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Pastor’s Blog 11.6.18

 

Mark 11:20-26 TPT

In the morning, they passed by the fig tree that Jesus spoke to and it was completely withered from the roots up. Peter remembered and said to him, “Teacher, look! That’s the fig tree you cursed. It’s now all shriveled up and dead.”

Jesus replied, “Let the faith of God be in you! Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith and having no doubt, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done. This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

 

How is it that in the Body of Christ we seem so easily defeated in the area of bold consistent prayer? I find a clue in the book of James:

 

James 4:1-6 TPT

What is the cause of your conflicts and quarrels with each other? Doesn’t the battle begin inside of you as you fight to have your own way and fulfill your own desires? You jealously want what others have so you begin to see yourself as better than others. You scheme with envy and harm others to selfishly obtain what you crave—that’s why you quarrel and fight. And all the time you don’t obtain what you want because you won’t ask God for it! And if you ask, you won’t receive it for you’re asking with corrupt motives, seeking only to fulfill your own selfish desires. You have become spiritual adulterers who are having an affair, an unholy relationship with the world. Don’t you know that flirting with the world’s values places you at odds with God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy!

Does the Scripture mean nothing to you that says, “The Spirit that God breathed into our hearts is a jealous Lover who intensely desires to have more and more of us”?

But he continues to pour out more and more grace upon us. For it says,

God resists you when you are proud

but continually pours out grace when you are humble.”

 

I began testing my prayer motives years ago. Many believers pray prayers that are as carnal as the lives they live. The most powerful prayer we can pray is “Father your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.” The Lord’s prayer really gives us the framework of praying the will of God. I like to pray the Lord’s prayer as an outline that I fill in the subplots to. His prayer is the plot, my life is the subplot. It’s how I make it personal without violating the will of God or praying from a selfish motive.

 

When I pray “Your will be done,” I pray for the Lord’s will to be done in my life, family and ministry. I pray for His will to be done in those I am influencing or are influencing me. I pray His will be done in our Church, local, state, and Federal Governments. The list can be infinite and I encourage you to be listening to the Holy Spirit’s promptings as you pray. I will also pray in the spirit or pray in tongues to intercede for the unknown things. The Lord has sanctioned us to be His heart cry from the earth for the earth.

 

Our prayer life now is actually developing and maturing us to rule and reign with Him for Eternity! Your prayers are as powerful or weak as you believe them to be! The Lord gave us a blank check to write on Heaven’s account and we fill in the amount by our faith!

As I was preaching this past Wednesday night, I said “don’t let the time of earth interfere with your faith.” God operates from eternity and is working things out for us according to His will and divine purpose. Keep praying, keep believing, keep confessing and keep receiving! Don’t quit and don’t grow weary in well doing! You will reap if you don’t faint! The longer I live the more I experience the longevity of faith and the more patient I become with events and people. So pray and wait on the Lord!

Be Blessed – til next time!

Pastor Dave

Pastor’s Blog 10.30.18

One of the hardest things to do is remain thankful. Each year our culture in America becomes more entitled, and people as a whole, become less thankful.

Daily, I try to remember to thank the Lord for the wonderful things He has provided. What do I deserve? Nothing. Why? To deserve something means that you earned it. To earn something you would have to be morally righteous according to the perfect law of God. Herein lies the problem. The scripture says:

Romans 3:9-26 All Have Sinned
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written: “There is none righteous , no, not one;
11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
13 “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 God’s Righteousness Through Faith But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. NKJV

Also see Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-4

The way to remain thankful is to stay out of the attitude of self-righteousness, and stay in the attitude of gratitude, as thankful children to a loving Father who has bestowed upon us a gift of righteousness!

When I think I have done my best and am deserving of a rest, I need only remember the Sabbaths I have broken and thank the Lord! When I have really believed, and not allowed myself to be deceived, I need only to remember, how many times I did doubt,and gave cause to do without and thank the Lord!

Let us not forget to do our very best to remain a thankful people as we daily live in the benefits He has so freely given us by His Grace!

Be Blessed indeed!

Pastor’s Blog 10.24.18

What has happened to a Biblical world view? In reality the Ministers of the Gospel are supposed to be guarding the truth as the knights of ancient times would guard the King and his Kingdom. But many desiring the praise of men, have turned aside from the truth to build for themselves a kingdom of followers on the earth. We were taught long ago to be watchful of these things, however people love the praises of men.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 TPT
Timothy, in the presence of our great God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is destined to judge both the living and the dead by the revelation of his kingdom—I solemnly instruct you to proclaim the Word of God and stand upon it no matter what! Rise to the occasion and preach when it is convenient and when it is not. Preach in the full expression of the Holy Spirit —with wisdom and patience as you instruct and teach the people.
For the time is coming when they will no longer listen and respond to the healing words of truth because they will become selfish and proud. They will seek out teachers with soothing words that line up with their desires, saying just what they want to hear. They will close their ears to the truth and believe nothing but fables and myths. So be alert to all these things and overcome every form of evil. Carry in your heart the passion of your calling as a church planter and evangelist, and fulfill your ministry calling.

1 Timothy 6:17-21 TLB
17 Tell those who are rich not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which will soon be gone, but their pride and trust should be in the living God who always richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.
18 Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give happily to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them.
19 By doing this they will be storing up real treasure for themselves in heaven-it is the only safe investment for eternity! And they will be living a fruitful Christian life down here as well.
20 Oh, Timothy, don’t fail to do these things that God entrusted to you. Keep out of foolish arguments with those who boast of their “knowledge” and thus prove their lack of it.
21 Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life-they don’t know God…

I have met many people that know a form of Church, but don’t know God. When I get outside the walls of the church each year, I see less and less of a Biblical world view. I was speaking to a recently converted agnostic and he said something that caught my attention. “Satan taught me that there is a God.” He said.

When I asked him to elaborate he went on to explain that just looking at the world from a perspective of being an agnostic, he could not explain the world’s hatred of Christianity. He simply deduced that for the world to hate Christianity so much, that had to prove there was an intelligent design to the evil of it, and if evil had an intelligence, then there must also be a God, so he received Christ! His testimony is that the evil of Satan convinced him there is/was also a God.

It just goes to show that God can use anything to reach anyone! We must never give up! We will continue to defend the truth and declare it to all who have an ear to hear!