Personal Development
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- Written by: Jade
Does life go smoothly for you? are you the type of person that sails through work and play without a single thing going wrong? Er.. bet your not!!! I know in heaven nothing goes wrong, but down here on planet EARTH plenty goes wrong...and if your even slightly like me, thats every day.
Ok, so sometimes its just stupid simple stuff, like famed international coffee shop with super coffee making masters, who even after two or three goes cant seem to master the regular old latte, without making it taste like you've signed up for a course in swallowing acrid poison. Or the annoying traffic trailing down the road at 30 in a 60 zone, created by, darling old Lady who cant drive, with all the time in the world, dawdling along, whilst you've got a vital reason to be in town fast...
Other times though, its stuff that isn't easy to brush off and just isn't funny, that leaves you with the feeling that God just doesn't get what life is like down here..he doesn't ever seem to try to give you a break on life. You pray for grace, strength, patience all the right stuff to cope, but bottom line... your just not feeling it...right!!!!
You have listened to the latest prosperity teaching, positivity statements, healing ministries, faith teachers and, if your honest, are still not convinced that Gods on your side at all.
Questions DO come into our heads when things go wrong, when bad stuff happens for whatever the reasons, most of us quake in our boots, and go reaching for doubt and uncertainty, thats because we ARE only human, we ARE weak, and we DO need at times to feel comforted. This doesn't faze God at all, he deliberately left a comforter with us, the Holy Spirit, so that, if we learn how to connect with him, we don't need to feel so alone in our struggles. The New Testament gives tons of examples of the Apostles interacting with this same Holy Spirit, telling of how they went through many trials and tribulations, in the spreading of the Gospel, being continually in need of strength and comfort from him, so that they could achieve what would be impossible without him.
Wisdom says then, get in sync with the Holy Spirit, so that when trouble strikes your ready, so that in whatever situation you and I find ourselves, be it everyday nuisances, or life challenging circumstances, we will be able to say, Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world, We are more than conquerers, we will fight. No matter what it takes we will not be driven by uncertainty, but by Faith in Christ Jesus, to a victorious, overcoming life.
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- Written by: Editor
Don't be someone that let's go of their faith! Jesus said that if we would believe, we would see the glory of God in our lives.
That takes a perseverance in someone and a holding on in their heart to what God has said.
The word says that it is a good thing that your heart be established in faith.
That means standing upon the word while the tests of life are going on around you.
Like Jesus asleep in the boat in the storm, as far as he was concerned, they were all going across the lake in one peace, and no storm was going to alter that word of faith!
Situations can try us, can test us and are meant to perfect us! (remember that if you can, while your facing your storms. It's not always that simple of course)
However one thing I have learned in life and that's this, that God is faithful! He's true to his word and his word works.
Within us he has implanted the good seed of the word, I believe in good soil, therefore a harvest is on the way.
You need to apply your faith, and not just mind faith. When I say mind faith, I'm referring to the difference between what we believe in our head and what we believe in our heart.
Faith is something that arises in our hearts first, not our minds.
A mental belief will not carry the day but heart faith will.
Jesus said that it was with the heart man believes unto salvation, not the mind.
If your finding your faiths not seeming to be working right, then check its heart faith, not just a mental belief.
In God it's not a case of mind over matter that produces the victory for us, but Holy Ghost inspired faith that comes from hearing God speak!
That's the kind of belief that arises in the midst of our darkest moments and calls God faithful and stands firm through it all, declaring the unseen as if it's seen and the victory as already won!
We read also in Hebrews 11:6 how that without faith, it's impossible to please God and this is because Gods not programmed to respond to our unbelief or our mental desires. His power, Jesus said was triggered by our faith.
If you recall the story of the little lady with the issue of blood, it was her faith and the reaching out to touch Jesus, that caused the virtue to leave Jesus, enter into her body and make her whole!
Your faith needs stirred up! Troubles and life have a habit of desensitising
You to God and his Spirit in you, that's why you should actively encourage your faith with rehearsing his word within your self daily.
Talk to yourself about his power and his promises to you and feel his Spirit within you begin to arise!!!
This week read Hebrews chapter eleven, and begin to remind yourself about faith and it's importance to you everyday.
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- Written by: Editor
A lot of us can become set in our ways! That part is very easy to do, the hard part is coming to know it and learning how to break the mould! If you live life a certain way, go to work at the set time, have the same grumble about the traffic, have the same view about your life and prospects, continue in a set routine for a long long time, then it all leads to a set pattern of events developing around your life.
With God though, he wants more for us than to become spiritually, or physically, set in our ways!
There's much much more to our amazing God than an observance of rituals, be they spiritual or encompassing every other aspect of our walk.
Breaking bad life patterns, or just moving with Gods timing for us, is a learned art. The problem being that we're all inclined to get comfy in the familiar surroundings that we live in, be they good or even bad. A prisoner can get used to and even begin to feel safe inside the bars that surround him.
Anyone who goes on to reach their full potential in life, will go through the mould breaking we're talking about here. Hebrews 11:8 and Genesis 12:1 recall that even Abraham, the father of faith was told to get up from his city, his country, his job and his friends and family, to follow God towards his promise. His heart though, saw something incredible contained in what God was saying to him and so he packed up everything and saw amazing multiplication around him begin to occur. If he wasn't laden down with many goods before he left, then by the time he positioned himself in line with God's word for his life, he soon was. God, it says, blessed him incredibly till he out shone all in the land that God sent him too to inherit.
Sometimes we can dwindle and die off if we remain static and held up on our base camp. Life with God revolves around faith and being always ready to move on! After all, as Abraham learned, he was a stranger and a pilgrim seeking a better, higher purpose and destiny than he ever would have had, if he'd remained constructing idols in ur of the Chaldeans.
I remember the story of Elijah 1 kings 17:1-17 and the ravens, how God sent him to the brook Cherith and fed Elijah during a very severe famine with bread in the morning and meat in the evening, delivered by air mail (or in reality the ravens) and how this continued many days. Every day Gods provision came without fail, morning and evening but one day, the brook began to dry up as the famine got worse, and it came time for a change!
You know you can stay in one place for a long time, but there comes a point where Gods calling for a change, for you to rise up in faith and embrace the new thing he's doing!
In Elijah's case, his comfy river life was replaced by the sight of a little widow woman in Samaria, gathering a few dried up sticks to cook the last of her meagre provisions for her and her son, before they too perished in the famine, but Gods plans always work out!
Far from it being the last meal of the widow and her son, by giving first to Elijah, all of them were fed in a miraculous way till the famine broke!
This is because the God we have believed in, is a living God, not a stone idol or a myth conjured up by a mysterious guru!
Our God is real and he desires us to know that and to experience him in our day to day walk.
We need him so much and it's his spirit in us that stops the River of our life from turning into a stagnant pond! His desire is for us to inherit his promise for our lives!
We've been told that the promise is for us! What we need to do is break the mould of indifference, fear, indolence and ignorance and arise to his great call!
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- Written by: Editor
Your day does not need to resemble the proverbial train wreck, it doesn't need to be painful, today can be a good day!
The reason it can be, is because Jesus is with us and if he's in your day, then no matter what confronts you, it doesn't have to steal your joy or your peace!
Feeling at peace, feeling happy and joyful on the inside are two important ingredients in your day to day walk.
If your tormented, or upset and unhappy on the inside, then somethings going wrong.
It means your circumstances are not only pressing around you, they've got into you and are making your life miserable, when in Christ, you should be a peace and in you right mind.
We've been given the mind of Christ and that is true peace from God and victory over the troubles we confront daily.