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Dan's Nuggets
The atmosphere of the place you are located determines whether your best attributes shine or your worst faults surface.
Some places bring the worst out of you.
Other places bring the best out of you.
Choose carefully the places you frequent.
Atmosphere is everything!
Atmosphere determines Attitude. Attitude determines Action.
Some environments you ought to avoid altogether.
Other environments help you get into your element, your niche, and your strength!
Some people bring the best out of you.
Other people bring the worst out of you.
You're sprung or hung by whom you "hang with."
Some Christians are infected and contagious with unbelief. If they aren't teachable, avoid them.
Some Christians are supersaturated with faith and expectation. Gravitate towards them and catch what they've got.
Someone has wisely noted: "MORE IS CAUGHT THAN TAUGHT." So be "very choosy" with whom you spend lots of time. Like the old Texas saying goes, "Be careful who you lie down with, lest you get up with fleas."
Acts 6:5 NIV - This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
Acts 6:8 NIV - Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
All God really requires is an honest effort to please Him. He is not a hard taskmaster. He does not dish out religious pressure onto anyone. He already knew you wouldn't be perfect, so He planned many escape routes and safety rescues in advance.
All negative emotions are the result of believing a lie about something.
If your emotions are giving you a fit, someone or something has seeded a lie into your mind. Identify it! Dig it out, man, dig it out! And replace it with the truth from God's Word that neutralizes it. Dig it up and replant a better seed!
You cannot be in a state of actively believing a truth, and feel negative at the same time.
If you feel negative at this moment, you are actively believing a lie about something.
Victims focus on what they're going through. Victors focus on what they're going to. (Mike Murdock)
I deeply, deeply respect my millions of brothers and sisters in the Lord who are cessationists, but I cannot agree with some of the nonsensical beliefs they cling to that rob people of needed supernatural help. I do NOT respect any variant of cessationism. Cessationism is a horrible heresy that crept into the modern intellectual church during the age of enlightenment. Miracles, tongues, gifts, healings and the like did NOT cease with the death of the last apostle or with the eventual canonization of the Bible. The Bible says that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!" Cessationism is dead-wrong! It is unscriptural. And it robs people of victory! We cannot bring God down to our level of experience or unfruitfulness. Rather we must let God bring us up to His level of experience. Our own experiences are not the ultimate measure of what God is like or what He wants to do for people. That would be foolish and prideful. Just because I have not experienced something myself doesn't mean it's not from God or not possible. Who am I to make such conclusions based on me, myself, and I, or based on Dr. So-n-So's bad teaching mixed in with his good teaching. Unbelief is passed from generation to generation and person to person. But all unbelief stinks in the nostrils of God! Cessationism is a heresy, but one in which much of the modern church has embraced unwittingly. If I am forced to worship a less-powerful Jesus than revealed in the Bible, then I refuse to worship altogether!
"When that which is perfect is come" quoted in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is when we see Jesus "face to face" quoted in verse 12. One CANNOT make the argument that the gifts of the Spirit ceased once the Bible was canonized because the Bible is "that which is perfect is come" ...without taking this verse entirely out of context. It is clear by reading the entire passage that the gifts of the Spirit will no longer be needed once we get to heaven and see the Lord face to face. BUT THIS DOESN"T MEAN WE DON'T NEED ALL THE GIFTS NOW... FOR WE DO! The first basic law of Bible interpretation is "Scripture must be kept in context!" (The second law is "Scripture must interpret scripture. The thrid law is "Scripture must balance scripture.") Neither can any reasonable person say that the gifts of the Spirit ceased once the last of the twelve apostles died. Really? How did all the early Christians get the message about the last apostle dying. Did they hear the announcement on Fox News or CNN that the last apostle was finally dead, so now God's power was somewhat diminished or altogether absent for the rest of the church age? Suddenly they were doomed to a dispensation of boredom and weakness! Shepard Smith must have announced on Fox News that Christians can no longer pray for the sick anymore since God power had now waned! Ellen Degenerate (oops I mean Ellen Degeneres) announced on her talk show one night to all the early churches scattered throughout Asia Minor that miracles had ceased! Really? Someone who was not well-read in the chronicles of the early church fathers (centuries after the 12 apostles had died) must have also conjured up this excuse for powerlessness!
