Use Your God-Given Gifts

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ~ Ephesians 4:7

Each of us was given grace in the form of the free gift of Salvation from Jesus Christ through faith, but we were each given spiritual gifts as well. Gifts of teaching, apostleship, prophets, evangelists, etc. In each of us is a spiritual gift given to us through the Holy Spirit. Our gifts can also be in music, sports, film, education, medicine, etc.

We don’t have to be a preacher in order to have a gift from God. Not all of us are pastors; if we were, we would all be one body part. If we are all one single body part, then we aren’t complete. God uses and utilizes every part of the body because each body part is important. And as each body part is important, each gift is important.

Peace. Go Forth and Use Your God-Given Gifts.

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Cling To His Divine Nature

And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. ~ 2 Peter 1:4NLT

God has called us to Himself so that we may be saved. When we are saved, we are changed. We are given a new clean heart and a right spirit. We are given a new life. We are a new creation. Because of this, God Himself lives inside of us and shapes us into His perfect image. This is why we must fight sin.

We can’t allow ourselves to be overcome by the very thing that God has just rescued us from. We have to set our minds to live in righteousness. God has given us everything we need in order to overcome sin and cling to righteousness. Put on your whole Armor of God that you can overcome every sin that comes your way and become more and more like God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Cling To His Divine Nature.

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Continuously Ask

20 So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. 21 I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.” ~ Genesis 18:20-21NLT

The LORD didn’t just destroy Sodom and Gomorrah out of nowhere. There was a great outcry against them for a long time. The people affected by Sodom and Gomorrah’s wickedness didn’t just cry out once; they cried out and cried out until God heard them. This is how we have to get God’s attention. We have to continuously bring our petitions before the LORD.

The majority of the time, nothing will happen after our first request. We have to keep asking God. We have to keep reminding God of His promises. The LORD doesn’t intervene unless we first pray and seek His intervention. We have to make the first move. We have to fight for our families, our dreams, and our lives.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Continuously Ask.

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Look For Your Well of Water

19 Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. ~ Genesis 21:19NLT

Hagar had become spiritually blind because of pride. She forgot who she was because she had a child for Abraham. Hagar didn’t raise her son to respect Sarah or to love Isaac, his little brother. She had become blinded by envy and pride. Hagar was so spiritually blind that she was sitting next to a well full of water and dying of thirst because she couldn’t see it.

This is how we are today; we’re all in a desert of sin, dying of thirst. Even though we’re in a desert of sin, dying of thirst, we don’t have to be. God is in the desert with us. He’s sitting right next to us, calling us by name. He is our well of living water,

38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from His heart.’

John 7:38

but we become spiritually blind because of pride and/or envy, and we refuse to bow our knees to God. We refuse to love His Son. We refuse to humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness, and we miss out on the well of living water that will end all thirst. Don’t live your life thirsty, dying of dehydration.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look For Your Well of Water.

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Fight The Good Fight

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Get going, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt. Go up to the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I told them, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ~ Exodus 33:1-2NLT

The LORD sent an angel before the people of Israel to drive out their enemies before them. He didn’t abandon them in the land with their enemies; He sent an angel out ahead of them. God doesn’t change, so if He did it for the people of Israel in the days of Moses, He’ll do it for us today.

Our enemies today are spiritual and not physical. 2,000 years ago, God didn’t just send out an angel before us; He Himself went before us. He paid our debt for us. All we have to do is resist the Devil, and he will flee. It won’t be a walk in the park, just like how the Israelites still had to fight, we still have to fight, but just like the Israelites had won before they started their battles, we have won before we start our battle as well. We just have to fight; we can’t sit aside and wait for the victory to happen for us. It’s been given into our hands if we put on our spiritual armor and fight.

Peace. Love Go Forth and Fight The Good Fight.

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Protect Your Mind With The Helmet of Salvation

17 and take the helmet of salvation, ~ Ephesians 6:17a

The Helmet of Salvation not only protects the mind from the lies of the enemy with the assurance of Salvation, but it also gives security by knowing what the promises of God are for us. And there are several actions a believer can take to keep this helmet fastened and functioning:

  1. Renew our minds. Our minds are battlefields. The outcomes of those battles determine the course of our lives. Romans 12:1-2 instructs us to renew our minds by allowing the truth of God’s Word to wipe out anything contrary to it. Old ideas, opinions, and worldviews must be replaced. We must allow God’s truth to continually wash away the world’s filth, lies, and confusion from our minds and adopt God’s perspective.
  2. Reject doubts that arise from circumstances. Human beings are sensory creatures. What we cannot fathom with our five senses, we tend to disregard. If we allow them to circumstances may convince us that God does not really love us or that His Word is not true. It is impossible to have faith and doubt at the same time. God rewards our faith. With the helmet of Salvation firmly in place, we can choose to believe what appears impossible (Hebrews 11:6; 1 Peter 1:8- 9).
  3. Keep an eternal perspective. When life crashes in around us, we must remember to look up. Our Salvation is the most precious gift we have received. Keeping our eyes on that can help us weather life’s storms. We can choose to live our lives by the motto, “If it doesn’t have eternal significance, it’s not important” (see Matthew 6:20; 1 Corinthians 3:11-13).
  4. Remember that victory is already accomplished. When we consider ourselves “dead to sin but alive to God” (Romans 6:11), we eliminate many of the opportunities Satan uses to entrap us. When choosing sin is no longer an option for us because we recognize ourselves to be “new creatures” (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 3:9), we effectively cut off many avenues of failure.
  5. Find all our hope in Him. Psalm 73:25 says, “Whom have I in heaven but You? Besides you, I desire nothing on earth.” Our helmet is most effective when we treasure what it represents. The Salvation Jesus purchased for us cannot share the place of importance in our hearts with earthly things. When pleasing the Lord is our supreme delight, we eliminate many of Satan’s lures and render his evil suggestions powerless.

