The Holy Spirit gave me this thought and it has affected me in a powerful way. Every day it is possible for you to make several different choices as to the direction you will take for the future.

Some choices are huge and others are tiny, but they propel you in one direction or another. It is easy to think that just one day won’t make much of a difference because it is only one day among the thousands that will make up your entire life.

Many times when you are older, you can look back to one decision that you made that might have started you down the wrong road, and it may have taken you years to get back on the right one. An example would be the first time you tried alcohol or drugs.

It truly is possible for one small action to change your life forever. Just saying YES or NO one time can have very powerful consequences – whether good or bad.

God gave us the Bible specifically so that we can have a guidebook to know how to live and so that we can have the best life possible. He wants you to live a life of peace and joy even in the midst of problems or persecution, and that can only be done through living a life for Christ.

When the next temptation comes your way to make the wrong decision or put something off until another day, think about the fact that what you decide to do will ease you further along a road, but which one will it be?

Will you be able to look back a year from now and see progress or will you have lost ground? Each day’s actions are much more powerful than you can ever imagine.

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1. Patience is a form of Action!

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

We all have to live in this world, have a job here, and raise our family here. Every aspect of our lives is carried on while we live here.

The Bible specifically tells us that we are to live here, but we should not conform to the values and morals of the world. We are to let God renew us so we can think and act differently than the rest of the world.

God has a plan for your life and He wants you to concentrate on what His plan is and not let others keep you from accomplishing what He desires. When He transforms your mind, your sights will be set on new things you have never thought of before. Others will tell you that the “impossible” can never be accomplished, and if you listen to them God won’t be able to use you to make a lasting difference.

He wants to do a supernatural work among His people, but He does not work in the same way we might think things should be done. He has His own plan of action that will make a huge impact for better things in the future.

Imagine how our world would be today if people like John Wesley, Martin Luther, Dwight Moody, and Charles Surgeon had listened to and been swayed by the opinions of others instead of walking in obedience to what God told them to do. He never could have used them to impact the world in the way that He did.

Christians must be the ones who make a huge impact on the world and not the other way around, though many times we fall short in doing so. We will never fall short if we listen to God and walk in obedience to Him. It might not be easy, but it certainly will be worth it in the long run.

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-Anonymous-

If you are striving to move forward in your Christian walk, Satan doesn’t like it and will try to hinder or even stop your progress. He will look until he finds a weak area and then will try to make you feel as if you are in a huge storm with monstrous waves that are about to sink you.

In a monstrous storm a good captain steers his boat as straight as possible head-on into the coming waves so that he can go up and over them. If the boat is sideways when the wave hits it will capsize and sink beneath the surface of the water.

We all go through times of testing because God wants to see what we are made of and wants to use the testing time to make us into a stronger and more mature Christian. It might seem like punishment, but God has a purpose for everything we might go through. Most of us will have to admit that our greatest growth as a Christian has come during our heaviest times of testing, even though we certainly don’t want to volunteer to go through it again.

Matthew 14: 28-31

And Peter said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind boisterous (strong,) he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

Peter was a very passionate and courageous person, and in his later years grew into a very strong Christian who did a mighty work for the Kingdom of God. He was a risk-taker and spoke before he thought about it, especially before he became a mature Christian.

When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water towards their boat, he probably thought it would be an awesome thing to do himself and spoke before he really thought about it. He did walk a few steps, which is much better than many of us would have done. Most of us would not have even gotten out of the boat.

After those few steps he started to notice the churning sea around him and grew afraid of drowning. He started to look at the waves instead of Jesus.

The only way you can make it through a big storm is to keep your focus on Jesus and keep on walking toward Him (keep your boat headed straight into the storm and never let it turn sideways.) If Peter had done this, He would have eventually touched the hand of Jesus and would have reached his destination safely. All he had to do was have tunnel vision to Jesus and not look at what was going on around him.

So it is in real life – you cannot let yourself be consumed by the storm and huge waves that might surround you; look at Jesus and continually keep taking steps toward Him. Before you know it, you will have reached out and touched His hands and will have made it through the intense storm.

None of us would deliberately choose to go through a storm, but we can have the assurance that our Heavenly Father is there with us each step of the way leading, protecting, and ultimately giving the victory!

