7 Thoughts on Prayer

March 17, 2011 by 1 Comment
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"I Would Rather Teach One Man To Pray Than Ten Men To Preach." (Charles Spurgeon)

7 Thoughts on Prayer

 

This article presents seven simple thoughts on prayer, and then shares insights from different individuals. I didn’t feel that a lot of explanation or amplification was needed on these.

 

1. Prayer is not a religious ritual.

“Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth, but from falling in love.” (Richard Foster)

“I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming.” (George Mueller)

“Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could do nothing.” (Charles G. Finney)

“Beloved, it is not our long prayers but our believing God that gets the answer.” (John G. Lake)

“There is no need to get to a place of prayer; pray wherever you are.” (Oswald Chambers)

2. Prayer is not a one-way conversation.

“God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him.” (John Stott)

“The true spirit of prayer is no other than God’s own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints. And as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings and pantings. It naturally leads to God, to converse with him by prayer.”
(Jonathan Edwards)

Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

3. Prayer is not a matter of talking an unwilling God into doing what you want Him to do.

“Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness.”
(Phillips Brooks)

“Prayer is not a means by which I seek to control God; it is a means of putting myself in a position where God can control me.” (Charles L. Allen)

“A sinning man will stop praying. A praying man will stop sinning.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

“I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Remember, we don’t pray to change God. Prayer allows God to change me.

4. Prayer is not a substitute for action.

“Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.” (A.W. Tozer)

“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” (Frederick Douglass)

“We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism…To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!” (C.T. Studd)

5. Prayer is not informing God about things He didn’t know.

“Prayer is not designed to inform God, but… to humble man’s heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, and to raise his soul from earth to heaven.” (Adam Clarke)

6. Prayer is not an exercise is hyper-technical precision.

Some get excessively concerned about technicalities when they pray. Granted, we want to pray accurately, according to the truth of Scripture, and according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. But people can get so caught up in hyper-technicalities that they get off track when it comes to simply trusting God.

• Was I binding when I should have been loosing?
• Was I interceding when I should have been supplicating?
• Was I praying to the Father when I should have been talking to Jesus?

As Corrie Ten Boom said, “Nestle, don’t wrestle.” The simplicity of David’s faith is expressed beautifully in Psalm 131:1-2 (NLT): “I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

7. Prayer is not a peripheral activity of the church.

“Prayer is not just getting ready for Christian service. Prayer is Christian service.”
(Adrian Rodgers)

“It is obvious that Paul did not regard prayer as supplemental, but as fundamental—not something to be added to his work but the very matrix out of which his work was born. He was a man of action because he was a man of prayer. It was probably his prayer even more than his preaching that produced the kind of leaders we meet in his letters.” (Oswald Sanders, from Dynamic Spiritual Leadership)

“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” (Charles Spurgeon)

“You could remove the powerful preaching from our church and it would still continue. You could remove the administration of pastoral care through the cell group system and the church would still continue. But if you remove the prayer life of our church it would collapse.” (David Yonggi Cho)

May your walk with Him will be rich and sweet!

By: Tony Cook

Often times people feel a sense of emptiness when they pray, like your prayers are not heard or you didn’t do it right. You can’t concentrate or you easily get distracted. I can help! Check this out! 

 

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Why Are You Offended

March 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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When You Take Offense At Someone, Your Spiritual Walk Is Immediately Crippled


Why Are You Offended

by Olga Hermans

 

Talking you into offense is a major strategy satan uses to get you dig up the Word seed. When the Word is in your heart, satan has no authority to get it out himself. He has to convince you to cast the Word out of your heart. If he can get you offended, you will destroy your own harvest. When you choose to become offended, you stumble and make false steps in life.

The Amplified Bible gives a good illustration of this concerning those who have stony-ground heart: And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy; And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away. Mar 4:16-17

When a person chooses to take offense, immediately his spiritual walk begins to wither away. The flow of life from his spirit begins to ebb and he begins to dry up inside. The Amplified says “they stumble and fall away”. Becoming offended is a stumbling block.

We never, ever should be drying up on the inside. We are believers! We have the Word. Psalm 119:165 says, “Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them.” As we continually feed our spirits with the Word and keep our roots strong and established, we gain spiritual strength we need to avoid the enemy’s strategy of offense altogether.

Don’t allow offense in your life.

The basic problem with stony ground is that the Word is not rooted because the soil is shallow and full of rocks. Sometimes people get turned on to the Word of God and put it into motion in their lives. But six weeks later – when they don’t see any difference in their situation – they become offended. Nothing has happened. No results. No return. No increase.

We have to be willing to make a stand that the Word of God is true, regardless of how things look and no matter how long it takes to manifest in the natural realm. A lot of times it doesn’t happen because as soon as we want it to and the number one reason why it doesn’t happen sooner is not God – it’s you and me.

