I hope you enjoy this inspiring message for 2009, I sure am ready to step into a new way of being, don’t want to drag 2008 problems forward into 2009.  I have included the video.  One person told me that they play the video while they are on the treadmill – so they can hear the teaching and exercise.  I also included the transcript in case you want to read the text. I kept it almost word for word – three … means a pause and what is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  I know you will be blessed hearing or reading this sermon. 

I want to talk to you about something that just spoke in my mind.  Do you ever have something just speak in your mind?  You know, you get a sentence and it just speaks in your mind and you say, “Wow, that really has a message in it for me.  That’s important.”  So, this morning was one of those.  I was just minding my own business.  Do you ever do that?  [yes, laughter]  Minding my own business and something just reverberated through my mind and it said, “Tell the people … to pull the trigger.  To pull the trigger.”  

Let’s begin then.  The first verse of the fifth chapter of the book of John.  You ready?  [ready]  Come on say, “I’m ready to have my life changed.”  [I'm ready to have my life changed.]  Hallelujah.  “After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people…” a great multitude.  So that would mean there’s more than one or two or three or four.  There’s a host of sick and disabled people.  “…blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.“  This is the water that’s in the pool of Bethesda there.  “For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.” 

It bothers me sometimes when people refer to God as a God of miracles and then put Him, box Him into a time period, as if God hasn’t always, nor will He always be a God of miracles.  God is a God of miracles and He will always be a God of miracles.  He cannot limit Himself because where His divine presence is, His power is and wherever His power is, it will disrupt the natural.  Did you understand that?  Wherever He shows up, His power shows up.  Wherever He is, His manifest ability to change things also exists.  Therefore, if He ever was a miracle working God in the Old Testament, and if He was a miracle working God in the New Testament, then surely in these last days, He’s also a miracle working God. 

The limitation of what God can do, it surprises me that people want to take away from us our free will.  But the will of man is so powerful that it can limit what God can do… [yes it can]  It can limit what God can do.  People say, “Well God can do anything that He wants.”  Well, yeah, and what God wanted to do, God wanted us to have free will, and so God then, therefore, said, “I will not override your free will unless you are mine.” … [yes] In other words, if I belong to God and I give God permission over my life, then God can override my will.  What did Jesus say in the Garden of Gethsemane?  He says, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”  In other words, God is a miracle working God, but if we give ourselves to God, the minute that we say, “You are my God.  You are my Sovereign.”  Then we give Him permission to override our will.  And we can therefore declare, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”  But in general situations and circumstances, God will let man exercise his will and have dominion because that’s what He did in the Garden.  So, we have dominion to exercise our will over our lives.  You could get up right now and leave… But if you are God’s and your heart is saying, “Not my will, but thine.” God, He could stop you at the door.  But in a general situation, He’s going to let anybody do what they want.  You want to leave, you could leave.  You want to come in, you could come in, unless there’s a big, burly usher at the door, gonna prevent you from getting out at the wrong time, or at the right time, whichever the case may be. 

So these people have come to the pool of Bethesda to experience a miracle by the hand of God.  In other words, God would send this angel.  This angel would do something to disturb the water.  The water would look a little turbulent.  And so, the first person that jumped into the water, at the time that the water is stirred, that first person would get what?  Would get their miracle.  This is an Old Testament miracle.  How do we know that it worked?   Well, why would all these people be there if it didn’t?  Did you hear what I said? [yes] They had seen it.  They knew that it worked.  They knew that God was a healer.  And so, since He was a healer, the first one that would get in, would receive their blessing.  In other words, to put this into modern vernacular, when the water began to stir, the first one that pulled the trigger…would get their miracle…. Can you understand that? 

In the sense of, if I had a gun here.  All of us have a gun, and that gun is our will, our power, our ability.  And we pull out our gun and we point it at the enemy or whatever sickness, death, disease, whatever you want to do.  But in this particular case, the first one that would pull the trigger, because they saw the stirring of the water, was the one that got their miracle.  You with me?  Can we do a few more verses?  Let’s go ahead a little bit further. 

It says, “For an angel went down…” in verse 4, “…at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first…”  Whoever pulled the trigger first, “…after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.  Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity…” How long?  [38 years]  Is that a long time?  [yeah]  This guy’s sick 38 years.  “When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?“” 

Do you want 2008 to turn out and finish, and then take whatever baggage you have from 2008 and carry it into 2009?  Or do you want to be made well?  Do you want 2009 to look different from 2008?  Or do you want to be the same way?  Do you want to just go from one year into the other and just roll on into that year and keep struggling the struggles that you’re struggling?  Do you want to take the same disease that you had in 2008 and just carry it on into 2009?  Do you want to take that same demonic situation in your home and just drag it on into this new year?  Is that what you want to do?  The same poverty that you had in 2008, do you want to just roll that poverty into here?  That same unsuccess, I don’t want to call it failure, because it’s not failure, it’s just unsuccess.  The success of life that has eluded you.  Those things that you dreamed about in 2007 and 2008, that haven’t come to pass, do you want to just go on into 2009 with the same problems?  Do you want to take that old junky car that you parked in our parking lot, that half-way runs, that you don’t know when it’s going to start, do you want to carry that on into the next year?  Is that your plan?  Or maybe you have the Lexus out there for $632 a month, can’t hardly make the payments, but you look good.  But do you want to take that, do you want to take that debt?  Do you want to do that? 

What do you want to do?  Whatcha going to do here?  Whatcha going to do?  Whatcha going to do?  Whatcha going to do?  You want to take all of that 2008 stuff?  How about this one?  Do you want to take the fear that you’ve built up in 2008 and carry it over into 2009?  God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.  But we’re still afraid.  Can’t hardly turn on the TV without somebody telling you something depressing.  Getting you scared.  Telling you what’s going on in Israel.  What’s going on here.  Oh it’s all over.  oooh, hu.  Do you want to take that over there? 

How about this one.  You want to take your bad marriage on over into 2009?  You know, you called him a bum in 2008, you want that bum, you want to call that bum a bum still in 2009?  You want to just carry it over?  I want to help you.  I want to help you.  You see, there is a problem here in that the people that pull the trigger, the first one that pulls the trigger got the healing here. 

This guy’s 38 years, 38 years, 38 years, and Jesus asks him a simple question.  “Do you want to get well?”  Do you want to have things go different in 2009?  That’s what He’s basically saying to him here.  He says to him, when He saw him lying, He “knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?  The sick man answered Him,”  Let’s read it together.  Come on.  “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.“ 

There’s a couple of problems that he’s making.  First problem is he’s looking to a man.  Lord have mercy.  He’s looking for someone with skin on to be the solution to his problem.  He won’t pull the trigger because why?  He’s looking for a man.  His number one excuse is somebody else is my problem.  No, no, no.  Nobody else is your problem.  You are your problem.  [amen]  You are your problem and if you don’t accept responsibility for the way it was in 2008, there’s no way you’re gonna escape it in 2009.  It’s going to turn out just the same as long as you’re looking for a man to solve your problem.  Come on now. [amen]

You can’t find a banker that’s going to fix it for you.  The bank is not going to fix your debt situation for you.  No, no, no.  There’s no counselor.  I had over 30 years counseling experience, and one thing I’ve learned is I can’t fix anybody.  [laughter]  I can’t.  I can feed ‘em.  But I can’t fix ‘em.  [amen]  I can feed them.  I can put good food out there, but if they don’t eat it, they’re not going to change.  People just sit in the counseling session, shaking their head “yes”  and smiling.  While all the while they’re saying, “I’m sick.  My problem is somebody else.  It’s somebody else’s fault that I am the way that I am.” 

Well listen, you can’t start getting your healing until you begin, you know, taking some people down off the crosses you’ve nailed them to. [come on Pastor, yes] You’ve nailed them to, listen, everybody, everybody.  I don’t know anybody that didn’t come from a dysfunctional family.  I’ve been looking for a functional family for 30 years, and all I’m finding is dysfunctional families.  You can blame momma and daddy for everything.  You can nail them to the cross of what’s wrong with me is because of momma and daddy.  But… but at some point you have to stop that.  [yeah]  At some point you have to go up to the cross of momma and daddy and rip those nails out of their hands and their feet and set them off the cross and say, “Momma and daddy, I finally accept the fact that not only was our home dysfunctional, but I bet you.  Tell me about your home.”  [oh, ah, yeah, come on]  And momma starts telling you how dysfunctional her home was.  She starts telling you how messed up her father was.  How crazy her grandpa was.  And if she starts going on great grandpa, you gonna find out you are the fourth generation of a totally dysfunctional functional family.  That can’t function because it ain’t got no unction to function because the function done died out.  And everybody’s dysfunctional.  [yep] 

Lord, you didn’t just inherit a drug problem.  Come on, check your family chart.  You’ll find some drugs back there.  You’ll find some totally wacko, waco wackos… I’m good at this.  [laughter]  I’m not practicing.  I’ve got the child.  Listen, you have to get to a place where we finally just pull the nails out of daddy’s hand and say, “My daddy was a bum.”  … But I’m not going to be like that.  I’m gonna to make some other choices… I’m gonna make some other choice and I’m going to stop playing the blame game. 

So this guy’s 38 years sick, and what?  It’s good to know what went wrong.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s good to know what went wrong.  You know, if you have a drinking problem, and you found out your daddy had a drinking problem, and your grandfather had a drinking problem, and then it skipped a generation, and it was your great grand momma, who owned a still, ran a bar, lived to drink, and you find that that was the root of it.  It’s nice to know that stuff.  But Jesus is, after you find it out, what are you going to do about it?  [amen]  What are you going to do about it? 

And so, this man’s sick 38 years, and what’s his excuse?  I need a man.  There’s nobody to help me get in there.  What do you mean?  He said, “There’s nobody.  There’s nobody with flesh coming to fix my solution.”  … Nobody with flesh can fix your solution.  You need Jesus Christ.  You need the Son of God to interrupt your programming.  Did you hear what I said?  Because we have all our mental programming.  You need the Son of God to interrupt your computer banks and put you know, put a stop to it. 

I was watching, the other day I was watching my son play with the computer.  And he lifted it up.  I didn’t know there was that much stuff inside there.  [laughter]  I said, “What’s that?”  He said, “That’s ram.” and I said, “What’s that?”  He said, “That’s a mother board.”  I said, “What’s that?”  He said, “That’s where all the chips are and the information goes from here, goes through there, and it goes to the ram, and what ever.”  And I said, “What, how can we fix this computer?”  He says, “You need more ram.”  I said, “Where are you gonna get it?”  He said, “At the ram store.”  [laughter]  You get the new ram and you do what?  You take out the old ram, you add to the new ram, and if there’s enough space in the thing.  What do they call that space in the, in the, yeah next to the motherboard, and you plug it in, and what ever, what ever. 

Some of us need to go to the ram store and get some new ram.  [yeah]  We need to stop trying to live on, on a, you know, too small a megabyte thing.  You got just one chip.  You still running that same old chip over and over and over again.  You need to add some new ram.  That you can overpower that old ram, and put more new information in there.  Just get some new chips in there and get something new.  And if the whole mother board’s shot, lift it out.  Get a new mother board and put it in there and start over.  [yeah, clapping]  Start over with some new thinking.  New way to look at your problem.  Let Jesus redo your nonsense.  (mouth sounds) push, plug that in. 

I thank God that at some point I began to recognize that it wasn’t my momma or my daddy’s fault that I was the sick one.  I didn’t have a drug problem because of them.  I had a drug problem because I wanted to get high.  But I didn’t have enough sense to realize that getting high was getting low. 

You know, I turned on the TV after New Year’s Day and what were they talking about?  How to get over a hangover.  I wish they’d just ask me.  I would have told them, “Don’t get drunk.”  [amen!, laughter]  You know.  You could have been here at church with us.  We were high. [whoo weee!]  But we weren’t hung over.  We were high.  Had that Holy Ghost joy. (clap)  I’m telling you.  I don’t know about you, but man, that’s the best high.  Feel good.  Jump around the house and you’re in your right mind.  Well, praise God. 

Anyway.  So then, what does he say to Him?  He says to Him, “I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up;…” 

Some of our spiritual lives are like that.  Can we talk about church?  It says, “Worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.”  But, sometimes when the water is being stirred, you won’t get in… You watching me get in, or watching somebody get in.  And they’re having a good old cry and their tears are rolling down and they got their eyes closed so they don’t have to look at you.  That was funny.  [laughter]  They’ve got their eyes closed, so they don’t have to look at you, and they are in the water.  They are swimming in the Holy Ghost’s presence, and the joy of the Lord is now becoming their strength.  And they’re just loving on Jesus, and Jesus is loving them. 

And you know, oh my goodness, I woke up this morning, and singing about I love Jesus.  I love Jesus.  I got to find that record.  I told my wife I need to learn that song.  It was just singing, I just kept singing it over and over because, you know, but it was enough lyrics there.  It was, “Lord I love you.  I love you Lord.  Lord I love you.  Love you, I love you Lord.  Lord, I love you.  I love you Lord.  I love you Lord. Lord I love you.  I love you Lord.”  I mean, after awhile I started feeling better.  I mean, my step got lighter. 

Man.  I was like, you know, and I said, “I like that song.”  You know, “Where is it?”  I asked my wife, “Where is that song?  Where is that song?”  And after awhile, you know, you see, I’m smart, man .  I’m really smart.  She said, “It’s on such and such a CD sung by such and such a person, singing that.”  So where is it?  “It’s in the car.  I don’t know where.”  I’m gonna find that song and sing it for you. 

You have to have a song that gets you into the pool, that puts you in the water so that you can what?  Get healed.  You have to have something that helps you get healed.  You need some ram to help you get healed.  I want a few people to tell me what your song is.  Who’s got a song?  Get you in the water.  Mine is, (singing)  “I’ll sing your praises sing your praises forever.  Deeper in love with you.”  I don’t care how I’m feeling, I could sing that.  I start feeling better.  I start feeling better, why?  Because the water’ll start stirring and I can get my healing.  Who else has a song? 

