Here is the closed caption script (slightly edited for easier reading)  Remember, what is in brackets [ ] was said by the congregation, three dots … means a pause.  If you are on the East Coast many can see these closed captioned sermons on on TBN on Thursday at 12:30 PM. 

BE STRENGTHENED IN THE LORD

We are finding that there are very few public figures that we can trust in. As time now begins to exert pressure, we’re beginning to find that what I prophesied to you a year ago, has begun to manifest. That everything that is not nailed down, that is not built on the solid rock is being exposed and destroyed. Everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken. And we arrive at a time where, if we’re not careful, as we look at the fruit, we ourselves can become shaken. As we see people that we thought were one thing, we can become shaken. When we watch a television show, and we see people getting saved and healed and so forth, and then we find out that the marriage of that minister is a disaster, we can be shaken.

We can find that when someone has prophesied to us, and it doesn’t mean that the prophecy’s not correct, but when prophesies have been brought forth that there should be prosperity and there should be a chicken in every pot, a fried chicken.  [laughter]  Well, what do we find?  We find, wait a minute now.  Wait a minute.  I can barely pay my rent. There must be something wrong with the prosperity message.  We begin to find ourselves shaken.  We begin to wonder, when we add up our pennies verses this prophetic word of this great financial outpouring, we begin to wonder and say, my goodness….what, what am I supposed to hold on to here? 

What is solid?  What can I count on? …What is there that is the truth that is going to work here?  Mark 11:25 is not going to change.  It says, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone…” do what?  [forgive them].  Forgive them. And that’s going to stay pivotal in terms of how your blessings are going to be meted out.  That’s not going to change. 

So when we look at our personal lives, we have grudges.  We have people that have irritated us, that have annoyed us, that have disappointed us.  If I keep on going, we’ll all be crying.  [laughter]  But isn’t it true?  Is there anybody here that no one’s ever hurt your feelings?  Is there anybody here that no one’s ever offended you?  Anybody here, you’ve never been disappointed in people?  Nobody’s ever let you down?…huh?  Anybody here, nobody’s ever told you a lie?  A bold faced lie.  Looked you right in the eye when they told it….I think these people know some liars.  [laughter]  You know some people.  So we’re disappointed in our relationships, we’re disappointed in those people that we’ve placed on a pedestal.  We’re even disappointed when we look at marriages and things that have failed around us.  We need to realize that we can become weakened.  We can become shaken in our faith.  We can become a little confused.  That wasn’t what we signed up for.  That wasn’t what we were believing was going to happen. 

There are many married couples that sit in here right now and say, this was not my plan.  I really thought that he was at least Hopalong Cassidy.  [laughter]  If he wasn’t the Lone Ranger, he should have at least been one of those guys.  Most of you don’t know who Hopalong Cassidy is.  Hopalong Cassidy was this white cowboy who rode a white horse, who had a round hat with a big round thing on the top, and a white suit.  He always had one of those Benny Hinn white suits, and he was always the fastest on the draw.  But he never killed anybody.  Hopalong Cassidy was one of the good, good guys.  He’d draw and he always would shoot the gun out of the other guy’s hand.  He’d never shoot the guy.  No matter how bad and evil the guy was, he’d always,  katchuum, ping (imitates shooting a gun), the gun would go out of the guy’s hand.  Hopalong Cassidy was just tremendous.  And he never, ever got into a fight where he had to throw more than one punch.  [amen, laughter]  And even if he didn’t hit the guy, the guy fell out.  [laughter]  You know what I mean, it didn’t matter which hand he threw, which ever punch he threw, the guy was going to be out.  And then of course, you know, he’d ride off into the sunset.  And the cool thing about Hopalong Cassidy was he never fell in love.  All the women fell in love with him and he’d always give them the same look…[laughter] Did you see it?  Did you see it?  He’d give them the love look, then he’d get on his horse and ride off, ride away.  He was one lonely guy, I’m telling you. 

But we don’t have heroes like that anymore…We don’t have heroes like that.  And right now, we’re in this political election.  And we’re wondering who the next person is that we’re going to find out was not like Hopalong Cassidy. We’re waiting to see who else has something in the closet that is going to be exposed.  And we see it in our sports athletes, and everything.  We just can’t see it. 

But the difficult thing about looking at it is this.  How have we lost the truth, that if we’re looking for our strength anywhere except in God…it’s going to fail?  If we’ve placed our trust in anything other than God, it fails.  And how many times do we have to look at the same picture over and over again before we wake up and realize that the God life is the only way to live a completed, happy life?  That half stepping on it doesn’t work. 

I don’t know what we have to do.  One of our great New York Yankees, just this summer, he’s one of the best with the bat, great with the glove, but he stepped outside of his marriage.  It hit the newspapers. Now he can’t get a hit. 

What are we going to have to say to people to get them to realize that, if you stand for one thing and you don’t live for that one thing, you will be found out?…What are going to … I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.  I don’t have the answers.  I raise the questions.  I don’t have the answer.  But you know, you just can’t defraud and cheat people with one hand and expect the blessings of God to come upon you with the other hand.  It just doesn’t work that way.  If your trust is in lotto, then guess what, God’s not going to get you promoted on your job.  Forget it. [laughter]

Joshua said, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”  You need to realize something, that pastors are falling, they’re dropping like flies, and the reason is because they got to a place where they’ve pulled their strength from the wrong place.  See, if we’re not drawing our strength from the right place, we can’t stay strong.  I’m not beating up on you.  I mean, I’m just as fallen as all you all.  You know, I’ve got a better front than you, that’s all.  I’ve got a nice suit.  I’ve got a nice tie.  I look good and all that.  But I’m a sinner saved by grace, just like the rest of you. 

How many of you are sinners saved by grace?…  We’ve got one or two, who don’t raise their hand.  They don’t have a clue…But the rest of us, we’re saved by grace which means that God has provided a way for us to get back up when we’ve fallen down.  Is that not the case?  [yeah]  But, there should be a point where you fall down less!  [laughter]…Did that work for somebody?  You should be falling down less now than you did last year.  The same stuff that worked to get you to fall down before, you should be able to overcome. 

If you’ve dug a financial hole, by running up your credit cards, at some point you should cut up your credit cards…That’s just basic sense.  After awhile, if you can’t get it together, then you don’t deserve to have it.  Having a credit card is a privilege.  And if you can’t use it wisely, you ought to cut it up…  You should steal your wife’s pocketbook, if, if she’s addicted to Filenes’s or Macy’s or something, you get a big pair of scissors, and say, “Honey, you have forfeited the right to have a purse…[laughter]  And you just take the big things and chop the thing up.  Because why?  She’s drawing her strength from somewhere else.  Come on now.