Maybe you think, it’s been six weeks since I started believing for my healing and I can’t tell any difference in my body. God must not have heard me. He must not care anything about me.

Be careful! You are offended and you are thinking like stony ground. Don’t let the devil talk you into being offended at God. God is never your problem.

If things are not going right in your lives, we have to look at what we are doing. It is a total waste of time to blame it on God. He is full of compassion. He is always right and he is always good. He always wants the best for us.

When the devil can’t cause us to take offense at God, he tries to cause us to become offended at our pastor who taught us the Word. The enemy whispers thoughts to our minds like, your pastor doesn’t preach right! What he said doesn’t work. That was all just talk!

If you don’t take offense at your pastor, the devil will then try to offend you through your spouse, your children, your neighbor, or your friends – anyone he can find! He wants to get you under his control again so he can put you back into poverty, bondage and sickness. He knows that strife, envy and offense are bog open doors he can walk through to take over your life.

But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Jas 3:14-16

You see, when you take offense at someone, your spiritual walk is immediately crippled. Your faith won’t work, because faith works by love Gal.5:6. No matter what anyone does to you, it’s never all right for you to be offended, you are wrong! Choose to not give offense a place to start. When you get out of love, immediately repent and make it right. Choose to stay on fire for God and to stay in the Word.

We have to start making the right choices; choices that lead us to the life that God has promised, us filled with blessings. We have the power to choose wisely; satan has NO power over us.

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How To Have A Relationship With God

March 13, 2011 by 4 Comments
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How To Have A Relationship With God


God has a desire for a relationship with us. It is good to focus on God’s desire for a relationship as supposed taking it from the perspective of “I am going for God, I am going after God.” I heard a great sermon form Pastor George Pearsons of Eagle Mountain International Church about how to have a relationship With God; he said that God had challenged him to look at the perspective of how much God desires to have a relationship with us. God wants us to see His side of the fellowship. That is a different point of view on how to build a relationship with God.

So often we have a perspective of God sitting on the throne in that huge authoritative way and that we are the ones  always approaching Him . We even might have a Wizard of Oz perspective on what God is all about.

Do you remember the moment when Dorothy and the Tin Man (Haley) and all the rest came up into the castle? When they went into the throne room they were looking at that fire that was came out of there and heard: “don’t come near the fire”. Of course they were standing there shaking. I think that is sometimes the perspective that people have of God, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or subconsciously that we have that attitude towards God.

There is a place where the Lord is saying to us: “I want you to come this time from the perspective of my passion for you, my hunger for you, my desire for you.” God wants to have a sweet communion with us.

Unfortunately there is too often that sense of unworthiness. We think that we are not worthy to have that, but that’s why we are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

The universe was created to cradle this earth. The entire universe was made in order to place this earth there. Te earth was created by God for men, for us. And we were created by God for fellowship with Him.

Do you remember the moment when Dorothy and the Tin Man (Haley) and all the rest came up into the castle, when they went into the throne room they were looking at that fire that was came out of there and heard: “don’t come near the fire”. Of course they were standing there shaking. I think that is sometimes the perspective that people have of God, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or subconsciously that we have that perspective of God.

In our own development of our own passion that we have towards God we should learn of the passion that God has for us. The greatest thing that God has in the entire universe is fellowshipping with us. That is quite a thought isn’t it? He wants to have koinonia with us. We have been called in this close companionship, this sweet communion. He wants that intimate relationship, He wants a personal friendship.

The more we realize His passion to have a deeper relationship with us, the more we will experience our greater desire to have a deeper relationship with Him. The more you know that He wants you, the more you will want Him. The more you understand the pursuit that God has. It is the best approach on building a relationship with God.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life in psalm 23. The word “follow” here means “to chase after, to run after and to pursuit.” Surely, God in the form of goodness and mercy is after you and pursuing you. HE LIKES YOU!

Even if you don’t have a full understanding about the word “LOVE”; it might help you to define your relationship with God even more. It is really something when somebody comes up to you and says “I like you”. It builds you up and it is very encouraging. It should have the same impact when they tell you, that they love you.

You have to get that understanding down on the inside of you that God likes you! All sense of unworthiness will dissipate and disappear the more you know how much He likes you and how much He wants to spend time with you. It is really something when you know that somebody wants to spend time with you.

You know, I love to spend time with my family and even more with my husband and when I am not really sure that he wants to spend time with me for some reason; I am disappointed. But God always wants to spend time with us, always! He has so many things He wants to talk to us about. That motivates you spend time with somebody. Knowing that God longs to spend time with you is the key on how to have a relationship with God.