Related posts:

1. Is God your Lighthouse in the Storm?
2. How Big Will You Let God Be In Your Life?
3. Has your life been radically changed?

There once was a man named George Thomas, pastor in a small New
England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a
rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit.

Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak…

“I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming
toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three
little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.

I stopped the lad and asked, “What do you have there, son?”
“Just some old birds,” came the reply.

“What are you going to do with them?” I asked.
“Take ‘em home and have fun with ‘em,” he answered. “I’m gonna tease
‘em and pull out their feathers to make ‘em fight. I’m gonna have a real
good time.”

“But you’ll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do
then?”

“Oh, I got some cats,” said the little boy. “They like birds. I’ll take
‘em to them.”

The pastor was silent for a moment. “How much do you want for those
birds, son?”

“Huh?? !!! Why, you don’t want them birds, mister. They’re just plain
old field birds. They don’t sing. They ain’t even pretty!”

“How much?” the pastor asked again. The boy sized up the pastor as if
he were crazy and said, “$10?”

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He
placed it in the boy’s hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor
picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where
there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the
door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting
them free. Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and
then the pastor began to tell this story:

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just
come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. “Yes,
sir, I just caught a world full of people down there. Set me a trap,
used bait I knew they couldn’t resist. Got ‘em all!”

“What are you going to do with them?” Jesus asked.

Satan replied, “Oh, I’m gonna have fun! I’m gonna teach them how to
marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to
drink and smoke and curse. I’m gonna teach them how to invent guns and
bombs and kill each other. I’m really gonna have fun!”

“And what will you do when you are done with them?” Jesus asked. “Oh,
I’ll kill ‘em,” Satan glared proudly.

“How much do you want for them?” Jesus asked.

“Oh, you don’t want those people. They ain’t no good. Why, you’ll take
them and they’ll just hate you.. They’ll spit on you, curse you and kill
you. You don’t want those people!!”

“How much? He asked again.
Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, “All your blood, tears and your
life.”

Jesus said, “DONE!” Then He paid the price.

The pastor picked up the cage and walked from the pulpit.

Related posts:

1. A Great Story – Jesus and the Mud Puddle
2. Great Story – How Heavy Are Your Burdens?
3. A Touching Story – The Tablecloth

The dream was about a lady who was trying to sell me a mask. When I put it on it was supposed to show the “real me.” By that phrase I mean it was supposed to show everything about me deep inside – my thoughts, flaws, all the deep things I maybe knew about myself but didn’t dare want anybody else to know about.

I decided to try on the mask and remember feeling a creepy, scared, sick feeling all mixed together. Everything on my face was covered except my eyes and my face looked different. I got really scared and took the mask off quickly.

Later on I found out that if you left it on for a certain amount of time it would just become a part of you and you could never take it off.

As I lay in bed trying to make the panic feeling go away, the Holy Spirit started to speak to me and revealed that most of us have gotten to the point that we wear a permanent mask to hide who we really are because we don’t want the real person to come out many times. We try to put our “best self” forward so that others will think we are more spiritual than we really are.

I have to admit that I used to be a huge people-pleaser kind of person. I wanted to do everything to make everyone like me, no matter what the circumstances. That is a huge undertaking that is totally impossible and something no one should ever take upon themselves to even attempt.

If you have asked Jesus to be your Savior, then God is the only one you should ever be worried about having favor with. You will never be able to please everyone else no matter how hard you try.

That morning long ago, the Holy Spirit laid it strongly upon my heart to do everything possible to keep the sin out of my life and encouraged me to put on the transparent mask and be as real as possible among others.

I am not telling you to go out and share with everyone in your life every problem you might have. Satan is always lurking around trying to find something to use against you, so you definitely need to ask God for discernment about who you confide in. Again I say definitely use discernment about who you share intimate details or problems with.

I am talking about just “being real” in your everyday life. Have such an intimate relationship with God that the real you spills over into every area. If you live in this way, you don’t have to think first before you act. God will just naturally flow from you in your words and actions.

