It will truly astound you at what God will be able to accomplish through your life when you surrender your all to Him!

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Jesus died over 2000 years ago.

Nobody has ever referred to him as the late Jesus,

Not even the heathens.

Nowhere in history.

Nowhere has He EVER been referred to in the past tense!

He is the Living God!

When Jesus died on the cross He was thinking of you!

Let the Living God have control over your life to use you in a mighty way. Even if you don’t know exactly where you are going, He always does and will never lead you astray.

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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 I’ve ever heard a true statement, this is it.

Satan is a master at having the patience to wait for the perfect time to put something before you that could lead you astray. That is why the Bible tells us in Ephesians 6: 10-18 to always put on our spiritual armor each day so that we can have every weapon we need to defeat Satan.  All he wants is the smallest of openings in the weakest area of your life; then he can work on gradually enlarging that area until he has control.

Many times we don’t even realize we have given him control because the takeover has been so gradual.

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10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

¹¹Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

¹²For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,  against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 

¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

¹⁴Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

¹⁵and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

¹⁶above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

¹⁸praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints–

======================================================

The only way to defeat Satan and live a life of spiritual victory is to put on the armor listed above. The Holy Spirit can give discernment and wisdom about situations you need to avoid and people with whom you don’t need to associate.

It is Satan’s desire to always bring you down in whatever way possible, but the good news is that you don’t have to give in and let him do it.

Ask God to give you supernatural wisdom, discernment, and the power to walk in obedience to Him no matter how things might look from human eyes. You must concentrate on the fact that God thinks and works in a different way than you because He can see everything about your life and how it all fits together.

The very tiniest of steps starts with you being obedient to what He tells you to do. If you are facing a situation that looks impossible, run to the God who says in Matthew 19: 26:

With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

You really can believe the promises of the Bible, so get in on what God is doing and  keep your eyes and mind focused on Him.

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We use the excuse that we don’t have a degree in theology or Bible, or the Pastor is the one who is supposed to make sure we know these things. There is no possible way he can do that in a couple of hours a week. You must read and study the Word for yourself – then if you have any questions you should ask your pastor or another mature Christian to explain what you don’t understand.

If you don’t really know the truth, it will be easy for Satan to make you believe a lie. Usually he will give you just enough truth to make you think that everything he says is the truth.

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If we sometimes looked a little more to the connection of sentences, we should be kept from very dangerous errors. The Bible ought to be treated in conformity with common sense, as you would use any other book. If you took the writings of any author, however carefully he might express himself, if you picked out a sentence here and a sentence there, [you] might make the man to say what he never believed; nay, even make him to be the supporter of opinions which he abhors. So it is with the Bible: if you pay no regard to the connection and general run of the passage, you miss the mind of the Spirit of God, and rather thrust your own mind into God’s words than bring out God’s mind from the words of the Holy Ghost.

From a sermon entitled “Working Out What Is Worked In,” delivered July 12, 1868.

The Daily Spurgeon

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No matter what version of the Bible you read, you will never truly be able to understand it without the Holy Spirit opening your mind, comprehension, and ears to hear the real truth – not just the truth as you have always perceived it to be.

If you don’t read the Bible with the determination that you want to know the truth, your mind will filter the parts that make you uncomfortable, telling you that the changes you need to make are far beyond your grasp or helping you justify why you don’t need to change.

*  If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, make it a point to read the Bible for a few minutes each morning. You can start out with 5 or 10 minutes, asking the Holy Spirit to show you truths that you have never seen before. It won’t take long for you to look at the Bible differently. It will change your life to the point that you will never want to go back to where you were before.

Don’t let Satan make you believe the lie that the Bible is boring or just an old fashioned irrelevant book that is out of date for today’s times. Its Words are life, health, and well-being for the one who reads it and applies its words to their life.

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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I forget that God is not limited to my own small mind that sometimes thinks it knows exactly the right way to do everything, but really doesn’t know that much at all compared to a God who created the world and everything in it.

I look down the list and see that some of the people God used most were what we might consider to have been the biggest failures. We probably would have looked at them and thought there was no hope of them ever being used by God. Not only did He use them, but He radically changed their life and they became part of the earthly lineage of Jesus Christ Himself.

