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Tag: god

  • 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.

  • Giftings within the Body

    Giftings within the Body

    Thought of my today: 2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give: not grudgingly (nothing will flow back to you), or of necessity (if I give, I will get back so much more cuz I need bills paid this week), for God loveth a cheerful giver. This scripture hit home. I am usually motivated by what the preacher says when it is offering time; fearing that God will be displeased if I don’t—this alone puts me in the negative. God is looking for willingness and gladness from what I offer up (not so much specific amounts) — then it is sweet savor to His nostrils. The purpose of giving is one way to show adoration to God, worshipping God from the heart. Wow! That is why I never see a return, or if I do it is not as the preacher claims I will get. Ramblings I know…..

    Continuing with the Gifts given to the Body of Christ:

    These are given by the Holy Spirit for the edification of the body. 5) Working of miracles– “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws…” such as raising someone from the dead, commanding rain to occur, or calming a storm. These we see in work with Christ walking the earth, but none today. I know I hear pastors mainly saying at services they have seen the dead raise to life, but I have never seen filming of such events. Yet this is a gift given to people in the body of Christ!

    6)The gift of prophecy (message from God) given to one who does not walk in the “office” of a Prophet. Rember a Prophet is himself/herself a gift to the body. A prophecy itself is a message or directive from God to a person or a people. The dictionary states a prophecy is “a message that has been communicated to a person by a supernatural entity.

    Problem: we don’t acknowledge these gifts; we don’t see them in operation. Some who possess the gift may be afraid to be wrong in the use of the gift along with what will people think of me.

    Solution: ask the Holy Spirit what gift has been given to you and how to perfect it.

  • Gifts to the Body

    Gifts to the Body

    continuation:

    To recap: there are spiritual gift for the body that are given thru/by the Holy Spirit. There are differences of gifts, but only one Holy Spirit who gives them all. Now we had established that the gifts are given to individuals within a grouping. The first two gifts mentioned were 1) word of wisdom 2) word of knowledge.

    The next gift is 3) the gift of faith— faith is the substance (physical matter, a specific kind of material with particular properties) of things hoped for, the evidence (“the information or objects that can help to prove a statement or fact”) of things not (yet) seen. So clearly the person with the gift of faith sees and has proof within themselves that makes them confident of what they see/know. To them it is as real as the things we physically see, feel, hear or touch. Let us not confuse this gifting with the clairvoyant worldly individual who claims or exhibits an ability to perceive events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact. Gifts can be perverted; “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (a subject for another day). It is important to recognize who is doing the administration of the gift, be it the Holy Spirit (gift of faith) or has it been hijacked by the demonic (clairvoyant)?

    4) To another individual is given the gift of healing by the same Spirit. When we think of healing, we envision a cripple being able to walk again, blind eyes opened, and things of this nature. But healing is restoring someone to whole health, spirit, soul and body. The person with this gift is a benefit to the body because some people have to see that God’s people are endowed with such gifts to be able to believe. Some people only believe what they can see or touch. This then aids some to come into the faith.

  • What Is Given to the Body

    What Is Given to the Body

    Well, I got my mini back, and I am glad that part of my journey is over. These next few posts we will be in I Corinthians 12. We are looking at the gifts within the body of Christ that Paul taught we should have and see working among us.

    One of the important things Paul wants us to take away from this lesson is that we the believers are one, the unity of the body. Sadly, today we have so many divisions amongst ourselves that even the enemy is amused. To add to injury, we the sons of God have picked up the worldly position of looking out for number one. We are worshiping Him with our lips but our hearts are on getting that bag. All we hear now is how to use the word of God to get what “I” want.

    These gifts are to edify the body of Christ, not for conjuring up material things, nor for one’s fame. Paul lets us know there is a range of gifts (diversities) all given by the Spirit of God; differences of managing them, and a wide range of operations. Paul emphasizes that in all these differences, they all originate from One God, One Lord and One Spirit.

    The manifestation of the Spirit is evidenced by these gifts being seen working within the body. In a given group of people, the Spirit will give one (1) the ability to utter a word of wisdom —- “the supernatural gift that provides insight, guidance, and solutions to problems or dilemmas. while to another person (2)the word of knowledge—a supernatural revelation of facts or information.

    continued in next post

  • End of Our Dig

    End of Our Dig

    Still without my coop cuz several people had to be involved in repairing the recall. I praise God they all agree and are getting the job done. It has been great cuz it gave me reason to break out the motorcycle as a mode of travel. I love the breeze when riding! I know rambling, right?

    Yesterday I penned how I hunger and thirst for the Lord. I had been feeling this way for a good minute. This morning, I woke up 3 times within the hour, each time I laid my head back to sleep such a peaceful and warm feeling went through me. The third time I “heard” that was the presence of God you experienced. Wow!

    Anyway, let us wrap this mini “series” up. The last group we wrestle with the spiritual wickedness in high places. Although the popular belief is that Paul is talking about demons or fallen angels, I beg to differ. According to Peter, “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment:…” He does not say some of the fallen angels are loosed on the earth to cause havoc, they are all chained; thus are not in high places.

