How You Think Affects Your Life
As you become skillful at “casting down every imagination and high thing that exalts itself against the Word of God” you will experience more peace and a greater focus toward purpose within your life.
An evil imagination is a death wound formed in the soul that has its roots in the fallen corrupted nature of man.
God created your mind for thinking. Your mind is like a critically thinking super computer designed to draw on information for the purpose of coming to a rightful determination. It will continually search out bits of data from life experience, prior knowledge, even assumptions to extrapolate a conclusion. To extrapolate means to use information as the starting point to gain knowledge, draw inferences and make decisions about something unknown. There are thoughts that suppose something and are nothing more than random bits of information without merit, proof, witness, or substance. Thoughts like that have no real value and are unsystematic. The most dangerous thoughts, however, are those that lead to a particular belief.
The source of thoughts, your thoughts, needs to be discerned. Are they real or imagined? Good or bad, right or wrong? Was Hamlet on to something when he echoed Montaigne who said, “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so?” Can your thoughts make things so? Do they deserve your attention? Should they be reflected on and acted out?
Only the mature understand the wisdom of parsed judgment until they can assemble all the necessary facts and come to a rightful conclusion. These champions of the kingdom know how to think. Like precision time pieces that carry the unfaltering sounds of tick-tock they examine each systematic movement of the big hand until finally clarity forms within their minds. Then and only then do they move the small hand forward and enter the next hour.
How you think affects your life. The Apostle Paul taught his students not to think like flawed gentiles. The gentiles were outside the covenant blessings of God until salvation. Paul used them as an example. He said that Christ’ disciples should not walk like they do in the “vanity of their minds,” in different words, banned imaginations. “How does one walk in the vanity of their minds,” you ask? By trying to live out vain imaginations.
Paul said, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind; Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:17-18). Remember the meeting between the fallacious serpent in the Garden of Eden and Eve? As already said, she looked, she took, she ate, and she gave to her husband and he also partook. This scri pture teaches the power of toying with deceptive words and imaginations. Fallen mankind, walking out the vanity within their minds, searches for ways to fulfill sensual, fleshly, lustful passions, and when they find them those passions pull on their carnal nature.
WHAT’S IN YOU?Satan’s activities are still the same today, thousands of years later. He looks through ancient eyes for something in you to work with. Something small, perhaps a seed, something hidden from the sunlight, or something buried deep within. It could be pride, rejection or lust. It could be bitterness, unforgiveness, even the love of money. Again, he has nothing to web except what’s already in you. Jesus said, “For the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). What about you? When that old dragon draws near can he find anything in you to anvil? To win the war against your mind you must, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Carnal thoughts and pondered vain imaginations give the enemy opportunity to attack you.
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Peter also wrote about the dangers of vain words, thoughts and imaginations. “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage” (2 Peter 2:18-19). Did you get that? Carnal passion, stirred by the lusts of the flesh and vanity within the mind is designed to overtake you and bring you to the timbered stocks. That’s why Paul said to avoid the vanity within the mind. Vain thoughts are enticements toward further carnality and conceiving sin. Like walking in cold sunlight they pull on the old man, that carnal nature that needs daily crucifixion. Is he dead in your life?
An evil imagination is a death wound formed in the soul that has its roots in the fallen corrupted nature of man. It is a different way of walking, outside your design. Like an addiction, vain imaginations can grab you and pull at your soul beckoning the reapers to come. Spoken greed, for example, draws on the blackened sinful nature of man. So, too, lust that pants for the forbidden. Lust is fabricated first within the imagination then onto the flesh looking for its harvest. When pondered it’s like a narcotic to the most addicted of junkies.
What did Peter mean “they are servants of corruption?” Bondage! That’s right, slavery trenched deep within their souls. Those taken captive through cultivated sinful imaginations become slaves fettered to their own carnality. Paul’s warning “don’t think like that” is significant. “How can one be overcome by an imagination,” you query? As mentioned before, by brooding evil thoughts within the mind, imaging them and acting them out. That’s what happened to Eve. She considered what the serpent said, she pondered the outcome, and she partook of the forbidden thereby giving birth to sin.
Futile imaginations obscure vision and corrupt judgment. scri pture says, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18). Your understanding can only be darkened when you are carried away by carnal thoughts and hollow imaginations. You must avoid them at all cost because they separate you from the good life of Christ and blind spiritual understanding.
All of us must avoid carnal thoughts and vain imaginations and cast them down as they occur, even those that come from others. As you become skillful at “casting down every imagination and high thing that exalts itself against the Word of God” you will experience more peace and a greater focus toward purpose within your life.
It seems we have come full circle once again in our pursuit of winning the battles against the mind. The bottom line is the mind must be renewed. Some try to get the Holy Spirit to grapple with their minds. The problem with that is you must be involved in the process by making every effort to renew your mind yourself. Give the Holy Spirit something to work with. Make the effort by studying to “show yourself approved.” Epictetus said, “No great thing is created suddenly.” So meditate on the Word daily. It will impart life, truth and grace for living into your soul.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
To extrapolate means to use information as the starting point to draw inferences or conclusions about something unknown.
There are thoughts that suppose something and are nothing more than random bits of information without merit, proof, witness, or substance.
Satan’s activities are still the same today. He looks for something in you to work with. It could be pride, rebellion or lust. It’s significant to remember that he has nothing to work with except what’s already in you.
8/30/2008
8/25/2008
HOW DARK IMAGINATIONS CAN DESTROY YOUR MIND
Christ gave you authority to bind and loose every thought and imagination. Refuse to let Satan introduce demonic imaginary into your imagination.
Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
Imaginations create reality, even evil reality. There are over 400,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. The pornography industry, fueled by carnal lust and sexual fantasy, is larger than the combined revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and Apple. Driven by debased images this blackened smut is a $1 billion industry in North America alone. Engineered by wicked masterminds, pornography is the creation and distribution of sexually illicit images that have no literary or artistic value.
Through the contagion of erotica, Satan uses the imagination of man to sin against God, himself and society. Unrestrained sensuous pingere have a dark side that leads to wickedness, debauchery and destruction. The infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, murderer of 12-year old Kimberly Leach, was interviewed by Dr. James Dobson before his execution in the Florida State electric chair on January 24, 1989. Bundy murdered 28 young girls and women. He grew up in a Christian home, went to church and had loving parents. He describes pornography as the genesis of his fall into the abyss.
In the interview just hours before his electrocution, he tells of finding, as a 12- to 13-year-old boy, a pornographic magazine in the trash near his home. In time he became more and more addicted to pornography, especially violent images of tortured women. When that no longer satisfied his lust he fantasized of sexually assaulting and murdering women himself. He said, “The most damaging kind of pornography – and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience – is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces – as I know only too well – brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe.”
In “The Road to Xanadu” Professor John Livingston Lowes wrote, “Fantasy and imagination are not two powers at all but one.” Bundy brought life to his perverted sexual fantasies. Commenting on the dangers of pornography he said, “I’ve lived in prison for a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography – deeply consumed by the addiction. The FBI’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers.”
Bundy is an example of the dark side of unfettered and incubated evil imaginations. He leaves us with a fagged warning, “There are those loose in their towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media in its various forms – particularly sexualized violence.”
The good news is that Christ gave you authority to bind and loose every thought and imagination. Refuse to let Satan introduce demonic imaginary into your imagination. Bind every image and cast them down. You can choose how you respond. Bundy didn’t, you can.
RESPONSIBILITY
Everyday we are bombarded by secular television reminding us that we are in a spiritual battle against our minds. There is much concern about the economy, jobs, and housing prices, mortgage foreclosures, declining morals, attacks against family values, wars and rumors of wars, sickness, disease, terrorism and natural disasters of all kinds. It seems like the perpetual hostilities against our minds offers much opportunity to leave the realm of faith in Christ and enter the quagmire of doubt, unbelief and worry.
Once again I am assisted by the Apostle Paul’s statement: “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” I love the power to imagine “all things possible to him that believeth.” Don’t you? Frequently, however, we have to battle the negative thoughts that war against our minds first. This brings me to the testimony of Viktor Frankl a survivor of the Nazi prison camps. In his autobiography, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” he pens an inspirational testimony of humanity’s potential for greatness whatever the circumstances. He wrote, “Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.” Frankl stated that no matter the mistreatment by his demonic oppressors they could never take away his choice of how he responded to them.