What a Great Redeemer we have who not only looks down and sees us as we are, but also looks past that to see what He wants us to become.

Don’t let your failures keep you from letting God use you in an awesome way!!

The next time you feel like GOD can’t use you, just remember…

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem

Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a harlot
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked

Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying

Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer..AND
Lazarus was dead!

And don’t forget,
Jesus Helped them all!!!!

Now!
No more excuses!
God can use you to your full potential.

Besides you aren’t the message,
you are just the messenger.

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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Don’t we all need to put this on our wall and read it every day so we will remember that we truly should exist for the purpose of “reflecting back to God His matchless glory?”

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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1. The Matchless Pearl Story

Just about all of us have someone that we consider a best friend – someone who knows everything about us and loves us anyway. It is easy to believe that a best friend will always be there for us when we go through tough situations and hard times. They are a tangible, living person that we can see and touch.

As much as God loves us, why can’t we believe that He cares for us much more than an earthly friend ever could? Why do we seem to second-guess Him much more than an earthly friend?

In Bible times, there were many heathen nations that surrounded Israel. They all had numerous idols and many gods who they worshiped. In fact, many of the people worshiped a god for every aspect of their life. They had numerous idols in their houses in hopes of the gods smiling down on them and giving them good luck and good fortune.

It was for this reason that God chose not to reveal Himself in the form of a statue that they could place on their mantle. He created the world and everything in it, so He would be able to meet every need of every person on the planet all at the same time. After all, He made every one of them and knew exactly what they needed.

Just because you can’t physically see God like you can a best friend does not mean that you can’t depend upon Him to meet your every need and help you in time of trouble.

When Jesus died on the cross, rose again, and went back to Heaven, the Holy Spirit came to live in the heart of every person who has accepted Jesus as their personal Savior.  You can depend on Him to lead you in the right direction and show you how to pray for what you need.

You can’t physically see Him, but He is very real. Instead of depending on earthly friends who can lead you astray, depend on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you every step of the way.

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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Mark 6: 32-45 tells the story of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand men plus women and children.
Jesus and the disciples had been so busy teaching and ministering to people that they hardly had time to eat. They were all weary and needed to get away to rest, but when the people saw them leaving, they were so desperate to know more truth that they followed them. When Jesus saw this, He couldn’t help but have compassion on them because the Bible says that He saw them “as sheep without a shepherd.” They were desperate to find someone who could tell them the truth.

The people had left what they were doing and followed Jesus without even thinking about food or provisions. It was getting late in the day and the disciples started to worry that they wouldn’t make it home because they hadn’t eaten.

Naturally, they tried to think of a fleshly solution to the problem. They told Jesus to let them disperse and go to the villages nearby to get something to eat.

He answered by saying to them, “Give ye them to eat.”

They tried to find their own solution to the problem and came up with only two small fish and five loaves of bread. Naturally, they couldn’t see how that small amount would accomplish anything, but Jesus had something else in mind. He wanted to teach them about the provision of God.

They saw a miracle of huge proportions and saw Jesus take care of an impossible situation. He fed five thousand people by multiplying the small amount of food until everyone was filled. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets that were left over.

What an awesome miracle the disciples had just seen. You would think that it would have made a huge impact on them and their lives would have been radically changed, but that was not to be the case yet.

After the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus went to a mountain to pray while the disciples got in the ship and sailed to the other shore.

Later that night, a huge storm came up with the disciples out in the middle of the sea. They were rowing as hard as they could, but making little progress against the huge waves and mighty winds.

Jesus decided to go to them by walking upon the sea. When they saw Him, they were very afraid until He told them who He was. As soon as He got into the boat, the wind ceased and the water became calm.

The disciples were amazed at what had just happened, but Mark 6: 52 says “For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”

A few hours before, they had just seen an awesome miracle, but now they did not remember or think about the “power” which Jesus had shown in feeding the five thousand. They didn’t consider that He could use this same power to save them from the storm, so they didn’t even ask for His help.

