But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).

For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do.

Paul told his listeners that they would never be really free as long as the flesh controlled their lives. In the verses following these he said that it is easy to tell when someone is controlled by the flesh because they exhibit certain characteristics that are easy to see. Likewise it is also easy to spot a person who consistently lives each day controlled by the Holy Spirit.

It is amazing that many people think that giving God total control over their life would keep them in bondage, when the reality is exactly the opposite. It is so liberating to know that you don’t have to make all the major decisions and wonder what would have happened if you had chosen another option that may have looked enticing at the time. Just about all of us can look back on something that looked like it would be an awesome opportunity but didn’t turn out to be nearly as awesome as we thought.

God always wants the best for you even though what He tells you to do might not be easy; but when you walk in obedience you will know that you are at the center of God’s will each day, and there is no better feeling when you lay your head on the pillow each night to sleep.

It is one thing to be busy, but another entirely to be busy doing work that will advance the Kingdom of God. It pleases Satan immensely if he can keep you tied up doing things that make you feel productive, but are of no benefit whatsoever to the Kingdom.

Checking off a long to-do list and feeling productive does not mean that you actually have been productive for God.

When I really started listening to and walking in obedience to what the Holy Spirit told me to do each day, I realized that many times in the past I had filled my days with things that kept me busy but did absolutely nothing to advance the Kingdom of God. I also realized that I had taken pride in staying busy each day to the point that I hardly had time to break for lunch. It made me feel great when I saw my calendar completely filled.

I believe that during the three years of ministry Jesus had on earth, he was probably a very busy person. The Bible speaks of Him climbing a mountain alone to pray, rest, and get refreshed, so He definitely had to get tired and exhausted just like you and me. The human body can only take so much before it lets you know it must have rest.

In Jesus’ three years of ministry He used many parables for teaching and also used Himself as a unique pattern to show the Israelite people that He had come to show them a new way that was much better than the way they had been doing things for centuries. He also opened the door for the Gentiles to participate in this New Kingdom way of life even though they had never been allowed to do so before.

Each day it was critical that Jesus be totally in tune with God to carry out His plans. Three years is a short period of time when you think of all that was at stake where Christianity was concerned. Jesus would start with 12 rough and unlearned men, train them in His unique way of doing things, and put His trust in them to go out and turn the world upside down for Christ.

They were so passionate about things that they were willing to die for their beliefs.

You never know what God has in store for your life, so be open to what He wants you to do. He has a different plan for each person, but it will always be a great one and will be tailor-made for you exactly.

WHAT AN AWESOME GOD WE HAVE!

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3. Have You Ever Grieved the Holy Spirit?

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name

On Christ the solid rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

All other ground is sinking sand

This song was written by Edward Mote in 1834 and what a powerful message.

Far too many times in my life I have thought of myself as trusting Christ wholly and completely for every problem or challenge that has arisen; but I realized that many of those times I tried to figure out something on my own just in case God wasn’t able to handle it by Himself.

Even though I was a Christian I had totally missed the point of what trusting in God was all about – giving everything to Him and letting Him solve my problem in whatever way He chose to do it.

I didn’t understand at all the way in which God works, and it is not the easiest thing in the world to “wholly lean on Jesus’ Name” when sometimes you can only see the next step instead of a long way down the road.

I didn’t realize that God could see the whole picture and from His point of view all I had to do was follow directions. I didn’t have to know where I was going, because He knew exactly where I was going and the moment I would arrive at my destination.

When the blood of Jesus was shed at Calvary, when Jesus rose from the grave, and later when the Holy Spirit came to reside within the heart of every person who had accepted Jesus as Savior, the world was changed forever.

The bondage that had enslaved man for thousands of years had been broken.

BUT – and it is a HUGE BUT… if you don’t realize what Jesus did on the cross, you could still be living in bondage.

God gave us the Bible so that we can know the truth about how He wants us to live. When you read a promise written on one of its pages, you can totally depend on what it says to be truth.

The truth will still be the truth even if you don’t believe it to be truth.

