Stepping Out In Faith, Part 4

We think that the devil can put thoughts in our head, right? Sometimes we hear, “Don’t let the devil put them thoughts in your head.” The devil doesn’t have the power to do that! Now get this. Those thoughts are the result of your perspective.

What the devil CAN do is bring distractions into your life. When he brings those distractions, he knows just what will work. He gets you to focus on the wrong things and because our minds are not yet renewed and still carnal, we look at those things and they affect us a certain way.

Two of us could look at the same situation; we could even talk about the same person and have two entirely different opinions. Some people love me; others hate me. They won’t say it because they’re Christians, and they’re afraid to. God sees our hearts. You see, this leads to a life of frustration because some of you are going through life with love/hate relationships, not only with people, but also with things . . . with situations. You’ll love it on one hand and hate it on the other.

In an earlier blog, we used the example of walking around the room with your eyes closed as you listened to voices, sometimes even voices you think you can trust. “Take a left.” Well, you might trust that voice, take that left, and then run into a chair. The human inclination would then be to go through life blaming somebody else. No, you shouldn’t have listened to that voice! Don’t listen to all those voices!

Satan can bring these voices into our lives. He’ll get our eyes off the things of God, our purpose, and the prize, and before long, we’re going for the wrong thing. It works; it’s very effective. Think about the children of Israel. What was the greatest weapon against the armies of Israel? Well, I’ll tell you what I think it was: beautiful Pagan women! Man, if nothing else works, send the hotties! You read about that throughout the Bible; it works almost every time! It still works today!!! You watch men and some pretty thing walks by and every head turns. Huh? It doesn’t take much. What were those beautiful women? A distraction. “If we can get them to look at these women,” and what Israelite soldier ain’t gonna look at a pretty Pagan woman? So send in the beauties! It was simply a distraction to get their eyes off the prize and keep them out of the Promised Land!

How many distractions is the enemy throwing your way? The Bible says that, “He roams about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” How is he going to devour? How’s he going to steal, kill, and destroy in your life? He’s going to do it by coming after the Word of God in your heart and mind. If he can get you thinking about things that will bring destruction, and you think about them long enough and get them in your heart, you’re going to do it sooner or later given the opportunity.

We need to get our minds renewed so we are no longer thinking carnally, because to think carnally is to put ourselves at enmity against God. The carnal mind is at enmity against God. Now, walking in the promises of God requires that we walk in agreement with God. You’ll never walk in the fullness of His promises until you’re walking in agreement. Walking in agreement doesn’t mean, “Thus saith the Lord, amen, God said it; I believe it; that settles it!” We think that if we just put a bumper sticker on our backs, that we’re going to walk in the fullness of God’s promises. Do you really believe it, and are you really doing it? Are we moving in agreement with God? How do we do that?

We’re going to have to get our minds renewed. We have to be thinking like God thinks and get on the same wavelength! Now that doesn’t mean being woo woo or super-spiritual. Christianity is not simply based upon some spiritual experience; true Christianity is based upon the Word of God. I’m sick and tired of spiritual frivolity that is not bringing people to a fuller measure of God’s promises in their lives; it’s just giving them goose bumps and making them feel good for an hour a week. It’s cheap and it’s artificial.

True Christianity is based on truth and the Word of God is the final authority. It’s a whole lot easier to have some Shundai experience than it is to conform your life to the Word of God so that you might walk in the fullness of His promises! I feel better; I don’t know about you . . . but I’ve been wanting to say that. 

Thanks for joining me as we continue to look at steps we can take towards obtaining God's promises, and pitfalls we can avoid that keep us distanced from the prize.

~ pg

Standing on God's Promises

Let's look at Ephesians 6:13 and see how it relates to "Standing on God's Promises." I believe that God has promises that are specific and pertinent to every one of our lives. God has a promise for you! God has a promise that is relative to where you are, what you're doing, what you're facing, what you're going through, and the sum total of your experiences. God's promises can be found in Scripture.

We're going to talk about standing on His promises. "Stand" and "promise" are the two keywords we're focusing on. Ephesians 6:13 says,

"Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

This was actually a military term back in the day that literally meant, "Having conquered, be prepared to conquer again." Having done all to stand, STAND!

Now let's look at the book of Hebrews and see what it has to say about standing on the promises of God. Presumably, it is Paul who wrote this passage although no authorship can be firmly attributed to anyone. Most scholars believe that it was the Apostle Paul.

"Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward." (Hebrews 10:35)

According to this passage of Scripture, what has great reward? Confidence has great reward! Therefore, the writer says, don't throw it away; don't cast it away; don't just throw it off in the corner. Your confidence has great reward. What you place your confidence in is going to determine your level of success in this thing called life. The writer goes on in verse 36 to say, "For you have need of endurance." He's talking to you and me. We have need of endurance!

Endurance literally means, "patience, steadfastness." I have need of patience; we all have need for it! However, don't believe the Christian goobly-gob that says, "I prayed for patience, and God gave me tribulation." That thought process sells bumper stickers, but it's not biblical. Okay? Don't even confess that kind of stuff over your life! There's nothing biblical about it.

We all have need of patience . . . some of us, like myself, perhaps more so than others. I have good news though. As I'm approaching sixty-years old, I've learned to be much more patient. I've learned its great value. This is an important thing! And I had to LEARN it, especially since I've been impetuous, spontaneous, and had a, "Let's go, we have to do it now," attitude all of my life. There's just one problem with spontaneous decisiveness. A lot of times it can lead to wrong decisions.

Another definition for patience in my life is this: "Honor the process." Whatever is going on in your life right now, it is part of the process. Honor it without complaining or murmuring. It could be the devil in the works, but it's doubtful. Everything is not the devil. Every trial and tribulation is not the devil. And what we need to learn is to be patient. We have need of endurance.

