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Tag: family

  • Is this You?

    Is this You?

    My thought of today: Do churches fast nowadays? I remember when I was first saved, our church fasted as a whole twice a week. Now I don’t hear too much about fasting so one can have power. I do hear people fasting to arm wrestle God so He can do as they want/say. Some believe God is our servant or servicer. Fasting used to be about turning your plate down so you could get closer to God, so you could hear Him more clearly. What happened? Have we become so comfortable that we no longer need what brought past generations to this point? Just musing……

    Continuing to look at the gifts set/put in the Church. “And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after those miracles, then gifts of healings…” Today we will look at the gifts of helps. I generally think of the ushers in this category. But this gift covers so much more. “The gift of “helps” is a spiritual gift in Christianity that enables individuals to recognize and fulfill the practical needs of others, both physically and emotionally, in a way that supports the overall ministry and well-being of the church. It’s about serving others, often in a humble and unseen way, to ensure that things run smoothly and that the needs of other are met.” I couldn’t have said this better myself. This group of gifts to the body are never seeing for recognition or attention to self. They are fulfilled with being able to help, sometimes anonymously they give. I remember at my very first church, as a single mother I couldn’t even afford a burger for my children. One of the older sisters came to give me a hug and handshake. I had never noticed her in the church. With a smile she quietly and quickly put some money in my hand and went about her way (after service was over) I was so humbled and touched that God had sent her my way. Is that gift still in operation? You know as a young new Christian this act solidified my trust in that God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son for me. I was all in after that!

    Most times I see this gift being allocated to those who service the pastor or elders of the church; these are often the ministries of helps; or the benevolent ministers. The gift of helps is so different, these individuals are never seen but by those they assist quietly, they don’t draw attention to what they do so as not to embarrass or offend. Their goal is to serve while protecting the privacy of those they assist. What a benefit to the body!

  • Untitled post 158

    Thought of the day: I am perplexed; I tend to think of thinks in the spiritual aspect first, automatically. I guess my “problem” (as I have been told) is that I think others view this spiritual walk the same way. One day as I was in a Christian group sharing, one of the individuals said “my therapist…”. I could not tell you the rest of the sentence cuz I got stuck at the first two words. I’m thinking what demon or disembodied spirit did you take to therapy? I’m thinking that as a Christian you either cast a demon out (or get help to do it) or you go toe to toe with a spirit spitting out “it is written….” We have changed the dynamics of fight the good fight of faith. I know, I know, I’m extreme (as I have been called).

    Continuing with the second set of giftings. This set starts with the people that have been given for the edification of the whole body. We looked at the “sent ones”, the apostles on a previous post. The next is “secondarily prophets”. When I think of prophets I think of the Jeremiahs, Samuel, Isaiah, Daniel, the ones who came with “thus sayeth the Lord”, They directly heard and had a conversation from/with God and re-laid a message to the people or specified individuals. We need such individuals to keep the body on track, With these people in place, much of the foolishness we witness in some of our churches would be eradicated.

    Thirdly are teachers given to help keep the body on track. These are the ones that spoon feed the flock the word of God. They make the word of God clear and simple for the understanding; thus, enabling the hearer to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer. There is no excuse for wrong living when these are in their place; the word is sent forth with power as a living word. Sound doctrine, you must agree is very blurry in today’s teachings. The pulpit is full of one’s interpretation of the word of God (“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”.)

    Problem: Prophets are hailed as Gods, some claim to be; teachers teach what they learned at religious institutions over what the word says. Most Prophets and teachers use the word for private interpretation and use.

    Solutions: Immerse yourselves in the word; be like Bereans of old, check what you heard—is it scriptural.

  • Are You a Gift to the Body?

    Are You a Gift to the Body?

    Thought of the day: It is a sad thing to go to a place week after week, and be hit with condemnation (there is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus), guilt, shame, and fear– church; it is before the word comes forth, at offering time. I wonder if the clergy realize they are not encouraging people with statements about how God will cut a person off from needs if they do not give. Ramblings as usual….

    Continuing with gifts given by the Holy Spirit to individuals within the body to benefit the individuals in the body. We looked at the gifts of word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, gift of prophecy, discerning of spirits, and the gift of divers kinds of tongues. All given by the Spirit. The last gift in this lineup is that of interpretation of tongues. This gift usually follows behind the gift of different kinds of tongues (languages) as it explains what the message was in the unknown language. I have seen where a person speaks in tongues and then interprets what they said. That should not be as the word tells us that the gift is given to separate individuals; one speaks in tongues, and another individual does the interpretation.

