The “Creeps” Of Life

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 11:32:42 -0700

Mark 4:19: “The cares and anxieties of the world, and the distractions of this age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things CREEP in and choke and suffocate the Word, and It becomes fruitless.”

The distractions of this age brought on us by cares and anxieties have a distinct way of operating when they come around us. They creep in. They are subtle and have a way of delighting us. The Word speaks of sin as being pleasurable for a short time, but leads to death. The pleasure is aimed at the body and its senses, but the Word tells us that they are deceitful; that they’re false. And the havoc they wind up releasing on you has been foretold: they’ll rob you of your crop that the Word promises is yours when you use your faith.

Now God has already promised you all sorts of fantastic stuff. He said you’ll be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. You’ll prosper in all that you set your hands to, and that you are blessed with the blessing of Abraham! But He has a system in place for you and I and ANY ONE ELSE who cares to access it. Anything the world has to offer, no matter how good it looks to your eye, cannot compare to the glorious things that God has prepared for us who love Him.

Now when someone buys into the cares and anxieties of the world, they will become fruitless. That’s a powerful statement the book of Mark has made. That word “fruitless” means to be completely without, and absolutely void. In other words, it’s not just going to take a little. It will rob you of all your using your faith for. When you dabble in the world, Jesus tells us that even what we have will be taken from us. Why? Because we are working to exercise the ways of the world instead of the ways of the Word. Even what we are doing by faith at the time will come to nothing.

I’ve seen this happen to someone before. There was a man who owned his own business that I knew. He loved the Lord and was even a tither and a giver. But he ran his business in a crooked way. He would dodge taxes and cut legal corners. When his business ran into financial trouble, he couldn’t figure out why. “After all,” he said, “I’m a tither! Why is this happening to me?” The care of paying taxes and other such things creeped in and choked out what he was doing by faith: tithing and giving. His own actions choked out God from being able to act on his behalf through his tithing and giving. God warns us about these things for a reason. He can supply money enough for you and your family to live on AND to pay the taxes at the same time, if you’ll just believe Him for it and act honestly and with integrity! He’ll honor that! I know!

Now right on the other hand we have worries and fears. These have no pleasure value to them like a care or anxiety of the world do. They don’t creep in. No, they tend to carry with them a certain shock value. And if we do not know how to de-value them when they are offered, we’ll buy into them.

But the Word tells us to “take no care,” and to “be anxious for nothing.” We can’t go around saying, “Oh man, what am I going to do? I can barely afford rent, let alone this and that!” You’re going to have to use your faith. You’re going to have to refuse fear! You’re going to have to go to your Bible and look to Mark 11:22-24 and build your faith on them (notice I didn’t say build your feelings up until you feel better about the situation). Once you’ve done that, confess God’s Word with your mouth boldly. Confess, “I have all my needs met, and they are met by God. They come from HIS riches and glory! I refuse to worry! I refuse to fear! And I refuse to try to figure things out with my head! I’m going to trust what Your Word has said concerning this whole matter! And that’s all you’re going to get out of me, or out of my mouth, in Jesus name!”

Well, now you can be at ease! For all of the angels of heaven are working on your behalf right now making what you just said come to pass! You just beat the creep!!

Watch Those Feelings!

Sun, 1 Jun 2008 13:26:09 -0700

We are triune beings: we are spirits, we have a soul made up of our mind, will, and emotions, and we live in a body. You know as well as I do that it can be difficult to divide the emotions that we have from the spirit that we have. But God speaks Spirit to spirit, not Spirit to emotions.

The one way we are able to decipher between our emotions and the Spirit of God talking to our spirit is by the written Word of God. The Word says It divides our soul from our spirit, and that It judges rightly the thoughts and intents of our heart.

Now the Word was spoken before it was written, and then it was written so It could be spoken . . . by us. As I like to say, “Faith has a voice!” Hearing the Word is where our faith comes from. Speaking the Word is how our faith is deployed. And when you loose your faith, that’s when you get what God says. And that’s always better than getting what you would have said. There’s a whole new language to faith we must learn!

Speaking your circumstances and rehearsing the bad things that are happening to you (or are going to happen to you) is somewhat of a default language for the human race. And talking like that will only give those bad things staying power in your life. Believe me, I KNOW! But I have been quick to repent on every slip of the tongue! And so should you. When the pressure gets to you and you slip, and Satan tries to take a swing at you, just duck and say, “Lord, I’m sorry I missed it.” And go on like you never did slip. That really irritates the Devil.