Brother Tony.  [I will worship you.] I will worship you.  Sing a little of it Tony.  [Tony sings]  Good, that’s good enough.  See, he started praising the Lord.  He said, “I will worship”  and He started.  [laughter]  Who else has a song?  Come on.  “I can only imagine.”  That would be right for a school teacher, she’s still trying to figure stuff out.  [laughter]  Let me tell the answer for that song.  (singing)  “I can only imagine…”  but it makes you feel better, right?  Thinking what?  This isn’t all of it.  This present day circumstance and situation isn’t all of it. I can imagine Heaven and the glory of it.  There’s only two people in this church that have a spiritual song.  Yeah.  “Count your blessings, name them one by one.  Count your blessings, and see what God has done.”  That’s a good one.  Yes sister.  Huh?  “This battle’s not mine,” it belongs to who?  It’s the Lord’s.  Yeah, “Above all.”  (singing)  “Like a rose, trampled on the ground, you took the fall, and thought of me, above all.” 

Yeah.  “How great thou art.”  Come on, come on.  (singing)  “Oh, Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made.  Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee.  How great thou art.  How great thou art.”  Come on. [all singing] “Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee.”  Come on, like you mean it.  “How great thou art.  How great thou…” Now put one of those things in there, “art.”  [laughter]  Hallelujah.  Come on give the Lord some praise.  [clapping and cheering] 

Well you’re saying, “Well Pastor Don, what does this have to do with that?”  Singing a song of praise will pull the trigger.  [amen]  It will pull the trigger.  It will fell the enemy.  It will shoot him down.  It will break what he’s trying to do, because he then has to contend with your worship.  [amen]  You need to pull the trigger.  2009 will turn out just like 2008 until you learn to start pulling the trigger. 

This man is sick 38 years, he’s 38 years waiting for someone else to make him happy.  Someone else to fix his circumstance.  Someone else to do something about his situation.  I just get so tired, I could be happy, IF.  Pull the trigger.  Why don’t you just be happy? 

Look at what He says here.  Come on, with me now.  Verse 8. and “Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” …”Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  The man has a choice to make.  He either leaves his gun in the holster, or he sends a signal from his brain to his body, “Let’s get up.”…

The Body of Christ is walking around, we are totally armed and dangerous, and we won’t pull the trigger.  Faith requires an action, you all.  If you are a person of faith there’s something that you have to do to exercise that faith.  Just cause you got a gun doesn’t make you nothing.  You’re just another punk on the street.  Just like them other punks going … They can’t even hold the gun right.  [amen, laughter]  You know what I mean.  They’re going, turning the gun upside down as if it makes them bigger and badder.  You know what I’m saying.  [laughter]  Read the instructions!  Hold the thing right so you don’t break your wrist.  [laughter]  Hold it like.  [laughter]  Hold it straight.  Put two hands on it if you have to, but point it straight.  This is the top.  This is the bottom.  [laughter]  What are you talking about?  And they going around, holding guns and acting big and bad.  But they don’t what?  They have no courage to pull the trigger. 

The Church is getting like that.  We know all the Scriptures.  We’re walking around, with all the Scriptures.  Won’t sing the songs of Zion that beat the devil down.  [amen]  Got a demon possessed husband in the house.  Why don’t you start singing over him?  He won’t be able to stand your joy.  Why don’t you start being happy instead of letting the devil make you miserable?  Your misery just says to the devil that he’s winning.  [amen] Talking, talking ungodly talk.  “We need to separate and divorce.”  You need to be talking, “I’m married, and I’m staying married.  It’s going to be a beautiful marriage.  I’m pulling the trigger on you.”  … [laughter]  I’m pulling [laughter] 

See, some of you all sick.  [laughter]  Some of you all need therapy.  I’m pulling the trigger of faith.  I’m going to believe for what God said, not for what the devil is saying.  [amen]  I’m pulling the trigger of faith.  I’m believing that this year things are going to be different.  I’m pulling that trigger.  I’m through crying and complaining and whining and stuff.  I’m going to pull the trigger of faith that says, we’re coming up out of this thing here.  I’m gonna pull the trigger of faith. 

The devil says, I can’t work, that I’m too sick.  I’m getting up out of bed this morning.  I’m not gonna, you’re not gonna to do that to me.  You know, you got a little cold.  You need to just get like Brother Hagin says, he says, well you sick.  What are you going to do?  What are you going to do?  What are you going to do?  He says, I’m going to act like I’m well.  I’m gonna pull the trigger of faith.  I’m getting up out of this bed.  No fever’s going to keep me down.  No, no, no, no diabetes, no arthritis, no pain in my back, or my shoulders, or elbows.  I’m getting up and I’m taking care of business.  I’m gonna to pull the trigger of faith.  Faith says, “You’re well!”  Then act like it!  Put that smile on your face and start praising God. Pull the trigger.  Start singing a song of Zion instead of complaining. 

Get off the phone if you don’t have something nice to say.  Find somebody that brings you up, not brings you down.  If you can’t say nothing nice, don’t speak at all.  Get a Band-Aid, a gaffer’s tape and put it over your nasty, confusing, negative mouth.  [amen]  You know, have somebody else rip it off so that they won’t be so kind.  [laughter]  Leave it on for four days, your mustache will be all up in that thing, and they go wham, never mind.  Never mind.  I get too graphic sometime.  I can’t help it.  I can’t help it.  I just get a mental picture.  I’m just serious.  I am so serious about this. 

Do you want to be well in 2009?  Then you’re gonna have to pull the trigger on some things.  You’re gonna have to make a decision that the way that it was is not the way that it’s gonna be.  You’re going to have to make a decision  that you’re going to stop talking about doing stuff.  I get so, somebody asked me yesterday, “Are you frustrated?”  I’m not frustrated.  I’m annoyed… There’s a difference.  Frustration would be that there’s something in me that is disturbed by my exterior.  Well, that ain’t happening.  I’m ain’t going to let nothing outside me mess me up.  You all know what I mean?  I’m happy everyday.  I have a good time everyday.  Every day’s a beautiful day.  Some things annoy me from time to time.  I get annoyed at people that are staying on hold.  Can’t get moving.  Can’t get going.   Always got a mission and they’re never on it.  They’re just talking about it.  Just on hold.  Always got an excuse, and the excuse is always somebody else. 

2009.  2009.  Well ok, what’s it gonna be like?  What are you going to do?  You’re going to pull the trigger?  Or are you going to sit by the pool?  The first one to pull the trigger got in.  You got a God idea, why don’t you work it?  Don’t be afraid.  Set your feet.  Get your stance.  Get your firearm out and say, “I’m going for it.”  I’m going for it.  I want a new business.  You want a new business?  Well, let’s go.  Pull out the gun and let your faith fly. 

Below is the video and the closed captioning (slightly edited) for this sermon.  How important it is to have a real measure of our worth. Remember that three periods … means a pause and what is in [brackets] is what the congregation said.

Have a blessed day!
Heather

Here we go.  You ready?  [ready] 

Your worth is measured by what you give, not by what you get.  [amen]  Let me read it again.  Your worth is measured by what you give, not by what you get…Let me cut through that one more time?  Your worth is measured by what you give, not by what you get. 

This is the after Christmas message because the reality is that some of us are depressed or sad or disappointed during the holidays because somebody didn’t get us something.  Or, what they got us wasn’t something of great value, it wasn’t impressive, it didn’t knock us out and therefore we were disappointed.  Or, maybe the phone didn’t ring and nobody called and we spent the holidays alone.  And so we were depressed because we didn’t get the love of the church or the love of a sister or the love of a brother and so we were a little disappointed.  And maybe we’re like kids, they open their presents and their gifts and they measure their worth and importance by what they got.  How many gifts they got.  Oh, I thought for sure after 20 years of marriage, this year he would have given me a ring.  And I was sure that when I opened up that big box, I really thought that it was going to be a cashmere sweater that, and I dropped 14 hints about it and still he didn’t give it to me and…And so we end up measuring our worth by what we got or what we didn’t get.

But the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that our worth really is more measured by what we give, not by what we get.  The satanic side of Christmas and most people don’t like it when I talk about it, but if it’s root was truly of God, then why do more people commit suicide during that time period?  Why are people more miserable?  Why is it that the lesson the children are taught is that no matter how much you get, it’s never enough?  And that is the message  every child.  I raised three.  And, they’re wonderful kids.  But I always noticed that at Christmas, no matter how much money mommy and daddy spent, it wasn’t enough.  If we got the Playstation, then we should have gotten the maka, maka that goes with the Playstation and the 14 other toys that go with that.  And so the kids were disappointed and the parents, we were busted and disgusted because why?  Our Christmas, because its root is not Godly, and its root is not, let’s just be honest, the root of it is based on commercialism and getting.  It’s not based on the love of Jesus and giving but it’s based on getting.  It’s based on shopping.  It’s based on materialism.  It’s based on all of those things that have little or nothing to do with the Christ child. 

And so when we try to get our perspective on this, an amazing thing happens, our self-worth becomes diminished during this time period… Our self-worth becomes involved in how Uncle Joe treated us.  You know, I loved Uncle Joe but he didn’t even call this year, therefore your worth gets diminished.  A sister invites another sister to come for Christmas dinner and she’s too busy because she has her immediate family to care for, and so she says to a sister who’s hoping for reconciliation, “I can’t come.”  And then, by comparison, this sister says, “I’m diminished.”  You know, “I’m diminished.”  Or the member of a church who has a long list of what everybody should do for her, even though she does very little for anyone else.  But she measures her worth based on what’s the church going to do for me?  What’s the church going to do for me?  Nobody called me this Christmas. 

Well, who did you call?…  Why would you measure your worth based upon someone calling you when your worth is really measured on who did you call?  Who did you bake a bunch of cookies for and go knock on their door and give it to them?  What about that neighbor, that snotty neighbor that’s a pain in the behind?  You didn’t bake him anything so you cannot expect him to be changed as a result of your commercialism which is based upon getting… and not giving…

Well, remember, don’t be mad at me.  I was asleep when the Lord spoke this to me this morning.  [laughter]  I was minding my business and He says, “Your worth is measured by what you give, not by what you get.”  [hallelujah]  Why would we wait for one time of the year to give people stuff?  Maybe we could make people, you know that song from the movie, (singing) “A very merry unbirthday to you, toot, toot, da la da loot, a very merry unbirthday to you. toot toot da loo toot toot.  Let’s all congratulate us with another cup of tea.  A very merry unbirthday to you, toot toot, dough, ye, dough lo. luda, luda, da loo.”  You guys don’t know that?  [laughter]  You had deprived childhoods, huh.  [laughter]  Deprived childhoods, huh.  Nobody gave you a copy of that for, huh. 

But when we look at that, I’m giving a gift and it’s my unbirthday it’s not my birthday, I’m doing it.  I’m expecting to be joyful on an unbirthday, then we could be happy all year.  We could be happy all year if we would give the spontaneous gift that no one’s expecting.  Because, when you don’t give a gift at Christmas time, since people measure their worth based on getting something,… they just get depressed.  Well how about having an unChristmas, Christmas?  How about next week, you know, why don’t you send me a card next week.  Cause I’m going to need it next week after preaching this today.  [laughter]  You know, send me something next week and say Pastor Don, just thinking of you.  Love you.

Because see, there’s some people that got depressed cause last year they got 15 Christmas cards and this year they got 5… And they measured their worth according to what they got rather than according to what they gave. 

So, then I wrote down the next thing the Lord spoke to me.  And it’s an old Baptist song.  Some of you old Baptists remember it.  I’m an old Baptist, I remember it.  (singing) You can’t beat God giving.  No matter how you try.”  And then the old Baptist brother will go, “hmmmm, hmmm, hm.” [laughter]  You know.  Sister Eloise would chime in, “Wow, you can’t beat God giving, no matter hoooooowwwww, hooooowwww, hoooooowwwww you try. hmmmm, hmmmm,” [singing] Yeah, yeah, that’s it.  That’s it.  That’s it.  Well, what’s that old song, what did they discover with that old song?  That just because you can’t beat God giving, doesn’t mean you should be so focused on getting.  It means you should be out there competing with God to try and out give Him…

You see, the world is upside down.  What is somebody going to do for me?  Is the motto.  And the spiritual motto is, what can I do for somebody else?  [amen]  What can I really do for somebody else?  Jesus said to His disciples before He left the earth, He says, “If, if you really love me,”  Here’s what He says, “If you love me, you would”  what?  “obey me.”  So, He didn’t want a  present, a material bracelet, a charm.  He didn’t want a new coat.  He didn’t even want a phone call.  He just wanted obedience.  He says, “If you obey me,”  He says, and why did He want us to obey Him?  He wanted us to obey Him for a simple reason, it was for our own good.  So He was giving us something very precious.  He said, “If will obey me, guess what?  It’ll work out better for you.”  So He’s saying, “I will give you the gift of life, if you will obey me.  And your life will turn out better.”  So, even in His command, He was trying to give us more than we were going to get… Isn’t that what He was saying?  He was saying, “If you will obey me, it’s for your own good,”  and He says, “and guess what you’ll get.  You will get oneness with the Father.”  [amen]  And what happens when we get oneness with the Father?  You get everything.  [hallelujah]  Everything. 

You’ll get all the getting you can get, just by what?  Giving.  So, anyway, I just want to, you know, I just want to encourage you and I want to give you a Bible example of this.  Remember the story of Joseph?… Yeah, Joseph, Joseph gets in the flesh only because he hadn’t learned it yet, but by the time he gets to be a man, he learns it.  Joseph gets a gift from his father.  His father gives him a coat of many colors.  You know, he had a multi-colored coat. 

That’s why I wore this one today.  You can’t see it, but the people on TV can probably see it a little bit better.  But this is multi-colored.  It’s got red and green and brown and black in it.  See, it’s multi-colored.  But, you know, my wife gave me this so.  She insisted that I get it.  [amen]  Cause, when I was in the store and I put it on and she said, “Don, you, we’re getting that.”  [laughter]  You know, and she gave me a gift.  She used her own credit card.  [laughter]  Gave me a gift. 

So, Joseph had a coat of many colors like this.  But his, I’m sure, was more fabulous, cause it was like, you know, hand woven and really something.  And his brothers got real upset about it.  You all remember the story?  [yes]  See, his brothers got up in the flesh cause they didn’t get one.  They measured their worth according to what they get, not according to what they gave.  Cause there’s no where in the scripture that says they gave Joseph anything but a hard time.  [amen]  You know, they beat him up, threw him in a hole, and sold him into slavery.  I don’t want that for Christmas.  [laughter]  Some of you do, please sign up for, come for counseling, you need that. 

