December 17, 2005

• Well, thought I would update you on events. With the snowstorm my husband’s boss called and told him not to drive to Ohio, and so we stayed home. Later the boss flew to Akron and went to the party. I was sort of disappointed, but as it turned out, God had something awesomely better for me. Now I can say that I am so glad that we did not go. Friday Bible study and the special service on Friday evening blessed me so much.

  
  

  I am so lucky to be able to attend Bible study at Living Word Chapel. Pastor Don and the others who teach build a solid foundation in the Word. We also have awesome visitors, and this Friday the visitor was a prophet, Pastor Leon Forte’. If Pastor Leon is ever speaking in your area, you should try to make it to his talk, what a blessed man of God he is. His church is Grace Christian Center at 9322 Johnson Road, Athens, Ohio.

  
  

  I am laughing because it seems that even though I did not get to Ohio, Ohio came to me.

  
  

  Over the next few days I am going to share my notes. Friday Bible study was part of our discipleship class, but Pastor Leon came and shared as well.

  
  

  FRIDAY BIBLE STUDY

  
  

  The devil manipulates what we see and hear, and interfers with our faith. It is our job as disciples to begin to see and hear more from what God says, and less from the flesh and satan.

  
  

  Paul said that we (our flesh) dies in Christ, and we become renewed.

  
  

  Before we became aware of the law, we could not break the law. Pastor Don gave the example of how you can go any speed on a road until they put up a speed limit sign. Once a speed limit sign is put up, going over that speed then becomes a breaking of the law.

  
  

  The knowledge of the law is what kills us, and sin kills us. When we know the law, our intellect begins to interpret what our senses pick up. We end up giving authority to things based on face value, not the truth. We must get to a place of where we have to decide who is the boss of our being. (Once we are saved, then we get to a point where we are not led by the letter of the law but by the spirit of the law, by love).

  
  

  The unsaved are ruled by their feelings and body. Their emotions become the boss of their actions. They do things because it feels right, or their body craves whatever.

  
  

  If a person’s mind is carnal, the person will try to find ways to do what they want, even if it isn’t in their best interest. Pastor Don gave an example of a person who has a limited amount left on their credit card, and needs to use that money to buy a few presents for others, and pay bills. The person tries on a dress, and says it looks good to them, feels good, and they simply must have the dress.  They will figure out ways to manipulate their finances so that they can get the dress, like if I don’t pay the electric until next week, or I won’t buy coffee for a month, then I can get the dress. If a person has a bit of Christianity in them, the may decide to use what little Bible knowledge they have (God will supply all their needs) and take the verse out of context. They may figure to trust God to take care of the difficulty, and buy the dress for themselves. They were ruled by their carnal insticts. While God will supply all their needs, the dress definitely is not a need, but an impulse purchase.

  
  

  The mind will fall in line with whoever is the boss. We have all gotten angry when it hasn’t been in our best interests, pumping ourselves up to a point of passion that may have no basis in reality.

  
  

  Pastor Don used an example about a person on a job who feels picked on by the boss. The person says to themselves, “If he picks on me one more time, I am going to quit. I am going to give him a piece of my mind.” (of course there are limited amounts of pieces of our mind, but that is another story). The boss comes up and says, “Hi, how are you?” (a general, non confrontational statement) The person explodes, “All right, that is enough of that, I quit!”

  
  

  Truth be told, the quitting had nothing to do with what the boss said or didn’t say. It had everything to do with what thoughts the person was growing in their minds.

  
  

  Our spirit is useless to us unless our spirit is transformed by the renewing of the Word.

  
  

  An untrained spirit will go with whatever is the strongest in our being, our minds, our wills, our emotions, our flesh. The spirit man must determine which spiritual source it will obey. Because we deal with principalities and powers in the spiritual realm, we can either chose to go with God’s will, or we can allow any of the other spirits in the heavenly realm control our actions.

  
  

  What we don’t see is more real than what we do see.

  
  

  An unregenearted (unchanged, unsaved) spirit will contact the spirit realm and ask, who can satisfy this need (say the need for love and affection). A demonic spirit will say, I can do it quicker than a godly spirit We feel we need instant gratification, and we want it now. Sometimes the godly fulfillment happens in God’s timing and does not supply instant gratification. If we are not willing to wait for godly fulfillment, then what happens is that we settle for a demonic resolution, or settle for something that is not God’s best for us.

  
  

  One other aspect that we work with is the filters in which we see the world. Often our perceptions are colored by our past, by what others have said or done to us, what our parents programmed into our beings. So two people can look at the same situation and see it vastly different because of the filters that they are using in their lives. Memories from 20 years ago can affect how we see a current situation, even though the situation is far removed from what our memories were. When we view the situation through these filters, we are not seeing the truth.

  
  

  One classic example of how we see things is shown in Numbers Chapter 13. Moses sent the 12 spies into the promised land to spy out the land. Of those spies 10 came back with a bad (evil) report, and two came back with a positive report.

  
  

  They were to bring back some of the fruit of the land – they did this. The fruit was so plentiful it took two men to carry back a bunch of grapes, they also bought pomegranates and figs.

  
  

  Numbers 13:27-28 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is it’s fruit. (This is the true part of their report) Nevertheless (Here is where doubt and unbelief enter in) the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. (Anak is part of the giants, and it is from the various ites in the land that Goliath would come – it is true that the people in the land were strong – but that does not mean that they can’t be defeated if God says that He can bring the people into the promised land. They used their human perception and the filter of their fears to view the situation. There is nothing wrong with presenting the facts, it is the conclusion of the facts that changed the course of their wanderings). Numbers 13:33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. (They used their own vision and beliefs to minimize what God could do, figuring they would have to do things in their OWN power.) But in Mark 11:22 Jesus tells the disciples “…have faith in God.”

  
  

  Even though God delivered them out from Egypt, defeated Pharoah, showed vast signs and wonders, the Israelites still chose to believe the bad report of the spies, and not trust that God could do as He said. In fact they were going to stone Caleb and Joshua who said Numbers 14:8-9 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” (Now they had the true picture). Because the Israelites believed the lie and did not have faith in God, they were destined to wander in the wilderness until they all died off and their children would see the promised land. The only two original Israelites who set foot in the promised land were Joshua and Caleb who chose to believe God.

  
  

  As we grow in faith, we must become aware of what words come out of our mouth. For from our mouths we speak either blessings or curses. As we grow, we can begin to conteract a negative statement, asking forgiveness by God and replacing it with a positive, or as we get more attuned to what we say, we can stop it with a thought. As we grow even more, the thoughts do not enter our mind. (In a previous Bible study, Pastor Don suggested carrying around a taperecorder and recording what we say, then listen to it to begin to be aware of what negative words might be coming out of our mouths.

  
  

  Our spirit will support what we say with our mouths, so best to say what God says. Romans 4:17 “…God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” God caused creation to occur with his words, and we emulate God, by using our words to call things into existence. Everything we see comes from the unseen, for everything we know in the physical was spoken into existence by God.

  
  

  Our spirits are going to pull from the spiritual realm what we are calling with our mouths. The more Word of God that we get into us, the greater our ability to apply the Spirit of God to our situations.

  
  

  It is here that Pastor Leon added some thoughts to clarify. I will share those with you tomorrow.

  
  

  Heather

  • 5:48 pm
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