The Triumphant Church, Part 6

I’ve been asked before, “What has been your most frustrating experience in over twenty-five years of pastoring?” I can tell you exactly what that is. There have been so many times that I felt like I needed to shake people and convince them that God wanted to bless them! God wants you to prosper  . . . to be healed . . .to be well. “God always wants me to be well?” Yes, according to His Word! You cannot give me one passage of Scripture that would convince me that God wants you to be sick. I challenge you to show me one from the Word. 

You might say, “What about Paul’s thorn?” What about his thorn? What do you think it was? I don’t have to think; it’s not left for me to guess. The Word says that the thorn in the flesh was a messenger from Satan. That’s very clear. It was some sort of spiritual, demonic attack sent to buffet him. “Buffet” means to punch or to beat him up! It doesn’t say anything about Paul being sick. 

Oftentimes what we have is bad teaching gone to seed, and it just gets propagated over and over and over, and we believe what we’re taught. We need to be careful and study the Scriptures for ourselves and not simply take for granted that everything a person teaches is accurate. I’m telling you right now, don’t believe something simply because I said it; you go home and search the Scriptures. If you think that I am wrong about it, then come and talk to me, and respectfully we’ll go to the Word of God. 

There is nothing in Scripture that will convince me that God wants us to be defeated! If I am defeated, it’s because I’ve done something on my own. The only time Joshua and his army suffered defeat was at Ai. We know that there was sin in the camp, but there was another reason. When they were going up against Ai, they immediately came up with their own plan. After they were defeated in the first confrontation, the Bible says that Joshua then consulted the Lord. Possibly if he would have done that the first time . . . I’m just saying! I’m not judging. Maybe if we consulted the Lord before we acted, we could get His mind, strategy, and plan and do it the way He wants from the very beginning. Then we would not spend so much time spinning our wheels, getting beat up, becoming frustrated, and losing sleep. 

We’ll continue looking at the Triumphant Church in the next blog. Thank you for joining me on this journey!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Emory

The Triumphant Church, Part 5

Let’s look at Romans 8 beginning with verse 31. Paul says, “What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us?” This is the first thing you need to determine. Is God for you or against you? Here are a couple more things to consider. Are you for or against God? Are you working with or against Him and His will for your life? Every decision you make is in agreement with either your adversary or your friend.

Your enemy, the devil, roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You’re either aligning yourself with your adversary, or you’re lining yourself up with your very best friend, Jesus Christ. In order to be in right alignment with Him, you have to be in agreement with God’s Word. In order to be in agreement with His Word, it is necessary to know what it says! Therefore, you must study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). 

If you don’t know whether you’re walking in agreement with God, find out. How? Discover what His Word says! Come into agreement and align your life with what He has spoken.  

The Psalmist said that God showed His works to Israel but revealed His ways to Moses. What are we most focused on? What are we most interested in? Simply seeing the works of God (which are great and glorious and thank God for them), or are we intent on learning His ways? Will we allow His ways to become our ways? Many in the Church have this mindset, “Well, you know, God’s ways are higher than my ways. I can’t think like God thinks.”

Once you get your mind renewed and understand that you have the mind of Christ, you can think the way He thinks! I’m not saying that God’s thoughts still aren’t higher than ours or that His ways are not beyond our comprehension at times. What I am saying is that in any given situation, you can know the mind of God for your life. It is necessary to have knowledge of God and His Word!

Too many Christians are spending too little time in the Word of God, and then they can’t understand what’s going on in their lives; therefore, they become weak. This causes them to be defeated, live to a great extent “purposeless lives,” walk and run in circles, and never really accomplish that which God has created them to do. God has called you to be victorious! It is imperative that we get this truth established in our hearts and minds so we can live a triumphant life.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Emory