But Joseph had this coat of many colors, a gift from His father.  And he messed up.  He measured his worth based on the fact that daddy gave him something that the rest of them didn’t get… And then he bragged about it.  He told them, showed them, and whatever.  And then, you know, sometimes you can’t tell people your dreams…  Joseph dreamed a dream where all his brothers are bowing down to him.  Well, he didn’t have enough spiritual knowledge to realize that he was saying that all of his brothers would be tribes and they would bow down to him.  Well, of course, they’re going to bow down to him, because why? 

Joseph got a coat of many colors, but what did he give.  Joseph gave freedom to his nation.  Joseph got a coat of many colors, but what did he give?  He gave a picture of Jesus Christ to the world for all time.  Joseph got a coat of many colors, but what did he give?  He went through slavery.  He went through bondage.  And then he used his wisdom to what?  Give glory to God in a heathen nation. 

Oh, if only the Body of Christ could wake up and figure that out.  We are supposed to give glory to God in this heathen nation.  Stop complaining about your job and the unsaved people around you that make you miserable.  God placed you there in order to bring a change.  [whew! amen]  You understand?  You’ve been placed in the place, surrounded by heathens to make a difference.  You are the salt of the earth.  You are salt in that place.  You’re the only light that shines in there.  [amen]  You know, there’s some businesses that are only prospering just to keep you employed.  It’s the only reason.  That’s the only reason.  There’s some people that are getting rich just so they can pay you a salary.  Stop whining and complaining about it. 

Let me tell you something.  I work with Christian folk all the time.  And it ain’t so great.  [laughter]  [true]  Moving right along… Let’s get clear about this.  Humble.  What does humble mean?  Humble does not mean that you deny your value or your worth.  To be humble doesn’t mean that you have to put yourself down.  It doesn’t mean that you have to devalue yourself.  But humble means that you have to accept some things. 

The first thing, if you’re going to be really humble, you have to accept the fact that the flesh is not able, nor is it willing to recognize your superiority… I’d better take that again.  Yeah, you child of God, you should walk around knowing you’re superior.  Know that you’re born again, that you are really something.  Knowing that you can quote scripture, and you can do all the things that the Gospels says you can do.  Yeah, you should,  I know that… I know that when I walk into the YMCA, I know Pastor Don is here and he’s superior.  I’m 20 years older than all those guys, but I’m going to score.  I’m going to do a reverse dunk in my mind, [laughter]  but, I’m, right David?  [laughter]  I’m going to look like it.  You have to know you’re special.  You have to know you’re special.  You are not unworthy because somebody didn’t give you something.  You are not unworthy cause somebody didn’t call you.  You are not unworthy because somebody forgot your birthday, the size that you wore, or any of those insignificant things.  [laughter]  What makes you think that somebody should call you and say what you want them to say.  No.  You’re worth more than that. 

You only need to get approval from one source and one source alone.  His name is Jesus the Christ.  [amen, hallelujah]  And if He approves of you, then you are worthy.  I said, then you are worthy. [amen]  I didn’t get one of my Christmas gifts, so what.  Listen, the world cannot, the flesh, it will not and it cannot fully acknowledge your superiority as a believer.  Your feelings cause you to have the value system of the world.  And that’s what makes you feel unworthy.  When you have the value system of the world, then it causes you to feel unworthy.  To feel disappointed and put down.  What do you mean? 

You’re collecting unemployment and you’re unworthy.  Listen, oh Child of God, you should collect social services and not be ashamed.  Cause when you were working you, that’s your money coming back to you.  Everybody else is stealing, and ain’t getting nothing back for it.  You know, I just wrote an article in the newspaper about that.  The banks got  a bail out and then they didn’t loosen up the credit lines and what they’re doing now is they’re bouncing everybody’s interest rates really high.  They bounced one of my cards to 31.33%.  That’s usury, that’s robbery.  I said, that’s robbery.  [amen]  Now because they’re robbing me, why should I feel put down?  Why should I feel put down because I cannot pay the bills at the level they put upon me when they are committing a crime?  You know. 

You all should not be ashamed of the fact that right now you’re feeling the credit crunch and you probably need credit counseling.  You probably do.  You should be quick to say, Pastor Don, I can’t pay my bills.  I need some help here.  You’re going to have to admit the fact that you need help because in the past 2 or 3 years I’ve been telling you, I’ve been prophesying to you what’s going to happen with the financial markets.  I prophesied to you what you were supposed to do.  I told you it was coming apart and what you should do with your money.  I mean, if you were in bad shape because you didn’t do it.  You know, everybody can’t be married to my wife who’s rich.  Some of you have to get by on somebody else’s money.  But why would you feel put down by it. 

If you’re unemployed right now, why should you feel any least, any less, what are you talking about?  What are you talking about?  Unemployment is as high as it has been since the depression.  There’s a whole lot of you out there that are unemployed.  Don’t feel bad about it.  Joseph was unemployed and in jail.  [amen]  I said, Joseph was unemployed and in jail.  [yes]  Praise God.  Somebody say, “Praise God,” in here.  [Praise God]  Apostle Paul lost his job.  He couldn’t go back to being in the Sanhedrin court.  He couldn’t finish his training with Gamaliel.  He was done.  He saw blinding light.  God didn’t like, you know, build him an altar in the sky.  God knocked him off his high horse.  [chuckling]  Come on now. 

And so, what is true humility?  True humility is accepting the fact that God has made you a superior being and that your worth is not valued, your worth is not placed, your worth is not based upon what the world says you are worth.  [amen]  And so then, you take Moses.  Moses was the most humble man that ever lived… Moses was a friend of God.  He was a murderer.  He was a murderer and he suffered from depression and moved out to the desert, sat on the back side of the desert for 40 years.  Till finally God spoke to him from a bush and said, “Yo.”  [laughter]  “What up?”  [laughter]  “What ya doing sitting here acting like you’re worthless?”  when what, “I called you to lead the people.” 

My Jesus is Lord.  We need to learn to extend true service.  And we need to extend true love to people, to those who can’t see your worth.  The people that cannot see your worth are the very people you need to extend yourself to.  This won’t go over real big, but hey.  There’s a difference in the value system of the Spirit and the value system of the flesh.  The value system of the Spirit says, that your worth is based upon how well you will serve the unworthy.  What you will do for your enemies will determine that God will put you on a spiritual higher level.  That you can come up out of unworthiness by what?  By serving the meek and the lowly.  By what?  Not counting them as less than you, but taking the time to do it. 

Yeah it’s true that the guy, the bum that washes your windshield, he only wants a quarter or fifty cents, because at the end of the day, yes, it’s true, he’s probably going to get high on it.  He’s probably going to buy drugs.  But it is a ministry, it is an opportunity to do what I watched my mother do every time.  She never, ever, would leave the window up and look the other way like many of us do.  She’d always wind it down and hand him a dollar and say, “This is a God dollar… You buy food with this, or clothing, but if you buy drugs with it, it’s not going to turn out good for you.  I am blessing you because Jesus blessed me.” 

So extend true service and extend true love.  Remembering what?  That people of the flesh can’t see your worth anyway.  They can’t see your worth.  You’re not doing it for them.  You’re doing it for your Lord.  You’re not doing it cause it’s Christmas, you’re doing it because it’s an un-Christmas day.  You’re not doing it because its a birthday, you’re doing it because it’s an un-birthday.  You’re doing it to get to receive something that is greater, which is you want a higher level of worth and esteem in the eyes of the Lord than you care about in the world. 

Let the husband who is of worth give increasingly and unceasingly more to the unworthy one… I’m going to let that sink in for a minute.  You get that Murray?  Let me do it again.  Let the worthy husband give increasingly more to the unworthy wife… You could change her.  You could change her.  Wife, instead of coming to church and feeling superior, why don’t you view the unworthy husband as worthy and serve him?… My wife doesn’t decide whether she’s going to put food on the table for me on the basis of what I did last night, or where I went last week, or what I said, or didn’t say.  She serves according to the Word…

Anybody thinking here?  [umh, hmh]  That’s the way God designed it.  God designed it.  He said, you know, He says, “You can heap burning coals upon your enemies,”  by what, by serving them, treating them as if they’re worthy, even though they’re unworthy.  And the reason is, why?  In just a matter of time, the Lord could change them and they become superior to you.  Lord have mercy.  This is good stuff.  And then why?  They become superior to you. 

What always happens?  We decide that our mate is unworthy, and we act like they’re unworthy.  They don’t measure up, and so we treat them like that.  Then they separate and divide.  Then what happens?  The guy gets a wake-up call from the Lord.  The one He was hoping you would have given him, but you didn’t give it to him.  So, what happens?  Five years later you find him, he’s an upstanding man in the community, he’s living right, he’s doing right, he’s serving the Lord, and you what?  You miss a great opportunity because why?  You treated him as unworthy, and then after awhile he becomes worthy, and then you go, “Oh, I could have had a V8.”  [laughter]… 

In every marriage there comes a time period where you look at the other person and you say they’re not worth it.  It’s I can’t take another day of this.  They are not worth it.  But what happens is, somebody else comes along and they go, whoa, he’s polished up pretty good.  You know, she’s acting pretty nice.  I’ll take her.  Why?  Because all the work has already been done.  And, you know, thank you, Brother Barry’s shaking his head.  [laughter]  Brother Barry had to drag his wife in here.  Drag his wife in here.  She was shooting daggers at me every time I preached.  [laughter]  You know, but one Sunday I walked up the aisle to meet her half-way.  The power of God hit her and changed her life, now she’s the what?  The director of Christian education of this church.  But what if I had figured and told Barry, “Listen Barry, this woman is unworthy.  She’s never going to receive the Lord.  You need to, listen, you need to ditch her and run quick.”  [laughter] … You, Lord have mercy! 

Alright, so here’s the conclusion.  Throw off gimme, gimme.  Throw off gimme, gimme.  Throw off an attitude that somebody else ought to be doing something for you.  Throw off the attitude that if somebody really loved you, they’d give you a car.  Throw off the attitude of I need this to make me special.  If I could have this, I’d be the bomb.  Forget about it.  Throw off the whole thing that your value is connected to losing 30 pounds.  What if you keep the 30 pounds and die and go to heaven?  You think Jesus is going to get, has a scale up in heaven?  [laughter]  I would have used you but you were overweight.  [laughter]  What are you?  What’s wrong with us?  Why do we have this gimme, gimme attitude.  If I had a little bit more I’d be worth a little bit, something.  If I had a bigger house, I’d be worth more.  If I had more money, I’d be worth more.  No, it’s a lie from the pit of hell!!! 

You are God’s child, and He loves you just the way you are.  And He’s going to get you through your go through as soon as you stop going gimme, gimme, I gotta have.  I gotta have.  I gotta have.  We see the fruit of that, a whole nation, and a whole planet is going down.  [amen]  Because why?  The had the gimme, gimme.  What would happen if you didn’t measure your value by how much you were in control of?… Cause some of us, if we’re not in control, we don’t really feel of any value.  But if we could start controlling people and things and places, then our value in our own eyes goes up…

Jesus couldn’t control the Pharisees and the Scribes.  But He didn’t think anything less of Himself.  But why do you have to associate, if I can control my husband, if I can control, if I can control circumstances, if I can control the situation, then I’m more of value.  We walk higher when we think we’re the boss.  We’re in control. 

Listen, life is a series of learning to be happy in an out-of-control circumstance.  That’s what life is all about.  Cause you can’t control things.  If God wanted you to be in control, He would have made you God.  [come on!]  But He didn’t.  What He did was He made the universe and He put a whole lot of things in it that we can’t control.  To why?  To remind us that we don’t have to value ourselves based on, I’m in control.  Good word – Amen.  Praise God.  [amen] 

And then, here’s another one.  Why would you value yourself on the basis of you get your way?  Why does it, why do you, why is it some people just can’t be happy unless they get their way?  What’s wrong with you?  You should be happy whether you get your way or not because you don’t know for sure that your way is the best way…

Pastor Don’s wife, Cynthia spoke to our women’s group recently about sharing God’s Word – the proper and improper ways to do it.  It blessed us tremendously and I am excited to share it with you.

Mark 16:15-18 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Cynthia asked us, why do we need to bring people to God?

1. Why. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 

God wants ALL to come to repentance and live with Him in Heaven.  God is love and He loves us.

2. We don’t have much time left.  Many are saying that the end times are close and people are talking about Jesus’ returning soon. We can’t be sure of the exact time, but there are those who want to deceive us into thinking that we have all the time in the world.  But we do not want to be deceived.  We want to be busy now doing what God wants us to do. And God wants all to be saved.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

These false teachings are more prevalent and harder to discern than ever before.  We will see more and more of these false teachings, and they will grow stronger and stronger as the last days draw near.

Matthew 24:5-8  For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

3. Their lives will be better.  God will touch their lives, change them,  and make their lives better.  When they get with God and do right their lives will improve.

Cynthia shared that she has seen lives changed dramatically when God came in.  She spoke about a friend who had a family member kill themselves and God took away her agony and replaced it with the Father’s love.  She has seen alcoholics come to the Lord and now instead of being in a drunken stupor, they have good jobs.  One of our member’s sister was healed of fibromyalgia because of prayer and the Holy Spirit.  Cynthia has seen people who have been abused by their parents heal and have better lives, becoming reconciled with estranged family members. Whenever God comes into a life it improves.

4. Get the Word out and the World will be a better place.  There is strength in numbers.  Right now there is legislation that is anti-God, there are classes on protecting yourselves against bullying, old ladies are run down.  Our world would be better if it was filled up with Christ’s love expressed through people.

5. God said so. 

Then Cynthia asked us, why don’t we do it?

1. Fear.  We don’t trust God that we can do it and we wonder what people will think.  We need to realize that if God tells us to do it, He will equip us and His Holy Spirit will help us trust God and do His will.

2. Religious pride, religious spirit. Those with religious pride and a religious spirit tell themselves that the people won’t get saved anyway so why talk to them.   This type of rationale shows ignorance and does not hold water. 

