Confession of Faith

Confession of Faith

 

According to Phil. 1:6, I let the communication of my faith become effectual by me acknowledging every good thing which is in me in Christ Jesus.

I am now releasing my faith by confessing this to be the greatest day of my life. This is the day that the Lord hath made: I will rejoice and be glad in it. I am a recreated being. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. I am created into His glorious image and likeness.

I am His workmanship and am complete in Christ. I am full of His Spirit and divine power. I have the fruit of His Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, temperance and faith. I am humbly submitting myself to the authority of His Holy Word for He and His Word are one.

I am obedient to His commandments and He enlarges my capacity to receive revelation knowledge, wisdom, understanding and ability in all things that pertain to life and godliness.

I am God’s property. I have been bought with the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I am free from the curse of the law. Sin, sickness, poverty, fear, doubt, worry, confusion, and all that Satan represents shall not have dominion over me. I am prospering in my spirit, soul, body and finances, for I am a liberated person.

Jesus said that I would know the truth and the truth would set me free. I am standing fast in the liberty wherein Christ has made me free. I am a disciplined person. I study God’s Word daily. I meditate upon its precepts.

I confess who Christ is, what He has done and what He is doing in and through me now. I am acting upon truths and I am expecting God to meet my needs and to do super abundantly above all I dare ask, hope, dream or desire in every area of my life.

I am a beautiful person full of God’s forgiveness and love. I forgive as God has forgiven me. I love as God has loved me. Therefore, His faith is working in me by love.

I speak directly to every mountain of satanic adversity in my life and command them to go in the Name of Jesus! They cannot stay, they must go in Jesus’ Name!

Through the abundance of God’s grace, I have received the gift of righteousness and am now reigning in this life by Christ Jesus. In Genesis 1:24-31 and Genesis 2:8-15, God has told me what it was that a righteous man was to reign over.

Praise God, I am a righteous person and I’m reigning over God’s creation now. “Christ has been made worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and blessing.” I am now a joint heir with Christ and as He is, so am I in this world.

He has made me worthy to receive all that Jesus represents. Praise God, I am everything that the Word declares that I am. I have communicated my faith by acknowledging every good thing which is in me in Christ Jesus.

I believe my faith is now working effectively and that all of my needs and desires have already been supplied by His riches in glory through Christ Jesus.

I worship with all my heart, soul and strength. I lift up my voice and hands in praise and adoration to His glorious Name for He is worthy of praise and He has made me worthy to praise His Name.

Choose Faith over Fear

Choose Faith over Fear

by Olga Hermans


You know, images of fear are all around us and there is a fear of failure that is trying to get a grip on the hearts of many people. Especially a fear of financial failure with this economy and all the foreclosures that we hear about on the news. People are asking themselves: “what am I going to do?”

We must aggressively take our stand against financial fear and believe that everything is going to be all right. There was a prophetic word that had come forth through Kenneth Copeland in August 2010 that told us that: “Everything is going to be all right in the household of faith”. Don’t feed fear and trouble into your life and into your mouth. No! Quit living in that house. Get back over here in the household of faith. Feed on my Word and not on the bread of sorrow.

“Have no fear of this world. I have overcome it,” saith the Lord. “I left nothing, absolutely nothing, that faith won’t overcome. I left it no power. I left it no strength. It has NO-THING over you.”

Fear and faith are both expectations; faith expects the best and fear expects the worst. What are you expecting? Are you expecting the very best or are you expecting the worst?

Fear is nothing more than a feeling that causes certain manifestations. It may cause us to tremble, turn red or sweat or have shaky knees.

My brother almost always turned as red as a tomato when there was just a little bit of fear in him, when he started to turn red and then he feared that people would see it of course and guess what? He would turn more red and sometimes even sweat. He always felt sooo embarrassed and it really was embarrassing for him. He overcame it though; right now he is a teacher, which means he is standing in front of people and looking them in the eyes and keeping the cool.

Fear is a tactic that the devil uses to hinder your faith and keep you from accomplishing God’s will for your life, but you don’t have to give in. You are delivered from fear. Many people struggle with fear and insecurity. The first step to overcoming fear is to recognize where it comes from.

There are so many references in the Bible that tell us to “fear not”. One particular scripture that stands out is 2Tim. 1:7. If your financial situation worries you, you could say: “I have not been given the spirit of fear over my finances – but of power and love and of a sound mind”.

