Tag: Food For Growth

¹⁷ And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,  and your old men shall dream dreams; ¹⁸ even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. ²¹ And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. ~ Acts 2:17-18, 21

At Pentecost, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter stood up and quoting the prophet Joel; he told the people that in the last days, God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh and all who call on the name of the LORD shall be saved.

So, it is the belief in that name, the Name of Jesus, that we are now able to call upon the LORD, and He hears us. If we look and consider, it’s the name that was preached, it’s the name that was feared, it’s the name that has the power and authority, it was the name that healed, it was the name that raised the dead, and it’s the name that saves.

• • It was the name that was preached and taught – Acts 4:17-18; 5,28
  • It was the name that was feared – Acts 5:11
  • It’s the name that has the power and authority – Acts 4:7
  • It was the name that healed – Acts 3:6; 4:30
  • It was the name that raised the dead – Hebrews 11:35a
  • It’s the name that saves – Acts 4:12

So, what are we talking about here? We’re talking about the most powerful name of Jesus and the authority it carries. There is no other name like it.

At the name of Jesus:

• • Demons flee
  • Darkness runs away
  • Diseases are healed
  • Marriages are put back together
  • Breeches are repaired
  • Relationships are mended
  • Souls are saved

So, why are Christians so fearful and filled with disease? We, the Church, can no longer be distinguished from the world because we look and act just like them. Why? Has the name of Jesus lost its power and authority? Of course not. Christians have become lukewarm because we refuse to draw a line in the sand and stand for and live by Truth. We want to be comfortable, so we trade in the power of God and the authority that comes in the very name of Jesus for a few more years of living in our comfort zone.

God has not changed; the Church has. We’ve become lukewarm, lazy Christians. The power of God is still in His name; it’s still in His Spirit; it’s still in His people; we just have to take the time to unlock that power as the first Church did. We have spent time in prayer and worship. We have to remove the constant filth and distractions from our lives. We have to press in and draw near to God so that He will draw near to us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Tap Into The Power.

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⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ~ John 1:5

I have never seen a struggle between light and darkness. As you walk into a dark room and flick the switch, quicker than the eye can see, the darkness changes to light because it no longer lacks light. We are the light in this present darkness. And as the light, we have to overcome the darkness in our communities, workplaces, schools, etc., by acting as light.

How we treat others and how we live our lives is the only way to be the light. Our actions are what lead others to the light.

¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

We can’t be miserable, difficult to work with, easily angered, sexually immoral, and still have a testimony for Christ. We have to live as the light, not as the darkness. And when we do, we will begin to see the change in the world around us because the darkness cannot overcome the light.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Shine in the Darkness.

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¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ~ Psalms 119:105

When we preach and teach God’s Word, it lights our path, and it lights the path of our hearers. Light does not struggle with darkness. Darkness never overcomes light. And in a world filled with much darkness, it is crucial to understand where our light comes from. Our light comes from the Holy Spirit that lives within us.

This light can only grow and strengthen if it is fed. It’s like a fire. A fire will die out if it isn’t tended to and given more fuel to consume. The Holy Spirit within us is the same way; that is why the Psalmist wrote that the Word of God is like a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We are in a dark world, and if we don’t have the Holy Spirit like a roaring fire within us feeding on the Word of God that we are pumping into our mind and spirit, then we will be overcome by darkness. The light will not be overcome by darkness, but we will be overcome by darkness because without feeding the light, the light will die within us.

So, spend time in the Word. Spend time in worship. Spend time in prayer. You have to feed the Holy Spirit within you, or you will run cold and dark.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Feed the Flame.

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³⁴ Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. ~ Luke 14:34-35

So, what does all of that mean to us as Christians, the salt of the earth?

Well, like Potash-salt fertilizes the land and causes good things to grow, we as the salt of the earth should fertilize our small plot of the world, like our workplaces, our communities, our neighborhoods, our government, and cause good things to grow.

But instead of disinfecting the swamp, saltless salts facilitate the swamp and cause nasty infectious filth to permeate the whole world.

Pastor David Pawson said that statics show that in any community with 5% salt, the social trends reverse for the better, and it’s not by anything that the 5% is saying or doing, but just by being.

Now, if that is accurate, how much more could be achieved if the 5% salt influenced by doing and saying? Remember what Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Therefore, it is my strong belief that salt has to be an active influence. Jesus didn’t call us to separate us from the world; He called us to go out into the world. We have to be active in our communities, workplaces, government, schools. We have to be the change we want to see in the world.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Active Salt.

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³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” ~ Matthew 22:34-40

Jesus died for His enemies. He didn’t have to, but because He saw that there was no other way for us to be with Him other than Him dying on the cross for our sins and taking our punishment upon Himself. He didn’t have to take our sin. He didn’t have to take our punishment, but He did. Jesus set aside His own feelings, desires, and wants so that He could focus on saving us. He followed the will of His Father and gave Himself as the perfect and final sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus stated that the greatest commandment given is to love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. He then says the second greatest is to love your neighbor as yourself. The reason love is the greatest commandment is because love is a sign of unity with God. If God is love, and we are transforming into the image of God, then we would have to bear fruit that is of God.

