Tag: Spiritual

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Earnestly Pray For Your Promise

[1] When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. [2] And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ~ Acts 2:1-2

After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the apostles for forty days. Then He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, and ascended into Heaven. So, the next ten days they spent devoted in prayer. See, the Holy Spirit didn’t come down as soon as Jesus ascended. No. It took them earnestly praying in one accord for ten days for the Holy Spirit to come down.

We are each given promises, but just because we’re given promises, doesn’t mean we no longer have any responsibility in the matter. We have to fight for our promises. They don’t always happen overnight, in fact, the majority of times it takes many days or even years.

If they had not prayed earnestly, I’m not so sure that the Spirit would have been poured out on all flesh. It takes someone to stand in the gap. It takes someone to pray, come LORD come. They spent ten days devoted in prayer, today we struggle to pray for ten minutes, and then wonder why we don’t see the same power they did. We even make excuses saying it just wasn’t for us, but for them alone.

The Church today has become lazy. We will stay up all night working for money, but not to see the glory of God. Not to be filled with His Holy Spirit. I’m not against money, I’m against putting everything into making it but putting nothing into the Kingdom of God. That is the difference between today’s Church and the first century Church. That is why we don’t see the same miracles, signs, and wonders. Because we’ve become lazy to point of death. Spiritual death.

There is only a few days left until Pentecost. Don’t let another Pentecost Sunday pass you by without seeking the LORD. Earnestly seeking Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Earnestly Pray For Your Promise.

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Choose The She-Bear

Proverbs 17:12,

12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

King Solomon, the wisest fully human who ever lived, wrote that it was better to meet a she-bear whose cubs had been taken than a fool in his folly. Why? I believe there could be multiple reasons. Solomon often wrote about the anger of the fool and how unhinged it was, so that could be a reason. But I think it might be more so that the fool in his folly is deceptive, as he also wrote.

See, when you don’t know the Truth or why you believe it, you can easily be less astray. You can easily be deceived. You can easily become Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ignorance is probably the biggest killer of souls in the Church today. We have the most and the easiest access to the Bible than any other generation before us, yet we read it the least. Our Bibles on our phones, tablets, computers, etc. even read to us, yet for some reason we still refuse to read it.

This makes us a perfect victim for the fool in his folly. The she-bear might take our life, but the fool in his folly might just take our soul. I know people who, though they were raised in a Christian household, have easily been led astray by foolishness that makes no sense. Why? Because they never read their Bibles. They still refuse to read it in its entirety. Instead, they chose to listen to the fool who cherry picks and half quotes Scripture.

Now, in they have become a fool in their folly. Consumed. Drenched in deception that can only be removed by the Holy Spirit. That can only be removed by the reading of the ENTIRE Scripture, and not just picking and choosing random verses out context.

The Scripture builds a shield around you, lest you be deceived. Lest you be spiritually killed by the fool in his folly. Therefore, read and study to show yourself approved. To show yourself righteous. To be safe from the deception that has destroyed so many in the Church.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Choose The She-Bear.

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Learn How To Save Life

30 And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. ~ Ezekiel 22:30

 A couple songs from my childhood have just been playing in my head for the past few days. One of the songs is “How To Save A Life” by The Fray. To me the lyrics just really make me think. They make me contemplate past life decisions, especially the chorus. It goes:

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

For me, these lyrics really hit hard. There’s one particular person that I just gave up on. I stopped praying and the moment I did, they fell into the very thing I had just stopped praying about. This has been several years ago, and I still think about it. Often. I think about how I just gave into the argument and said fine, if you want me to stop interfering with your life through praying, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.

The words:

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

If I had know how important and powerful my prayers were, and how the very thing I was praying against would’ve been kept at bay if I had just continued, that is what keeps me up. If I had just known how to save a life, I would’ve stayed up all night with them in spirit praying. Now, I just feel shame and regret. Because I was given a task and I failed. I was called to stand in the gap and I didn’t. I walked away.

We’re all called to stand in the gap for someone. You don’t have to be a pastor, teacher, scholar, theologian, or any of the sort. All you have to do is be called by God. And if you are saved, you have been called. To do what? Intercede for your lost loved ones. To stand in the gap interfering in their lives through prayer and fasting. That is the call of every single Christian.

Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. Don’t give yourself opportunities for disappointment and regret. Learn from the mistakes of others. Don’t let another day go by without standing in that gap. For all you know, that could be the difference between life and death for that person.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Learn How To Save Life.

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Don’t Hit Snooze

Jeremiah 8:20 ESV

20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Look around at the condition of the Church— or the so-called Church: We have mega-church pastors championing a godless agenda, pushing racism, and defending the right to slaughter helpless unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs. We have “bishops” boldly stating that they “are of the opinion that we need a third Testament, because the Bible has become problematic.” The Church is in a mess and it’s as if we don’t even realize it.