Faith and fear are magnets; faith is a magnet that draws provision and fear is a magnet that draws lack. That is how it works! I want to encourage you to make the right choice today. Don’t let fear keep you from moving forward in the plan of God for your life. Choose to exhibit faith and boldness and start enjoying the liberating freedom from fear. God has given you freedom to choose.

What would your life look like if you were free from all fear? In Who Switched Off My Brain? Dr. Caroline Leaf says that fear triggers more than 1,400 known physical and chemical responses, and activates more than 30 different hormones and neurotransmitters” and that fear is at the root of all stress.

The fear of failure prevents us from ever trying new things or stretching ourselves to do more than we feel comfortable doing. The fear of the future can cause us not to enjoy today. My sister in law has a fear of flying which prohibits her to discover and enjoy the beautiful places all over the world.

Fear always tells you what you’re not, what you don’t have, what you can’t do, and what you never will be. Remember that Jesus overcame that fear; He left it no power and no strength. It has NO-THING over you. You have to make a choice to be confident and to feel secure; God is on your side!

The devil hates it when we are confident that God is with us, and enabling us to do whatever we need to do in life. Say it out loud: “I will not live in fear”. It really helps when you keep thinking about it before you have to face fear. Make up your mind that you will not bow down to fear. You have already made the decision that you will not be afraid.

Fear is the opposite of faith. We receive from the enemy through fear, and we receive from God though faith. Fear is the enemy’s method of faith; it is his counterfeit. We do God’s will through faith in Him and we work together with the devil through fear. When we are afraid we fail to do what God wants us to do and end up doing what the devil wants us to do.

The enemy is the author of fear, not God. Fear and faith cannot coexist; where you have one, you cannot have the other. You need to choose. Deut.30:19 You have to develop a “zero-tolerance policy” toward any form of fear.

Here is something that you and I can do together; we are going to confess these confessions as long we need them. Here we go!

I refuse to fear.
I am not moved by what I see.
I am not fearful over my financial future.
God is the source of my provision.
He provides cars to drive, food to eat, clothes to wear, places to live and everything else I need in liberal supply.
I am not subject to the times.
I live in the household of faith, not the dungeon of fear.
My household is flourishing and not failing.
Every bill is paid, every need is met and every debt is wiped out.
I walk by faith and not by fear, in the name of Jesus.

I truly believe you will begin to feel different and more confident than ever before. You only have one life to live, so live it boldly and never let fear steal God’s best for you!

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here

The Right Place at The Right Time

The Right Place at The Right Time

by Olga Hermans

 

 

Is there something like that? This is something that I confess many times, that I’ll be in the right place with the right people at the right time, do the right things and that I hear the right thing, because my steps are ordered of the Lord. That is a great confession to make. Could you be in the wrong place at the right time?

There is a place God has designed where opportunities find you, a place where the blessings overtake you. He has a particular place for each one of us, a place where each of us will find our highest purpose, where we will thrive and reflect God’s greatness.

You can tell your place of blessing by how it feels to you. Your senses will tell you, this is where I am supposed to be. I think I mentioned that already once that we played that game with our children when they were young. We would hide something from them and they had to go and find it. We would tell them they were getting warmer and warmer until they would be right there, when we would say “you are red hot”. If they went in the wrong direction, we would say, “You’re getting colder. Now you’re freezing cold!”

I like to encourage you to always move toward the places that feel warm to you, and move away from those that feel cold to you. You can make a choice. Freedom to choose is a gift from God.

God says the same to us as He said to the Israelites: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” Deut.30:19 We can choose our path but we cannot choose the consequences of that path. Those are already established.

In the Old testament, the children of Israel followed the cloud by day and the pillar by night. Sometimes the cloud remained at the same location for two or three months. They camped there until the signs changed. Sometimes, the cloud would move every day for a week. So when they rose each morning, the first thing they had to do was to check the cloud.

I am sure there were times when they wanted to move because they didn’t like the location or they were surrounded by enemies. But the cloud stayed, so they stayed. At other times, I can imagine they would wake up and they saw the cloud moving and didn’t want to move because they like the place where they were.

But they understood very well that their blessing was connected to being at the right place. If they wouldn’t move, they wouldn’t have the food, the supplies and most of all no protection they needed unless they followed the cloud.

