I knew that it would be sometime in the near future. That was in September of 2009 and in late August 2010 I had a release in my heart and knew that the RBTC application that had been in my room for years needed to be sent in. I made that decision in a single day and sent my application in right away! I was accepted within a few months. And then half a year later I was packing my bags for Broken Arrow, OK.

I arrived here in Broken Arrow, OK on July 22, 2011 and realized all the time I thought I was never going to walk in my dreams or that I had messed up too big to be used by God, God was bringing me out with a story of victory and turning what the enemy meant for defeat, into strength. I see now that truly timing IS everything! I see that had I come out here a few years ago, I wouldn't have been ready, I wouldn't have been as mature as I am today, I wouldn't have been the person I am today. But, today I am the person God wants me to be and I am in the right place at the right time, and I have never been so sure of anything in my life! I see God's hand has been on everything along the way, divinely preparing me for this chapter of my life!

There is something so special about this place, it is the training ground for those who's marching will be heard throughout the lands as they go forth with the Word of God and Power of the Holy Ghost to turn the nations to God! I have already grown so much out here and school hasn't even begun!!! In this environment growth is inevitable. I've been so blessed because of the people God has placed in my life! Peers and mentors who fuel the passion within to burn brighter and brighter and make me realize how all along God was preparing me for such a time as this!

"I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD.
They are plans for peace and not disaster,
plans to give you a future filled with hope."
Jeremiah 29:11 (GWT)

So excited to be in the middle of HIS plan,
JRT

Rejected Love

2011-08-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that one of the primary areas the devil targets us is in our love walk. He always seems to find the right person, to push the right buttons that push you away from them, while the whole while you are trying your best to walk in love. Often he send the people closest to us to break our heart and make us never what to extend the unconditional love we had given that person to another, in an effort to protect ourselves. Many times love is the key factor to many people’s problems. A depletion of love, being denied love, false love… and so on. More often than not, it is these people you invested your heart into, the people you freely gave to, who the devil uses to turn on you.

It is so hard to live in this world and truly show agape, the God-kind of love, to other human beings. And often, this is where we fail. We become hardened because we never want to hurt like that again. I am one who is guilty of that, having experienced past and recent hurts that push you to the edge to where you just want to shut your heart to people completely, never to be hurt again. And why is it that some of us seem to be gluttons for punishment and still keep loving people who “despitefully use us,” who speak wickedly of us, who rip our heart out of our chest and stomp it into a million pieces? Is it because we are weak cowards with no backbone to defend ourselves? Is it? I chose to believe that is the exact opposite of that and that believing the previous is a worldly view.

Think about it, we were created in the image and likeness of GOD! When we came into the kingdom, we took on His heart, His attributes, His LOVE for mankind. A love that knows no bounds and love that changes the very hearts of even the most lost! So is it really weakness to love people who continually hurt you? Not if you want to be like your Father, it is not! He loved the WHOLE world, not just those who were faithful to Him. He loved the ones who CURSED His holy name, the ones who MOCKED His power, the ones who DEFILED the very bodies He created and enjoyed doing the exact OPPOSITE of what He desired, the ones who PUSHED His love away….. Sound familiar?

We are created in His image and likeness, His limitless love is in our hearts with the urging to spread it to all mankind! And, even when you feel hurt, rejected, and unappreciated remember that your Father felt the same way… but because of His love, His love for mankind, He GAVE His ONLY Son, the ultimate sacrifice of Love to reach the heart of Man! God hasn’t given up on Love because of heartbreak and rejection, He hasn’t quit loving the very people who curse Him, and He still remains powerful, the God who turns impossible into possible…. So, why then does it make you weak if you love in the same manner, in the face of the same circumstances? It doesn’t! You are filled with the ability to love even the wickedest of humans, so don’t let THEIR darkness keep YOU from showering them with the unconditional love of God!

"Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]..."

1 Corinthians 13:5b-8a AMP

Limitless Love,
JRT

Itching Ears

2011-02-24T17:15:00.000-08:00

‎"For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths."
~ 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NLT

We live in a world today that is driven by "hype" and "glam" rather what is real. Just look at popular culture. We can't present the truth of what a person looks like, we have to photo"chop" them and create a false illusion to the public, in order to keep the public interested and hooked, and we have to keep pushing the limits to be on the "cutting edge" of what is expected. Hype rules the world we live in, it drives it and that same mentality has, sadly, entered into the church world. The church can no longer preach the truth because it is the "same old, same old" and there is nothing exciting about it. Church people want something new and exciting that "no one else has" and this most often leads to error and, in some cases, destruction.

I know we christians don't like to talk about our flesh or even admit that it does dictate our perceptions of the Word, if we allow it to. But the truth is that if you open the door, your flesh can cause you to chase after teaching and doctrine that satisfies your flesh or itching ears, rather than strengthening your Spirit. Paul himself said, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." (1 Cor. 9:27). Even Paul felt pressure from his flesh, but he made a decision NOT to let his flesh rule or have the loudest voice in his life. I feel that too many christians are not following Paul's example, rather than renewing their mind to the Word and allowing the Spirit to be the loudest voice in them, they are allowing their flesh to dictate their beliefs, doctrine, and perception of the scripture.

There is always going to be a "new" message that starts out of a biblical truth that will hook people and lead them outside of the sound truth of the Word of God. Satan knows that he cannot lead believers astray by starting out telling them, "Go commit adultery, you'll be ok." But he does know if he can use enough of a biblical truth (He did this with Jesus in Matt. 4 & Luke 4) to lead people in a certain direction, then he can get them caught up in it and start twisting the truth small amounts at a time to where he will eventually have a group of people who are outside of the Truth, but don't even see it. When this happens, the door has be swung wide open to him and he can push them over the edge and into a place of darkness and sin.

How can this happen to believers?

Well, look at the three temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness (Luke 4). He was faced with the Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life. When Satan realizes that he can't get you with one temptation he will move on to the next. So, if he can't immediately tempt you to get into a lifestyle that is not pleasing to God, he WILL use other methods to get you outside of the will of God, and he will be very crafty and clever in his execution of this because his goal in life is to destroy your life and make christianity a mockery.

I believe there is a definite connection to the temptations listed above and trendy, faddish doctrines. First, they capture your attention. They captivate you because they're new and exciting and so different than the "boring" message you're getting at your church, right? So, they appeal to your fleshly or soulish desires. Second, they appeal to your pride, "no one else has the truth, like us!" When you get to the point that you are so focused on a doctrine that you believe everyone else in the world is just not with the whole truth, or that everyone out there preaching isn't preaching it as good as you or minister so and so, you have entered into a place of pride, a place of boasting in what you have and comparing it to what others lack. "For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world." (1 Jn 2:16) This is an extremely dangerous place to be. It moves you outside of the will of God and because you have allowed pride, rather than the Word, to reign supreme in your life. And now that you're here you have to keep on developing new and exciting "revelation for God" to keep people hooked. This is where Satan comes in to play, he's got you hooked and now he can lead you, and everyone following you, even further down a slippery slope, without you even realizing or seeing what is taking place because you are blinded by your own pride. And you end up with a classic case of the blind leading the blind into destruction.

In my lifetime I have seen so many people lead astray by "changing winds of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14). It just breaks your heart to watch people, who once walked in a place with God that was admirable and precious, turn and become bitter and full of hatred towards those who are trying to help them out of the trap they fell into so they don't throw their life away. But, as 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says, "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths." Sadly, that time is now and we as believers must be on guard as never before! There are too many doctrines floating around out there leading believers astray right and left, we need to be grounded in the Word! We don't want to be "...children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead." (Eph. 4:14 AMP). Rather, we should be full of the Word, fully convinced of what the Word says and ready to help guide anyone who is going astray back to the Truth found in the Word. And as Jude say, "Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God; expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)--[which will bring you] unto life eternal. And refute [so as to] convict some who dispute with you, and on some have mercy who waver and doubt." (Jude 1:21-22).

It is fine to have a updated, modernized service and delivery, as long as it is FULL of the Word! We should never compromise the Word to meet the demands of itching ears, because the power that the Word possesses is the ONLY thing that is going to save this world! We need to come to a point where we don't allow the cry for something new, spectacular, or exciting to dictate the message we proclaim, but instead we should be in a place where, as Kenneth E. Hagin always said, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it." And, a place where we boldly and unapologetically proclaim only that which the Bible clearly states in view of the full counsel of the Word of God (Acts 20:27).

"Too many times people chase after the SPECTACULAR and miss the SUPERNATURAL!" ~ Kenneth E. Hagin

Study the Word,

JRT

"Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." ~ 2 Timothy 2:15 AKJV

The Woman Who Said — 'I Hate My Mother-in-Law'

2011-01-31T17:40:00.000-08:00

I did not write the following, but I wanted to share it. It gives a more in depth discussion of what I wrote about in my blogpost Do You Hate Your Brother?, please read! :)

The Woman Who Said — 'I Hate My Mother-in-Law'

Kenneth E. Hagin

My wife and I once held a meeting in the western part of the United States. A young couple who were in the ministry went out to eat with us after the service.

The woman said to me, "Brother Hagin, tonight you quoted the Scripture from First John 3:15: Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.'"

I said, "I sure did. I plead guilty." When I quoted that verse, the Spirit of God inspired me to add, "That means mother-in-law too."

She said, "But I hate my mother-in-law." Here she was an ordained minister, and she said that she hated her mother-in-law!

I said, "If you do, the Bible says you're a murderer, and you don't have eternal life abiding in you. God wouldn't tell you to love your brother — that means mother-in-law too — if it were impossible to do so."

I knew she didn't really hate her mother-in-law, but I wanted to get her located so she could see herself in the light of God's Word. You see, just because 7 realized that she didn't really hate her mother-in-law, that wouldn't help her; I had to get her to see it.

Just because you see a spiritual truth, that won't help the other fellow; he's got to see it. And just because someone else sees a spiritual truth, that won't help you; you have to see it.

I knew she was saved, filled with the Holy Ghost, and she loved God. But I knew she was letting her head get in the way, and she was letting her flesh dominate her.

So I said to her, "Look me in the eye and say, 'I hate my mother-in-law,' and at the same time check down in your spirit."

The Bible didn't say that the love of God is shed abroad in our head. It said God's love is shed abroad in our heart or spirit. That's why I told her to check down in her heart.

She looked across the table and said to me, "I hate my mother-in-law."

I said, "When you said that, what happened in your spirit?"

She said, "There's something in my spirit scratching me.

I said, "I know it. That's the love of God in your spirit, trying to get your attention. The love of God is trying to constrain you so you'll love like God loves."

"What should I do?" she asked.

I said, "You're going to have to act just like you would if you loved your mother-in-law because you really do love her! The way out of the situation is to walk in love even when your flesh doesn't want to.

"Love is revealed in word and action, so you're going to have to act like you love her because you really do."

You see, walking in love means acting in love because the God-kind of love is not just a feeling, it's a decision and an action. You've got to demonstrate that love. You can keep the love that is shed abroad in your heart captive and shut up in your heart by giving it no expression.

Well, how do you let the love of God out of your heart so you can express it? You let it out in action. You let it out in words. It's the same way with faith because faith works by love. You can have a heart full of faith and die.

You can have a heart full of faith and never get an answer to prayer. You've got to get that faith out of your heart and into expression. You've got to get it working. How do you do that? Through actions and words. Love without expression or action will eventually dwindle and die.

It's like the ole boy who wrote a love letter to his girlfriend, saying:

I'd climb the highest mountain for you! I'd wade the deepest river! I'd swim the largest ocean just for you. And if it doesn't rain Saturday night, I'll come to see you!

No, love is revealed in word and action!

I told this young minister's wife, "If you really hate your mother-in-law, First John 3:15 says you are a murderer. I don't believe you are a murderer because you are born again, and you have eternal life abiding in you. That means you have the love and the life of God abiding in you. But you have to act on that love and put it to work for you before it will become a reality in your life."

This woman didn't really hate her mother-in-law. But she made the mistake so many believers make. She was listening to her head rather than to her heart.

It absolutely astounds me the way some Christian people use the word "hate." Many use the word "hate" too loosely. That word is not in my vocabulary. I don't even like to say, "I hate spinach." I may dislike some things, but I don't even hate things, much less people.

But I've even heard Christians say, "I just hate ole So-and-so." I thought to myself, Well, then, you ought to get saved!

I know they really don't mean that; they're just talking out of their head and letting their flesh dominate them. If they really did hate someone, then they'd be murderers in their heart, and they wouldn't have eter nal life.

Of course they were saved, but they kept the love that's in their heart shut away in prison, so to speak. People who talk like that are carnal Christians who are allowing their natural mind and their flesh to dominate them. They'll need to grow up and develop in love.

No, if people are born again, they don't hate people. If they do, they don't have the life and the love of God abiding in them. If they hate people, then in their heart, they are a murderer.

When believers say they hate someone, they just need to crucify the flesh and walk according to the love of God in their spirits. That isn't always easy, and it doesn't always feel good to the flesh. In fact, it's hard on the flesh!

But that is why we need to get our minds renewed with the Word and let the love of God abide in us and be made manifest in us. We need to learn to respond to the love of God that already abides in us.

A few days later this woman invited my wife and me over to her house. She also invited her mother-in-law and her family. She came over to me and said, "You were right. I don't hate my mother-in-law. These folks are Christians, and they love God.

"I was just operating in the natural, and I let my emotions get ahold of me. I let my natural reasoning and my flesh dominate me. The love of God is in my heart. I love them. They're wonderful people and they love God."

After talking to that young couple, we learned that they were trying to believe God for their little girl's healing. Their youngest child had had epileptic seizures since she was two years old, and they had taken the child to a leading specialist.

The specialist had said, "This is the worst case of epilepsy I've seen in thirty-eight years of medical practice."

Not only that, but the child seemed to be mentally retarded, and her coordination wasn't right.

