Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

 

As we go into December a lot of folks around the Body of Christ just naturally start thinking about what they want to do different when the New Year comes. I am one of those people and I've always recommended that believers sit down as a family during December and prayerfully map WRITE down a VISION for what they want to accomplish in the coming twelve months complete with targets and objectives and plans and programs. You want to try to hear from the Lord about it so that He's leading and is involved in what you decide you want to do. And, you have to build in a lot of flexibility because things are subject to change. It's not the Lord that will be changing things, it's us believers who don't hear so well having to make the changes. Or we rush through it, or we try to impose our own priorities on the new VISION, or we stubbornly hold onto old ways and ideas and traditions when the Lord is trying to move us into something new.

 

The World has a process for doing this and they'll soon be making RESOLUTIONS for the New Year such as: make more money, go on a new diet, lose some weight, start a debt elimination program, go to church more, love your spouse more, stop beating the kids, etc. But I want to ask us here to consider our annual goal-setting in a different way, a Kingdom way that bears little resemblance to the World's way of doing things. You see, the World is concerned about OUTWARD things and tries to make changes in life from the outside-in. But God's way of doing things, His preferred way of doing things is from the inside-out. God changes us on the inside at the level of our soul (mind, will and emotions) in order to initiate a process that eventually brings about change on the outside. I believe this is a basic principle of the Kingdom that many if not most of us aren't paying enough attention to and it causes us to establish priorities that are worldly and have little chance for success.

 

For the last several weeks we've been discussing in this newsletter a series on the POWER of the Word of God. The main focus has been that the WORD has within itself the POWER to bring about change in our lives like no other power-source on earth. The Word of God is an incorruptible SEED (Mark 4:14 with 1 Peter 1:23) that should be planted into good SOIL. Over a period of time the SEED and the SOIL interact, we know NOT how (Mark 4:26), to produce a harvest (Mark 4:29). If the SEED is stolen by the enemy before it can interact with the SOIL, there will be no harvest (Mark 4:15). Or, if the SOIL conditions aren't very favorable, the harvest could be sparse. But, there will ALWAYS be a BOUNTIFUL harvest if the soil conditions are GOOD. Question: should we not therefore be focusing on the condition of our SOIL as the highest priority in our forward planning?

 

Where do You Keep Your Soil?

 

According to the Bible, understanding the parables that present these New Testament concepts is the key to getting a handle on the entire Kingdom of God (Mark 4:11-13). Another way to say it is that we MUST understand these particular parables before we can fully understand the Kingdom. Therefore, wouldn't it be a good idea to study and meditate on them until we can get the UNDERSTANDING? Following is where we would go to get into our study:

 

Parable of the Sower and Soils (Mark 4:3-20 AND Mathew 13: 3-23)

Parable of the Seed (Mark 4:30-32)

 

In order to really UNDERSTAND these two parables, the Bible says further that we're going to need SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION which means we will need to have SPIRITUAL ears to hear and SPIRITUAL eyes to see how this all connects together (Matthew 13:14). You won't be able to understand them with your flesh or just by memorizing all the scriptures. Anyway, only the disciples of Jesus have been given the ability to know the mysteries of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:11) and a true DISCIPLE is someone who ABIDES in the Word (John 8:31). A believer who ABIDES in the Word is someone who pursues understanding of the Word, who submits to its authority and who's willing to LIVE by what he/she finds there. Based on the biblical definitions then, it's entirely possible to be a born-again believer and NOT be a true disciple of Jesus.

 

SPIRITUAL perception does NOT rely on the five physical senses for understanding. That would be CARNAL perception. Rather, SPIRITUAL perception requires that BY FAITH we connect to an impartation of the Holy Spirit who teaches us ALL things (John 14:26). Where does FAITH come from? It comes by HEARING the Word (Romans 10:17). We have to hear and LIVE in and by the Word in order to build up UNDERSTANDING of it. It's not so difficult to figure out what we need to do and yet hundreds of millions of self-professed Christians are seeking after a HARVEST from the Kingdom without having ever sowed the related WORD-SEEDS.