They had to do their part and reach their place of blessing so they could enjoy God’s favor. If you miss the signs, whether clouds or pillars of fire, or just a nagging feeling deep inside, you could become trapped in a bad place.

Life is too short to waste time and live with regrets. Follow the signs to your best place. There is a sweet spot for you; when you find it, you will feel a deep sense of purpose and fulfillment. Search your heart and be sensitive to where it might be.

You need to put yourself in position to receive those blessings. If you will stay sensitive and responsive to the signs and those leadings, you will find that God is always talking to you. He is always drawing you into His plan. That’s why I like to encourage you to get in tune with Him every morning through prayer and your Bible reading.

He knows where you need to be. He knows what you need to do each day to stay on track. He knows the plan! Seek Him and you will see it too!

There may be times when you get to a plateau and you don’t seem to be going anywhere. When that happens, it is never God’s fault. He is always ready to help. So when you get to a place like that, just dive into His Word in a greater measure and ask Him to show you where you’ve missed it.

Sometimes we have to step back and regroup. We miss God’s direction now and then. But when you are in the right place, connected to the right person, that’s when God will release great things into your life. Look for the signs in your own life. Be determined to reach that sweet spot, the place of blessing for you. Search your heart. Make sure you are obeying and staying faithful.

Remember, your blessing is connected to being in the right place at the right time. If you make staying in God’s perfect will a priority, God will lead you and guide you. He will pour out His blessings and favor, and you will live that life of victory He has in store for you.

Right now you might be thinking, Well, all that may be true but I haven’t been listening to God and obeying Him. I have been doing my own thing for years and my life is so totally messed up, I don’t think even God can fix it. I think I’ve missed my chance to walk out His plan.

No, you haven’t missed your chance. All you have to do is make a U-turn. I heard someone say the other day, “God allows U-turns.” Instead of running away from Him, run to Him like you would run to somebody you really trust. Start going after Him with all your heart. God can take any life and any situation and turn it around. He lives to do that. He is just waiting for you to give Him the opportunity.

God knows your heart. If it is earnestly turned toward Him, He will immediately start treating you like you have always been obedient and start pumping His goodness into your life.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here

The History of Thanksgiving

 

 

Today, the United States of America celebrates a holiday like no other nation – Thanksgiving Day. Many of our readers are from the United States; I myself have lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 7 years where I learned about this great holiday. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on a different day as some of you may know.

But today I see it as an honor to give room to David Barton with this great article about the history of Thanksgiving. I truly hope you enjoy it as much as I do and you might want to read it to your children and maybe even to your grandchildren. This is history that should not be forgotten and that is the exact reason why I asked Wallbuilders, which is David Barton’s website, if they would allow me to post this article and they said, YES!!

So, please enjoy reading this great article and let us know what you think by placing a comment at the end.

 

The History of Thanksgiving

 by David Barton


This month, America will continue a tradition begun centuries ago: the celebration of a Day of Thanksgiving. The origin of this tradition is commonly attributed to the Pilgrims in 1621, even though some Thanksgiving services did occur elsewhere in America as early as 1607.

While Thanksgiving celebrations became common in New England, they did not begin to spread southward until the American Revolution, when Congress issued eight separate national Thanksgiving Proclamations. Then in 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George Washington, America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to God under its new Constitution.

That same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which President Washington was a member, announced that the first Thursday in November would become its regular day for giving thanks, “unless another day be appointed by the civil authorities.” Yet, despite these early national proclamations, official Thanksgiving observances usually occurred only at the State level.

Much of the credit for the adoption of an annual national Thanksgiving Day may be attributed to Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. For thirty years, she promoted the idea of a national Thanksgiving Day, contacting president after president until President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving.

Over the next seventy-five years, Presidents followed Lincoln’s precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day. Then, in 1941, Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday.

Lincoln’s original 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation came—spiritually speaking—at a pivotal point in his life. During the first week of July of that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000 American lives. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous “Gettysburg Address.”

It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he explained to a friend: When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian.

When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Following is the 1863 Lincoln Thanksgiving Proclamation—celebrated shortly after Lincoln committed his life to Christ and celebrated while America was still in the midst of its Civil War. It was this proclamation which eventually led to the establishment of our national Thanksgiving holiday.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving by the President of the United States of America The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies.

