You Choose

     You choose~
     There is an enemy that knows us better than we know ourselves, but once we know he exists we are armed to not allow him to hinder our choice!
     In the world, we will have trials and tribulations(John 16:33), but Jesus has overcome the world, never lose sight of that! Never let yourself believe that you are walking through the world alone. If we choose the path the Lord has shown us in His love and His life then we are walking the same path as He! We are not alone!
     Walking through trials and tribulations is not always an easy thing, but when He walks it with us it is easier than any other option that we may face.
     Do not allow the enemy to deceive you into believing that you are not able to do this, you are! Because you are not alone! Do not allow the enemy to cause you to wear "grave" clothes through your days and life when you are battling for the Lord's glory. The Lord's promises and glory are reflected through your attitudes, words, and outlook. Do yours show your faith in what is happening in your life? Are you wearing a "self-pity" attitude or a "praise" attitude? I list "self-pity" here because it is the one the Lord has shown me is my battle, if it fits you then welcome to my world! If I allow that sneaky spirit to come into my thinking then it can turn anything around to be something to feel sorry for myself about. The tough thing is when you learn to let go of the smaller things and move past those, it starts throwing bigger things at you. In the bigger things you still have to learn to apply the same winning attitude, the Lord is with you, you can trust Him and walk victoriously through the big challenges in life also!
     Pretty much the choice comes down to an easy one,
1. We have a trial or testing and we are being stretched, it may be beyond what we think we can endure.,
2. We choose to either trust and grow through the trial or feel sorry for ourselves and mope through our days. Through scripture, there are examples of God's people being stretched, corrected and then helped to go through the trials they faced. The Lord sent a ram for Abraham to sacrifice after Abraham had proven his faith in His willingness to obey a command that had to try and stretch his very core.
3. We may have to ask for help to actually change our attitude, but we have to make the "choice" to change it. The Lord has sent His Holy Spirit to us to help in areas we are not able to change by ourselves, but we have to remember there is an enemy that is whispering in our ear, trying to deceive us trying to cause us to choose wrong! He will hit us in our weak spots, our children, our bodies, our self-image, our spouses, our friendships, our employment, our finances, wherever you invest your ego is most likely a big target for him.

     Praise is a weapon that we are given to battle the enemy, not just for singing at church on Sunday mornings, but in the still quiet of the nights also. If you aren't able to sing your own praise songs to the Lord find a good Christian CD and play it. I advise against the radio for times you are doing battle because there are a lot of "poor me" type of songs mixed in with the praise and they can really distract you from a praise attitude. Praise is not about thinking about yourself and your situation, it's about the Lord and how big and powerful, loving and merciful He is. Praise is all about God, not man. The "self-pity" spirit likes to distract you with whatever means is available if he can get you to think you are praising while you're really wallowing in self-pity then so much the better! Choose good, strong lyrics about what a mighty God you serve! Not about how wimpy you are and how He will chase all over the countryside to try to save you!
     Once you know you are battling an enemy that has most likely been with you since very young childhood when you learned the words, "nobody loves me", think, who taught you those words? The enemy whispered those poisonous words in your ear! Eliminate them from your very spirit! The Lord loves you! If He stands with you and for you, who can stand against Him? You are a special person! You are a child of the One True King! What better standing can you have than that?
     Now you know your enemy, and he will use any lie available for his disposal. and he has many lies available, he is the father of lies. His first victim was not actually Eve, it was the angels he convinced to follow him in an uprising against our Lord! For their loyalty to him, they have been cast out of heaven and are now part of his forces tormenting us. Our Lord was a victim, but He dealt with him quickly and showed us how, cast him out of our domain! Our lives are our domain, do not allow his presence in your life! Cast him out! Resist the devil and he will flee from you!
     When he comes with tales of self-pity and woe, battle with praise! Have a go-to song that has lyrics that speak to your spirit, that praise our Lord!

"I'm gonna sing, in the middle of the storm 
Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar
Up from the ashes, hope will arise
Death is defeated, the King is alive!"

or ~

"Waymaker, miracle workerPromise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are
Waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are!"

     There are many songs that sing true words of the God we serve, just make sure the lyrics are about God and not about you. As you do choose to resist the enemy, he will flee from you, the Lord's word has told us this and we can count on it.

      But we have to take the first step and choose to change our "grave clothes" for "praise clothes"! Let your praise be seen in your countenance, in your actions, in your attitudes. Let your life be a reflection of praise to your Father if it doesn't come easily at first, ask the Holy Spirit to help make the changes that reflect your "choice". He is here to teach, comfort and correct. He will step in where we ask for help.
   