So we just have to get to a place where we just get it clear in our heads, that if we’re drawing our strength from an improper source, it will not strengthen us.  It will weaken us…Weaken us.  Somebody said once, you can’t preach on willpower.  And I thought about that for a minute. I said, well wait a minute.  Wait a minute…Wait a minute…You can preach on willpower.  I believe that everyone that has a will, your will ought to be getting stronger in the God area.  [amen]  Only Joy agrees.  Well praise God, thank you sister.  [laughter] Yeah.  If you have a will, you should be able to get your will to be stronger in the God area.  There are things you should be strengthened to be able to say no to.  [amen!]  You should be stronger.  You should be able to tell your mouth to speak right.  [amen]  Amen?  [yes]  Come on raise a hand, wiggle at me.  You should be able to control your mouth better this year than you did last year.  You should be strengthened in some things.  If you spoke hard and negative to your wife, you ought to be better at speaking soft and kinder to her. Your willpower should just rise up and say I’m not going to talk to you like that.  [amen]  Forget that.  I’m going to talk to you like Pastor Don.  You sweet, beautiful, lovely, wonderful wife.  [ok, amen] 

Every husband in here, I give you the best sermon I can.  Tell  your wife three times a day, minimum, “I love you.”  Tell her she’s beautiful, especially in the morning.  [laughter]  Yeah, before what?…  Yeah, tell her in the morning early.  When she gets out of bed, you get up and say, “Baby, you’re beautiful.”  Why?  Because you want to build up her nature, her character.  You want to build up her confidence.  Every wife should say, look her guy in the eyes, every day, you should look him in the eyes and say, “You are my, you are my tree.”…When I was dating my wife that’s why I married her.  She said, “Don, you are my tree.”  That meant she could hug me and I would be right there.  So she’d take me places and leave me.  [laugher]  Come back and get me a few hours later.  You know, and I’d be right there.  [laughter]  Waiting for a hug.  Come on, you get the point, right.  And so what happens?  I would draw strength, from that.  From that affirmation I would draw strength from that.  From that, what?  [affirmation]  From that affirmation, can you say affirmation?  [affirmation]  Affirmation, you can draw strength from a positive affirmation.  [amen] 

I want you to realize something.  Everything that you’ve drawn strength from, prior to this moment is being taken away from you…America is going to be stripped of everything it’s trusted in, until it goes back to what was on the money, that they want off the money.  “In God we trust.”  [amen] We’re going to have no place to hide because that’s what’s going to happen.  Every church that is built upon a different Gospel than Jesus Christ is Lord, what they trusting in will be stripped away from them.  Do you follow me?  Many churches will lose people because they are no longer preaching the prosperity message.   I’m not saying that the prosperity message is wrong.  I’m saying, there’s going to come a time when, when you stop preaching it, the people that are only coming for me and mine [come on] they’re going to be gone…

You can’t wait til the opportunity of testing comes to decide to be strong…You have to do it in the time of preparation and prepare yourself.  Let’s see what God says He’s going to do.  What’s God going to do here?  In the 27th Psalm, verse  14…You there?  [yes]  It says, “Wait on the LORD; be of…” what?  [good courage]  “…good courage…”  You know what kind of good courage is?  Don’t give up courage.  Good courage is, even if you afraid, you’re going forward.  Even if you’re shaken, you’re going to get focused here.  And so, it says, “Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall…” do what?  [strengthen your heart]  He’s going to “strengthen your heart”.  In other words, it is God. If you will wait on God, now that word, “wait” is a different word, it’s a different word in Hebrew.  But that “wait” is an active waiting…It’s an active waiting.  It’s a waiting in faith, but waiting with anticipation that whatever God said  He’s going to do…Praise God Almighty!  He’s going to do it.  [yes]  It’s waiting with expectation and faith, that what has been promised is gonna come to pass.  You see, sometimes we get afraid because we are not waiting with the anticipation of the reality that we believe in the promise. 

You ever watch a little kid wait for Santa Claus?  I mean how do they wait?  You can’t get them to bed…They’re like, I don’t want to go to bed.  I’m going to stay up.  I’ll stay up.  I’ll stay up, I’m waiting, I’m waiting.  Why?  They’re waiting with anticipation for Santa Claus.  So, it’s hard to get them to bed, it’s hard to get their mind off of anything, because why?  They’re anticipating that some how, some way, even though they don’t have a chimney, they have electric heat, some big fat guy is coming through a chimney dressed in a red suit with stuff….But the kid, he believes the promise.  He believes the promise is that when he gets up in the morning, there’s going to be stuff for him.  So he waits eagerly, looking for it.  That is the kind of wait that is here.  It’s the kind of wait, you can’t get the kid out of bed at 8:00 in the morning no mater what you do.  But Christmas morning 6:00 he’s already in the living room.  [laughter]  Did you get that example?  [yes]  That works, right?  [yep]  Yeah, that works. 

So we’ve got to begin to wait that way.  And then He says, if you will wait that way, with good courage, don’t give up, He says, and He, God, shall strengthen your heart.  Meaning He will build you up on the inside, the little you on here will become the bigger you.  You’ll get strengthened in your heart. 

Go to Isaiah 35…That’s a few books back. I just pulled some of these verses out… this is one of my favorites, you ready?  [yeah]  Isaiah 35, are you there yet?  [yes]  Turning pages, oh saints of God.  That sounded like scripture, didn’t it?  Turn those pages, ye saints of God.  Alright, Isaiah 35 verse 3.  Let’s read it together, come on, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.”  Now, look at verse 4.  Let’s say it, come on, “Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”  My goodness!  Let’s look at those two verses again.  Together, hit it!  “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.  Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”“  Lord, have mercy!  Somebody say, “Praise the Lord.” [Praise the Lord]  Praise the Lord. 

So how do we get strengthened?  The first way that we get strengthened is to speak affirming messages to people and to yourself.  And this way is another way.  What does He say?  Don’t be fearful.  Do not be fearful.  And say something to other people.  If you will strengthen other people, it will strengthen you.  [yes, amen]  Oh, my goodness!  Did anybody hear that?  [yeah]  You can be afraid, but if you’ll tell someone else not to be afraid, then guess what?  You will be strengthened. 

This morning I’m listening on the radio and the news, and Greene County, the next county above us, just lost one factory that employs hundreds of people and the guy was saying, well we’re going to miss that factory, and those hundreds of people, they’ll be out of work.  Then he says, and there’s another company in our county that’s going to be out of work.  And there’s going to be people out of work and so forth and so on.  And then he, the commentator says, what are you going to do?  What are we going to do?  He says, well, we’re going to have to appeal to the state, we’re going to have to appeal to the people.  We’re going to have to get the word out, we need jobs.  And we’re going to have to do something to get jobs.  And I’m thinking to myself, doesn’t he have a plan for the people?…  What’s the plan for the people?… They’re the ones that are going to be suffering.  They’re the ones out of work, out of jobs.  There has to be someone to stand in the gap to say to them, wait a minute…what are you going to do if the state doesn’t come through?  The state is broke!  [right] What are we going to do?  We’re going to keep depending on someone from the government who’s going to run down and, and help us.  NO!  We have to learn not to be afraid, and to open up possibilities for ourselves.  [amen]  Well praise God, I’ve got one independent business woman who’ll clap for that.  [amen]…  You need to get a God idea, and not be afraid….