SO Satan counts a good deal on trying to reason with you logically that what the verse says is truth, but doesn’t really apply to your situation. (It is possible to justify doing just about anything if you think about it long enough.) Or he might try to tell you that the verse is the truth, but you don’t have enough faith for it to come to pass.

Satan will use any tactic or technique to try to make you believe that the promises of the Bible will not work for you.

I encourage you to:

• find Bible verses that specifically relate to the need or problem in your life
• write them down and put them in a place where you will see them every day
• read them aloud over and over again until you “just know” deep in your heart that God has heard and is in the process of sending an answer
• ask the Holy Spirit to make those biblical promises so real in your life that you have no trouble at all believing that God will meet your need at just the right moment.

It might not be in a way you have expected, but when you turn everything over to God, He will meet your need in the very best way possible even if you haven’t thought of that way yet. He always wants the BEST for you.

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1. Have you fallen in love with Jesus?

For we are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

We as Christians are to work in conjunction with God. We labor with Him to get the job done, but are able to do it only through His power and ability. God has given each of us a very unique personality, talents, and gifts to accomplish what He desires to further His Kingdom work.

There is no other person exactly like you and He has a special plan for your life, but you will never be able to accomplish that plan with your own abilities and in your own power.

John 15: 5

I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

The only way for the branch to bring forth fruit is to be attached to the vine; otherwise it will quickly wither and die. We have all seen branches that have been cut off in the process of pruning around the house. In a few short hours the leaves are limp and shriveled because they have been cut off from their source of life.

When we labor with God by being attached to the vine we will be able to use God’s ability and power to handle whatever comes along.

He has a plan for you no matter your job or everyday circumstances. There are people who need a touch from God in every walk of life and God can use you exactly where you are now. You just need to be a willing vessel. You can work alongside God to build His kingdom no matter what secular job you have.

If you will commit to let God use you in whatever way He chooses, you will be surprised at the open doors you will have and how many people you will be able to minister to.

You are totally unique and God has a specific plan for your life. Surrender yourself to His Will and you will marvel at how He will choose to use you.

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It is true that he is relentless and will never give up looking for the tiniest of openings to try to devour you. But God provides a way for the Christian to walk in victory each day.

It is one of the simplest things to do, but also one of the hardest in terms of actually doing it day after day.

All you have to do is keep your eyes on God and the truths that are written in the Word of God. If you do this every day, you will be such a powerful influence for the Kingdom of God that Satan will be very threatened.

Exodus 15: 25 – …there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.

I will give you the summary of the rest of the chapter and what God showed me. It’s not that you don’t already know some things, but God just has to sometimes give you a crystal clear word picture so that you come away changed forever.

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God had delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians in an awesome way. The majority of the 15^th chapter (vs. 1-21) is about the celebration they had because they were so blown away at what God had done.

I’m sure we all would be celebrating if we had seen the sea part and we walked directly through it on totally dry land with the water heaped up on either side. What an awesome thing to see!

Then almost immediately God would let them go through a test because He wanted to show them His Greatness and also how much He loved them. They walked in the wilderness three days without finding water, and when they did come to a drinking place, the water was very bitter and undrinkable. They called this place Marah because the water was bad.

You can imagine that the Israelites, all 2 – 3 million of them, were not in a very good mood by this time. In fact, they were all probably almost to the point of a riot.

Since Moses was powerless to do anything else, he fell on his face before God and cried out to him with an extremely passionate plea. The Hebrew word “cried” means to shriek, or to proclaim. Wouldn’t you have done the same if you were in his situation?  I’m sure he had more than once thought about his safety and well being with this angry mob.

When God saw that Moses was sincere in asking, He showed him what to do to solve the problem.

Vs 25 And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

The statute, or principle and the ordinance, or right was this:

That in all seasons of need and seeming impossibility the Lord would send deliverance straight from above, and that Israel might expect this during their wilderness journey.

The statute is for all times the principle of God’s guidance; the ordinance, the right or privilege of our heavenly citizenship.

But He also ever “proves” us by this that the enjoyment of our right and privilege is made to depend upon a constant exercise of faith.

Taken from Bible History of the Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim

So many times I have thought of problems or hard circumstances as things that are really bad, but have seldom thought of them as things that could be used to make me build character or grow stronger as a Christian.