BUILDING STRONGHOLDS
Vain imaginations pondered will build damaging strongholds in your life. They war against your mind and keep you from walking in God’s perfect plan and purpose. Remember the degenerate progression. First the enemy challenges God’s Word in your life by introducing such things as doubt and unbelief. Next you have opportunity to ponder the thought and image it or cast it down. Further, you have the ability to linger on that imagination and speak it out or take it captive to the Word of God and cast it down. See the progression? The ability to give freedom to your imaginations belongs entirely to you.
The result of habitual negative thoughts and imaginations can send you spiraling into a state of depression. When we think something often enough, we begin to believe it’s true and our feelings match what we are thinking. To conquer depression psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck developed “cognitive therapy” in the 1960s to stop negative thoughts by replacing them with more positive ones. He believed that depression could be stopped before it ever started. The Apostle Paul developed the therapy long before Beck. He said, “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Philippians 4:6-9).
God gave you freedom to choose how you respond to every circumstance in life, every thought that attacks your mind and every bad report that contradicts God’s plan. Like Frankl you have complete control over your thought life. All of us have thoughts. They can be good or bad but thoughts are only ingredients we use to make decisions. If your thoughts are carnal, then cast them down. If they are positive, feed them. Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
You have control over your thought life and nobody can ever take away your freedom to choose how you respond to thoughts and imaginations. The Word teaches of a demon possessed man with an unclean spirit that lived in a cemetery. When he saw Jesus he ran to Him, bowed and worshipped (Mark 5). If a legion of devils could not stop him from coming to Christ then no devil, demonic thought or evil imagination can stop you from the abundant life in Christ Jesus.
The world has always been filled with doubt, unbelief and evil goings-on. The good news is that you, the born-again believer, are no longer part of that kingdom. You can escape the dark side. Christ has redeemed you and given you great and precious promises. Take control of your life and choose to respond to every circumstance of life, thought and imagination according to the truth found in the Word of God.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
Imaginations create reality, even evil reality.
All of us have thoughts. They can be good or bad but thoughts are only ingredients we use to make decisions.
If your thoughts are carnal, then cast them down. If they are positive, feed them.
Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
Imaginations create reality, even evil reality. There are over 400,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. The pornography industry, fueled by carnal lust and sexual fantasy, is larger than the combined revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and Apple. Driven by debased images this blackened smut is a $1 billion industry in North America alone. Engineered by wicked masterminds, pornography is the creation and distribution of sexually illicit images that have no literary or artistic value.
Through the contagion of erotica, Satan uses the imagination of man to sin against God, himself and society. Unrestrained sensuous pingere have a dark side that leads to wickedness, debauchery and destruction. The infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, murderer of 12-year old Kimberly Leach, was interviewed by Dr. James Dobson before his execution in the Florida State electric chair on January 24, 1989. Bundy murdered 28 young girls and women. He grew up in a Christian home, went to church and had loving parents. He describes pornography as the genesis of his fall into the abyss.
In the interview just hours before his electrocution, he tells of finding, as a 12- to 13-year-old boy, a pornographic magazine in the trash near his home. In time he became more and more addicted to pornography, especially violent images of tortured women. When that no longer satisfied his lust he fantasized of sexually assaulting and murdering women himself. He said, “The most damaging kind of pornography – and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience – is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces – as I know only too well – brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe.”
In “The Road to Xanadu” Professor John Livingston Lowes wrote, “Fantasy and imagination are not two powers at all but one.” Bundy brought life to his perverted sexual fantasies. Commenting on the dangers of pornography he said, “I’ve lived in prison for a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography – deeply consumed by the addiction. The FBI’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers.”
Bundy is an example of the dark side of unfettered and incubated evil imaginations. He leaves us with a fagged warning, “There are those loose in their towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media in its various forms – particularly sexualized violence.”
The good news is that Christ gave you authority to bind and loose every thought and imagination. Refuse to let Satan introduce demonic imaginary into your imagination. Bind every image and cast them down. You can choose how you respond. Bundy didn’t, you can.
RESPONSIBILITY
Everyday we are bombarded by secular television reminding us that we are in a spiritual battle against our minds. There is much concern about the economy, jobs, and housing prices, mortgage foreclosures, declining morals, attacks against family values, wars and rumors of wars, sickness, disease, terrorism and natural disasters of all kinds. It seems like the perpetual hostilities against our minds offers much opportunity to leave the realm of faith in Christ and enter the quagmire of doubt, unbelief and worry.
Once again I am assisted by the Apostle Paul’s statement: “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” I love the power to imagine “all things possible to him that believeth.” Don’t you? Frequently, however, we have to battle the negative thoughts that war against our minds first. This brings me to the testimony of Viktor Frankl a survivor of the Nazi prison camps. In his autobiography, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” he pens an inspirational testimony of humanity’s potential for greatness whatever the circumstances. He wrote, “Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.” Frankl stated that no matter the mistreatment by his demonic oppressors they could never take away his choice of how he responded to them.
BUILDING STRONGHOLDS
Vain imaginations pondered will build damaging strongholds in your life. They war against your mind and keep you from walking in God’s perfect plan and purpose. Remember the degenerate progression. First the enemy challenges God’s Word in your life by introducing such things as doubt and unbelief. Next you have opportunity to ponder the thought and image it or cast it down. Further, you have the ability to linger on that imagination and speak it out or take it captive to the Word of God and cast it down. See the progression? The ability to give freedom to your imaginations belongs entirely to you.
The result of habitual negative thoughts and imaginations can send you spiraling into a state of depression. When we think something often enough, we begin to believe it’s true and our feelings match what we are thinking. To conquer depression psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck developed “cognitive therapy” in the 1960s to stop negative thoughts by replacing them with more positive ones. He believed that depression could be stopped before it ever started. The Apostle Paul developed the therapy long before Beck. He said, “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Philippians 4:6-9).
God gave you freedom to choose how you respond to every circumstance in life, every thought that attacks your mind and every bad report that contradicts God’s plan. Like Frankl you have complete control over your thought life. All of us have thoughts. They can be good or bad but thoughts are only ingredients we use to make decisions. If your thoughts are carnal, then cast them down. If they are positive, feed them. Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
You have control over your thought life and nobody can ever take away your freedom to choose how you respond to thoughts and imaginations. The Word teaches of a demon possessed man with an unclean spirit that lived in a cemetery. When he saw Jesus he ran to Him, bowed and worshipped (Mark 5). If a legion of devils could not stop him from coming to Christ then no devil, demonic thought or evil imagination can stop you from the abundant life in Christ Jesus.
The world has always been filled with doubt, unbelief and evil goings-on. The good news is that you, the born-again believer, are no longer part of that kingdom. You can escape the dark side. Christ has redeemed you and given you great and precious promises. Take control of your life and choose to respond to every circumstance of life, thought and imagination according to the truth found in the Word of God.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
Imaginations create reality, even evil reality.
All of us have thoughts. They can be good or bad but thoughts are only ingredients we use to make decisions.
If your thoughts are carnal, then cast them down. If they are positive, feed them.
Your imagination can only incubate what you linger on, good or bad.
8/20/2008
SEEING WHAT OTHERS CAN'T
Confusion, despair and gossiping are common weapons of the enemy. They can come when others talk spitefully against you or during times of discouragement and rejection. How they come is not as important as knowing how to battle against them.
Gossip and demeaning imaginations journey together.
Your enemy is a crafty foe. He uses gossip to train you in releasing and entertaining offense.
Enigmatic imaginations can lead to shadowed thinking and unsure living. scri pture says, “I pray that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). The eyes referred to in this scri pture are your spiritual eyes. With spiritual eyes you receive understanding because God enlightens you by His Spirit. God desires that you might know the truth and not wonder what the truth is. Vain imaginations, however, can dapple the truth of Christ but the Holy Spirit wants you to know “the hope of His calling” and “the riches of His glory in the inheritance of the saints.” Vain imaginations try to jail you in insecurity, fear and wondering. Learn how to battle against them by asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you into truth.
I went to a doctor with a friend once and the physician told him in no uncertain terms, “You’re going to die.” A report like that can release many fearful thoughts at you. I encouraged, “No, you’re not going to die” because God’s Word says, “With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:16). See, you have to hit fearful imaginations with overwhelming scri ptural force. This doctor was well trained in his profession, terrible in bed-side manner, and, like blind people, could not see.
We must attack facts with truth. Sometimes facts and truth conflict with each other. The fact might be that you are sick, but the truth is that “by His stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). The fact might be that you can’t pay your rent, but the truth is, “My God shall provide all of my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Learn to use the spiritual weapons of the Word of God in your life and fight imaginations with the Word of God that worketh mightily within you. If the devil says that, “You’ll never make it,” use the Word against him and declare, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
Your enemy is a crafty foe.