It’s up to our choices, we have the opportunity to choose to give our attention to Him and be with Him. Psalm 46 says Be still and know that I am God. To listen in His presence to things that He wants to tell us; one of the things is that when we tell Him how much we love Him and be still before Him to hear Him say “I love you too.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Woman’s Guide to Health

March 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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A Woman’s Guide to Being Her Best

Every woman wants to look and feel her best, no matter what her age. Whether she’s a 20-year-old college co-ed, or a

We Need To Understand How Our Bodies Change @ Every Age

55-year-old first-time grandmother, a woman wants–and needs–to be operating at peak capacity physically, mentally, and emotionally. The question is, how? In the newly released book, The Women’s Health Diet, (Copyright © Rodale, 2011) by Steve Perrine, with Leah Flickinger and the editors of Women’s Health, readers are told that the best way to accomplish this goal is to give well deserved attention to their personal health, nutrition, and fitness.

In addition, readers are encouraged to understand how their bodies change over the first few decades of adulthood, and learn how to anticipate these physiological shifts in order to adjust their health and fitness routines to better meet their changing needs. [Read more…]

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The Supernatural Power Of God

March 11, 2011 by 5 Comments
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The Supernatural Power Of God

by Olga Hermans

 

Do you have conversations with your spouse or your friend about the lack in your household? Let’s make an effort to stop that! You should stop right in the middle of that conversation and look at each other and say: “God is our Source.”

He is your supernatural provider and that supernatural provision is above and beyond where that provision comes from. It comes from a higher place. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights, from above.

Have you ever wondered where all those quail came from in the Old Testament? It came from heaven; God was the provider. They ate quail every day! What about the manna? That also came from our supernatural provider. One of the names of the father is Jehovah Jireh and that means that He is the supernatural provider. SUPERNATURAL!

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. Gen 22:7-8. There is Jehovah Jireh that provides for Himself what we need. Wow!

It is supernatural that means that you cannot find it in the natural. We cannot explain where it comes from; we should try to explain where it comes from. The supernatural can be described in Eph.3:20: it is the exceeding abundantly above all that we [dare] ask or think. It is God at Work.

The Holy Spirit can untangle any mess that you have gotten into financially. He has done it for many people and He wants to do it for everybody. God is not a respecter of people. God is able to remove supernaturally what is owed and provide supernaturally what you need. That is what happened to Abraham. Abraham said: “My son, God will provide himself a lamb”.

We have to say that to each other: “God will provide” to your spouse, your children and to yourself. “God will provide!” When it looks like it is impossible the supernatural provider will provide in the midst of the impossibility.

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. Gen 22:9-14

That is what you need to do: lift up your eyes! We have to lift up our eyes of our faith. Every time you have a thought of “what am I going to do?” replace it with “the Lord will provide”. Or “what is going to happen to us” renew your mind with ““the Lord will provide”.

He is your supernatural provider and He lives on the inside of you. We have the debt canceller living on the inside us. Luk 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord, which is the year of God’s debt release. He said, this is fulfilled in your ears right now.

You and I are in a strong position; you might look at your bank account and be thinking that you’re doomed. The truth is that you are not, not when you have the provider living on the inside of you. You are in a strong position!

In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. How does that speak to you and me today? Whatever we need shall be seen! God will manifest.
When you make a choice to believe and say out loud “I choose to believe” and you release your faith and not waver, not back of, of what you believe; God will come through for you.

Let’s close this post with this scripture: God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through? Num 23:19 He will carry through what He promised.

If you have a testimony to tell or something else that you like to add; I would love to hear from you!

 

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In Your Presence

March 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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The following prophecy was given through Pastor Lynne Hammond on March 9, 1995 at Living Word Christian Center:

Now, you must let the wind of God blow. You must turn your face into the wind where the breath of God is sweeter and

where His brightest glory shines. Let us sing that now. Just open your heart to God and really mean that when you sing it. (Spirit of the Living God)

It’s Your presence Lord. It has always been Father, Your presence that we have sought and yearned for in our spirits, because, Lord, You have created us that way. When we were born again, the very breath of God that recreated us in Christ Jesus, when that breath was breathed upon us, there was a presence that came with that breath and because of that presence You made us to still yearn for it and so our spirit man, it does, it does cry out to God for it. Jesus, Jesus. Spirit of the Living God fall afresh and renew us. Revive us oh Lord. Revive us through Your plan and Your will Lord. (Tongues) Oh, Lord. Fill us Lord and then use us Father, because that was always Your great plan Father God. That was it right there. That we would be melted in Your presence and we would be molded by Your touch and by Your hand. That we would be so filled with You Lord. And that we would move out in Your great plan. That was it, Lord, all along. Thank you Lord Jesus. (Tongues)

“For have I not spoken unto you plainly, year after year, as My own children? Jesus. That the very inheritance of Mine, My very inheritance is in you and it is nothing less than the Spirit of Christ. God, (tongues) oh, the Spirit of Christ coming to live in His fullness. Coming to live in His completeness, so that He would be manifest to the world. Jesus. The Father’s inheritance shining through You because You have become single-minded to His glory and because You were void of offense.”