Things are not as they always have been, nor will they be as they used to be.  Some of you would never, you’re too proud to wait on people.  You may have to consider getting a service job. …Some of you who would never take a job where your hands would get dirty, you may have to take a job where your hands get dirty.  Some of you would never work nights.  You may have to work nights.  Some of you super holy people may have to take a job on Sundays.  Then we’ll find out if you believe what the Word says, that every day is the Lord’s Day.  [amen]  Lord have mercy.  I’m going to get mail on that one.  [laughter]  Read the book of Hebrews, Chapter 4 before you write and call me…  [laughter] 

Do you understand what I’m trying to say?  I am telling you, God does nothing in the Earth unless he tells his prophets. I’m prophesying to you, get ready to change your have to’s, want to’s, and will tos…We’re going into uncharted territory for the United States of America.  Hopefully it will be short season.  [laughter] Hopefully it will be a short season. But if this is going to be a long stretch, you’d better be prepared to get God ideas, to survive or else the only one working in our church will be the bread man…Brother Tommy.  Because people will not live without bread.  He’s raising his hand.  Look here, you already got the job.  [laughter] 

America has not lived sufficiently to call itself under the protection arm of the Lord.  [yeah, that's right]…  We have not…We have not fulfilled, 2 Chronicles 7:14.  “If my people who are called by My Name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.“  [yes He will]…We’re going to need to be strengthened…We’re going to need to be strengthened from God in our own personal resolve and our own personal dictates, and the way that we live our lives.  We’re going to have to be personally strengthened to withstand what’s coming upon the earth.  And God says, He’ll do it. 

Let’s look at another one.  Go, see if you can find Zechariah, it’s after this, It’s right before Matthew and those books.  And they call them minor prophets but these guys were heavies.  In the 10th chapter of Zechariah.  Chapter 10…Let’s go to verse 11 and come on down to it, alright.  “He shall pass through the sea with affliction, and strike the waves of the sea:  All the depths of the River shall dry up.  Then the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.”  In other words, listen to me carefully, when things get tough, when difficulty comes, when there’s affliction, when the seas are rising, when the rivers, the sources from which we used to get things begin to dry up, the question is, when our pride is broken, when difficulties face us, where do we turn?  Verse 12, “So I will strengthen them…” How?  [in the LORD]  “In the LORD, and they shall walk up and down...” What?  [in His name] “In His name,” says the LORD.”  What’s He saying?  You shall be strengthened in the name of the LORD, and you shall walk up and down in the strength [Clap] of His name.  [amen]  In the strength of His name.

Hebrews, Chapter 12, I’m going to give you Old Testament, New Testament.  Look at this one in Hebrews, Chapter 12…It’s before the book of James and Peter and all of those.  Chapter 12, “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.  Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:” What is He saying?  “…looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;…” 

Today I want to encourage you, be strengthened in the Lord, and the power of His might.  Be strengthened in the promise that He has made to you.  His great and precious promises…  Don’t let a root of bitterness build up inside you to anybody about anything.  Don’t hold onto any offenses in these last days.  And I beg you, please don’t speak an evil word against the saints of God.  It says, touch not my anointed.  Every Spirit-filled believer is anointed.  Don’t touch them.  Be careful about how you judge ministers.  Be careful of how you judge the saints.  Be careful of what you say about each other.  God is listening.  God is listening. Don’t turn on the TV and because you don’t like the way somebody’s dressed, criticize them.  Leave them alone.  Don’t let a root of bitterness build up in your heart.  Don’t think you are all that.  You’re not all that.  Stay humble.  God’s made some wonderful and beautiful people.  They may be down on Monday, but they may be back up on Thursday.  And if they are, God’s pleased with them.  He isn’t looking for people that never fall.  He’s looking for people that get up real quick.  I’m getting up as fast,.. I’m jumping up.  I mess up,.. I’m not waiting, I’m not waiting for Sunday to get right with God.  I want to do it Monday afternoon, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock. I’m going to just, boom, I need to be strengthened in the Lord.  I’ve no way of knowing what’s coming upon the earth.  I have no way of knowing what is laid out for me personally, specifically.  Neither do you.  You don’t know who’s going to come against ya.  But you’re going to have to be strengthened, you gonna have to be strengthened before it arrives.  Don’t wait to get strong, when the temptation and the trial comes.  Do it now.  Get some Holy Ghost weight lifting in.  Get some new scriptures on your refrigerator.  Get some new scriptures on your refrigerator and on your door.  Put something on the bathroom mirror that reminds you that you want to build up yourself.  You want to get strong in the Lord.  Cause the test is coming. The pressure is building.  But He’s made great and precious promises.  He said He will strengthen us…..

Praise God that He will strengthen us.  Praying your weekend was great. 

Heather

Pastor Don told us that there were junctures in life where we are not sure what to do.  We want to know the Will of God and act accordingly.  What is God’s will?  Our feelings can give us misinformation.

Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”

In order to fulfill God’s will we have to hear from God.  We have to separate from people.  We cannot hear God’s will in the midst of people.  We can hear confirmation from people.  But at times we have to get away from people to hear God’s will for us.  Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.  After we hear from God it is good to hear confirmation from people.  After we hear what to do from God, seek godly counsel from people who we can trust to have our best interests at heart. 

1 Corinthians 12:8  for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,

The Word of Knowledge gives us information about something.
The Word of Wisdom tells us what to do about he Word of Knowledge.

These are spiritual gifts.  So many come to Pastor Don about their situation before going to the Lord.  We are to ask God for a word of knowledge about our situation, and then come to Pastor Don, or your spiritual leader, and tell him what we heard from the Lord.   Pastor Don, or your pastor, can help confirm if you have heard correctly from the Lord.  But seek God first.

Jesus went to the Garden to pray, separating himself from people because he had a difficult problem. He was going to be going through an ordeal that was distasteful to the max, not just the crucifixion, but also being abandoned by those who were closest to him.

Matthew 26:37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

There is nothing wrong with a spirit filled believer being deeply distressed and sorrowful.  Jesus was not sorrowful about going to the cross, He had fixed His face like flint to go to Jerusalem.  The problem was that He wanted peace concerning the human experience He was going to face, abandonment and desertion.

Fear of abandonment destroys most ministries.  We run to people, often the wrong people, because of the fear of abandonment.  That is why God hates divorce, it leads to a person feeling alone, abandoned, and destructive behavior.  We are to be perfected so we can be one with Him.

We want the mind of Christ so we can hang out with God.  It took 6,000 years to get to this point.

Jesus took with Him the disciples from His inner circle. What was He asking for?

Matthew 26:38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

He was not afraid of the Cross.  He was sorrowful, so sorrowful that he could die of a broken heart. He wanted the disciples to stay and watch with Him.

It is right and our responsibility to ask for people to provide prayer support so that we can get a Word of Knowledge.  So often we lack proper prayer support for what we are seeking.

Jesus needed prayer support.  Today, what we call prayer support is often no more than casual gossip.  Proper prayer support is asking, “What do you want me to pray for?  I will pray for that.”  The prayer of agreement is not a prayer of agreement if people are praying for different things. The disciples knew that Jesus was going to go to the cross, the prophesies about striking the shepherd, and Jesus had told them they would flee.  His disciples said that they were not going to go anywhere, but Peter denied Jesus three times, the disciples ran away when the soldiers came, etc.

They were to pray in agreement with Jesus, but they did not listen to what He said.  They didn’t take Him seriously, didn’t look at the heart of the matter.  They were not in agreement.  They did not feel the weight of the gravity of the situation that Jesus was facing, and they fell asleep.

A question was brought up about what if the person does not specify what they need prayer for, how can we know what to pray?

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

To know God’s will we have to be led by the Spirit of God about the direction we should be praying.  Our words and intellect can get us into a mess if we are not led by the Spirit.  God can be sending angels in one direction and our words can mess that up.  Sometimes God does not tell a person to deliver a word to someone, but they go up to the person and say, “I have a Word for you.” They will receive correction because it is pride that when God shows them something they want to get the information out before someone else does – but sometimes God does not give you a word to share, sometimes it is a word for yourself or for your information only. We have to ask God if that Word is a Word for ourselves.  The Holy Spirit could be bringing a Word to you – say a word of correction, and instead of receiving that word and changing your path, you assume it is a word of correction for someone else. 

