Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
Most Christians face their trials of life with a lot less confidence and peace than they should. The empowerment to overcome any difficulty is available to us by GRACE (God's unmerited FAVOR) through FAITH but for various reasons we often fail to fully connect to what's available to us. God's intention is that we give our problems to Him so we can be EXALTED out of them (1 Peter 5:5-10). But instead of connecting to His GRACE at the onset of a new challenge, we often spend all our time trying to figure out how to get out of it in our own strength like the World does while we murmur and complain about how God has either caused the problem or "allowed" us to get into it. Eventually we may even accept the problem as God's long-term plan for our lives that we have been given because of some past sin or to teach us something or so He can somehow use us to help other people.
But friend, under the New Covenant where we're all supposed to be living, God is NOT the cause of our problems. Jesus ALREADY paid for the sins of all mankind (1 John 2:2) once and for all time (Hebrews 10:14). In fact, God has FORGOTTEN about our sins: past, present and future (Hebrews 10:17). BUT, our sins DO open a door to the Adversary to come into our lives and indeed he notices every single sin and uses them to stir up trouble. So instead of murmuring and complaining to God about all our problems, we ought to be giving them over to Him while we're acknowledging to ourselves and agreeing with the Word that whatever we've done wrong is in fact sin which by definition is what REPENTENCE is. Then we're ready to resist the devil and make him leave us alone the way Jesus did (Matthew 4:11, James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:9).
We also need to acknowledge that our own poor choices and decisions are major causes of our problems. We've been created with the ability and the right to exercise our WILL as we want to. Therefore, it's absurd to say that God "allowed" some problem or tragedy to occur in our lives when it was a result of something we ourselves decided to do. The truth is the Holy Spirit dwelling within every New Covenant Believer was trying to get through to us as we approached some potential problem to warn us away from it, but because of dullness of hearing we didn't hear His warnings or we overrode the warnings by the Flesh and we got ourselves into trouble. Or because of weak FAITH which occurs because of not HEARING the Word enough (Romans 10:17), we attracted the enemy and his problems to us the way Job did (Job 3:25-26).
In sum, under the New Covenant God is never the CAUSE of our problems, He's the LIBERATOR. And, He has the POWER to turn our mostly self-caused problems into something good. His best is for us to HEAR the Holy Spirit and be Spirit led to avoid problems, but when we mess up and make the wrong choices and go in the wrong direction, He WILL use the resulting trial to teach us something and make the most of it. He didn't need your tragedy to teach other people and the God who IS LOVE (1 John 4:8) didn't cause it. No, the Holy Spirit is present in the Believer to teach us ALL things (John 14:26), but once trials and tragedies happen He will turn them into something useful for the Kingdom of God. This is the way the New Covenant actually works and it will always work effectively if we can refrain from mixing it up with the Old Covenants that no longer exist.
Spirit Led Sons of God
Now learning to be Spirit-led is something in this New Covenant that's vitally important. Born again Christians are supposed to be Spirit-led (Romans 8:14) which is one of the potential benefits of having the Holy Spirit present within every Believer. He's with the Sons of God all the time and He'll never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). But we have to be willing and able to hear His communications. The question is: how do we do that?
The answer is that we perceive Him in the part of us that's also spirit. In other words, He communicates to us Spirit to spirit. We're three-part beings: spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23) but so far only the spirit part of us has been REDEEMED and reconnected to the presence of God. The soul part (mind, will, emotions, conscience, intellect, personality, etc.) is in the process of being redeemed and the Flesh will eventually have to be replaced with a glorious body in order for its REDEMPTION to take place. So, the Holy Spirit speaks to the only part of us that's already REDEEMED, the spirit part. And as we grow in the knowledge of the Word and in our personal relationship with God, we become increasingly able to connect our awareness in the natural to the communication of the Holy Spirit in the supernatural.
We make that connection by FAITH. Even on occasion when the Holy Spirit manifests some communication to us in the natural, we have to accept by FAITH that it came from Him. And if we believe it came from Him, we have to then use our FAITH to take action and implement what we've heard or seen. We have to ALWAYS connect to God's GRACE by FAITH and that's why it's so important that we focus on increasing our knowledge and understanding of the Word: FAITH comes by hearing the Word with understanding (Romans 10:17).
Staying Close to God
The bottom line is the CLOSER we are to God, the more likely it is that we're going to be able to PERCEIVE His communication. Indeed, the Bible says "the NEARNESS of God is my good" (Psalm 73:28). So I need to be looking for ways to stay CLOSE to the Holy Spirit. If I find myself distanced from Him at some point it's not because He went somewhere. Remember: He'll never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). No, the Holy Spirit is always in the right place, the correct spot and it's my responsibility to find and come over to the place where He's hanging out. God is not going to come over to me; I have to go to where He is if I want His best. And, the further I'm away from Him, the harder it is to hear His still small voice. So, I have to discern where He is and then make the effort to go there and be close to Him in order for things to work out for my good.
So now the question now is: how do I stay close to God? Having an active prayer life and continually studying the Word are obvious answers. They're both essential for producing a close personal relationship with the Lord. But even if you're faithfully pursuing those things, their effectiveness can be compromised if you're spending most of your time focused on your problems. If you're worrying about them and looking for a way out all the time, you're going to cancel a lot of the good things you've done to cultivate a closer relationship. So as we've discussed in previous articles the essential element is to cultivate GRATITUDE in your life in order to move your focus off your problems and over to all the good things God is doing. And you do that in two ways:
1. By remembering and honoring and GIVING THANKS to God for all the great things He's already done in your life in the past and,
2. By GIVING THANKS for all the great things He's in the process of doing according to the promises you've been able to find in His Word which of course requires that you exercise your FAITH.
Developing a lifestyle of GIVING THANKS and GRATITUDE instead of worry and complaining and wrong focus is guaranteed to produce NEARNESS to God. It's unavoidable. Every time the devil comes to try to make you worry or complain, RESIST him with the Word, turn the concern over to the Lord and start THANKING Him for everything you can think of. Stop worrying about what you don't have or you don't know and refocus. Our lives have been full of great things the Lord has done but we routinely forget about them as we focus on our current problems.
Friend, if He showed up in your past to rescue you from some trial it's absolutely CERTAIN He'll show up again. He's faithful and He LOVES you beyond your understanding. He didn't cause your problem but He WILL show up at the right time to deliver you out and make the most of it. GOD ONLY DOES GOOD TO THOSE WHO ARE PURE IN HEART (Psalm 73:1 Tehillim). And your sincere and honest THANKSGIVING will cause you to be one of those blessed Believers that stays NEAR to Christ and ALWAYS triumphs over EVERY adversity (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Thanks for dropping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again next Sunday evening, April 29 and we hope you'll join us each week as we continue to study the subject of THANKSGIVING. Until then may God bless you and your family with every spiritual blessing in the Name of Jesus (Ephesians 1:3).
Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
Prayer Requests
If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.
http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx
Donations
If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.
http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1
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