Bringing Into Captivity Every Thought

In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 we read:
For though we walk in the flesh (added by author for explanation of flesh----5 physical senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting), we do not war after the flesh.
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.)
Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ:

Here is our the way we defeat satan. Every imagination and every high thing that he sends into our thoughts against God’s ways, we bring into captivity to the obedience of Christ, the Anointed One and His anointing. That means EVERY THOUGHT. We are to cast down every thought that is contrary to God’s thoughts. For example: A thought comes that you are not going to make it. Bring that thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And say out loud (if you are not at work or in a public place): That is not my thought. My thought is (a scripture that you are pondering).

Here’s a common thought. "This Word stuff, this faith stuff may work for other people, but it doesn’t work for me." Bring that thought into captivity. Cast it down. And say: "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I am hearing God’s Word so faith comes because God is no respecter of persons. And faith is working in my life because faith works by love and I am walking in love." And you may be thinking: "I don’t feel like I have any faith. I don’t feel like I am walking in love." My answer to that is this: "This is not about feelings. This is about what God's Word says. Mark 11:22-24 says that whosoever speaks, whosoever prays, whosoever believes. I am a whosoever, so I keep on believing God’s Word works for me."

Or here is another common thought. "You know what the doctor’s report says. You know you don’t have that kind of faith to overcome this. Why, look at so and so and look what happened to them when they tried this faith stuff. You better be careful. This is serious. You better do something about it." And your answer is this: "Jesus bore my sicknesses and diseases and carried my pain. My Father sent His Word and healed me and delivered me from destruction. The Holy Spirit dwells in me and gives life to my mortal body. Thank You, Father, that you give me Your wisdom in this situation and I will be led by You."

Or here is another common thought. "You know that you have never been able to live any other way than from paycheck to paycheck. What makes you think you can live any other way? You will never be financially debt free. You can’t give your tithe this month or you’ll go belly up. And you especially can’t give that extra offering that the Lord is prompting you to give." And your answer is this: "I hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and the voice of a stranger I do not follow. This is a stranger’s voice and I don’t follow you. My God has said that He will supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He has said that He will open up the windows of heaven and pour me out such a blessing I cannot contain it because that is His promise to tithers."

Do you see how you practice doing this scripture in 2 Corinthians? It is a practice daily because contrary thoughts will be sent your way all the time. What you and I must do is to take them captive immediately to God’s Word and not even give then any consideration or ponder them. What we think on is what we become.

Just a word here about strongholds before we wrap it up for today. A stronghold is a care that enters in and chokes the word. It is a house constructed of thoughts and it develops a pattern of thinking. That is satan attempting to establish in our lives a pattern of thinking. And that pattern of thinking becomes a stronghold that has to be torn down. In Psalm 28:8 we read that the Lord is the stronghold of salvation for us. He is the Anointed One who is our house constructed of Godly thoughts in line with His Word which is our salvation, our deliverance, our prosperity, our health, our security, our shelter, our place of victory and success.

God's Word And Divine Health

What must we do to walk in the divine health we talked about yesterday? What must we do to walk in the divine prosperity that 3 John 2 tells us about? We are told that we can prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers. And we know that our soul is that part of us that is our earth connector to our spirit and thus to the Holy Spirit of God. Our soul is our mind and will and emotions. They must come into alignment with God Himself and His ways. How do we do that?

You have heard me talk much about confessing the Word, meditating the Word, getting the Word of God into our being. The purpose of confessing the Word and meditating God’s Word is to get our soul into agreement with our spirit where the Spirit of God dwells. It is one thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as born again children of God. It is another thing to allow Him to do what He loves to do, perform His Word and keep us in that place of prosperity in all areas of our lives. Once again, I must remind you that prosperity involves so much more than money. It involves being successful in every area of our lives----finances, health, relationships, God’s plan for our lives.

As we take the Word of God and allow His Word to become a part of us, then God has the opportunity to do what the Word says. We must release Him to perform His Word. He says that He is ready and hastens to perform His Word on our behalf. We release Him to do His Word as we believe Him. And believing comes from what we spend most of our time thinking on.

Have you noticed that your mind will wander aimlessly if you let it? It will think for possibly an hour on things that are inconsequential, insignificant things. What we all must do is train our minds to think on God’s Word, ponder His Word. It does take training.

The Bible tells us that we must renew our minds with the Word of God. That is a daily renewal. Why do we have to do it daily? There are so many other opinions and words spoken out in the world that are contrary to God’s way of doing things. We hear them all the time. We hear them in grocery stores; we hear them by the music piped in at work; we hear them on TV commercials, even when a person just watches an athletic event on TV.

We are surrounded by the world’s thoughts and words every day. That is why we must surround ourselves with the Word of God every day. Satan has a system of operation set up on this earth and he knows that words are the key to his success or God’s success. He has been around a long time and does know about the operations of the spirit realm, even though he is no longer given that privilege to operate in God’s realm.

The Promiser is in us with His promises, but He is not the one Who gives the go-ahead for His promises to operate in our lives. You and I are the ones who give the Lord the green light to do His Word. And the way we do that is to believe His Word will work for us individually, not for the other person, but for ourselves. It seems that this is the hardest part of our lives. Why is it that we have such a tough time believing for ourselves? It is because we are afraid of failure, afraid of what people will think if we go too far out on this believing stuff. Satan whispers: What if it doesn’t work? And perhaps we fail a few times and he says: See, I told you so. And my answer to him is this: Sooooooooooooo. Failure doesn’t indicate defeat. Keep playing until you win.

The secret to our success is in ALLOWING the Spirit of God to do His Word on our behalf, to work for us with His Kingdom principles. We must confess the Word. We must meditate on the Word of God. This is our answer to our life’s problems. God’s Word is His promise. When we finally believe that promise to the point we put it above every other word, we will see results in our lives of health and prosperity.

In the beginning, as we are learners, we will make mistakes, and possibly have failures. But we must be determined not to quit. We are not quitters. We are not losers. We are winners. And the winners are those who believe God and take Him at His Word. His Word is true for you always, all the time. It will work for you all the time.

The Healer Is Living In Us

I was listening to a healing service this weekend and a revelation came to me about healing and divine health that I had never seen before. Maybe you have already seen it. If you have, that is wonderful.

In the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, before Jesus came and died and rose again and instituted the New Covenant, He was their Healer. They did have the promise of healing. We see in many passages in the Old Testament that He was their Healer. In fact, we see in Exodus 23:25,26 that the Lord God would take sickness away from their midst, that He would fulfill the number of their days. We see that He was Jehovah Rapha, their Healer.

In Psalm 103:1-5 we see a list of promises for those in the Old Covenant. They were to bless the Lord with everything that was within them. They were to bless His holy name. They were to extol, worship, praise Him for His benefits. They were to remember His benefits. Then His benefits are listed. In the same sentence we see that He forgives all their iniquities and He heals all their diseases. Then we read that He redeems their life from destruction. He crowns them with lovingkindnesses and tender mercies. He satisfies their mouth with good things so that their youth is renewed like the eagle’s, strong and powerful like the eagle’s.