We need clarity to correctly hear the Word of God and clarity about when to tell or when not to tell the Word.  If God wants you to tell the Word to someone, you will know this is the Word go tell it to ______. 

No prophet can deliver a Word that He can’t walk in.  You need to be able to walk in that word before you deliver it to someone else.  If not, you will be judged harshly.

How do we know we are saved?  We believe the Word of God in this, it is the same with the Spirit of God.  When the Word tells us that we will receive the Spirit of God, we need to believe that we have received the Spirit of God, and that we are sons of God.  When God speaks a word of correction from the pulpit, often we think that that message is for someone else, not for ourselves.

Pastor Don said that with his years of ministry, with all the teaching and preaching that he has done, filling the rooms with the Word of God, he has a lot to abide by, for he must abide by what he teaches.

We are God’s children, and we are acceptable to God.

Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

Abba means “Daddy.”  It is not the formal title of Father.  It is more akin to Papa.  We are His children and adopted into His family.

Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

We ARE the Children of God. He leads us by our Spirit, not by our head (intellect) or eyes.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

In prayer we want to know and speak the Will of God.

Amplified Romans 8:26 So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.

This talks about our weakness and inabilities.  Our spirit is in a physical body, and we are weak in our ability to hear from God.  We can get interference from hearing the clear Word of God. Pastor Don compared this to a radio, with static.  If we are out of range or we are not tuned properly into a channel we get static.  Our physical bodies can provide static from receiving the clear Word of God, we are weak and need a stronger signal to pull in the signal more clearly.  It is like having a 10 watt radio, but we need a 50 watt radio.  So we go and look for a coat hanger to plug into the radio to try and get a better signal. 

The Holy Spirit can help us to receive the clear Word of God.  We decide how much Word we take in to help us be a receptor.  The more Word of God we have in us, the better our reception.

Jesus went with just three to pray – to strengthen the signal from God and be a prayer support.  So often we pray the prayer of agreement for people but we don’t ask the people what they can believe for.  We can be praying at odds with what the people are praying.

Romans 8:26 AMP So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.

We can end up with a weakened signal due to distractions.  People imply that we OUGHT to know, but we are in the flesh and don’t know.  We want to get the Will of God but we can’t because we are in the flesh.  Sometimes you think God is doing one thing and he is doing another thing.  We can miss it completely or not hear it loud enough.

How come in Acts, Paul wanted to get to Macedonia. He was told not to go.  Paul tried several times, and finally the 3rd time he had a vision of a person dressed as a Macedonian.

Had Paul gone earlier than God wanted things would not have been in place for him.  God will not send anyone where He can’t support them.  He had to get people in place so that Paul could minister.

We want to not be AHEAD or BEHIND God’s will for us.  We want to be in God’s will at the time He is sending and directing.  What if he misinterpreted the vision?  It could mean the loss of opportunity and people missing things.

When King David was on the throne, he wanted to build a temple for God. The prophet told him to go ahead and build the throne.  God came and spoke to the prophet and told him to tell David NO, there was too much blood on his hands.  The prophet of God at first did not give an accurate prophesy, and God corrected that.  Not all the time will prophets get the message of God accurately.  The Prophet of God misinterpreted God’s will.  There was a time and a season and a purpose to God’s will, and David was not to build the temple, his son was.  Notice, the prophet did not die from this wrong statement.

Present day prophets also miss stuff.  They don’t have all the information.  We need to be careful judging them before their time though, for just like some of the prophesies in the Bible are still awaiting fulfillment, the prophesies may not be in the season of fulfillment.  We also need to be careful how we share what we learn from God, don’t say, “Thus said the Lord,” if He did not say so.

We need to be like the Bereans and take time to judge what we are hearing to see if it lines up with the Word of God.

This is a longish Bible study so I am going to break here, and continue the rest tomorrow.

Praying your day is blessed.

Heather

Pastor Don told us that he has been waiting a whole year to minister this message and has finally gotten the go ahead to do so.  It is a message pertinent to us.

In the week past (April 6), and also in our present times the financial governing bodies have been informing us of a recession. We all know that things are more difficult than they were. Everything that is to be shaken has been shaken. There is a new shift politically and socially.  God is aware of our circumstances and our situation. High gas prices are eating up our budget. The Hudson Valley (where we live) does not have enough resources, jobs, etc, and people are worried about prospering financially. 

People who are seeking jobs have to take two or more, and none of them permit their workers to work enough hours to get full benefits. Many of the jobs in our area are retail and service jobs, and they are not good paying ones.  This is mirroring the recession of the 80′s.  Many of us remember the gas lines.  Pastor Don pointed out that many are resorting to slight of hand to earn a quick dollar. Pastor Don remembered a time during the gas lines where people were only allowed to get five dollars worth of gas.  Someone was going down the line collecting the five dollars to “speed up” the receiving of gas at the pump.  Everyone paid this person.  Pastor Don watched him walk to the last car and collect the money and then he kept on walking.  The people were out five dollars and had to cough up more to get their gas.

The economy causes rising inflation, and then simple things like bags of rice are priced high. Truck drivers are getting angry at the cost of diesel, and the price of food will rise to help compensate for the rising fuel costs. Clothing and food will soon be priced out of reach of the middle class.

In the meantime we still have to survive.  There are six things a believer has to do in the face of economic disaster.

Genesis 26:1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

This was the second famine. In the days of Abraham there was a famine, and now for Isaac there was going to be a famine. Abraham left the land God had directed him to go to, and went to another land with his flocks and people. Told a half lie to the king that his wife was his sister. It was true that she was a half sister, but she was also his wife.  He felt he had to do that because in those days they had wife jacking (similar to car jacking today) where if a king wanted a person’s spouse they would take her. While he was in the land, the land prospered. They had food and water for the people and animals. And Abraham dug a well.

Now we are in the next generation, with Isaac in the same area, with the same problem – famine in the land.  There was insufficiency, inflation and recession. He had to provide for his family and flocks. He was going to the same wells.  The well was drying out.  What does Isaac do?

Genesis 26:6-7  So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”

He told the same lie that Abraham did.  He did what his dad did, made the same mistake.

Genesis 26:9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

King Abimelech saw Isaac with his wife and came to the conclusion that they were more than brother and sister. Since his people were not producing new offspring the King had to do something to change this.

Genesis 26:11-12 So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.

We need to believe verse 12, that we can prosper in a dried up land in this place. There is no place where everyone is prospering. To move someplace else in the hopes of prospering won’t necessarily mean that you will prosper.  Unless God is sending you there, you won’t prosper.  We have to take the steps that God ordains.

In verse 12 we see that he reaped 100 fold in the same year.

Genesis 26:13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;

There are three mentions of prosperous in this passage, that is a lot of prospering.

Genesis 26:14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.

When you do well and others struggle there is some envying.

Mark 10:29-30 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

When we leave all for God, we will get houses and lands, but there will also be PERSECUTIONS.  We need to count our blessings. The rich are well provided for, and there will be enough to give to others. We need to look at our sufficiency.  God will prosper us when others are not prospering. God will make a way for us.  We must remind ourselves not to panic.

Genesis 26:15  Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth.

There will be persecution, on the job some people will not like you. There will be obstacles put in your way.  People will oppose you with persecution. The anointing on you makes you stand apart from people because you are a Born Again Child of God. In the end God is your protection and He will direct you to people who are family.