As Jesus said,

¹⁷ So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

Mathew 7:17

And the greatest fruit, as we explained in our video The Power of The Holy Spirit under our Nuggets of Truth category, is love. Therefore, we must love everyone, even our enemies.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Love Your Enemies.

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³⁴ Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. ~ Luke 14:34-35

Jesus says that we are the salt of the earth. So, if we are to be the salt of the earth, we had better know what that means. Wouldn’t you agree?

Because Jesus goes on to say that if salt loses its taste, and we will come back to that later on in this message, so keep a finger there. But, if salt loses its taste, it’s no longer useful either for the soil, or for the manure pile, or in other words, the dunghill.

Salt is good. Therefore, salt is healthy, fit, useful, and serviceable. That is what Jesus wants us to be: Healthy, fit, useable, and serviceable. There are many reasons, I believe, why Jesus chose this analogy for us to be salt of the earth.

Salt is:

1. 1. Immutable – unchanging
   2. Salt has a high melting point of 801° C and boils at 1413° C
   3. Has very low freezing point of −1.8°C
   4. Salts are good conductors of electricity

Jesus is saying, you are the salt of the earth, and the salt of the earth is organically healthy and useful, but if it, or more precisely, if you, become a fool, how can you get back your influence? Who, or what can make you influential or wise again? Don’t throw away the salt for the fake table salt of the world.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be the Salt of the Earth.

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¹⁹ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~ Matthew 6:19–21

Don’t waste your time working for fool’s gold. The only thing you will have in eternity is what you send on ahead. If you send nothing on ahead, you will have nothing.

Nothing added to nothing is still nothing.

Well, I’m sure you will have something, but nothing compared to what you could have.

We need to work now; we need to build up our treasure, don’t miss out on the best and most profitable investment ever, YOUR ETERNITY!

Paul understood the gravity of the situation when he told the Corinthian church that he worked harder, was imprisoned more, had more hardships than the other apostles. He was building up lasting treasure.

Paul was sure of what he had done. He did not waste his time with useless things. He did not get distracted with temporal wealth and position. He was hyper-focused on the eternal. Don’t let the deceitful fruit of the world take away your focus on the eternal.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Invest In Your Eternity.

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⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing. ~ 2 Timothy 4:7–8

He was sure he had run the race successfully, and he had finished the course completely. There was nothing he had left undone. No regrets. Now, I realize that everyone has regrets. Things that they wished they had done, or things that they wished they hadn’t done. Paul didn’t have regrets after he accepted Christ as LORD and Savior, he was laser-focused on what God had called him to do, and he let NOTHING distract him.

He said, “I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also, I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” He had one thing on his mind, doing God’s will.

Paul didn’t consider salvation to be a one-time thing and done. He understood that it took a lifetime. Every day we wake up and plug away to attain that which we were apprehended by Christ Jesus to apprehend. That is, eternal life and to bring others with us.

In the Old Testament, God said several times, “None shall appear before me empty-handed.” Every time He described or talked about the Feasts, He mentioned it.

None shall appear before me empty-handed.

Do you suppose that was written only for those Feasts that was only a shadow of that which was and is to come? No, it was written about soul-winning as well. When we stand before God, we must have something to show for our labor. Whether it was because of our prayers or because of our witness, we must not stand before the God of the Feasts empty-handed.

We are not saved to go into hibernation. No, we are saved for good works, for winning souls; we are saved to be a blessing to others. It is not about us; it’s about pleasing God by being a blessing to others.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Waste Your Salvation.

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²⁴ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ~ Luke 16:24

Just a few days earlier, he was ignoring poor Lazarus, who longed for the crumbs that fell from his table. The Bible didn’t say Lazarus ate, but he longed to eat. The rich man probably despised Lazarus. So, it is entirely possible that the rich man was so mean that he refused Lazarus even the crumbs that fell from his table.

Now when he is face to face with eternity, all his riches and all his wealth and the social statuses don’t seem so important anymore. He is now willing for that sorey, dog-licked finger to be dipped in water and to be touched on his tongue. What seems important to us now will not mean a thing one hundred years, ten years, two years, or even a year from now, much less ten seconds into eternity.

LORD God, help us to focus on Eternity rather than on the present world around us. Fill us with Your Holy Presence so that we may be able to live our lives for You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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²² A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous. ~ Proverbs 13:22

This Scripture might be talking about a financial inheritance in general, but it can be applied spiritually to spiritual inheritance. A father leaves a Godly inheritance to his children and grandchildren.

A good father teaches his son to be a real man. A masculine man. He teaches him responsibility. He teaches him manners and how to treat other people. How to treat women by being an example for him by showing him how, by the way you treat his mother, your wife.

A good father teaches his daughter what to expect from a man, how she should expect to be treated. You set the bar of expectation for the young man who will eventually date your daughter. So that when she goes out on her date, she knows how she is supposed to be treated and insists on being treated that way.

A good father teaches his children how to love the LORD God with all their heart, mind, and soul. This is the inheritance we men have to leave our children. We have to teach them how to be strong men and women of God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Leave Your Children An Inheritance.

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