The above passage is Old Covenant. Look at the benefits. They are ours as well. But we are living in the New Covenant, which Hebrews says is a better covenant. What could be better than this. I’ll tell you what is better.

In the Old Covenant, the promises were given to them, but God was living outside them. When Jesus came, died and rose again, He, the Promiser, the Holy Spirit is inside us with the promises. Oh, I am telling you, this is shouting ground. The Promiser lives inside us with all His promises to be active in our lives. And part of those promises is healing and health. The answer to divine health is getting an understanding of Who is inside you. We must learn what it means to have the Healer inside us. It means that He is there 24-7 to flow through our blood vessels and arteries and veins to every cell in our bodies to bring His divine life flow through us.

The Healer is living inside us. The Provider is living inside us. He is in us with all His benefits. He is in us with His nature. He is living in us all the time. Of course, I am talking about people who have made Jesus the Lord of their lives, who have been born again. He has come to take up residence. There are so many scriptures that confirm that. I guess the greatest scriptures are those which tell us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19,20 tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us, which we have of God and we are not our own. We are bought with a price. 2 Corinthians 6:16 tells us that we are the temples of the living God. He has said: I will dwell in you and walk in you and be your God and you shall be my people.

In Romans 8:11 we read that if the Spirit Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken (give life) to your mortal bodies. That is talking about God’s life, zoe life, the life of divine health, God’s life.

Oh, what a Savior. He has purchased us from the clutches of satan and his demonic pressures and challenges. Jesus Christ has restored us to the position of righteousness with His Father. Now God Almighty is our Father, if we accept the relationship. When we come back into relationship with Him, we are members of His household, members of His Kingdom, sons and daughters of the Most High God, children of the King, kings and priests unto Him. We are in the position of health, prosperity, righteousness, joy, peace, love, because Jesus has paid the price for us to be restored to our rightful places with God.

Sickness and disease is in this world, but it does not have to be in us. We are redeemed, released, brought out of that realm with the blood of Jesus. He has purchased us. Now the Holy Spirit lives in us, with the divine health of God.

Our Place of Divine Health

In the Body of Christ, healing is a subject that people don’t clearly understand or we would all be walking in the divine health that Jesus Christ purchased for us on the cross. One of the things we must understand is that He didn’t purchase just forgiveness of sins for our spirit man, He also purchased healing and health for our bodies and peace for our souls. We are a three-part being, just as God is. We are created in His image. We see in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that we are a spirit; we have a soul; and we live in a body. Our soul is our mind, our will and our emotions. Jesus paid the price with His blood for the deliverance of all of our being, not just part of it.

Yes, He paid the price for our sins to be forgiven. Yes, He paid the price for our redemption, to be delivered from satan’s domain. Yes, He paid the price for us to be made the righteousness of God in Himself, Christ Jesus. He became sin that we may become righteous, right with God, with a nature free from sin. And the good news is that He not only paid the price for our sins to be washed away. He also paid the price for our bodies to be whole, healthy, well, free from sickness and disease. Sickness and disease were washed away in His blood just as surely as sin was washed away in His blood. He didn’t go through what He did in the Garden of Gethsemane and at the whipping post and on the cross for just part of you to be taken care of. He did it all. It is a total package. He took care of sin and all of its consequences, which includes sickness and disease.

Christians are not supposed to die the way non-Christians do. Christians are to do their work here on this earth, complete their assignment, sit down in their chair and say goodbye to the family and leave their body. They and God work out the schedule. Sickness and disease should never be the dictator of when you and I go home to heaven. That is not right. Why should satan be allowed to cut short our work here on this earth? He is not the dictator of the church. He should have nothing to do with when we go home.

Why is it that sickness and disease is so rampant in the Body of Christ, just like it is in the world? The reason is that we have not been taught that it is a total package. When we go to the altar, when we get born again, we are not told that sickness and disease has been taken care of, as well as our sins forgiven. If people were told at the altar that they could leave their sickness behind just like they were leaving their sins behind, they would do it. And they would walk away from that altar sin free and sickness free.

Oh, do you see it. We have a healer. We have One Who purchased our healing for us. He didn’t do it so that we could have an occasional victory over sickness and disease and the rest of the time have to put up with it and get by the best that we could get by. No, no, my brother and sister in Christ. Jesus bore our sicknesses and diseases so that we don’t have to bear them.

Satan has done such a number on all of us with pain and the pressure of telling us that we are going to die. Since when is He the one who is the head of the church, telling us what to do. Did he pay a price for you to be sick? No, a thousand times no. You may be saying that is ridiculous. Is it? When we accept sickness and disease, we are saying that satan is the one we are listening to. What about Jesus and what He did for us? Where does that fit into our lives? I know I am asking some hard questions and going deeper than we want to go, but it is time we stood up and fought his attempts to destroy us in mass. Christians are dying all over the world before their work is finished, before they have completed their task and it must stop. Satan is not the one in charge of the church. He is a defeated foe, defeated by our beloved Savior, Who paid a horrible price for our sins to be forgiven and for our sicknesses to be removed. Jesus is our healer. He is the Lord that heals us. We have to fight for that right and win that position individually. Jesus has already fought the battle and won it for us corporately as the Body of Christ. What we must do is stand our ground and not let satan steal our place of victory. Because of what Jesus did for us, we are the victors and not the victims. We are the healed and not the sick. We are the ones who have been given the victory over every sickness and disease that would ever come on this earth. Jesus’ blood was shed on the cross and at the whipping post to wash away our sicknesses and pain. He bore it all for you and me. Let’s press in to our place of divine health.

Agape Love's Protection

Agape Love, God’s Love, is our protection in the times in which we live, times which I believe are close to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the end times as some people call it. Everything we think; everything we do; everything we say; everywhere we go, we must do all as people of Agape Love.

You see, Agape Love is God Himself, His nature, His Presence, His power, His anointing. When we are living in His Presence, we know what to do and where to go and when to do it and what to say when we get there. He is the One Who created the universe. He is the One with the power. He is the One Who is all powerful. God is Love. Love is God.

In Psalm 91, verse 1, we are told to dwell under, abide under the shadow of the Almighty, Whose power no foe can withstand. God’s Love is His power. That is the source of His power. That is God Himself. He is our protection. He is our shelter. He is our refuge. He is our fortress. He is our shield. He is our buckler. He is our everything. We can trust Him. We can have confidence in His ability to protect us. There is no fear in Him. There is no fear in Love Himself. There is no fear in Agape Love.

When we say God is our refuge, we are saying Agape Love is our refuge. And when we say Agape Love is our refuge, we are saying zoe, God’s life is our refuge. He is our total security system. He is our shelter in the times of storms around us, whether natural storms or life’s spiritual or physical storms. He is there always. When we say God, Love Himself, is our refuge, we are saying that He is the place where we are safe and protected. He is our hiding place from all physical danger. When we say Love Himself is our fortress, we are saying that He is our place of strength. He is our defense against all human enemies. He is our stronghold against all of satan’s strongholds. We are to lean on Love Himself. We are to rely on Love Himself. We are to confidently trust in Love Himself. He is our shelter and our protection.