Genesis 26:16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

He realized that Isaac was mightier and they have to part company. If a person is not sweet, kind, or an encourager you need to get away.

Genesis 26:17-18 Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.

He again dug the wells that his father dug in Gerar, where he grew up.  Pastor Don pointed out that when he grew up his folks had a lot to say about God and Jesus, not working nights, don’t cheat on tests, and Pastor Don told us that if he did try to cheat his teacher caught him every time.  He couldn’t get away with anything because his parents prayed over him a blessing of God. He couldn’t do what other people did, or get over anything on his parents. It is a good thing, if you are parents, to speak blessings over your children, to help them find the fulfilment that is God’s best for them.

Sometimes the names and nicknames that are given to you as a child stick.  Recently Pastor Don was clearing some property with a bulldozer and started humming to himself, “I’m a dirt mover.”  That was a nick name given to him by someone in his past.

Genesis 26:19 Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there.

Wells of running water, springs of water are alive and fresh – it is life that liveth, a spring of water. We need to stop living life that is dead.  If anything is all consuming for us, it does not let us live a life that is living that is full of the Word of God. We may have to take something out of our life if it interferes with the springs of water type of life we have.  Running water doesn’t get stuck around stagnant ponds. We have to be honest about our stagnant ponds, and let the springs of living water flow through them to clean them.

Genesis 26:20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him.

So there was strife over the water. Sometimes when we dig our wells there is strife.

Genesis 26:21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah.

So they dug another well, and there was strife. The situation of opposition comes if we prosper and there is strife. There is opposition which comes against our Christian life. For example, if we decide to go shopping for a few hours nothing is said, but there will be complaints if we decide to spend a few hours in church.

Genesis 26:22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

So he dug another well, but he had to move from the well that caused strife.  Sometimes we have to move and dig another well. Here they did not quarrel.  We need to find the place that God wants us to be. Some of us have too narrow a place and we have to go where God makes room for us.  Some churches are places where you can’t grow – where the pastor wants to reign over you, and not let people practice and grow in their ministries for God.

Genesis 26:23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba.

Isaac’s dad formed a covenant with God here, and dug a well.  If you have a praying dad, get back to where you moved from your course, get back to your well of oath. 

Genesis 26:26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.

People will find out where it is and Isaac gets concerned.

Genesis 26:27-29 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’”

This is a lie, they did not do only good to Isaac, they were taking his wells and pursing him. But Isaac chooses to trust God and makes a covenant with them.

Genesis 26:30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

A feast is part of the culture of that day, and they ate and drank which sealed the covenant. As the Spirit moves us, we must forgive the past and make a peace agreement. If they sign or don’t is their problem.  What matters is that you forgive and move on.  You don’t get pulled down by the past. If they choose not to reconcile, you have done your part.

Genesis 26:32 It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

The same day that they made peace with the past they found new water. God is a rewarder of those who seek Him and He will reward them.

Genesis 26:33 So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

There are six things that we can do when we face economic troubles

1. Genesis 26:24 And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”- DO NOT FEAR.  There are always options and possibilities if you don’t permit fear.  Yes, there may be fears of recession, gas prices, etc, but there is nothing that can’t be worked out. It doesn’t matter who is in the White House, for all is in God’s hand. God SAID, “Do not fear.” He would not say to do something that is impossible for you to do. If you go out to hunt jobs, and the 14th doesn’t accept you, or the 15th, or the 16th keep trying and there will be one job that is the right one that will accept you.

2. DON’T TRUST IN YOUR STRENGTH:  Trust in the strength of God to open up possibilities. Remember Abraham and Sarah, when they brought Hagar into the picture unleased Ishmael, and to this day Israel faces opposition from descendants of Ishmael.  Sometimes the very thing you trust in, if it isn’t of God, will be the thing that destroys you.

3. Genesis 26:25 So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well. BUILD AN ALTAR Have a place of praise and prayer, a place to go to to hear from God. In spite of what is going on in your world, you need a place to go and listen to God and get answers, or instructions, so that you can move away from the barren place.

4. CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD. Bring the Lord into everything that you are doing, if you are in a famine, pray for shopping directions, “Lord, what store has things on sale?” In everything you do, we need to bring God in. He is part of every activity in our life and no activity is too small for Him to care.

5.  PITCHED A TENT IN THE VALLEY where God was prospering him.  Where he had heard from God. He made a dwelling place to be with God. Pastor Don pointed out that we need to know our neighbors, because when things get tough we will need to be drawing on each other. And with our prosperity from God, we can share the Gospel with others. They need us.

6. WENT AND DUG ANOTHER WELL When there is famine in the land we have to keep digging, don’t give up, don’t listen to nay sayers.  Keep getting up, the enemy wants us to not look good. So get up, get dressed, look good every day, and fix yourself up.  Keep digging and don’t give up. God will provide you with new, and exciting things.  Don’t get complacent and settled.  Don’t stop looking or trying.

Pastor Don told us that Abraham had Statutes, covenants and ordinances with God.  And we need to make sure that what we agree to agrees with the Word of God. If it doesn’t line up with the Word of God, don’t go there, don’t do it, and don’t agree to it. We have no excuse for disobedience.

If we are prepared God will use us. So we want to stay prepared at all times. The Church will be able to sharpen our swords (Word of God) as we walk through these trying times.

I love Pastor Don’s teaching on this, it is a good reminder as times are tough, and seem to be getting even tougher.  I hope these things bless you!

Have a wonderful night and week.

Heather

We were so blessed to have Ernest with us to teach Bible study.  I think he is aptly named, for he is such an earnest person. He is the son of a pastor we know in India. Right now Ernest is here in the states studying for ministry.  Where he lives in India the lives of pastors are on the line, and I think that reflects in his walk with the Lord.  We have it so easy here that sometimes that I think we take God for granted.

When he asked God what to teach on, God told him Galatians 5.  Ernest used the New Living Translation (NLT)

There is a freedom we have in Christ,

Galatians 5:5-6 NLT But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

Paul uses the term Love in his teaching of freedom in Christ.  Ernest asked us, what does Love have to do with freedom?  It is not enough to talk to God, pray, and live for God?Why does Paul use love and freedom together?

Jesus told us that we would be known by our love. When we have Christ in us, His love needs to shine through us. Faith expressing itself in love.  It has nothing to do with being circumcised or not circumcised, it is not our works, but FAITH IN LOVE.  The Love we have inside of us and the faith we place in God.

Can we have faith in God without that faith being expressed in love?  No, He first loved us, gave us an example of perfect love because of His sacrifice for us while we were still sinners, and we learn to give that love back.  When we understand God’s love for us, we put our faith in Him and it reflects back on Him.

Some say they are Christians, but if the fruit that they express is not love, they are not doing anything.  Faith expresses itself in acts of love.  Yes, we believe in Christ, in the power of the Blood, in His death and resurrection, but after that we need to manifest love.

We are to love God with all our mind, heart, and soul – this is expressed in both the Old and the New Testament, to love God, and to love our neighbor.  Love God with our mind, heart, and soul with the depth of love that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  No one can follow all these precepts in their lives, only Jesus or God can do that.  We can replace the word “Love” in this passage with Jesus, God, or the Holy Spirit and it would be true, if we put our names in the, we would see areas where we lack for it would not be true.