To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of almighty God In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than theretofore.

Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. —Abraham Lincoln

David Barton,
Wallbuilders.com 

The Answer to Your Breakthrough Might Be: Discipline

 

 

The Answer to Your Breakthrough Might Be:

“Discipline”

by Olga Hermans

 

 

 

What does it mean to be disciplined? Discipline can be described as “training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.”

I truly believe a disciplined life is a powerful life. Learning to be disciplined and to practice self-control will keep you from laziness and excess, and will help you stay focused and productive. It will require you to make an effort, but the reward will be worth the work.

Many people enjoy watching American Idol or the Super Bowl or some type of game or contest. We love to see people achieve something, especially when they receive a reward or a gold medal or something. I am not so much into sports, but I like to watch the end of the Super Bowl or the Playoffs. Discipline is the price of freedom.

It is the door to liberation. When we are not disciplined, we become slaves; we fall under the power of things that should have no control over us. For example, when we don’t discipline ourselves to eat healthy, we become slaves to fat, sugars, and other substances that are harmful to our health.

A few weeks ago I decided to not be a slave to caffeine any more. It took discipline to endure the a tremendous headache for a couple of days, but I did it. I grew up with the coffeepot brewing in our kitchen all day long, but I broke the habit and I must say it feels good to be free from it.When we do not discipline ourselves to get enough rest, we become slaves to weariness and we get a murmuring, fault-finding, complaining attitude which we learned last week; remember?

The one thing that I like to discipline myself in is that controlling and ruling my life by the Word of God.
I desire to follow the Word of God in every area of my life, whether in my finances, my relationships or my marriage. Today, November 21st, is our anniversary by the way; I have been married to the love of my life for 31 years! Thank you for all your congratulations. 🙂

But every area in our life needs discipline. Living a disciplined life means that we practice the Word of God on a consistent basis and the only way to do that is by doing what it tells us to do. As a result you will find yourself living right in the middle of God’s blessings. This is the only way to discover the life you were born to live.

It is the only way to live a life without regrets. Right now you might be thinking that being disciplined sounds like a lot of work and YES you are right, because it is. So many times we keep asking ourselves why things are not working as they should and we come to the conclusion that we don’t discipline ourselves to read the Word.

Getting up a little earlier before you get to work takes discipline, consistently every morning to read and pray takes discipline, but the reward is a closer relationship with God and wisdom for making decisions in life.

Taking time to read your Bible every day may seem like a chore at first, but the more you do it, the more revelation, understanding and knowledge you will gain from God’s Word. This will help you renew your mind and live a successful Christian life. There is a price to pay to go to higher levels in God, and discipline is that price.

We need to learn how to live the new life that is given to us the moment we were born again and how to align our thinking with the truth of His Word.

We have to be disciplined about it. God gives us great freedom; He allows us to choose what we want to think, say and do. Discipline is never fun when you are first training yourself to do certain things. Start thinking and saying, “I am a disciplined person and I use self-control.”

Then apply that discipline and self-control to all your thoughts. We need to discipline our mind because our thoughts and emotions can change so quickly. One day we might be calm and reserved, sure of ourselves, and confident in God. Another day, we might be worried, anxious, insecure, and full of doubt.

Our thinking directly affects our emotions. Some decisions seem to be very easy and we seem to make decisions quickly and stick with it, but then there are times that it feels like it is impossible to make decision  even though we try very hard and then we keep changing our mind.

Doubt and fear haunt us and we cannot make up our mind. Many people struggle with this lack of ability to concentrate and make decisions. We can easily feel overwhelmed by all the decisions we need to make daily unless we have the confidence to believe that we have the ability to make the right ones.

But if you will make a quality decision to live a life of discipline, Jesus Christ Himself will help you follow through on what you have decided to do (Phil. 4:13). It is not like you are going to wake up one day and all of a sudden you are disciplined; that ain’t gonna happen!

There is a way to follow God’s rules and living your life in line with the Bible; it takes work and it requires patience as well. It will take a quality decision and a commitment to become a mature Christian. It is fun to grow up spiritually, gain more wisdom and understanding of things; knowing that you are pleasing God and following His ways and not your own.

There is a reward waiting for you. You need to keep your dreams and your vision before you; you need to know where you want to be and what you want to become. This is the time of year that many people are thinking about their goals; set spiritual goals for yourself to give you something to work toward. 2012 is going to be a great year.

