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Have You Made Christianity Too Complicated?

WhoGodIs — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:33:23 +0000

The Holy Spirit made me realize that most Christians have made Christianity way too complicated.

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He put a powerful word in my heart that it is very simple to follow God:

First, you learn to hear what God says

Then, you walk in obedience to that word.

He will never lead you wrong and you will always be using your time in the wisest way.

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Many Christians feel that they must be busy doing something that is religious or God won’t be pleased with them.

I know I used to feel that way. The first time the Holy Spirit instructed me not to take part in a major yearly event in the church, I was consumed with guilt. I won’t name it because then some of you might get the idea that it was the specific event that was wrong. The event was not wrong at all, but God had other plans for my life that week, and He revealed Himself to me in a way that I have never forgotten.

Sometimes I think that He just wants to see if we will obey Him – PERIOD, end of story. He also wants to see if we can just “be still and listen” to what He has to say. Sometimes He has to go to drastic measures to get our attention. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, when the Cloud that was over the Tabernacle moved, they were to pack all their belongings and follow it until it stopped. Then they were to set up camp again.

I’m sure they couldn’t always see the logic in where they stopped, but God was trying to teach them to have an ultimate obedience in Him.

Don’t get the idea that you should just not participate in an event because you don’t want to and say that God told you not to do it. I found out that some things happened that week that were not pleasing at all to God, and I think He may have wanted to spare me some stress and extra pain. He knew beforehand that all those things would happen.

Through the years I have found that if I walk each day with the three things above in mind, my days will definitely go much smoother. Then when I lay down to go to sleep, I have the definite assurance that what I have done has really counted for the Kingdom of God.

Try it and see what God does in your life!

Wolf or Sheep – Can You Discern the Difference?

WhoGodIs — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:32:23 +0000

If there is one thing we need more of in the church, it is true discernment that only the Holy Spirit can give.

In Matthew, Jesus warns us about people with whom we come in contact in the church or in our everyday lives who have a set agenda to fool the Children of God in order to cause chaos and destruction. The following verses are part of the famous “Sermon on the Mount” that Jesus gave to His followers in Chapters 5-7. He wanted to give them good, practical instruction on how to live their everyday lives in victory.

Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

We have all done things that we regret and wish we could take back, but most of us don’t sit around and think of ways we can intentionally cause chaos and destruction; therefore, it is hard for us to believe that someone else could ever entertain the thought of doing that. After all, isn’t everybody at least a GOOD person who would dare to step foot inside the doors of the church? That is certainly what we want to believe.

Most of us don’t want to entertain the thought that someone would want to go to church for anything other than the right reason, so many times we can be fooled easily by someone who says and does all the right things, no matter what their motive and spiritual condition.

This is why it is critical not only for leaders, but every member of God’s Church to ask for discernment.

fruit – that which originates or comes from something, an effect, result

Jesus said in the verses above that we will always be able to know what people really stand for by the fruit they bear. Especially in matters where the church is involved, we must learn to ask guidance from the Holy Spirit so that we know the absolute truth.

Even though a person’s life might look good from the outside for awhile, if they are not REAL it will eventually show. The Holy Spirit can put a “check” in your Spirit about that person, though, way before others might be able to see it physically and possibly save you heartache.

Make it a point to ask Him for discernment at the beginning of each day so that you can make decisions that will only have good consequences for the future; then when the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart about a certain matter, be obedient to what He tells you to do.

The Holy Spirit always has your best interest at heart and will never lead you down a road to destruction like Satan would love to do. Don’t try to navigate life’s rough seas with your strength alone. Let the might power of God be your guiding force. That is the only way you can live in victory.

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23 Elements Of The Lord’s Prayer

WhoGodIs — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:08:34 +0000

As I was studying the Lord’s Prayer in my Dake Reference Bible, I came across this and thought it was very interesting. Jesus really packed a lot into these few words as He was teaching us how to pray.