No one loves another person so much as to lay down their life for another.  Jesus did that for us, while we were still sinners. 

The Spirit of the Lord empowers us to be able to love.  This is not lust, but love – and love is a choice.  We choose to love, even when the person we are loving isn’t acting in a way that makes it easy to love them. We do not fall in and out of love.

When we are walking in the fullness of the Spirit, we receive Christ AND His attributes.  We receive Christ and the nature of Christ in us, but we have to work it out in faith.  Faith is expressed in love.

It is one thing to HAVE faith, it is quite another to EXPRESS faith. We may not walk in the fullness of the Spirit, but we can be willing to be submissive to the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit can work in us and allow God’s attributes to show in our lives.  It is impossible to live a free life in Christ without the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told us that He did not do anything that He did not see His Father do.  Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit, and He was God Himself.  How much more do we, flesh that we are, need to be led by the Holy Spirit?  We are not to go with our feelings to decide if something is ok to do or not ok to do.  The question is:  What does God require of me?  He requires things that are not always comfortable to us.  Sometimes we will be struggling with ourselves before we receive a free life with Christ.

Galatians 5:16-17 NLT So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

In our spiritual walk, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit because we are followers.  We are sinners in God’s eyes when we do things in our own wills, and only when we follow the Holy Spirit can we do what is right in God’s eyes.  There is a conflict between what we desire in the flesh and what the Spirit wants.  Paul discussed this in Romans 7:21-25 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Paul wanted to do what was right and couldn’t.  Imagine Paul saying that, a person so close to Christ and so important to the early church.  He realized that he was not sinning, but his flesh was sinning.

There is a conflict inside of us.  We need to put God over the conflict.  How do we live a life free in Christ?  We are not totally free, but when we are under the love of the Spirit, there is no room for lawlessness.  We find our freedom in Christ.  We need to be captive to Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Totally submitted.  We are a slave of Christ.   We need to seek the Lord before we do anything.  When we make choices, do we seek the Lord’s approval?

Ernest was amazed at how we in America deal with our parents.  In India, if parents tell you that you can’t do something, you don’t do it – you get a black mark against your name if you are disobedient.  Ernest’s American relatives told him that when their parents tell them not to do something, they do what they want to do, then say, “We are sorry.” Here in America parents do not have a clue about what their kids are doing.

We are to help each other carry their burdens.  Josh McDowell discussed the scripture, Galatians 6:2-5 NKJV  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.  The first burden in verse 2 deals with boulders, big rocks that cannot be carried by one person, but the second “load” is akin to a backpack, our individual burdens. We are to help each other with the boulders, but not carry their backpacks for them.

Back to Galatians 5 – free in Christ, being captive to Christ. 

Sometimes we take Christ for granted – people talk about Jesus being their buddy, their homeboy.  Jesus is Our LORD and SAVIOR.  We are captive to Christ, and we do not do what our flesh wants, but rather what Christ wants.

Ernest is in a seminary here in the states, and he says that in many seminaries there is false theology and thinking about God.   There are so many false theologies being passed out to students, that it becomes like a tower of Babel. One of his professors asked Ernest to estimate how many denominations there are in the world.  He guessed a low number of 3,000 to 5,000 only to be shocked that there were 139,000 denominations across the world.  And this number was calculated only on denominations that had 20 branches or 2,000 members.

As human beings we are inclined toward sin. We want the nature of Christ, but so often the flesh tells us sin seems more interesting than the right thing. Sin may not appear wrong at the time, but after we sin we feel that it was the most horrible thing we did in our lives.  We need to ask forgiveness from Christ or feel guilty and hold onto it.  True repentance is turning your back on sin.

The grace of God is boundless. God still cleanses us by the grace of God.  Ernest described grace as being like walking in water and not seeing the huge pit in front of us, and God keeps us from falling into the pit.  We can be righteous in Christ. 

How do we live a life free in Christ?

1. Submit to the Holy Spirit
2. Acknowledge that the Grace of God is available to us.

We feel guilty for everything we do that is not of Christ.  How can you be captive to Christ? Everything we do must be directed by God. One of Ernest’s professors asked him how many times in a day do you do things that you don’t ask God about?  Ernest said that for the most part he doesn’t.  The professor told Ernest that if he is going to a place that God wants to give him favor, do you ask God what should I wear?  If you fall sick from eating the wrong thing, did you ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance before you ate the thing?  Ernest told us that it may seem too trivial to ask the Holy Spirit about everything.  But, if you are following God, can you really be selective about what you ask? We do not have clear discernment about our situation, but God has discernment about what is best for us.  Sometimes we are seeking to avoid discomfort, but sometimes discomfort is necessary for us.  We need to have our comfort in God.  God knows the whole picture, we just have a glimpse of the present. We seem to have the perception that the Holy Spirit is for spiritual things only, and He is there for our whole lives.

Galatians 5:22-23 NLT  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

We cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit unless we are under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. We can’t produce the fruit of the Spirit in its fullness in our own strength.

Everything we do needs to be focused under the direction of Christ, so that the nature of Christ is shown in our lives.  Some of us think it requires too much to submit completely to Christ. We all want to lead our own lives.

Smith Wigglesworth and Brother Andrew lived lives submitted to Christ.

One of Ernest’s favorite books is Pioneers of Faith by Lester Sumerall.  It covers 40 great people of God, showing what their lives were like.  For example, Smith Wigglesworth never let a newspaper come into his house – he wanted to keep the world out.

At the end of the day, living a life free in Christ is a victory of the heart.  THE HEART OF THE MATTER IS THAT IT IS A MATTER OF THE HEART. If our hearts are not right before God, we cannot exhibit the nature of Christ and the love of Christ.  We are to submit to Christ daily.

The Holy Spirit is interested in every aspect of our life, not just our spiritual life. He is interested when we are driving our cars, gardening, taking a shower, whenever. 

God is aware of everything we do.  Before we’ve done it God knows about it. That is why we need to listen to the Holy Spirit so we don’t get off track.  So often we get tempted to do something in our own strength to help ourselves in things that God has told us.  But God knows all about our situation, and His sovereign ways are best for us.  There is nothing we can do to bring happiness into our lives if God is not in it.  God knows us, how we live and move and have our being.  When we pray He will answer, it may not always be the answer we want or the timing we want the answer to come.  Sometimes God even says, “No,” and we don’t want to hear no.  Yet earthly fathers say no to their children and only give children things that are good for them. How much more so will our Heavenly Father take care of us?

Sometimes the areas we are dealing in have no black and white answers, but are in the grey area. It is there we need the help and direction of the Holy Spirit.  If your gut says this is just a “little” sin– know that even the tiniest sin is still sin.  Sometimes we condone ourselves.  We tell ourselves that we are telling a “white lie.”  ANYTHING MORE THAN THE TRUTH IS A LIE.  ANYTHING LESS THAN THE TRUTH IS A LIE.

It is so easy to classify a prophesy as false or jump into it without knowing what and when God wants something done.  Sometimes prophesies are for tomorrow.  Some prophesies in the Bible took hundreds and thousands of years to be fulfilled.

Ernest told us that sometimes God tells a believer, “I’m going to use you.” And they immediately get into full time ministry, printing out cards and setting up shop, when God hadn’t given them the details, and they didn’t know His Word or timing. They were out of order moving that much into ministry before God told them to do so.