We don’t recognize the times that we are in and when we do, we do nothing to prepare ourselves or others. The Church, we as a whole, has been lulled to sleep. It’s as if the alarm has gone off and we keep hitting snooze. The alarm may quiet for us in those few moments before sounding again (until it eventually stops all together) but the times continue. No matter how many times we hit snooze, time keeps propelling us forward at a high rate of speed.

The LORD said that the fields were white on to harvest. In other words, the fields are so ready to be harvested that it is at the point where the crop could go bad and be lost. Jeremiah and his people missed the harvest. They went into captivity because of their sin. Their transgression. Their slumber. The Church is no different.

A time is coming when there will be tribulation on the earth like never before. Man’s wrath on the Church let loose without restraint. All because we fall asleep in times of safety and prosperity. It’s in these times that we have to awaken and prepare. We have to get ourselves ready. We have to make sure our family is ready. We have to wake up and pay attention to the times. Because the end is right around the corner.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Hit Snooze.

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Who Will Go For Me?

16 Who will rise up for Me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for Me against evildoers? (Psalm 94:16).

This is a very pertinent question: God is asking, “Who will?” God has given us dominion over the earth. We have been commissioned to rule and to reign, to subdue, and to correct and to bring into submission to our God all inhabitants of the earth. Teaching what is right and correcting what is wrong by the Word of our God. We are the hands and the feet of Jesus, often referred to as His body. Now He is asking, “Who will rise up for Me against the Wicked?”

But instead of rising up, the Church has submitted its authority. We’ve compromised with the enemy and have gone to sleep on our watch. We no longer sound the alarm when the enemy is approaching. We no longer tell of the goodness of God. But why is that? Are we too busy trying to be like the world that we no longer are trying to save the world?

Church leaders are guilty of the same sins the world is guilty of, and some have taken it even further. God instructed His people, His Church, to come out from among them and touch no unclean thing. But the Church has stained her garments with the juices from the fruit of evil. Once in the book of Isaiah, God looked around for one man to stand in the gap to intercede for the nation so that He might not destroy it, but He found no one either willing or able. So, in Isaiah 6, He asks again, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”

God is always looking for someone to rise up, someone to stand up, and someone to go and tell. Is that someone you? Will you rise up? Will you stand up when no one else will? When all are satisfied slumbering, will you get up and seek the face of God on behalf of someone, maybe a close relation, or a good friend? Maybe for your country and your government leaders. Do you complain about what’s happening in the world and especially in your country, or are you seeking the LORD, are you standing in the gap for your country and calling upon His Name that He might not destroy or bring His wrath? Will you say, here am I, use me?

Father, here am I, if You can use anything, use me. I will go where You send me, and I will say what You tell me; only be close to me and help me hear and understand Your voice and instructions, in Jesus’ Name, amen.

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Start With Your Mind

[28]  I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” [29] (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, [30] but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.) [31]  “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? [32] They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ [33]  For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ [34] The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ [35] Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” ~ Luke 7:28-35

Jesus was called a drunkard and a glutton by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the teachers of the law. The ones who studied the Scriptures earnestly. The strictest party of the religion. These and the lawyers, those who argued, defended, and held others accountable to the Law. These not just called, but accused the LORD Jesus of being a drunkard and a glutton. Now, whether or not they realized when they said it doesn’t matter, it was said. When they accused Him of these things, they were condemning Him to death. Look at what the law says about drunkards and gluttons.

[18] If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, [19] then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, [20] and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ [21] Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Deuteronomy 21:18-20

The Father already audibly declared Jesus His only begotten Son. By accusing Jesus of being a drunkard and a glutton, they were accusing Him of not obeying the voice of His Father. They, the elders, were making a judgment on behalf of that entire generation that Jesus was a rebellious son who does not listen to His Father. Jesus declared that He does nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees His Father doing (John 5:19-29).

We will be judged by our words (Matthew 12:36-37). Not just our actions, but the words let we allow to come out of our mouths. Solomon warned that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Jesus said it’s not what goes into a person’s mouth that defiles them, but what they allow to come out of their mouth (Mark 7:14-23). The Pharisees and lawyers knew Solomon’s verses, and now Jesus was calling them out for the words they had been speaking. Words they would be judged for if they did not repent.

Our words aren’t just empty phrases we put together, speak, and then they just vanish into thin air. No. They linger. They stay. They have power. Therefore, we cannot just speak them carelessly. So, what are we to do? Stop them before they come out of our mouths by monitoring and controlling our thoughts. Paul tells us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5-6).