Love Himself delivers us from the snare of the fowler. In my dictionary a snare is described as a trap. It is anything by which one is entangled and brought to trouble. It is anything which brings us into unexpected evil, perplexity or danger. It is anything which causes us to be unexpectedly involved in difficulty. Satan’s trap is to attempt to get us sidetracked and off the main road of Agape Love. He will use anyone and anything to do that. Why? He knows that the power of God is the Love of God. If He can get us off Agape Love, He can get us out from the power and might of God Almighty. Without God’s power, we are weak in this natural world, subject to the same things that a person without God is subject to----no power, no ability to disengage ourselves from the trap.

And we all know what we must do to walk in Agape Love. It is spelled out for us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. We are to practice Agape Love at all times, until we automatically respond to all situations with Love Himself’s reaction.

God operates totally differently than we do in the flesh. We see that in His Word. He tells us to give and we will reap. He tells us to love when people spit in our faces and talk nasty to us and talk about us behind our backs and persecute us and revile us and say all matter of evil against us. God knows that as we respond in kindness and patience and tenderness to people (regardless of what they do), we ourselves will reap the consequences of His power in operation on our behalf. When we use His principles, the principles of His Kingdom, we are releasing His Love, Love Himself to operate on our behalf.

God has only good things for us. Part of our inheritance is His protection, the protection of Love Himself. If we are not operating in His way of living in Love, we will not be under that protection. The days in which we are living are the times that we need to walk in the protection of God, Love Himself. In fact, we see in Psalm 91:14 that when we set our love upon Him, He will deliver us, set us on high, answer us, be with us in trouble, never forsake us. He will satisfy us with long life and show us His salvation. Remember that word salvation encompasses everything, including protection, security and deliverance. In Agape Love’s pathway is life and protection.

Godly Desires

What is your passion? Many of us have seen the movie, The Passion of Christ. Why do we call it The Passion? Today we are looking at two definitions of passion. One is an eager desire, a love, a zeal for, ardor, vehement desire. The other definition is suffer. The word itself literally means to suffer, that which is suffered or received. In the Cruden’s Concordance it says that in the singular (passion) it means the suffering and death of Christ. In the plural (passions), it means desires.

Jesus, the Son of God, became the son of man because of His great love, His ardent desire for mankind. He and the Father wanted to set man free from sin and all its consequences. They wanted to be able to fellowship with and have communion with the one who was created in their image, mankind. What a love God has for us. He is love. He doesn’t have love. All He is, is love. That’s His entire being. And because of His Love, Jesus suffered in our place and took our sin and sickness and disease and pain and poverty and lack and all that sin entails. What a great love to suffer in someone else’s place. His greatest desire was for us to be free. And love was the force behind that desire.

What is your greatest love? What is your ardent desire? There are desires of all kinds. There are earthly desires and there are spiritual desires. They are both important. God gives us the desires of our heart and then sets about to fulfill them. One thing we must be very aware of is this. Godly desires will line up with His Word always. Ungodly desires, those we make up, will not line up with the Word of God. For example, someone may say that they desire another person’s wife. That is not godly. That doesn’t line up with the Word of God. Or someone may desire to the point of envying someone else’s home or car. That doesn’t line up with the Word of God, because envying is a sin. When God places the desire in our hearts, it is pure and without guile.

He may place a desire in your heart for your vocation in life. Perhaps you have a great desire to be a doctor or nurse. Perhaps you desire to be a mother and housewife. Perhaps you desire to be a mechanic. Perhaps you desire to be a minister. He places that desire in your heart. Perhaps there is a desire in you to be located in a certain place. After prayer, you will know by the peace in your heart that that is the place you are to live. His desires bring peace and not agitation.

In Psalm 37:4 we see the prerequisite for Godly desire. “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” When we delight ourselves in the Lord, when we seek Him with all of our heart, He is the One Who will give us the desires of our heart, in line with His Kingdom, His way of doing things. In verse 5 of that same chapter we read that we are to commit our ways unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. We delight ourselves in Him by praising and worshipping Him, reading His Word, fellowshipping with Him. And trust in Him is developed in that atmosphere. We trust people whom we know. The more we get to know the Lord, the greater our trust will be in Him, regardless of our circumstances.

In Romans 8:5-9 Amplified Bible we see that Godly desires are not things which our flesh wants. They are determined by the Holy Spirit of God. “For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit. Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death….But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and peace…. Those who live the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God or be acceptable to Him. But…when…you are living the life of the Spirit” it follows that you please and satisfy God.

So, we must conclude that when we follow the Holy Spirit of God, when we delight in the Lord, when we seek Him with everything in us, when we allow the Spirit of God to direct our thoughts and our pursuits, He will give us the desires of our hearts and then fulfill them for us. What is our part: We enjoy life in Him as He does the work in us and for us and around us.

Who Is Your First Love?

In Psalm 42:1,2 David talks about his yearning for the Lord. And this is what he says: As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God (NLT).

In the Song of Solomon, the bride longs for her beloved. She talks about the voice of her beloved. She compares him to a young deer. Her beloved is hers and she is his. He brings her to his banqueting table and his banner over her is love. She seeks him. She rises to meet him. She watches for him. She rises up early for her beloved. This book of the Bible ends with the radiant bride turning to her beloved who is the love of her soul and with unconcealed eagerness she begins her life of sweet companionship with him. She says to him: Make haste and come quickly like a young deer and take me to our waiting home (AMP).

In Revelation 22:17 we read: And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Where am I going with all this? Are you more in love with Jesus than when you first began? Has your desire for His Presence intensified? Could you be labeled as a child of the love of the Father? Does someone have enough evidence to convict you of loving Him to excess?

God is calling us to His Presence more than ever before as we are living in the last days before the coming of Jesus Christ. He is calling us to intimacy with Him, to a place of personal intimacy. We are His and He is ours. He wants us to totally depend on Him for everything in our lives. He wants to be #1 in our lives. He wants to be first place in everything we think, speak and act and live. He wants to take us into His inner chambers and lavish us with His Blessing of all the good things of His kingdom. What a God!

We need to ask ourselves where we are in the Lord. What is it that we need to do to get into this place of yearning for His Presence, of yearning for Him to make Himself known to us? He has so much to give us and truly wants to give us.

We must allow Him to prepare us for His coming. I am asking Him to show me areas where He is not first in my life, areas that need cleansing of earthly impurities, fleshly pursuits that are contrary to Him. There are hidden areas in all of our hearts that we are not even aware of. The Spirit of God will go into those areas and shine the Light of His Presence in there to flush out all the junk. For example, do you have fear of something? That needs to be dealt with because fear contaminates faith. Are you believing God for something and not receiving? Perhaps it is because there is fear in your life which is blocking your receiving by faith. Perhaps it is because there is a trust issue between you and God, based on past failures and disappointments. Open your heart to Him today and let Him reveal those things that are holding you back. He so longs to set you free to be all that you can be.

Freedom is a wonderful privilege in the Lord. Jesus Christ has purchased freedom for us to walk in the spirit in our earth walk. We are free to be overcomers in this life. We are kings and priests to our Lord. He has given us all that we need for life and godliness. He has given us the tools we need to live a successful life here on this earth. And what is the key to all of this. I think we will find the formula for successful, victorious living in Joshua 1:8.