“Did I not tell you, has it not been written, and you have heard with your ears and know in your heart that you are written epistles to be read by men that even when they didn’t know and the wondering ones that never heard the Word preached or never seen it on written paper before? But they would see you and He would read Me and they would see the Living Christ loosed. And they made free.”

“And did you not know, and did you not read and did you not see when I spoke to Ephesus who stood on the highest pinnacle of knowledge of their day? And I gave them prayers to pray. And those prayers at that hour that they were prayed were registered in Heaven. And those prayers spoke of the hope of your calling and of My inheritance in you. Did you not know who,” saith the Lord, “that as much as you have inherited the cross, as much as you have inherited redemption in all of its works, as much as you have inherited healing and salvation and prosperity, did you not know that now you have inherited places to walk in? Access to My courts?” Jesus. Oh, Lord. And all that I have belongs to you.

“So whatever shackle or whatever prison would try and hold you and bind you. Whatever tomb of life would try to hold you like it tried to hold Lazarus in a death realm. It could be shaken off right now if you look unto Me. Because you are a part of a very great move and soon you will realize that you are in such cooperation with Me. Soon you are going to realize that this is a plan much bigger than thee and this,” saith the Lord, “is not an organization but this is a living, moving organism of God and it has come in the person of Jesus.” Hallelujah.

“For you know, I don’t have any hands, except your hands. I don’t have a voice except your voice. Jesus. And I don’t have feet except your feet, that is why I said how beautiful they were for you are My body in action. Hallelujah Jesus. I can hear a ringing in glory now. I hear a ringing of Heaven today and there the Spirit of the Lord would say the cross came out of mocking and jeering and sneering and a sip of vinegar and thorns upon a brow, but Pentecost came with a very great cry and I hear the cry and the cry was, it is finished, it is finished, it is finished rings in all of Heaven. It is finished and so now that it is finished, rise in the resurrection power, rise in the mark of the Holy Ghost, rise in the catch of My power and go forth to an inhabited world.” Thank you Father. Glory. Hallelujah. Thank you Father.

A scripture is coming to me. Hallelujah. This is a different prayer meeting. Father I am praying now that You would grant us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation, of insight into the mysteries, the secrets and deep intimate knowledge of You. Oh God, You open our eyes, the eyes of our heart and You flood it Lord with light so that we can really know Father and we can really understand the hope, the hope in You, the hope in You. The hope that is in You which You have called us to and how rich is his glorious inheritance in the saints. He has set apart ones so that we can know Father and we can understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of Your power in and for us who believe as demonstrated in the working of his mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in Heavenly places far above, far above Lord. All rule and power and dominion in every name that is named. Above every title that can be conferred not only in this age and in the world, but also in the age in the world which is to come and that you, oh Lord, through Jesus, has put all things under His feet and You have appointed Him the universal and supreme head of the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all for in that body lives the full measure of Him who makes everything complete and who fills everything, everywhere with Himself. Hallelujah.

“And you were put in the earth today to be a fruitful position in God. If you would say, ‘What is my calling? What am I called to do?’ Bear fruit, here in is the Father glorified. For you see, I love to take weak frailty and manifest Myself to them and make an oracle of Myself.”

“Stop, stop questioning your position. Stop wondering for the disciples you know, they were flesh just like you, yet I,” saith the Lord, “joined them to Myself. Impulsive Peter, what a different spirit. Peculiar Thomas, with His defiant ways. I loved it,” saith the Lord. “I loved it. I loved for Heaven to touch them. I loved to be the Potter with the clay. I loved it because one touch of the Master changes everything. One touch of the Master. One touch of resurrection power changes it all.”

“And so it is that you are marked by Me and you have been marked all along for a time you see and so the hour has come.” Glory. So Jesus, you be Jesus in us. Father, help us to so decrease that You, oh God can increase. You are the resurrection power, and I believe with all of my heart that You are filling us this hour. Thank you Father. Jesus, be Jesus in me. Don’t let it any longer be me, but just You Lord, just You, just You oh God. Resurrection power. (Song – Jesus be Jesus)

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The Art Of Resolving Conflicts (Part 3)

March 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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Unresolved Issues In Your Life Need To Come Under The Control Of The Holy Spirit

The Art Of Resolving Conflicts (Part 3)

by Olga Hermans

 

Unresolved issues in your life need to come under the control of the Holy Spirit. We live in a world right now where there is fear, intimidation and abuse going on. We as Christians, if Christ is in us, should have the Holy Spirit working at something all the time ; that way we grow from Glory to Glory and become more like Him. He will change us when He really has Lordship in our lives.