He uses gossip to train you in releasing and entertaining offense. Gossip and demeaning imaginations journey together. Where you find one you often find the other. Vexing imaginations can cause you to attack others by empowering you to gossip. I have experienced people entertaining imaginations that use the telephone to pass them on. Gossip is a sin. It is destructive and should not be engaged. Like witchcraft it is a work of the flesh. If you don’t like something someone’s said or has done, then pray for them, but don’t talk spitefully about them. We can’t afford to harm God’s children with our tongues.
Again, imagination is a gift.
You should spend it wisely. So if you find yourself gossiping stop. When others are gabbing to you remember that most gossip is not true anyway and there is always two different sides to every story. If they are chattering about someone today you are next on the list tomorrow. Don’t let your tongue contribute to the devil’s attack against others.
Gossip transfers thoughts and imaginations to others. Be careful what words you take into your heart. Solomon’s wisdom is beneficial, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a forward mouth and perverse lips put far from thee” (Proverbs 4:23-24). I mention gossiping because the enemy uses it to train you to contemplate corrupted thoughts and pass them on to others. American humorist Josh Billings gives some sage advice, “The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time your feel you must say something or bust.”
Even white painted churches with tall steeples experience the spiritual warfare of vain imaginations. scri pture says, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them” (Romans 16:17). Imaginations spoken against a church can keep leadership dealing with squabbles, divisions and contentions all the time. They keep them occupied with things that are not true. When imaginations attack it makes people want to give up and quit. Those that advance these imaginations serve their own desires, agendas and, “by good words and fair speeches deceive the heart of simple people” (Romans 16:18). Avoid the gossipmongers within your church that attack leadership and dismantle the unity of the congregation and vision of the house. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
Confusion, despair and gossiping are common weapons of the enemy. They can come when others talk spitefully against you or during times of discouragement and rejection. How they come is not as important as knowing how to battle against them. Christ is not the author of confusion but the finisher of your faith. He never taught his disciples to battle with fleshly weapons but spiritual ones. Jesus said, “I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). Use that authority today and attack every power of darkness, confusion, despair and offense that battles your soul.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
If the enemy can destroy your hope he can disarm your faith.
Witchcraft is a spiritual force that battles against the spirit of your mind.
Witchcraft works best inside one’s imagination.
Witchcraft is a work of the flesh because people have the power to cast down orphic imaginations or to entertain them and walk them out.
Your enemy is a crafty foe. He uses gossip to train you in releasing and entertaining offense.
Gossip and demeaning imaginations journey together.
Your enemy is a crafty foe. He uses gossip to train you in releasing and entertaining offense.
Enigmatic imaginations can lead to shadowed thinking and unsure living. scri pture says, “I pray that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). The eyes referred to in this scri pture are your spiritual eyes. With spiritual eyes you receive understanding because God enlightens you by His Spirit. God desires that you might know the truth and not wonder what the truth is. Vain imaginations, however, can dapple the truth of Christ but the Holy Spirit wants you to know “the hope of His calling” and “the riches of His glory in the inheritance of the saints.” Vain imaginations try to jail you in insecurity, fear and wondering. Learn how to battle against them by asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you into truth.
I went to a doctor with a friend once and the physician told him in no uncertain terms, “You’re going to die.” A report like that can release many fearful thoughts at you. I encouraged, “No, you’re not going to die” because God’s Word says, “With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:16). See, you have to hit fearful imaginations with overwhelming scri ptural force. This doctor was well trained in his profession, terrible in bed-side manner, and, like blind people, could not see.
We must attack facts with truth. Sometimes facts and truth conflict with each other. The fact might be that you are sick, but the truth is that “by His stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). The fact might be that you can’t pay your rent, but the truth is, “My God shall provide all of my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Learn to use the spiritual weapons of the Word of God in your life and fight imaginations with the Word of God that worketh mightily within you. If the devil says that, “You’ll never make it,” use the Word against him and declare, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
Your enemy is a crafty foe.
He uses gossip to train you in releasing and entertaining offense. Gossip and demeaning imaginations journey together. Where you find one you often find the other. Vexing imaginations can cause you to attack others by empowering you to gossip. I have experienced people entertaining imaginations that use the telephone to pass them on. Gossip is a sin. It is destructive and should not be engaged. Like witchcraft it is a work of the flesh. If you don’t like something someone’s said or has done, then pray for them, but don’t talk spitefully about them. We can’t afford to harm God’s children with our tongues.
Again, imagination is a gift.
You should spend it wisely. So if you find yourself gossiping stop. When others are gabbing to you remember that most gossip is not true anyway and there is always two different sides to every story. If they are chattering about someone today you are next on the list tomorrow. Don’t let your tongue contribute to the devil’s attack against others.
Gossip transfers thoughts and imaginations to others. Be careful what words you take into your heart. Solomon’s wisdom is beneficial, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a forward mouth and perverse lips put far from thee” (Proverbs 4:23-24). I mention gossiping because the enemy uses it to train you to contemplate corrupted thoughts and pass them on to others. American humorist Josh Billings gives some sage advice, “The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time your feel you must say something or bust.”
Even white painted churches with tall steeples experience the spiritual warfare of vain imaginations. scri pture says, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them” (Romans 16:17). Imaginations spoken against a church can keep leadership dealing with squabbles, divisions and contentions all the time. They keep them occupied with things that are not true. When imaginations attack it makes people want to give up and quit. Those that advance these imaginations serve their own desires, agendas and, “by good words and fair speeches deceive the heart of simple people” (Romans 16:18). Avoid the gossipmongers within your church that attack leadership and dismantle the unity of the congregation and vision of the house. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
Confusion, despair and gossiping are common weapons of the enemy. They can come when others talk spitefully against you or during times of discouragement and rejection. How they come is not as important as knowing how to battle against them. Christ is not the author of confusion but the finisher of your faith. He never taught his disciples to battle with fleshly weapons but spiritual ones. Jesus said, “I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). Use that authority today and attack every power of darkness, confusion, despair and offense that battles your soul.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
If the enemy can destroy your hope he can disarm your faith.
Witchcraft is a spiritual force that battles against the spirit of your mind.
Witchcraft works best inside one’s imagination.
Witchcraft is a work of the flesh because people have the power to cast down orphic imaginations or to entertain them and walk them out.
Your enemy is a crafty foe. He uses gossip to train you in releasing and entertaining offense.
8/19/2008
CALLING ALL HELP
Hey everyone we are moving forward with building the kids room and decking out the new room for the gym. If I could get a couple of guys Friday night to help load and unload materials from home depot. Then as many able body people on Saturday morning at 8 am to help with the building of the nursery, kids room, and new grappling room we would greatly appreciate it.
For more information call me on my cell
For more information call me on my cell
International School of Prophetic Development
Dear Pastor,
Have you got enough reliable prophecy in your church?Or, maybe you have too much flaky stuff? Or, maybe you've got good prophecy but it doesn't seem to be helping your church to grow? Are you having trouble identifying prophetically gifted people in your church? The prophecy guys of GCI are here to help you. Our heart is to help you strengthen the prophetic gift in your church. Send us your people who may be gifted or who need help activating their gift. Send them this email or the link to register which is located at the end of this email. The International School of Prophetic Development -- Module 2 is just around the corner.
We will resume our search for prophets on Friday, September 26 and Saturday, September 27 at Manna Church in Fayetteville, NC. Registration/Check-in begins at 6:00 PM on the 26th, and the meeting begins at 7:30 PM. We'll start a little later than usual to allow time to drive in to Fayetteville. We will follow up on the teaching and presentations of the first module given earlier in the year. If you did not attend the first ISPD, you will be able to order those conference CD's at a discounted rate during the registration process, which is the only requirement for attending the ISPD -- Module 2. We will have an excellent catered lunch on Saturday.
The conference cost is $110.00 for an individual and $185.00 for a couple. September 11 begins our late registration fee of $120 for an individual and $200 for a couple. Here's what we will be studying:
Indwelling Sin and the Prophetic Prerogative
Judging prophecy
Integrating the Prophetic into Local Church Life
False prophets and the Spirit of Error
Apprenticing Prophets and Developing Teams
Prophetic evangelism
We will also have intense sessions of prophetic activation and release. The teachers will be Clem Ferris, Bob Watson, Ben Goodman and myself. It is rare to be able to get all four prophets off airplanes and in one place at the same time. We are doing this because we want to find new prophets for a new generation.
