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!

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It is not always an easy thing to run the Christian race victoriously, and sometimes it is even downright hard. God doesn’t always tell you to do things that are popular or fun, but expects you to walk in obedience to His direction.

It is walking in this kind of obedience that you start to see the REAL Character of God. And as I have started to do that more and more, I don’t want to go back to the way I used to be even if what He tells me to do is hard.

I Corinthians 9: 24-27

24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible.

26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I not as one that beateth the air.

27.But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

In I Corinthians 9, Paul is talking here about running a race. He gives a comparison to athletes who train for the Olympic races in Greek and Rome. He talks about how disciplined they must become if they expect to win. Even today’s Olympians start training right after one Olympics for the next one four years away. They have rigid diets and exercise programs and do a lot of self-sacrifice for their dream of winning the gold medal.

When Paul told them “run that ye may obtain,” he meant seize, possess, take eagerly, apprehend to win. To obtain means to have your eye on winning at all times, not just placing second, third, or barely making it through the race.

Paul says that the athletes competed for their own glory. They received a crown made of vines that would eventually dry up and die. They would eventually be forgotten even if they were the greatest in their time, but things done for The Kingdom of God will last forever.

Verse 26 – The boxers warmed up for their fight by punching the air with their gloves. They didn’t have a contender so it looked like they were thrashing around not getting anything done. Paul wanted to use this particular phrase of “beateth the air” to get his point across.

Verse 27 – “keep under my body” means to strike under the eye with the fist, make the eye black and blue, to treat with harshness, severity, or cruelty; to subject oneself to self-denial and rigid discipline that all the corrupt passions might be removed

subjection – to reduce to slavery, subdue an enemy, to conquer, to obtain complete victory over

So Paul was telling the Corinthians that it is no small feat to obtain and keep the victory over Satan for the Christian life. It takes discipline and self-restraint to live a life that is holy before God. You can’t just go along with the crowd and expect to be victorious. You must take a stand and make the appropriate sacrifices just like an athlete who wants to win the gold medal. They have their eye on a very real prize at the end of their hard years of training just like the Christian who can look forward to the prize of living a victorious life here on earth with the ultimate prize of Heaven.

Even though I am not overweight, I still have to watch what I eat. I don’t know about you, but many times I want to eat even when I am not hungry. I will stand in front of the cupboard and try to find something, which usually ends up being junk food.

In the United States junk food is everywhere and very easy to obtain, so I have to make an effort to eat a balanced diet each day. It is easy to grab something quick rather than take the time to make a healthy dish that would be much better for my body in the long run.

After a few years of struggling with this issue off and on, God started to reveal to me that I need to take much more seriously the words of I Corinthians 6: 19-20:

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

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

I have no idea what areas of your life need to be kept “under your body” and in “subjection,” but God knows every detail and what He wants to do to help you win the prize and receive an incorruptible crown. Ask Him to show you areas in your life that need to be brought into subjection and determine to go forward with Him even if it makes you uncomfortable. God has your best interest in mind with everything He wants to accomplish in your life.

Don’t stand in His Way!

In Ephesians 5: 2, Paul describes the crucifixion of Christ as an offering and sacrifice that was a “sweet smelling savour” to God.

If anyone comes into a room wearing perfume, it is immediately picked up by the nostrils. From that point, the nose decides if it is a wonderful, delicious smell or one that is loud, irritating to the eyes, and obnoxious. Either way, the smell of the perfume quickly permeates the room and for a few seconds your thoughts are completely absorbed with it.

God gave to Moses rules the Israelites must follow when they brought the sacrifice for their sin before God. If they did not follow these rules, the sacrifice would not be pleasing to Him and things would not bode well for that person who presented it. God meant business when it came to the Israelites walking in obedience to Him because He had miraculously brought them out of Egypt and fed and cared for them each day for many years.

I Samuel 15: 22

Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Even the smartest person has a very small mind when compared to the All-Powerful God who created the universe and everything in it. No human has the potential to see the “whole scope of things” and how everything will fit together to bring about the plans of God.

He has an awesome and unique plan for your life that will make it a “sweet smelling savour” to God’s nostrils.

God wants your complete obedience  - NOT a religious act, doing the same old same old humdrum stuff, doing things in the same way and knowing it doesn’t work but doing it anyway because you don’t know anything else to do.

He wants you to walk with Him each day and be prepared to do what He says. Believe me, just doing this will make your life ENORMOUSLY more productive in doing things that really count for the Kingdom of God.

He will continually amaze you at the things He is able to accomplish through you if you let Him. After you get a taste of doing things His Way, your old way of doing things won’t seem so appealing any more.

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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Our God desires marinating-type praying.