Some time later, this couple called me and asked me to come and pray for their child because she was having an epileptic attack. My wife and I got into the car to go to their house to pray, and just as real as though some one were sitting in the back seat, the Holy Spirit spoke to me.

Now I want you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to say because it can mean the difference between life and death. It can mean the difference between how long you live and whether or not you get healed.

The Holy Spirit said to me, "Don't pray for the child. Don't lay hands on the child. When you get there, say to the mother that I said, 'Under the Old Covenant, I said to Israel, "Walk in My statutes and keep My command ments, do that which is right in My sight, and I'll take sickness away from the midst of you, and the number of your days, you will fulfill."'"

Then the Holy Spirit said, "Paraphrasing that in New Testament language, I said, 'A new commandment I give you that you love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, because you have love one toward another'" (John 13:34,35).

Of course, I knew what God said under the Old Covenant in Exodus chapter 23.

EXODUS 23:25,26

25 ... ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I WILL

TAKE SICKNESS AWAY FROM THE MIDST OF THEE.

26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: THE NUMBER OF THY DAYS I WILL FULFILL.

We could translate these verses in this way and do them no injustice: "Keep My commandment of love, and I will take sickness away from the midst of you, and the number of your days I will fulfill."

Then the Holy Spirit said, "Say to the mother, 'Tell Satan, "Satan, I'm walking in love now. Take your hands off of my child." "'

You see, there are times you shouldn't lay hands on people for healing. In fact, if certain conditions are not met, you could lay hands on them until you wore every hair off their head, and they wouldn't get a thing in the world out of it except a bald head.

Laying hands on people when they need to make an adjustment in their heart will only hinder their faith because nothing will happen.

We arrived at this couple's house, and I told this mother exactly what God had instructed me to say. The mother pointed to her child who was having a seizure right then, and said, "Satan, I'm walking in love now. Take your hands off my child!" As fast as you could snap your fingers, the seizure stopped, and the child was normal. Every symptom instantly left that little girl!

You see, if you're not walking in love, you won't be able to do that. The devil will laugh at you the entire time you are rebuking him. Why? Because the Bible says to give the devil no place (Eph. 4:27). If you're not walking in love, you're giving the devil a place in your life. You're opening the door to him.

But start walking in love and you will be walking in the Spirit. It doesn't take long to get in the Spirit. Just repent and ask the Lord to forgive you for not walking in love. Then determine, "From this moment on, I'm going to walk in love." Then you are in a position to put the devil in his place.

If Christians ever learned to really let the God-kind of love dominate them, you wouldn't have to anoint them with oil to get them healed. You wouldn't have to pray for them. They would get healed, and they could walk in divine health!

Where many Christians fail is that they allow unforgiveness to dominate them, and they fail to walk in love. Believers who are struggling with unforgive ness and lack of love are acting like carnal Christians.

One translation calls carnal Christians "body-ruled Christians." Baby Christians are primarily body-ruled. If you are letting your body rule you, then your natural mind is ruling you. All your natural mind knows is what it has learned through the five physical senses.

When folks understand the biblical teachings on how to practice and develop the God-kind of love, they will grow and develop beyond the babyhood stage of Christianity.

When believers understand the benefits of walking in the God-kind of love, it will just change their lives.

Believers would have to go outside the church to find someone to pray for because everyone in the church would be healed!

Well, five years later these parents of this epileptic child visited one of our meetings in another state. By that time the child was eight years old. I asked them how their daughter was doing.

This couple told me, "She's been in perfect health. In fact, she had the highest IQ of anyone in her school."

I asked them, "In this five-year period, has she ever had any other symptoms?"

The mother said, "Twice there were some little symptoms that showed up."

"What did you do?" I asked.

She said, "I just said, 'Oh, no you don't, Satan! I'm walking in love now.' And our daughter was all right."

That happened many years ago now, but then in 1991 these parents came to our annual Campmeeting. Of course, their daughter was a grown woman by then.

My wife and I talked to them and asked them how their daughter was doing. They said, "From that time to this, she's never had another seizure."

Someone said, "Oh, I wish I could get that to work for me." You don't get it to work by wishing. It works by walking in love — by acting on the God-kind of love. You've got to act on the Word of God and exercise the God-kind of love because faith works by love.

Someone said, "But I haven't always walked in love." That woman hadn't either. But the minute she repented and began walking in love, she had a right to claim God's promises.

The problem with most folks is that they dwell on the past. They focus on what they've done wrong, rather than on the mercy and forgiveness of God.

For example, they say, "But I did this and I did that. I just don't deserve God's forgiveness." You can't dwell on those areas where you've missed it. Just repent. Take God at His Word. God said, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). How much of our unrighteousness? All of it!

And if you know you are walking in love and Satan attacks you, your children, or your home, you can boldly say, "Satan, take your hands off my children because I'm walking in love. Satan, take your hands off me and off my home because I'm walking in love!"

And if you get out of the love walk, run as fast as you can and get back under the protective umbrella of love. The New Covenant belongs to you, so walk in love so you can prosper in every area of life. Walking in love will work for you just as much as it will for anyone. So learn to walk in love and reap the benefits that God's love brings.

Source: Love is the Way to Victory

Do You Hate Your Brother?

2011-01-31T17:19:00.000-08:00

I was reading Love is the Way to Victory by Kenneth E. Hagin and came across 1 John 3:15 and went on to look up the whole chapter and read the passage in its entirety. Anyway it caused me to really think about some things....

Have you ever harbored feelings of hatred towards someone, because of something they did to you OR because of something you perceived they did to you? This seems to happen more often than it should in the church!

I know we are probably all guilty of "hating" someone at some point in our christian walk, I mean we are human after all and completely capable of tripping and falling every now and then. But, do you know what the Word says about hating someone? It equates hating someone to MURDER! Yep, you heard me right, murder! You may say, "Oh, but Jess, you don't know what they've done to me! You have no idea how bad it is! They did...." Maybe so, maybe I don't know what they did to you because my experiences are different, and maybe what they did to you is worse than anything that has ever happened to me, BUT the God's love is UNCONDITIONAL! And we are supposed to exemplify God's love to humanity (Psst, even the people we don't like!). Love is something you just decide to do because you feel like it, it is a daily decision you make because it is what God wants you to do!

Have you ever thought about the fact that the person you just can't stand would maybe treat you better if YOU took the initiative to shower them with the love of God??? Imagine, you could be the very vessel God is trying to reach them through! You could be the person God wants to use to change their life and, intern, change your life! So many times we allow our pride and hurt to trap us and hold us down... we humans like our baggage of woe-is-me, unforgiveness, hatred, you-just-dont-know, and so forth. We like to play the sympathy card and make people feel sorry for our hurts and wounds, when all we are doing is re-opening the wounds and allowing the devil to move us out of a position of love into a position of bitterness and hate. If he can get us out of love, he can get us out of the will of God and drive a wedge between us and our ability to approach God. Love is the key to victory and so many times it gets thrown out and never really dealt with in the church. When love is one of the most important facets of our walk. It is the key to living a life of victory!

If we are ever going to be the people God called us to be we HAVE to walk in love with others.... and especially the people we don't like. The Bible says that, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." (1 Jn. 3:15). Wow, that is profound. Now, if you are guilty of hating someone, don't panic! God also tells us that, "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 Jn 1:9). So if you haven't been walking in love toward your brother/sister there is forgiveness, if you admit that you were wrong, accept God's forgiveness and move on by walking in love towards EVERYONE! (That means, brothers, sisters, fellow christians, in-laws, enemies, etc.) Shower them with the love of God be the opposite of a murderer (someone who takes life) and make a decision to give life by showing people the love of God!

Love is more than just lip service, it is an ACT! You can't say, "I love you brother!" one minute and then turn around and talk about how that "brother" is an idiot, annoying, etc. In addition you can't say you love someone, but never show them that love. What would you think of a husband that told his wife that he loved her, but he sat on his couch all the time watching sports and never offering to help his wife, but always demanding to have things done perfectly and never showed her that he loved her? He sounds like a pretty sorry husband, doesn't he? So, why should we christians treat our love walk that way? Shouldn't we act like we really do love people? Love is an action, a decision, and a state of being! God is Love, and that should be our endeavor, to be so full of love toward our fellow man that we become a beacon of God's love!
So, it is time for some spring-cleaning, open up the closet, pull out all those skeletons of hate, unforgiveness, and anger and just turn them over to God. Get them out of your hands and make a decision to have a fresh start to walk in love, exemplify love, and show love to all you come in contact with!

The following passage of scripture is what really spoke to me on this topic of LOVE.

Please Read:

1 John 3
¹SEE WHAT [an incredible] quality of love the Father has given (shown, bestowed on) us, that we should [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! The reason that the world does not know (recognize, acknowledge) us is that it does not know (recognize, acknowledge) Him.
    ²Beloved, we are [even here and] now God's children; it is not yet disclosed (made clear) what we shall be [hereafter], but we know that when He comes and is manifested, we shall [as God's children] resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He [really] is.
    ³And everyone who has this hope [resting] on Him cleanses (purifies) himself just as He is pure (chaste, undefiled, guiltless).
    ⁴Everyone who commits (practices) sin is guilty of lawlessness; for [that is what] sin is, lawlessness (the breaking, violating of God's law by transgression or neglect--being unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will).
    ⁵You know that He appeared in visible form and became Man to take away [upon Himself] sins, and in Him there is no sin [essentially and forever].
    ⁶No one who abides in Him [who lives and remains in communion with and in obedience to Him--deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] commits (practices) sin. No one who [habitually] sins has either seen or known Him [recognized, perceived, or understood Him, or has had an experiential acquaintance with Him].
    ⁷Boys (lads), let no one deceive and lead you astray. He who practices righteousness [who is upright, conforming to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action, living a consistently conscientious life] is righteous, even as He is righteous.
    ⁸[But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].
    ⁹No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God's nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.
    ¹⁰By this it is made clear who take their nature from God and are His children and who take their nature from the devil and are his children: no one who does not practice righteousness [who does not conform to God's will in purpose, thought, and action] is of God; neither is anyone who does not love his brother (his fellow believer in Christ).
    ¹¹For this is the message (the announcement) which you have heard from the first, that we should love one another,
    ¹²[And] not be like Cain who [took his nature and got his motivation] from the evil one and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his deeds (activities, works) were wicked and malicious and his brother's were righteous (virtuous).
    ¹³Do not be surprised and wonder, brethren, that the world detests and pursues you with hatred.
    ¹⁴We know that we have passed over out of death into Life by the fact that we love the brethren (our fellow Christians). He who does not love abides (remains, is held and kept continually) in [spiritual] death.
    ¹⁵Anyone who hates (abominates, detests) his brother [in Christ] is [at heart] a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding (persevering) within him.
    ¹⁶By this we come to know (progressively to recognize, to perceive, to understand) the [essential] love: that He laid down His [own] life for us; and we ought to lay [our] lives down for [those who are our] brothers [in Him].
    ¹⁷But if anyone has this world's goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him?
    ¹⁸Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity).
    ¹⁹By this we shall come to know (perceive, recognize, and understand) that we are of the Truth, and can reassure (quiet, conciliate, and pacify) our hearts in His presence,
    ²⁰Whenever our hearts in [tormenting] self-accusation make us feel guilty and condemn us. [For we are in God's hands.] For He is above and greater than our consciences (our hearts), and He knows (perceives and understands) everything [nothing is hidden from Him].
    ²¹And, beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us [if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us], we have confidence (complete assurance and boldness) before God,
    ²²And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we [watchfully] obey His orders [observe His suggestions and injunctions, follow His plan for us] and [habitually] practice what is pleasing to Him.
    ²³And this is His order (His command, His injunction): that we should believe in (put our faith and trust in and adhere to and rely on) the name of His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and that we should love one another, just as He has commanded us.
    ²⁴All who keep His commandments [who obey His orders and follow His plan, live and continue to live, to stay and] abide in Him, and He in them. [They let Christ be a home to them and they are the home of Christ.] And by this we know and understand and have the proof that He [really] lives and makes His home in us: by the [Holy] Spirit Whom He has given us.

So Full of Love,

JRT

Diligence: Get Busy for God!

2011-01-25T11:13:00.000-08:00

“If you’ll get busy for God, then, when He gets ready for you to do something else, He’ll know where to look for you. If you’re not busy, He’ll know you wouldn’t do it anyhow, so He’ll know there’s no use in talking to you, ‘cause you wouldn’t do it anyway. Sometimes people say, ‘Well I just don’t know what my place is, so I’m waiting to find out.’ Well, they’ll be waiting 10 years from now, if they’re not careful, and doing nothing. Do whatever your hand finds to do, and you’ll find as you’re busy working for God He’ll open up other doors to you, and He’ll witness to your spirit and to your heart just what He does want you to do!” ~ Kenneth E. Hagin

Hebrews 6:9-12

" Even though we speak this way, yet in your case, beloved, we are now firmly convinced of better things that are near to salvation and accompany it.

For God is not unrighteous to forget or overlook your labor and the love which you have shown for His name's sake in ministering to the needs of the saints (His own consecrated people), as you still do.

But we do [strongly and earnestly] desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity [all the way through] in realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of [your] hope until the end,

In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith (by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises."

We need to be diligent in our work. I found the following definition of diligence inspiring:

Diligence is a zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work, exemplified by a decisive work ethic, budgeting of one's time, monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness, and putting forth full concentration in one's work...
Diligence is the act of doing all things efficiently and relentlessly to the best of one's ability in order to achieve success in every endeavor.

This is how we should approach every task we perform! In doing this, we exemplify our maturity and ability to take on greater tasks. If God sees that he can trust us with the "small" things He WILL use us for the "big" things! Praise God!