Joshua was taking over from a great leader, Moses, and getting ready to take the people of Israel into their promised land, which they had missed a generation ago. He is older and has put up with these people for 40 years, and he was still carrying the dream, the vision God had given him to take the land. What a man of faith. And yet God says this to him: Joshua, be strong and of good courage. I am with you. I will never forsake you. Every place the sole of your foot treads, that have I given you. He was reassuring Joshua, who apparently needed reassuring. Joshua, I am with you.

So God tells Joshua what He will do and then He tells Joshua what he must do. In Joshua 1:8 we read God’s instructions to Joshua, which are still just as true for us today. Don’t let the Word of God depart from your mouth. Mediate on it day and night. Observe to do all that is written therein. And then you shall make your way prosperous and then you will have good success and deal wisely. These are our instructions to live the victorious life, even in our loving the Lord. We love Him on purpose, deliberately, by choice, when we have no feelings of love or sense of love. We love Him by choice. The feelings come. Today, purpose in your heart that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. He is waiting for that commitment from both you and me.

The Voice of the Lord

1 Corinthians 14:10,11 tells us that there are many voices in the world; in other words, there are many languages in the world and none of them is without meaning or without expression to the ones who understand the language. But if you and I do not know the language, we are as strangers and foreigners to the one who speaks and the one who speaks that language will seem as a foreigner to us. Why is that? If we don’t understand what one another is saying, how can we communicate with one another or learn of one another’s ways.

Do you see where I am going with this? We must know and understand the voice of the Lord. We must learn His language, to communicate with Him, to learn His ways of doing things. Jesus tells us in John 10:1-5 that He is our Shepherd and we as His sheep hear His voice. He calls us by name and leads us. He goes before us and we follow Him for we know His voice. And a stranger we will not follow but will flee from him for we know not the voice of strangers.

We are told here in John 10 that as God’s child, we do know the voice of our Lord; we do hear His voice and know His voice. Some of you may be saying right now: But I don’t hear His voice. Are you making Jesus out to be a liar? He says that you do hear His voice. So what do you do with that? By faith, you say that you hear His voice, even when you think you don’t. Many times His voice is an impression inside you that you are to do a certain thing. If that impression lines up with the Word of God, step out on that and do it. It takes practice. There will be times in the beginning when you may miss it, but you know that the more you practice hearing His voice, the clearer you will hear Him. I use one thing as my gauge. Let peace be your umpire. Where is your peace regarding what you have heard? Don’t respond because you want to so desperately hear His voice and anything will be counted as His voice. Practice being still and quiet before Him without any outside distractions which are called noise. You will hear His voice.

He speaks to me so much through His Word. There will be a scripture that will pop out at me like a neon sign. That is God speaking to me. I love His Word. And He knows that He can talk with me with His Word. But in order to hear Him speak through His Word, I have to know His Word; I have to spend time in His Word; I have to spend time with Him. Aw, time! There is the key. Lately, the Lord has been telling me that tithe not only involves money. It involves my time. A tithe of 24 hours is over 2 hours a day. Sometimes I look at the clock and say, but God---------.
I am sure none of you have ever done that. Time is a gift from God just like everything else we have. He asks us for a portion of time every day. The time we spend with Him as a tithe will be multiplied back to us many times over. I am experiencing that in my own life.

In Deuteronomy 28:1,2 we are told to diligently hearken, listen to the voice of the Lord our God, being watchful to do all He commands us in His Word, and His Blessing will come on us. What does hearken imply? Do what He tells us. Do what He says to do. Be alert to do what He tells us to do. That’s why it is so important to learn to hear His voice. He tells us what to do and helps us to avoid traps, to do the right thing that will bless our lives.

In Hebrews 3:7,8 we read that when we hear God’s voice, we are not to harden our hearts. What is that saying? If God continually tells us something and we ignore it, each time we ignore it, our heart becomes a little bit more accustomed to not doing what He tells us. If we do this often enough, eventually, we will not even listen to, much less heed and do what He is telling us. And do you know it does not necessarily have to be a big thing? It can be something as simple as going next door to your neighbor’s house and asking them if they need prayer. There are times when God speaks a simple thing to us. He may tell you women to go to the clothing store, and it may not have a thing to do with buying a piece of clothing. There may be someone in that store who is hurting and you have the answer for them.

Hearing God’s voice is not an isolated entity. It is connected to doing what God tells us to do. We must not only hear; we must also obey; we must do what we hear Him telling us to do.

Say this: I do hear the voice of the Lord my God, and I do obey what He tells me to do. I don’t hear the voice of a stranger (satan) but I clearly hear the voice of my Lord and do what He says.

Words And The Kingdom of God

Yesterday we talked about the Kingdom of God and its operation here in this earth for us as God’s children.

Today let’s talk about the way that Kingdom operates. Everything God did, He did with words. As we all know, we see in Genesis 1 that each time there was another part of creation, God spoke it into existence from inside Him. In each verse we read the words “God called,” “God said,” and it became. It all started with one small phrase: God said: Light be. He was in essence saying this: That which I am; that which is in me; come forth. I am Light and Life and Love. I speak all of that into the atmosphere which will become earth.

When God spoke those first words into the earth, He was speaking forth what was inside Him, and it became. When He created man, He spoke man into existence by His Words of creation. God created man in His own image. And since we are created in His own image, we follow our Father’s example. He created by words and still does. That is His system. So, it follows the pattern that we create by words. Every day we are creating by what we say. It started as a thought and was lodged in our spirits and minds until one day we spoke it and it created. What we all must understand, though, is that not every word we speak creates. It is only the words that we have pondered and thought on and meditated that have taken root in our hearts that create. If we think something long enough and speak it out often enough, that thought will take root and create words, which come out of our mouths and create. That is why Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart we speak, and that a man is justified by his words, whether for good or for evil.

You and I must think on, ponder, meditate only God’s Word, which creates good thoughts, which creates good conversation, which creates good things for us as we speak. People are not aware of their thought patterns nor their words that they speak, unless someone brings it to their attention. It is like breathing. You don’t think about breathing. You don’t say to yourself: Breathe. Neither do you say to yourself, watch what you say, unless you have been made aware of it.

Thinking and speaking is what creates your environment around you. The Word of God says that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. That is a powerful statement.

So, what are we to do? Take the Word, Who is God, and declare it as if He is speaking because He is speaking through you. When you take the name of Jesus, you are speaking (acting also) in His place. He has authorized you to speak and carry on business in His place while He is gone from earth in visible form. You are His representative, representing Him. He has given you full legal authority to make decisions, act on His behalf, and carry on the work and the daily life and activities of His Kingdom here on the earth. And it is all conducted by words.

God said in Genesis 1: Light, Be! Be fruitful! We follow His example and say: Be healed! Be made whole! Be prosperous! Be blessed! It’s a statement of Truth, final word of authority which commands and demands action to bring about what has just been spoken. Now it’s Truth and established once it is spoken. This is a growing process where you develop your trust, your belief in God and His Word. You are not an overnight wonder. It is a gradual change. It didn’t take you overnight to get to the place where you are with speaking the world’s words and the world’s way of doing things. Even so, it will not take you overnight to speak God’s Word and believe it will come to pass in your life.

