There are things that you know the Lord has called you to do, that you have a desire to do. Don’t let circumstances create pressure to force the issue prematurely, or to imply that the timing is right because nothing else seems to be going on. This is particularly true with relationships, legal issues and finances.
Be ready to be patient, and make sure your foundation is secure. Don’t take legal shortcuts, rush relationship decisions for convenience sake, and certainly don’t go into debt. God will never direct you to go into debt to start a business or relationship, go into or expand your ministry or make a purchase.
The time you spend waiting, and working, to secure your foundation is not wasted, but invested. See if others who have started hastily don’t fall short.
There is No Rush!
You are a son of God; you have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD!
Attempts will be made to rock you from your peace. Don’t try to avoid or resist; instead let the blows glance off your chin, your shoulder and your back. This will weaken your adversary and impart knowledge of your vulnerabilities.
Ask for Restoration and Healing.
Receive Favor.
When we talk about Practical Christianity, we’re talking about knowing how God works in our lives in ways in which we can cooperate with Him on a day-to-day basis in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. Practical Christianity is about our relationship with God, with the Holy Spirit, with Jesus and with the Father. We want to know how to relate, and then do it.
Practical Christianity is Not Just Theory
Oftentimes we hear teachings about faith and doctrine, about knowing God, in such religious terms that our relationship with God becomes separate from our day-to-day lives. But God wants us to know Him in reality, acting on, testing and proving the teachings and doctrines we are exposed to. If it doesn’t “work,” we are to pursue God until we find something that does. God wants us to understand Him and His ways. What is from Him will stand up to scrutiny, and will bring us into a dependent relationship with Him.
[excerpted from Practical Christianity]Take time now to plan for the coming stresses of the holidays.
Because of all the additional stresses this year, both real and manufactured, you will likely have to make an extra effort to stay connected to your LifeLine within. Set aside days, or even hours or times, to reconnect and receive encouragement.
Change is always hard, even the good changes that are coming. Don’t believe for a second that God has come to judge you, your situation or your nation, but that through whatever situation you find yourself in, He has brought you to it for His good purposes. Not that we don’t suffer the consequences of our actions; but what we learn from them is priceless.
What God has for you, for us all, will so overwhelm us with His creativity and ingenuity that we will once again Rejoice at His Comings.
Why Wait? Rejoice Now, for He Comes In You Now!
Rejoice!
In the Age of Knowledge, God wanted man to become aware of his need for God. In the Age of Grace, God wants man to have that need met. In the Age to come, God wants man to learn to live in dependence and freedom, without any constraints from the law, and all that that means, by first starting to rule and reign over our selves.
There are really only two things we can give to God: Time and Attention. And even these He has to reveal and change and make us able to relinquish to Him. So it is because our time and attention are so valuable to God that they are also the battleground where we fight the world, the flesh and the devil. This is one of the reasons the “tyranny of the urgent” has taken such a toll on believers. We feel the pressure to be producing more now, to prove our spirituality, to earn, gain and keep the blessing and gifts God has given to us.
But what God wants from our time is our attention. Ask the Lord to reveal to you if there is any area where you are spending too much or too little time. Then depend on Him to make through you whatever changes may be necessary to make the most of the time you have.”
Remember, since God created time, He controls it, and does whatever He wants with it. In fact, He has so much time on His hands that He is spending every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day doing nothing but thinking, and planning, arranging and rejoicing over every circumstance in your past, present and future. So relax!!!
[excerpted from Practical Christianity]“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not” (II Corinthians 4:1).
Note the words “faint not”, from the Greek, meaning: to turn out badly, or cave in. True, there are days when one feels like they are going to cave in, and what keeps us from it? Because we have RECEIVED MERCY. We realize that “greater is He within us” than all of the outside pressure. We are “God’s husbandry, we are God’s building” (I Cor. 3:9). He will maintain a proper balance of the exterior and the interior. He does not overload the circuits so that we explode and cannot contain the measures of His love and grace, nor does He short-circuit the power so that we do not have enough to face the need of the day. He is our sufficiency all the way!
Whatever the ministry, whatever the service He has called us to, He has also given us mercy which undergirds and is equal to the task, yes, and MUCH MORE. The Psalmist knew this well, and stated, “all my springs are in Thee” (Ps. 87:7). Therefore, “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations” (Ps. 89:1).