Do you remember Lee Harvey Oswald who killed President Kennedy? His father died when he was born, his mother couldn’t handle him or his brother so she put them into an orphanage. Then she remarried and got them out , but the man that she remarried divorced her again. Lee Harvey Oswald was really a troubled child at school; kids would tease him and boys would beat him up. When he was 17 he joined the marines;  he was abused when he was in the military and then, at one point, dishonorably discharged. He moved to the Soviet Union and thought to become a citizen but they didn’t want him and was not allowed to become a Russian citizen, then he went back to the United States. One thing that he was good at was his guns. So, because of all his emotional issues that never got resolved, he ended up killing president Kennedy.

Next is an opposite story.

During the Korean War, a South Korean Christian, a civilian, was arrested by the communists and ordered shot. But when the young communist leader learned that the prisoner was in charge of an orphanage caring for small children, he decided to spare him and kill his son instead. So they shot the nineteen-year-old boy in the presence of his father.

Later the fortunes of war changed, and the young communist leader was captured by the United Nations forces, tried, and condemned to death. But before the sentence could be carried out, the Christian whose boy had been killed pleaded for the life of the killer. He declared that he was young, that he really did not know what he was doing. “Give him to me,” said the father, “and I’ll train him.”

The United Nations forces granted the request, and that father took the murderer of his boy into his own home and cared for him. Today the Young Communist is a Christian Pastor.
Just the opposite of what had happened with lee Harvey Oswald. You can take a troubled teenager that has been rejected by society and bring change into that life. If we can reach children at a young age; we can save them from becoming like Lee Harvey Oswald.  If we can reach them with the love of Jesus; their conscious will work in their hearts. Even when they get pulled in by the gangs, that they will be pulled back, because that conscious, that voice will be there to talk to them and draw them back.

How do you resolve conflicts?

First of all, don’t avoid it. King David avoided it; he avoided talking to his son Absalom. The scripture tells us that Absalom had killed his brother, because his brother had killed his distant brother so to say and he had raped his sister. He was mad. Instead of correcting it before he had killed his brother, David never corrected it. He just said something like “you should never have done that”.

Absalom took it in his own hands, he killed his own brother and then he fled the country. David then lost his son that died and now he had lost a son that had run away. David was grieving on the inside for his son, but he didn’t want to ask him to come back. Somebody addressed him on it and he ends up letting his son Absalom come back. After David gets him close to his home; he won’t talk to him. He just didn’t say one word to him.

All this is working on the inside of Absalom who is handsome and has a charismatic personality. He goes after the people, he decides to go after his father’s kingdom. He starts talking to the people, he is getting a group around him and then he begins to revolt and tries to take the kingdom from his father. His father had to leave his throne and Jerusalem for a season. Absalom got killed and David returned back to his throne. The sad thing is that, that relationship never got healed; never got reconciled.

Don’t avoid, don’t ignore a relationship conflict at an early stage when you know that if you don’t deal with it then; it could evolve into something worse and that would affect a lot of different people in a negative way.

Then when you do want to resolve a conflict, be humble. Prov.15:1 says: “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger”. So, be humble, you want God to sow mercy into your life. I can guarantee you when you sow mercy into somebody else’s life you will reap mercy. When you end up somewhere messing up your own life, you will receive mercy yourself. But when you are hard on people, than you will receive that people be hard on you when you fail, when you miss it.

So, don’t ignore the issue; be humble, share the conflict that you have experienced with this person in a kind way and not in a condemning way. When you have talked, allow them to talk and listen. Be willing to admit your own failure in the conflict, if you have done something wrong, even if it is a just little. Tell them that you apologize, tell them that you don’t want to have this conflict.

Phil.2:3 says: “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”

Make the choice and decide to go into the conversation to keep the peace of God, reconciling with each other and pray for one another. Even when the conversation comes to an end and you’re not totally in agreement; decide to agree to disagree with one another. But make a decision that you come to a place of peace, where you are able to be at peace with that other person. Pray for the other person and pray for yourself.

Let God’s Holy Spirit take control in that situation to turn it around and  let God change you. If you leave a conflict and you are not changed, then that thing can happen all over again. Make a decision and say: ”God, change me, if there are things in my life that create conflict with other people, I open my heart to You that You can show me and that You can change me.”

Here is a story of a man that was reached by Victory Christian Center in  a McAllister prison, Oklahoma years ago, he made it right with God before he stepped into eternity.