Where do you start? Start with one scripture verse and meditate on it day and night until it becomes real to you, so real that you know that it is operating in your life. Then take another and do the same thing. What are you doing? You are changing your thought patterns, which will change the way you speak. Don’t start at the wrong end by trying to control your speech. It doesn’t work that way. Whatever is in your thoughts and your heart in abundance is what you will speak. So start filling yourself with the Word of God day and night. It is a consistent lifestyle, not a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. God’s Word produces God results. Let’s get started today.

The Kingdom of God

In Colossians 1:13,14 in the Amplified Bible we read: [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
In Whom we have our redemption through His blood [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.

I saw some wonderful truths in these two verses this morning that I would like to share with you. As you read this Pearls and others, say to yourself: I believe I receive the revelation of this for myself and I will walk in it.

The Father Himself, our dear Heavenly Father, has delivered us from the control, the dominion, the domain, the authority of darkness. Darkness is satan’s domain where there is sin, sickness, disease, pain, poverty, lack, want, failure, defeat. It is satan’s place of operation. And here we are told in the Word of God that we as God’s children have been delivered from that terrible place.

Then we are told that we have been transferred, brought into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love. Our Father God not only delivered us through His Son Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. He also set us someplace else when He delivered us. He set us into His Kingdom, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the One Who shed His blood and redeemed us, gave the Father the right to deliver us and give us our freedom. We are free from everything that is in that darkness of satan’s realm. Do you hear me? You are free. You are no longer bound. By faith declare it today and claim it and walk in it. You have to start somewhere. Start with declaring it. That is what faith is all about. Your freedom has been bought and paid for. You receive it with the words of your mouth and it becomes reality in your spirit and then it becomes reality in this earthly realm.

Jesus, by what He did, bought the earth for us. The He gave it to us as a gift and said: Now, it’s yours. I bought it for you. I’ve given you all My authority, all My power as your King to rule over it. You’re My king here now. Exercise your authority. I have bought the rights to this earth for you (like when someone has mineral rights to a piece of property).

It’s the kingdom of this earth. It’s God’s Kingdom we are to establish here. Take this world back. It doesn’t belong to satan anymore. It belongs to Jesus Christ, Who paid for it with His blood. He told us right before He left this earth: All power in heaven and earth has been given to me. You go, therefore. He meant: You go with my power, my authority and rule and reign in My place. There has been a problem here in that God’s people have not wanted to take that authority because they didn’t realize that it has been given to them. They are afraid they don’t deserve it or should have it. They are right about half that statement. None of us deserve it but we have it anyway. God loves us that much.

This Kingdom which God has given us is ours by gift and by inheritance. We did nothing to deserve it or to obtain it other than to receive it and say: Thank You, Lord.

It’s legally ours because Jesus has provided it. Satan tries to have squatter’s rights illegally. He has no rights here. Only we do. He is illegal.

We pray a statement in the Lord’s prayer and just gloss right over it repetitiously and mindlessly. Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Why do you think we pray that prayer? It is to wake us up to the fact that God’s Kingdom comes on this earth as we recognize it, declare it and walk in it ourselves, being the kings that we are.

The Father loved each one of us so much that He sent His only Son Jesus to this earth to get the rulership, the Kingdom back for you to rule and reign while you are here. Jesus paid a dear price with His life and His blood to obtain your freedom. Believe it. Accept it. Receive it. Walk in it. Say: I believe I receive the fullness of the revelation of the authority I have on this earth and the kingship that I have been given to rule and to reign. I believe I walk in it every day.

Overcomers In This World - Part 2

We are continuing our study of Revelation 12:11 today. We overcome our enemy satan by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony. Yesterday we talked about the blood of Jesus. We could talk about the blood of Jesus forever because it is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from our sins and sets us free from this world’s ways. It is the blood of Jesus that was shed at the whipping post for every sickness and disease. It is the blood of Jesus that keeps us covered and safe from the enemy. It is the precious blood of Jesus that was shed to redeem us from the curse of the law that the blessing of Abraham might come on us. It is the blood. Oh, the blood of Jesus. Make much of the blood of Jesus. It is that blood that set you and your loved ones free and keeps us free and protected every day of our lives. Oh, what a Savior.

Today, let’s talk about the Word. As you all know by now who have been reading the Pearls of Wisdom, I teach much about the Word of God and what it does in our lives. We plead the blood and we testify to, give witness to the Word of God in our lives and its sustaining power.

The most valuable thing you have in your possession is your Bible. In the case of disaster, grab your Bible first. It is the very thing that will give you back all that is stolen from you as you learn about the reality of God your Father from that Word. It is your handbook of life. It is your manual to successful living in the Kingdom of God, where you reside. It is your instruction book on how to live while you are here on this earth. Everything you will ever need is contained in this book we call the Bible.

In Revelation 19:13 we read that Jesus’ name in Heaven is The Word of God. In John 1:1-4,14 we read that In the beginning, which was before the earth was created or time was formed, in the beginning was the Word of God and the Word was God Himself. The Word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Every time you speak God’s Word from this book we call the Bible, you are speaking out God Himself into your situation. Oh, we must grasp this and understand it. I don’t care what you feel like or what it looks like. Every time, I mean every time you speak God’s Word, you are giving God the right to come on the scene and place Himself in your situation to help you through, cause you to be victorious and overcome whatever the enemy has sent your way.

Speak the Word, agree with God, and He will perform His Word. That is His Promise. Jeremiah 1:12 Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen; for I will hasten my word to perform it. The reason it seems like it takes so long sometimes for that word to work is that our minds have been so indoctrinated with the world’s way of doing things that it takes a while for us to become conformed to God’s way of doing things, His Kingdom reality.

Even our church system has its own set of ideas regarding God’s Word, which is a mixture of man’s opinion and the world’s system and God. Faith won’t work with mixed seed. Faith cannot be contaminated by man’s own ideas and thinking. Faith operates purely the way the Word tells you and me. There is no other way. There is no alternative method. As a friend of mine says: There is no disclaimer on God’s Word. We either do it God’s way or it doesn’t work.

With that in mind, let’s address a very sensitive issue where we Christians are concerned. I hear so many explanations for defeat in our lives. There is only one explanation, whether it is me or you or your friend. If we don’t have results, it is not God’s fault and it is not because God is sovereign. It is because we either didn’t know enough or we are still dealing with doubt and unbelief. And there is only one cure for doubt and unbelief----saturation of the Word of God day and night. Didn’t God tell Joshua in Joshua 1:8 that he was to meditate the Word day and night and then he would make his way successful and deal wisely in the affairs of life.

While we are on this issue of doubt and unbelief, the Bible sees unbelief in a different way than we do. We say, Well, you know, it is so hard to believe; it is not my fault; I am working my way through it. The Bible says that unbelief in our heart is evil (Heb. 3:12) and is indicative of a hardened heart. Don’t fuss at me. That is what the Word says. So, let’s hit unbelief head-on in our lives and deal with it by the washing of the water of the Word until it is flushed out of us. There is no other way to be victorious. We must be those who confess God’s Word and thus come into agreement with Him. Then we must do what the Word says. We also must be doers of the Word of God.