They were not opposed to what Jesus had done, but their mind was too dull to perceive the powerful implications of it. They never connected the two things together as being from the same “power source.”

Two chapters later, we find pretty much the same thing happening. The crowd was anxious to be around Jesus and hear what He had to say, so they followed Him again out of town. This time they had been there three days with nothing to eat, having at least four thousand men plus women and children.

Jesus went through the same routine, telling the disciples they needed to provide food for the people.

Again, they only found a small amount of food, but Jesus blessed and multiplied it so the people could eat until they were full. This time they had seven baskets left over. After everyone had been completely filled, he sent them away to their homes.

Right after that, he and the disciples were getting ready to depart when the Pharisees started asking Jesus questions. He wouldn’t answer them because He knew it was a waste of time. They were not looking to understand, but only trying to find a way to trap him.

He finally got away, and they boarded the ship. Keep in mind that this was only a few hours after another miraculous feeding of thousands of people using only a few fish and loaves of bread.

Jesus told them these words in Mark 8:15, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”

Again, they had no clue what Jesus was talking about. He was trying to warn them that the Pharisees were only concerned with rules and regulations. They didn’t want to lose their power, so they were fighting against the truth that Jesus had been teaching. As the disciples discussed it, they felt that Jesus must have been upset with them because they didn’t bring along any bread to eat because He had talked about leaven.

Jesus then recounted the miraculous feeding of the five thousand men, plus women and children, and how they had twelve baskets left over. He also reminded them of the four thousand men, plus women and children who had been fed with seven baskets left over.

He not only reminded them of His sufficiency, but also of the overage that was left each time. He had done over and above what was required.

Then in Mark 8: 21 He says, “How is it that ye do not understand?”

The disciples had been with Jesus constantly and watched Him do all kinds of miracles. This had become a part of their everyday life. They didn’t seem to understand the power that Jesus had to perform these miracles and where that power came from.

As Christians, we see miracles performed in our lives or the lives of others, but many of us don’t seem to understand either?

Jesus has given every Christian the authority to use the POWER of His Name in order to fight off the advances of the enemy Satan, but you must have a close relationship with Him in order to be able to use that power.

Let the Holy Spirit show you about the Character of God, and let Him open your heart, mind, and ears to find out the truth and walk in it.

You must want to know the truth before you can really understand it. Grasp onto the promises and truths God has given you in His Word and you will find they will completely change your life.

God wants all His Children to be able to walk in His Power and live a victorious Christian life. He not only wants us to defeat Satan, He wants us to make huge advances for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.

God wants people who are sold out to Him and want to learn about His Character. Then He can use them to do mighty works for the cause of Christ.

Make the choice right now that you will be this kind of person!

I leave you with the words to the chorus of this song by Matthew West:

The Motions

I don’t want to go through the motions

I don’t want to go one more day

Without your all-consuming passion inside of me

I don’t want to spend my whole life asking

What if I had given everything

Instead of going through the motions

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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This sign says one thing but shows a completely opposite picture.

It is a dismal reminder to me of all the times that I have said I was a Christian but haven’t acted like one. I’m not talking about doing things that are unlawful or cruel, but just times when I should have acted with more love and more compassion toward others. I have put myself and my needs first and often haven’t been open to others around me who are hurting.

Does a random person that I meet on the street see Jesus in me or at least see that there is something different about me than they are used to seeing? What about you?

What do the people I am around on a daily basis think about my life? Do they see God continually moving and working in me and bring me closer to Him so that He can use me to carry forth His Work?

Does my life always bear out the words of Frances of Assisi?

“Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary use words.”

I don’t know about you, but I want God to be able to use me wherever I am and in whatever capacity He chooses. I want my heart and inner life to match up with what I portray on the outside.

When we as Christians can get to this point, we will be able to make an awesome impact for the Kingdom of God. Pride will be destroyed as we put Him first, others second, and ourselves last.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you areas in your life where you need change. I can pretty much tell you it won’t be easy, but it definitely will be worth it in the long run. After God has gotten all the junk out, you will be a clean and usable vessel who can make a dynamic impact for good on others around 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

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