The last four words of the above quote “constant exercise of faith” really opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes God allows hard things to come into my life just because He wants to make me into a stronger Christian who will make the choice to depend on Him no matter what comes my way. He loves me more than anyone else ever could, and wants me to have such a close relationship with Him that I know His Character – which is He always wants the BEST for my life.

In turn, that means that I totally believe that whatever the Bible says is true, and I won’t entertain thoughts of anything less. No matter what Satan might want me to believe, I only believe what God says, knowing that He will be responsible for bringing to pass what He has promised.

Vs 26-27 (this continued from verse 25)

And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statues, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and three score and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

God wanted to show them that He already had a wonderful plan in mind to meet their needs even before they encountered the problem. All they could see was a vast desert stretching before them and a pool of bad water; God saw the whole desert from above and knew just how far they were from wonderful shade and already knew exactly how He would handle the problem of the bitter water.

I have wondered if He made the water bitter just to teach them an awesome lesson they would not forget about His ability to always take care of them even in the worst of situations.

The next time you are faced with a “wilderness experience” remember that God already knows exactly where your deliverance will come from and when it will happen. Trust Him with everything in you and then let Him work supernaturally on your behalf to handle whatever problem arises!

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I opened the bag and dug in without even looking at the contents. I must have been hungry because I had eaten a couple of bites when I had a thought that the contents tasted funny. I looked in the bag and saw all sorts of cob webs with several spiders running around, and then a huge cockroach popped its head out of the bag and stared at me as if it were flaunting the fact that I had eaten some of the gross stuff that was in the bag.

Now I was nauseated and certainly wasn’t hungry any longer. Earlier in the dream I had faintly felt something run up my arm but hadn’t bothered to see what it was because I so intent on enjoying my treat.

Now I knew that the something I felt on my arm had probably not been good and I ran to the mirror to see if I could see anything on my clothes. At that point I woke suddenly and was extremely thankful to still be in the bed and find that this was just a dream.

Immediately I started thinking about how I have done similar things in real life.  It is easy to plunge headlong into something that looks good without asking for or waiting on the guidance of the Holy Spirit to see if it is something I should do. Everything that looks really good isn’t always the best for you. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what I need at exactly the right time to help me make any number of huge decisions for my life.

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I think of something that happened to me in the early 1980′s.  My husband had been laid off work during a really bad recession and we had been going through a very hard time financially. He took whatever work he could find to help support our family. We had two very small children, and I was not working at the time. Well yes, I was working very hard but not getting paid any money for it.

I was getting desperate to find a way for me to make money from home so that I could help out until my husband could find another good job. I came across an ad in a paper about stuffing envelopes from home. The person who wrote it did a good job because I could just imagine all the hundreds of dollars I would be making as I contributed to our family finances.

The article was vague about what would actually be in the envelopes you would stuff, but by then I was hooked. My husband tried to tell me that it was a scam, but did I believe him? – NO.

Desperation will make you think very irrationally and use all your resources to try to justify what you are doing as something that will make the horrible situation better.

I sent off for information on the job of stuffing envelopes and got another really well written sales pitch. By this time I was so desperate that I sent them the $13 they were asking for (which was almost all the money I had) so they could start to send me the envelopes to stuff. There was no email and filling out a form online with instant results back then, so I had to wait a few excruciating days for my envelopes to stuff.

I finally received a letter from them, and guess what, it had exactly the same sales pitch that the first letter had. There was no envelope to stuff to make even $1 of my money back. I had lost all $13 which I could have used to buy baby formula and diapers.

I still remember the extremely nauseated feeling I had when I opened the envelope and knew I had fallen for a scam. I felt even worse knowing that I had sent them my husband’s hard earned money. He didn’t get too mad at me because I guess he knew that I was trying to help in whatever way I could.

If I had prayed about the envelope situation, I know that God would have shown me that I needed to trust Him to meet my needs  instead of trying to find my own way out of a desperate situation. He would most likely have answered my prayer in a different way than I could have imagined, but His answer would have been much better than the one I got from the “envelope stuffing company.”