We OVERCOME by the BLOOD OF THE LAMB and the WORD of our testimony. Testify to the goodness of God; testify to the Truth of His Word; testify, proclaim, declare and decree the Word of God and the blood of Jesus until it becomes reality in your life. The Word does work for you. Stick with it until you see the results in your life.

Overcomers In This World

The first part of Revelation 12:11 tells us that we have overcome, conquered him (satan, the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony…. How do we know that this is satan that the verse is talking about? In the preceding verses 7-10, there is a brief account of satan being removed from heaven when he rebelled against God.

There are a number of things we need to look at today from that verse. We overcome satan by the blood of the Lamb. The blood of Jesus was shed to purify and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Satan is the one connected with death, sin, sickness, disease, defeat, lack, failure, and anything else that is less than the best for you as God’s child. When Jesus shed His blood in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, He was pouring forth the life of God on this earth once again, life, zoe, the very essence of God. Once again, this earth was filled with the breath, the life force of God that had created this whole earth and all that is in it and all the universes around us.

We must go back for a moment to Abram and the covenant that God Almighty cut with Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham after the covenant was cut. In order for God to get back into this earth, he had to have a man that would make covenant with Him and do whatever He said. He found such a man in Abram. When Abraham was willing to offer up his only son to God, that opened the way for God to offer up His only Son for the world to once again have the choice of walking in God’s realm.

Jesus was called the second Adam because He brought to us the ability to be with God like Adam was, to fellowship with the Lord, to “walk in the cool of the evening in the Garden of Eden” in our lives. Jesus opened the way for us to be one with God again, to live on this earth in a victorious way all the time. Very few Christians walk this victorious life because they have never been told that they could or if they have been told, they have been given the idea that it is just for a select few. They have been told it takes a special kind of faith.

My dear brother and sister in Christ, you have within you as a born again child of God, the very life of God Himself, to live the very life of victory that Jesus purchased for you. Satan has been defeated and His demonic forces have been stripped of their authority. His main objective was and is to convince Christians that he is strong to overcome them with his pressure and his loud mouth that speaks louder sometimes than the still, quiet voice of the Lord. Let me make this very clear. He has no authority over you nor does he have the ability to bring you down. I am going to make a very bold statement here. We bring ourselves down by believing his lies and giving in to his pressure and ruthless, incessant battering. We have the authority to overcome him personally and walk in what Jesus has purchased for us. What gives us that authority? The blood of Jesus and the Word.

I have noticed that the Christians who are the victorious ones are the ones who stand up in the face of what appears to be absolute defeat and say, NO! I will not be defeated and I will not quit. My God is greater than he that is in the world. They are the ones who take a stand, even if it looks like they will go down in absolute defeat and shameful mockery. Satan loves to whisper in your ear----Who do you think you are? Well, don’t cower in the corner but yell in his ear----Here is who I am. I am a child of God. I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus Who loves me and gave His life for me. I overcome you by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of my testimony. The blood and the Word are your weapons of overcoming in this world, in His name and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Oh, the blood of Jesus---what a most powerful weapon and safeguard for you and me. When we plead the blood over a situation, we are calling forth the very life of God Himself on our behalf. We are speaking in agreement with all of Heaven, and the blood speaks back to us----Life, Life, Life (the very Life of God, which emanates from Himself, Who is Love, and is expressed as Light in this world, the laser-like light that created this planet and all on it and sustains us).

Tomorrow we will talk about the Word of our testimony.

Call Until Your Image Changes

This statement has been before me for days now: Call until your image changes.

God created man with this wonderful ability to visualize, to dream, to see things in His mind as if they were already in existence. We get this naturally from our Heavenly Father. He has given us His ability to create by speaking. Our words are the composition material for things---yes, things.

In the very beginning of time as we know it---God has no time constraints because He is eternal----we read in the book of Genesis in chapter one that God spoke and it became; God spoke and it became; God spoke and it became. He started by speaking: Light in Me, BE!!!!!!!! And He thus released His very insides, His nature, His way of doing things, His ability into this earth to set the standard, to set the stage for what He had planned for the man that He was going to create. And then He proceeded to make an earth that was beautiful beyond our description. He created it all for us. Man was the last thing He created and set in the beautiful Garden of Eden to enjoy all that God had created. What a plan God had for man. And man messed up that plan. But God being Who He is, had a plan if man messed up the original plan. He would send His Son in the likeness of flesh to become the second Adam and walk it on through to victory.

Now we who are alive on this earth have the capability, the capacity of Almighty God to do what He does----call things into existence with the words of our mouth. Man does it every day and doesn’t even realize it. We speak and if we speak it enough times over years of time, it will indeed become reality. People can speak all the negative they want and no one even bats an eye to correct them. But if you start speaking the opposite of the negative, speaking what the Word of God says, you are labeled as a fanatic, as not being realistic, as not having your act together, as being a dreamer. Do you know why this is a fact? It has taken satan thousands of years to get man where he wants him in terms of the words he speaks and the thoughts he thinks.

Oh, but my brother and sister, there is a new breed arising on the horizon, strong and tall and mighty. It’s a powerful group of men and women who dare to speak God’s Word in the face of opposition, of contrary circumstances, of all hell coming against them. And they still stand, refusing to bow to the negative consequences of the world and its system. They stand as kings and priests in the Kingdom of God and they know who they are. They know Who Jesus Christ is in them and they know what He wants to do through them. Are you one of that new generation?

What is this new generation of God’s people doing? They are calling; they are declaring; they are decreeing; they are confessing God’s Word in agreement with Him. They are speaking His Word out into the atmosphere of this earth and making a difference wherever they are. They are determined to produce God’s Garden once again. They are determined to bring the zoe life of God wherever they go. And how are they doing that? They are doing it with the pure Word of God spoken out of their mouths, coming off their lips. Can you hear the sound of their call? It’s the voice of the Lord being released in this earth. Once again, the Word Himself, Jesus, is speaking through His people.

And what is Jesus saying through us? You are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. Greater is He Who is in you than he who is in the world. You can do all things through Christ Who strengthens you. You are the head and not the tail. You are above and not beneath. You are to prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. He is your Shepherd to lead you and guide you and feed you. You shall not want or lack for any good thing. The Law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus has made you free from the law of sin and death. With the stripes that wounded Jesus you have been healed and made whole. The love of Christ constrains you. You love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself. You are God’s own workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. You are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You are filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding. You are complete in Him. He Who has begun a good work in you will finish it.

Call it. Take the Word of God and build that image in you until it becomes reality in your life.

Be Doers of the Word

What are you facing today that seems to be an insurmountable obstacle that continually stands in your way and seemingly mocks your ineffectiveness to overcome it? When satan attempts to erect a mountain in your path, what do you do about it? What is your first reaction to it when you encounter it on your walk on this earth? How do you respond? Is it with faith and confidence in the God of might Who dwells in you or is it with fear and disappointment that you confront these issues? What is it for you today?

