Monday, April 18, 2011

Love Walk Exercise

Here is a little exercise for us to practice our love walk. You will need good strong steel toed shoes for this one. While in the School of Ministry back home, we had a class about Love. This was my favorite class although it was also the one that stepped on my toes the most. One of the things we had to do was memorize a passage of scripture out of what I call the Love chapter of the bible. 1 Cor 13. The passage was verses 4-8a. 1 Cor 13 v 4-8.....Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. LOVE NEVER FAILS...... Well, here is proof just because you know something doesn't mean you know anything. This is what I mean. Just because we memorize the scripture but we never put it into action, then we haven't learned anything. Just because someone knows who God is, doesn't mean they know God. Words without action are just markings on a page with no meaning. It is when we put action to the words that they come alive in us. They then move from our head to our hearts. If we only have the words in our head but not in our heart we have nothing worth anything. Here is my exercise, I noticed how I get off the love walk path now and again, and I wanted to get back on the path and stay steady in my love walk, so I have been reading 1 Cor 13 v4-8 daily. I decided to try to commit it to my memory once again, but this time also get it established in my heart, so when something should come up to cause me to want to jump off the path, I could bring up out of my heart, to my thinking what does the word say about walking in love toward your neighbor. Well, I kept getting stuck in the middle. I could remember very easily the first part and the last part, but I was having trouble in the middle. So I decided to seek the Lord and ask Him why am I having so much trouble remembering this middle section? And then one of those AHA moments hit me. That is where I was having trouble in my love walk. (...does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil....). Personally for me, these areas are trouble areas in my love walk. I do tend to look after number one (me) more than maybe I should, I do tend to think the worse of situations at times, and I am easily provoked at times. So here you have it. There it is, all out there for everyone to see. You may think, why are you telling off on yourself? 1 John 1 v 9...If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness...... Prov 15 v 31-33.....The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction depsises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.... I might just be guessing here, and I may be way off, but I am thinking that maybe I am not the only one that needs to practice our love walk. So if anyone out there believes they know someone who needs to practice their love walk, well maybe, you just admitted then that you do as well. Walk in love and then get a foot massage. STAY IN THE WORD!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

AHA MOMENTS

Don't you just love the AHA moments when you get a revelation of what the Word is saying to you? I do. I had one last night while Pastor was teaching us the word. I have heard it before but this time I connected it with myself. That is the AHA moments I am talking about. We can have a revelation of what the Word is saying but we do not always connect the dots back to us. He was talking about how people in third world countries don't always have doctors. So who do they call on when they are sick. Well, if they are believers, they call on God for their healing. Now, I know you have all heard me and others say this before that there are more miracles happening in those places than here in this country. Why? Because they do not have anyone telling them any different. HELLO! There was the AHA moment. If all they have is the Word of God to put their faith in, then that is what they believe. So they do not have any problem receiving what the Word tells them they have. We on the other hand have too many other sources to turn to that may tell us different. My AHA moment was when he said this, something I have heard before, and talked about before. I put myself in that place with no doctors and tried to picture what would I do? Well, when we were in Oregon, in our small little town, I felt like we were without doctors. After working in the Hospital back home,for so many years and getting to know personally so many doctors, I knew who to go to and who to lets just say not to choose. Sometimes a little information is just enough to spoil things. Now, I wasn't sick, nor was Rob. But we do go for our annual checkups and I was trying to figure out who to go to. Well, I picked the wrong one. And some of you know that story. Let's just say she tried to give me bad reports. I could not wait to get out of Oregon (a place Rob and I both fell in love with) just because I thought they could not supply me with medical help should I need it. WOW! Where was my faith? I even made the comment that this place reminded me of a third world country when it came to the medical field. First of all why was I meditating on needing a doctor? Second, where was my faith in believing that I am healed, whole and complete in the LORD? Good grief what would I do if I were in a third world country where they really did not have doctors? Now I said all of this so that you would understand when I tell you this. BE REALLY CAREFUL who you are listening to or hanging out with when you are believing for something that has not yet manifested. They just may talk you out of your healing, or your prosperity, or whatever you are believing for. This is not a message to tell you not to go to doctors. So don't go there with it. This is a message about us staying in the Word and getting the Word in us, so that we know who to listen to, and who not to. AMEN! It is a message about what we are to meditate on and what not to meditate about. This is not just about healing, this is about anything that we are believing for. It may be you are believing something for yourself or someone in your family. Don't let the enemy talk you out of your hope in the LORD and don't let him use others to talk you out of what you are believing for. AMEN! Keep saying and believing what you need and praising Him and thanking Him for it. No matter what the circumstances are saying. The Word of God will prevail. His Word will not come back void. AMEN! Mark 11 v 22-24...So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God". For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them."..... Speak to your mountains! Then meditate on the good things. Don't let someone give you contradictory information to meditate on. Phil. 4 v 8....Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-----meditate on these things........ Watch what we are saying as well. We must speak faith filled words. We must be speaking God's Word over our situations. God's Word has not lost His power to heal, or to change whatever He pleases. His Word is still power. God spoke everything into existence. That is the power of God's Word. And you being a child of God, have the ability to speak His power with His Words. AMEN. Charles Capps said it like this in one of his books.... The Word of God conceived in the heart, formed by the tongue, and spoken out of the mouth is creative power. (From the book, God's creative power gift collection by Charles Capps) A great little book to keep in your possession for a quick reference on any situation. God's Word still works today and always will. There is no expiration date on the Word of God and what He says He will do. AMEN! Oh yeh, my AHA moment. Now I know it doesn't matter where I am, my faith is in the LORD, not in man. AMEN! STAY IN THE WORD!