3.  I’m just too busy, it takes time. We are so caught up with getting our coffee, our pets, children, spouses, housework, activities that we fill up our time with that we think that we don’t have the time to take and reach out to others.

4. Lazy. We tell ourselves we will get to it later.

5. Shifting or vacillating. We tell ourselves we will do it tomorrow, but we don’t want to postpone.  We aren’t fully sure of our own faith, and go back and forth.

6. Ungrateful. We, in our ingratitude, are not considering what Jesus has done for us, and then wanting to do what He wants which is to share the Gospel with others.

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

We want to do God’s will.  We want to have everyone ready for when He comes so that none are excluded.  Cynthia then read the Parable of the 10 virgins, five were prepared, five weren’t.  We want to be prepared.

Matthew 25:1-12 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “

Cynthia told us that this may seem a bit mean that the unprepared virgins could not enter the feast.  But she reminded us that this parable comes right after Jesus told His disciples about the end times in Matthew 24.  He told us what to look for, told us to be ready and to preach.  We don’t want him telling us, “I do not know you.”  If Jesus tells us what to look for and to be ready, there is no excuse to not be ready.  He could easily say, “I told you what to do, I don’t understand why you are not ready.”

How do we share?

If we are cooking a meal we buy the stuff, take it home, assemble the ingredients, prepare, cook and serve.  It is the same with sharing the Word.  We read the Word of God, put it in our hearts, getting ready by assembling the scriptures into our minds and hearts by praying, going to Bible study, going to church, and learning.  Then we take this information that we have and serve it to others, sharing the Word of God under the lead of the Holy Spirit.  It has to be under the Holy Spirit’s lead so that we say and do what is in the person’s best interests.

The DO’s.

1. Prepare Know the Bible, know the authority and the power that you have.  Be ready to go.  Know the purpose.
2. Listen Know the Holy Spirit.  Get signs, clues, feelings, and know how He speaks to you.  For Cynthia it is a gentle electric feeling or a thought in her head that lines up with the Word of God.  She has listened and obeyed the Holy Spirit enough that she recognizes His voice. When she hears a Word, she asks herself, “Is that the Holy Spirit?” Not all that we hear and feel is the Holy Spirit so we have to discern.
3. Be Patient When the time is right and God is in it then change will happen.  If God is not in it, it may not be the right time for the person.  Some people have prayed 17 or more years for a person, and God waited until the person could receive the Word. 
4. Compassion Compassion under the guidance if the Holy Spirit.  If we are too gung ho and desperate we can drive a person away, our compassion needs to wait and be appropriate.
5. Patience to take time to know about the person you are trying to reach. If the person was treated badly by church members, had bad teachers, they may not want to deal with the Biblical stuff at a particular time. You need to locate where they are and learn how to reach out to them.  If they are mad at the church you may want to reach out to them in love and build a relationship before you start telling them that they may have had a bad church but your church is great. They may not want to talk about church.  If not, share with them God’s love by your actions until the time is right.
6. Just plant a seed and then wait. Our goal is to plant the seeds, and God will water them at the right time. We do not have to push so hard.
7. Be bold if God tells you He wants you to be bold. Sometimes the person needs to hear the message and it may be hard for them to hear, but God needs them to know NOW. If God tells you to be bold, be bold.
8. Share your own story or about a close friend, tell them what God did. Sometimes people need to know personal experience and see what is possible.
9. Trust God, show people God’s love. John 15:16-17 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another. We want to exhibit God’s love and become fruit producers.  We do that by trusting God.  If we think of ourselves as vessels of His love and goodness, we won’t get the glory for ourselves.  Realize that we have all this love, and we know how good God is, so let me pour love out on you, and God gets the glory. You don’t own the person, God does. We are God’s servants.  Be humble, we are not a  neon sign bringing glory to ourselves.

Then Cynthia had some members of the group act out skits showing what we should NOT do.  She later told me that she has experienced all these things or watched people do them and saw how they did not work. These were a few of the scenarios.

1. Going up to a person at work, and going into wild shaking, rolling your eyes in your head, and telling the person that you are feeling something in the spirit, that God wants you to tell them.  It ends up scaring the person with your weirdness.  When God does this it is always in your control and you can choose to give in or not – and God would not want you doing these kinds of actions in a place that would scare a person away, not draw them closer to Him.

2. Going into work and going up to a person and telling them that God had given you a burden to pray for them because they are backslidden.  God will deliver them from the generational curses, they are washed in the blood.  Pull out your holy oil and offer to anoint them, and tell them what the Holy Spirit has declared.  While at times it is appropriate to take a person aside and find out about what is going on in their lives and help it is never appropriate to do it in an office environment where you can embarrass the person, and in a judgmental way.  There is a timing and order that comes with pointing out things to other believers.  And it has to be done under the leading of the Holy Spirit.  When God convicted us of our sins He did not go out of His way to cause us massive embarrassment in a place that is so public.

3.  You bring a friend to church and then loudly announce, “Look who I brought to church – I thought they would never be saved.”  Our you let people know that you have been praying for this person for a long time and now they are saved because of YOU.  Or if the person is having a problem you gather three or four friends around the person all touching them and praying over her because their is strength in numbers – but really the person is embarrassed, wanted to quietly have their problem dealt with and watch.  They will not come back when so much attention is brought to them before they are ready, and when their problems are so publicly announced before they are ready to deal with them publicly.

4. You got delivered from something, like smoking – and you expect that any one else who has a similar problem can be delivered in exactly the same way that you have.  You begin to get a sense of pride and being better than the other person because you were delivered and they were not.  You begin to go up to the person and criticize their habit, even though you had it for so many years and it took God a long time to get you to the point where you could get over the problem.  We are not patient and we need to listen to the Spirit.  If the motives are right, the way you approach the person may still be wrong. 

Don’ts.
1. Don’t Lord over them like the Pharisees.  Luke 18: 11-14 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
2. Don’t Condemn them. Jesus didn’t with the Woman at the Well and the Woman caught in adultery.  He was not soft on sin, He told them to go and sin no more, but He condemned the sin, not the sinner.
3. Don’t speak Christianese Most people do not understand the terminology that Christians use and some of our terms sound scary – washed in the blood, sanctified, born again, etc.
4. Don’t pray for people in a crowd. Be sensitive, bring the person to a conducive environment where their faith can be increased and where you can deal with sensitive situations in a way that does not expose private, sensitive things to others.  Cynthia shared that someone told her at a family picnic about an operation they were having in a few weeks.  Someone overheard that conversation and wondered why Cynthia didn’t call a lot of people over to pray for this person right then and there.  But Cynthia knew in her spirit that that would have done much damage to that person’s faith.  A right action of prayer in a wrong situation, not led by the Spirit, will not produce fruit.
5. Don’t be hasty trying to get people to speak in tongues. Not all tongues are a godly language, satan imitates and some tongues are demonic. If a person is not educated in the Holy Spirit, and has not had an infilling of the Holy Spirit, it is not time to encourage tongues.
In Ohio one of Cynthia’s sisters went forward for prayer to get infilled in the Holy Spirit.  The person insisted that all those who were prayed for speak in tongues – it was rather bullying and her sister was mortified, she was not given instructions, and no tongues came, and from that time on her sister stays away from tongues.  She thought those people were crazy.
6. Don’t embellish our prayers. Some people try to tell God when, how, who and why He should do what He is doing. Unless we are really led by the Holy Spirit, don’t embellish – just say what God tells you.
7. Don’t anoint with oil or cast out demons on just anybody. These are gifts that follow those who are believers and are to be used as led by the Holy Spirit – we are not to be hasty in using the gifts.  Acts 19:13-16 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcize you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. We are to cast out spirits and help others, but it has to be done under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. And the people have to be in agreement. We can do more harm than good if we are doing things out of order.

Cynthia brought in Pastor Don’s Bible Dictionary and looked up the word anointing.  Some of the things the dictionary told her was to apply oil to a person or thing. There are three kinds of anointing, ordinary, sacred, medical.  Sometimes oil is used in a person’s beauty program (toilet), or as a sign of respect. In Psalm 23 a person’s head was anointed with oil, and that could prepare a person to be king or priest, or just as a sign of respect. Anointing is used in the sacred dedication of things, the tabernacle, a stone, a person. Solomon and the kings received the Holy Spirit after being anointed with oil.  The Lord’s anointed are not to be touched. Jesus is called the Anointed One. Oil was used for medical reasons.  Cynthia read more from this dictionary.

James 5:13-15  Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

If we use oil we are imparting the blessings of God or imparting a gift we have or a healing for the sick.  Know how to use anointing oil properly. 

Then Cynthia spent time reading material from our discipleship manual on the laying on of hands. pp. 160-161 “Blessing is activated by laying on of hands, as the greater lays hands on the lesser.  i.e. Israel blesses Ephriam, Manasseh and Joseph (Genesis 48:13-20). Father to children, owner to heirs, prophet to students, etc. 
     Paul demonstrated transference (impartation) through the laying on of hands; he imparts to the disciples the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:6) Jesus demonstrated transference of healing power when he touched the Leper and he was healed (Luke 5:13) and when Jesus took Jairus’ daughter by the hand (Luke 8: 54,55).
     Demons are alien entities that are disembodied spirits, and they take many forms…Be careful who and what you touch! The Body of Christ would do well to note that there are no examples of Jesus driving out demons by laying on of hands; this He did only by command. I have learned that demons can and do transfer themselves and illnesses through laying on of hands. Unclean people will come up in the prayer line with a demon whose goal is to transfer, cause disruption, and contaminate as much and as often as possible.
     1 Timothy 5:22 tells us “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands…” This has a four-fold meaning – You should not quickly lay hands on others or let others lay hands on you…The laws of transference should not be overridden due to enthusiasm or the heat of the moment. We should be doing what the Holy Spirit wants done as He leads. So, think and pray before you touch anyone for a spiritual purpose.  Be sure you are being led by the spirit. 

Stay prayed up. Know the Word. Our Spirit will help us stay in God’s will, and will get stronger.  He will guide us what to do and not do.  We need to make sure our swords are sharpened.

Then Cynthia handed out a FAQ sheet of questions we may receive from nonbelievers and possible answers.

Q: Why does God do bad things?
A: He doesn’t. “Let no one say…’I am tempted by God’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.” James 1:13 …God is light and in Him is no darkness at all 1 John 1:5. God gave man dominion over the earth  (Gen. 1:26) Man relinquished authority to satan (Gen. 3) so that satan now has power on earth (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4, Eph 6:12) But God in His goodness sent His son to restore man through the authority of Christ (John 3:16, Matt 28:18, Luke 9:1)

Q: My life is good. Why do I need God/church?
A: 1) Prepared when bad things happen.
    2)A basic human need for God. All cultures/civilizations search for higher power.
    3) Eternal life. You will be judged.
    4) Life is BETTER when God is in it.

Q: I prayed and it didn’t work so why should I believe?
A: Prayed without faith (James 1:6; Mark 11:23-24; Romans 4:20) or prayed opposite the will of others.

Q: I don’t have time.
A: At least work on a relationship with God. Pray; read the Bible.

Q: Church people are hypocrites.
A: Church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints; at least they’re in the right place –trying to improve/get fixed. If you’re not a hypocrite, you can balance things out. Try it and see if your life isn’t better.

Q: How do you know you are going to Heaven when you die?
A: God wants everyone to be saved from evil (2 Peter 3:9, Acts 10:30). When Jesus left earth, he made provision for us in Heaven (John 14:2) You have only to declare that Jesus is Lord, confess and repent from sin/evil and call on the Lord to be saved (Romans 10:9 & 13)

We closed with the following verse that we read together:

Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:  “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Hoping your day is blessed!

Heather

This study is from 11/21 – a Friday Luncheon Bible study.  Those are so much fun for it is a round table discussion and people bring up so many good points. 

We are still in Hebrews. Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

This verse speaks for itself.  This verse is not fun for people.  It helps us to better understand why God does and does not do certain things.  God is sovereign, and wants faith, not wishing and hoping – although wishing and hoping can bring us to faith.

God does not have to answer your prayer just because you pray it if it is against His Sovereign will.  For example He will not give a drug dealer a new car so that he can better do his drug business. We are supposed to line up with God’s will.

Jesus looked for a sign.  God will not perform for the unsaved, because most likely they will not believe it even if God did, they would rationalize the miracles away.  There is one exception – during an evangelistic meeting.  God and God  alone knows what will move and motivate an unsaved person.  God knows what will reach God’s unsaved.  God knows the correct moment and time.

We want to pray, “Lord give me wisdom and understanding so I can pray for this person.”

Pastor Don talked about the drummer that was in his band years ago.  Pastor Don tried every way he could think to reach the drummer for the Lord – leaving out tracts, speaking, sharing his testimony, etc.  But the drummer did not respond.  One day Pastor Don was reading a book on end time prophesy and the drummer saw that.  He borrowed the book and the next day told Pastor Don that he had accepted Jesus into his life – it was reading the book that convinced the drummer.

We must believe GOD EXISTS.  God gives us all a measure of faith, and those who do not know God can still find God as Romans 1 tells us through the glory of creation.  Those who do not believe in creation, who believe that things happened by accident, need a whole lot more faith to believe that than a person who believes God created the universe.

One of our members is Greek and brings her Greek Bible.  Sometimes she takes a word and gives us a translation, and she told us that God is a rewarder – a rewarder gives the check for the day’s work, the pay maker.  We receive His favor.  We have a right to this reward once we diligently search for him.  Diligently seeking God is your work, your job. 

Pastor Don suggested reading Josh McDowell Evidence that Demands a Verdict - CS Lewis, and Lee Stoebel to help you understand the truth of God. 

If we diligently seek to prove or disprove His existence, God will answer us.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Noah.  Divinely warned of things not yet seen, which ties us back to Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Noah did the actions of building the ark as a result of what he believed.  Up to that time it never rained on the earth, the ozone layer was thick.  Radiation was blocked by that layer and retained the moisture in the earth.  The earth was like a terrarium.  God spoke to Noah about rain and a flood. 

We started talking about dinosaurs and how the plants in these conditions grew large – the T-rex with it’s inch deep rooted teeth was not a carnivore but a plant eater.  A carnivore’s teeth roots would have had to been embedded in the jaw much deeper than an inch.  And the T-rex’s stomach was found with seeds and plants. 