In this life, whether you are walking in faith or not walking in faith, situations and circumstances will arise to challenge your walk in this life. We live in a flesh and blood world with our bodies, surrounded by the stuff of this earth and the voices of this earth. Washing machines break down, cars need servicing, bills need to be paid, food we eat and air we breathe and water we drink has become less than pure. There are temptations to the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and the lust of the eyes all around if one tunes into the world system, via television, movies, internet, etc. I am sure you are saying: Where are you going with this, Kialeen? What are you saying to me today? Don’t you think the better question would be---what is God saying to you and me today? What is His call?

I have noticed lately that the devilish attempts to sidetrack and overcome God’s people have increased, as the darkness gets darker and the world becomes more wicked. BUT, and this is the big word----BUT, BUT GOD-------------as the world gets darker, the Light of Jesus Christ----and we are His Light in this world----gets brighter.

The Lord posed a question to me today, and it is this. What are you doing in your personal walk with Me with the revelation of my word that you have been given. Are you practicing that? Are you a doer of that Word of revelation I have given you? And I have discovered something. It is not anything new, just a fresh reminder. What good is it if you have all the revelation of the word of God and have read all the books on faith and have listened to all the CD’s on faith and gone to every Word of Faith meeting and don’t put into practice what you know. And here is the critical factor. Don't wait until a crisis comes or you are broadsided with something, and then all of a sudden attempt to become a doer of the word. It doesn't work that way. This is a lifestyle of believing, of acting on faith in everything we do, 24-7. Practice now. Speak, confess, meditate on the word and deliberately practice operating in that word of revelation that has become a part of you. Then when the crisis comes, you are ready.

I have heard more than one person say that it takes a test to have a testimony. And don’t say I said that God sends tests and trials. NO, a thousand times no. But because you live on this earth, tests do come, and things do happen. What we do with it determines our success or failure. Don’t wait until the test comes, to attempt to walk in faith. It won’t work. That’s like trying to put a roof on your house in 150 mile an hour winds. In your daily walk, begin to be a doer of the Word of God that you have learned. Practice, like a pilot practices storm situations in a trainer. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Let’s give a few examples. Speak the Word on healing and meditate it until you know that you know that you know that you have gotten the revelation of it. Then if a headache comes or a cold tries to come on you, resist it with the Word. Stand on the Word of God and be a doer of the Word. As you practice, you will become more and more confident that the Word of God will work in your life.

Speak the Word on God’s provision and meditate on it until it becomes revelation to you. Then, deliberately, on purpose, set your faith to have a pair of socks provided for you or a sweater or shirt. Then graduate to suits and dresses and then to small amounts of money and then larger and larger amounts. Then, houses and vehicles.

Don’t wait to be a doer of the Word. Start now by speaking the Word and meditating the Word on healing or prosperity or a closer walk with the Lord or your marriage or your children walking in the fullness of God. You don’t start at the top. You start at the ground level and build a solid foundation and then your house of faith will not crumble when the storms of life come. Jesus told us that in the story of the two houses, one built on sand and one built on a solid rock. Go back and read that story again in Matthew 7:24-28. HEAR AND DO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Repent and Behold

Yesterday the Lord showed me some things about repentance after I had written the Pearls of Wisdom. I want to share them with you today.

I have always disliked the word repentance because to me it represented people coming to the altar and crying and getting all emotional and then going back home and not changing and coming back the next Sunday no different. Even though I know what the word repentance means, I didn’t see it happening. So when someone would preach on repent and get right with the Lord, I swallowed hard and watched the same emotional response by people coming by the hundreds to the altar. There is a difference between forgiveness and repentance.

Let’s look at the two words for a period of time here. Forgiveness is asking God to forgive you of your sins and truly meaning it, knowing that it is only because of the blood of Jesus that we are forgiven. Forgiveness is asking someone to forgive you whom you have hurt or whom you have aught against. Repentance, on the other hand, is changing direction and going in a different direction than what you were going in. And there may be tears of joy, but there will be change also.

Yesterday, I saw what repentance truly means in the eyes of the Lord and now I understand. You know what it says in Ephesians 1:18--- that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened, that our heart will be flooded with light, understanding.

To repent is to turn toward the Father and change your focus and vision. Whereas we always think that a person who repents is someone who has done a terrible thing and needs to repent (and it can be that, but it is so much broader than we have thought), the Father sees repentance as changing our direction, changing our focus, so that our vision is of the eternal things, the heavenly things.

When I as God’s child am in a difficult situation or circumstance and the pressure is put on me, I am to change my direction, turn around and place my focus on Him, keep Him in my vision. I want you to picture this for yourself. You are facing a terminal doctor’s report or you are facing a possible bankruptcy or you are facing divorce as a Christian couple or you have just learned that your precious child is on drugs. Repent, change your direction, turn around and turn your back on the effects of the situation and behold your Father standing there ready to help you. Keep your focus on Him. You are facing Him and the answer, not the problem. He does the fixing while you are doing the gazing, the focusing on Him.

Now that doesn’t mean that we bury our heads in the sand and not address the natural issues. But I tell you the first thing every one of us need to do. When we are facing what looks like an impossible situation, we need to stop, go before the Lord and ask Him for wisdom, ask Him for His input. Do it, even if it means that you stay up part of the night or you take off a day from work. Seek Him. Seek His Kingdom first and His righteousness and ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU.

Did you notice what that verse says in Matthew 6:33. It says that all these things shall be added unto you. Do you see that word “added”? I had never really paid any attention to that little word until the other day. I had always dwelt on the first part of that verse. But look at it for yourself. It says “added.” Our job is to seek Him. His job is to add all these things unto us. What things do you need added unto you? Your health, your wealth, your marriage fixed, your child back with Jesus. What is it you need today? Repent, change your focus and instead of beholding your situation, behold Him, behold the Father in all of His glory, behold Jesus and what He has purchased for you, behold the Holy Spirit and what He wants to do for you today and every day. We must change our focus, especially when we are in the midst of impossible situations. If we don’t change our focus, we will just stay where we are and say that God doesn’t love us and He doesn’t care and His Word doesn’t work for us. How do I know? Been there, done that, have the T shirt to prove it.

This life with the Lord is a life of faith, a life of deliberate action to believe God and His Word, to receive what He has told us in His Word as being ours. After we have the results in the natural realm is not the time to believe. You don’t need faith then. You need faith to bring from God’s realm into the natural realm “the things added unto you.”

I want to give you two wonderful scriptures to meditate on concerning beholding the Father. They have helped me so much and they are so beautiful.
Psalm 17:15 Amplified Bible
As for me, I will continue beholding Your face in righteousness (rightness, justice, and right standing with You); I shall be fully satisfied, when I awake [to find myself] beholding Your form [and having sweet communion with You].
Psalm 27:4 Amplified Bible
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.

Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. What Jesus is saying to us here is this: Turn around; the Kingdom of God, God’s way of doing things is right there for you. Repent; change your focus. Behold Him. Change the way you think; change the way you respond; change your thinking to line up with God’s Word; then your actions will line up with God’s Word; then the results will line up with God’s Word and “all these things shall be added unto you.”