These are your links to sign up -- propheticdevelopment.org or antiochministries.org. You can also call the Antioch office at 910.867-6116 to register with Rebecca Lombardo. This will be a feast!
-- Michael A. Cotten"All May Come"Antioch Ministriesoffice -- 910.867.6116Skype --
Have you got enough reliable prophecy in your church?Or, maybe you have too much flaky stuff? Or, maybe you've got good prophecy but it doesn't seem to be helping your church to grow? Are you having trouble identifying prophetically gifted people in your church? The prophecy guys of GCI are here to help you. Our heart is to help you strengthen the prophetic gift in your church. Send us your people who may be gifted or who need help activating their gift. Send them this email or the link to register which is located at the end of this email. The International School of Prophetic Development -- Module 2 is just around the corner.
We will resume our search for prophets on Friday, September 26 and Saturday, September 27 at Manna Church in Fayetteville, NC. Registration/Check-in begins at 6:00 PM on the 26th, and the meeting begins at 7:30 PM. We'll start a little later than usual to allow time to drive in to Fayetteville. We will follow up on the teaching and presentations of the first module given earlier in the year. If you did not attend the first ISPD, you will be able to order those conference CD's at a discounted rate during the registration process, which is the only requirement for attending the ISPD -- Module 2. We will have an excellent catered lunch on Saturday.
The conference cost is $110.00 for an individual and $185.00 for a couple. September 11 begins our late registration fee of $120 for an individual and $200 for a couple. Here's what we will be studying:
Indwelling Sin and the Prophetic Prerogative
Judging prophecy
Integrating the Prophetic into Local Church Life
False prophets and the Spirit of Error
Apprenticing Prophets and Developing Teams
Prophetic evangelism
We will also have intense sessions of prophetic activation and release. The teachers will be Clem Ferris, Bob Watson, Ben Goodman and myself. It is rare to be able to get all four prophets off airplanes and in one place at the same time. We are doing this because we want to find new prophets for a new generation.
These are your links to sign up -- propheticdevelopment.org or antiochministries.org. You can also call the Antioch office at 910.867-6116 to register with Rebecca Lombardo. This will be a feast!
-- Michael A. Cotten"All May Come"Antioch Ministriesoffice -- 910.867.6116Skype --
8/18/2008
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GIVING UP
One of the surest signs of spiritual attack against the mind is the feeling that you want to throw up your hands and quit. Discover how to battle this attack.
“God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Spiritual warfare against the mind releases fear, confusion, despair and offense.
Spiritual battles are not fought with fleshly ordnance. scri pture declares, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:3). Spiritual warfare is using the Word of God and your delegated authority to oppose demonic opposition against you.
The Holy Spirit is still giving us understanding of the ghostly powers that battle against us. Scripture says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6). The Apostle Paul makes it clear that we are in a spiritual war and declares that, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.”
Before we attack principalities and powers let’s learn how to pull down the warring thoughts and imaginations that rise within us. Paul continued, “Casting down imaginations.” An imagination is an image, a picture formed in the spirit of your mind of something unseen. Something that exists only in the imagination is not real unless you give life to it. Have you experienced an imagination today? What did you do with it? Did you cast it down and move ahead or have tea and biscuits on white clothed tables?
Spiritual warfare against the mind releases fear, confusion, despair and offense. scri pture says such things do not come from God, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Let’s start with confusion. Corrupted imaginations can affect sound judgment and inject confusion into your life. Left unrestrained they will release uncertainty and cause difficulty with problem solving, staying attentive and remaining focused. Confusion is like a grey haze that dares you to enter. Mental murk is the symptom of a weapon that clouds truth. That’s why its source needs to be justly observed. Sometimes it is caused from lack of rest, health or disinformation that affects your ability to solve problems or clear your thoughts. At other times it’s the result of spiritual attacks, warfare within your mind that produces mixed-up thinking. When the haze assaults remember that, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). Often confusion is a spiritual attack against your mind that has little or nothing to do with the general circumstances surrounding you. If attacked by confusion plead the blood of Jesus over your mind and watch the cloudiness disappear like the morning fog at sunrise.
Sad news can release despair. Yet dismay from spiritual warfare usually has nothing to do with a winter’s tale. Have you felt like you just wanted to give up and quit? Monday morning has come and you just want to turn back. One of the surest signs of spiritual attack against the mind is the feeling that you want to throw up your hands and quit. Despair feels like a lonely winter. It is the capricious notion that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well. It is an attack against hope. scri pture says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Notice that faith activates hope that resides in the unseen realm within. You have probably heard much about the importance of faith, but faith activates hope. Hope is the stuff that dreams are made of. That’s why the spirit of this world attacks it so. If the enemy can destroy your hope he can disarm your faith. Those times when you feel like quitting and the whole world is against you are sure signs that victory is right at the door. Pick up your double-edged sword and slay that feeling.
WINNING THE MIND WARFARE
Confusion can also be the result of witchcraft that whispers in your ear. In my book “Exposing Spiritual Witchcraft” we learn that witchcraft is a spiritual force that battles against the spirit of your mind. Ungodly imaginations, for example, can have you entertaining works of the flesh and take you right out of the Spirit.
Some people are like the lone Joshua trees found in Southern California’s Mojave Desert. They are surrounded by desert and void of the refreshing waters of the Holy Spirit. Those who live according to their own hearts walk in spiritual parchedness. scri pture describes them as those that, “Have forsaken my law which I set before them and have not obeyed my voice neither walked therein but have walked after the imagination of their own heart and after Baalim which their fathers taught them” (Jeremiah 9:13-14). Baalim was a darkened prophet that ministered in divination and witchcraft because of a covetous heart. He sold-out God’s chosen for “the rewards of divination,” power, prestige and money (Numbers 22:7).
Thoughts that take you out of the Spirit are evidence of the spiritual war against your mind. Beware the fate of the foolish Galatians. Some thoughts are works of witchcraft within your imagination. Bewitching imaginations that lead you away from God’s principles and precepts into the flesh need to be bound and cast down (Galatians 3:1-3).
Witchcraft works best inside one’s imagination. Enchanted images are simply focal points the prince of the power of the air uses to steal Christ’s abundant life. scri pture describes witchcraft as a work of the flesh. “But if you be led of the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions and heresies” (Galatians 5:18-20). Witchcraft is a work of the flesh because people have the power to cast down orphic imaginations or to entertain them and walk them out. Beware the ritual of pictured witchery. You give life to an imagination by speaking it. scri pture declares that “life and death are in the power of the tongue.” You have to be careful what you speak because the world of the spirit doesn’t operate on what you mean, it operates on what you say (Mark 11:23). When you speak the imaginations that attack your mind you prophesy over your life. So be cautious with your words because speaking vain imaginations, an activity of your flesh, is a form of witchcraft according to the scri pture you just read.
Others may have witchy thoughts about you and speak them over you. When they do, they give life to it and pass the assignment on. Now you have to deal with those spoken words. Not only was the imagination working within their imagination leading to wrong conclusions but now they’ve released the assignment of that imagination against your life; when they do that releases confusion, a form of witchcraft. If this happens to you, don’t receive it. Don’t think about it. Don’t agree with it. Don’t repeat it. Bind it up and cast it down.
Someone may say, for example, “I was thinking about you last night and recommend that you double lock your doors tonight because I just feel danger in the air.” Or they may talk about how you’re going to be sick and so on. Don’t give life to other people’s fleshly munitions.
When spoken, vain imaginations release demonic assignments through fear. If someone releases fear at you through one of their imaginations bind it up. You can declare God’s truth over your life by saying, “No weapon formed against me can prosper in Jesus’ name!” Remember that warring against imaginations means that you chain every thought, every word and every imagination to the Word of God, even the gossiping words spoken by others. This is why some Christians are taken out by imaginations because they don’t know how to campaign against them. Use God’s Word in your life and take dominion over vain imaginations. Avoid other people’s imaginations and don’t try to combat thoughts with thoughts. Instead use the Word of God and your spiritual authority to take them captive.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
Spiritual warfare is using the Word of God and your delegated authority to oppose demonic opposition against you.
Before we attack principalities and powers let’s learn how to pull down the warring thoughts and imaginations that rise within us.
One of the surest signs of spiritual attack against the mind is the feeling that you want to throw up your hands and quit.
The world of the spirit doesn’t operate on what you mean, it operates on what you say.
“God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Spiritual warfare against the mind releases fear, confusion, despair and offense.
Spiritual battles are not fought with fleshly ordnance. scri pture declares, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:3). Spiritual warfare is using the Word of God and your delegated authority to oppose demonic opposition against you.
