Word
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- Written by: Editor
"Words words words I'm so sick of words!!…" Audrey Hepburn’s view of the lack of action on the part of a reluctant Rex Harrison in my fair lady. This is not to say I'm a star struck fan of musicals, rather, a neat little way of entering into my topic!
I wonder if God ever gets fed up with our words! Yes lord I'm going to do that, yes lord I've made a commitment… again. I fear our words sometimes don't add up with our actions. Our mouths are saying “yea yea” while our actions are saying “no no”! This is a discrepancy in our nature that desperately needs addressed.
So this problem of why we end up with a lot of talk, and not a lot of action on the ground, definitely needs looked at, because if we're ever to break this cycle of talk, don't act syndrome, then we need to look at possible reasons why were doing this!
1. Laziness: Or as the Bible calls it 'slothfulness'. This condition is very much warned about and is epidemic to our society today.
The word in Proverbs chapter 24:30 gives a vivid description of the frightening results of laziness!
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The other day I was reading Psalms 34 and I was struck by how amazing the opening lines were.
I quote, “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth!"
I thought about the concept of no matter what's happening in your life, that God is still worthy of your praise.
In heaven around Gods throne, praise is continually going on towards him. There's never a moment where they stop and say, ok that's enough.
They have the clear understanding in heaven, that we are created to serve and worship God. But down here on earth, surrounded as we are with life that's far removed from heaven, we can still offer to God our praise and bless his name.
David said in this Psalm, 'his praise shall continually be in my mouth'
The word continually, literally means to do something without end. A flow of praise from our lives that ascends to God, on a continual basis, as we offer it through his Spirit.
It also talks about doing this at 'ALL TIMES'
In other words, no matter how your days going, no matter how your feeling about life or yourself, all of that's irrelevant and we're just going to praise him anyway!!
I don't care how I feel, that's not stopping me from praising him with everything that's within me.
We can all get lackadaisical in our approach to God. If Serving him or praising him or prayer to him or love for him becomes dependant on wether or not we feel like it or can be bothered or if we're desperate enough we want him now now then I feel that we are missing something so important when we live that way.
It's imperative to be serving God from a willing heart, a grateful heart, a heart of worship and love aimed in his direction.
'They that worship the father must worship him in Spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must do it in Spirit and in truth!'
Not out of a false religious pious observance of ritual we go through once a week on a Sunday, but an expression through his Spirit within us of our devotion to God and out gratefulness for all he's done for us!
King David knew the meaning of being grateful and living with a kind of permanent praise tent pitched in his heart wherever he wandered, wether he was being chased silly by Saul in the wilderness or just finishing up killing a giant.
His heart was towards, in love and forever searching for this amazing person of God who he dearly longed to know!
You and I could learn lessons from this guy and perhaps alter our speed dial from lukewarm to on fire for God now!
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Ok so right now you may feel like the last thing you wish to talk about is the positive, but God always is in the positive. There's nothing negative about God, or his Spirit within us.
If your finding yourself in a place that's depressing you, or bad stuff has occurred, then contrary to how you may be feeling, this is THE moment to get back into a place of faith.
You do this by getting Gods word around your ears and allow that vital connection of BELIEF to seize hold of the power in those words and turn around your fortunes immediately.
Faith is, after all, just a heart beat away from Gods children. You may step out of faith but that amazing gift remains with us forever. The difference is in how much we use it.
To have the 'Head and not the tail' revelation, is to understand Gods will for your life.
It's not about being superior to anyone, it's not about having more worldly goods than anyone but about understanding that your life is joined through Christ, to the power of Gods Kingdom. That Kingdom is the head and most certainly not the tail.
The lie that brings folks down, is that your problems your fears your situations are too hard for God to do anything about but the word says In Isaiah
"I AM God, is there anything too hard for me?"
Do you want to be the person who turns round to God and says yes?!
Yet we do that all the time.
“I'll never change this”
“It's hopeless”
“I've prayed and nothing's happened”
Firstly praying about something in your natural, and praying about stuff through the Spirit are two entirely different things.
The prayer of faith (the one empowered by the Spirit of God) has GREAT power made available to it but prayer from repetition or religion or from a start point of unbelief, will not bring the desired results.
Anyway as we were saying, God’s will for us is that we should be above our situations not our situations dumped on us, so we're found lying beneath the rubble of disaster.
God has made you to be the head! That which is glorifying to him, because let's face it, if your life is a mess as a child of his, then there's something wrong!
His aim for us is to be living the good life that he always predestined for us to live and that entails us first catching the revelation of those words.
Jesus came to give us life and that life in abundance and until it overflows.
Nothing of those words speaks to me of lack or limits or depression or disaster or living life through the eyes of defeat.
It says that Jesus defeated death and Hell for us so that we could rise again out of Spiritual death into a new life filled with hope and promise and the power of his Spirit at work within us to champion our cause in the battles that life throws our way.
Many Christians are just not in touch with this revelation and so they live in a defeated way in a kingdom that doesn't know the meaning of defeat.
You need to open your heart to God and pray he opens the eyes of your understanding that you may realise the exceeding greatness of his power that is to us who BELIEVE!!!
Then you'll start to comprehend the exciting fact that yes you were created by God, just like original Adam; to rule and reign as a son and daughter of the Most High, called to a purpose and experience that transcends the pitiful limits of this present world, and grabs hold of the mystery of the Kingdom of God that says your born again to win in life!!!
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"As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord"
When Joshua spoke those awesome words, he wasn't confused, uncertain, stuck whether or not to go with God in his life, no Joshua declared: as for me, to start with and as for my house, my family and all that belongs to me, we're going to serve the Lord.
You know, we can set up our own lives for success and not only our own but also everyone and everything we produce in life, by having the heart that says to God,
'with my ALL, I'm going to serve YOU Lord.'
It's a statement of intent like that which a person makes in their own heart towards God, just like Joshua was doing here, that stands the test of time.
These words he spoke, were not the words of a wishy washy Christian but the words of a man speaking from the certainty of his commitment.
We need certainty in life, something real to stand upon. Something unshakable and certain in our own hearts.
Set your mandate… write the vision and make it so plain that it's clear and simple for everyone to read!
A lot of Christians are just not sure of what they believe, what they intend to do themselves let alone their house!!
One day they are going to live for God, then the next they want what the worlds offering.
You need to speak out your commitment to Jesus, declare it! Mean it! Do it!
We need to act upon that commitment by the way we live, the words we say, the way we think and act every day.
We are living for something, someone great. A purpose so awe inspiring that our human minds can't begin to grasp even a dim shadow of the reality. Like Paul, we're only seeing through a glass darkly but we have burning inside of us a glimpse into the reality that Jesus is the son of God and that he died for us and rose again from the dead and he has given to each of us, life eternal!!
We need to lay firmly ahold of that reality.
Eph 5:17 says to us, 'therefore don't be vague thoughtless and foolish but understanding and fully grasping what the will of the Lord is!'
We need to fully grasp these words and get them on the inside of us.
We need the Spirit of almighty God to burn them with intense clarity on our hearts so that we KNOW who we're living for and why!
Joshua knew who he belonged too.
Only you can live your Christianity and so Jesus needs to be real to you.
Jesus said he would send us the comforter from Heaven, even the Spirit of truth and he would take of mine and show it unto you!
We have the power to effect everyone in our sphere of influence.
Joshua affected his entire generation with the vision he had for God!
Not only was his own house stirred up to stay true to God but ALL the generation of his time.
You can see everything in your life go on to success and inspire those around you to want God too
NB: Joshua was the only one to get a generation after he was gone, serving God.
"as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord!!!”