Make it easy for yourself to focus on your journey by having a clear destination in sight and it will also help you perfect a life of discipline and diligence.

There is lot of talent lost because people didn’t know how to make a decision. Many people will never see their visions and life purpose manifest because they lack discipline. We don’t want to talk about this critical aspect of life and try to ignore it by focusing on only the spiritual side of reaching our breakthrough.

But the truth of the matter is that you need to be disciplined in every of your life and in your daily habits if you want to discover the life you were born to live. It is impossible without discipline. I encourage you to examine your life and think about the blessings that may be blocked because you fail to discipline yourself in the things of God.

When you realize what it is, decide today to change, and watch God manifest His goodness to you. Becoming disciplined is a part of developing godly character and the very answer to your breakthrough.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here

Joy Stealers; What Is That All About?

Joy Stealers; What Is That All About?

by Olga Hermans

 

 

  In our previous post we talked about the fact that joy is not the same as happiness. Thank you so much for all your emails and comments. I really do appreciate them! A few months ago I watched a service online where Dr. Don Colbert talked about joy stealers.

Just like those happiness traps that we get stuck in, there are also joy stealers. There are attitudes, that when you have them, you will not be able to enter into joy. I always appreciate Dr. Colbert and I follow a lot of his advice, especially this one on joy stealers. That’s why I like to share these with you today.

1. A critical, complaining attitude. If you have a critical, complaining attitude, you can never sow seeds of joy and reap a harvest of joy. You can NEVER do that! Philippians 2:14 says: Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [against God] and questioning and doubting [among yourselves] Not some things, ALL things!

You have to identify this. If you have it or your spouse has it, repent and resist this attitude. We all know how the Israelites grumbled in the desert; they are a great example to us. They had a grumbling, faultfinding and complaining attitude.

They hated the manna that God gave them from heaven every day that had every bit of nourishment in it they needed to live free of disease for years and years. Numbers tells us that there were fiery serpents among them, they bit the people and many of them died. So, the people asked Moses to pray for the Lord to take the serpents out of their midst.

Did the Lord take the serpents away? NO! Here is why: If you are murmuring and complaining, faultfinding; guess what? You are going to be in trial after trial after trial, represented by the many, many snakes. God is not taking the snakes away; you have to deal with it with an attitude of gratitude.

God hates a murmuring, faultfinding, complaining attitude and if you have that attitude; repent, because you will never have joy with that attitude; ever. Here is the 2nd joy-stealer attitude

2. Offense. If you get offended easily, you will never have joy: impossible!

You might think that your situation is much different from any other because nobody can understand what has been done to you. Listen to what Paul said in Acts 24:16 … I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

He exercised to be free of offense, In other words, he worked at it and kept working at it. Every single day! A lot of people keep offense towards God when a loved one died because of a car accident. Do you know what unforgiveness does in the body? It causes the stress response in the body to become stuck.

Just like an accelerator on a car can become stuck, you can get stuck. You stir in your own stress juices and these stress juices were meant to save your life in the short run but they also will destroy your life in the long run when they are stimulated continuously! A chronic stress response is deadly and causes tremendous disease. It is at the root of most diseases.

The main thing that gets people stuck in that stress response is: offense, unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment. Forgiveness is that important! Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Eph 4:31 It says ALL bitterness and ALL anger, ALL rage.

The word ALL is very important. And it says to be kind to one another, tender-hearted and forgiving one another, just as Jesus has forgiven you. You might think that this is not fair. It is not about being fair, it is about being obedient to God’s Word.

God knows that if you don’t do this, it is going to eventually effect your health and it will eventually poison every relationship you are in and it is going to eventually affect your health and destroy your health; mentally, emotionally and it will also affect your relationship with God.

Many people cannot simply feel the presence of God; their prayers are not being answered and that is because they have a spirit of offense. They carry bitterness and they do not release the hurt. Let me tell you, if you don’t forgive them; you are going to pay the price.

Jesus said: If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15 That’s why proverbs says: above all else, guard your heart because out of it flow the issue of life.

We have to guard our heart, we cannot let bitterness in, and we cannot let offense in because it will destroy our joy and we will never be able to plant seeds of joy and have a harvest of joy. You will always wonder, why that other person is so happy and why can I never sense the presence of God? That is because of that poisonous root of bitterness that will always destroy and prevent happiness form taking root.