John Duty was executed in December 2010; his last statement was: ”If God can change me, He can change anybody.” Can God forgive? God can forgive where there is a broken heart. A heart that is been broken up before Him, a heart that humbly says “forgive me Lord, I am a sinner, I was wrong and I ask You to forgive me.”

John Duty’s testimony is a tough one, but I want you to know something. The grace of God changed John’s life before he left this earth and I believe that the grace of God can change any life. If we humble ourselves, then God can change us and if we repent and if we let Jesus work in our lives.

“Repentance occurs when our hearts and minds are awakened to God’s glorious potential for our lives.” Tony Cooke

Prayer for Salvation
God in Heaven, I come to You in the name of Your Son, Jesus. I confess that I haven’t lived my life for You. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that He died on the cross and rose again from the dead so I might have a better life now and eternal life in heaven. Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. From this day forward, I’ll live my life for You to the best of my ability. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

 

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4 Causes For Conflict (Part 2)

March 9, 2011 by 1 Comment
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4 Causes For Conflict (Part 2)

by Olga Hermans

 

When you really think about how diverse our society, our communities, our neighborhoods and sometimes even our families are. There are so many people with different backgrounds and cultures around us with different perspectives and approaches to life, it shouldn’t surprise us that we have many opportunities for conflict and that it becomes a part of our life.

Let’s have a look at some examples out of the bible and see what is most important to our conflicts. We can make a choice and let God work on the inside of us so that that particular conflict will not come back any more because it is dissolved by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How does conflict begin? There are several reasons why conflict and strife happens:

1. Different Personalities.
When people with different personalities come together, conflicts can happen. You might have heard somebody say about another person sometimes that people are prophetic motivated and come across really strong, others are mercy motivated or teaching motivated. Never let you personality be a copout for what God wants to do in changing your life.

I don’t want people to say “that’s just Olga”. Because if that is the fact I have settled into being the way I am and not willing to be changed. Until Jesus returns I need to be willing to be changed from Glory to Glory. I can continue in my personality but I have to let my personality to be tempered by the work of the Holy Spirit.

2. Different backgrounds.
Conflicts happen because of different backgrounds. In Numbers 12: Miriam and Aaron was Moses’ older brother and sister, Moses married a woman not of his race. Miriam addressed it because she didn’t think it was right. There was conflict over an interracial marriage and not only that, but there was a conflict because Miriam said: “does God just only speak to you only? God speaks to me and Aaron too.”

There was a conflict of respect in leadership. Moses didn’t want to argue with her and said: “just let God decide in this conflict.” He took a humble position in it. Miriam got leprosy and she was put outside of the camp. Her attitude ended up separating her from the people that she was called to be with and that she loved. Her attitude separated her. Aaron wanted Moses to pray for her because Miriam was their sister. Moses did that, he interceded for her, Miriam was healed and she came back into the camp.

I can guarantee you that Miriam never had that problem again.

3. Lack of communication.
Lack of communication can cause conflict; this is a biggie! Conflict comes when one doesn’t tell something to the other party that they need to know, when the moment arises that one of the two finds out that he/she doesn’t know about a certain issue or situation. Lack of communication can create a lot of conflict.

Prov.13:17 say: reliable communication can permit progress. Frustration ends where communication begins. That is very good statement that you can use in every relationship. When we do not communicate, people get frustrated. They don’t know what to do or they are not prepared to do something.
Another thing that can really frustrate is “selective communication”. People only give you what they want you to know. Luke 12:2 says that the hidden things will be revealed.

People can hide things, but ultimately it gets exposed. After a while people get sloppy and they reveal themselves. I have seen people cheating on their spouse and after a while it gets revealed. God wants us to have relationships where we are hiding things and there is an honesty and openness.

How you communicate is as important as the communication itself. You have to choose to communicate in the love of God, because what you sow you are going to reap. Choose to communicate with humility and with mercy filled with the love of God

4. Jealousy and Resentment.
Jealousy and Resentment can create conflict. James 3:16 says “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work”. Strife means self seeking ambition, more concerned about yourself and fulfillment of your own wants and desires than meeting the needs of other people.

When there is jealousy, resentment or there is strife; there is confusion. Strife creates a conflict but it also causes confusion in the person.

Genesis 4 tells us about the first conflict between of Cain and Able. They were brothers. God had already given Adam and Eve and their family a way of approaching Him. They had to bring a blood sacrifice; the blood of an animal in order to approach Him. Why? The blood would cover their sin to come into the presence of God.

Cain brought the first fruits of his hands, of his work. Have you ever asked yourself why God didn’t accept his offering? God rejected his offering because God had already given them the way to approach Him was a blood offering. Because ultimately God knew that He was going to send his Son to be the blood offering for our sins, to cleanse our sins so that we can come boldly into the presence of God and if we think we can come with our works to be saved. Then we are missing it, because our works cannot save us. Only the blood of Jesus can save you from your sin.