Now when you decide to put a lock on your mouth, to say only what God’s Word says, you watch the multitude of opportunities that will come to you and try to get you to disagree with the Word. Someone will ask you just as you’re feeling down, “How are you feeling?” And at that point you just want some sympathy. And you know you are in trouble when you start by saying, “I just feel like...” What you better do is SHOUT what the Word says about you! Say, “I’m blessed! I’m healed! I’m full of joy!”

This is so important. And this is why: the speech center is the command center of your life. God knows it, the devil knows it. And when you know it, and start acting like it, the devil’s going to loose ground on you. “Dominion is found in your words.” What you speak comes into existence.

Your faith will never rise above your words. Mark 11 says, “You shall have whatsoever you sayeth.” It didn’t say you shall have whatsoever you thinketh. It’s what you SAY that will come to pass.

Join me every day in confessing what God says about us. Make a determination right now that you’ll do that especially in the times you feel most like talking your feelings. Let’s see victory every day, in the small things, and in the big things!

Hearing The Voice Of God

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:08:42 -0700

I remember when I had just started going to church years and years ago. I was hearing the Word of God preached and experiencing the Spirit of God for the fist time. The things Carol and I were learning were turning our lives around!

Now in one particular meeting we were in, there was something that the pastor said that made my curiosity antennas stand straight up! He said, “God said to me...” Now that’s all I heard. I don’t remember what God told him, I just remember thinking, “God can speak to you?” I thought, “If that’s true, I want to know how!”

Now, I will warn you here, it’s not always comfortable in the beginning to hear God’s voice. The reason for that is because it’s not natural. Hearing from God is a super-natural occurrence (ie. above natural thought). But once you learn how, and experience it first hand, your flesh will get used to it and it will be as natural as listening to anyone else. Even your flesh will learn to be responsive to the Voice.

The first thing you have to do is decide to believe what God has said in John 10:27: His children hear His voice! There is no question here: you are well able to hear it. Just receive that as truth. Let it sink down inside of you for a minute. Now shout, “Amen!”

The second thing you must do is decide that you will do what He says when you hear His voice. You have to do this in advance. You can’t just say, “Ok God, I’ll do whatever you say,” and think in the back of your mind, “But if it gets too hard, I just won’t do it.” He’s not talking to casual inquirers.

Now the third thing you must do is found in Habakkuk 2:1, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the wall. I will look to see what He will say to me.”

I like what that says. If you want to hear from God, you have to position yourself. It’s not easy to hear from God when you’re driving to work, telling all those around you how to drive. You need to get away from things that distract: your phone, TV, even the computer. Putting yourself in a place mentally and physically to hear from God will get God’s attention.

Finally, the fourth thing you must do to hear God’s voice is expect it. When you get alone with God - you have your Bible and notebook to write down what He shows you - expect God to speak. Expect Him to speak to you through His Word. Expect that you will hear that voice loud and clear inside of you when you pray for wisdom (see James 1:5). Expect when you talk to Him that He’ll converse with you.

Say it out loud with your mouth: “I can hear God’s voice. I am His child. He speaks to me and answers me because I belong to Him!” Now say “Amen” to that, and then get to it! God’s eager to communicate with you today.

What’s Up With The Mustard Seed?

Tue, 1 May 2007 14:27:43 -0700

Matthew 17:19-20, “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, ‘Why could not we cast him out?’ And Jesus said unto them, ‘Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder place,’ and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible to you.”

The mustard seed is a very significant story God chose for us to be able to relate to our faith, and to understanding what our faith is capable of doing when we use it. Today modern science has been able to hybridize many seeds, producing such things as fruit that have no seeds, and produce that didn’t exist before (ever had a kiwi? Believe it or not, scientists created them!)

An interesting piece of information I found many years ago was that the mustard seed is the only seed to date that scientists cannot hybridize or change. Hmmm...think God knew that when He spoke in reference to our faith? I do.

Notice where Jesus said to His disciples that they could not cast out the demon because of their unbelief. Unbelief is nothing more than doubting God’s Word. If Jesus said they had the authority to cast out devils, they should have kept praying until the man was liberated, not concerning themselves with weather or not they could see the manifestation of it the moment they prayed, nor with how long it might take.

This is called UNCHANGEABLE FAITH. Then Jesus said if you have faith that is unchangeable (no doubting God’s Word), you “Shall” say unto this mountain, be removed! The nature of unchangeable faith speaks to, or tells mountains that stand in your way to move. Why? Because such faith knows (believes) the mountain must obey it.

This makes perfect sense. God has told us that He does not change. His character is unchangeable, and so is His faith. This is the same faith you have. When you use it and remain unchangeable in your stand on God’s Word, faith won’t let you down. It gets the job done.

*Read Luke 7:1-10 (unchangeable faith in action)