Seek to be diligent in everything you set your hand to and watch doors of opportunity open up right and left! God's got an AMAZING plan for YOUR life, just hold on to His hand and you WILL see that His Word IS TRUE!!!! Don't you DARE allow satan to rob you of that hope, YOU will walk in those things God has placed in your heart. Your past is in the past, you can't change that, but you CAN change your present and future by being diligent to do that which honors God.... even if that means cleaning the toilets at your church. God took a illiterate, british plumber and used him to RAISE THE DEAD and CHANGE THE WORLD! That "illiterate, british plumber" was Smith Wigglesworth! Just think about it..... if God could use someone from that background to change the world, imagine what he can do with YOUR life!!!!!!! :)

BLESSINGS,
JRT <3

Give Me the Word!

2011-01-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

The following words are lyrics from a song that Raygene Wilson used to sing called "Give Me the Word." That song has just been stirring in my heart and I just wanted to put it out here! :) I may have messed some words up since I was typing and listening to the song (since I can't actually find the lyrics ANYWHERE!) ... but, that aside, these are AWESOME words to sing!

GIVE ME THE WORD

Give me the Word, Make it plain and clear to me

Give me the Word, It’s a light that I might see

Give me the Word, It’s my total victory

Over every situation give me the Word!

It’s been tested, it’s been tried

Search and find, your satisfied

Though the story’s old, The message still is true

It’s been ridiculed, It’s been chained

Still it’s power’s never changed

It will stand the test forever give me the Word

Give me the Word, Make it plain and clear to me

Give me the Word, It’s a light that I might see

Give me the Word, It’s my total victory

Over every situation give me the Word!

I don’t want it watered-down

Sugar-coated or profound

Give me basic truths that last the course of time

And preach it strong, preach it clear

So that all the world can hear

It will change your lives forever, Give me the Word

Give me the Word

In times of trouble

Give me the Word

In times of fear

Give me the Word

When my faith is tested, and death may be drawing near

Give me the Word

When life is challenged

Give me the Word

When I’m in need

Over every situation give me the Word

Give me the Word, Make it plain and clear to me

Give me the Word, It’s a light that I might see

Give me the Word, It’s my total victory

Over every situation give me the Word!

"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart."

Hebrews 4:12 AMP

BLESSINGS,

JRT

CAPTOR

2010-12-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

You've captivated my heart,

In your presence I am free.

You've loved me from the start,

How could a love like this be?

Oh my Lord, my God,

You are all I want, all I need.

I seek to love endlessly

The one who loved unconditionally.

Lord, you have my life and my heart,

They've been yours from the start.

You're the lover of my soul, and

I know that we'll never part!

I offer my life as a sacrifice,

To the Captor of my heart!

JRT

Great Men of Faith!

2010-12-13T22:26:00.000-08:00

I was searching for something and stumbled across the following quotes, what great men of faith these individuals were, but you know what? They weren't any different than you or I! We can walk in the same way these men walked, we can accomplish the same things... IF we allow the WORD to shape our mindset and IF we commit our lives to Him and seek His face. When we make the concious decision to LIVE, ACT, and WALK IN the WORD then, and only then, will we see great and mighty works by the Holy Ghost through us!

Smith Wigglesworth Laying Hands on a Sick Child

John G. Lake: "Christianity did not come to the world to apologize for its existence or to beg a place to live. It came as heaven's champion: it has the champion soul. "It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. 3:15). That champion consciousness is in the soul of the Christian. Being born of God, he is champion of the son of God and a demonstration His salvation. He is the champion of God. He cannot be anything else. 'As he is so are we in this world.' (1Jn. 4:17). . . . I fear sometimes that we moderns somehow have lost the spirit of original Christianity. We have lost the overcoming of it. We have lost the smash of it. We are begging the devil for a place in the world, apologizing for our faith in God, trying to conform our religion to the mind of the world."

A. W. Tozer: "Every man is as full of the Holy Spirit as he wants to be. He may not be as full as he wishes he were, but he is most certainly as full as he wants to be."

China Missionary Arthur Matthews: "We are only as victorious as we want to be. Lack of inner victory cannot be blamed on anyone but ourselves. Each man has his own measuring cup and measures out the quantity of victory he desires. Beyond that, for some perverse reason, we will not stretch ourselves. Today, the message of victory is being misrepresented, cheapened, and diluted by Christians who are content with lowered standards and limited victory because in their hearts, they do not really want victory."

Smith Wigglesworth
Smith Wigglesworth: "Fear looks; faith jumps. Faith never fails to obtain its object. If I leave you as I found you, I am not God's channel. I am not here to entertain you, but to get you to the place where you can laugh at the impossible."

Smith Wigglesworth: "Can demons remain in your presence? You have to be greater than demons. Can disease lodge in the body that you touch? You have to be greater than the disease." 1 Jn. 4:4

Smith Wigglesworth: "If it is in the Bible, it is so. It's not even to be prayed about. It's to be received and acted upon. Inactivity is a robber which steals blessings. Increase comesby action, by using what we have and know. Your life must be one of going on from faith to faith."

Smith Wigglesworth: Great faith is the product of great fights."

Smith Wigglesworth: "Repeat in your heart often 'baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, fire, fire!' All the unction, and weeping, and travailing comes through the baptism of fire, and I say to you and say to myself, purged and cleansed and filled with renewed spiritual power." 'Who maketh his ministers a flame of fire.' ~ Heb. 1:7.

Smith Wigglesworth: "How great is the position of the man who is born of God, born of purity, born of faith, born of life, born of power!"

Smith Wigglesworth: "I want to help you decide that, by the power of God, you will not be ordinary."

Smith Wigglesworth: "If you are in the same place today as you were yesterday, you are a backslider."

Smith Wigglesworth: "Power from on high . . . It is God inserting into you divine activity with mightiness."

Smith Wigglesworth: "Before a man can bind the enemy, he must know there is nothing

binding him."

Smith Wigglesworth: "Faith is such a divine establishment of courage in you that courage sweeps you through every condition: You cannot come into the divine order, except on the line of being soaked in the word of God."

Smith Wigglesworth:"If you want to increase in the life of God, then you must settle it in

your heart that you will not at any time resist the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost and fire - the fire burning up everything that would impoverish and destroy you."

Smith Wigglesworth: "Voice your position in God and you will be surrounded by all the

resources of God in the time of trial."

Smith Wigglesworth: "Shout, 'Get thee behind me, Satan,,,' and you will have the best time on earth. Whisper it, and you won't."

"We miss the grandeur because we lack audacity. If you will voice God at any time, you will find that He will be greater than any power that is round about you."

Smith Wigglesworth: "I don't ever ask Smith Wigglesworth how he feels!" I jump out of bed! I dance before the Lord for at least 10 to 12 minutes - high speed dancing. I jump up and down and run around my room telling God how great he is, how wonderful He is, how glad I am to be associated with Him and to be His child."

Smith Wigglesworth: "God's plan for you is to forget the past in every way, because the future is so amazingly wonderful. Oh, the word of God is so wonderful! The word so eats me up that I have no place but in God's word."

Smith Wigglesworth: "God wants His people to be ablaze with Holy Ghost activity."

Smith Wigglesworth: "If you leave people as you found them, God is not speaking by you.

If you are not making people mad or glad, there is something amiss with your ministry. If there is not a war on, it's a bad job for you."

WOW! I dont know about you, but these quotes were so good that I was ready to start preaching!

It is time for us to quit playing around and get busy! The earth is in desperate need of something REAL let us rise up, take our stand, and BE THE CHURCH GOD CALLED US TO BE! When you are on fire, people will come to watch you burn! ;)

Until Next Time,

JRT

Who I See in You

2010-11-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

I accidentally stumbled across this on a random blog on the internet and it just blessed me and spoke to me and my current state! I just love how God uses these "accidents" to speak to us! I think this is so beautiful and inspiring! So, I thought I would share it with all my young single girls! Please pass this along! :)

God has designed you to be a Queen, not a pauper! So wait for your King, don't settle for anything less! God has destined you to be so much more than you give yourself credit for! Be shaped and molded by HIS image of you!

Who I See in You

(I have no idea who this is by, if anyone knows please let me know!)

She is elegant and graceful and her beauty is like the rarest of pearls. Her beauty is rare only because the deepest part of it lies in the depth of her character. It is rare because it is not flaunted for the attraction of men, for that beauty is shallow and self serving, and for that reason it is not beauty at all. Her beauty is so awesome that she doesn’t even have to be physcially endowed to be wonderfully attractive. She does not try to seduce or beguile because true beauty needs no help in honest attraction.

Grace leaps from her tongue like clear water from a beautiful waterfall.Her words are used to heal, to build up, and to edify. Her words are used to serve and cheer on and she is too important for games of gossip. She is confident on the days when her hair is not fixed to look its best and her make-up doesnt cover all of her flaws. Her humble confidence doesn’t lie simply in what she looks like, for even on her worst days she knows who she is.

She is elegant and proud to be the entire woman she can be because she understands that genuine feminitity has its own fragrance. She does not compare or compete with anyone because any truly confident woman doesn not need to. She does not have to be like anyone else, she celebrates her own individuality understanding that every beautifully created woman like the different flowers, has their own aroma. She has her own spice and her personality offers its own flavor ans she loves herself because she loves her God.

Her worship is true and flows from the vulnerability, senstivity, and weakness that only the feminine heart can offer. She does not flaunt her spirituality or her God -given gifts or talents because she knows that she has them only to serve. She does not hide in her spirituality because she feels rejected, fearful, or unattractive. She simply worships because she loves her God.

This darling of a princess realizes that she is being raised to be a Queen.She does not invest or spend herself just anywhere. A Queen only gives herself to a King, so if any man wants a chance at having her at his side, he will have to hold the standard of a King. She will not allow her lonlieness as a woman to cause her to jump into any man’s embrace. A woman who does this has yet to know who she is; nor does she truly know of her inheritance from her loving heavenly Father. She should not regret the emotional essence given to her by her bountiful Creator. There is a compassionate sparkle in her eye and she gleams with potential. Her smile is as sincere felt as her pain. She can express her hurt just as well as she can express her joy.

Because she is truly beautiful she inspires respect without demanding it. She is clothed in humility and attempts to dress herself morning by morning in purity of heart. The heart of a godly man is being prepared to receive her as an invaluable gift. The tender hands of your heavenly Father are delicately stroking the inner fibers of your being. He is changing your character and your contenance because you are His glorious inheritance. This beautiful woman lies in the budding of a beautiful rose. Stay faithful, and ever becoming beautiful!

Gordon's Love Letters to Freda

2010-09-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine posted this and it blessed me so much that I wanted to share it with you guys! Enjoy!

Gordon's Love Letters to Freda

by Mica Charity Kilstrom on Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 6:30pm

Ladies,

I had posted these on my fb status, but it was requested of me by my dear sweet cousin to combine these in a note for all of you. Recently, I've been doing some research on the lives of Gordon and Freda Lindsay, who have always been some of the classic ministers I've admired most. Their ministry encompassed many different arenas, including pastoring, pioneering, evangelism, revivalism, writing, editing, publishing, and missions. The Lindsays were such a unique blend of gifts and anointings, and together, were a dynamic team powerfully used by God. As a writer, I've always been encouraged in how their writing and editorial gifts greatly blessed the body of Christ - especially at a time when that area of ministry was in need of pioneering spirits.

While at the ORU library today, I was able to locate three of their books - two autobiographies by Gordon, and one autobiography by Freda. It was in Freda's book "My Diary Secrets" that I stumbled upon a delightful discovery: their love letters! A true romantic at heart, I couldn't help but sighing with dreamy contentment at each word Gordon penned to his sweetheart. Their love was truly designed by the Lord, and mirrors what I trust the Lord has for me. Since I am admittingly still in my season of waiting, I found these notes of endearing love a beatiful reminder of the graciousness the Lord bestows upon His children in our romantic lives. Truly, He has a plan for us and, at each turn in the road, is orchestrating a most incredible love story for each of us who dare to wait upon Him.

Knowing that several of you young ladies also find yourselves in this quiet season of waiting, I thought these love letters between this most amazing minstry couple would greatly encourage each of you. So read on, my dear friends, and picture your love life just as beautifully scripted in every detail.

‎My dearest Freda,

You have come to mean more to me than anything else in the world. May it ever be thus. It gives me a thrill to be able to write, not Dear Freda, but Dearest Freda....

From your Sweetheart, Gordon

My dearest sweetheart,

You and I can together become coheirs of the inheritance of grace, knowing that God shall be with us in all that lies ahead. Each time I leave you it becomes a wee bit harder to say goodbye. So darling, let me say, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Always your Sweetheart, Gordon

My dearest sweetheart,

My darling, you write that you hope you won't be a burden to me. Now I know that you are joking. For you could be none else than a joy and a blessing. Be assured of this forever! My only qualm of conscience is (and may the Lord forgive me for a purely human wish) that I won't be able to lavish upon you the material blessings that I am sure I could if I were in secular work. But we are working for a better world than this, are we not?...

Your Sweetheart forever, Gordon

‎Dearest Freda,

I'll be happy indeed when the time comes that you can take part with me in "our" work....

Your Sweetheart, Gordon

Dearest Sweetheart,

I truly know that our union is in the will of God, and certainly the perfect will of God is the only place I desire to be in this troubled world...

Always your Sweetheart, Gordon

‎Darling,

I can truthfully say that you found a place in my heart that neither time nor space can affect. Pray that the days may be shortened to the time we will meet again to part no more...

Your sweetheart, Gordon

Dearest Freda,

It is indeed refreshing in these days of fast living and material indiscrepancies (even among professed Christians) to find a couple as your pastor so closely bound by the chords of love. Of course the secret of a happy married life is to become absolutely one, not in tastes altogether, for variety is the spice of life, but one in spirit...