Peace. Love. Go forth and Start With Your Mind.

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My Blind Servant

Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD? (Isaiah 42:19 NASB1995)

If you think about this statement by the LORD, it is pretty frightening. He is not talking about the blindness or the deafness of the heathens, or those who hate Him. No, God is talking about His own people, His own servants. The one who is supposed to be working for Him. The one who should have a close relationship with Him. But instead of closeness, we find distance. Instead of intimacy, we find lukewarmness.

Just because we claim a relationship with the Almighty God does not mean we have one. God’s people, the ones who should know Him intimately and serve Him wholeheartedly, are the very ones who are trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot and making the Name of the Holy One something common. That’s why God asks the question in Isaiah 1:5, “Why will you be struck anymore?”

In other words, why continue to rebel after, with His own blood, He has washed you, cleansed you, and made you His own. Why rebel? Why disobey and receive just punishment, punishment that He takes no pleasure in?

It is not God’s will that anyone perish, but all come to repentance. But many people refuse to come, while others refuse to draw close to God because they love the pleasures of the world too much.

Let us forsake evil and turn from rebellion and lukewarmness and cling to God and pursue holiness.

Father, forgive me for not seeking You. Forgive me for not drawing close to You. Help me to know who You are, and how to draw close. Help me to turn from the things that glitter and sparkle. The things that draw me away from my God. Please open my eyes so that I am no longer blind or deaf. Thank You, Father. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen.

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Fill With Him

43 When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation. ~ Matthew 12:43-45

Each one of us is a house. We are each a soul with many rooms. Each room must be filled with the Spirit of God or something else with fill it. See, we have the power through the name of Jesus to cast out unclean spirits, but unless we fill that empty room with the LORD God, the room won’t remain empty. Why? Because we are only made alive through Him. We are only freed from our record of debt, as well as the legal demands that come along with it.

Each unclean spirit taking up residence in our lives has legal right to be there. Whether through doors we have opened or doors our ancestors have. They have the legal right to be there. That is why it is only at the name of Christ that they must leave. And it is only at His presence that they must not return. Look at how Paul puts it in his letter to the Colossians.

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.

Colossians 2:13-15

He disarmed the rulers and authorities that had legal demands over different parts of our lives. The only way to overcome, therefore, is through His name. The only way to stay free is to invite Christ into every aspect of our lives. That is the only way to break their legal demands. That is the only way to revoke their right to enter. We must fill ourselves with the one who is above all.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fill With Him. 

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Bridle And Block

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. ~ Proverbs 18:21

This is a really weird verse to me. Not the words exactly, but how we react to them. We quote it. We throw it at others. We even throw it at ourselves, but we rarely take it seriously. See, we really only think this verse applies to certain things that are blatant, but not to the majority of what we say. For instance, something I have personally experienced 10/10 times is if I’m having a good time dancing, playing around, etc. and there are older people around, they will tell me something along the lines of enjoy it now because when you get my age or when you get older, you won’t be able do this or you won’t be able to do that. Or if my weight gets brought up, they’ll tell me how I won’t be skinny forever and how much weight I’m gonna gain when I hit a certain age. It happens each and every time.

The way the older generation speaks to the younger generation has drastically changed from the time of the ancient Israelites to us today. The older generation made sure to bless their children before they passed on. The blessing from the father and, later on, the mother was an essential part of their culture. Today, instead of placing blessings on the next generation, we speak curses on them without even thinking about it. From generation to generation, growing old becomes less of a blessing and more of a painful, dare I say, punishment.

I want you to notice how the proverb goes, because I’ve only recently realized I’ve been misquoting it this whole time. The Proverb is that “death and life,” not “life and death,” are in the power of the tongue. That means death is chosen above life by those who eat of its fruit. Just as Adam and Eve could have chosen to eat from the Tree of Life at any point in time, but still chose to eat from the forbidden tree that led to death, so can we choose words of life every day, but often times, most times, we choose words of death instead.

James gives us this warning in his letter:

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James 3:6-12

The LORD said that we will be judged by the words of our mouths. Why? Because He has placed before us life and death. Therefore, choose life. And when someone tries to speak death on you, try what I do. I smile, chuckle, and then rebuke their words in the name of Jesus and speak life over myself. Then I thank the LORD for hearing me and begin praising His name. No one has ever taken offense to it. In fact, they usually think I’m joking, but I mean each and every word.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Bridle And Block.

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Clear The Rubble

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He is no respecter of persons. So, what are we to do? We get our strength from the LORD God. What does that look like? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he encourages us with victories of the past in his message, Clear The Rubble.

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