But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in my place, to represent Me and act on my behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.

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Growing up in church and becoming a Christian at an early age, I had read this verse many times. In all those times of reading it, though, I never really understood it until one day it seemed my mind and understanding were wide open to grasp its meaning.

From that moment on, I never thought of the Holy Spirit in the same way. I knew that He became a part of my life from the moment I became a Christian, but for years I never gave Him a prominent place or even thought very much about Him being there.

WOW! what an awesome thing the Holy Spirit is to every Christian. Look at the above verse again. His help and wisdom cover every single area of our lives. We don’t have to make a big decision or stand on our own strength at any time.  We may choose to do so, but we don’t have to.

God knew that there would be times in our lives when we needed a Comforter who could really comfort us in a way that would make a huge difference in our lives. No other person is capable of doing that like the Holy Spirit.

I encourage you to read this verse several times and meditate on what it says. If you have asked Jesus into your heart, then you have this same Holy Spirit so ask Him to help you understand what this verse truly means.

He wants to open your eyes, heart, and mind to truths you have never understood before. It will be an awesome journey!

Related posts:

1. Have You Ever Grieved the Holy Spirit?
2. My Dream and the Still, Small Voice of the Holy Spirit!

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

Related posts:

1. Dwell on truth and the things of God.
2. What An Awesome Truth!!!
3. Be Careful When You Open The Door!

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

No related posts.

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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

Related posts:

1. The Power of Prayer
2. Do Not let Satan Devour you!

What more can you add? This says everything!!!

Check out my other sites:

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

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

Related posts:

1. Dwell on truth and the things of God.

Sometimes you have an eery feeling that you are walking into a trap, but you just continue on with what you are doing hoping it won’t lead to disaster.

When you feel your conscience telling you something isn’t right, do the following if you are a Christian:

Stop what you are doing

Pray about the situation

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth in the matter

Open your mind, ears, and heart to really hear the truth, instead of trying to justify what you are doing.

This last sentence  reminds me of a particular part in the movie Passion of the Christ.  The Pharisees were trying to get Jesus out of the way because they had a lot of power and were well respected among the Jewish people. The people were burdened down with a huge amount of laws, though.

When Jesus started teaching them His truths, it was like a huge burden being lifted off the shoulders of each person who followed Him. Naturally the Jewish hierarchy didn’t appreciate losing their influence among the people, so they plotted to get rid of him permanently.

They had him brought before the court. Because the Romans could not find Him guilty of doing anything to break their laws, they shuffled Him back and forth not wanting to deal with a religious battle that might make the people angry with them.

Jesus finally ended up in the court of Pilate, who detested being at this Jewish post, but didn’t want to rock the boat too much hoping that he could eventually be advanced to a better position. He was in a dilemma as to how to handle the situation. Even though Jesus hadn’t done anything wrong, the people demanded He be crucified like a common criminal.

The night before Pilate was to make his decision, his wife had a dream that Jesus was the real Savior the Jews had been seeking for so many years and that Pilate should not deal with Him harshly. She told her husband about the dream and tried to get him to do the right thing, but he was a politician and knew it might kill his political chances for advancement if he took her advice.

When his wife knew he would not hear the truth, she said these words to him in the movie:

“If you will not hear the truth, you will never know it.”

If you are in the position of the cat in the above picture, you have to make the decision to get rid of your pride and truly hear and obey truth. If not you will continue to walk blindly along the fence right into certain disaster.

From now on when the Holy Spirit pricks your conscience to let you know that something is not right, stop what you are doing and find out immediately what you need to do to change the situation. You will definitely be glad you did!

Check out my other sites:

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

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

Related posts:

1. Sin can make you fall into a trap quicker than you think!

A Haptoons Cartoon – haptoons.org

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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Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

The picture below is a fish instead of a lion, but it makes a dramatic point as to the fact that Satan is always looking for a way to bring you down.

That is why the Bible says the Christian must always be on the lookout for his methods of deception. God has given instructions as to how to defeat Satan, but you must be obedient to what He says. An example of this would be His teaching on anxiety, fear, and worry in Matthew 6: 24-34.