I don’t know about you, but I want to let God be my strength for each day so that I can truly walk in His Power and have His Anointing on my life.

Don’t be content to eat cobwebs when you can have all the succulent foods from His table. It might take a little longer for His Answer, but “HOW SWEET IT IS” to walk with Him each day and be a vessel He can use to carry out His Kingdom Work!

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1. Do You Have “Real Power” To Fight Against Satan?

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The word “Goliath” is derived from the Hebrew word galah meaning “captive”, “stripped bare”, “denuded” in a particularly disgraceful way; shamefully exposed and conspicuously uncovered..

The word “Philistine” is derived from the Hebrew pelesheth, and palash’ words meaning “migratory/exiled” those who “roll” (or wallow)…as grieving in the dust.
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So the Philistines were camped on one hill and the Israelites on an opposite hill with a valley in between. There was no way for the armies to attack each other without being seen from a long distance. It would have certainly been a brutal loss for the one who attacked first.

So the Philistines came up with what they thought was an unbeatable plan – they would put one Philistine up against one Israelite.

Since they had Goliath on their side, and he was almost twice the size of any of the Israelites, they must have felt totally confident that he would obliterate the enemy and they would win the battle.

I had never looked up the meaning of the word Goliath, and was very surprised when I read the definition above. The meaning of names was a huge thing to the Israelites, and I wonder if David somehow knew the meaning of Goliath’s name and it helped him to have the faith he needed for God to deliver him from this giant everyone was so terrified of.

Somehow God worked in his life in such a way that he was able to get past all the negativity and fear of the whole Israelite army and have the total conviction that God would give him victory over this giant that was at least double his size.

Imagine how many people must have tried to talk him out of this ludicrous thing he was about to do (at least it was ludicrous in their eyes.) Nothing about his actions made sense at all in the way they looked at the situation. I’m sure they were bracing for David’s death and sad and fearful that they would be defeated and have to live in bondage for an extended period of time to the Philistines.

No doubt they were bracing for the worst scenario, but they were greatly surprised when they got the best. All of a sudden, they had overcome huge odds to defeat the great giant and the grave situation had turned around in an instant.

The Bible is filled with stories such as this where things looked hopelessly impossible and God intervened in such an incredible way that even the heathens knew He was something special and much better than their gods.

The next time you are faced with a situation that looks gigantic and totally impossible, remember that God is the master of making a way where it doesn’t look like there could possibly be one.

Get on your face before Him, and ask Him for a miracle like the one He did for David. He is the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He wants to give you the victory in a mighty way, so ask Him to give you a mighty faith to believe He will do the impossible.

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Deu 11:8 Soon you will cross the Jordan River, and if you obey the laws and teachings I’m giving you today, you will be strong enough to conquer the land

Deu 11:9 that the LORD promised your ancestors and their descendants. It’s rich with milk and honey, and you will live there and enjoy it for a long time.

Deu 11:10 It’s better land than you had in Egypt, where you had to struggle just to water your crops.

Deu 11:11 But the hills and valleys in the promised land are watered by rain from heaven,

Deu 11:12 because the LORD your God keeps his eye on this land and takes care of it all year long.

Deu 11:13 The LORD your God commands you to love him and to serve him with all your heart and soul. If you obey him,

Deu 11:14 he will send rain at the right seasons, so you will have more than enough food, wine, and olive oil, and there will be plenty of grass for your cattle. CEV

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During a recent really nice rain (the kind that is light enough the dry ground can soak it up before it gets a chance to run off,) the Holy Spirit showed me an awesome word picture. It was sort of like a light bulb coming on that gave me a clear understanding about the above verses.

God told the Israelites that if they would obey His commands and love and serve Him with all their hearts, He would take care of them by sending the right amount of rain from heaven at just the right time to take care of their needs. The rain they received would be perfect for the crops they were growing and would soak in for maximum benefit and yield.

When we have been in the middle of a drought, I have seen it rain so hard that the ground could not possibly soak up the rain fast enough and the majority of it just ran off to lower ground. If we got three inches, we may have only received the benefit of half the rain because of the run-off.