Your sweetheart forever, Gordon

My darling sweetheart,

It is true as you say, a life lived alone is to a great extent empty. One needs another to balance his judgment and to be a complement to his life. Life was meant to be shared. I have seen many things in my brief span, but the real pleasure of all experiences is in being able to share them with someone else...

Ever and Forever Yours, Gordon

Dearest Sweetheart,

Honey, please don't worry about your coming up to expectations. You are beyond my expectations. Maybe it should be the other way around - maybe I wont come up to yours. But anyway, no one could love you more than I....

Always your lover, Gordon (OK, Seriously, I knew this guy was a writer, but who knew he was such a romantic????)

Dearest sweetheart,

Love is a most delicate thing, and I treasure it above all. Its beauty is easily marred and its fragrance lost unless carefully guarded...Women are equal and should be to men. Man does not want either a superior or an inferior as his helpmate. Men and women are not competitors, but should be an inspiration one to another in the battle of life. Of course, in my case that is not true. For you are the best of all girls, and I am not the best of all men...

Forever yours, Gordon

Renegade Church

2010-08-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

We don't want to be a renegade church. Look at what Paul describes as the renegade church:

"I am surprised and astonished that you are so quickly turning renegade and deserting Him Who invited and called you by the grace (unmerited favor) of Christ (the Messiah) [and that you are transferring your allegiance] to a different [even an opposition] gospel.

Not that there is [or could be] any other [genuine Gospel], but there are [obviously] some who are troubling and disturbing and bewildering you [with a different kind of teaching which they offer as a gospel] and want to pervert and distort the Gospel of Christ (the Messiah) [into something which it absolutely is not].

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to and different from that which we preached to you, let him be accursed (anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment)!

As we said before, so I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel different from or contrary to that which you received [from us], let him be accursed (anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment)!

Now am I trying to win the favor of men, or of God? Do I seek to please men? If I were still seeking popularity with men, I should not be a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah).

For I want you to know, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man's gospel [a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard].

For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but [it came to me] through a [direct] revelation [given] by Jesus Christ (the Messiah)."
- Galatians 1:6-12

This verse is so clear and it is so very similar to the events occurring in the church today! We need to have a firm foundation in the WORD, not church doctrine! Time is getting short, the church needs to rise up proclaiming the truth of God's TRUE Gospel! We need to make a decision to not be the renegade church full of deserters, but to be the uncompromised church full of victors!

Blessings,

JRT

Adding to and Taking Away from the Bible!

2010-08-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

I want to begin by saying it is not my intention to attack any individual, my intention is to speak the truth in love, and hope that the truth can set people free from the deception they have allowed themselves to be lead into. My heart is for people, and it breaks my heart when I see them following others right off of a cliff. For example, the bridge on a major interstate is out and people are driving off of it right into the Mississippi River and let's say Jane is silently standing there praying for everyone who passes by to see that the bridge is out and John is shooting flares and jumping in front of the cars waving and doing everything he can to get them to see the truth and probably getting persecuted and cursed by angry drivers. Who loves them more? The passive one or the one actively trying to get them to see the truth? Well, I have decided to be like John, even if people hate me because of it! I can't, in good-conscious, keep silent and remain passive! So anyway, now that I've shared my heart it is time for the point I wanted to make...

Lately, I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that we are living in the last days as I see the boldness and audacity of some people to purport the doctrines and beliefs that DO NOT line up with scripture. I could not believe my eyes when I read where someone quoted scripture as follows:

"Who then can be saved? Jesus said, with man (including tithing & sowing seed) it is IMPOSSIBLE, but with God who HAS PROVIDED THE TITHE, Jesus Christ, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

The problem is that for one they don't give a verse reference, so a new believer could blindly accept this as the gospel truth. The second issue, which is the main one, is that they have added to the scripture. This verse, found in Mark 10:27, does not say that at all, the verse ACTUALLY reads:

"Jesus glanced around at them and said, With men [it is] impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."

I researched different translations and commentaries on this whole passage of scripture and found nothing that remotely resembled this individuals quoted "verse" ... This is not an isolated occurrence either, I have seen so many people loosely interpreting the Word of God, following paraphrases of scripture as the "truth," and allowing MEN's perceptions and opinions of the Word to guide their spiritual life. There is such a thing as clearer revelation on certain themes in the Bible, BUT they must ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS line up with the FULL COUNSEL of the WORD OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!! If someone brings new revelation to the table and you say, "well, OK I like that, but what about verse such-n-such?" and they say, "Oh, that scripture doesn't apply to us, we are living under NEW revelation, let me explain to you more aout this wonderful new freedom I've discovered..." then RUN RUN RUN! God is not a liar, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever... He never changes. If He said something in His Word, it doesn't just magically disappear because some man said it did! People are too comfortable with throwing out parts of the Bible they don't like and adding parts that their FLESH likes, I don't know about you but I DO NOT want to be caught doing either one of those things, because in Revelation 22:18-19 it gives clear warning to anyone who would take it upon themselves to do such an act:

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book."

Believers, now more than ever before we need to KNOW the Word of God! You need to constantly study it and "Do your best to present yourself to God as an approved worker who has nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of truth with precision." (2 Tim. 2:15, ISV) We are living in the times that the Bible warned us about, times when even the most elect can fall prey to the deceptions of Satan! Know the Word, Stand strong in the Word, and DO NOT BE SWAYED by trendy teachings, "new" revelations are really, sometimes just old deceptions with a face lift. "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Eccl. 1:9 NIV)

The following is a list of scriptures that warn us about what we will face in these last days regarding doctrine and teachings:

‎"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from ...heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught [it], but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." - Galatians 1:6-12

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" - 1 Timothy 4:1

"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." - Matthew 24:11

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect." - Matthew 24:24

"For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." - 2 Corinthians 11:13-14

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." - 2 Peter 2:1

Study the WORD,

JRT

Placebo Grace

2010-08-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Placebo Grace

Today I have been sitting outside and just thinking about some things that I feel God is stirring up in my heart. Being a pastor's daughter there are so many things you hear about people in your area or even people in churches across the country and world. It really opens your eyes to the bigger picture. The bible says that the devil walks about seeking whom he may devour. The greatest and biggest lies that people who were once viewed as strong Christians are falling for involves tithing and the local church. One of the biggest moves is the idea of "grace" this new move is not based on biblical grace at all, but rather a placebo grace, people think they are living under grace but in fact they are living under something fake packaged as the real deal. This "new" belief isn't new revelation at all it is just old deception with a face lift to make it more appealing.

In this move people have come out and said that because they are under grace they don't have to go to church because we are the body. What a selfish thing to think! You are not the whole body of Christ all by yourself, you are PART of the body, Romans 12 discusses this fact:

"For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

For as in one physical body we have many parts (organs, members) and all of these parts do not have the same function or uses;

So we, numerous as we are, are one body in Christ (the Messiah) and individually we are parts one of another [mutually dependent on one another]."

- Romans 12:3-5

As you can see clearly in this verse, we all together make up the body. If I'm a finger I can't be a body all by myself, I would simply be a lonely finger that has self-deceived into believing that I am a full and complete body! That is exactly where the devil wants to get us, he wants us to become self deceived much like a movie I saw recently, where they would go into people's dreams and plant a thought, but ultimately it was up to the individual how they chose to act on that thought. Would they grab on to that thought and allow themselves to become deceived by their own imagination based on that thought or would they cast it away as simply a deceptive thought? This is exactly how it is with the devil, he will plant thoughts, but it is up to us how we chose to act on them. Do we take hold of them and allow deception to reign supreme in our thoughts OR are we going to " refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor. 10:5)? The devil want to divide the church because if he can break down communication and sever the chain of command from the troops he can win! He wants us to all be deserters! You never in all of the history of the world hear about the army of deserters winning a battle, you hear about a united army with strong and respected leaders winning wars! It is a lie straight from the enemies camp that we don't have to be united with fellow believers, that sitting at home and following bloggers and ministers on the Internet is perfectly fine. Thank God for the Internet and the ability to reach people who CANNOT go to Church because they live in anti-Christian countries where Christians are persecuted to the point of death! But here in the United States and in Europe, there is NO excuse for not being in church. We need to be united as a body if we are ever going to truly reach this world!

Secondly, another message that has come out of this move is that we do not need to tithe. Many beliefs have been presented regarding this idea some being the idea of being under grace and therefore exonerated from all "religious" bondage, the idea that Jesus is the tithe and therefore we don't have to pay the tithe because HE is the tithe, etc. All of these ideas do not line up with the WORD. the Word should ALWAYS be final authority no matter who is preaching what! In Hebrews 7 it says that Jesus is a priest after the order o Melchizedek and that he receiveth the tithes (PRESENT TENSE) ... notice it doesn't say He was a tithe after the order of the Law and became the tithe for us so we will never have to live under such a duty, it says He is a perpetual priest and that he receiveth the tithes! The devil wants to get Christians to stop tithing and stop giving because it will cripple the church and keep the church from fulfilling it's purpose and divine destiny! It takes money to reach the lost, clothe and feed the poor, build homes for the homeless, take missions trips, etc! All that takes money and that is exactly why the devil has attacked tithing and giving he is the master of deception, that means he is very cleaver and crafty in his methods of deceiving even the most elect! He has been around a lot longer than we have and he has had lots of practice in deception, that is why it is so important to understand the Word an understand it in the correct context. The bible tells us that Satan can appear as an angel of light, he even uses scripture and twists it so it sounds biblical to deceive people! Don't think you are immune to his ways, that is why it is so very important to grounded in the Word and to build a strong root system in the Word and to have a goo church that feeds you the uncompromised Word of God!

Don't follow a man's teaching blindly, take it all into subjection of the Word! make sure what you believe lines up with the FULL counsel of the Word of God! Sadly, self-deception is the most difficult to recover from. Don't allow yourself to take a placebo of grace allow yourself to take the true grace and to understand TRUE message of God, not man's doctrine!

Til Next Time,

JRT

"Oh, I Tried That Faith Stuff and it Didn't Work!"

2010-08-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that too many Christians have things wrong about a successful life of faith. I can't tell you how many times I've heard complaints about living by faith being too hard or "i tried it and it didnt' work" ... and the list goes on! They believe that in order for them to succeed at living by FAITH they have to rely on THEIR ability & THEIR faith, and that is why they fail. A life of faith is not a result of your perfection and abilities. Living by Faith is not living by muttering. People have misconstrewed living by faith to mean constantly muttering their faith confessions and if I cross this T and dot this I, then maybe, just maybe I will get the breakthrough I am believing God for. These people have spent too much time turning faith into a mathematical theorem of confusion rather than an actual answer producing equation. How does this happen? It is because they don't carefully consider what they hear (Mark 4:24).
Some people hear a portion of the message and take that small portion as being the whole package and act on it as such. When this partial package doesn't work it is all someone else's fault for promoting "doctrine" that doesnt work. (Matt. 13:19-22) They usually give up on that "faith stuff" because they never really understood it in the first place. They went through the motions of living by faith, but didn't actually believe it deep in their heart. (Matt. 8:13) It would be like someone going through the motions of being saved, but not actually believing in Jesus and then finding themselves in hell and saying, "that Christian-living stuff didn't work." Faith is more than muttering a list of confessions. Making a confession list with scriptures is a good thing to do as an aid in times where your faith is weak, but it should NEVER replace living by faith. Faith is so much more than mutterings and systematic confessions, Faith is taking God at His word and being confident that if you believe and speak faith God will meet your needs superabundantly above even your highest prayers and dreams! (Phil 4:19, Eph. 3:20-21)

A successful life of FAITH is TRUSTING in GOD's ability and being CONFIDENT of what HE promised in HIS Word. True success in living by FAITH is being FAITHFUL to the Word of God and RESTING in the TRUTH that GOD has already won the VICTORY! (2 Cor. 2:14, 1 Cor. 5:57, Rom. 8:37, 1 John 4:4, 5:4) So many Christians give up living by faith because they allow unbelief to sneak in, they were not FULLY persuaded. In Romans 4:17-22 Paul tells us that, "As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. He was appointed our father in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that He has foretold and promised as if they already existed. For Abraham, human reason for hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So numberless shall your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered the utter impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about\a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's deadened womb. No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God, Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised. That is why his faith was credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God)." See Abraham had all great reasoning for faith to not work, God told him that he was going to have decendants as numerous as the stars and yet he has reached nearly 100 years of age and his wife is way past the natural age for bearing children, he could have given up and said that faith didnt work, but the bible tells us that he STAGGERED NOT at the promises of God, but that he was FULLY persuaded that God was able to do that which He promised. If we are ever going to live successful lives of walking by faith we have to be fully persuaded that God is well able to accomplish that which He promised in His Word. When we release our faith and put our trust in God's promises then God is able to act because he has heard our faith. God hears our faith, that is what causes Him to act! Faith, not a list of confessions that you mutter out of religious tradition, moves God!!!! (Gal. 3:2, 2 Cor. 5:7)

Successful Christian living isn't just floating through life thankful for God's grace that just causes you to have everything you've ever wanted without lifting a finger (that's know as a self-centered 'gospel'). Successful Christian living is living by faith, growing in faith, increasing and stretching your faith, and calling those things which be not as though they were!!! (Rom. 4:17) True success as a Christian is allowing God to increase your faith so that He can use you mightily to reach the lost! He wants to get you to a place where you can speak to cancer or tumors and watch them fall off of bodies or speak to demonic spirits that have oppresed people and watch people be freed! God isn't out there trying to make life hard on us, He is out there trying to get us to a place where we can be of greater service to Him, where we can help grow the kingdom and reach the hurting, dying people of the world. He wants to use us mightily if we will let Him, but we must first learn to live by faith. Living by faith isn't hard, it just takes dedication and knowledge of the Word. It takes time to grow in faith, it comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! (Rom. 10:17, 2 Cor. 5:7, Mark 11:20-26, John 14:13)

So dont ever say, "Oh, I tried that faith stuff and it didn't work!" No, no, no ... Faith tried you and YOU weren't ready! God tells us to live by faith, He goes so far as to say in Hebrews 11 that without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. I don't know about you, but I sure want to please God. Everywhere you look in the New Testament it focuses on the importance of FAITH in living a victorious life, God breaths faith. Faith is how God opperates and it is how we should opperate! So step out today, put past failures behind you, and dive into the Word of God. Study faith, for yourself, in His Word! View it free of any biased views you may have of faith due to past shortcomings in living by faith! View living by faith with new eyes as you study what God has to say about it in His Word.