Now look at the rest of verse 36: "You have need of endurance so that AFTER you have done the will of God, you may receive (experience or appropriate) the promise! In other words, we can back this up, turn it around, and repeat it backwards, "You will receive the promise after you have done the will of God; therefore, you need endurance." Do you see that? We all think that we just walk in to the Promised Land, and voila, we experience everything that God has for us. Granted, we have crossed over and everything that God has IS available to us. That doesn't mean we get it all at one time though. After we have done the will of God, we receive and/or experience the promise of God. That's what it says in His Word, so let's stand on it!

~ pg

Dreaming for God, Part 3

“We are God’s own handiwork, His workmanship, we are created in Christ Jesus, born anew, that we may do those good works which God predestined, planned beforehand, for us, taking the paths, that He prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them, living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live” (Ephesians 2:10).

We are God’s handiwork, His masterpiece. We are, you are, and I am. We are recreated in Christ in order to do the good works God planned for us before He made us! This is why we have been born again. The really good news according to this Scripture is that Apostle Paul says that God has set paths before us ahead of time. Then it says that we should learn to walk in those paths that He has already prepared. Don’t take for granted that you’re doing it. Like the old song says, “You can go your own way,” and many of God’s people are choosing their own way through their limited thinking. It’s like many in the church are looking for the exact same thing as people in the world . . . things such as comfort and security.  We ought to have that part of it pretty well covered, folks!

Oftentimes, we base our thinking and our decisions on the security level. Unwilling to take a risk, we hold on to our comfort.  Shortly after coming off the mission field and arriving in Fayetteville, NC, I discovered that I don’t like to grow too comfortable. When I start to get too comfortable and secure, look out, Emory, things are about to change. Why? Because for me, God doesn’t want me getting so wrapped up in the security of this world that I’m not able to take the risk of obeying Him. Are you willing to risk, or what are you holding on to? Are we saying, “I’ll give this much, but I gotta hold on to this?" When we hold back, we’re showing God that we don’t really trust Him. We find our security in something else, and usually it’s in the same type of thing in which the world finds their security.

Now, we see that we should learn to walk in those paths that the Lord has already prepared, and this will lead to living the good life that God has prearranged for us to live. Wouldn’t you like to live the good life that God has prearranged? If so, then you’re going to have to follow Him and that is always going to bring an element of apparent risk. And there are those who will say, “Well, God doesn’t really want you to forsake it all. He just wants to know that you’re willing.” I’ve heard many Christians over the years say, “He doesn’t really want you to give it up, it’s an attitude of the heart.” He just wants to know that you’re willing to give it up. No, you aren't willing to give it up! And He knows you aren't willing to give it all up because you're not doing it! We may be trying to play God a fool, but He ain’t no fool; He does see the heart.

What we forget is that everything we need to accomplish that which God has created us to accomplish is already ours. It already exists. Everything already exists in either the seen realm or the unseen realm. If it’s in the unseen realm, we simply need faith in order to bring it into the seen realm. Even those things that are coming from the spiritual into the natural realm are truly already in existence. Everything you need to be whom God created you to be is in you. It’s already in you. You have this supernatural DNA by virtue of the new birth. Do you believe that you even received some sort of blood transfusion when you got “borned” again? Do you believe that you have the very life of God flowing through your veins? I do! We don’t just sing, “I Have a River of Life,” we have a river of life flowing in us and through us.

God is looking for dreamers: those who will be bold and bodacious enough to dream for Him. I am finding that dreamers accomplish very significant things. We don’t read of too many in the Scriptures, but we do read of enough to know that God uses dreamers to accomplish great things. You may think I’m crazy, but it’s okay. Here’s what I believe about each person: I believe that every one of us has the potential within to do something so significant that it could change the world.

While I was reading this weekend, I discovered something very interesting. Have you ever heard of XM radio? We didn’t even know what that was fifteen years ago, did we? You know why? It didn’t exist fifteen years ago. XM Radio was founded by a fellow named Noah Samara who is an African. He didn’t have any money. He had a vision to set up a communication network for the people of Africa because their lack of communication was killing them. He had a desire to help other people! Do you know that in a year and a half Noah raised a billion and a half dollars? He started with nothing except a dream. Wow!

My wife and I were watching a TV show the other night, and they made mention of some guy named Jay Sorensen. Did you ever think of stupid little things like those wrappers that keep you from burning your fingers on a cup of coffee? I believe they call them “sleeves.” The guy who invented those is now a multi-, multimillionaire. Then they were talking about turkey bones! One Thanksgiving a family was sitting around the table, and you know the tradition of breaking the wishbone? How many wishbones are in each turkey? ONE! Ken Ahroni said, “That’s not enough.” And it’s NOT if you’ve been around kids or grandkids at the holiday table. There’s only one wishbone, and they each want to break one! So you know what Ken did? He invented a synthetic wishbone that would snap and break, so on Thanksgiving, everyone could have one. Do you know how many wishbones they’re making now? His company is producing thirty thousand wishbones a DAY! I’m just sayin’.

You see, some of those “crazy” ideas you get . . . may only be crazy to you. And until they become a reality to you, they will only remain just a dream or some fantastic thing that’s beyond reach or the ability to come into fruition. It’ll just be a fantasy, and you’ll simply live a life restricted by your own thinking until and unless you venture outside the confines of comfort and security. I’d like to encourage each and every believer who is within the reach of this blog to pay very close attention to the ideas that God is placing within your heart and mind. He’s constantly speaking, may we ever be constantly listening. 

~ pg