The Holy Spirit is still giving us understanding of the ghostly powers that battle against us. Scripture says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6). The Apostle Paul makes it clear that we are in a spiritual war and declares that, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.”
Before we attack principalities and powers let’s learn how to pull down the warring thoughts and imaginations that rise within us. Paul continued, “Casting down imaginations.” An imagination is an image, a picture formed in the spirit of your mind of something unseen. Something that exists only in the imagination is not real unless you give life to it. Have you experienced an imagination today? What did you do with it? Did you cast it down and move ahead or have tea and biscuits on white clothed tables?
Spiritual warfare against the mind releases fear, confusion, despair and offense. scri pture says such things do not come from God, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Let’s start with confusion. Corrupted imaginations can affect sound judgment and inject confusion into your life. Left unrestrained they will release uncertainty and cause difficulty with problem solving, staying attentive and remaining focused. Confusion is like a grey haze that dares you to enter. Mental murk is the symptom of a weapon that clouds truth. That’s why its source needs to be justly observed. Sometimes it is caused from lack of rest, health or disinformation that affects your ability to solve problems or clear your thoughts. At other times it’s the result of spiritual attacks, warfare within your mind that produces mixed-up thinking. When the haze assaults remember that, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). Often confusion is a spiritual attack against your mind that has little or nothing to do with the general circumstances surrounding you. If attacked by confusion plead the blood of Jesus over your mind and watch the cloudiness disappear like the morning fog at sunrise.
Sad news can release despair. Yet dismay from spiritual warfare usually has nothing to do with a winter’s tale. Have you felt like you just wanted to give up and quit? Monday morning has come and you just want to turn back. One of the surest signs of spiritual attack against the mind is the feeling that you want to throw up your hands and quit. Despair feels like a lonely winter. It is the capricious notion that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well. It is an attack against hope. scri pture says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Notice that faith activates hope that resides in the unseen realm within. You have probably heard much about the importance of faith, but faith activates hope. Hope is the stuff that dreams are made of. That’s why the spirit of this world attacks it so. If the enemy can destroy your hope he can disarm your faith. Those times when you feel like quitting and the whole world is against you are sure signs that victory is right at the door. Pick up your double-edged sword and slay that feeling.
WINNING THE MIND WARFARE
Confusion can also be the result of witchcraft that whispers in your ear. In my book “Exposing Spiritual Witchcraft” we learn that witchcraft is a spiritual force that battles against the spirit of your mind. Ungodly imaginations, for example, can have you entertaining works of the flesh and take you right out of the Spirit.
Some people are like the lone Joshua trees found in Southern California’s Mojave Desert. They are surrounded by desert and void of the refreshing waters of the Holy Spirit. Those who live according to their own hearts walk in spiritual parchedness. scri pture describes them as those that, “Have forsaken my law which I set before them and have not obeyed my voice neither walked therein but have walked after the imagination of their own heart and after Baalim which their fathers taught them” (Jeremiah 9:13-14). Baalim was a darkened prophet that ministered in divination and witchcraft because of a covetous heart. He sold-out God’s chosen for “the rewards of divination,” power, prestige and money (Numbers 22:7).
Thoughts that take you out of the Spirit are evidence of the spiritual war against your mind. Beware the fate of the foolish Galatians. Some thoughts are works of witchcraft within your imagination. Bewitching imaginations that lead you away from God’s principles and precepts into the flesh need to be bound and cast down (Galatians 3:1-3).
Witchcraft works best inside one’s imagination. Enchanted images are simply focal points the prince of the power of the air uses to steal Christ’s abundant life. scri pture describes witchcraft as a work of the flesh. “But if you be led of the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions and heresies” (Galatians 5:18-20). Witchcraft is a work of the flesh because people have the power to cast down orphic imaginations or to entertain them and walk them out. Beware the ritual of pictured witchery. You give life to an imagination by speaking it. scri pture declares that “life and death are in the power of the tongue.” You have to be careful what you speak because the world of the spirit doesn’t operate on what you mean, it operates on what you say (Mark 11:23). When you speak the imaginations that attack your mind you prophesy over your life. So be cautious with your words because speaking vain imaginations, an activity of your flesh, is a form of witchcraft according to the scri pture you just read.
Others may have witchy thoughts about you and speak them over you. When they do, they give life to it and pass the assignment on. Now you have to deal with those spoken words. Not only was the imagination working within their imagination leading to wrong conclusions but now they’ve released the assignment of that imagination against your life; when they do that releases confusion, a form of witchcraft. If this happens to you, don’t receive it. Don’t think about it. Don’t agree with it. Don’t repeat it. Bind it up and cast it down.
Someone may say, for example, “I was thinking about you last night and recommend that you double lock your doors tonight because I just feel danger in the air.” Or they may talk about how you’re going to be sick and so on. Don’t give life to other people’s fleshly munitions.
When spoken, vain imaginations release demonic assignments through fear. If someone releases fear at you through one of their imaginations bind it up. You can declare God’s truth over your life by saying, “No weapon formed against me can prosper in Jesus’ name!” Remember that warring against imaginations means that you chain every thought, every word and every imagination to the Word of God, even the gossiping words spoken by others. This is why some Christians are taken out by imaginations because they don’t know how to campaign against them. Use God’s Word in your life and take dominion over vain imaginations. Avoid other people’s imaginations and don’t try to combat thoughts with thoughts. Instead use the Word of God and your spiritual authority to take them captive.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
Spiritual warfare is using the Word of God and your delegated authority to oppose demonic opposition against you.
Before we attack principalities and powers let’s learn how to pull down the warring thoughts and imaginations that rise within us.
One of the surest signs of spiritual attack against the mind is the feeling that you want to throw up your hands and quit.
The world of the spirit doesn’t operate on what you mean, it operates on what you say.
8/13/2008
THE WEAPONS OF YOUR WARFARE
Find out how the devil offers you corrupted thoughts hoping you will take the bait and image them as possible.
PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS
The devil wants to use your imagination to make mountains out of molehills to discourage. Mountains are best built within a corrupted imagination.
God knows you can wander into the stormy sea of vain imaginations. He provided in His Word, however, ways to calm every storm. Again He says the weapons of your warfare are not carnal but mighty through Him to pull down those corrupted thoughts that would rise against His Word, will and ways in your life.
Pulling down negative thoughts is something that you have to do. It’s like taking down and replacing old pictures of loved ones. Others can’t do that for you. “So how often do you pull those thoughts down,” you ask? Every time you have one. God will not take those thoughts captive for you. You have to do it. “How do you pull down a corrupted thought or imagination,” you inquire? You pull them down by first recognizing that you have one.
You need to be able to see the imagination coming alive within your soul. Imaginations are pictures within your mind of thoughts, events or conversations that are only in the unseen world within you. They are not real. The devil offers you corrupted thoughts hoping you will take the bait and image them as possible.
Rogue imaginations encourage you to do things you shouldn’t by releasing fear or playing on rejection. We cannot be driven by dread, insecurity or wandering minds. You can have the abundant life that Christ said you could have. scri pture says, “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:6). To “revenge disobedience” means stopping carnal imaginations that are noncompliant to the Word of God. Notice the Word tells you to be ready to cast them down through obedience because imaginations have no power over those that obey “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”
When vain imaginations blather on, they always conflict with God’s Word. That’s how you know if your imagination is good or bad. When a thought conflicts with the Word of God you must submit yourself to God’s Word and not the imagination. You can always seek safety by running into Christ’s covering and away from corrupted thoughts and imaginations.
LIVING WITH THIEVES
Many Christians are influenced by carnal imaginations. Vain imaginations are thieves. Don’t live with them. You never know what family treasure they will pluck from your cupboards. When you linger on one the triumph of God’s Word is stolen from you. Don’t flake out and wander into vain imaginations. Take hold of your mind. Like traversing a minefield there is danger when walking out a corrupted imagination.
When you form, in the spirit of your mind, a picture or an image of something that might happen and act on that image you give sunshine to it. Acting on an imagination moves your life in that direction. To guard yourself you must not ponder on the thought. If you act out the thought you cross the threshold of safety and leave the path of life abundant.
Every one of us has done this. We’ve been manipulated, influenced and controlled by corrupted imaginations or by something we thought would happen that wasn’t even real until we made it real.
There are truths that God speaks into our lives that are genuine and there are other thoughts the spirit of this world speaks that are not real. Most the images that randomly come into your mind are vain imaginations. You can, however, like the wooden rudder on a mighty ship, direct your imaginations toward the positive by using your will. Until you learn how to cast down corrupted imaginations you cannot cultivate the positive ones. The devil wants to use your imagination to make mountains out of molehills to discourage. Mountains are best built within a corrupted imagination. They only offer discouragement, fear, confusion, anger and defeat. The good news is that you can do something about them. You can take control of your thought life.