God is waiting to bless your socks off, so start giving Him permission to do! Live by FAITH, not by sight!

Blessings,

JRT

Your Ordained Place!

2010-08-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

Driving around today, I have been listening to OLD music from early Charismatic/Word of Faith days, stuff I grew up listening to at Winter Bible Seminars, Camp meetings, All Faiths Crusades, Believers Conferences, and so forth. As I was singing along I was amazed at how after so many years the lyrics are still as fresh in my mind as they were they day I sang them all the time. Then I believe that what happened next was more than me just drifting back down "memory lane" I honestly believe God brought things to remembrance, that had almost been forgotten, to show me something.

Listening to the songs God reminded me of my childhood. Being a pastor's daughter I spent MANY hours in the church outside of service times because my parents would have work to do and counseling appointments and at the time we were too young to be left at home, so they brought us with them to the church. (And just a side note: THANK YOU daddy & mommy for having us around church and the things of God as much as possible!) Anyway, being in the church for hours as young children there isn't much to do, so me being the oldest I would organize something imaginative for us to do and my two little guinea pigs--errrr--I--mean--uh--siblings would follow my lead. And what fun event would we choose to do? Well the one thing we were always surrounded by, we would have an imaginative camp meeting service.
I would stand on the platform and exhort to my younger siblings and sometimes any other young children I could find in the church and I would lead worship singing anointed songs that I heard adult music ministers sing. Then I'd pull out the Bible and preach something I had heard my dad say about faith and the blood of Jesus and then we would have a healing line, I'd ask anyone who was battling sickness to come down for prayer and one sibling would be an usher and the other would come forward for prayer. I would lay hands on them while I prayed for them and they would fall back like the anointing hit them. Many would say, oh well you were just imitating what you saw on a regular basis. Well, yes there is some truth to that, but I believe there is something more than just that.

I believe that I was through my childhood imagination operating out of a deep desire to do what God placed on my heart. He provided a grace inside of me before I was born to walk in the calling he destined me to be in. Little did I know as a child when I was "playing" church that 20 years later, along with my brother and sister, I would be standing on that same platform as an adult leading His people into His presence! I am reminded of a story I heard Kenneth E. Hagin share. He talked about when He was a young child people would ask His older brother what he wanted to be and like most young boys his brother wanted to be a cowboy, but Brother Hagin said, "I gonna be a p'eacher" (preacher) and he would "p'each" to the cabbage heads and any other inanimate object he could find. You see when God calls you, even as a child you are sensitive and aware of a desire to be what He has called you to be, you may not fully understand it but you are aware of that desire. Sometimes, as we get older we forget those things and become focused on what others tell us we should do with our life, but that call is always sitting on the inside of us like a seed waiting to bloom!

I say all this to encourage you to not give up on the things you "imagined" yourself doing as a child. God has provided graces in your life for your ordained place and as you step out in faith towards those things He has called you to do you will see an increase in the anointing in that place. As you step into your calling He will give you a greater ability and discernment in the area He has called you to walk in!

So step out in faith and discover the calling God has placed on the inside of you!

Be Blessed!

JRT

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

"Come on, God, I'll Put You Up in a Great Condo!"

2010-07-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I watched a movie that some of you may be familiar with, in this movie a guy stops to ask for directions and meets a girl, eventually things develop between the two and the guy realizes he has feelings for the girl but he isn't ready to make a serious commitment to her, so he forms a compromise. He offers to put her up in a nice apartment, get her a car and some money, and take care of her so that when he is in town he can stop by and see her. Her response to this offer is what struck me, she says the following statement:

When I was a little girl, my mama used to lock me in the attic when I was bad, which was pretty often. And I would- I would pretend I was a princess... trapped in a tower by a wicked queen. And then suddenly this knight... on a white horse with these colors flying would come charging up and draw his sword. And I would wave. And he would climb up the tower and rescue me. But never in all the time... that I had this dream did the knight say to me, "Come on, baby, I'll put you up in a great condo."

After watching this movie, this quote just really stuck with me and God began to use it to speak to me about Christians. How many times do so called Christians make similar offers to God?

Many Christians, just like with the guy in the movie, want the intimacy of a loving relationship without the commitment. It is almost as if they're saying, "Come on, God, I'll put you up in a really great condo!" Many Christians want all the benefits of being intimate with God, without having to make a serious, binding commitment to Him. They want to keep God in a "condo" somewhere so they can stop by once a week to see Him, and still be free to keep their other desires at "home" without having conflict between the two. God doesn't want to be put up in a condo, he wants the "fairytale" just like the girl in the movie. He wants to be our only desire, our only true love, not a one night stand! God wants and desires a true relationship with us and we should, if we love Him, desire to give Him exactly what He wants. We SHOULD want to spend the rest of our lives making HIM happy and falling deeper in love with Him and becoming more intimate with Him.

If you have messed up in this area, which I am sure we all have at some point in our lives, it isn't too late. You can repent to Him for not honoring and caring for Him the way you should, for not treasuring Him, and commit yourself fully to Him! The following lyrics are a great way to commit your life to God, wake up singing these words to Him and watch your life change!

This is my desire, to honor You

Lord with all my heart I worship You

All I have within me

I give You praise

All that I adore is in You

Lord I give You my heart

I give You my soul

I live for You alone

Every breath that I take

Every moment I'm awake

Lord have Your way in me

Make a commitment to put His desires and His will above your own, and make a commitment to honor and cherish Him all the days of your life! Don't offer God a condo, offer Him the whole fairytale - a life spent deeply and madly in love with Him!

Be Blessed,

JRT

You ARE Welcome in This Place!

2010-07-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share this AWESOME song with you guys!

This is what Worship is all about, inviting/welcoming the presence of God and the move of the Holy Spirit into our services and gatherings as believers. THAT is what REALLY changes the hearts and minds and lives of the people. Not a rock climbing wall for the kids, cappuccino and Christ, or all the other man plans, but opening ourselves up to do HIS will and flow with the move of HIS spirit!
NOW is the time for boldly entering into the presence of God like NEVER BEFORE, there is so much pressure on the Church to compromise the WORD and to hide the Holy Spirit when we should be waiting on His presence and crying out for the pouring out of HIS spirit on all flesh like never before! We SHOULD want to see Him move mightily across the nations, we SHOULD want to see the tangible presence of God fall in our services, we SHOULD want to listen to what His Spirit is saying, we SHOULD want to see the sick and diseased healed and made whole by the POWER of the anointing and the presence of God, we SHOULD want to see and feel the tangible presence of God in our midst, we SHOULD want to see all those things and more, however it seems that Satan has used deception to cause churches to close their doors to the Spirit and open their doors to everyone else while patting the fornicator, homosexual, back-stabbers, and drug users on the back telling them they are A-OKAY just the way they are, but the TRUTH is that they are not "ok just the way they are." The TRUTH is that they can come just as they are, but not stay just as they are. The TRUTH is that they can come in contact with the POWER and PRESENCE of the Spirit of God and be delivered from the bondages of sin and the kingdom of darkness and be translated into the LIGHT.

Don't force the Holy Spirit and the presence of God out of your church services, tell Him today that He IS welcome in "this place" wherever you worship, invite Him in and if it offends people then that is their issue. I would rather offend people, than to grieve and offend the Holy Spirit and God, we were put here to make GOD happy NOT men!!!!!!

Until Next Time,

JRT

I Love God, but Not Enough to Tithe...

2010-07-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

Abram tithed before there was a law to tithe, he was not under 'mandate' to tithe. He did it out of love for God. He gave His son to die for us out of love, then out of love we should do the things He has asked us to do. If you claim to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your spirit, then He should not have to make you tithe, you should tithe because you Love Him. If you say you love God then show Him!

Too many people try to make excuses for being stingy and greedy with their money by saying they're "under Grace" or that tithing is Old Testament etc etc ... the reality of the fact is that they truly don't love God, they may say they do but they are not showing it by their action and they are trying to prevent furthering His kingdom. The whole purpose of the tithe is to keep the local church running so that it can reach people (and no "we" are not the "local church"... yes, we are the body of Christ, but throughout the NT it repeatedly makes reference to not forsaking the assembly of believers as is the manner of some and so forth!) and also, God wants to bless your socks off, He desires to do things but just as we see in the natural world there are the laws of seed time and harvest. When you don't plant that ten percent well that is your harvest, but when you plant that ten percent you will reap a greater harvest. Tithing is not a religious law, it is the door to increase and greater blessing! Don't listen to the lies of Satan, if He can get you outside of the will of God and outside of the Word of God he will keep you bound and defeated and blinded to the truth. He can appear as an angel of light and he is the great deceiver he can deceive even the most elect so just guard your heart and don't let him trick you by twisting the Word of God!

Blessings,

JRT

Exactly as I Have Been Told!

2010-06-14T21:18:00.001-07:00

"Take courage; for I believe God, and am convinced that things will happen exactly as I have been told." - Acts 27:25 (Weymouth)
It has taken me a long time to come to this realization -- God's got the PERFECT timing! Many times in our lives there are words that have been spoken over our lives by divine inspiration, or simply dreams that we've held in our hearts that don't happen when we expect them to. When we initially hear or think about such things we have an excitement because of what God said and we expect those things to happen the next week.
When the dreams don't materialize in our timing we get discouraged and even depressed and feel hopeless. I am speaking from experience. There have been times in my own life when words were spoken over me, and I was so excited about what God said was going to happen that I couldn't stand to wait. Days, weeks, months, and years went by and discouragement and even depression came to rob me of the joy I once had. I was expecting God to work in MY time frame, when in fact He has His own time frame that is PERFECT! It has taken a while to get to this point, but I know that God's word is never void of the power to bring it to pass, and He is not a liar! So, if He said something is going to happen, it is going to happen. For example, even if I'm single, I KNOW and I HAVE FAITH IN GOD that He said I won't be alone in the journey, so I stand firm on that promise knowing that one day I will have a man to walk beside in the calling of God, to share my life and have a family with. There are other things He has spoken and dreams I've dreamed that haven't fully materialized, but I am beginning to see the edge of those things as they begin to come to pass! I have struggled in the same areas as you, but I have learned, just as Paul, to believe God that He WILL do that which He told me He would do!
So, I encourage you to have Faith in words God has spoken over your life! Stand strong in Faith, not being swayed by the circumstances, because He is faithful that promised! God's got a plan, just hold on to His hand and relax as you walk by faith and not by sight!

Until Next Time,
JRT

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Jude ... Written for TODAY!

2010-05-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

JUDE 1:3-25

"...Dear friends, I've dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish. What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.
I'm laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn't need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected. And you know the story of the angels who didn't stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day. Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.
This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.

The Archangel Michael, who went to the mat with the Devil as they fought over the body of Moses, wouldn't have dared level him with a blasphemous curse, but said simply, "No you don't. God will take care of you!" But these people sneer at anything they can't understand, and by doing whatever they feel like doing—living by animal instinct only—they participate in their own destruction. I'm fed up with them! They've gone down Cain's road; they've been sucked into Balaam's error by greed; they're canceled out in Korah's rebellion.
These people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They're giving you a black eye—carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn't nailed down. They're—

Puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind;

late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit,

Doubly dead, pulled up by the roots;

wild ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach

but the foam of their shame;

Lost stars in outer space

on their way to the black hole.

Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: "Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth." These are the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.
But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: "In the last days there will be people who don't take these things seriously anymore. They'll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts." These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There's nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!
But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes."

UNFAZED!

2010-05-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Word for today:

"An empty-head thinks mischief is fun, but a mindful person relishes wisdom. The nightmares of the wicked come true; what the good people desire, they get. When the storm is over, there's nothing left of the wicked; good people, firm on their rock foundation, aren't even FAZED." Proverbs 10:23-25

Know the promises of God's word, stand firm in faith and nothing will FAZE you!!!!
Praise God for His Word! His Word is ALWAYS relevant, no matter what new doctrine or method comes along to undo the validity the Word! God's Word remains the same yesterday, today, and forever -- "For ever, O LORD, your word is settled in heaven." (Ps. 119:89) When the storms of life try to move and shake your foundation, just dig in even deeper into the Word and the promises of God and stand firm! Be strong and courageous because God is with you! He will never leave you and He will never forsake you... don't let the devil's smoke screen attack get you off track -- he is just a bunch of puff and fluff!!!!! Stand firm and remain UNFAZED!

God's Richest Blessings on You,
JRT

What happened to the GOOD NEWS?

2010-05-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today I was righteously angered when I heard the following song playing on the Christian radio station ... No wonder people aren't eager to be Christians! Will someone please tell me how this is the Gospel/GOOD NEWS?????????

Held
Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To Think That Providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling

Who told us we’d be rescued
What has changed and
Why should we be saved from nightmares?
Were asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it’s unfair

Chorus:
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and know
That the promise was when everything fell
We’d be held

This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it and
Let the hatred numb our sorrows
The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and tomorrow

If hope is born of suffering
If this is only the beginning
Can we not wait, for one hour?
Watching for our Savior

This is not the GOOD NEWS!!!!! God's Word is full of GOOD promises, but that aside, the whole belief that God sends suffering and affliction our way to shape us and mold us can be proven COMPLETELY UNBIBLICAL and nothing more than MAN's doctrine by simply studying a few verses.