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (II Cor. 6:7). No need to despise the earthiness of the vessel. He chose it to place His treasure therein. No need to try and exalt the earthen vessel, it has nothing of itself wherein to boast. But we can rejoice in the mercies of the Lord, the grace of God given to us through His kindness, and the power, which abides within to sustain us. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him” (Lam. 3:22-24). “O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever” (Psalms 136:1).
“Mercy there was great, and grace was free,
…there my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.”
Just a gentle reminder that no matter how bad things may seem, or in earthly reality, are, your new spirit nature has fully received ALL THINGS. All of your needs have been fully met.
Your new nature is gratitude, and a good indicator of your soulical-life intruding on your spirit-life is when gratitude is hard to embrace and express.
Not that fear, frustration, anger, questioning, aren’t all normal emotions. They are.
But you and I are no longer emotional beings. We have emotions. They don’t have us.
So this Thanksgiving, Give Thanks. Not out of Faith, or Hope, or cuz you’re straining to Feel it. But out of the Reality of Your Being Thankful.
GRACE: Receiving Unconditionally what God Gives Unconditionally, and Just Saying, “Thanks.”
Today the strongholds of envy and bitterness are strong throughout the world. Jealousy is wanting what another has; Envy is not wanting them to have it.
There’s a parable of two fellows who were friends; one of them had a goat. Day after day, the fellow led his goat with him wherever he went, and spoke of his goat when he had to leave him behind. This made the goat-less friend angry and bitter, having to see and listen to stories about this goat. Then one day, the goat-less friend found a magic lamp in the road. He rubbed it, and a genie appeared.
“You are granted one wish! What will it be?”
Without hesitation the goat-less friend replied, “I wish my friend’s goat to die.” And so it was.
A clear example of envy’s subtlety is Jesus’s illustration of the disgruntled workers. Some were hired in the morning, and promised a certain wage. Some were hired later that morning, some at noon, and some close to work-day’s end, all promised the same wage. Those hired first reasoned that since they had labored longer than the others, they would surely receive the greater compensation. But at the end of the day, they were all paid the same amount. The first-hired became angry, but were countered with grace. “Why are you angry that I am generous? Did I not pay you what I promised you?”
Working for a large ministry, our group was merged into another during downsizing. During our group’s weekly meeting, our manager told this worker’s parable, reminding us how easily envy and bitterness can creep in, even when we receive what we have agreed to. Later we learned that it was Bonus Time, and that in order for the original group members to receive a larger bonus, our group had to receive a smaller bonus. We had been forewarned, and were able to be grateful for our bonuses, regardless of what others received.
Life is not fair. God is not fair. Instead, He has made you joint-heirs and co-inheritors, and claims you now as His Beloved Sons, with all the inherent benefits.
That’s not fair, either.
Be forewarned, and be grateful that God is generous to whom and as He chooses.
“I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (Psalm 16:8)
Obviously, Jesus walked with a continual God-consciousness. A relationship that was a dominant factor in His life. “I and My Father are ONE.” (John 10:30) “Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I know that Thou hearest Me always…” (John 11:41-42). His inner-consciousness was His oneness with His Father, and while He might also become aware of outside conditions, the needs of the people, even to casting out demons, this did not take away from His inner consciousness of oneness with His Father’s will and purpose at all times.
Now, what about us? What is our inner-consciousness? You cannot be God-conscious and devil-conscious at the same time. Fear is a negative emotion. Worry is a negative emotion. Doubt and unbelief are negatives. When these abide in us they become a fertile field for devil-consciousness to develop. We become more than just aware of the enemy, it is an inner disquietedness. We then are prone to lash out at every shadow, and begin to think that every situation is Satan-controlled, and we forget that GOD IS IN CONTROL.
The challenge remains, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind… neither give place to the devil” (Eph. 4:23, 27). The mind is the area where the adversary would seek to gain his toehold in our temple. So Paul instructed, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). When the mind is filled with a Christ-consciousness there is no ‘place’ therein for the devil.
It was the Psalmist’s determination to have the Lord “Always before me.” Conscious that even “When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:for Thou art with me.” (Ps. 23:4).
Inwardly conscious that Christ is our King,
And He controls all our pathway would bring.