OUT WITH THE TRASH
Imaginations make believers with mighty potential spiritually weak and emotionally immature. Some get carried away by their own imaginations. Relationships, for example, split because of vain imaginations.
Vain imaginations can be so serious that some even leave good churches because of imaginary offenses. Somebody imagined that somebody thought something about them. Before they know it, they’re giving life to corrupted thoughts, changing churches and abandoning life-long friends. They find themselves out of the plan of God and wondering what happened. Left unchecked this is the power of vain imaginations.
When an imagination enters your life, you have to ask yourself if the thoughts line up with God’s Word. If they don’t then you need to place them in a polyethylene trash bag for pickup. Don’t be afraid to call an imagination what it is. You need to say to yourself, “That’s a corrupted imagination and I’m not walking in it.” When vain imaginations enter the spirit of your mind don’t dwell on them, bind them up. Lingering on hollow thoughts and imaginations only empowers them.
Let’s make this more personal. Let’s say, for example, that you can’t pay your bills. The devil will try to get into your emotions and torment you with thoughts that say, “They’re going to take your car away from you, for example, or they’re going to put a lien on your home, or they’re going to file a lawsuit against you.” Before you know it, you are tormented by an imagination, a mental picture of things that are not true.
Imaginations are suggestive and always rise against the knowledge of God that says, all of your needs shall be met. So what happens if you dwell on a corrupted imagination? You will be mentally troubled and prodded to act out the imagination. Do you see it? Imaginations are destroying lives but you can stop every one by subjecting them to God’s written Word.
Imagination is a good thing. As mentioned already it is a gift from God given to you to “see all things as possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). Before you can operate in that seeing gift, however, you need to discern corrupted thoughts and vain imaginations. You can do it. This week try writing them down and practice identifying every positive and negative thought, voice and imagination that enters your mind. The first step to winning the war, like Agatha Christie’s fictional detective Miss Marple, will be your ability to rightly discern the thoughts that attack your soul.
PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS
The devil wants to use your imagination to make mountains out of molehills to discourage. Mountains are best built within a corrupted imagination.
God knows you can wander into the stormy sea of vain imaginations. He provided in His Word, however, ways to calm every storm. Again He says the weapons of your warfare are not carnal but mighty through Him to pull down those corrupted thoughts that would rise against His Word, will and ways in your life.
Pulling down negative thoughts is something that you have to do. It’s like taking down and replacing old pictures of loved ones. Others can’t do that for you. “So how often do you pull those thoughts down,” you ask? Every time you have one. God will not take those thoughts captive for you. You have to do it. “How do you pull down a corrupted thought or imagination,” you inquire? You pull them down by first recognizing that you have one.
You need to be able to see the imagination coming alive within your soul. Imaginations are pictures within your mind of thoughts, events or conversations that are only in the unseen world within you. They are not real. The devil offers you corrupted thoughts hoping you will take the bait and image them as possible.
Rogue imaginations encourage you to do things you shouldn’t by releasing fear or playing on rejection. We cannot be driven by dread, insecurity or wandering minds. You can have the abundant life that Christ said you could have. scri pture says, “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:6). To “revenge disobedience” means stopping carnal imaginations that are noncompliant to the Word of God. Notice the Word tells you to be ready to cast them down through obedience because imaginations have no power over those that obey “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”
When vain imaginations blather on, they always conflict with God’s Word. That’s how you know if your imagination is good or bad. When a thought conflicts with the Word of God you must submit yourself to God’s Word and not the imagination. You can always seek safety by running into Christ’s covering and away from corrupted thoughts and imaginations.
LIVING WITH THIEVES
Many Christians are influenced by carnal imaginations. Vain imaginations are thieves. Don’t live with them. You never know what family treasure they will pluck from your cupboards. When you linger on one the triumph of God’s Word is stolen from you. Don’t flake out and wander into vain imaginations. Take hold of your mind. Like traversing a minefield there is danger when walking out a corrupted imagination.
When you form, in the spirit of your mind, a picture or an image of something that might happen and act on that image you give sunshine to it. Acting on an imagination moves your life in that direction. To guard yourself you must not ponder on the thought. If you act out the thought you cross the threshold of safety and leave the path of life abundant.
Every one of us has done this. We’ve been manipulated, influenced and controlled by corrupted imaginations or by something we thought would happen that wasn’t even real until we made it real.
There are truths that God speaks into our lives that are genuine and there are other thoughts the spirit of this world speaks that are not real. Most the images that randomly come into your mind are vain imaginations. You can, however, like the wooden rudder on a mighty ship, direct your imaginations toward the positive by using your will. Until you learn how to cast down corrupted imaginations you cannot cultivate the positive ones. The devil wants to use your imagination to make mountains out of molehills to discourage. Mountains are best built within a corrupted imagination. They only offer discouragement, fear, confusion, anger and defeat. The good news is that you can do something about them. You can take control of your thought life.
OUT WITH THE TRASH
Imaginations make believers with mighty potential spiritually weak and emotionally immature. Some get carried away by their own imaginations. Relationships, for example, split because of vain imaginations.
Vain imaginations can be so serious that some even leave good churches because of imaginary offenses. Somebody imagined that somebody thought something about them. Before they know it, they’re giving life to corrupted thoughts, changing churches and abandoning life-long friends. They find themselves out of the plan of God and wondering what happened. Left unchecked this is the power of vain imaginations.
When an imagination enters your life, you have to ask yourself if the thoughts line up with God’s Word. If they don’t then you need to place them in a polyethylene trash bag for pickup. Don’t be afraid to call an imagination what it is. You need to say to yourself, “That’s a corrupted imagination and I’m not walking in it.” When vain imaginations enter the spirit of your mind don’t dwell on them, bind them up. Lingering on hollow thoughts and imaginations only empowers them.
Let’s make this more personal. Let’s say, for example, that you can’t pay your bills. The devil will try to get into your emotions and torment you with thoughts that say, “They’re going to take your car away from you, for example, or they’re going to put a lien on your home, or they’re going to file a lawsuit against you.” Before you know it, you are tormented by an imagination, a mental picture of things that are not true.
Imaginations are suggestive and always rise against the knowledge of God that says, all of your needs shall be met. So what happens if you dwell on a corrupted imagination? You will be mentally troubled and prodded to act out the imagination. Do you see it? Imaginations are destroying lives but you can stop every one by subjecting them to God’s written Word.
Imagination is a good thing. As mentioned already it is a gift from God given to you to “see all things as possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). Before you can operate in that seeing gift, however, you need to discern corrupted thoughts and vain imaginations. You can do it. This week try writing them down and practice identifying every positive and negative thought, voice and imagination that enters your mind. The first step to winning the war, like Agatha Christie’s fictional detective Miss Marple, will be your ability to rightly discern the thoughts that attack your soul.
8/11/2008
Christ's Fighting Instruments
Christ’s Fighting Instruments
Christ gave you powerful fighting instruments—His Word. Use His sword today and win every battle.
MEDITATE ON THE WORD
When you form, in the spirit of your mind, a picture or an image of something that might happen and act on that image you give life to it.
One of your greatest fighting instruments is the capacity to judge all thoughts and imaginations by the written Word of God. Unbelievers don’t have this ability because their carnal minds are hostile toward God (Romans 8:7). Using the written law of God as your guide for truth is the first sign of spiritual maturity. As you learn to judge all your thoughts you will discover that fear, insecurity and confusion will leave your life.
Some have more problems with debased thoughts and imaginations than others, but there is victory for everyone. You just have to learn how to bind them up. One thing that helps everyone is to stop taking imaginations as fact. Imaginations are only imaginations. They dwell in the unseen spirit of your mind. Thoughts too are only thoughts. Neither has power unless you give life to them by dwelling on them and speaking them.
Judging every thought and imagination will help you immediately. All your thoughts and imaginations should lead you closer to God and life in the Spirit. If they don’t they are vain and corrupted. To embrace them would only hinder your walk with Christ.
Vain imaginations never lead you closer to God but away from Him. They are exalted valleys. Many live, not according to the Word of God or the ways of God, but according to blemished imagery within their imagination. The imagination is the area where the devil works the most in the life of a believer. Just remember “the weapons of your warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” Strongholds are those destructive imaginations created by dwelling on corrupted thoughts.