Noah is called heir of righteousness.  Did that mean he did nothing wrong? No.  He was heir of righteousness according to faith.  He BELIEVED GOD.

Genesis 4:26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.  Pastor Don told us that men began to call on the name of the Lord here.  Before that God came and walked with Adam and Eve, then sin entered the world and there was a need for God to separate himself to protect mankind.

Pastor Don shared a great secret in Chapter 5 with the genealogy of Adam.

ADAM -mankind
SETH – appointed, to turn the face toward
ENOSH – a mortal, grievous sorrow, calamity
CAINAN -lament, mourn
MAHALALEL – god who is praised
JARED – comes down
ENOCH – to instruct, to consecrate
METHUSELAH – to die, to be sent forth as a prophet
LAMECH – to be smitten, scourged
NOAH – to give rest.

(if you read the meanings from Adam to Noah you have the salvation given to us by Jesus presented in the genealogy of Adam to Noah – God had it so much in His control, now read a bit further by the following three names’ meanings.”

SHEM – renown
HAM – burning
JAPETH – widespread, world-wide

This is the spread of the Gospel, the renown of Jesus causes a burning in the hearts of men and the Gospel is spread world-wide.

Genesis 6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Why did Noah have favor? 

Genesis 6:9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.

His genealogy gave him favor.  Noah’s genealogy was a just man not having a lineage that includes mating with fallen angels.  When it says that Noah was a just man it does not mean that he was perfect, sinless.  Compared to others on the earth his genealogy was perfect.  He is a direct descendant from Adam.

Genesis 6:1-3  Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

Pastor Don asked us how many times 50 (Jubilee) can be divided into 6,000 and it turns out to be 120 times.  There will be 120 Jubilees to complete all the years of Jubilee to the end of the age. God limited the age of man on earth to 120 years – before that they lived 600-900 years – but since Adam no one lived 1000 years (one day) for God told Adam that in the DAY that you eat the fruit you will die.  Adam and Eve did not live to 1000 years (1000 years is as a day).  But because of the increasing sin on earth, God began to limit even more the time man could live on earth.

Genesis 6:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

This is the ungodly offspring of the unholy mating of fallen angels and man – the Nephalim.  Goliath and his four brothers were part of this.  As are the myths of the various gods of paganism which fall into this category of Nephalim.

Pastor Don pointed out that God did many of the things He did according to the Jubilee – to 50.  The years of captivity of Israel in Babylon was due to the number of Jubilees that the Israelites did not celebrate. The Israelites on the 50th year were to free their slaves and return the land to the original owners, but they did not celebrate the Jubilee as God intended. It is for this reason that they went into captivity.

Pastor Don then talked about the current Jewish calendar pointing out that there were missing years – 200 to 240 missing years.  So right now if you added 200 years to the calendar 5769 you would have 5969 which would make us 31 years from the 6000th year.  or 31-7 (tribulation years) = 24 .   Or 24 years or so away from tribulation.

We do not know for certain the times.  According to Pastor Don there were times when the Jews did not count the years – they did not count years in captivity.  It is hard to be exactly sure of the date.

Then Pastor Don told us that in 2014 and 2015 (our time) that all the eclipses fall on Jewish holidays.  The Mayans say that the end of time is 2012.  Our Greco Roman calendar is off 4 years – for Jesus was about 4 years old at year “0″.  If the calendar is adjusted it then fits the recorded time of the death of Herod.

God tells us that we need to know the season – it is not by years and dates.  We are to watch the signs of the times. 

In Hebrews we see that God lifted up Noah, and Noah’s fruit (children) with him.

Genesis 6:5-7 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Godly fear. Notice that the intent of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.  But Noah had Godly fear.  Noah’s faith brought condemnation on the world.  Your personal walk matters to God.  Something about the way He lived brought the favor of God.  By listening to and obeying God, Noah became heir of righteousness according to faith.  Noah’s behavior was not righteous in his behavior, he sinned – he was righteous because he BELIEVED God.

Genesis 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.

God delivered Noah and his family from the flood. 

Chapter 9:16-17 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

God gave man a sign of His Covenant, the rainbow. That God would not destroy the earth by FLOOD again.

Genesis 9:18-19 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated

The whole of earth’s population comes from the sons of Noah – and this has been proved by genome studies.

Noah’s sin is one of self-control.

Genesis 9:20-21 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.

Noah planted a vineyard, drank and got drunk and naked.

Genesis 9:22-29 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said:  “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.” And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.  So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

Noah died at 950 years, had to die before 1000 years.  Pastor Don pointed out that alcohol can open a gateway for the devil to operate.  The problem is not drinking but drunkenness.  When Noah got drunk he acted in an improper manner.

When Ham spread the news of his father’s nakedness, Noah was aware of it.  He knew what his son did.  Yet the punishment was put on Ham’s sons, Noah’s grandson.  The sins of the father are visited on the children.

Pastor Don told us we would understand that when we become parents.  For we see our sins being copied by our children.

Noah was not righteous by his behavior, but because he was a man of faith.  Noah spoke what God said into existence and believed it. 

Pastor Don talked a bit about the Arabs in Canaan land. He pointed out that even though the oil in the land has made many people wealthy there, there is still tremendous poverty – that the riches of the land do them no good.  He reminded us of when we went to Jordan how the land was covered with garbage – we saw a field covered with plastic grocery store bags, and tons of litter.  They did not take care of their land.  Pastor Don also reminded us how we had an armed guard on our bus – not to control us but to protect us from the the people, for their poverty could have caused them to endanger our lives. 

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Noah was heir to righteousness by his faith.  He did not doubt God, obeyed God and carried out God’s plan. 

We are faced with a choice: BELIEVE GOD OR DON’T BELIEVE GOD.

Hoping your day is blessed.

Heather

Part one is here.

2 Corinthians 5:3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

Stay humble, we are not all that.  We will be exposed.  We are responsible for what we design in our heads and for our wrong thoughts.  We are responsible for what comes out of our mouths.  The devil can put thoughts into our minds, but we do not have to entertain them.  A computer has a delete button.  We need to delete these thoughts.  Take our thoughts captive to Christ.  Make them obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

When rebellious thoughts get into our head, we need to take them captive, begin to think the way Jesus showed us to think.  Wrong thinking can bring us back into our old ways of dealing with situations.  If we don’t protect our minds, our inner physical spirit can come up and we can feel insecurity, fear, and lose control over our thoughts.  Our spirit (physical spirit) can be put under obedience to Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

It is a mystery (mortality swallowed up by life).  Life is life, not the physical. We want the physical to begin to look more like the spiritual.

2 Corinthians 5:5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

We were given the Spirit as a guarantee.  Pastor Don gave us an example.  One day he was driving and his tire was flat, he took his wife’s car.  They were going to get the tires replaced and Pastor Don knew that that bill would be $400-$500.  But they had bought their tires at Mavis. The man checked the computer and found out that Pastor Don did not have a guarantee, but his wife did. Because his wife had a guarantee and he was her husband, he got a brand new tire that cost nothing to replace the flat one.

We have to know that we have a guarantee from God, and act like we have that guarantee. What is the guarantee?  No matter how messed up we are in our mind, will, spirit, if we yield to the Cross, lay our life on the Cross, we are not righteous, but the Holy Spirit guarantees that we have life everlasting.  We can run, fall, fail, get back up, and know that we still have the guarantee of eternal life.

The problem for the Body of Christ is:  do we believe it or not?  Do we believe it as we face our every day struggles?  We can face them more powerful, greater, stronger, when we believe God.  Yes, we may have to struggle with the flesh until Jesus cracks the sky.  We can win in the Spirit every day.  We have a guarantee, an assurance that God has said the truth.

Now we could go to another tire place, but we would not have the guarantee there.  The other tire place would cost us something. When we go to the wrong place for our guarantee we stay sick longer, stay poor longer.  We may not know that we have a guarantee.  We need to change our life if we know who we are in Christ.  We bring our minds under control and obedient to Christ.

Here is the key to the whole thing.

2 Corinthians 5:5-7 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.

God gives us the Spirit as a guarantee.  When we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord.  The Spirit is with us.  Our hope in our Spirit body is greater than our hope in the physical body, but we do not act that way. 

When we sincerely praise God we are never depressed. Depression lifts when we praise God. Praise makes our faith come alive and we feel good.  Things can be as bad as they possibly can get, but Heaven is still a happy thought.  Thinking about God and Heaven makes the depressed person feel better. When we remember Christ’s great love for us that He would sacrifice Himself for us on the cross we feel better.   I need to get my eyes off of me and onto Jesus, then I will feel lifted up.

Remind ourselves that the Lord loves us.  When we have an annoying person in our lives think of them as a Child of God and they are not quite as annoying.  It can help us to be more patient.  We also need more patience with the unsaved, for they don’t know any better.

Pastor Don told us that sometimes when he wakes up and doesn’t feel so good or is emotionally down, he walks outside and looks at the clouds and stars and that helps him to put things back into perspective.

Since it is true that the Spirit has been guaranteed to us, and is inside of us, we know what our Spirit man looks like no matter what the physical circumstances looks like.  When our physical life is facing difficulties we can keep our eye on the prize.

Romans 8:14-25   For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 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.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

We have a super service contract paid in full by Christ and it pays dividends to us.  But we don’t want to fall into self-righteousness.  We can’t earn this.  But we do the job that God wants us to do from gratitude.  The jobs we do are based on relationship with the one who hired us, not because of our job. We are not responsible to carry the weight of it all, just show up and obey.

2 Corinthians 5:7-8  For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When we die we know that our physical dies, but our spirit immediately occupies our Spirit body, present with the Lord. The reality of the Spirit is greater.  Our moments with God, visitations, praise and worship, is when our physical is present with the Lord here on earth, gives us glimpses of what our spirit will experience.  When the Glory of the Lord falls, it is weighty, heavy. 

Some of us are so spiritually minded we are no earthly good.  We think that the Spirit is beyond what we can think, but it isn’t .  We do have snippets of information about the Spirit.  We see glimpses that keep us going until we too gain our resurrection and get a Spiritual body. 

FAITH IS THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMES THE WORLD. It is the blessed hope.  And it keeps us doing Kingdom work and helps us to deal with the persecution that comes from that.

This was a powerful Bible study for me.  I love the illustrations and the examples that help to clarify passages for me. To be honest it is a good reminder and I am glad I typed this today to remind me of these truths.  I am having to spend more time in praise and worship today, to combat some negative emotions.  Bible studies are important for they give us tools to work with if we will apply them to our lives.

Praying your day is blessed.

Heather

We went over this chapter in detail on one of our Thursday Discipleship studies. 

2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

It is important to know who and what we are.  We are not only physical bodies, but also spiritual.  Our Physical Body has a soul, heart, spirit and we have a celestial body (spirit).  When we die we will be able to recognize people on the other side.  We will have a spiritual body.

Our Spirit has a body.  God is a spirit and God has a body – the Bible tells us that God SITS on a throne, it mention’s God’s FEET, God’s HANDS, and God’s BACKSIDE.  We are made in the image of God. Thus we will have a Spirit body just like God. 

Pastor Don told us that scientists have found out that when a person dies they lose 2 pounds 2 ounces – that is the weight of a spirit body – the Spirit has weight. Spirits can be seen and be seen through.  They are not bound by time and space.  They can travel great distances in a short amount of time.

Man was given a physical body – and God breathed in man and the Bible tells us man became a LIVING SOUL.  The Spirit in the body and the body becomes a living soul.  We have a mind – but there is no life in our mind once the spirit leaves, life leaves with it.

The dead in CHRIST shall rise – that is called the blessed hope.  Christ returns prior to the second coming – he returns in the clouds, and will remove the church from the earth (the rapture).  Scripture does not tell us exactly when.  When we are raptured we will be spending 7 years at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.  A Hebrew wedding lasts 7 days, and that is a party time for the bride and groom.  So we will be spending 7 years at our wedding feast.  Paul, Daniel and Jesus and John have scriptures that refer to the rapture – but it’s a mystery.

We will not be on the earth when God pours out His wrath.  God never pours out His wrath on the righteous.  When the rapture occurs the earth will be changed for there will be nothing left to hold satan and his minions in abeyance.  The world will be turned over to the god of the world – satan.  There are Old Testament pictures of the rapture – Enoch who walked with God and was no more, and Elijah.  After Jesus died  He was resurrected, He got raptured from the condition of the sins of the world.  Jesus descended into hades, and God raptured Jesus out of hell so he would not suffer for our sins.  When Sodom and Gomorrah was to be destroyed the angels took out Lot and his family.  Noah and the Ark preserved Noah and his family. 

The Bible tells us that the dead in Christ will rise first, then we will meet Christ in the air. We will not be raptured and stay on Earth.  God removes us from it. 

In essence Christ comes three times – once as Suffering Savior, once in the Clouds to take the dead in Christ and rapture the believers, and during the Day of Tribulation at the end when He sets foot on Mount Zion.

It is important to know that the soul and spirit are not interchangeable – there is a difference between spirit and soul.  The Bible talks about dividing spirit and soul.  There is also a difference between divine protection and divine removal. Jesus gave the criterion.

He talks about the 10 virgins – the 10 were ALL virgins (all saved).  Five will be taken into the wedding feast and five will remain on earth.  They were all believers, they were all not righteous, but five had faith enough to prepare and wait with anticipation.  The wise were waiting with anticipation and had brought extra oil.  The foolish had no oil.  Notice that ALL were asleep but the foolish were not prepared.  We want to be like the wise virgins, waiting for the rapture with preparation.

Some think that it would be interesting to stay on the planet during these seven years, but the truth is that the time on earth will be rough when the seals, trumpet and bowl judgements of Revelation are occurring.  When the antichrist becomes prominent because the church is not there to hold him back, the life for believers will be miserable.  None of us will know how we would plea if we are placed before a firing squad or guillotine, and told to renounce Christ or die.  

Pastor Don then talked a bit about the traditions of a Jewish wedding, for what a believer should do while waiting for the rapture.  The bride would be preparing her wardrobe and household things, and watching and waiting for the groom to come and get her. 