God wants to send His best spiritual rain into your life so it can always be fertile and open for growing maximum yields of fruit. He never wants the fertile ground of your heart to become dry, hard, rocky, and devoid of life-giving water that keeps it ready to plant a crop at any time.

We as Christians should always keep our mind, heart and ears open to hear the Holy Spirit and walk in obedience to His direction. It is then that the truth can soak in and change us from the inside, to be a powerful and fruit-filled Christian who can do great things for the Kingdom of God.

To “soak truth in” means to meditate and absorb a little at a time. Your mind always wants to rebel at something that is very different from what you know now. It tries to justify what you are doing now as right and the new thing as wrong, with its purpose being to throw you off and make you go in the wrong direction.

Let the word soak in and truly change your life by doing it slowly and surely. We usually wish we could grow and mature much faster than we do, but slowly and surely will always get the job done much better and the growth you have accomplished will last forever.

The Holy Spirit wants your heart to stay fertile and tilled so that it will be very easy for Him to give you direction in a certain area and know that He won’t have to spend days, weeks, or months trying to get you to think about things another way. He never wants you to get stuck in a certain way of doing things and be so stuck that you won’t consider doing them another way.

But…the Holy Spirit will never lead you to do something that is contrary to the Word of God. Even though God works in a much different way than we might think, He would never lead you to do something that is not in alignment with His Word. It might not make sense to you, but it always makes perfect sense to God because He can see the whole picture.

Make the choice now that you will be open to hear God and walk in obedience to what He tells you to do.

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I wish so much that I had realized this much earlier in my Christian life.

It is so easy to look at troubles and trials as really bad things, or think that God is mad with you or punishing you for something. In the book of Job, Job’s friends came to the conclusion that he must have done some horrible sin to be going through such terrible trials.

I am seeing more and more that God does initiate things that are out of our control so we will be put in a position of desperation to trust in Him. When we absolutely can’t do it for ourselves, it is only God who will be thanked, praised, and worshiped for what He has done to miraculously bring about an answer to our problem.

The more you study the Bible and learn about God’s Character, the more you will know you can trust Him with every detail of your life. He will always have something better and more complex in mind than you can ever imagine. He always sees the “big picture” and knows exactly how your part will fit into the piece of the puzzle.

I’m certainly not saying that this is an easy way to live, because you usually can’t physically see how everything will turn out. But the way you respond to God’s call reveals much about who you think He is.
Make the choice right now to walk in obedience to Him even though you may not be able to see the end result beforehand. It will be a magnificent ride!

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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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Ralph Marston

When a huge trial comes your way and stays there for awhile, it seems as if it tries to become a part of you. If you are not careful, it can change your whole personality and make you go from being cheerful and lively to bitter, depressed or moody. God never intended for you to carry a huge burden on your own with no help from Him in any way.

Matthew 11: 28-30

Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

The following quote is from Charles Finney, who explains it very well.

1. Then let it be understood that Christ’s real yoke, or the true service of Christ, is never hard. His real yoke is never heavy. It is self-will and selfishness that at any time fault the yoke or the service of Christ.

2. If what we call religion is burdensome, it is not Christ’s yoke, it is not Christ’s religion. If we make an uphill business of it, and if we find it “hard to obey, and harder still to love,” Christ says to us, Who has required this at your hand? What I require of you is a love-service, not this slavish service. If you love me not, if you do not serve me from love, I abhor your doings. Let no one think himself truly religious whose religion is a bondage, and not the highest liberty.

3. Whatever is hard in religion is made so by our want of heart, our want of love, our want of confidence; and is therefore not Christ’s yoke at all. It is not true religion, it is not Christian liberty, but legal bondage.

4. All truly religious duties are easy. If we make them hard, they are not a love-service, and not what Christ requires. If we make them hard we spoil them. If we go complainingly about his service, grumbling about the difficulties and the hardness of his service, he loathes our bondage, he cannot accept it.

I know that many times I have lived in huge bondage because I took on burdens and problems that I should have given to God and left with Him to work out when the time was right.

Charles Finney has written such an awesome definition of the difference between living in bondage and living in freedom.

Make the choice right now that you will choose the way of Christ’s yoke of freedom!

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