 

So, where are we keeping the SOIL that those WORD-SEEDS need to join with? You need to be able to answer this basic question and you start with the fact that we're each three-part beings: we're first of all SPIRIT beings, we also have a part of us that's called the SOUL and we abide in a temporary container called the BODY: spirit, soul and body. If you're already born again then the SPIRIT part of you is ALREADY perfected; it's already joined with the Holy Spirit and it's trying to influence the SOUL part of you to get straightened out. The BODY part of you is corrupted in all its ways (Galatians 5:17, Ephesians 4:22) and won't be perfected until you receive a new body at the time that Jesus returns (1 Corinthians 15:35-52). The BODY is also trying to influence the SOUL part of you in a direction that's opposite to the influence of your perfected SPIRIT so that you will stay corrupted and led by your flesh nature instead of looking like Jesus and being led by the Spirit. In sum, we're three-part beings and the work of the Christian after being born again is to pursue the perfecting (redemption) of his/her SOUL. Therefore, your SOIL is in your SOUL!

 

There's an important biblical principle expressed in the following scripture that bears on this revelation: "...as a man thinks in his heart (mind) so is he." The SOUL part of you is controlled by your MIND and that's the exact place in you that needs to be RENEWED. Your MIND needs to be renewed so you can know the will of God (Romans 12:2) and that will give you the PERCEPTION you need to begin to UNDERSTAND the mysteries of the parables we started out with. Here then are the key questions to get to the answer of where you've been keeping your SOIL:

 

How is your MIND RENEWED? By the washing of the WORD.

What does MIND renewal mean? To bring your THINKING into agreement with the Word.

Where is your SOIL? In the MIND portion of your SOUL where the THINKING goes on.

What is GOOD SOIL? Good SOIL UNDERSTANDS by spiritual PERCEPTION and agrees with the Word.

 

The WORD is Your Sure Foundation

 

The bottom line is that the biggest change most people need to make next year is to give higher PRIORITY to the Word of God. Yes, that sounds like something we've all heard a thousand times but friend most of us hear it and then just gloss over it without making any changes. Do we really BELIEVE that if we were to give the Word priority in our lives anything would change? The Word is alive (Hebrews 4:12) and it has the ability, the power to PRODUCE change in our lives. But we have to pay attention to it and find out FOR OURSELVES what it says, not what some other person says about it but what we have verified that it says as a result of our own study and meditation.  

 

Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:24-27. He said there IN RED LETTERS that if we hear His words and DO what He has said, it will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock and when the storms and trials came the house didn't fall because it had been built on a sure foundation. But the foolish person who fails to act in agreement with the words of Jesus, who is DOING things counter to the Word of God, will be building his house on sand and when the storms and trials come his house will fall.

 

How did YOUR house do this past year? And if it didn't do as well as you had hoped, is it possible that the reason it didn't do so well was because you simply didn't give the Word of God enough importance? Could it really be so simplistic that the difference between defeat and victory in the Kingdom of God is a direct result of whether or not we're living and speaking and thinking and doing things that line up with the words of Jesus? 

 

Jesus died on the Cross to give us an opportunity in and through Him to have a firm foundation in our lives. But it won't happen outside the Word of God. Our ignorance of the Word produces a weak foundation, a weak root system, and we're missing out on the redemptive victory Jesus won for us. If we want to change our foundation in 2015 so that we experience a different outcome, we need to simply begin giving a higher priority to the Word so that we change the way we've been thinking. Change what you've been thinking and you'll change what you've been doing because the Word of God says CLEARLY that it has the power in and of itself to change your outcome if you make it your first priority.

 

A Challenge for the New Year

 

I believe that the Word of God has its own power to change lives and to change circumstances FOR THE BETTER. But we have to make it our highest priority in order to experience its great potential. That experience can only come by UNDERSTANDING. Therefore, I have a simple challenge: MAKE THE WORD YOUR HIGHEST PRIORITY FOR 2015 AND ONE YEAR FROM NOW LOOK BACK AND SEE IF ANY CHANGE OCCURRED. I am confident that the Word is up to the challenge.

 

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on December 14. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!

 

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 

 

About Prosperous Life Newsletter

 

PLN is an outreach ministry of Make A Way Ministries and has been published continuously since January 1998. It's an e-publication about life in the Kingdom of God and is sent ONLY to our email list of MINISTRY MEMBERS. If you're reading this and aren't yet on our growing email list, please let us know and we'll be so very happy to add you to the list.

 

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