Imaginations will talk to you. They have a voice and are not afraid to mentor you. Vain imaginations can, and will, laud themselves against the knowledge of God in your life. They have an anti-Christ voice and will challenge Christ’ truth for your life. An imagination, for example, may speak to you saying, “You’re going to die,” when Christ’ Word clearly declares, “With long life will I satisfy you and show you my salvation” (Psalm 91:16). That is how imaginations glorify themselves against the knowledge of God.
Have you ever felt defeated in the midst of victory? An imagination may also attack the Word of God in your life by saying, “You’re going to be a defeated person all your life.” When the Word of God says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). When the Word of God declares, “My God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19), an imagination may attack to undermine God’s plan and purpose in your life. God may speak to you saying, “I’ve called you for such a time as this” (Ester 4:14), but an imagination may challenge, “Yeah, but nobody loves you, nobody cares about you, and nobody will listen to you.” All of these are simple examples of the lying voice of vain thoughts that attack the mind. You must learn how to get control over your thoughts and imaginations, and you can!
IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS
Within your imagination you can create supposed conversations with others. Sometimes people allow imaginary verbal exchanges to take them into error. Some start foreseeing in their mind’s eye, for illustration, a presumed dialogue they’ll have with someone. They may think of someone they’re going to meet at work and begin to think about a talk that has not yet taken place. Their mind begins to drift into the realm of imagination and they think about what they are going to say. They even visualize the person’s response. As they continue to think about the scene a voice of fear may be released into their imagination producing insecurity, alarm, rejection, unbelief or anger. Because imaginations produce emotion they then find themselves envisaging things that haven’t even happened. This is the poisoned fruit of corrupted thoughts and imaginations. This is why we must take every vagabond imagination captive. This realm can rob abundant life from you. Vain imaginations are “high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God” and attack your mind.
Have you drifted past coral reefs into the dark blue depths of a vain imagination today? You may have started thinking what your spouse might say, what your employer might say, or how your children might act. Suddenly your mind is consumed with unseen images that affect you in a negative way. When you dwell on corrupted thoughts you’re walking, not after the Spirit, but after the flesh that was introduced by the vain imagination. This is another example of how some live because they harvest imaginations and lose the victory of the knowledge of Christ in their lives.
Imaginations speak a foreign language and exalt themselves against the truth of God in your life. It is the voice of an imagination, for example, that says, “You can’t make it. Why don’t you just give up and quit?” When you hear unfamiliar sounds turn away and incline your ear towards heaven that declares, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). Christ gave you powerful fighting instruments—His Word. Use His sword today and win every battle.
Christ gave you powerful fighting instruments—His Word. Use His sword today and win every battle.
MEDITATE ON THE WORD
When you form, in the spirit of your mind, a picture or an image of something that might happen and act on that image you give life to it.
One of your greatest fighting instruments is the capacity to judge all thoughts and imaginations by the written Word of God. Unbelievers don’t have this ability because their carnal minds are hostile toward God (Romans 8:7). Using the written law of God as your guide for truth is the first sign of spiritual maturity. As you learn to judge all your thoughts you will discover that fear, insecurity and confusion will leave your life.
Some have more problems with debased thoughts and imaginations than others, but there is victory for everyone. You just have to learn how to bind them up. One thing that helps everyone is to stop taking imaginations as fact. Imaginations are only imaginations. They dwell in the unseen spirit of your mind. Thoughts too are only thoughts. Neither has power unless you give life to them by dwelling on them and speaking them.
Judging every thought and imagination will help you immediately. All your thoughts and imaginations should lead you closer to God and life in the Spirit. If they don’t they are vain and corrupted. To embrace them would only hinder your walk with Christ.
Vain imaginations never lead you closer to God but away from Him. They are exalted valleys. Many live, not according to the Word of God or the ways of God, but according to blemished imagery within their imagination. The imagination is the area where the devil works the most in the life of a believer. Just remember “the weapons of your warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” Strongholds are those destructive imaginations created by dwelling on corrupted thoughts.
Imaginations will talk to you. They have a voice and are not afraid to mentor you. Vain imaginations can, and will, laud themselves against the knowledge of God in your life. They have an anti-Christ voice and will challenge Christ’ truth for your life. An imagination, for example, may speak to you saying, “You’re going to die,” when Christ’ Word clearly declares, “With long life will I satisfy you and show you my salvation” (Psalm 91:16). That is how imaginations glorify themselves against the knowledge of God.
Have you ever felt defeated in the midst of victory? An imagination may also attack the Word of God in your life by saying, “You’re going to be a defeated person all your life.” When the Word of God says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). When the Word of God declares, “My God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19), an imagination may attack to undermine God’s plan and purpose in your life. God may speak to you saying, “I’ve called you for such a time as this” (Ester 4:14), but an imagination may challenge, “Yeah, but nobody loves you, nobody cares about you, and nobody will listen to you.” All of these are simple examples of the lying voice of vain thoughts that attack the mind. You must learn how to get control over your thoughts and imaginations, and you can!
IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS
Within your imagination you can create supposed conversations with others. Sometimes people allow imaginary verbal exchanges to take them into error. Some start foreseeing in their mind’s eye, for illustration, a presumed dialogue they’ll have with someone. They may think of someone they’re going to meet at work and begin to think about a talk that has not yet taken place. Their mind begins to drift into the realm of imagination and they think about what they are going to say. They even visualize the person’s response. As they continue to think about the scene a voice of fear may be released into their imagination producing insecurity, alarm, rejection, unbelief or anger. Because imaginations produce emotion they then find themselves envisaging things that haven’t even happened. This is the poisoned fruit of corrupted thoughts and imaginations. This is why we must take every vagabond imagination captive. This realm can rob abundant life from you. Vain imaginations are “high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God” and attack your mind.
Have you drifted past coral reefs into the dark blue depths of a vain imagination today? You may have started thinking what your spouse might say, what your employer might say, or how your children might act. Suddenly your mind is consumed with unseen images that affect you in a negative way. When you dwell on corrupted thoughts you’re walking, not after the Spirit, but after the flesh that was introduced by the vain imagination. This is another example of how some live because they harvest imaginations and lose the victory of the knowledge of Christ in their lives.
Imaginations speak a foreign language and exalt themselves against the truth of God in your life. It is the voice of an imagination, for example, that says, “You can’t make it. Why don’t you just give up and quit?” When you hear unfamiliar sounds turn away and incline your ear towards heaven that declares, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). Christ gave you powerful fighting instruments—His Word. Use His sword today and win every battle.
8/07/2008
A Fairytale
A Fairytale
July 22, 2008
Written by: Brad Stine
Once upon a time there was nothing. No earth or sky or universe or even molecules. Nothing was all there was. Over time, wait; there was no "time" because there was nothing.Ok, "nothing" apparently got lonely, or bored, or antsy, which nothingness tends to do, and out of the blue, (not that blue existed because there was no light thus no color) anyway for sake of argument nothing for no reason whatsoever blew up. Immediately after blowing up what once was nothing suddenly became a whole bunch of something. Nothing we humans would recognize but something nonetheless. Suddenly for no good reason there were molecules that instantly became the periodic table, with interesting stuff like hydrogen and carbon, and with that came heat and light and even defined space, for if something blew up it had to blow up from somewhere and keep expanding towards somewhere else thus creating "borders," so to speak. Anyway, after awhile, though "awhile" didn't exist since nothing intelligent could say it had been "awhile" yet, some of the matter began slowing down and cooling and some combined with other stuff and became balls of heated stuff that began to cool down in the form of a sphere because of gravity, which somehow was invented because of the explosion which happened for no reason. One of these orbs had enough interesting stuff to become water and soil and form an atmosphere that eventually would be destroyed by greenhouse gases, but that's a long time from now and anyway the ozone should have anticipated that and made its "layer" more resilient. This was the beginning of the Earth, though it wasn't called Earth then and didn't even know it was there. What was interesting from a human perspective which, by the way, is the ONLY perspective that utilizes the concept of "interesting," was some of this same accidental, for no good reason stuff made chemicals which took the form of water and soil and also became by accident plants and organisms that were autonomous and separate from the rest of the stuff and was actually what we would call alive. But even though it was alive it didn't know it and didn't care. For some reason though its aliveness was somehow "better" than non-aliveness to the point that over time, as long as it was still around, it would accidentally mutate appendages and gills and eyes and all kinds of accidental stuff that accidentally allowed it to survive even though it didn't know it wanted to. So to make a long LONG story short, because this stuff was still around and because it accidentally and without purpose would develop stuff that kept it "alive," it got even more bored and so now and again would birth a kid that no longer looked like it but instead was something completely different. Some of these completely different things were monkey-looking ape thingamajiggers whose only special quality was figuring out how to use a tree branch to hit things. It also noticed stuff like fire which when touched burned and hurt but if you threw meat into it, it tasted good and was somehow more civilized than simply eating meat raw, even though it had eaten raw meat up till then thus proving it never needed to cook in the first place. Overtime these "aliveniks" kept accidentally growing things on their bodies and getting a bigger brain for no reason and began to officially "think" (whatever that means) and take charcoal to draw pictures and communicate with other meaningless things, which eventually led to cell phones and text messaging and destroying the environment. All of this by the way had no meaning or purpose. It just happened until over time this stuff that came from nothing formed a brain which began to look at the sky and wonder where it came from, because apparently nothingness that explodes becomes curious over time and wants to discover itself. Star matter made of molecules reaches a point where it says "Look, I'm star matter and exist for no apparent reason and have no purpose but to discover I have no meaning and I choose to find meaning in that discovery." "I will also only believe in my matter and stuff I can observe and experiment on, and anything I can't hold or observe or repeat in an experiment isn't real and I don't believe in it? Except, love, art, courage, justice, joy, curiosity, mercy, philanthropy, goodness, truth, right and wrong, happiness and purpose. None of those things can I test, repeat and hold in my hand but I am going to believe in it anyway so I can fool myself into believing that meaninglessness and accidental appearing is true and real and worth knowing."The End?????????????"