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23 Elements of the Lord’s Prayer

1. Relationship: Our Father

2. Recognition: which art in heaven

3. Adoration: hallowed be thy name

4. Anticipation: Thy kingdom come

5. Consecration: Thy will be done

6. Universality: in earth

7. Conformity: as it is in heaven

8. Supplication: Give us

9. Definiteness: this day

10. Necessity: our daily bread

11. Penitence: And forgive us

12. Obligation: our debts

13. Forgiveness: as we forgive

14. Love and mercy: our debtors

15. Guidance: And lead us

16. Protection: not into temptation

17. Salvation: but deliver us

18. Righteousness: from evil

19. Faith: For thine is the kingdom

20. Humility: and the power

21. Reverence: and the glory

22. Timelessness: for ever

23. Affirmation: Amen

NOTE:

The first 3 petitions of the prayer make 7 points concerning God

The last 4 petitions make 16 points concerning man

Check out my other sites:

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

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Don’t Leave Yet – Read My Story First!

WhoGodIs — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:30:29 +0000

The church has always played an active part in my life. Sunday has always been and still is a special day that is reserved for going to the House of God. When I do miss, I feel like my whole week is thrown off and I start it all wrong.

Over the years I have had some great pastors, and some that all they seemed to do was manipulate and control circumstances and people like they were puppets without any mind of their own.

There have been numerous times when I wanted to leave and go to another church that I felt might be better. After all, who wants to stay in a church where there are numerous problems and you have a lot of people acting in the flesh trying to accomplish their own agendas?

This was several years ago, but at one point the only thing that did keep me from leaving was God spoke to me and said these words: “You are not to leave, but you are to stay and pray and fast for this church.”

I can truly say that these were words I didn’t want to hear. I was not in a church where error was being taught outright, but there sure was a lot of stuff going on that had nothing to do with God. I really don’t think He was included very much at all in plans that were made even though it was said they were done in His Name. Anyway, things were a real mess and I wanted no part of it.

I couldn’t understand why God would want me to stay in a situation like this, but I had no choice if I wanted to be obedient to Him, so I reluctantly told God that I would stay.

It would have been much easier (at least I thought at the time) to have left and gone to a church that had it all together and where I could just sit back and receive the wonderful word from the pastor, without me ever having to dive into the Word deeply for myself. That is what I thought I wanted, but God knew so much better. I really was seeking His Will for my life, but I didn’t want that Will to take me out of my comfort zone.

Because of the situation I was placed in, I had to dig into the Word for myself and find out what it said. God was working in my life and placing in me a desire to truly know Him. What I thought was such a terrible time turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. When I started to study the Bible, God met me right where I was and started to show me things I had never seen before. I started to get excited about God and everyday He showed me more and more.

It was still hard to go to church because of all the mess, but I knew that I was doing the will of God. If I had gone my own way and left the church, I would have missed so much from God. In fact, I would have been out of the Will of God since He had told me to stay.

You might be reading this and find yourself in the same situation I was in or something similar. Maybe you can’t see that things will ever get better and you just want to leave and go to another church.

I encourage you to not make a decision based on the way you feel, but to ask the Holy Spirit to show you the heart of God on the matter. Don’t ever make such a crucial decision without consulting God, because you will end up making a decision based on feelings alone.

Looking back through history, there are many people that God used greatly even though they had to minister in terrible circumstances. If they had looked at things around them and made a decision based on that, their name would not be known today as someone who was sold out to God enough to let Him use them in such a mighty way. After all, they certainly couldn’t see the BIG PICTURE of what would happen in the years ahead. In some areas of the world, God was able to use just ONE PERSON who was completely sold out to Him to impact that whole area, and sometimes that impact was felt worldwide.

I’m sure if you could go back in time and talk to some of those mighty warriors for the Kingdom of God, they would tell you that sometimes things got so tough they wanted to give up and take an easier way out. They couldn’t, though, if they wanted to be stay the Will of God.

Sometimes God just wants you to stay where you are and pray until things start to change. You might be one of the few people who sees the truth about the situation, and God might be planning to do an “impossible” work that you wouldn’t have thought of in a million years.

Instead of complaining the next time you feel you have been placed in such a position, feel honored that God sees something in you that would make Him want to use you to carry forth His Work. You never know how God can use just ONE PERSON who will be completely surrendered to Him.

Right now make the decision that YOU will be that person who is fully surrendered and waiting to walk in total obedience to His Word – even if it doesn’t always make perfect sense to you.

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

Do You Really Prepare Yourself For Worship?

WhoGodIs — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:43:58 +0000

Many times we go to church expecting to be entertained instead of going with an expectation of God doing something in our life like convicting us of sin or reminding us of things that need to change.

