Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Big Sift

Do you know what a sift is? It is an instrument used to sift the fine from the coarse so to speak. To separate the good from the bad sometimes. Pastor made a comment at church Sunday about sifting through things with the Word of God to find what's good and what is not. In other words, sometimes the enemy will tell us one thing but when we check it with the Word it is no good. We need to sift those things out and separate the bad from the good so that we can focus on the good. AMEN!

We need to be careful about what we put into our mixing bowls (our minds). Because once we stir it all together, it becomes too difficult to separate the bad that dropped in there. Once it is blended in, it begins to form our thoughts. We want our thoughts to be formed by God not the enemy. AMEN! God told Peter that Satan had asked for him so that he might sift him as wheat. In other words, Satan wants to trouble us with our thoughts so that he might sift out the ones he can manipulate. Remember he can only attack us through our minds, through our thoughts.

Luke 22 v 31-32.....And the LORD said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strenghthen your brethren....

You see Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny Him. But He was telling him, when you return to Me, make strong your brothers. How was Peter going to make the disciples strong. By sharing the Word of God with them. By sharing what Jesus had taught him. Likewise we need the WORD in us, so that we do not let the enemy attack us and lead us astray. We are made strong through our minds with the Word of God.

We need our Pastors just as the disciples needed Peter. Jesus told Peter to return to shepherd His disciples. The same way God leads our Pastors to disciple us. With the teachings of His WORD.

Paul tells us in Phillipians to meditate on good things. He says to meditate on the things we have saw and heard and learned through his actions. I believe this is just another passage the Lord is using to tell us to imitate Him. He tells us it will go well with us.

Phil 4 v 8-9....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. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.....

Let's look at an example of a good report vs. bad report. You eat right, you exercise, you take good care of your body, but yet you go to the doctor for your annual check up and he says, hmmm, it looks like you have high cholesterol. That is a bad report. So now, you go to the Word and see what does God have to say about that. The Word tells us that every name that is named has to bow to the name of Jesus. Cholesterol has a name. It has to bow to the power of the name of JESUS according to your belief. For example Rob and I went for our annual check ups a couple of years ago, and one doctor had told me that I was going to have to take cholesterol medicine if my cholesterol did not go down. I immediately rebuked that report in my mind and said my blood work will be excellent. My mom talks about how she has high cholesterol and how it runs in the family. I rebuke that bad report and say I am of a blood line where the cholesterol is excellent. So before we went to the doctor the next time for our blood work, I said Lord according to your word, we have excellent blood work, and all of our tests today will come back with excellent reports.

When we got our paper work our report from the doctor, the word excellent was used over every area of the reports. Now I ask you how many times do you hear a doctor use the word excellent to describe your health. Let it be according to your faith, your belief. AMEN!

Ephes. 1 v 15-23....Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the LORD JESUS and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which he worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is the body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.......

That is quite a mouthful, but the point is, that Christ was made head over all things, He has power over all things, and if we be in Christ and He be in us then we have the same authority to speak to all things with the same exceeding greatness of his power which works in us through Him that is in us. AMEN!

God raised us up to sit together in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, so that through our faith, our believing in Him that we would share in those same powers.

Ephes.2 v 6......and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus....

Ephes. 2 v 10....For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.....

We walk in good works, not in sickness and bad health. Sickness and bad health are bad reports from the enemy trying to attack us through our minds.

But as we get into the Word of God and use our big sift to sift through those bad reports and let the good reports outweigh the bad, so that we focus on what is pure and just and of a good report. AMEN! We all need to do some housecleaning in our minds now and again. What is the best way to clean our minds. By renewing them with the Word of God.

STAY IN THE WORD!

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