The groom has made a deal for the bride and has made a covenant for his bride. The groom negotiates the dowry, and then the families sit at a table to share a meal.  The groom tells the bride that he will work for her, die for her, build a house, etc. The bride and groom will share a cup (symbol of the blood covenant) and bread (the body, provision), and if the bride drinks from the cup then she has accepted the covenant, if she turns the cup upside down spilling it out she rejects the covenant.  At the Last Supper Judas did not take communion with the disciples, he rejected the covenant. Once she has accepted the covenant she is considered “married” and then waits for the groom to come and get her.  The groom in the mean time is to go and prepare a house for the bride – often an addition to his parent’s house. 

John 14:2-3 (Jesus speaking)  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also

Jesus goes away, no one knows when He will come, but they know by faith that He will come. In the Jewish wedding the groom prepares the place for his bride (just as Jesus prepares a place for us).   Jesus did not even know the time.  For in the Jewish wedding traditions the father looks over the work and when the father decides that the dwelling is ready to receive the bride, the father tells the son to go and get his bride.  God will tell Jesus to go and get His bride as well.

A cry goes out at MIDNIGHT, at the time of darkness.  In the Jewish tradition days begin at sundown.  When the father tells the groom to come, the groom and his friends come with a SHOUT, to get the bride for the wedding.  That is why the bride has to be constantly ready, waiting for the groom.

The body of Christ has heard the voice of the prophets, pastors, teachers, speaking about what will happen in the end days.  Are we preparing ourselves for His coming?  Are we preparing ourselves as HIS bride.  We need clean, white, linen garments (we cannot get those on our own, but only through Jesus).  We want to place ourselves in a position of righteousness.   This kind of righteousness is only strictly according to the Gospel, it cannot be bought or earned.  We do though, because we love Christ, give to the poor, needy, do His work on earth not to earn our way to Heaven, although when we do do good works we do build treasures in Heaven. 

Elder women teach the younger women how to please their husbands.  We too need to learn from our teachers the things that bless God. As believers we want to enlarge our tents for the wedding – we want not only family, friends, but also the lost and unsaved to be brought to the wedding.  Help our unsaved ones know that there is a better life available to them than what they are living.  We are now friends of the bride. 

As with the 10 virgins, only five were ready.  At the first trump, it will anounce the Wrath of God.  The last trump will anounce the culmination of the wrath and judgement.

Then Pastor Don gave us an illustration about the Body, Soul and Spirit.  He had six volunteers come forward and form two lines.

Line 1 – Physical  was in this order BODY – SOUL – SPIRIT

Line 2 – Spirit  was in this order  SPIRIT – SOUL – INCORRUPTIBLE SPIRIT BODY.

In the Physical the fleshly body has a Soul (mind, will, emotions) and a spirit man – this is not the Holy Spirit.  If the physical dies the only thing that would come out of this line would be the spirit. When our spirit comes out at death it goes into our spirit (in line 2). Our spirit also has a soul (mind, will, emotions) and our spirit at the coming of Christ will receive an incorruptible spirit body (which will act much the same way as Jesus’ body acted after His resurrection).

Do we have emotion in heaven?  Yes, the Bible tells us there will be tears in heaven.  The Bible also tells us that the Holy Spirit can be grieved.  When the rapture occurs our corrupt bodies will be changed into an incorruptable spirit body, a resurrection body.

When we become changed, we shall be like Him.  Paul talks in Romans 7 about the struggle in the physical to be like Jesus. Romans 7:24-25 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Paul talks about how he wants to do right, but something inside his flesh causes him to choose to do wrong.  Who is fighting with who when you make a wrong decision? Paul talks about how he dies daily, killing the physical to get a new spirit, the blessed hope.  We are seeking to let the Holy Spirit help us to be more controlled by our Spirit than by our flesh.

Pastor Don told us that a 7 year old is at a purest age, that their decisions are not calculating.  At some point past the age of seven we begin to come to what is called the age of accountability, where we begin to lose that playful, imagination, and not being really mean, and begin to transition into a place where we actively choose to do either good or evil. Before the age of accountability the law did not affect us – but once we knew the law, then we died for sin came into our world. 

Romans 7:9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

In another Bible study Pastor Don said that before a speed limit sign is put on a road you can go any speed you want and not break the law.  Once there is a speed limit sign on the road and you go faster, then you are breaking the law.  Before the sign we were alive without the law.  Once the sign is put up then we are under the law.

2 Corinthians 5:1-2 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

Our earthly spirit longs to be clothed in the heavenly spirit – and the incorruptible spirit body.

Once a believer is born again he becomes aware of the wretchedness of his soul man, and we groan.  As we grow closer to Christ we begin to be aware of our sinful nature – and groan.

Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord, and said Isaiah 6:5 So I said:  “Woe is me, for I am undone!  Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

We need a resurrected Body, to be able to see God, our physical body could not survive in God’s presence.

Pastor Don continued the study, but I will include that in the next entry. 

Hoping your day is blessed.

Heather

 Below is the video of Pastor Don’s sixth sermon on faith, suffering faith. (Please skip forward to about 2 minutes into the tape so you miss the sound check part).   This one touched my heart for I walked out what he is talking about.  Below the video is the transcript if you want to read it.  Remember it is the closed captioning transcript.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says, and three periods … means a pause.  I keep it pretty much the same as what Pastor Don says.  Hoping this blesses you.

Heather

Say Amen
Show 111
12/07/08
Faith that works Part 6 – Suffering Faith

I mean, you want to move to the place where you have righteousness that would permit you to stand before God.  Talk to Him face to face.  Unsoiled righteousness.  Do we naturally have that?  No we don’t.  Most of us think we’re pretty good.  We think we’re pretty good.  And how do we get pretty good?  We compare ourselves to other people that are worse than us.  [laughter]  Which immediately means that we’re already worse than the people we were comparing ourselves to.  [amen]  Come on, say amen like [amen]  Don’t act like I’m not, you know, talking to a mirror here. 

When we come to the place where we’ve suffered a long time, and it gets hard, it should drive us to repentance.  Deeper repentance.  And in that place of deeper repentance what we’re desiring is to recognize the reality that even our good acts are as filthy rags before the Lord.  [amen]  And we want to remove ourselves from all aspects of doubt and unbelief by coming into repentance so that God counts us as righteous, but unsoiled righteousness.

Unsoiled righteousness is that righteousness that is pure, that is totally from the heart of God, where you are walking in the holiness of the Word.  Soiled righteousness is you know you’ve gone out and done things on purpose, and the dirt of that remains.  And you are repenting to remove that.  But moving to unsoiled righteousness, you have walked in the truth, you’ve walked in the light, and yet you still know… you have missed the mark.  [amen, amen]  This is deep stuff but you didn’t come for shallow drinking water did you, huh? 

When we are really deeply suffering, it causes us to move to deeper repentance.  Repentance that is so deep that we turn over the things we’ve tried to shut down.  And we turn over the things we’re lying about … That’s pride, that self-righteousness, that pointing of the finger that says, hey I’m not so bad.  Look at so and so and look at so and so.  That comes from pride and that is filthy rags.  When you start lifting up yourself, you tend to forget what you used to be… And the filth of yesterday can still be in the washing machine.  [yeah]  Come on ladies, you know what I’m talking about.  You wash the clothes, and then to your surprise you lift up the thing, you look in there, there’s still some lint from those clothes, there’s a paperclip, there’s some pennies, there’s some other stuff in there, and then you go through the next rinse cycle, you have to pull out that little thing, and you have to go to the, what do you call it?  The dryer, and you pull that lint thing out, and you go, “oh, that was all still in there.”  How many of you have ever had to wash clothes more than once?  Hello.  Huh? 

I was doing some construction and the sweatshirt and whatever, my wife washed it and I got in it the next day, and I still could feel the fiberglass insulation itching on me.  And I said, what?  This has to go through the cycle, wash cycle a what?  [again] I’ve got to put it through there again. 

So when we want to get to unsoiled righteousness, there’s some stuff that we have to pull back up.  We have to take a look at it and we have to say, “Huh, I’m not all that.”  [amen]  “You know, for the last two years I’ve been doing good.  I’ve been making it to church.  You know, I’m helping people.  I’m doing all of this wonderful stuff.”  But then you remember some of them hotel rooms you were in, doing some of the stuff that you did…. You remember some of the things that you said about your immediate family and you said about strangers.  You begin to remember how you were when you first got saved and how you judged everybody.  You begin to remember how you called everybody a hypocrite, and you didn’t even have it together yet.  You begin going back to those soiled moments that drag into the present. 

Now, how do you know that?  Sometimes you know it by your children… Because your children begin to reflect to you as they grow, the error of your ways.  [yes they do]  Just give an example.  Before a wife learns to control her mouth, before she comes into the reality that she has to learn to control the way that she speaks to her husband, her daughter has listened to her speak inappropriately for four years…  So by age seven, her daughter is beginning to speak to them the way that she learned from that.  That’s soil, in the righteousness.   That’s going to have to be dealt with… You know.  I know that those people aren’t here today, but all of a sudden, [laughter] you have to begin to realize.  I can remember before I cleaned up my mouth, I heard my oldest boy use a four letter word.  And I looked at him and I said, “Where did you get that?”  And then I said, “Don’t tell me.”  [laughter]  Cause why?  Cause I realized he probably heard me say that.  Or he heard my wife say it.  But in any case, that’s why.  That’s soiled unrighteousness that’s coming back. 

That has to be dealt with when we get into a place where we’re suffering.  Our prayers are not being answered.  And things are not going the way that we think.  We want to do instant repentance, but it’s required that we go deeper and we repent, and we begin to take the blame that some of the things that we thought were instantly taken care of obviously are still lingering around.  Still binding up our blessing.  Still holding back our benefits and our prosperity.  Still working against us.  Because why?  We haven’t dealt with it. 

Absalom, David, King David, wonderful, the Bible says, a man after God’s own heart… But he didn’t discipline his children.  And not only that, he hadn’t fully dealt with his sin…If you read the scripture, this guy was married to I think 100 women or more.  King David, David’s son, Solomon, married over 1400 women.  Had 1400 wives and concubines.  That was the sins of the father being visited on the child.  So what we have to do is, David in his righteousness reaches a sorrowful point with Bathsheba, but he doesn’t change his modus operandi of his sexual life, and he is righteous.  And he’s walking in his righteousness, but what happens?  Sin comes into his home through his children, and it is the exact same sin of which he was guilty of… Touching the unclean thing, using his power and his position to get what he wants, and that’s what’s in his house, and that’s what manifests.  So now he is brought into more suffering… come on somebody, I’m trying to help you now.  I’m trying to help me. 

We have to realize that there are places of deep sorrow, that when we’re in a situation and we’re going Lord, don’t you see I’m suffering here?  Lord, can’t you see what my kids are doing to me?  Can’t you see what my neighbors are?  Can’t you see what I’m still, Lord, I’m suffering.  And then we go, yeah, but I’m righteous Lord.  I cleaned up my act five years ago.  Well yeah you did, but you didn’t clean up the garbage you left on the porch ten years ago… And you didn’t apply your faith to it.  We have to apply our suffering faith to know what was cleansed and what was not cleansed. And be prepared to face the fact that there’s still some stuff that you made a mess of, that’s just not coming out in the wash…

You know, brother Russell, [Is that our generational curses?]  Exactly.  Takes on a different form, so I’m not addressing it specifically as a generational curse, cause there’s a different aspect to that.  A generational curse is something that God permits to happen to you because why?  Of your disobedience.  He permits it to happen because of your disobedience.  What I’m talking about happens to you because you are on the enemy’s hit list, in addition to, there’s generational stuff that you’ve passed down.  See, some of our suffering not only comes to us because of generational curses and I’m going to talk about that a little bit today, but some of it comes to us because we didn’t clean out the closet. 

I had a lady who was a high priestess.  She was over like five covens.  And she came to church and wanted to know the Lord.  So I brought her to the altar and did all the casting out and all the stuff that we did.  And then I told her now you’ve got to clean house…And so she left my presence, and went and whatever, whatever, and then she called me back and she said, “Listen, I’m having a hard time with that clean house thing.”  And she said, “I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the books of casting spells, and demonology and all of that.” So she says, “I’m having a hard time throwing that out.”  I said, “Well let me help you.”  [laughter]  I say, “You start packing that stuff up and bringing it here.”  To my surprise, it took me weeks to burn all her books.  [oh wow]  Weeks.  They turned strange colors, you know.  I don’t want to get you scared or anything, but there were demon spirits in that stuff, and it was turning weird colors, and some of them would scream.  You’d hear a cry “ooowwwaaah” and it wasn’t plastic.  You know, it wasn’t, you know, it was the demons fighting to hold on.  I’ve seen that with dream catchers.  Some of you driving around in cars with dream catchers, catching all the wrong stuff.  [laughter]  You know what, you better commit those dream catchers to the flame.  Moving right along.  How you all doing today?  [laughter]  Uh huh, ok.  You have to, sometimes you have to clean house.  [amen] 

So after she’d been through bags and bags of that stuff, and then all of a sudden, as she moved through bags and bags of that stuff she starts getting a revelation of the Father’s love.  Lord have mercy!  And then, right here in this altar she said, one day she just said, I just can’t get that final breakthrough.  I said, then there’s something else in your house.  You know, and she thought about it, and then what?  The Holy Spirit revealed to her the hidden places, the hidden places in the attics and the closet where she had hid this stuff…You know.  So she dealt with that, she’s one of the finest teachers of the Word now.  Powerful saint of God.  [praise God] 

I had a brother who wanted his marriage to work.  I said, well let’s talk about that.  He’d walk in.  How are you doing now?  “Oh, fine, now.”  You’re not on the computer?  “No, not on the computer. No” How about the magazines?  And I was just speaking casually.  I said, “How about those magazines in the attic?”… He said, “I’ve got to get rid of them too?”  [laughter]  And I said yeah.  I said, do you want your son to find those?  What do you want?  Do you want to pass that on to your children?  Or do you want your wife to find it and realize you’re still bound?  What do you want to do?  [uh oh] 

I’m talking, unsoiled righteousness.  Which means we go dig it all up, we get rid of all of it.  Unsoiled righteousness.  I’m talking about we address the reality that many of us are still walking around with hate and bitterness in our heart towards friends and family and relatives.  And I’m talking about you want to stop suffering?  You want your suffering to stop?  Then you’re going to have to deal with all the people you have in bondage.  Prideful bondage on a root of bitterness.  And that root of bitterness runs so deep that when you discuss it, or you talk about it, you go, “No, I’m not mad at anybody.  I’m ok.  I’m good, I’m good, I’m good to go.”  But the reality is you you are not good to go.  There’s somebody in that closet that you need to cut the chains and set them free.  [amen]  Hello? 