First, look at Jeremiah 29:11 a verse we commonly see on graduation gifts, but tend to forget when we face hardships and believe the source of those hardships to be God, but look closely at what this verse says. The New Living Translation seems to say it clearly, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” What did God say His plans for us were? Disaster? Suffering? Death? Sickness and Disease? NO!!!! He said HIS plans for us were for GOOD, to give us a future AND a hope! Nowhere in there did He say, “For I know the plans I have for you, they are for your good. My plans are to break you, rob you, strip you of all that you hold dear so that then, and only then can you truly love and appreciate me!” He never said anything remotely close to that, yet every Sunday we have preachers all over the world getting up behind a pulpit and preaching that that is exactly what God does.

Second, let’s look at John 10:10. In John Jesus states that, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” What did Jesus say? Oh, that’s right He said that I have come to steal all you hold dear, kill everyone you love, and destroy your life, didn’t He? Oh, wait silly me that’s not what He said at all is it? Jesus didn’t leave any room for argument. He said the THIEF aka the DEVIL, SATAN, so forth and so on… not GOD! Jesus told us plainly who is behind anything bad, evil, or sad in your life. He made it VERY simple. If anything Steals from you, Kills, or Destroys then according to JESUS it is NOT of GOD! Those who preach otherwise are preaching contrary to the SON of GOD and are thus purporting a FALSE Gospel of suffering. This belief has switched the roles of God and Satan. According to such doctrines if your son dies at 5 years old of cancer, God did it to Him because he was trying to teach YOU a lesson. So, a loving God would MURDER an innocent life in order to teach someone a lesson? Well that sounds all high and philosophical because the common human mind cannot comprehend such a twisted belief that they need “educated” people to instruct them. I must say that I find it rather disturbing that people believe such fallacies. Were God’s promises not applicable to that 5 year old little boy? Of course they were! He promised that little boy a FUTURE and LONG LIFE! To believe such doctrine is to say that God is a fickle God and His promise only apply to whomever He deems worthy. God’s promises are for ALL His children, when He says that he came to give life, and to give it in abundance, for us to ENJOY – He MEANS IT!!!

Third, let’s look at John 14:9 where Jesus said, “… Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father…” Jesus told us that anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father. In the scriptures did we ever see Jesus put leprosy, palsy, or blindness on people who loved the Lord God with all their heart? Did we ever see Him send anyone to the grave that was young and had their whole bright future ahead of them? No, not once did we see Jesus do ANY of these things. Instead, everywhere you look in the scriptures Jesus “… continued His circuits through all the towns and the villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, and curing every kind of disease and infirmity.” (Matt. 9:35) He went around healing the sick, casting out devils, raising the dead up and bringing them back to life! He did GOOD things, not evil. He desires to do ONLY GOOD things for us. He desires to give us good gifts and to give us abundant life.

Know that no matter what has happened in your life, if it stole from you, brought death, or destroyed you or something you hold dear, it was NOT from GOD. No matter what some PhD or preacher told you!!!! God doesn’t Steal, Kill, or Destroy to bring about some greater purpose in your life, He GIVES you LIFE, and overflowing life in abundance to bring about His GOOD purpose and plan for your life! If something in your life is causing anything outside of life then it is from the Devil and you use your authority in Christ Jesus to curse it and cast it out of your life! If you remember anything from this blog post, remember this: Suffering is not of God, it is from the Devil! God’s desire is to bless you and shower you in LIFE and His Love. He desires for you to live a life of health, prosperity, and VICTORY! He wants you to be a beacon of HOPE to a lost a dying world! So let your light shine brightly and share the GOOD NEWS with all who cross your path!

Until Next time,
JRT

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at: SOZOgurl@gmail.com

WOW! Benny Hinn addresses the Seeker-Friendly Churches in America!

2010-04-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Glad that someone with a voice has the boldness to address what is happening in the church today! Thank you Benny Hinn, Kenneth W. Hagin, and others who BOLDLY proclaim the truth in a time of so much deception!

“The seeker-friendly move in America is destroying america… Those seeker friendly churches are not of God! When they are ashamed, when they don’t want to offend people, then they don’t have the Holy Ghost in them! Who cares if you offend people? Jesus offended people!”

“They worry more about crowds than getting in people in heaven. They are clubs.”

“Pentecostals are losing Pentecost. They have full churches of dead people.”

Press In

2009-12-07T07:43:00.001-08:00

It is not the time to draw back, it is the time to press in!!!

Dec 7 - Press In
By: Kenneth Copeland

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...."(Colossians 3:16)

Things in this old world aren't getting any better, and in recent times, the Holy Spirit has been speaking an urgent message to my heart. He's been saying, "Press in. Draw into a more intimate relationship with your heavenly Father. If you don't, you won't make it. If you do, you will see more glorious outpourings of God than you can imagine."

That message isn't just for me. It's also for you--and for every other believer on the earth today. We are in the last of the last days of this age. Jesus is coming soon. It's an exciting time, but it's also a dangerous time. Those who don't do what the Spirit says, who don't press into the Lord, are going to go from disaster to disaster. But those who do will defeat the disasters and turn them into glory, in Jesus' Name!

Your first step in drawing closer to God is to realize that you know God first in His Word. Time spent meditating in the New Testament is time spent with Jesus.

Most people don't realize that. So, instead of getting to know the Lord through His Word, they try to know Him through their feelings and that just won't work.

Letting the Word dominate your thinking is to allow the Holy Spirit to have control over your mind. As you do that, your feelings will eventually fall in line.

Remember this: John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word. That means, when you spend time in it, you're spending time with Jesus. When His Word is dwelling in you richly, then Jesus is dwelling in you richly too!

Don't go from disaster to disaster. Take those disasters and turn them into glory, in Jesus' Name. Press into Jesus. Press into the Word and you'll make it through these dangerous days just fine!

Scripture Study: John 1:1-14

Kenneth Copeland MinistriesFort Worth, TX 76192-0001
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I’m Behind You One Thousand Percent

2009-11-29T19:23:00.000-08:00

The following is a great story that I shared with my youth group tonight as I taught on encouragement and the power of our words and the effect our words and attitudes have on others!

"Therefore encourage (admonish, exhort) one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another, just as you are doing. Now also we beseech you, brethren, get to know those who labor among you [recognize them for what they are, acknowledge and appreciate and respect them all]--your leaders who are over you in the Lord and those who warn and kindly reprove and exhort you. And hold them in very high and most affectionate esteem in [intelligent and sympathetic] appreciation of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we earnestly beseech you, brethren, admonish (warn and seriously advise) those who are out of line [the loafers, the disorderly, and the unruly]; encourage the timid and fainthearted, help and give your support to the weak souls, [and] be very patient with everybody [always keeping your temper]. See that none of you repays another with evil for evil, but always aim to show kindness and seek to do good to one another and to everybody. Be happy [in your faith] and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually (always)..." 1 Thes. 5:11-16

"I’m Behind You One Thousand Percent" –
The Power of an Encouraging Word

As a youngster I developed a thoroughly annoying and humiliating problem of stuttering. Any person afflicted with this puzzling menace can tell you that certain letters and sounds are especially hard to say. Two troublesome letters for me were L and P. My name is Larry and I attended Plymouth-Whitemarsh junior and senior high schools in Pennsylvania.

In the ninth grade, I was elected president of our junior high student body. During an assembly of the seven, eighth, and ninth grades – several hundred students – I was beckoned by the principal to join him on stage for the induction ceremony.

Standing nervously in front of the squirming, bored crowd, I was told to repeat after the principal the words, "I, Larry Crabb of Plymouth-Whitemarsh Junior High School, do hereby promise…" That’s how the principal said it. My version was a bit different: "I L-L-L-L-Larry Crabb of P-P-P-P-Plymouth-Whitemarsh Junior High School, do hereby p-p-p-promise…"

The principal was sympathetically perplexed, my favorite English teacher wanted to cry, a few students laughed out loud, most were awkwardly amused, some felt bad for me – and I died a thousand deaths. I decided right then that public speaking was not for me.

A short time later, our church celebrated the Lord's Supper in a Sunday morning worship service. It was customary in our congregation to encourage young men to enter into the privilege of worship by standing and praying aloud. That particular Sunday I sensed the pressure of the saints (not, I fear, the leading of the Spirit), and I responded by unsteadily leaving my chair, for the first time, with the intention of praying. Filled less with worship than with nervousness, I found my theology becoming confused to the point of heresy. I remember thanking the Father for hanging on the cross and praising Christ for triumphantly bringing the Spirit up from the grave. Stuttering throughout, I finally thought of the word "Amen" (perhaps the first evidence of the Spirit's leading), said it, and sat down. I recall staring at the floor, too embarrassed to look around, and solemnly vowing never again to pray or speak aloud in front of a group. Two strikes were enough.

When the service was over, I darted toward the door, not wishing to encounter an elder who might feel obliged to correct my twisted theology. But I was not quick enough. An older Christian man named Jim Dunbar intercepted me, put his arm on my shoulder, and cleared his throat to speak.

I remember thinking to myself, "Here it comes. Oh well, just endure it and then get to the car." I then listened to this godly gentleman speak words that I can repeat verbatim today, more than thirty years later.

"Larry," he said, "there's one thing I want you to know. Whatever you do for the Lord, I'm behind you one thousand percent." Then he walked away.

Even as I write these words, my eyes fill with tears. I have yet to tell that story to an audience without at least mildly choking. Those words were life words. They had power. They reached deep within my being. My resolve never again to speak publicly weakened instantly.

Since the day those words were spoken, God has led me into a ministry in which I regularly address and pray before crowds of all sizes. I do it without stuttering. I love it. Not only death, but also life lies in the power of the tongue.
God intends that we be people who use words to encourage one another. A well-timed word has the power to urge a runner to finish the race, to rekindle hope when despair has set in, to spark a bit of warmth in an otherwise cold life, to trigger healthful self-evaluation in someone who doesn’t think much about his shortcomings, to renew confidence when problems have the upper hand.

From Encouragement: The Key to Caring by Larry Crabb Jr. and Dan B. Allender, Zondervan.
Source: 1000 Percent

A God of Limitations?

2009-11-29T12:51:00.000-08:00

God is only a God of limitations, when we place limits on Him because of our underestimation of His ability and lack of knowledge in who He is! He is still the God who supercedes our expectations, desires, needs, etc. He is still the God of the Bible! He NEVER changes, so if He doesn't look mighty to you, check your thoughts!

"Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]--"
Eph. 3:20 AMP

I Am Your Pastor

2009-11-29T11:57:00.000-08:00

Great expression of the heart of a true Pastor! They are there for you in your ups and downs, there to help you through the circumastances of life, there for you even when you despise them, because they love YOU!

I Am Your Pastor

Memo to: My Congregation

From: Your Pastor

When you rise to your highest and best, I am your Pastor.

When you yield to temptation and fall to your lowest, I am your Pastor.

When you live in the Spirit and manifest the attitude of a Christian, I am your Pastor.

When for a time you sink to the level of the flesh, I am your Pastor.

When you walk in the pathway of duty and do God’s will, I am your Pastor.

When you enter the path of disobedience, I am your Pastor.

When joys come to you that swell the notes of praise in your heart, I am your Pastor.

And when sorrow comes as a dark shroud over your life, I am your Pastor.

When you have done your best and deserve the approbation of others, I am your Pastor.

When you have done your best and your good is spoken of as evil, I am your Pastor.

When you have all you need and more of the necessities of life, I am your Pastor.

When you feel the pinch of poverty and your power to earn decreases, I am your Pastor.

When you remain sweet and gracious as a mature Christian ought, I am your Pastor.

When you act childish over some real or imagined wrong, I am your Pastor.

When everything goes right and you have not a care in the world, I am your Pastor.

When nothing seems right and burdens multiply, I am your Pastor.

When you please me by the stand you take and the wonderful spirit you manifest, I am your Pastor.

When you disappoint me and cause me sleepless nights, I am your Pastor.

When you are living life to the fullest, I am your Pastor.

When your health fails and the end of mortal life seems near, I am your Pastor.

When I reveal that I am human and have my own weaknesses and infirmities, and you are charitable and understanding, I count it a privilege to be your Pastor.

- Author Unknown

Compromise

2009-11-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

If you compromise the Word, you compromise your soul! The Gospel is either wholly truth or completely farce, if you compromise a single verse you show your lack of faith in God & His Word. You've made it clear that your way is better than God's and that, my friends, is called pride. The spirit you win people with is the spirit you must maintain to keep them. So will you win them with a Spirit of Compromise or a Spirit of Truth & Power?

It Only Takes a Few

2009-11-04T00:02:00.001-08:00

I didn't write this, but it blessed me so much that I wanted to share it with you!

It Only Takes a Few
By: Kenneth Copeland

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Dear (insert your name here),

You may be thinking, "Can a few people like us actually change the whole nation?" Let me ask you this: Can one demonic person change a nation for the worse?

Definitely. Hitler did it in Germany, didn't he?

If the devil's power resting on a man can change a nation for the worse, you can be sure that a group of men and women with God's power resting on them can change a nation for the better.

No nation is so far gone that God can't change it. Israel proved that. Why, even when it didn't exist, the devil couldn't destroy it. God raised it back up before His very eyes.I want you to notice something in that scripture. It says, "If MY people, which are called by MY name...." God didn't say it would take everybody in the nation to get things turned around. He said, "If MY people...."Notice also that He didn't say, "If my people will get out there and sign petitions and drum up a majority vote...." He said, "Pray." In other words, we're going to have to quit trying to work this thing out by ourselves. God Himself will do the healing in this land. Our job is to pray, to believe and to seek His face. Seek Him today.

Scripture Study: 2 Chronicles 7:1-16

Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Fort Worth, TX 76192-0001

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I Want to be a True Child of God

2009-10-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, this verse is pretty clear!