     

Overcoming

     The Lord has been working with me dealing with an attitude I've carried since childhood. I am a happy, optimistic person but I can easily slip into "self-pity" when things aren't going right. I have been fighting this spirit for a while but its stronghold was built many years ago when I was a small child wanting to run away from home.
     Now I am working to break away all of those self-pity patterns of thought. Patterns of thought can be difficult to change, but it can be done! He has shown me the way to change my thoughts is to replace self-pity with an attitude of thankfulness. You can't carry both attitudes, self-pity is the opposite of thankfulness, so you can see it's impossible to have both at the same time. In the same situation where you can find things to feel sorry for yourself over, there are always things you can find to be thankful for.
     Example:

• You have a flat tire, do you have a spare? Thank You, Lord, for this spare tire!
• Are you sick? Thank You, Lord, that we live in a country with drugstores, medicine, and doctors!
• Are you too busy? Thank You, Lord, that You have given me things to accomplish!
• Too many bills? Thank You, Lord, You have given me wisdom to separate wants from needs and You provide for all of my needs!

     These are just examples, I'm sure there are more that we could come up with, but you can read these and get the idea.
     Remember that the Lord does not appreciate grumbling and self-pity does lead to grumbling! If you have this stronghold in your life, please join me in purposing to be rid of it, it does not look good on us and it certainly doesn't please the Lord or bring glory to Him.

 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:9-13

Encouraged or Intimidated?

     In my path I've seen a lot of people receive prophetic words, some are encouraging or comforting.....but some of my favorites to hear are words of what the Lord wants to do in their lives! He shares His view of the people, how He sees them, what He is calling them to do, somewhat like how Gideon was addressed in Judges 6:12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”
     Much to my surprise, some people reject the Lord's view and opinion of themselves! They do not receive the greeting or title the Lord has given them! Why? Today I was considering this and was taught by the Holy Spirit that not all people are going to respond the same to the calling of the Lord.
     Some people are not prepared to receive what the Lord is wanting them to do, think here of some of the people we've read about in scripture....Jonah, Adam, Judas, Esau. For various reasons of their own, they did not rise to the calling that was on them. They all had opportunities to be more than they were but did not fulfill that calling.
     We could go through people in scripture that did respond to their callings and accomplished great things, Moses, Aaron, David, Joseph, Daniel, Elijah, those are our heroes! But we need to also remember that they were able to accomplish the great things because they moved in God's power and His timing, not their own.
     If the Lord gives you a word that seems too big for you to accomplish, do not be intimidated, do not shrink back! Remember it's not about you accomplishing it, it's about you saying "yes" and being willing to step out and follow the Lord's leading.  It's about setting yourself aside and trusting the Lord to finish the good work He has started. He will not force you to receive His view of yourself. If you say "no" to His calling then He will leave you in your decision and a sadder choice cannot be imagined.
   

Moving Closer to the Lord

     

     At church during the praise time while we were singing the Lord showed me a staircase. He told me that as we press into our praise, in spirit and in truth that we advanced up the staircase and grew closer to Him. He told me that some people are satisfied to stand at the bottom of the stairs and sing praises the same way each week but never move higher. He said it takes passion to advance, passion and hunger for His nearness. It is not something that He will force us to do, but it is something that He will reward in His nearness to us.

 From here on, worshiping the Father will not be a matter of the right place but with the right heart. For God is a Spirit, and he longs to have sincere worshipers who worship and adore him in the realm of the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24

Authority

     Recently we've had the opportunity to hear about 7 different ministers share and speak. We've noticed that not all of the ministers carried the same authority or the same style of ministering. 
    I'm really writing this for my own purpose that in the future when I look back I will remember this experience. 
    Each of the Ministers walked in their calling and spoke with true love of God, but we did notice that some had a higher level of authority and we believe that it was developed through prayer and time of walking out their calling. 
     The main thing we believe is that the more time spent in prayer and time alone with God, the greater the understanding of the power of God that is within them and ....for lack of a better word, 'authority" that they walked in.  

Many Paths

Yesterday at church the Lord shared with me and through me that there are many paths in life that people can walk.
     We need to be aware of the path we are choosing. There are paths of fear, paths deception, paths of self-indulgence, paths of addiction, but there is only one path of "Life".
     The Lord would have us choose the path of Life! He would have us avoid the paths that lead to burdens and sorrow as all of those other paths do. He cautions us to choose carefully.
     If we fear we may choose the wrong path by accident we can be assured that the Holy Spirit will warn us, with a still, small voice. He will tell us "your path is over here". We will need to listen to that voice and make changes when we hear it. The Lord won't force us to choose the path of Life, but He does long for that choice.
     The Lord also told me that we cannot expect to encounter a lot of people on the path of Life, that the path is narrow and the gate is small, but it is Life.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14

Understanding Light

I'm going to be gathering verses about "light" because God is light and I don't believe I fully understand what all is involved in this teaching! So this is my word study, if you have more teaching about light, please share with me!


John 3:19-21 “Now this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness rather than the light. Why? Because their actions were wicked. 20 For everyone who does evil things hates the light and avoids it, so that his actions won’t be exposed. 21 But everyone who does what is true comes to the light, so that all may see that his actions are accomplished through God.”

Philippians 2:15 For then you will be seen as innocent, faultless, and pure children of God, even though you live in the midst of a brutal and perverse culture. For you will appear among them as shining lights in the universe,