As we wear the helmet of Salvation every day, our minds become more insulated against the suggestions, desires, and traps the enemy lays for us. We choose to guard our minds from excessive worldly influence and instead think about things that honor Christ (Philippians 4:8). In doing so, we wear our Salvation as a protective helmet that will “guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3; 1 Peter 1:5).

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Remember Your Relationship With God

1 At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?” But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” ~ Exodus 17:1-3

Sin is our Egypt. When we first leave sin, we’re all excited and on fire for God. We’re the first ones to be at Church on Sunday morning. We read our Bible. We seek God. Everything is new and exciting. But then we hit a hiccup. Maybe we don’t spend as much time in prayer as we did. Maybe we miss a day or two of reading. Then all of a sudden, sin starts knocking at our door. Temptation after temptation is showing up all around us, and we start feeling those past desires start to build up again, and we start to desire the past that we left behind.

This is where the Israelites are at. They were so focused on the obstacle in their way; they were willing to go back to their slavery. That’s how we are. We get so caught up with the battle in front of us. The drought that we have to go through, that we forget the slavery that we’ve just escaped. We forget the relationship we just gained with God.

When droughts come, we have to remember our relationship with our God.

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14

When we are craving our past, we have to remember that nothing is more satisfying than God.

You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

Psalms 40:5

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18

Temptation and drought will come, but if we stay seeking God, then we will always be satisfied. We will never be thirsty, hungry, or unsatisfied again. Always remember that when we are in God, our cup runs over. He gives us everything we need and showers us with His blessings.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Psalms 23:5

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Remember Your Relationship With God.

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Let God Hold Up Your Arms

While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. 9 Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. 11 As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. 12 Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. 13 As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle. ~ Exodus 17:8-13NLT

Moses couldn’t hold his arms up for the whole battle by himself. He needed help. There’s a spiritual battle going on right now over our lives, and we are Moses. The arms that we are holding up are our actions and decisions. We can’t make good decisions on our own. Our heart is inherently evil, so we need the Holy Spirit to guide us and the blood of Jesus to wash us clean.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

We’re not strong enough to hold up our own arms, so we have to depend on the Holy Spirit, who transforms us, and Jesus, who took our sins away. We have to lean on God so that the battle waged for our soul will be won in our favor.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Let God Hold Up Your Arms.

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Don’t Blindly Follow

12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” 15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” ~ 1 Samuel 1:12-16

Eli was the High Priest at the time that Hannah was earnestly praying for a child in the Temple. Eli, though the High Priest, had no discernment. He took yearning and seeking after God for drunkenness. He had spiritually fallen asleep. Is this how the Church is today? Are our leaders spiritually awake?

In our society today, we’ve become more about feelings than about Truth. Why? Is it that our spiritual leaders have fallen asleep? Jesus said, that if the blind lead the blind both will fall into the pit. Just like in the days of Eli, the spiritually blind are leading the spiritually blind straight into the pit. When we stop reading the Bible for ourselves to see if what we are being taught is true, we are blindly following. And if we are blindly following, then how can we know whether our leaders are leading us to life or to death?

Spend time with the LORD. Seek out His wisdom and His discernment through His Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t die on the cross to take away our sin and then raise again only to abandon us here alone. He went up to Heaven so that we could have the Holy Spirit with us and within us forever. He is our guide so that we never fall into a Spiritual blindness or Spiritual sleep as Eli did.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Blindly Follow.

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Should I?

And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, ‘Bring me the ephod.’ So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, ‘Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?’ He answered him, ‘Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.’” ~ 1 Samuel 30:7-8

Everything that King David did, he first asked God if it was what He wanted. When his family was taken by the Amalekites, which included all of his wives and children, and he saw the entire city of Ziklag (where they were staying) burned to the ground, first, he encouraged himself in the LORD. Then he asked God if he could pursue the Amalekites.

The majority of us would think that that is a no brainer, of course, pursue. You’re a strong warrior of God. You’ve won many, many battles, go pursue the Amalekites and save your family and your men’s families, but King David knew God’s plan was best. King David knew what it was like to follow his own heart and his own desires. He knew what it was like to lose someone he loved because he followed his own desires instead of following God’s plan.

When it came to something that seemed right for King David to do, he still waited for God’s okay. King David wanted to build the Temple; the Prophet Nathan even told him it was a good idea.

1Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, ‘Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.’ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, ‘Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in.’

1 Chronicles 17:1-4

Imagine if King David began building the Temple after Nathan gave him the okay. He would have been outside of the will of God. But it seems as if he waited for a yes from God Himself because he didn’t go straight into building after Nathan’s yes. What would be the reason for that, other than waiting on God?

Things may seem like a given. Like God should want you to do it, but it may not be for you. Building The Temple seemed like a good idea, but it wasn’t for King David. It was for King Solomon. Saving his family seemed like a given. Why even question it? Because King David knew what it was like to be outside of The Will of God, and he didn’t want to feel that again. Things aren’t always what they seem. The Bible says to test the Spirits, so test them and see if your desires and new thoughts match the will of God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ask, Should I?

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