Most of the time there are a lot of resistance from people addressed by prophets, but prophets are to speak what is true.  In the New Testament and the Old Testament the prophets were crude people, not polished, and they spoke what God told them. When the people did not listen and obey God, there were consequences.

Hope this blesses you.

Heather

Pastor Don has taught us the value of using Strong’s Concordance to look up meanings of the names of people and places in the Bible for they teach so much. Using Strong’s and Holman’s Bible Dictionary, this morning in my reading – I am in the book of Judges, I started looking up the meaning of the Judge’s names at one time – and guess what, it spells out the salvation message so perfectly!

OTHNIEL – 6274 – FORCE OF GOD

EHUD – 261 – UNITED, UNIFY, COLLECT

SHAMGAR – 8044 – GOD HAS GIVEN

DEBORAH – 1683 – BEE – ORDERLY MOTION

GIDEON – 1439 – FELLER, WARRIOR, ONE WHO CUTS TO PIECES

TOLA – 8439 – SCARLET WORM (Here is a link to the tola worm post.)

JAIR – 2971 – ENLIGHTENER

JEPHTHAH-3316- HE WILL OPEN

IBZAN -78- SPLENDID, QUICK, AGILE

ELON – 356 – STRENGTH, STRONG, RAM, STRONG SUPPORT, PILLAR, TREE OF GOD

ABDON – 5658 – SERVITUDE, CULTIVATE, WORK

SAMSON – 8123 – SUNLIGHT, TO BE BRILLIANT, OF THE SUN!

God is so good. 

Have a blessed day,

Heather

Selma pronouncing the blessing after lighting the candle at Passover.

Selma became a Jewish believer in Yeshua in 2001.  She has four children.  One son is a believer, and it was he who led Selma to the Lord.  She visited her son and his wife in Hawaii.  She, at the age of 50, was looking to get closer to God.  Up until then she was attracted to the new age – and tried every type of meditation, spent time at the Zen Mountain Monastary, but never felt she was getting closer to God. She felt, as many in the new age do, that there are many paths to God.

In Hawaii, her son and his wife gave Selma a Bible to read.  Before, when she picked up a Bible she told us it was like a closed book.  They also gave Selma a book by Sid Roth called, They Thought For Themselves. I put the link on my blog because it is a good ministry tool for sharing the Gospel with Jewish people.  Selma told us that she once had a hard time with the Christian faith, because she realized that her people were persecuted for being Jewish by people who called themselves Christian.

Selma told us that the belief that you can’t be Jewish and believe in Jesus is the biggest lie of the enemy. She ended up attending a little Christian Church in Hawaii, and it was there that she became a Jewish Believer  in Yeshua.  She told someone in this church, “I’ve always felt Jesus was my friend, now I know Him as Savior. Before she became a Jewish Believer, she used to do  transendental meditation and during the meditation she would close her eyes and see Jesus with his arms open. 

She was baptized in the ocean and when she came back to our area she found the Living Word Chapel and Pastor Don.  Her three other children, 2 daughters both in the new age and a son learned of her acceptance of Jesus.  Her son in Florida respects her beliefs and saw miracles that God did for him although he hasn’t chosen to believe yet.  Selma holds onto the belief:  Acts 16:31  So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

She realizes that we need to put our trust in the Lord. 

Meanwhile, her son in Hawaii has created an incredible ministry called Freely Given.  He has been writing songs and putting them on a CDs,  The CD is called Return.  He gives them away for free, telling people to just listen to the music and then come and tell him what they think about the music.  You can download the CD for free here.  He is hoping that people will download the CD’s make copies of them and hand them out to people for free.  It is a good ministry opportunity to reach the unsaved.  Often music will touch hearts in ways that words do not. He sees the CD’s as seeds.  It is a sacrifice for him and his family, they have five children, but he is led to do this ministry.

Someone asked Selma how much her family practiced the Jewish faith.  Selma told us that when she was little her family celebrated the High Holy Days, and kept a Kosher house.  She was given the choice as she got older about whether or not she wanted to keep a Kosher house.  What excites her is seeing how much Jesus is portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures.  She also loves that there are many layers to the Word of God. 

I had never heard Selma’s testimony before, and it was a blessing to see how God works in another person’s life.

Praying your day is blessed.  Do download the CD and enjoy the music.

Heather

My sister in law sent the following video to me regarding a tanker oil spill. This interview is incredible. It comes accross as akin to a Monty Python commedy show.  My husband checked it out and it turns out that this is an Australian comedy team. Enjoy, it is very short.

Hope you have a blessed night.  I will be on tomorrow to begin visiting sites.

Heather

We turned our Bibles to Hebrews 10 – thinking Yes!!!! We are going on to a new chapter, but Pastor Don had just a FEW things to still cover in Hebrews 9.  We never made it to Chapter 10 – but you know what, it was worth hanging around in 9 for awhile.

Hebrews 9:23-24 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

Everything God described on earth to Moses regarding the Temple and Temple worship is a copy of what exists in Heaven.  Sometimes we can be so spiritually minded about Heaven, but we have a description of it.  Revelation shows us the Temple.

Christ never entered the Holy Place made with hands.  He was not of the tribe of Levi, so He never entered the Holy of Holies on earth.  But when He rose from the dead and presented Himself in Heaven as the sacrificial lamb, He presented himself in the Presence of God for us, and placed His blood in the Holy of Holies.

Hebrews 9:25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—

He did not have to go down to the Tabernacle on earth to present His blood as the Levitical priests had to do over and over. Jesus presented His blood once, on the original Mercy Seat.

When Jesus was met after he rose from the tomb, he spoke with Mary Magdalene and told her:

 John 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”

Christ brought His blood to the Holy place not made with hands – but the Heavenly Holy of Holies.  Unlike the priests on earth who had to sacrifice a lamb year after year, Jesus died once for our sins.  One year, one place, one offering. 

Now the yearly sacrifices are no longer able to be held on earth because there is no Temple.  There is no way for the Jewish people to sacrifice for their sins – it is no longer necessary because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice – we, Jews and Gentiles, have a choice to accept Him as our savior and the perfect sacrifice for our sins. 

Today there are substitute activities for sacrifice, such as swinging chickens (unscriptural), bringing wheat, oats, barley as a wave offering.  But there is no place to bring the sacrificial lamb because the Temple is destroyed.  So there is no way to gain the acceptable covering for sin for the Jews. 

The priests in Jesus’ day knew the heart of God and prophesied.  John 11:49-52  And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

A Man (Jesus) would die for the sins of the nation.  After Christ rose from the dead, the Shekinah glory was gone from the temple.  The priests tore their garments.  Oops, Jesus was the Messiah.  All Temples made it illegal to pledge loyalty to the Nazarene.  And one of the readings in the yearly rotation of reading, Isaiah 53 was no longer read in the temple or synagogues.  And the rabbis to cover for their mistake, say that Jacob is Israel, the nation of Israel. They explain other passages that teach on the Messiah in a different way.  The Jews who accept Messiah are thrown out of the Temple. 

In an aside, Pastor Don shared with us that Columbus was a Messianic Jew.  And there are passages in Columbus’ journals that show that.

Now during Passover people eat chicken, not lamb.  The Samarians are the only ones who still eat lamb on Passover, and sacrifice a lamb in Jerusalem.  Other Jewish groups in Iraq, Iran and China still eat lamb.

Jesus is the Sacrificial Lamb who died for our sins. When we Christians keep Passover, it is as a symbol honoring Jesus, One Christ, One Messiah, One Yeshua, and He was the Sacrificial Lamb.