1 Corinthians 13:9 KJV - For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come , then that which is in part shall be done away . 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known . 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Also keep in mind that the passage above is sandwiched between 1 Corinthians chapter 12 which discusses the gifts of the Spirit and also chapter 14 that discusses the gifts of the Spirit. Chapter 13, commonly coined "THE LOVE CHAPTER" is placed right in the middle of three chapters of the Apostle Paul that teach on the gifts of the Spirit - the power of God! These three chapters are one single treatise! LOVE AND THE GIFTS GO TOGETHER! You cannot love God and love man by quenching the Spirit and restricting Him from manifesting supernatural gifts through you to help others! Nonsense!
It's not LOVE -or- POWER? Nowhere in the Bible does God say you have to choose one or the other! YOU AND I CAN HAVE BOTH, thank you!
If signs, wonders, and miracles are not happening in a preacher's ministry (including mine), something is wrong! Jesus said anyone who believes on him would do the same works He did and even greater works! (Read John chapter 14.) This bold statement of Jesus CANNOT BE EXPLAINED AWAY, no matter how hard men try.
People need INTERVENTIONS! Internventions that are remarkable and extraordinary from God!
If supernatural interventions are not accompanying our ministries then we are not being like Jesus in that aspect of ministry. Neither are we fully obeying Jesus. Powerlessness is NOT a disconnect on God's end, but on man's end!
Over the years I have had the privilege of watching God perform with momentary lightning strikes of the Gifts of the Spirit what I could not have accomplished in people's lives in weeks or months of counseling with them.
I have watched with my own eyes as chunks of Rheumatoid Arthritis have melted from people's wrists, fingers, elbows and shoulders. I have seen God do some remarkable things like opening stone deaf ears and one cripple rise and walk, and keep on walking. I have watched as insane demons came out of people. I experienced a supernatural healing from an extremely painful chronic disease which doctors said I would have to live with the rest of my life when a woman of God "sang out" my condition in song during an altar call after her sermon. "Boom... bam! Felt like some invisible someone punched me in the stomach! I even cried out, "Ouch!" (but it wasn't a physical ouch) Never had that horrible disease since... and it's been almost 30 years!" I have seen many things, but NOT ENOUGH! I am hungry to see more. I know my God can and wants to do more for people. I will NEVER quit believing Him for more. I will yield to His Spirit and make myself available for Him to flow through! I am a LEARNER. I have so much more to learn on how to cooperate with God as He helps people in a supernatural way. Getting out of the way and letting Him do what He wants instead of what I have planned is always a challenge. My head often gets in the way of my heart! People today need miracles as much people in Bible days. (Actually we're still in the Bible days!) Human needs are still as pressing as they were hundreds of years ago. I cannot sit on the Gifts of the Spirit. I cannot bury my talents. I cannot quench His Spirit. God forbid!
Once you get a taste for GOD'S SUPERNATURAL, you will never be the same! And you can never settle for less! As Smith Wigglesworth noted: "He that hath had a supernatural Biblical experience is not at the mercy of him who only hath a theological argument!" The command has NEVER been, "Just preach!" The command is "Preach, heal, and deliver!" (Read the Gospels, man, read the Gospels!) Matthew 10:7-8 NCV - When you go, preach this: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead to life again, heal those who have skin diseases, and force demons out of people. I give you these powers freely, so help other people freely. A sermon is NOT ENOUGH to meet the needs of the people. People need supernatural interruptions from God that solve their most pressing needs. They need THE TOUCH of the Master's Hand through His servants. They need God-encounters not just God-lectures! They need to FEEL GOD in their bodies (divine healing). They need to FEEL GOD in their emotions (divine joy and divine peace). They need to FEEL GOD's PRESENCE or at minimum SENSE GOD's PRESENCE (if you don't like my choice of words, "FEEL"). People need to COME INTO CONTACT with the real God, THE LIVING GOD, not just theology and nice programs. People need personal MACK TRUCK experiences with the Lord - their own "Road To Damascus" type appointments, their own milestone encounters with the Holy Spirit. Unbelief is self-fulfilling! Unbelief can always boast: "See, I told you so, I told you so!" (Bill Johnson) Whether you believe or don't believe, you get a result! | 