I like it when I minister words like this that you all just say amen and hallelujah, just spontaneously so that, you know, you know what I mean, so that there’s a sense of not guilty.  [laughter]  Glory, hallelujah.  You see, all of us have stuff that we, you know, we have stuff that we’ve just buried and put in places that are convenient for us, but yet they still are there.  Amen?  And what we have to recognize is that that transmits.  That is still what is communicated to our children.  The bitter words that we have said about Aunt Sophie in the presence of a two, three year old, still have a picture in the mind of that child about something.  It shows some hatred.  They saw you in a position of hatred against someone.  They hold that picture.  You know, it’s like having a four year old watch a mother commit adultery or fornication.  It puts a mental picture in their mind, you know.  And then root of bitterness can spring up out of that. 

And you can hold onto some stuff that you need to let go.  You know what I mean?  Every now and then I just check and I say to my wife, “You mad at me?”  And she says, “What?”  Looks at me weird.  “Well are you mad at me?”  I’m just checking to make sure she’s not holding anything against me anymore, or ever.  I’m just like, are we good here?  Are we good to go here?  Come on, right?  Cause why?  We still have a church to minister to.  We have people to minister to.  There cannot be a root of bitterness between me and her on any issue.  There can’t be anything she’s holding against me privately.  Got to all get it out.  All the time.  Or else what?  We will end up suffering.  Suffering. 

You know, to reconcile, the word reconcile is an amazing word.  But when you look at the word reconcile, it means let us get of right mind.  It doesn’t mean that we have to get back the way we were before.  When it says, husbands be reconciled to your wife, it doesn’t mean that if you’re divorced and everybody’s remarried and you’ve moved down the road, it doesn’t mean that you now divorce all of that and then get remarried to get reconciled.  No.  It means we get on the same page, that this is where we are.  We accept the fact that I’ve forgiven you, you’ve forgiven me, and we are reconciled.  We are, as the Apostle Paul put it, he says, “Let everything come to peace.”  Let us get into a position of peace. 

And you cannot get there without bringing it up, let’s face it, let’s look at it, and say to somebody, “You know, I’ve been mad at you for 20 years.  Remember when you didn’t invite me to the baby shower?  I’ve been mad, I’ve been mad about that for 20 years.”  I know some of you want to laugh and all like that, but those are the things that hold people, hold people in suffering.  They’re in suffering faith.   They’re believing God for for good things but there’s something buried in the sand that is still holding their ankles and preventing the blessing of God to come full blown.  Alright? 

There’s some repentance that has to be done over family curses.  There’s stuff that has run in your family.  Some of us grew up in dysfunctional families.  I’m just touching on this real quick.  And what we don’t realize is that we are the way that we are because we were raised by a dysfunctional parent… So until that is dealt with, you’re not going to be able to examine the way that you’re raising the next generation to realize you’re passing on that dysfunctionality to the next generation.  And until you repent of that, until you repent of what you’re doing, and what you did do, you know, fphew, it’s going to still be there. 

You know, I mean it’s worse than having a seventeen year old son in your face in rebellion, and in anger.  Well, you’re going to suffer until you, what?  Until you realize, YO, you helped create that.  That’s your Frankenstein when you were unsaved and soiled, that’s the way you were.  You came through that and just passed it on.  Sexual sins the same way.  You know, bad finances and all the same way. 

So because you got saved last week, came to the altar and repented, it doesn’t mean that you had deep repentance, all the way to all of that.  That’s why it says in Heaven, that people will be crying.  There will be tears in heaven.  Then it says, Jesus will then wipe away all of our tears.  The Father will.  Well why will Jesus and the Father wipe away all of our tears?  Why should anyone be in Heaven crying?  They will be sorrowful for the things that contained them in suffering all the way to glory.  They’ll get to glory, and God will then finally have to say, “Look at that.  Look at that.  Look at that.  Alright, now, let’s repent.”  And then whoall, there’ll be tears.  And He says,  praise God, the scripture’s good.  It says, “He’ll turn those tears into tears of joy.”  [amen]  You know, He’ll give us beauty for ashes.  He’ll give us joy for sorrow. 

Well, we can attain that now.  [amen]  I said, we can attain that now.  [amen]  We can attain that now.  [amen]  There’s some diseases in our families that have come through the DNA and through the generational curses that can still cause us to suffer and we need to kill them bad boys.  [amen]  … I sincerely believe there is no disease that comes through the bloodline that cannot be changed or defeated by what?  Proper repentance that brings to a releasing of bondage.  The devil has no right.  He has no right for you to accept any level of infirmity.  God can change anything.  I said, God can change anything.  [amen]  God can change what?  [anything]  Anything.  Anything.  Alright? 

So, in Isaiah, in Chapter 58 it gives us some clues on how deep we need to go in this mode of repentance.  And he’s looking at living, he’s talking about fasting.  But you know, Brother Hagin used to say it.  We need to live a fasted life… We need to live a fasted life.  In Isaiah 58, He says, “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet.  Tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.  Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways…”  So he’s talking about saved people in essence.  People that want to be with God, know God, and he is saying, what?  They’re seeking Me daily.  They’re going to church, they’re doing the right thing, but something’s not happening, and they’re not getting their breakthrough.  They are suffering.  They need the suffering faith. 

And He says, “As a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.  They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God.  “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and You have not seen?“  Come on, let’s tell the truth, some of us have said that.  We say, “Lord, I’m serving you.  I’m doing right.  How come, you know my miracle?  How come my kid’s not delivered?  How come I’m still in poverty?  How come?  How come I’m suffering here.  Don’t You see this?”  This is suffering faith.  You keep going to God.  So that’s good.  That’s the suffering part about it, that’s the faithful part about it. 

But let’s see what is he saying.  “They say “and you have not seen?  Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?”  So this person is feeling like, God, I’m going through the right, I’m doing stuff, and you just don’t see what I’m going through.  “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers.”  Well, here’s what he’s saying.  You haven’t looked deep enough to repent, cause you’re still doing some of the things that brought you this bondage anyway.  And that’s why you’re suffering.  Ok.  Can we move on?  “Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness.  You will not fast as you do this day,…”  Well, what’s he saying in verse 4?  In verse 4, here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying that you’re prideful.  You look at what you’re doing and you look at other people, and you’re lifted up in pride.  And so, what you’re doing for supposedly religiously, unfortunately, it has soil mixed in with it… It’s got soil mixed in with it. 

One of the worst things in the Church to put up with is a self-righteous person… And the reason is cause on the surface they’re doing everything right.  They’re saying the right thing.  They’re serving the Lord and whatever, whatever.  But they have a quiet sneer about them of total disappointment with everybody but themselves.  You know, Pastor let me down.  You let me down.  Deacon So and So let me down.  The Church let me down.  The Church should have gone left when it went right and…but all the while, they’re righteous.  They’re righteous.  But what will that cause them to be?  Locked into suffering.  They’re going to suffer… Because why?  The thing that they pray for, they don’t get the response and it suffers even more because they see newborn babies coming to Christ getting instant healings and instant miracles.  And they wonder, well why me?  It’s because you have more light and out of your light you’re still not dealing with your pride.  And you’re still counting yourself righteous, while all the while, you still have not gone to full deep repentance. 

And so God is saying, Hey, I see that.  God’s saying, I see that.  And I’m not able to help you.  So, let’s move on to verse 5.  “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul?  Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?  Would you call this a fast…”  He’s saying, all of those things you do on the surface to look religious, and then he says, would you call that “…an acceptable day to the LORD?”  And then, let’s read verse 6 together nice and loud.  Come on. “Is this not the fast that I have chosen:  To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?”  How many yokes?  [every one of them]  Every one of them…  Every yoke.  And look what he says.  Then he gives us some clues as to how to serve.  “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring to your house the poor that are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?…And not hide yourself from your own flesh?”  And not hide…. hnhh … You all getting that?  You all getting that?  hnhh.   “And not hide yourself from your own flesh?”  My goodness. 

He’s saying, take a look at the deep stuff.  Take a look at you.  Take a look at your deep stuff you’ve done.  Don’t try and hide it….”Then…”  after you’ve done all that.  “Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your…” what?  [rear guard]  “rear guard.  Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, “Here I am.”"  What does He want you to do?  “If you take away the yoke from your midst…” 

What is the yoke?  Whatever the devil is using to bind you through your generations.  Whatever the devil has used to bind you in your thinking.  Whatever the devil has used to put upon you, that has held you, that you’ve cooperated with.  It’s going to take your hand to touch the unclean thing…It’s going to take your hand to reach out and come into agreement with the unclean thing.  It’s going to take your mouth to speak a curse in your house.  It’s going to take your mouth to speak a curse in your life.  Those are the things that you cannot jump back and go aww, I’m all righteous.  While, all the while you are plotting evil. 

What do you mean?  I’m not plotting no evil, Pastor Don.  Well, it’s a plot of evil when you don’t stop doing what you’ve been doing, just because you now need a healing…You’re going to have to stop because it’s the righteous, right thing to do.  And say, “I’m not touching the unclean thing.”  You know when most husbands get holy?  When their marriages are falling apart and it looks like somebody is going to take their wife.  Then they start acting right.  They’ll buy the flowers then, buddy.  You bet you.  They’ll keep a date night then, buddy.  Well, what about before that?  You know how many times I’ve sat in marriage counseling and people, marriages are going on the rocks?  And you say to them, well why didn’t you?  And they’ll go… And I hate to ask this question.  But you ask them, when was the last time you took your wife on a vacation?  And they look at each other dumbfounded.  As if, you know.  As if, I asked them when did you take your wife to the moon?  When did you take her for a weekend and stroll and walk on the beach?  Don’t cost no money to walk on a beach.  You can go down to Kingston, Kingston Beach, hold hands, and walk.  You know, you have to step over the garbage, but, you know.  [laughter] 

Moving right along.  Thank you very much.  So, when you’re in a bad part of your marriage and suffering, then you go, “Oh, why am I suffering so?  Why am I suffering so much?”  Have you gone back and repented for all of that?  The Children of Israel were suffering, 40 years in the wilderness, over what?  Disobedience for 400 years of disobedience.  So, until they go back and repent of the 400 years of disobedience, the 40 years keeps rolling.  [amen]  Anybody understand what I’m trying to say?  Wave at me if you’re getting this.  Because, see, I’m talking about suffering faith.  I’m talking about, you’re in a spot for a long time, and it really hurts.  Then it can’t be a two minute prayer, forgive me Lord.  Some digging’s going to have to get done. Alright, moving right along.  Everybody’s ok?  Nobody’s mad at me?  [not yet]  “Not yet,” he says.  Alright, good. 

Pastor Don is seeking to raise up teachers in our church so sometimes he lets others teach Bible studies.  It is good training ground, we record what we teach and Pastor Don can listen and give helpful hints to make our teachings better. Callin gave an incredible Bible study.

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

What does this passage mean?  There can be mis-communication when it comes to words.  Sometimes we have whole concepts in our head, but it may not be what is really being said.  Words are triggers.  Sometimes a person’s culture or dialect and emphasis can make a difference.  There are levels of communication based on class system, etc. 

We want to be praising God no matter what our circumstances are.  We want to live a life of self-sacrifice.  We want to keep our focus.  You need to treat others with forgiveness and love no matter how they have hurt us.  Even if they are angry and attacking you, we need to be willing to sacrifice what means a lot to you.

What is love?  It is a verb, and it is not about sentiment or emotions.  It ia a choice to behave in a loving way, guided by the Holy Spirit, regardless of what feedback we are receiving. We think that love is emotions and sentiment from a human perspective, but God gives us everything we need to fully understand the kind of love He is talking about.

Callin had someone read the following verses:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

The person read the passage beautifully, but then Callin pointed out how quickly they read these verses, and he told us anyone would have read them that way, but they were not intended to be read so quickly.  Each individual clause in this passage is a lifetime’s worth of work. We cannot comprehend these things that fast.  (Heather’s comment, I heard a teaching once that we can replace the word “love” with God or Jesus and it would be true in every instance, but if we put our name in the place of the word “love” we cannot live up to those expectations)

So Callin said, “Love is Patient…” we can spend the rest of our life trying to personify that.

We are born and programmed for physical communities – physical, soul and spiritual.  When a child is born they know hunger, wet, need for consolation.  They have no patience, when they are uncomfortable they cry and the loving parent comes running.  They have no patience.  Their soul develops, and they begin to have language development, and as time goes on they develop intellectually and emotionally.  Unless they are born in a family that knows God, they may not develop this kind of loving patience. 

Callin reflected that the spiritual part of our being is the strongest, and it is the part that we know the least about.  We indulge the physical, and often become broken, battered and hurting, then if we are fortunate, we ask the spirit to minister to us.  The Spirit helps us love.  In the physical we cannot do it.  In the physical we have lust, infatuation. 

“Love is kind.”  That can take a lifetime to manifest.
“Love does not envy.” 

He then read the following passage from the King James version.

James 1:22-25 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Callin told us, while we read the Bible the Bible is reading us.  It is a mirror to show us who we are.  It shows us our deficits, blessings, power positions.  

He told us that often he goes on a sound fast for 7 days, and does not talk.  So much of the talking that we do and that goes on around us is idle chatter.   We need to become aware that our words have power.  Most of the problems we suffer we bring upon ourselves.  Until we are honest we will look for someone else to be a scapegoat. 

Do I walk in love?
Do I walk in love under adversity?

We are told to judge no thing before its time, and not to judge to condemnation.  God will finish the good work that He has done in us in His time and His way.

Our challenge is to:

1. Understand what we are ready for and realize that what it means to me may have no bearing on you.
2. What God gives you to do has no bearing on my walk.