It will also make you a much happier person to know that you don’t have to put on a “hiding” mask for different occasions. You can just be yourself, let God take control, and see where He leads you. Take it from me (a person who knows very well,) it is very liberating to be able to do what God has called you to do without the guilt and worry of trying to please everyone else.

Make it a point to live so that when the mask shows the “real you,” it will be something you will be proud for everyone else to see.

Live the words of the hymn written by B. B. McKinney in 1924 – Let others see Jesus in you!

Related posts:

1. My Dream and the Still, Small Voice of the Holy Spirit!

I took some time to really study the first five verses of John 15 and listed the meaning of each key word in another website I have called Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living . Please take the time now to click on the link in the previous sentence and study these verses as I did.

I have realized that in the past I have only partially understood what the Bible talks about as “abiding.” Jesus is the one and only true vine and it is the job of the Father to take care of and defend the branches on the vine so they will produce the best fruit.

The vine, or main stalk, yields the proper juice and nourishment to all the branches, whether large or small, but all the nourishment must pass through the vine first.

Some of the branches might be very large but not producing much fruit and sheltering other smaller branches so they cannot grow well. These large branches still receive nourishment even though they don’t produce much fruit, but they absorb a lot of energy from the rest of the vine that smaller branches could use that are already producing fruit. For this reason God must prune as much as is necessary and needful in order to keep the vine healthy, even if it means cutting off some large branches.

For much of my life I have looked at pruning as a bad thing, or felt that God was punishing me for something I either did or didn’t do; but as I have started to really understand these verses I see that God only has my best interest in mind when He changes things or cleans up my life in certain areas. Sometimes I am not even aware that I need to change, and I might have a large branch in my life that I think is important, but in actuality is covering a smaller branch that God wants to grow and develop further. His job is to continually tweak and purge the branches so they give off the sweetest fruit.

To truly abide in the vine is to become united with Christ in every area of your life: your interests, desires, and feelings.

It is a union of friendship, love and dependence; a union of weakness with strength; of imperfection with perfection; of a dying nature with a living Savior; of a lost sinner with an unchanging Friend and Redeemer.  (Barnes Study Notes)

Verse 4 starts out “Abide in me, and I in you…”

The Greek meaning of this verb means to remain as one, not to become another or different and is in the Imperative Mood, which expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and authority of the one commanding (Jesus.)

So Jesus commands His Children to get to know Him so intimately that total obedience and dependence are a natural way of life.

The vine itself sends out juices and sap in accordance with the growth and fruitfulness of the branch. So the tighter you are connected to the vine, the sweeter and better the fruit you will bear.

The next time you feel you are being pruned, don’t think of it as a bad thing like I have done in the past. Think about it in the context that God loves you so much that He doesn’t want you to be just a ho-hum, boring Christian. He wants to get rid of the things that are weighing you down, and replace them with ones that are productive and will bring glory to His Kingdom.

What a way to live! You certainly won’t lead a boring life!

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A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a

seminary class, given by her teacher. She says that

Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons.

One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they

were in for a fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were

many darts. Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that

they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow

them to throw darts at the person’s picture.

Sally’s friend drew a picture of who had stolen her boyfriend.

Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a

picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her

drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased with the

overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the

students threw their darts with such force that their targets were

ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with

disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the

students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry

she was because she didn’t have a chance to throw any darts at her

target. Dr. Smith began removing the target from the wall.

Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over

the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and

jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smith said only these words…. ‘In as much as ye have done

it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’

Matthew 25:40.

No other words were necessary; the tear filled eyes of the

students focused only on the picture of Christ.

**************************************************

It is very easy to let your entire focus be consumed by how someone else has wronged you, or maybe even what they haven’t done that might have been the right thing to do in a situation that concerned you.

Satan knows that if he can make you dwell on the shortcomings of others, you won’t have much time to allow God to use you for furthering His Kingdom Work.

At some point, other people may disappoint you in some way that you might never understand their motive. It is certainly not in our fleshly nature to naturally forgive someone who has wronged us, especially when it was not something we feel we deserved.

Our natural fleshly self wants to dwell on it for hours or even days or months. We don’t want to rest until we have had retribution in some form, but God has a completely different way of doing things.