Those who think they are exempt from correction and discipline are illegitimate offspring of God... That's not my opinion that is what the Bible says, puts a fire under you to make sure you are listening to God and any correction He may be speaking into your life.

He does it because He loves us, not because He wants to be mean!!!! I don't want to be an illegitimate child of God, illegitimate children tend not to inherit the family blessing and end up hidden in a shack somewhere. I don't know about you, but I sure do want to be a true, legitimate child of God and inherit all the blessings and benefits that are included in that and live in the family mansion...

Hebrews 12:5-11

"And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him; For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes. You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God's children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all]. Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live? For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness. For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness--in conformity to God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God]."

Be sure to read the whole chapter if you have time! It further emphasizes this message and encourages you to not give up or faint before completing that which He has set before you! A great chapter!! Some of it might not make your flesh happy, but that isn't who we are trying to please, we are here to please God and serve Him with our whole heart! And we should be eager to accept correction, if need be, so that we may perfect our walk and move up higher in our effectiveness as a Christian and increase our impact on this hurting, lost world!

Grace -- Your Get Out of Hell Free Card.

2009-10-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

Many questions are asked today by Christians regarding Grace, that is the unmerited favor of God. One of the most popular is, "Can a Christian backslide?" Well, before we jump to a quick response, we should take a look at the Word of God and see what it has to say about the matter, after all the Bible should be the deciding factor, not a man's opinion.

Now there are many patterns of thought on this subject, but I will list the two most extreme. One line of thought is that you must achieve salvation through your works and you constantly lose you salvation and constantly have to repent and work out, through good deeds, your salvation. The other line of thought is once saved, always saves or that because we are under grace we can do no wrong and can't backslide.

First, let us discuss what grace actually is. Grace typically refers to that act of Jesus on the cross. That is, the Father's unconditional love for mankind and the sacrifice of His son Jesus to redeem us from sin and the curse, being made a curse for us (Gal.3:13).
However, if you do a simple study on the word "grace" in the Bible, you will find that not every reference is referring to the "grace" received at the cross. In Paul's letters He many times begins and ends with "Grace of God be unto you..." This is simply a greeting that is saying, "May the favor of God be upon you..." To further explore this concept of the word "grace" that is found in the New Testament, let us look at the definition of the Word from Vine's Expository Dictionary:

1,5485,charis>

has various uses, (a) objective, that which bestows or occasions pleasure, delight, or causes favorable regard; it is applied, e.g., to beauty, or gracefulness of person, Luke 2:40; act, 2 Cor. 8:6, or speech, Luke 4:22, RV, "words of grace" (AV, "gracious words"); Col. 4:6; (b) subjective, (1) on the part of the bestower, the friendly disposition from which the kindly act proceeds, graciousness, loving-kindness, goodwill generally, e.g., Acts 7:10; especially with reference to the Divine favor or "grace," e.g., Acts 14:26; in this respect there is stress on its freeness and universality, its spontaneous character, as in the case of God's redemptive mercy, and the pleasure or joy He designs for the recipient; thus it is set in contrast with debt, Rom. 4:4,16, with works, Rom. 11:6, and with law, John 1:17; see also, e.g., Rom. 6:14,15; Gal. 5:4; (2) on the part of the receiver, a sense of the favor bestowed, a feeling of gratitude, e.g., Rom. 6:17 ("thanks"); in this respect it sometimes signifies "to be thankful," e.g., Luke 17:9 ("doth he thank the servant?" lit., "hath he thanks to"); 1 Tim. 1:12; (c) in another objective sense, the effect of "grace," the spiritual state of those who have experienced its exercise, whether (1) a state of "grace," e.g., Rom. 5:2; 1 Pet. 5:12; 2 Pet. 3:18, or (2) a proof thereof in practical effects, deeds of "grace," e.g., 1 Cor. 16:3, RV, "bounty" (AV, "liberality"); 2 Cor. 8:6,19 (in 2 Cor. 9:8 it means the sum of earthly blessings); the power and equipment for ministry, e.g., Rom. 1:5; 12:6; 15:15; 1 Cor. 3:10; Gal. 2:9; Eph. 3:2,7.

To be in favor with is to find "grace" with, e.g., Acts 2:47; hence it appears in this sense at the beginning and the end of several Epistles, where the writer desires "grace" from God for the readers, e.g., Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; in this respect it is connected with the imperative mood of the word chairo, "to rejoice," a mode of greeting among Greeks, e.g., Acts 15:23; Jas. 1:1 (marg.); 2 John 1:10,11, RV, "greeting" (AV, "God speed").

The fact that "grace" is received both from God the Father, 2 Cor. 1:12, and from Christ, Gal. 1:6; Rom. 5:15 (where both are mentioned), is a testimony to the deity of Christ. See also 2 Thess. 1:12, where the phrase "according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ" is to be taken with each of the preceding clauses, "in you," "and ye in Him."

In Jas. 4:6, "But He giveth more grace" (Greek, "a greater grace," RV, marg.), the statement is to be taken in connection with the preceding verse, which contains two remonstrating, rhetorical questions, "Think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain?" and "Doth the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) which He made to dwell in us long unto envying?" (see the RV). The implied answer to each is "it cannot be so." Accordingly, if those who are acting so flagrantly, as if it were so, will listen to the Scripture instead of letting it speak in vain, and will act so that the Holy Spirit may have His way within, God will give even "a greater grace," namely, all that follows from humbleness and from turning away from the world.

This clearly explains that the word "grace" in the Bible does not always carry the meaning and message that so many of today's Christians are trying to proclaim. Now, let me make it clear, I am NOT trying to belittle or demean the work at the cross. The sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf should never be taken lightly, but what I am addressing are people who feel that Grace is a "Get Out of Hell Free" card and use it as such to get out of having to do the right things and live a holy and righteous life before God. These people have perverted the grace of God (Jude 1:4) into a way of living the way they want with no boundaries and being free from condemnation or conviction for their acts. They believe that because they are "under grace" that they can do no wrong and that they can never backslide. However, New Testament scripture is VERY clear on the fact that someone CAN fall off of the path of righteousness, in other words they can backslide, fall out of fellowship, turn their back on God, and whatever you want to call it, the Bible is clear on this fact. But, there are many who do not believe me, well for your sake in hopes of leading you back to the Truth I will give you scripture to support this rather than giving you an unsubstantiated or unsupported opinion, because when eternity is all said and done a man's opinion of what the scripture says won't get you into heaven, the pure, unadulterated truth will!

In the scripture we are encouraged as believers to remain steadfast, finish the race, stay true to the faith, and other forms of encouragement to remain faithful to God. My question is, if we are under grace and it is impossible for us to backslide, then why would Christ and the Apostles consistently encourage us to not give up? It doesn't make sense does it? The scriptures say that there will be those who will say, "'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" (Matt. 7:22-23). Now if that scripture is blatant, I don't know what is? Christ blatantly tells us that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom, it will be those who follow after the Father and His will (Matt. 7:21), in other words, it will be those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit of God (Rom.8:1). Christ also addresses this when he uses the analogy of a master and slave, He says that "...the servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few" (Luke 12:47). Christ didn't pull any punches on that one. You can see a relation here, a believer knows the will of God is held to a higher accountability than a non-believer who does not know the will of God. If a believer stumbles and does that which is the opposite of what God desires his punishment is far worse than one who does not know the desires. We are commanded many times throughout the New Testament to live holy lives, pleasurable and accepting to God. "So brace up your minds; be sober (circumspect, morally alert); set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed. Live as children of obedience [to God]; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel]. But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living. For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call upon Him as [your] Father Who judges each one impartially according to what he does, [then] you should conduct yourselves with true reverence throughout the time of your temporary residence [on the earth, whether long or short]." (1 Pet. 1:13-17). We are commanded to conduct ourselves in a holy and moral manner, but if God's grace is with us through it all and if we can live however we want because we are under grace and will never lose our salvation, why do you think God found it so important to warn us against falling to lusts of the flesh and encouraged us to keep steadfast in the things of God? Why did He do this? The answer is that it is possible to walk off the path of salvation, to slide backwards in our relationship with God and to go back to the old ways. If this wasn't possible, then why would God even waste the time of the writers of the New Testament when grace would cover us no matter what? Well the Bible goes on to tell us that people can forsake, renounce, turn away from entirely, abandon the righteous way of life which is a result from the grace of God, "Being destined to receive [punishment as] the reward of [their] unrighteousness [suffering wrong as the hire for their wrongdoing]. They count it a delight to revel in the daytime [living luxuriously and delicately]. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions and carousing together [even] as they feast with you. They have eyes full of harlotry, insatiable for sin. They beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in covetousness (lust, greed), [they are] children of a curse [exposed to cursing]! Forsaking the straight road they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam [the son] of Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness." (2 Pet. 2:13-15). They turned their back on God's grace and left the path of righteousness by going the way of the world. Grace is not a "Get Out of Hell Free" card to use as a license to sin. The grace of God is what leads Him to send His son to die for the sins of the world and grant, to those who would accept this act of love and live according to the word of God, eternal life. We don't get saved and then have a free ride to heaven that allows us to live however we want. If that were so, the only thing that would make us different from the world is that we had a ticket to heaven and they didn't. We could steal, cheat, lie, drink, smoke, fornicate, murder, rape, molest, and any other form of sin and not have to feel the least bit guilty about it because we are "under grace" and don't have to worry about it because we are going to heaven. What complete lunacy, I mean dear idiots of Christianity, who has bewitched you? Who has deceived you into believing that your actions and decisions don't matter because you'll make it into heaven no matter how you use your life. This is such a lie, straight out of the pit of hell, and what is really scary is that thousands of Christians are flocking to this mindset, you know why? Because they don't have to conform to the will of God, they don't have to change their way of doing things, they don't have to leave behind their old habits, because they're under a "new" system that allows them to be "free" from the law.

These people have twisted the meaning of New Testament references to the Law as being anything that "binds" you, to make it clearer these people refuse to submit. They believe that submission is bondage and we are free from that. Well, we are free from sin and free from the curse of the Law, but that does not free us from walking in the commandments which Jesus himself taught. We are not free to live the way we want, we are not our own, we have been bought with a price and because of that we have standards to live up to! Our purpose on this earth is not to see how close we can get to the line and how far we can go and still remain under God's grace, our purpose is to go from glory to glory and faith to faith, to move up higher in the things of God, to see how close we can get to the standards and how far we can go towards being like Christ! God tells us that when you walk after the flesh you were deluded into believing a false gospel. You believed those who turn the grace of God into licentiousness (Jude 1:4). You had no love for the truth. You may have had much zeal, but not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2). You were under the delusion that you could have a relationship with me, serving Me, while remaining a servant to sin (Rom. 6:16) You deceived yourself into thinking you could sow to the flesh without reaping eternal corruption (Gal. 6:8). You thought you could receive imputed righteousness while wallowing in the vomit of iniquity (2 Pet. 2:22), you loved darkness more than the light (John 3:19), therefore depart from Me into everlasting darkness (Matt. 22:13). Those who say they know Me and do not keep my commandments are liars, they have not the truth in them, (1 John 2:4) and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire (Rev. 21: 8). They praise Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me, and in vain they worship Me (Matt. 15:8). We must understand that just as one act of sin is not going to send us straight to hell, we are not free to live a life style of sin under the guise of being free. The Bible tells us to confess our sins one to another, and He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin (James 5:16). So, obviously grace does not free us from sinning, it is possible for Christians to sin and fall short, but there is hope if we commit our life to God and confess our sins He will forgive us. We are not perfect and we will make mistakes and fail, but we should sincerely seek to live clean upright lives before God and men, and when we do fail, admit our faults ask for forgiveness and turn from those wicked ways and He will forgive us and cleanse us from unrighteousness.

Jesus made the greatest command of all. The entire Law is summed up in this one commandment, and that is that we love our neighbor. If we love our neighbor we are not going to commit acts of sin that would lead them astray. Paul elaborates on this in Galatians 5:

"You were running the race nobly. Who has interfered in (hindered and stopped you from) your heeding and following the Truth? This [evil] persuasion is not from Him Who called you [Who invited you to freedom in Christ]. A little leaven (a slight inclination to error, or a few false teachers) leavens the whole lump [it perverts the whole conception of faith or misleads the whole church]. [For my part] I have confidence [toward you] in the Lord that you will take no contrary view of the matter but will come to think with me. But he who is unsettling you, whoever he is, will have to bear the penalty. But, brethren, if I still preach circumcision [as some accuse me of doing, as necessary to salvation], why am I still suffering persecution? In that case the cross has ceased to be a stumbling block and is made meaningless (done away). I wish those who unsettle and confuse you would [go all the way and] cut themselves off! For you, brethren, were [indeed] called to freedom; only [do not let your] freedom be an incentive to your flesh and an opportunity or excuse [for selfishness], but through love you should serve one another. For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is complied with in the one precept, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. But if you bite and devour one another [in partisan strife], be careful that you [and your whole fellowship] are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God). For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do. But if you are guided (led) by the [Holy] Spirit, you are not subject to the Law. Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency, Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies), Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge]. And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires. If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.] Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another."

My earnest prayer is that people are able to see the Truth, because it is only the Truth that can set them free. So, many have been deceived by false doctrines that men proclaim, telling them they don't have to live a certain way because if they do that is bondage! Well, I am here to tell you that it is bondage to not submit to the will of God and still act in sinful ways, you are being held captive by sin! The devil has bewitched you and tricked you into believing that you are ok just the way you are and your offering of vegetables is good enough for God, well that is the same lie he has been telling since Cain and Abel. God looks at the heart, for the superficial stuff will one day fade away but the thoughts and actions that come out of our hearts are what echo in eternity! In closing I will ask you one question: Will you keep the grace of God and your "Get Out of Hell Free" card or are you going to sell it for a License to Sin card?