3. The person with stinking thinking. If you want to discover the life you were born to live, you have to learn how we can clean our thinking up.

Mark Twain said: I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

The majority of bad things we think are going to happen to us, never happen. Phil.2:5 says: “allow this mind to be in you”, which means that we can have the mind of Christ or allow this mind that was in Jesus to be in us, which means we can have the mind of Christ, but we need to get the word of God inside of us and we have to get the trash out.

We sometimes carry too many deadly emotions inside us and “somebody has done me wrong songs”. We have to allow God to change the way we think. Rom.12:2 Dr. Colbert also taught that we have a joy center in the brain, did you know that?

He came up with research after research, very interesting! He is writing a book about it, which will be released sometime soon. He said that when this joycenter is developed, it has executive control just like the president; it has executive control over the entire emotional system. Also, when it is developed, it regulates emotion, pain and immunity.

The joycenter, if it is developed, is able to override the main drive centers of food, sexual impulses, temper and rage. So, if you can effectively develop this joycenter, guess what? You’ll be able to resist giving into any cravings for food (even chocolate), sexual impulse cravings, affairs and pornography and sexual addictions. You can resist terror, and you can overcome it.

You can resist giving into rage; you can resist giving into blind rage or fury. You can control it. Because when you develop that joy center it is literally to exert executive control over every emotional center in your mind. That means it overcomes depression, fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, blame, etc.

Every single emotion has to bow before the chief executive which is the joy center. Well, I thought this was worth writing a post about, what do you think? I value your comments! You can subscribe to

The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here

Joy versus Happiness; How Does That Work?

 

Joy versus Happiness; How Does That Work?

by Olga Hermans

  A prerequisite for life is that you have to go through a few things and I can tell you that my husband and I have gone through a few things. The key is that you have gone through it and that you don’t get stuck in the middle. In this life, you do not have time to have a pity party.

Jesus told us that we would have tribulations in this life, but we should be of good cheer, because Jesus has overcome everything that we will face in our life and that makes us more than overcomers, right?

Jesus didn’t promise us a rosegarden without any of the thorns, but what He does promise us is that He would enable us to rise above it and become victorious.

You do not have to stay in victimhood from what you have gone through. When you are supposed to be focussing on one thing, the enemy will throw something in your path to distract you from what you are supposed to be doing. But when you are sold out to Jesus and He is the one that you have submitted your life to; you and God become a majority.

God is not a respecter of persons, what He has done for others, He will do for you.The difference is what are you willing to let Him do through you? That is the difference. All these things that we go through can cause a lot of stress. In order to slam the door on stress, we have to cultivate a fruit of the spirit and that is the fruit of joy.

When you cultivate the fruit of joy, you will slam the door on all stress. The devil is not mainly after your family or your finances or even your health, because he knows that if he can steal your joy; he is going to steal your health, many times your family and your finances.

Most of us as Christians don’t have the light of joy; they have no joy in their speech and no joy in their mannerisms and as a result, the world is looking at us and saying: “you are not any different than us.”

You are attracting people to you with your joy, or you are repelling people away from you. Joy is a fruit of the spirit. You need to know how to apply and grow and plant the seeds that will bring forth a harvest of joy. You see, everything comes forth through a seed-faith principle.

There are certain seeds of joy that you have to learn, practice, cultivate and grow in order to receive the fruit of the spirit of joy. You see, gifts are given, but fruit is grown by making the right choices, but most people don’t know what the seeds are. Once you grow this fruit, you are going to be insulated from the effects of stress.

The definition of joy is “a feeling of contentment and it comes from within. It is not based on external circumstances. It comes from within, from an inner sense of fulfillment. Happiness is different. Happiness is a feeling of pleasure based on external circumstances and what other people say and do.

The longer I live, the more convinced I become that life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it. ~Dr. Charles Swindoll

You have to learn and practice reacting with joy. Once you learn how to plant these seeds, then you are learning how to grow this fruit of joy that is going to insulate you from stress.

Happiness is also important. Happiness is many times an entry way to joy, but it is based on external circumstances. There are many things that can make you happy.