You must look at things from His perspective. He only desires the very best for your life, and wants to use you in an awesome way to further His Kingdom work. It is for this reason that God gave the Bible to every Christian as an instruction book on how to be able to live the best life possible.

Each Christian is responsible for making sure they follow the guidelines set forth in the Bible. For example, God tells us very clearly that we have no choice but to forgive others if we intend to stay in fellowship with Him. Our flesh speaks very loudly that this could never be the right thing to do because then the other person will never have to pay for what they have done if we don’t make them.

But God comes back and tells us in His Word that a person will always reap what they have sown. They will always pay in some way for what they have done so God wants you to leave all that to Him and concentrate on what He wants you to do.

Living in the flesh makes you a miserable person, but following God’s plan will bring peace, joy, and fulfillment. I know it is hard to believe that the act of forgiveness could cause such a drastic change in your life, but you just have to try it to see the dramatic results.

If you are concentrated on God, you will start to see Him work in ways that will astound you. It will be hard to believe what He can accomplish through your life if you will let Him.

You can’t forgive on your own, but all you have to do is ask Him to help you and truly mean what you say. God will take it from that point on and you can truly be on the road to living a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment no matter where you have been in the past.

Don’t throw darts any longer at the person who hurt you. Make the choice to forgive and let God handle the rest of the story…

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After Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, we were separated from God and had no way to reach Him on a personal level until Jesus died on the cross. He bridged that great gap and made it possible for us to have a personal relationship with the Living God once more.

The photo above gives a wonderful word picture of what Jesus did. He reached down and grabbed mankind with one hand and reached up to grab the Hand of God with the other. He became our intercessor and bridge to God when there was no other way to reach Him.

We can now come to our Heavenly Father without being afraid or ashamed, because Jesus is always interceding on our behalf and always has our best interest at heart. It is truly an amazing love that He had for mankind to endure the torture and suffering of the cross.

Don’t throw away what Jesus did for you on the cross. Run to Him, tell Him all your problems, and let Him intercede to the Father on your behalf. If you have asked Jesus to come into your heart, the Spirit of the Living God (Holy Spirit) lives inside you and is patiently waiting for you to ask Him to give you guidance in everyday situations.

Learn to hear Him when He speaks to you and be obedient. You will find that you never want to do things your own way again. There is so much peace and comfort in knowing that God only wants to give you His Very Best. That will be something different for each person, but it will always be exactly what you need at just the right time.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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It would be so wonderful if every Christian could grasp the concept of this picture.

Jesus died on the cross for our sin and returned to the Father so He could be our intercessor.  Then the Holy Spirit was sent to inhabit the life of every Christian so that He could lead and guide us in the right direction.

God has given us all gifts that He wants us to use for His Glory, but it is up to each one to walk in obedience to Him. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and God intended it that way. He never wants us to think that our spiritual gift pales in comparison to the one of someone else.

Together we as Christians make up the Body of Christ, and we are the ones God has chosen to carry forth His Work.

You are very important to God, and no other person can fill your shoes. Someone else might can do the job you have been called to do, but they will never be able to do it exactly like you. God is counting on you to be obedient and do your part in carrying forth His Work.

Be a true part of the Body of Christ by letting God use you in whatever way He chooses. It is much better to do a small thing that is completely in His Will than to accomplish a huge thing that He never told you to do, even if you feel you are a success in the eyes of man.

Choose instead to be a success in the eyes of God.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

Related posts:

1. Do you Lift up the Body of Christ by Helping Others?
2. Read these Facts about the Magnificent Body God Gave You!

We never find Adam afraid of God, nor of any manifestation of Deity while he was in Paradise an obedient creature, but no sooner had he touched the fatal fruit than he found that he was naked, and hid himself. When he heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam was afraid and hid himself from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

Sin makes miserable cowards of us all. See the man who once could hold delightful converse with his Maker, now dreading to hear his Maker’s voice and skulking in the grove like a felon, who knows his guilt, and is afraid to meet the officers of justice. Beloved, in order to remove this dread nightmare of slavish fear from the breast of humanity, where its horrible influence represses all the noblest aspirations of the soul, our Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

From a sermon entitled “God Incarnate, The End Of Fear,” delivered December 23, 1866.

The Daily Spurgeon

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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