Tuesday, October 19, 2021
His Will or Your Own?
The devil convinced Eve that God was not on her side, that His one rule to not touch the tree was keeping her from something good.
In our day he is convincing "Christians" that we don't have to follow the principles of the Bible. They think they can choose what they obey in the Word and that if they wish they can even twist it to make it say what they desire to believe.
The Christian churches are full of those who enjoy fantasy thinking. If they like something they find scripture to manipulate and claim their favored idea is Biblical.
John 14:14-15 "14 If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it. 15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
Many Pentecostals use the 14th verse in John 14 to justify saying they are promised whatever they want. As long as they want it and ask for it they will get it, it does not even have to be God's will. It can even be disobedience to God and still be blessed by Him.
But notice the next verse, the 15th which clearly states the condition for receiving what we ask for, that is, "if you love me you WILL keep my commandments."
John 14:21
"Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."
God does not reveal Himself to those who are rebellious and disobedient. He gives the desires of the believer to them when their desires line up with His will.
John 14:23
"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."
There is no question here, if we do not love God more than we love ourselves He will not answer our prayers. The only prayer He will answer to the disobedient person is the prayer of sorrow over sin to be cleansed by Him. For the unbeliever, the only prayer God will answer is the prayer of repentance to be changed into a new creation by Him.
You see, it's all about Him, our only response is to obey Him. We must empty ourselves of self-will but it only can be done if Christ intervenes because we want Him to change us.
2 John 1:6
"And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love."
So then, how do we love God? By keeping His commandments is the answer. How do we love others? The same answer applies here too, that we keep His commandments.
1 John 2:6
"Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."
1 Corinthians 11:1
"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ."
Ephesians 2:10
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Romans 12:1–2
"12 I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…"
Does it say in any of these verses to demand from Him what you want and He has to give it to you? NO, they do say that we are to conform to Him and then our desires will be His will.
John 3:30
"30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
The goal for the born-again believer ought to be to become more like Christ, learning the lessons He has for us so that we can more fully serve Him.
What a joy and pleasure life is when we are in the center of God's will for us.
How silly it is to think we know better about our lives than Christ Who created us. Just like children who think they should be allowed to eat candy all day long and not be sick, we often have expectations of God that is not His will.
Submit to God, seek His heart and His will, and then we will become close to Him, more useful for His kingdom.
Monday, October 18, 2021
We Need Not Be Alarmed
Thank the Lord as born-again believers we need not be alarmed by anything in this world when we know it has all been prophesied.
We are watching things the prophets wrote about but didn't understand. We get to see and understand them. And, we know the final outcome. Hallelujah!!!!
God wins for us and for His glory.
Praqyer Has No Power, Only God Does!
I do not believe in the power of prayer! I believe only in the power of God. Prayer is nothing unless it is to God through Jesus Christ.
Nowadays we live in a world in which prayer is seen as a magic bullet, prayer for prayer's own sake. It is a sort of greeting to say; "I'll pray for you."
Prayer has no power if it is a prayer to say what you want, hoping what you want will happen merely through your words.
Because of the "word-faith" movement, people think their own words have power. Or, worse they think if they say a prayer God must answer it their way, because they told Him what they wanted. The lies of the "word-faith" movement have permeated most of Christendom today even if many would deny it.
The truth is that our prayers are useless and unheard if there is faith in the prayer itself. They are also useless if they are not to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is not our puppet, He is God and we are to seek His will. As we express our desires to Him we must be willing to accept His will even if it does not match with our own desires.
Isaiah 1:14-16 "…14 I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. 16 Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!…"
John 9:31
"We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will."
James 1:5-7 "…5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.…"
One cannot think in terms of asking God for His wisdom and His will while there remains pride at the very core of a person's being.
Those who are resistant to correction from other believers will not be able to hear from God. The very least a born-again believer should do when challenged with a correction, is to go to God and ask if it is true. If God confirms the correction then we should be praying for God to change our heart to be in line with His Word. If the correction is not addressed in the Bible then we can dismiss it as human wisdom or presumption that has no power over us.
In our day of continual lies and manipulation, we will be confronted by those who give unbiblical advice, spout human wisdom that does not reflect the heart of God, expect this to be in the churches widespread.
Only someone who is humble and compliant to God's Word will have their prayers answered. We live in a day fraught with arrogance and self-will. It will become rare to find someone who loves the Lord enough to humbly ask for His guidance.
James 4:2-3
"2 You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures."
If one prays to God and then sets out to make their own desires happen, and then claims it was God, these people will see trials they bring on themselves by; number one; claiming to be asking God when they are really demanding from God and two; claiming God did a miracle when He did not. This is lying as well as an attempt to manipulate God.
Our manipulation and demands toward God are a clear indication of someone who is not submitted to God.
When we love Him, when we know He is perfect then we will not presume anything from Him, we will humbly ask His will and be content with His answer. Sometimes it is His will to give us what we desire but it is not our place to make our own will happen and claim it was God's blessing.
1 John 5:14-15
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
Matthew 5:23-24
"23 Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering."
God will not accept our offerings of prayers nor will he even hear our prayers if we have not repented from sins against others.
Malachi 2:13-16
"13 And this is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and sighing, because He no longer gives attention to the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.
14 Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your marriage companion and your wife by covenant.
15 But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And why the one? He was seeking a godly offspring. Be careful then about your spirit, and see that none of you deals treacherously against the wife of your youth.
16 “For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with violence,” says the Lord of armies. “So be careful about your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
God is speaking specifically about divorce here but the principle of not repenting still holds true for all sin against God and others. All sin against others is sin against God.
The trouble with our modern generation is that "freedom" has been elevated to a right in our country therefore the freedom to sin has overwhelmed the church gatherings.
The churches have defied God in many ways through the twisting of His Word and through ignoring those things they do not want to see within the pages of the Bible.
When we correct someone with the Bible in our church gatherings we are more than likely to be ignored, mocked, and even treated disrespectfully for our effort.
We need not be intimidated by this, but we must be aware of it as we are led by the Holy Spirit to speak the truth.
They did it to the prophets and they did it to Jesus Christ, we cannot expect to escape it ourselves.
John 15:18-25
Disciples’ Relation to the World
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.
21 But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 The one who hates Me hates My Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 But this has happened so that the word that is written in their Law will be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me for no reason.’"
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Fantasy or Substance?
Just saying "I believe in Jesus" is not evidence that we are born again. The evidence is as follows: It is the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Authentic belief goes hand in hand with a desire to be changed by Him into a new creation. Many people live in a fantasy world made up of mere words or thoughts without substance. Feelings are more powerful in our culture than truth is, it drives everyone far more than they realize.
Matthew 7:21-23 tells us there are many pretenders in the church who will expect to get into heaven but be turned away by God.
Many people walk around saying they believe in God but have no interest in Christ. They love the "idea" of a safety net in case something hard happens, as well as a genie in a bottle they command to give them what they want.
When we become born again we want to please Him, spending our prayer time asking Him to change us and use us. Our own expectations of life diminish greatly as we develop the mind of Christ.
May the Lord place in us a greater desire to speak His language, to desire His will, and above all to be grateful for all He has given us and all His promises.
Hallelujah!!!
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