I believe in God, which apparently makes ME the idiot.Dubbed "God's comic" by The New Yorker magazine, comedian Brad Stine brings his irreverent, edgy, and politically incorrect message to both mainstream and church audiences across the nation. His fifth DVD, The Best of Brad Stine, features the best material from his previous releases, "Put A Helmet On!"," Conservative Unleashed," "Tolerate This!" and "Wussification." Visit Brad online at www.BradStine.com.
July 22, 2008
Written by: Brad Stine
Once upon a time there was nothing. No earth or sky or universe or even molecules. Nothing was all there was. Over time, wait; there was no "time" because there was nothing.Ok, "nothing" apparently got lonely, or bored, or antsy, which nothingness tends to do, and out of the blue, (not that blue existed because there was no light thus no color) anyway for sake of argument nothing for no reason whatsoever blew up. Immediately after blowing up what once was nothing suddenly became a whole bunch of something. Nothing we humans would recognize but something nonetheless. Suddenly for no good reason there were molecules that instantly became the periodic table, with interesting stuff like hydrogen and carbon, and with that came heat and light and even defined space, for if something blew up it had to blow up from somewhere and keep expanding towards somewhere else thus creating "borders," so to speak. Anyway, after awhile, though "awhile" didn't exist since nothing intelligent could say it had been "awhile" yet, some of the matter began slowing down and cooling and some combined with other stuff and became balls of heated stuff that began to cool down in the form of a sphere because of gravity, which somehow was invented because of the explosion which happened for no reason. One of these orbs had enough interesting stuff to become water and soil and form an atmosphere that eventually would be destroyed by greenhouse gases, but that's a long time from now and anyway the ozone should have anticipated that and made its "layer" more resilient. This was the beginning of the Earth, though it wasn't called Earth then and didn't even know it was there. What was interesting from a human perspective which, by the way, is the ONLY perspective that utilizes the concept of "interesting," was some of this same accidental, for no good reason stuff made chemicals which took the form of water and soil and also became by accident plants and organisms that were autonomous and separate from the rest of the stuff and was actually what we would call alive. But even though it was alive it didn't know it and didn't care. For some reason though its aliveness was somehow "better" than non-aliveness to the point that over time, as long as it was still around, it would accidentally mutate appendages and gills and eyes and all kinds of accidental stuff that accidentally allowed it to survive even though it didn't know it wanted to. So to make a long LONG story short, because this stuff was still around and because it accidentally and without purpose would develop stuff that kept it "alive," it got even more bored and so now and again would birth a kid that no longer looked like it but instead was something completely different. Some of these completely different things were monkey-looking ape thingamajiggers whose only special quality was figuring out how to use a tree branch to hit things. It also noticed stuff like fire which when touched burned and hurt but if you threw meat into it, it tasted good and was somehow more civilized than simply eating meat raw, even though it had eaten raw meat up till then thus proving it never needed to cook in the first place. Overtime these "aliveniks" kept accidentally growing things on their bodies and getting a bigger brain for no reason and began to officially "think" (whatever that means) and take charcoal to draw pictures and communicate with other meaningless things, which eventually led to cell phones and text messaging and destroying the environment. All of this by the way had no meaning or purpose. It just happened until over time this stuff that came from nothing formed a brain which began to look at the sky and wonder where it came from, because apparently nothingness that explodes becomes curious over time and wants to discover itself. Star matter made of molecules reaches a point where it says "Look, I'm star matter and exist for no apparent reason and have no purpose but to discover I have no meaning and I choose to find meaning in that discovery." "I will also only believe in my matter and stuff I can observe and experiment on, and anything I can't hold or observe or repeat in an experiment isn't real and I don't believe in it? Except, love, art, courage, justice, joy, curiosity, mercy, philanthropy, goodness, truth, right and wrong, happiness and purpose. None of those things can I test, repeat and hold in my hand but I am going to believe in it anyway so I can fool myself into believing that meaninglessness and accidental appearing is true and real and worth knowing."The End?????????????"
I believe in God, which apparently makes ME the idiot.Dubbed "God's comic" by The New Yorker magazine, comedian Brad Stine brings his irreverent, edgy, and politically incorrect message to both mainstream and church audiences across the nation. His fifth DVD, The Best of Brad Stine, features the best material from his previous releases, "Put A Helmet On!"," Conservative Unleashed," "Tolerate This!" and "Wussification." Visit Brad online at www.BradStine.com.
8/03/2008
Being a Vessel to Bless Others
Being a Vessel to Bless Others
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Friday, August 01 2008
"One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." Proverbs 11:24-25 One of the reasons God entrusts money to us is to bless other Christians by meeting their needs. God uses the transfer of money within the Body of Christ to build unity among Christians. Sometimes we withhold money that God has designated for someone else. He wants to bless through us, but His will cannot be accomplished through us if we are disobedient.
This was the case for a business owner who tells of the time when God told him to forego a company bonus one year. God directed him to share his year-end bonus with an employee to show his appreciation for him. He wrestled with God for three full days before obeying the Lord on the matter. When he finally met with the employee to give him his check, the man said he had been praying about a financial need he had three days earlier. He had decided to borrow the money to meet his need. The amount of money he borrowed was the exact amount the business owner gave him.
God had already planned to provide for the employee through the business owner, but because he was hesitant, he almost missed the opportunity to be an instrument of God in this man's life. Even so, he could have prevented the man from having to borrow money. It was an important lesson for the business owner. How many people do we let down because we feel the "harvest" God provides is all ours? In America, the pressure is always on to move up the ladder of material accumulation. Jesus warned us about this. If our focus is on accumulation, we will not look for opportunities to be God's vessels of financial blessing to others. Ask the Lord if you have an open hand when it comes to finances.
If the TGIF was forwarded to you - we would like to bless you with your own free subscription. Subscribe Today!
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Friday, August 01 2008
"One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." Proverbs 11:24-25 One of the reasons God entrusts money to us is to bless other Christians by meeting their needs. God uses the transfer of money within the Body of Christ to build unity among Christians. Sometimes we withhold money that God has designated for someone else. He wants to bless through us, but His will cannot be accomplished through us if we are disobedient.
This was the case for a business owner who tells of the time when God told him to forego a company bonus one year. God directed him to share his year-end bonus with an employee to show his appreciation for him. He wrestled with God for three full days before obeying the Lord on the matter. When he finally met with the employee to give him his check, the man said he had been praying about a financial need he had three days earlier. He had decided to borrow the money to meet his need. The amount of money he borrowed was the exact amount the business owner gave him.
God had already planned to provide for the employee through the business owner, but because he was hesitant, he almost missed the opportunity to be an instrument of God in this man's life. Even so, he could have prevented the man from having to borrow money. It was an important lesson for the business owner. How many people do we let down because we feel the "harvest" God provides is all ours? In America, the pressure is always on to move up the ladder of material accumulation. Jesus warned us about this. If our focus is on accumulation, we will not look for opportunities to be God's vessels of financial blessing to others. Ask the Lord if you have an open hand when it comes to finances.
If the TGIF was forwarded to you - we would like to bless you with your own free subscription. Subscribe Today!
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