God gives us each our own personal challenge.  We need to go into the Word (Bible), put it on, walk it, and feel it. It is not the Word, but the walk.  It is doing the walk of the words coming out of God’s mouth that matters.

If you can take hold of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (see above) you have entered into bootcamp. 

If scripture stands out to you and you take notice, it is a breath of life for you.  Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

When you face adversity?  Adversity as defined by Webster is  Opposition; contrariety. Syn: Affliction; distress; misery; disaster; trouble; suffering; trial.

Then Callin looked up affliction: The cause of continued pain of body or mind, as sickness, losses, etc.; an instance of grievous distress; a pain or grief. 2. The state of being afflicted; a state of pain, distress, or grief. Syn: Calamity; sorrow; distress; grief; pain; adversity; misery; wretchedness; misfortune; trouble; hardship.

We can face affliction, be in dire straits, confused, baffled, and so twisted that we cannot tell up from down. 

There are 2 sources of adversity.  1. from the enemy, 2. from what we bring upon ourselves.

Misfortune – ADVERSE, at odds with ourselves, something riling you, someone in your face and pressing your buttons.  Failing to promote one’s interest or welfare.  We can be in an adverse living condition, poverty, physical sins, drug addiction.  Doing the opposite direction from what you should function in.  Things come at us from many directions.

Callin told us that God was very specific about what would bring us blessings and curses, and told us to read Deuteronomy 28 to see the listing of blessings and curses.

He also told us that OBEY/LOVE, that to obey is to love, and to love is to obey.

Blessings will chase after you if you obey God and exhibit His love.  Obedience and love are two sides of the same coin.

When Adam and Eve were walking with God they faced no adversity, than an entity from another realm came into their realm and enticed them.  They chose to disobey God, and listen to satan. 

Callin then pointed out that the Spirit during creation was hovering over the water and earth, and that the earth was without form and void.  Between verse 1 and 2 is a university of information.  What happened between verse 1 and 2 of Genesis that caused the earth to be without form and void?  Yet, after the universe became without form and void, then God took plans to reinstate the earth to His standards, the same pattern will follow throughout the Bible.

When man was created by God, he was given dominion and authority over the earth, and they walked in love and obedience.  Then things changed when they disobeyed and gave the dominion and authority over satan.

What can lead to adversity is:
1. When we disobey God
2. When we are attracted by something or someone else and pulled away from obedience.

We must walk in love, selfless, in the face of adversity.  We want to emulate Jesus.

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

God created man in His image, and told man to be fruitful and multiply.  The writers of the Bible broke the text into chapter and verse to make it easier to find passages, but the various books, such as 1 John was really one long letter.

Jesus is the second (last) Adam.

1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Because of Jesus mankind lives again IN CHRIST. Jesus took the commandments and made them into two:  1. Love God, and 2. Love your neighbor as yourself.  In those two commandments are all the other laws and commandments.  We can see the love of God and Jesus throughout the Old Testament.

Callin then asked if people knew what a cauldron was used for, and pointed out that it was used to make precious metals, where gold and silver was refined.  A fire was set under the cauldron and the refiner would watch the metal melt.  He would skim off the impurities which would float to the surface due to the heat.  As the metal refines fewer impurities rise and the refiner would know that the metal was pure when the refiner could see His reflection in the metal.

The refiner, in our case is God, who sets the temperature and trials higher and higher so that the sinful impurities are purged from us.  The results of our misdeeds and the Lord’s judgement refines us.  As we refine, we will grow more like God.

But don’t forget that satan also imitates God, and satan also has his church and apostles.  He mimics the truth with falsehood and seeks to rob us of our heritage by setting up counterfeits.

In our case the cauldron is our body and our bodies suffer under pressure and heat.  But don’t forget that coal under great pressure becomes a diamond.  When our body and soul is under great pressure, it hurts, but if we learn and cooperate with God, what we will produce will give God glory.

Our soul is the go-between between the physical and the spiritual.  We function with the soul (mind, will, emotions) and the physical, but the governing authority is our spirit.  Our spirit takes it’s lead from the Lord. 

Our physical parents can discipline us at times for selfish purposes, but when God disciplines us in His cauldron He is 1. working something in us or 2. working something out of us.  God is seeking to purify us, and to work a spiritual maturity into us, so that we can find our true self in the cauldron and praise God and be able to walk in love in adversity.

We will continually learn the lesson until God has determined that we have passed the test.

Salvation is 3 fold.

1. Instantly as we yield to the Lord, salvation takes place immediately and it is a done deed.
2. perpetually, and it will go with us from that time forward, the cauldron will burn off the old man and help our new man to manifest.
3. Eternal – our eternal destiny, everything we do impacts it.

Callin then addressed the fear that many have that you can lose your salvation.  But that is not true.  God, who began a good work in you, is faithful and just to complete it.  He will finish the work He began in us.  God sheds light on our selves.

We will put down the old ways and pick up trust.
We will put down our will and wholeheartedly follow God.
We will put down our old habits and pick up holy habits.
We will put down our negative associations and pick up new ones.

When we make a decision we need to weigh it against the Word of God.  If the Word of God cannot support it, you need to not make that choice.  Eventually God’s Word and will will become more manifest in our lives.

There were many examples in the Bible of people who loved in the face of adversity.  We named a few – Jesus, Paul, Nehemiah, Deborah, Job, and then someone mentioned that Pastor Don is a good example of walking in love.

Where do we go for validation when things are tough?  We need to find believers who can help us to have hope in the midst of our despair.

The Bible does not tell us that when we get saved things will always go smoothly for us.  The Bible assures us that we will have tribulation but tells us that we need to be of good courage for Jesus has overcome the World.

The book of Romans is a  great book to study to learn to live the walk that God wants us to live.  Someone asked about God’s judging of people who may not know Him.

We looked at Romans 2:12-16 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law  (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;  for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves,  who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

God will judge according to the information that the person has.  The Gospel was brought to the Jew first, then to the gentiles.  We are to intercede for heathen nations, for unbelievers, and those who murder, sacrifice children, and cause mayhem. 

Callin then talked about Jonah and how he was sent to Ninevah to preach repentance to the people.  Jonah went in the opposite direction.  Ninevah was a very evil culture who delighted in causing much pain to the Israelites.  The last thing Jonah wanted to see was Ninevah saved.  When we leave the track God has for us as Jonah did, God will give us opportunities to return to do what God wants us to do.  In Jonah’s case a big fish came and brought him to Ninevah and Jonah obeyed God, although rather reluctantly.

God is with us when we are off track or on track, and He will be with us even though we don’t perceive Him when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  God is faithful. 

Callin shared some of his testimony – including how he was at one point in jail, and doing everything that was not of God.  Pursuing buddhism, zen, and meditation.  He was fortunate to have a believer who would show Callin the truth through passages in the Bible.  The Holy Spirit never left Callin, but when Callin was so disobedient to God, the Holy Spirit waited quietly in love until Callin would come to his senses.

As Callin was reading a book that compared the truths of the Bible to zen, the Holy Spirit nudged Callin to not only read the verse in the book but to read the verses before and after that verse in the Bible.  What Callin realized was that the author of the zen book was taking the Bible verses out of context.  The basis of all cults is that they take the truths of God and serve them to their members out of context. 

We see this through the dealings Jesus had with the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees and Scribes.  They had the letter of the law, but not the Spirit of the law. 

Callin, while in prison, was reading the Bible and reading about Jesus – he did not know Jesus as Lord, but he kept sharing what he was reading about Jesus with others, telling them, “Look at this dude, He’s cool.”  According to Callin, Jesus was able to stick it to the man (Pharisees, etc.)  He was impressed with Jesus’s intellectual ability, and Callin wanted what Jesus had.  He kept reading and the more he read, the more the Word had an effect on him.

God moved Callin from place to place in various prisons.  God was still programmed to take care of “me”. At that time Callin was very self-centered and self-directed.  He dealt with others through this selfishness.  As Callin kept reading Christians came across his path and began to discuss things with him and showing him how the false religions he was pursuing were not logical.  One man in particular was very deft at wielding the sword of truth (the Bible).  At one point, Callin told him to stop talking to him about the Bible, for he realized that the more he knew the more accountable to God he would be.  The man stayed Callin’s friend and still spoke truth to him.

Callin told us that satan will try to undermine our assignments in life unless we know the Word.  We have to do things the way God says or satan can undermine and overthrow our plans. Callin told us that God surrounded him with 4-5 strong Christian men who knew the Word of God.  At one point, Callin said to them, “Don’t pull your Bible out, can’t you think for yourself.”  His friends told him that their friendship would remain, but that Callin should take his arguments to God.   Over the following year and a half, God used those 3-4 men to mentor Callin into the Kingdom. 

We are constantly embattled and are told to be fruitful and multiply and conquer and subdue.  The battle goes on, satan will not give up anything without a fight. But we need to remember all those things that we were pre-salvation are our testimony.  Those things that led us to the struggle to say, “Yes, Lord,” is our testimony, and then our beginning to grow in the Word becomes our testimony.  We are in a battle and that battle will be won with the Spirit of Love, in Christ.  If we try to do it intellectually, with our own physical strength, with our finances, through the world we will lose. We do not win by might or strength, but by God’s Spirit.

As we see some of those who were once our enemies become saved, it increases our faith.  With God all things are possible. 

Because of the Lord’s mercy we do not perish.  God gives us a cross to bear and we are carrying our cross daily. We are in death throes as the old passes away, and often we do not give up the old without a fight.  God brings us to a place where our old self is distasteful, and we begin to have a righteous indignation about our old self.  No evil can stand in the Lord’s presence. 

When Callin was out of jail, he was still doing drugs and still was bound by things from his past.  He managed to get to Pastor Don’s house, and while he was there, the Holy Spirit knocked Callin down – and Callin was face down on the carpet unable to get up until the Holy Spirit was finished with Him.  Pastor Don was sitting across the room laughing in the Spirit and letting the Holy Spirit minister to Callin.  When Callin was finally able to stand up, the bondage that had oppressed him was lifted.  God had delivered Callin from drugs, promiscuity, alcohol, violence in the 45 minutes he was laid on the floor. 

But adversity still came after Callin and there were periods of being backslidden, and it was very painful until finally Callin was humbled and able to seek deliverance.  Then what satan meant for harm, God turned to good. 

When he spent that time on the carpet at Pastor Don’s house, the Holy Spirit did not condemn him or shame him.  God is faithful and worked at healing, helping Callin deal with that cauldron experience, and cleansing him.

This is what God wants to do with all of us, to help us to cleanse ourselves so that we can walk in love.  God wants to equip us so we can flex our muscles to meet the challenges that satan throws at us.  We need challenges, it is what we starve for when we try to satisfy ourselves with other things. 

Callin used the image of a car — and told us to pick our favorite car.  Our body is that car.  Our soul is the electrical system, shock absorbers, etc.  The car needs a driver – and the Holy Spirit is the driver. 

The problem is that we spend more time adorning our body instead of adorning the Spirit.  We need to turn ourselves toward God, for as we make ourselves more and more into His image, and go deeper, more powerful and closer to God, the more we see our selves clearly.

Right now we see through a glass darkly, but at one point we will be face to face.  Walk in love.  Walk in love in the face of challenge, adversity, feelings.  Ingest the Word daily.  God really wants us to have a personal relationship with Him, where we hear Him internally without the need of external signs. 

The Old Testament is filled with stories of people who had relationships with God, people who made mistakes and others who obeyed God.  God put those stories there to teach us by His word so that we do not have to live through the experience to learn.  Learn through God’s word how to walk in love through adversity.

Hoping this study blessed you,

Heather

Click on title of teaching and you will be linked to the teaching

Hebrews 11:5
2 Corinthians 5
2 Corinthians 5 Part 2

Hebrews 11:6-7
How to measure your worth – video
Pull the Trigger – Do you want 2009 to be the same as 2008? -video
Hebrews 11:8-10
Hebrews 11:8-10 Abraham continued
Genesis 13 – Hebrews 11 – Abraham
Hebrews 11:8-16
Hebrews 12
Hebrews 12:12-13
Hebrews 12:18-19
Just Say the Word – video
Four Things to Remember – video
Hebrews 12:22; why disciples followed Jesus, Casting out demons
Hebrews 12:12-13 & healing
All things work together for good
Hebrews 12:14-17
Hebrews 12:14-24
Hebrews 12:25-29
Hebrews 12:25 to end of chapter
Developing Spiritual Discernment – video
Do the first works – video
Hebrews 13:1-6
Faith
Faith Part 2
Faith to change – video
Hebrews 13:7-9
The believer’s authority
The believer’s authority – Part 2
Hebrews 13:8
The authority of the believer
SAY AMEN 122 – I Want Mine -Video
Discernment, Revival Thoughts, Anointing
Will
SAY AMEN 124 – Three Aspects of Motherhood – Video
How We Deal With Our Stuff Is a Choice
Authority of the Believer – walk in the Spirit
Isaiah Overview
More Background on Isaiah
Isaiah Background
Isaiah Chapter 1
How to get rid of ants and roaches – Video
How to treat our Spiritual Father
Isaiah 1:7-19
Understanding the Authority of the Believer
Understanding the Authority of the Believer Part 2
Isaiah 1:16-18 Fig trees
Isaiah 2:12-22 idols & Job – photo Pastor Don
Authority of the Believer – Unworthiness
Seek the Lord
Galatians 5
Fig Tree Question Isaiah 5
Photos from Bible Study
Photos from LWC picnic
Isaiah 6
Getting into the Peace of God
Isaiah 7
Isaiah 7:10-17
Facts, fantasy, truth
The Book of Acts Continued
Dealing with your legion
Seven Steps toward a victorious life in Christ
Six enemies that are under our feet
Sukkah pictures
Feast of Trumpets
Isaiah 8
Worship, our view of death, spiritual maturity
Isaiah 9
Say Amen-Atonement for Sin
Authority of the Believer – Acts 4 – How to receive
Isaiah 9:6-7 qualifications of the unpardonable sin, blaspheme of the Holy Spirit
Isaiah 9:6-7 qualifications of theunpardonable sin, blaspheme of the Holy Spirit part 2
Isaiah 10
Destroy the Yoke -video & transcript
Grounded in Worship – say amen

Click on a title and it will bring you to the article.

The Father’s Love