Anything that appeals to your five senses can make you happy. Anything that feels good or tastes good such as a delicious piece of chocolate cake if that is one of your favourite foods or if you like watching a game. A good massage could bring you happiness as well. But what happens if we let happiness have its way, it can lead to overindulgence, sin and addiction.

One piece of chocolate cake might be great, but two pieces or a whole cake is dangerous to your health. Sex within the marriage is good, but if you turn to affairs, or turn to pornography; it becomes a sexual addiction and then it leads to sin and that leads to a stronghold. Happiness is good, but if you take happiness too far; it is going to get you in trouble.

That’s why there are happiness traps. Happiness traps are simply money, materialism, power, prestige, careers, affairs, alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling. All these are happiness traps. Yes, they will produce happiness for a season, but in the end they will lead to stress and then you lose your joy, you lose your peace, you lose you sleep and you lose your health and eventually you lose your life because of it.

You have to identify your happiness traps: they go like this: “if I only had more money, I would be happy”. “If I only had a better job, I would be happy,” “If I could only lose 40 pounds, I would be happy,” “If I only would live in that beautiful home.” All those “only’s: a better husband or a better wife or…if I only had a relationship.”

These are happiness traps. Research shows, that possessions, things and circumstances at the most will only produce 10% of happiness; at the most! Isn’t that amazing? When you look at rock stars, star athletes, musicians and movie stars. These people have mansions, they have boats, they have jewellery and so forth, but you know what?

Most of them don’t have happiness, so they turn to drugs or they turn to alcohol. They turn to prescription drugs because at the most, these things produce only 10% of your happiness.

Most people don’t understand that people are chasing these things. They keep chasing and when they get to the very top of that ladder, they see that they wasted all of that time chasing all of those things and end up ignoring the very things that could have been producing their happiness.

Realize that your personality, your temperament, your genetics and your disposition account for about 50% of your happiness. 40% of our happiness comes from things that we think, our actions, our behaviour, our reactions, and it is simply things that we have control over according to some happiness research that was done.

Most people are going for that 10% happiness, not realizing that things, circumstances, careers, ambitions, materialism and money produce at the most only 10% of your happiness. Well, you have to come back for part 2, where we will talk some more about Happiness versus Joy. I hope you will!

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here

What About 2012?

 

 

What About 2012?

 

Prophecy delivered by Kenneth Copeland
on November 10, 2011
Washington, DC Victory Campaign

What about 2012? What does it hold? What’s in store? What’s in store for the nations? What’s in store for Israel and what’s in store for the Church? I have a great storehouse. Much more has been stored up in the storehouse of riches beyond your wildest dream that I laid up for you before the foundation of the world. Much more is stored up there than what the Church has ever called for. I never have held back on the Church,” saith The LORD and the God of plenty. “I’ve made it available to you. I put it in My WORD. I gave you a promise and stood behind it with the blood, precious blood of your Savior. But there has been a backwardness in My people about laying hold of the things that I have provided for you. But I will say this: There is a people in the land. There is a people around the world. There is a people strong and mighty, growing much stronger and much mightier and more bold to lay hold and put their claim of faith on the things that I have laid up for you and it thrills Me,” saith The LORD, “because it’s been yours all the time.

“Ah, but what about 2012? 2012 is a year full of surprises. Some surprises are going to shake people up. Some surprises are going to shake people down. But for those who are listening to My voice, those who have made themselves available to My Spirit and to My WORD, you’ll have surprises. Oh, not like the world and not like a lot of carnal-minded Christians. Your surprises will come as suddenlies. Like in My WORD when it said, ‘And suddenly there came upon them.’ And you’ll stand up with a big smile on your face and say ‘I just got a suddenly, didn’t I? Oh! Yes.’ But it’ll not take you by surprise because I said in My WORD I’d show you things to come. I said in My WORD what I speak the Holy Ghost will hear and He will speak it to you. And there are those of you who are seeking My voice and seeking My WORD and seeking My Name and looking at Me in My face while I’m looking at you in your face. And together we’ll walk in this and together we’ll walk through this and there’ll come a time when you’ll just smile at Me and I’ll just smile at you and you’ll say, ‘Ha. Ha. Ha. I knew that all the time. Praise God. My Father showed me that was coming and I was all prepared and it didn’t come on me as a suddenly. But this other surprise that came on me. Oh, what joy. Oh, what thrill. Oh, what goodness. I wonder what else my Father has in store for me. Hallelujah. Praise God.’