    Place is defined in the dictionary as “identify or classify as being of a specified type or as holding a specified position in a sequence or hierarchy.” The hierarchy we see pertaining to the spiritual directly is the clergy hierarchy of the church. In Jesus’ day the spiritual wickedness was evident in the religious leaders–the Pharisees and Sadducees along with the scribes who conspired to have Jesus condemned to death. Today we suffer the same misfortune of having religious leaders in prominent positions (places) who are more interested in their being famous, fleecing Gods people for material gain while feeding them a false gospel. And like the Sadducees and Pharisees doing whatever it takes to keep their positions. These religious leaders are named among fornicators, adulterers, sextual abusers of young children –females as well as males, whoremongers, homosexuals, liars, thieves and all other ungodly behavior that you can think of –spiritual wickedness in high places. We as the sons of God must dethrone these who have willingly submitted themselves to be the enemy of the cross from these high places. You may argue that this last group is flesh and blood, but you have to realize we fight against the spirit they now walk in. They now walk in darkness and disobedience.

    These none flesh and blood are whom we wrestle against day and night. Prayer vigils, prayer chains, and individual prayers are the way we fight the fight of faith. Now you see the enemy clearly and you are armed.

    Problem: relying on men instead of the most Holy God.

    Solution: read the Word of God for yourselves, search the scriptures for yourself to see if what you hear from “experts” matches what the bible says.

  • Continue To Dig In

    Continue To Dig In

    I so hunger and thirst for God! I can so identify with the Psalmist who penned ” my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” You have moments like that?

    Continuing about the spirit world that Paul says we need to be aware of as they are the real forces we need to battle with instead of those we physically see. They are the influencers of behaviors that sometimes we scratch our heads about; even in ourselves.

    Another group making up this “world” are the rulers of the darkness of this world. What is the darkness of this world? Darkness is where there is no light, thus where there is no God. We all have experienced in the natural that where there is no light, there is darkness and vise versa. As God is the light in us, we can then deduce that those without God are in darkness; they are children of the night, children of dark.

    Colossians lets us know that we were delivered from the power of darkness and were translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. This is what Paul is speaking about when he says we fight against rulers of darkness. Ephesians also points out that we once “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” These are the ones the gospel is hid from, they don’t walk according to its ways. Corinthians lets us know that if the gospel is hid from anyone, it is to those that are lost because the god of this world has blinded their minds so they don’t believe, “lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them. They are in darkness and subjects of the rulers thereof. Demons (those with the ability to possess a person) and these rulers work hand in hand with the principalities and powers, working that which is evil.

    Problem: we easily play with this when it is presented in entertainment form. Many who present this in entertainment form have used the bible as a place to get great ideas. Unfortunately, they pervert the whole concept. Read the word for yourself and go to the Holy Ghost for proper teachings. Compare anyone else with the word and what the Spirit of the Lord lead you to.

    Solution: just read the bible for yourself with the aid of the Holy Ghost.

  • Let’s Dig In 3

    Let’s Dig In 3

    Oooooooh, I got a nugget! I always wondered why God was good with Able’s offering but not Cain’s. Surely just because Cain brought grain and Able blood sacrifice was not the reason one was good and the other not. I John 3:12 says of Cain, “Because his works were evil….” My thinking is that Cain was always evil thus his capability of killing his own flesh and blood. I know rambling again….

    We fight against principalities (established territories-Let’s Dig In 2), and against powers…… Again, let us look at the definition of the word powers so we are all on the same page. The definition of power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or influence the course of events.

    The principalities have a ruler that then has influencers– those that are able to direct courses of events within the territory; those that have the ability to influence behaviors of others.

    An example of what I am understanding here is that over my city sits a principality. The principality monitors all that occurs in the city, especially the houses of worship. The ruler and influencers know each person in our territory, our strengths, our weakness, our relationships even our assignments on this earth.

    Doesn’t this remind you of the sci-fi movies/cartoons showing a dual world that parallels this world with some individuals able to teleport or use a portal to go in and out of both worlds. The one example we all know about is satan’s travels. He presents himself with the sons of God before God in heaven (spiritual realm); we see satan appearing to Jesus for the temptations in the wilderness (here on earth).

    Don’t mistake these beings for demons. Satan did not cloth himself in a human body to approach Christ. Satan is not a demon, he is a created being that was kicked out of heaven with the “body” that he ran around in.

    Examples of demons: the account where the seven sons of Sceva (chief of the priests) called those men they knew were exorcists with evil spirits in them and said, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth”. “And the evil spirit answered, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” Demons possess people and are under the rule of the principalities and powers; they are generally on assignment here on earth, they do not reside in the territory with the principalities.

    Problem: we think this is just someone’s imagination put into theatre, not thinking where they got the ideas.

    Solution: read the bible asking the Holy Spirit to reveal unknown things that the heavenly father said were ours to know.