The motto of the world today is “What is in it for me?” or “What can you do for me?”

God wants you to prepare your heart for worship before you ever enter the doors of the church. If the songs are biblically sound, don’t think so much about the style as what the words say. When you start to truly worship Him, the style of music will fade into the background where it should be anyway.

Don’t let Satan trick you into falling for the lie that you can’t worship God unless you are singing a certain style of music. God can get through to your heart with any style as long as there is TRUTH in the words.

Make the choice that you will prepare your heart to truly worship God the next time you go to church, and don’t allow yourself to concentrate on any other thing.

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

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How To Be A Part Of The True Body Of Christ!

WhoGodIs — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:20:03 +0000

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

Do You Live Like The Christians Of The Early Ages?

WhoGodIs — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:48:38 +0000

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

The Christians of the early ages sacrificed themselves continually upon the altar of Christ with joy and alacrity. Wherever they were they bore testimony against the evil customs which surrounded them. They counted it foul scorn for a Christian to be as others were; they would not conform themselves to the world: they could not, for they were transformed by the renewing of their minds; their love to Christ compelled them to bear their witness against everything which dishonored Christ by being contrary to truth, and righteousness, and love. They were innovators, reformers, image-breakers, everywhere; they could not be quiet and let others do as they pleased, whilst they followed out their own views, but their protest was continual, incessant, annoying to the foe, but acceptable to God. In every place the Christian was a speckled bird, because love to Jesus would not allow him to disguise his convictions; he was everywhere a stranger and an alien, because the very language of his everyday life differed from that of his neighbors.

Where others blasphemed, he adored; where others used oaths habitually, his “yea” was yea, and his “nay,” nay; where others girt on the sword, he resisted not evil; where others were each man seeking his own and not his brother’s welfare, the Christian was known as being one whose treasure was in heaven, and who had set his affections upon things above.

From a sermon by Charles Spurgeon entitled “More Than Conquerors,” delivered May 19, 1867.

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

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Do you live in freedom?

Give God What Is Rightfully His!

WhoGodIs — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:11:54 +0000

Many Christians feel that tithing a tenth of their income is optional depending on whether they have extra after all the bills are paid.

According to the Bible, that is not what God intended at all. He wants His Children to put Him first in every aspect of their lives, including giving the tithe money to Him first before any bills have been paid. God already knows how He is going to provide, but He wants us to trust Him to do it in the way He sees fit.

Malachi 3: 10

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Trust, try and prove God to see what He will do in your life. Make the choice to put Him first in your finances by paying the tithe first thing and then proceed to the other bills. I don’t know how He does it, but when you put Him first He then has the liberty to work on your behalf and truly “open the windows of Heaven” to handle whatever problem arises.

You must realize that God handles things completely different from the way the world does. You must put your trust in God FIRST without always seeing how things will turn out in the end.

God created the entire world and everything in it in 6 days, so He is certainly capable of handling anything that might come your way. Make the choice right now to trust Him and don’t turn back.

Make sure you give God what is rightfully His and learn to trust Him no matter what might come your way, knowing He is fully capable of handling it.

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

Funny Story – Noah’s Ark

WhoGodIs — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:44:04 +0000

This story gave me a laugh, so I thought you might enjoy it also. I think I have been way too serious this week. Life can get you down if you forget to laugh every now and then.

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Noah’s Ark

Ending his sermon, a preacher announced that he would preach on Noah and the Ark on the following Sunday, and gave the scriptural reference for the congregation to read ahead of time.

A couple of boys noticed something interesting about the placement of the story in the Bible. They slipped into the church and glued two pages of the pulpit Bible together.

The next Sunday, the preacher got up to read his text. “Noah took unto himself a wife,” he began, “and she was” – he turned the page to continue – “three hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high.”

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

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

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The Southern Ten Commandments

WhoGodIs — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:45:54 +0000

Since I am a born and bred US southerner, I feel I have the right to post this. I certainly don’t want to make fun of the south, because I love living here. This southern rendition of the Ten Commandments is about as plain as you can get it for a total understanding of what they mean.You just can’t get much clearer than this, no matter what part of the world you live in.

God has given each of these for our own best interest, so we all need to get back to the basics and take them seriously. Not only that, but God will bless you for keeping His Commandments.

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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