Repentance Precedes Revival

I had every intention of writing on something else today but the Lord woke me up with these words----repentance precedes revival.

You know, there is much talk today about revival, about the need for it, about it breaking out in various parts of the world, about former revivals and what happened to stop them. Revival is an interesting word that I believe has been misunderstood. What do you think of when you hear the word revival? I think most people think of this great sweep in their local church and area of sinners into the Kingdom of God. Actually, that is not revival. That is the result of revival.

Revival is for the church, the Body of Christ. In order for something to revive, or come alive again, it once was alive. That means it is dead or almost dead. Selah, pause and think of this for a few moments. The life of God, zoe life, is made available to every person on the face of this earth, particularly to those who are children of God, those who have been born again. And we have not understood just Who is in us and what He has made available to us.

God Himself, Zoe life Himself, Love Himself, Light Himself came to dwell in our mortal bodies in the person of the Holy Spirit when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, when we confessed with our mouths and believed in our hearts that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. In so many instances, people really don’t know how to walk in the fullness of the Life of God that is in them. You know that the Word of God says that my people perish for lack of knowledge. Knowledge of God and His ways is not just a fact that you acquire. Knowledge is becoming intimately acquainted with God. It is becoming intimately acquainted with His Life, Zoe life.

Vive means life. Revive means to bring the life back. God is calling us up as His children and saying: I want to bring My life back to you, My people, My body. He is calling us to Himself today like He never has before. Come back, He says. And you say: I never left. Perhaps you have not left Him, but maybe you have lost your fervor for Him and His way of life. Perhaps the cares and concerns of this life and the busyness of this world have caused you to become sidetracked from the #1 priority in your life. Perhaps disappointments and discouragement have caused you to step back from the white-hot fervor you had as a new believer. Where are you today in your relationship with the Lord?

I guess this teaching comes from my month of being set aside by the Lord to seek His face. And when I sought His face, I was surprised by what He showed me. He started the month by showing me areas in my life He wanted to deal with. And oh what a joy to be free and pure and clean. Don’t let pride stand in the way and say that everything is perfect with you and the Lord. As we allow Him to shine the Light of His Word on our lives, there are areas that He wants to deal with; there are areas we were not even aware of. We are told in the Word of God that our hearts can be deceitful. Yes, the hearts of the believers.

I know the Lord is calling us into a place of intimacy with Him, of seeking His face. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us. John the Baptist made a very interesting statement in Luke 3:4: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And then Jesus made this statement in 4:17: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

I believe these statements that John and Jesus made could be applicable to today’s scenario. Jesus is coming soon. It is much sooner than anyone thinks. It is so close that it is like the air you breathe. Repentance is to change one’s behavior and way of life. Repentance is not just going to a church altar and saying you are sorry for your sins. Repentance is changing your lifestyle to conform to God’s life in you. It is that quality of being willing to change to come into line with God’s Word. Some people say that it is difficult to change and therefore never attempt to change. I say that it is easy. God loves each of us so much that He never wants things to be hard for us. It becomes hard when we don’t yield to what He is calling us to do. What is it today in your life that He is asking you to change? That change is the very pathway to the Life of God operating at full capacity in your life.

You see, revival is about bringing the fullness of God’s life back in each of us in the church body and then as a corporate body that life of God will attract those in the world. They will want what we have because they will see that we are different. Why are we different? It is because we are expressions of the Love and Life and Light of God. We are the light of the world now because we have The Light of the world in us. We are the Love of God expressed to a world which is starving for the Life of God.

Yes, we must be willing to repent or change, for revival, the Life of God once more to be operating in its fullness in us, the Body of Christ. It only takes one and one and one and one. Do you want revival? Then you be the first one who is willing to change.

Confessions For Life

We are posting the Pearls of Wisdom one day early because I want to start you off with good confessions for your week. These have been given to me as I have spent my time with the Lord over the past month and particularly the last week. We have so much to learn from Him and He wants to teach us so that we can be in intimate fellowship with Him and carry His glory to the world around us and change that world for His Kingdom to become reality in the lives of others. Oh, what a Savior, what a Master, what a Father we have the privilege to love and reverence. I am honored to call him my Lord.

I am strong.
He is my everlasting strength.
I trust You, Lord.
I rely on You.
I depend on You.
Jesus is Lord of my life.
I will do His will.
I delight to do His will.
I am thankful for what I have (list them).
My body listens to, responds to, is obedient to the Lord, loves the Lord, delights in the Lord.
Nothing I eat bothers me at all.
All the Glory be to our good God.
Thank You, Lord, for Your will and plan for my life. I am walking in it.
My Father loves me as much as He does Jesus. And His love is in me.
The unseen forces of the realm of God are working on my behalf, all the time.
I have the Spirit of Faith. I believe and I speak.
God, Who is Light, has shined in my heart to beam forth Himself (Light) for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of Himself as it is manifested in the Person and revealed in the face of Jesus Christ the Messiah.
For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might loosen, undo, dissolve, destroy the works of the devil, take me from darkness to light, take me from the domain of satan to His Kingdom.
Jesus paralyzed satan and stripped the demons of their authority.
I AM has made me free.
I possess this precious treasure, the Divine Light, God Himself, in this earthen vessel that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of Your power---resurrection power, the same power You wrought in Christ Jesus when You raised Him from the dead---may be shown in me, that it is of You and not of me.
Greater is He Who is in me than he that is in the world.
The Holy Spirit dwells in me, giving me Zoe Life like an IV transfusion day and night. My body is His Temple.
I am not my own. I am bought with a price. I glorify God in my spirit, my soul and my body, which are God’s.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. You are in me and I have liberty. I’m free.
With an unveiled face I continue to behold in Your Word, like a mirror, Your Glory, Lord, and I am constantly being transfigured, changed into the same image (I am created in the image of God, His very own image and likeness.) from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.
I love You, Lord, with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, all my strength.
I know how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance.
I have everything I need and I am amply supplied.
My God liberally supplies, fills to the full, my every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Meditate Deuteronomy 28:1-14---envision having favor everywhere you go. Picture yourself blessed.
The good life is my destiny.
Holy Spirit, I’ll follow You. Lead me. Teach me. Guide me. Show me Your Truth, revelation. I allow Your power to operate in my life and for me and through me.
I have authority and dominion over all the ability of the enemy and nothing shall hurt me.
I am living the good life which God prearranged and made ready for me to live.
I am enjoying life.
I am living the good life where God’s Blessing is coming on me and overtaking me wherever I am.
I am kept by the power of God, guarded by God’s power, garrisoned by God’s power through my faith. I greatly rejoice in this.
My faith is infinitely more precious than perishable gold.
Jesus Christ, I love You; I believe You and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory because of You.
I receive the end of my faith.
In Christ Jesus my Lord, because of my faith in Him, I have boldness and access with confidence to God with freedom.
I receive The Blessing, Blessing without measure, fullness of The Blessing.
The anointing of increase is on me.
I’m a believer and not a doubter. I’m a receiver.
My faith will make me whole.
I am blessed. The Blessing of Jesus is on me and I am a receiver.
I have faith in God.