"The terrible thing is that so many preachers today, under the pretense of magnifying the grace of God, have represented Christ as the Minister of sin; as One who has, through His atoning sacrifice, procured an indulgence for men to continue gratifying their fleshy and worldly lusts. Provided a man professes to believe in the virgin birth and vicarious death of Christ and claims to be resting upon Him alone for salvation, he may pass for a real Christian almost anywhere today, even though his daily life may be no different from that of the moral worldling who makes no profession at all. The Devil is chloroforming thousands into hell by this very delusion. The Lord Jesus asks, ‘Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?’ (Luke 6:46); and insists, ‘Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven’ (Matt. 21) ...It is the bounden duty of every Christian to have no dealings with the "evangelistic" monstrosity of the day: to withhold all moral and financial support of the same, to attend none of their meetings, to circulate none of their tracts. Those preachers who tell sinners they may be saved without forsaking their idols, without repenting, without-surrendering to the Lordship of Christ are as erroneous and dangerous as others who insist that salvation is by works and that Heaven must be earned by our own efforts." - Arthur W. Pink

"For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith. For God's [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative. For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves]." - Romans 1: 17-22

Are You a Grasshopper or a Giant Killer?

2009-10-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the question for today, are you a grasshopper or a giant killer? There are characteristics that can be found for each of these in the Bible, but before we continue discussing this topic, let’s look at Numbers 13 & 14 to see what I am referring to.

Numbers 13 & 14
"AND THE Lord said to Moses, Send men to explore and scout out [for yourselves] the land of Canaan, which I give to the Israelites. ... And Moses called Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua. Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Get up this way by the South (the Negeb) and go up into the hill country, And see what the land is and whether the people who dwell there are strong or weak, few or many, And whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they dwell in are camps or strongholds, And what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is timber on it or not. And be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and scouted through the land from the Wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath. And then went up into the South (the Negeb) and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai [probably three tribes of] the sons of Anak were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two [of them]; they brought also some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol [cluster] because of the cluster which the Israelites cut down there. And they returned from scouting out the land after forty days. They came to Moses and Aaron and to all the Israelite congregation in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, and brought them word, and showed them the land's fruit. They told Moses, We came to the land to which you sent us; surely it flows with milk and honey. This is its fruit. But the people who dwell there are strong, and the cities are [a]fortified and very large; moreover, there we saw the sons of Anak [of great stature and courage]. Amalek dwells in the land of the South (the Negeb); the Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea and along by the side of the Jordan [River]. Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; we are well able to conquer it. But his fellow scouts said, We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are stronger than we are. So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the Nephilim [or giants], the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. AND ALL the congregation cried out with a loud voice, and [they] wept that night. All the Israelites grumbled and deplored their situation, accusing Moses and Aaron, to whom the whole congregation said, Would that we had died in Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness! Why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be a prey. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us choose a captain and return to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of Israelites. And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the scouts who had searched the land, rent their clothes, And they said to all the company of Israelites, The land through which we passed as scouts is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense and the shadow [of protection] is removed from over them, but the Lord is with us. Fear them not. But all the congregation said to stone [Joshua and Caleb] with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the Tent of Meeting before all the Israelites. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people provoke (spurn, despise) Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me [trusting in, relying on, clinging to Me], for all the signs which I have performed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of you [Moses] a nation greater and mightier than they. … And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word. But truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, Because all those men who have seen My glory and My [miraculous] signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tested and proved Me these ten times and have not heeded My voice, Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to give to their fathers; nor shall any who provoked (spurned, despised) Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now because the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley, tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, How long will this evil congregation murmur against Me? I have heard the complaints the Israelites murmur against Me. Tell them, As I live, says the Lord, what you have said in My hearing I will do to you: Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness--of all who were numbered of you, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me, Surely none shall come into the land in which I swore to make you dwell, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But your little ones whom you said would be a prey, them will I bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised and rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be wanderers and shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and shall suffer for your whoredoms (your infidelity to your espoused God), until your corpses are consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you spied out the land [of Canaan], even forty days, for each day a year shall you bear and suffer for your iniquities, even for forty years, and you shall know My displeasure [the revoking of My promise and My estrangement]. I the Lord have spoken; surely this will I do to all this evil congregation who is gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed [by war, disease, plagues], and here they shall die. And the men whom Moses sent to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble and complain against him by bringing back a slanderous report of the land, Even those men who brought the evil report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to search the land, lived still. Moses told [the Lord's] words to all the Israelites, and [they] mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and we intend to go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned."

Wow! What men of faith these people were, haha. You can see here that these men brought back an evil report and adopted a position of defeat and gave the enemy the upper hand! There were two men who tried to build them up in faith, but the others had allowed fear to captivate their heart rather than letting faith rise up on the inside. They saw themselves as grasshoppers and assumed that because they saw themselves that way, then the enemy did as well. They allowed fear to dominate their thinking and create a false self-image in their head! Many Christians do this today they get caught up with the "here and now" and what they see and give up on the promise of God. These people are like those who saw themselves as grasshoppers. There are six characteristics that grasshoppers have. The first characteristic that grasshoppers have is that they see what they see and see the negative in everything, they are moved by the physical circumstances, rather than resting in what the Word says. The second characteristic is that they are moved by fear, they allow the circumstances to reign supreme in their lives and fear will make your heart fail you(Luke 21:26). The third characteristic is that they give the enemy courage, Satan gets courage when he deceives Christians(Judges 16:23-24). The fourth characteristic is that they bring up an evil report - you can't judge things by timetables. (Duet. 1:21) Ten people caused the ENTIRE nation to die in the wilderness. The fifth characteristic is that grasshoppers end up backsliding and want to stone the leaders (Num 14:8-10). And the sixth characteristic is that they refuse to be persuaded, because it is a matter of PRIDE (Luke 16:29-31). They would rather die in the wilderness, than to admit that they are wrong.

Now, let's take a look at the characteristics of giant killers. The first characteristic of a giant killer is that they only see the promise (2 Corinthians 4:18). The second characteristic is that they are moved by faith and fear does not reign in them (Hebrews 10:38). A life style of faith will change the way you think! The third characteristic is that they cause the enemy to flee as in terror. This is what you have trained for as believer and you have been brought here for SUCH A TIME AS THIS! The fourth characteristic is that they bring up a good report. "Yes, but the Lord said this!" (Matthew 8:9-10). The fifth characteristic is that they speak the word only. And the sixth characteristic of a giant killer is that they refuse to be defeated!(Romans 8:36-39).

If you read both Numbers 14 and Joshua 14 you can see that the only people who saw the promise of God fulfilled were the ones who fit into the category of giant killer. Joshua and Caleb were full of faith! They looked and the circumstances and just laughed because the circumstances did not line up with what God said! They took to heart the word of the Lord and took courage and boldness in what it said! They were confident that God would fulfill that which He had promised. They were confident in the truth that if God is for them, who could be against them! Yet, because of some doubt-peddling grasshoppers they were not able to seize the victory in that moment. Sometimes grasshoppers can delay the promise for other people, but those who are giant killers WILL walk in the promise, even if it is delayed. That is why it is so important to be full of faith! When the word of the Lord comes forth, you don't want to be the one who delays the promise for everyone else! You want to be like Caleb and Joshua who said, "God WILL give us the land, because He said so!"

We have to be giant killers! There is too much pressure to compromise and to be discouraged by "grasshoppers," but we are not living in a time where we can slack off, we must press forward towards the goal and go boldly into the land which God has promised you! Do not allow the circumstances of this world to cause you to doubt that which the Lord has spoken over you, your church, your family, and so forth. The circumstances are temporal and they will change! Stand firm in faith and speak to those circumstances and say, "I refuse to be moved by what I see, God said this, and I know He is faithful to do that which He promised! Give me that mountain and I will conquer it because God has already won the victory!"

So when doubt and fear try to enter in and make you forget that which the Lord has spoken, you make your decision... Will you be a grasshopper or a giant killer? I don't know about you, but I don't want to cause my brothers and sisters to stumble and die in the wilderness because of my doubt filled speech! I want to be a giant killer, proclaim the good news, take the land and walk in the promise of God!

Be Patient Warriors of Faith

2009-10-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

"Therefore, brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable. Firm as a rock, devoted to Christian life, for their faith is not vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:58

Too many Christians become unsettled, weary, and unhappy with were they are in life. These people give up, change churches, blame others (spouses, family, pastors, other Christians), or even blame and turn their back on God. The problem is not all of these external things listed above, it is internal. The real issue is that they do not have patience and do not use their faith -- rather than press on towards their divine destiny, which was right in front of them; they retreat and push their destiny further from them. There is a quote by Gordon Lindsay that fits perfectly with this, he said "Don't dig up in unbelief what you planted in faith."
And that is so true and seems to be where so many people fail, they give up before the fulfillment of the blessing, they toss in the towel and say, "Oh, I tried that faith stuff and it didn't work!" No, "faith tried you and you weren't ready." We have to be patient and diligent if we are going to see the fruits of our faith!

If we are going to live a successful Christian life we are going to have to be patient warriors equipped with faith and the Word of God. If we remain steadfast and don't give up, He is faithful and the plans and dreams that God has placed in our hearts WILL come to pass.

"So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word." - Hebrews 10:23 AMP

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart." - Psalms 37:4

"But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing. If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of [a]the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord, [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides]." - James 1:4-8 AMP

Every Changing Wind of Doctrine

2009-10-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

"So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of [a]unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead." - Ephesians 4:14

There is a very common trend that can be seen in the church today. More and more people are moving away from the truth and developing their own doctrine. We see the church becoming driven by emotions rather than faith – an environment of "feel-good" gospel, rather than life-changing gospel. The most recent and prevalent of these doctrines is that of grace. There are people who have now put the entire focus of Christian living on the grace of God.

Now, I know that you are thinking, "Well goodness, I thought God's grace was a blessing in the Bible... What is so wrong with it?" Well my answer to you is that there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with God's grace, it is something that we should not forget, but what I am referring is this hyper-grace theology.

This "grace" theology implies that because of God's grace we don't even have to think about how to act because God's grace will lead and guide us. They go so far as to say that you don't even have to think about sinning because God's grace will keep you from sinning. What fallacy this is. God's grace is a gift of redemption. The grace of God is what caused Him to send His son Jesus to this earth to pay the price for our sins. The grace of God is what causes someone to reach out to you and say, "God loves you & has great plans for you!" when you are in a downward spiral out of fellowship with God. The grace of God is not your mind that thinks for you and keeps you from sinning. If that was so then why do we hear of Christians who make mistakes and commit acts of sin? According to the grace-message these people probably weren't saved, because grace would keep you from doing that. The Bible warns of those who would pervert the message of God's grace in order to be lawless in Jude 1:4 "For certain men have crept in stealthily [[c]gaining entrance secretly by a side door]. Their doom was predicted long ago, ungodly (impious, profane) persons who pervert the grace (the spiritual blessing and favor) of our God into lawlessness and wantonness and immorality, and disown and deny our sole Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)." This verse is so accurate for what is going on in the church today, these hyper-grace people are perverting the message of grace so that they are excused from having to follow any "rules" of any kind. If they feel convicted in a service while a minister is preaching they believe that is not of God because "There is no condemnation in Christ." Well yes, there is no condemnation in Christ just as Romans 8:1 says, but the Holy Spirit does convict us if we are not living righteously. This verse has to be read in context, it says that "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There is a stipulation to this verse; it says that there is no condemnation to those who walk after the Spirit. You cannot expect to live free of condemnation when you are walking after the flesh! When I sit in a service and the message speaks to me and even convicts me, I take it as correction from God and thank Him for loving me enough to keep me from going astray! It is the love of God and His grace that speaks to us and convicts us, it is not that He is trying to be mean or harsh, the truth is that He is trying to save us from walking out of His will and purpose for our lives!

The problem is that these people are creating a doctrine and twisting the Word to fit their personal needs rather than preaching a Gospel to meet other people's needs. Successful Christian living isn't all about you! It is not about living completely free of responsibility, free of having to walk by faith, free of making good or bad decisions, and so forth. It is about being able to handle responsibility, walking by faith, making quality decisions and trusting God, and more! The purpose of our lives is to reach a lost and dying world! The world is crying out for something real! They need something different! All religions of the world can offer them comfort and friendship, but what they need is POWER! This is where "seeker-friendly" churches have failed, people don't want to feel ok, they want something more than that, something to fills the void in their lives. Those who are hurting and searching for answers need to encounter the life-changing power of God. They need to feel the glory of God. For us to think that our programs and social groups can change their lives is thinking our way is better than God's, and I don't know about you, but I do not want to play God! Jesus told us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:14-18) He didn't tell us to "Go into all the world and make people feel comfortable in their current state." Jesus commanded us to go and change lives with the same anointing and power that He operated in. He said that we will lay hands on the sick, cast out devils, speak in tongues. Many churches today in an effort to "reach" people are really taking out the very thing people need! They have put the focus on making people feel good and adding numbers to their church rather than making people see God and adding numbers to heaven. They have compromised the very thing that the world needs. The world needs truth and reality. They need to see the sick rise up and be made whole, they need to see those who are oppressed delivered from the power of darkness, and they need to see the supernatural and miraculous in manifestation! These people are doing drugs, new age practices, and more to have "out of body" experiences, so what makes you think that a social group is going to change their lives? They can get that at the local community center! They need to come in contact with a real God and with real people who have found answers in the truth of God's Word and have come in contact with His power and glory!

We as Christians should not be tossed about by the newest, latest trend in Christian circles, but we should be rooted deeply in the Word of God. The uncompromised Word is what changes lives and meets people’s needs. We must stand firm on the word of God and not allow ourselves to be lead astray if we ever want to see the World transformed! So, thank God for His grace, that saved you from a life of sin, and live a life full of faith and the power of the Holy Ghost so that others may come in contact with it and have changed lives.