-Peter Lord-

More and more God has been dealing with me about my prayer life. I know that sometimes I just feel a burden on my heart about a particular person or situation and pray a passionate quick prayer; then I feel a relief and am able to go about my daily business knowing that things will work out.

But more and more God has been laying on my heart situations that need in-depth prayer and showing me that it will take many prayers to give the victory.

I want my life to be such that God can use me in either situation.

I challenge you to examine your prayer life and see into which of the above categories you fit most. Let God do a work in your life regarding prayer and He will put give you more and more discipline to pray for victory in harder areas.

Learn to make prayer a vital part of your everyday life!

Isn’t it amazing that we as humans can fall into a rut so quickly, even if we don’t like our situation? The most important thing seems to be that we get into a routine and feel comfortable about our lives. Most of us detest even the slightest change as we feel it throws us completely off balance.

Even though deep down we know we can’t control outward things that might happen, we convince ourselves that as long as our life stays in the same unchanging rut, we have complete control over our little corner of the world.

The problem with that way of thinking is that many Christians have put God in a box and expect Him to conform to their way of thinking and bless whatever they decide to do.

God will never be able to work in our lives the way He desires as long as we have this way of thinking.

Even though it is a scary thing to step out into the unknown and trust God to lead you down a road where you can’t always see what the end result will be, that is the way He desires you to live if you are His Child. After all, He is God and always has everything under control down to the smallest detail. He already knows everything you will face in the future, where He desires to lead you, and He can see the road clearly when the fog threatens to completely envelop you and you can’t see to even take a baby step.

If you can learn to trust God in that way, you won’t be paralyzed with fear to step out into the unknown. He knows your strengths, weaknesses, and limitations much better than you ever could, and from His perspective all you can do is be victorious if you will trust Him.

When He tells you to do something, He doesn’t expect you to do it in your own power or with your own abilities. He wants you to lean on and trust Him to work through you, so you should never be afraid to trust Him with every area of your life. He loves you more than any other person ever could and only wants the best for you in every way.

Don’t stay in that “comfort zone” any longer. It WILL be scary at first, but God will meet you exactly where you are now and make you into the person He can use for His Glory.

Don’t spend another minute being ORDINARY when God wants to do something EXTRAORDINARY in your life. All you have to do is take the first step and walk in His Power instead of your own.

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

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

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

Power of the Living Word

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God places people in our path to help refine and grow us, and so that we can help others in their walk with Him.

Even though there are plenty of bad things that happen each day, don’t let yourself get to the point that all you dwell on is the bad. God is still at work and doing plenty of great, even awesome things. Make the choice to look at things from His point of view and your life will be so much happier and peaceful.

His refinement process can seem tough at times, but He never wants you to settle for anything less than His Very Best.

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

There was a boy named Grumble Tone who ran away to sea,

“I’m sick of things on land,” he said, “as sick as I can be;

A life upon the bounding wave will suit a lad like me!”

*****

The seething ocean billows failed to stimulate his mirth,

For he did not like the vessel, nor the dizzy, rolling berth,

And he thought the sea was almost as unpleasant as the earth.

*****

He wandered into foreign lands, he saw each wondrous sight,

But nothing that he heard or saw seemed just exactly right;

And so he journeyed on and on, still seeking for delight.

*****

He talked with kings and ladies fair; he dined in courts, they say,

But always found the people dull, and longed to get away

To search for that mysterious land where he would like to stay.

*****

He wandered over all the world, his hair grew white as snow;

He reached that final bourne at last where all of us must go,

But never found the land he sought. The reason you would know?

*****

The reason was that north or south, where’er his steps were bent,

On land or sea, in court or hall, he found but discontent;

For he took his disposition with him everywhere he went.

*****

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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How many of us as Christians can say we have a foundation in God that is strong enough to truly be unshakable no matter what might come our way – that our roots are so strong we might sway a bit but not bend to the point that we will be broken and uprooted?

We all have unexpected problems that come into our lives, heartaches and pain to deal with, and things we think are impossible or might never change no matter how hard it might be to live with them.

If you are in a place such as this in your life right now, don’t give up. If you have asked Jesus to come into your heart as your personal Savior, you have Him on your side in His role as intercessor to God on your behalf.

Instead of running away from God, run to Him.

Turn to the Word of God and read it as a person who is dying of thirst and must get water soon or they will perish. God will meet you exactly where you are at this moment. All you need to do is ask for His help. The Holy Spirit will give you understanding of the verses in the Bible and guide you on how to walk in obedience to them.

No, God probably won’t handle things in the same way you would, but He knows exactly what you need. Spend time every day reading the Bible, praying and asking Him to help you, thanking Him in advance for the answer you will receive.

God truly wants to make you a person who has an unshakable faith in Him.

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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