Monday, April 4, 2011

His Words In Your Heart

Which of God's words do you need to keep in your heart? All of them. I know there are alot of words of wisdom in His word. Let's narrow it down like this. What trial are we going through at the moment? Then that is where we look to His Word and find the exact words that we need to be meditating on. For each of us it will be a different situation. We have to look at what season in our life we are going through. Prov. 4 v 20-27....My son, give attention to my words: Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil..... His words are telling us to meditate on what His truth says. Don't let someone else tell you differently. If what they tell you does not line up with what He says, then depart from that evil. When He says put away from you a deceitful and perverse mouth, He is not talking about talking ugly (cursing and swearing), no He is talking about saying the wrong things over your situation. When we say we are sick, that is perverse language to Him because He has said we are healed. (IS 53 v 5, 1 Pet 2 v 24, PS 103 v 3-5). When we say we are poor and we are children of God, then that is perverse language because He said, although He was rich, He became poor so that you might become rich, He gives us all things richly to enjoy, He says He makes our way prosperous. (2 Cor 8 v 9, 1 Tim 6 v 17-18, PS 112 v 1-3). When we say we are afraid and weak, that is deceitful words, because He says, He did not give you the spirit of fear, He says He gives us strength and a sound mind and peace. (2 Tim 1 v 7, 2 Cor 12 v 9-10, Phil. 4 v 13, Phil 4 v 6-7). Look in His Word and find these scriptures, read them for yourself and meditate on them, get them settled in your hearts and minds. I encourage you now to ponder the path of your feet. Where are your feet swift to run to when you are encountered with a trial. Do you run to the Word, or do you run to someone who will agree with you and jump on a wagon of sorrow with you? We just finished a class at church and Pastor told us how important it is that he protects the annointing before he preaches. In other words, before he gets ready to bring us the Word God has given him to deliver, he has to make sure that he doesn't let the things of the world enter into his thinking, so that he meditates on God's words and keeps them in the midst of his heart and on the front of his mind. It is the same with us. Before we ever even encounter a trial we need to have God's words in the midst of our hearts and on the fronts of our minds so that we do not let the world deceive us into wrong thinking about ourselves. If we are meditating on His words, then we will keep our feet on the right paths. Sometimes we are reading the Word and then later a situation arises that presents us with a challenge, and then we remember, Oh, that is what God was saying to me today and we are able to overcome the situation. We received a good Word in due season. Prov 25 v 11....A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.... STAY IN THE WORD!