Another proof verse:

John 18:14  Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

Many people cast Caiaphas as an evil person, but given as much light from God as he had, he did get a Word from God regarding Jesus.  But where Caiaphas sinned was he got the Word from the Lord concerning Jesus, but ran beyond it, by condemning Jesus to death.

In the Holy of Holies, at Yom Kippur, they sacrificed under the unction of the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is the one to be sacrificed for the nation and for the other scattered Children of God. 

Even evil or misguided people can come in the presence of God and receive a true word of God, if God chooses to reveal it.  Caiaphas had enough scripture to suggest that the Nazarene was supposed to be sacrificed and die.

Like Saul (who later became Paul), who thought he was doing good killing Christians, Caiaphas thought and began a manipulation to achieve this goal, but in a manner that was illegal, immoral, and unjust.

We may have a Word from the Lord that is correct and from the Will of God, but it is wrong to go beyond what is revealed.

If Caiaphas was not the one to bring Jesus to the Cross, someone else would have.  God would have seen through time and changed the plan.  God bases His plans on knowing what will happen.  He knows the minds and hearts of man.  Judas made a free choice to betray Jesus, but God knew Judas’ heart before time was even in existence. 

It was the Will of God that Jesus would be the suffering servant, but the one to bring this down did not have to be Judas, Judas made that choice.

Your secret unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentments can destroy the work of God in your life.  These block your blessings.  Jesus told his disciples, Mark 11:25-26 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

We must forgive.  We cannot say that there are exceptions to this, those who have been raped, fired, hurt, disappointed are not exceptions.  We have all been let down by somebody, sometime.  It is not right to hold unforgiveness. The best way to get payback is to give the situation over to your big brother, Jesus.  If we let go, then Jesus will deal with them and be very quick about it.  Praise God and leave the situation alone. God will not over punish a person, if we are doing things to hurt a person on earth, God will not deal with that person until we remove our hand from them.

Caiaphas’s tomb has been found. His historical record confirms the Bible. 

Zechariah 11:12-13  Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter.

This was prophesied 600 years before Christ.  Judas threw the pieces of silver into God’s House, but those wages of death could not be used for the Temple, so they bought a potter’s field.

Caiaphas had Biblical truth in his prophesy, but political motives caused him to do evil and wrong.

Zechariah 12:10-14 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; he family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.”

This is a prophesy of Jesus in the Last Days, when the heads of the nations will see that Jesus shed His blood for us and our children.  That those who persecuted Christians for 2000 years after Christ’s death and resurrection were in error.

Hebrews 9:26-28  He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.  27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,  28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

These three verses have been misquoted and misunderstood.

Pastor Don told us to circle ONCE in verse 26.  The word, “ages” in verse 26 is aion – which means ages of ages.  One time during those ages Christ died.  This is a prophetic period of time based on events set by God.  We don’t know how long that period is, for it is determined by God based on events.  Christ will come at the End of the age.  In the 6000 years, we are in the last third of those 6000 years, or the age of man for about 2000 years.

We will ultimately live with God in eternity and there will be ages of ages, and we will go into an age that is the next age of the ages of ages.  We will be with God. It will not be boring. 

Jesus took away sin by His sacrifice, for everyone WHO BELIEVES.  Not for sinners who are unrepentant, or for those who choose to reject Him.

As it says in verse 27, there will be physical death, then judgment.  Verse 28, once for the sins of many.  To those who EAGERLY WAIT FOR HIM TO APPEAR.  We will see Him appear a second time for salvation.

We spiritually have salvation, but that salvation is not on the physical yet, for we live in a sinful world and in a state of sin.  Yet verse 28 tells us Christ died to lift us up and out of our sins.  Verse 26, Jesus’s sacrifice cancels out our sins.

If the positive is true for this verse, the negative is true also. People who reject the offer are still in sin, those who accept Christ have their sins lifted away.  The only people going to hell are those who want to, who don’t want to be with God.  Rejection of God is the sin that determines where we spend eternity.  If you love God and want Him in your life, He is there for you.  Salvation is not out of our head and intellect, but it is in our hearts. We can have faith in our hearts, even when doubt pops in our head.  If we are faithful and read the Word, then the Word will help us to realize that:  I belong here, that my heart knows this, even if my head is speaking doubt and unbelief.

We are told to fight the good fight of faith. If faith were so easy, it wouldn’t be a fight.  The good fight is a Biblical fight. 

Praying your day is blessed!

Heather

This morning I will be out and about, so until I can post a new entry, I figured I would give you a few questions that I have had during my recent Bible readings.  Maybe you would have an answer.

Deuteronomy 27:11-13  And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, 12 “These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; 13 and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

Nothing is random with God, so I am wondering why God chose the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin to speak blessings.

And Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali to speak the curses.

I suspect Levi – the priesthood (but they ultimately failed), Judah because Jesus was of the tribe of Judah, Joseph for he obeyed God and kept faith, But Issachar was sort of nameless and I am not certain about Benjamin and Simeon.

Inquiring minds wants to know. Do you have any ideas?

Last night I noticed something I never noticed before.

Joshua 4:8-9  And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the LORD had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 9 Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.

I sort of only thought there were 12 stones – one per tribe set up on the land next to where the people camped – as a memorial.  But there are 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests stood.  So there were 24 stones.  I wonder if they have been found, will be revealed soon.  I entirely missed those 12 stones in the river.  Any teachings on those?

Thanks, I will try to update later today.

Heather

We have many dance teams at church and often they share dances with us. Pastor Don teaches us that we need to praise God in all the ways mentioned in the Bible. For example, Psalm 150 tells us:  Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary;  praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to His excellent greatness!  Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

This is our youth team on the first night of Pastor Scales’ visit.

And the second night, notice the reading of the Word before dancing.

They are such joyful dancers!

And our adult team the first night.

They were dancing to one of Pastor Don’s songs.

And the second night.

Julie – who also took some of the pictures I am sharing with you.

The adults have inspired the youth to dance. Dancing is awesome for it incorporates the Word, the Music, and the whole being in worship. Many of the praise team spend time with the youth helping them to dance from a very young age (pre school) all the way through young adults.  And now one of the young adults has stepped forward to begin to choreograph some of the young adult dances. It is so important to mentor the children for they are our future.

Pastor Scales called all the parents of the dancers forward to bless their children as we blessed them from the congregation.  Julie forwarded this picture to me.

We have many praise and worship teams, and often the singers merge as one for certain functions.  Here are some pictures from the praise and worship. I was sitting close to the altar, so had to take two pictures to get all the musicians.

Cheri who not only is part of the praise team, but also the church secretary – she gives so many hours to the church.

Joy (keyboard), Cynthia & Pastor Don Moore singing one of Pastor Don’s songs.

Joy – you have read some of her teachings here on this blog.

Joy’s husband Ray, who brings such vitality to his music.

Another praise team.

Julie took the above picture – this is when Pastor Scales called all the men forward, as Abraham called the men forward to rescue Lot and his family.  Imagine if all the brothers gathered together and made their presence known in the tough areas of our communities.  We prayed for the men.

Julie took this picture of me as I was taking the notes that I shared with you from Pastor Scales’ teaching.

And below, a few more pictures of Pastor Scales

Theresa Scales addressing the congregation, what a blessed and humble person.

Hope you enjoy these photos.

Have a wonderful and blessed day,
Heather