    There is another grouping of gifts in the body of Christ. The word tells us that God Himself has set (put in place) the following gifts in the church in a specific order. Placed first are the apostles. As we see these apostles are not the ones that walked with our Lord Jesus the Christ, but more like Paul in that they, like Paul, were called after Christ had ascended. Apostles are known as the sent ones. In many churches these are the ones sent forth to help establish either extensions of their churches; or those that are sent forth to start a church away from their home church; a method of spreading the word about Jesus the Christ.

    Problem: not much visibility of the gifts given to the church aside from people with titles.

    Solution: Prayer for us to hear from the Holy Ghost showing those with the gifts to utilize them for the edification of Christ’s body.

  • Do You Have one of these Gifts?

    Do You Have one of these Gifts?

    All of us in the body of Christ have been commissioned to go and tell the world about Christ. He gave us the Holy Ghost to accomplish this command. The Holy Ghost enables and equips us to not only tell about our Savior, but to do works even greater than Christ did. Most important these gifts benefit the whole body. How?

    The Holy Spirit gives within the body several gifts. We have looked at the gift of word of wisdom, gift of word of knowledge, gifts of healing, the gift of working of miracles, and the gift of prophecy– discussed in previous posts. 7) To another the Spirit gives the gift of discerning of spirits. How this is so needed in the churches making up the body of Christ. Let us begin by defining the term discerning–“someone with keen insight and good judgement, particularly when it comes to making careful assessments of quality or details. They can distinguish subtle differences and are able to evaluate things with a critical eye, often recognizing the nuances that others might miss.” In discerning spirits, the individual with this gift can easily see what spirit (disembodied entities) is operating on those around him/her. This person can accurately tell if the spirit of God is the one interacting within the group or if it is demonic spirits come to disrupt or misled. If people possessing this gift would rise up and be the voice when wolves in sheep’s clothing are at the pulpit and shut them down, my belief is that less people genuinely seeking the kingdom of God, would be misled.

    To another individual the Spirit gives divers kinds of tongues. Now this is a very debatable definition that I am going to give about tongue, but if you search in the bible, it is very evident that tongues is a language spoken is some part of the world, not babblings as we see in today’s church. My favorite verses to show this state “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Thus, the tongues spoken in church are a real language that the speaker does not know or has learned, but someone in the congregation will fully understand every word, thus interpret what was said. I must add that this is given by the Holy Ghost and perfected by the Holy Ghost; no man can teach another how to speak in tongues; teaching tongues is not in the bible. Am I then disputing the babblings that we hear? These may be for private use between the creature and creator; the ones heard in church can only be pure languages of a people in the earth.

    Problem: giving clergy powers that are not theirs. They cannot give you a calling on anyone, they can hand you the right hand of fellowship and pray over you and send you on your way once they recognize the call of God on your life.

    Solution: read the Word of God for yourself asking the Holy Ghost to make it clear to you. You cannot go wrong if the Holy Ghost is your teacher.

  • Let’s Dig In 2

    Let’s Dig In 2

    Put your helmet on, this is mind boggling; easily seen as childish imaginations. Truely own who you are—that blood washed, blood bought, son of the living God, victorious in every situation, more than a conqueror as we walk this part of this journey! Know that you are not of this world.

    “Fear not: for they that are with us are more than they that be with them.” Mmmmh you are probably wondering where we see this. Remember when Elisha prayed to the Lord (evidence of the invisible world) to open the eyes (natural eyes to see in the spiritual realm) of his young man who then saw the chariots and horses of fire round about Elisha? But Elisha said “those that be with them” — who are they?

    Paul admonished “For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities…”. The dictionary’s definition of a principality (also called a princedom) is “a type of monarchial state or feudal territory ruled by a prince or princess. It can be either a sovereign state or a constituent part of a larger political entity”. Since we are privied to live in such a tech society, AI has an overview of a biblical “definition” that states a principality as “hierarchical order of spiritual beings or authorities… understood to exert influence and rule over various aspects of human life and the world, including nations, institutions, and even individual lives.” Let reality hit you.

    Each local, whether it be state, city, county, neighborhoods, even down to individuals, fight against a territory with an identified ruler, who wields authority. This is an organized, well thought out, and an undeniably devastating infestation. They are the beginning of your sorrows.

    Problem: we know close to nothing about our enemy, but they know everything about us. We don’t even acknowledge their existence. Instead, our fight is to gain material possessions as we die by degrees.

    Solution: read the Word of God for yourself asking the Holy Spirit to aluminate it for you.