That doesn’t mean that your works don’t make any difference. Our works do make a difference, because after we are saved Paul tells us that we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that God now is at work in you to help you. Faith without works or corresponding actions is dead.

Cain brought his offering because he wanted God to confirm his works. It is not works that affirm us before God; it is our humility where we come before God and say: “God, I need you and I offer myself to you. I ask you to cleanse me from my sins so that I can come boldly into your throne of grace.

The conflict was resentment and jealousy on Cain’s part. He killed Abel, because his jealousy ate at him.

We have to let deal with our conflicts on the inside of us. Emotional issues that never get resolved cause conflict. There are children that grow up in homes where there is abuse, control, manipulation, screaming and yelling, harsh words, cursing and critical words that go on. Parents think that it doesn’t matter, but they are creating a time bomb.

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How To Resolve Conflicts

March 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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How To Resolve Conflicts

How To Resolve Conflicts

by Olga Hermans

 

Wherever we are, whatever we do; anywhere we are together with people, we have opportunity for conflicts. We have a choice to make whether we choose to resolve the conflict or we suppress the issue and go on. It is very imperative that we know how to resolve conflict in relationships, how to resolve conflict in marriage, what are causes of conflict. It is a very important for our own good that we know what to do in the middle of a conflict.

Jesus called us in Matthew 5:9 to be peacemakers. He said “blessed are the peacemakers”, the reward is that people will call you a Christian! So, if you are not a peacemaker, I guess the opposite is true and they won’t call you a Christian.

It says: “you are called the children of God”; that means that you are identified by the world. The world wants to see a difference in us; in our behavior as well as in our words! Hebr.12:14-15 says “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to causes trouble and defile many”. NIV We have to choose to make an effort!

When we get born again and we surrender our hearts to Jesus; we have peace with God and that is an awesome feeling. I remember that feeling very well, it was an overwhelming feeling. After that many of us come to realization though that we are not always that peaceful person that we thought salvation would bring with it.  We know that Christ is in us; He is the prince of Peace and he should be governing our life. But there have been times that we have been out of peace.

But he says “make every effort”. You have to make an effort to be a peaceful person, because peace doesn’t just happen just because you got saved. You still have to do something; you still have to make the effort to live at peace.

Be at peace with all men means your spouse, your family, your church and the people you work with. Wherever you are, strangers; you are a peacemaker. You try to create peace wherever you go.

And be holy! This is the part that many people would like to erase out of their bible: “without holiness no one will see the Lord”. People like to just get rid of that. They just like to go with the fact “God loves me and that’s all I need”. But the bible says that without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to causes trouble and defile many.

How do you miss the grace of God? When you choose not to submit to the Lord and allow Him to work in your life. You miss His grace that enables you to work through things and you miss His grace that forgives you if you hold on to unforgiveness. Because you are resisting God; God resists the proud because they are resisting Him.

And without holiness no one will see the Lord. 2Cor.7:1 says:” Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God”. What does that mean? You see, the blood of Jesus cleanses you from your sin when you release your faith in God. But in the verse he says that you have to separate yourself from immorality unto God. You have to make a choice and make a decision to cut that off from your life and not to do certain things any more.

For instance when people are living together before they are married, they stop that and make a choice to not do that anymore. They get saved and the light goes on and they know that that is something they want to take out of their lives.

He says: “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit”. What is the spirit part? The spirit part is what is on the inside of you like wrong attitudes, anger issues, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentness, jealousy, pride; those are all inside. That is filthiness of the spirit. You have to get rid of all that stuff. You have to choose your holy direction for your life.

So, you have to choose to make the effort to live in peace with all men and to live holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God. So, obviously you can miss the grace of God even after you are born again.

Peace in the Greek “Irene” means wholeness, completeness, tranquility in the soul that is unaffected by outward circumstances or pressures. People who live at peace are people that have an inner security that comes from their relationship with Jesus Christ; no matter what is happening around them.
Holiness means consecration to God; keeping something you value as precious to you and to God.

When you make a choice that you are going to live in that Holy direction of your heart with God then you see your relationship with God as something more precious than that lust over there. You see your relationship with God as something valuable. You are thinking of eternity; you are not just thinking of the moment.

When you are at peace; you are free from mental conflict and disturbance. When you have peace, you have harmony. There is peace on the inside and harmony with God and there is harmony with you and people.

Col.3:15 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. Msg.
Ampl says: And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts; where Christ is the umpire and continually calling the calls in your life. Let the peace of God keep you in tune with one another.

The Glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea through people. People! 2Cor.3:18 says “as we behold the image of Him”. How do we behold the image of God? In The Word, when you open up your Bible, it is a mirror to you. When you behold the image of Him; you will be transformed from Glory to Glory. God doesn’t want you to stay at the place where you got saved; He wants you to progress. He wants His Glory to be seen in your life.

He doesn’t want us to be just satisfied. He wants us to yearn for Him and tell Him that we want to be changed so that His Glory can fill your temple that the Glory of God can flow through us towards other people that are around us, that the Glory of God can be revealed through our lives, through us being healed or other miracles.

You see, God wants His Glory to be seen. It can’t be seen when we choose to walk in our own lust or that we choose to go in our direction instead of His divine direction.

We live in a world right now where there is conflict in the nations of the world, governmentally. There is conflict right now in homes and marriages. If you watch the news you will see a lot of conflict on a regular basis. There is an intensifying of the enemy as well as there is an intensifying of God in the day that we are living in.

There is that spirit of conflict and strife that we have to be aware of, so that we do not enter into that direction of that spirit and that we say: “The spirit of God lives in me, it is greater than my problems and I am going to choose to submit to the spirit of God, I am not letting those spirits that are in the world around us influence me”.

Until Jesus returns we need to be willing to be changed from Glory to Glory. When we make a powerful choice to be changed on the inside by God, we will experience that that is the only way to resolve our issues. God loves us so much that He doesn’t want us to stay the same. I want to encourage you to come back tomorrow for part 2 and you will gain even more insight on how to resolve conflicts.

See you tomorrow:
Olga

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Acceptance or Rejection

March 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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Acceptance Or Rejection

Acceptance or Rejection

by Olga Hermans

 

When we choose to reject ourselves, we should understand that rejecting ourselves does not change us. It actually multiplies our problems. Have you ever thought why we as humans reject ourselves? Isn’t it the most foolish and thoughtless thing to do? We reject ourselves and then we run after people and beg them more or less to accept us; such contradiction.

Acceptance causes us to face reality and then begin to deal with it. We cannot deal with anything as long as we are refusing to accept it or denying its reality.

Webster’s defines accept as “1. To receive (something offered) willingly 2.a.To consider as usual, proper or right b. To consider as true.”

We have to engage our will to make the right choices. Wouldn’t you say that rejecting ourselves causes death to come into our lives? If I like to apply this definition to self-acceptance, I see that I can choose or not choose to accept myself as I am, but I have a free will and can refuse to do so if I choose.

People who reject themselves do so because they cannot see themselves as proper or right. They only see their flaws and weaknesses, not their beauty and strength. This is a very unbalanced attitude, one that was probably instilled by authority figures in the past who majored on what was weak and wrong rather than on what was strong and right.

The word acceptance from the same dictionary is defined in part as “approval” and “agreement.” If we have problems accepting ourselves as we are, I suggest that we need to get into agreement with God that what He created is good and that includes us.

In Amos 3:3 we read, Do two walk together except they make an appointment and have agreed? To walk with God, we must agree with God. He says He loves us and accepts us; therefore, if we agree with Him, we can no longer hate and reject ourselves.

We need to agree with God that when He created us, He created something good.

Once again let me emphasize that I realize everything we do is not good, but at this point we are discussing ourselves, not our behavior.

Rejection is a mean spirit. You know, satan was rejected by God when pride came all over him. God rejected him out of heaven. The very essence of sin is rejection. Rejection is etched into the cells of the human mind. The disease of the devil has spread to every person born on the earth until He Who was perfect was born of God; Jesus Christ. He wants to make sure that we feel rejected by God; if we feel rejected by God, we reject God isn’t it? Well, that’s his plan. If we feel rejected by God; we want to reject ourselves.

The fact is that everyone on this planet has been forced to experience the painful consequences of what happened in an uncounted eon far from here and long ago.

Maybe you are in a place right now where you feel rejected. You see the things in yourself that need to be changed and it is very difficult for you to think or say, “I accept myself.” You feel that to do so would be to accept all that is wrong with you, but that is not the case.

I personally don’t believe we can even begin the process of change until this issue is settled in our individual lives. I, myself have been dealing with rejection for a very long time. One of the things that I would recommend is to sit in the presence of God and tell Him what is going on. Be honest and open to God. Choose to acknowledge the thoughts that He has for you; He loves you no matter what you do or have done. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less or anymore; only to receive that He loves us no matter what we do.

By making this choice to accept God for who He is and accept yourself step by step for who you are; it is a wonderful process, really. It is such a blessing to experience a change in yourself that only God could have done. Choose to say: “I accept myself.” There you go! Say it many times a day! Make the choice!
Remember, God loves you!

Source: How to Succeed at Being Yourself by Joyce Meyer

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