You have the choice to entertain them and open the door for Satan to wreak havoc, or you can choose to trust God to take care of the situation and have victory over the flesh. You must stand on the truth even though your feelings might tell you something completely different. You can always trust the Word of God over what your flesh tells you.

Another thing I noticed in the picture is that the people in the boat are concentrating on the fin, while the humongous fish is right beneath them waiting for the opportune time to strike. They don’t realize that the danger is much closer than they think.

That is what Satan does; he tries to get your mind off the larger thing by getting you to focus on something much smaller that you think is not an immediate threat.

It is not always an easy thing to determine in your heart that you will stand on the truths of the Bible, but it is easy to convince yourself that your strong feelings must be right. Don’t give yourself any other option except pure truth.

Ask God to give you the faith to think the right thoughts, say the right words, and stand wholeheartedly on His promises. As your faith increases, you will be able to stand against the wiles of Satan through the power of Jesus. Let Him give you the strength to walk each day in victory.

Don’t settle for anything less than the Power of God in your life!

Check out my other sites:

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

No related posts.

The first time I saw this photo it reminded me of something important about my walk with God. When I am in the center of His Will, I picture myself walking in sync with Him step by step. Even if He leads me in a path that has some curves in it, I still know that I am walking on the right path.

Then I am reminded of times when I thought I could do it on my own and had everything under control. I veered off to the left or right, and even took gigantic detours away from where God wanted me to be. I was not doing bad things; I was just not doing the things that He wanted me to do.

The road above makes hairpin turns and seems to do a lot of backtracking due to the rough layout of the land. The scenery is breathtaking, but when you take this road you will probably have to go many miles further to get to your destination than if you had just taken a straight road.  If you choose to take a road like this on your own in your spiritual walk, you will be traveling a lot, but gaining very little maturity in your spiritual growth. You will always be veering off to the right or left and wasting valuable time that could be used on doing something productive for God.

The Christian life is always full of choices. You can make the choice to fully committ your life to Christ and walk with Him wherever He leads. Make this your first priority and see the miraculous things God will do for you.

I have found that once I finally make a choice and truly settle it in my mind, things start to get easier at that moment. I have a resolve that I didn’t have before, and start to think about things differently. I just know what I have to do, start to do it, and develop discipline in that area.

In order to grow spiritually, you should committ to daily study of God’s Word, set aside a time for prayer, and ask God to give you wisdom and discernment to be able to see the truth and understand what you are reading in the Bible. Also ask God to open doors for service in the areas that He desires, and to convict you when you start to veer off to the left or right without His leading.

It might not be easy to stay disciplined at first, but if you will stick to it you will start to see God in a way that you have never seen Him before. He will start to reveal Himself to you in a mighty way.

One of the greatest things that you can ever do is committ your life fully to Christ.

Please check out my other web sites:

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

I found this picture at a site called www.tomrobinsonphotography.com

He has given permission to use this picture, and there are many more beautiful landscapes there. Feel free to check them out. They are pictures that tell a story about the people and landmarks of different countries.

No related posts.

I know these people probably just shoveled the snow from around their car so that a picture could be taken to have a record of the huge snowstorm that had just occurred. It’s the caption underneath the picture that really got me to thinking about the Christian life.

More specifically I have been thinking about my life, and how many times in the past I have done things that were totally “pointless” as far as eternity was concerned. I have gotten all excited about something and forged ahead without really thinking, praying, or waiting for direction as to the timing of that particular thing. The truth is, it’s not always easy to wait on God’s timing.

The flesh can only see what is before it at the moment, and tries to make a decision based on what looks the best given the options available. The Holy Spirit is sent to the Christian as an everyday guide so that nothing is done by guess or chance.

John 16: 13-14 (The words of Jesus) When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.

If you have asked Jesus to come into your heart, the Holy Spirit is there to guide you into all truth. You just have to ask Him and obey what He tells you to do, even if you might not understand it at the time. God knows all about your future, and only desires the best for you.

Don’t live a “pointless” life any longer. Make every day count as one that you know you accomplished something for God.

Further study resources:

Power of the Living Word

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living

Related posts:

1. Let God Change your Life 2° at a Time