“2012? I’ll tell you about 2012. It’s going to be a year of great joy for those who know joy. It’ll be a time of marvelous breakthroughs. This is a time of victory. It’s a time when people begin to realize that My WORD is a living WORD, that My Spirit is the living Spirit, and that you are My voice in the earth. And your voice is the voice of victory. So rejoice and shout and understand that the breakthroughs that you’ve sought and watched over, prayed over, stood in faith for, ah, don’t turn loose now. Don’t turn loose now because they’re at hand. They’re right at hand. They’re right on top of you right now. Praise God. Hey!

“Have no worry. Do not be in fear about the United States of America. Don’t be in fear over the failure of this republic. This is not the time for this nation to fail. I’m not done with it yet. And it may come as a surprise to many; this nation is not done with Me yet,” saith The LORD. Hallelujah.

“We have a job to do. And this year will be like none other where this nation is concerned. And many will say, ‘Oh, woe is us! Oh, woe is us!’ And you know what? Oh, woe will be them.

“And there are others who’ll say, ‘Oh, we can’t win! We can’t win!’ And to them they can’t win.

“Ah, but to those of them who say, ‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. This is a time of greatness! America again! Oh, and it’s my nation and it’s God’s nation and we’re right where we’re supposed to be. He has us right where He wants us, and our future is bright because God is still LORD over the United States of America.’

“So rejoice and give forth a glad sound because The LORD of glory is still on the throne and prayer changes things and together we’re going on to greater victory.

“Oh yes! 2012 is a time of greatness Miracles that seemed as if they would not come but they’re here. There is an atmosphere conducive to miracles that’s been growing and growing and will manifest greatly in the first quarter of 2012 and continue throughout the year and on into 2013. I’ve been looking forward to 2012,” saith The LORD. “I know how it’s going to turn out. I’ve already dealt with it in My WORD. Your future is looking better all the time. But of course you’ll need to look at it through My eyes,” saith the Spirit of grace. “So as I said before, rejoice, for your time has come.”

Pressing Into New Depths of Prayer

Pressing Into New Depths of Prayer

 

The following excerpt is taken from Tongues: Beyond the Upper Room by Kenneth E. Hagin

There is a moving out beyond time and beyond space into the realm of the Spirit that is beyond my ability to describe. Some have walked out into that realm of prayer only far enough to get their feet wet. Like children wading in the water, they talk about what they experienced, saying, “That was so wonderful! It was the ultimate in praying in the Spirit!” but in reality, their experience is prayer was barely the beginning!

These people have only touched the realm of the Spirit. They need to wade on out into the deep waters of the Spirit until it isn’t only knee deep or loin deep, but so deep they can’t possibly touch the ocean bottom! They can swim on out and enjoy the fullness of what God has for them in prayer (see Ezekiel 47).

However, it is important to understand that these things will not always come easy. For one thing, the flesh will do everything possible to hold us back. That’s the reason the Word of God teaches us to crucify the flesh. The mind will also hold us back, trying to make us focus on the realm of the physical senses and what can be seen. That’s one reason God tells us to get our minds renewed with His Word (Rom. 12:1-2). Once our minds are renewed, we’ll be able to move further into the realm of His Spirit through prayer.

But as more and more of us respond to God’s call to pray, there will begin to be greater and greater manifestations of His power and glory on this earth. The manifestation and demonstration of God’s Spirit will become as common and as real as everyday natural things are to us. This is what our hearts have longed for and what intercessors have prayed for so many years.

…God wants us to move out further in the Spirit and learn how to maneuver in that greater realm of prayer. AS we are faithful to obey His call to pray, the day will come when we move beyond the edge of space – further on into the Spirit – and reach the fullness of God’s glory!

I’ll tell you this much: Jesus is coming. There is no use splitting hairs about that truth, because it will happen, whether you believe it or not! SO let us commit ourselves to praying in the Spirit so a great harvest of souls can be reaped in these last days. People are dying, and the end is coming. The end of all things is at hand, and what we do, we must do quickly.

If you would like to purchase this book, you can do so by clicking here!

I Refuse to Fear

I Refuse to Fear.

 

I am not moved by what I see. 

 I am not fearful over my financial future. 

God is my source of provision.

He provides cars to drive, food to eat, clothes to wear, places to live
and everything else I need in liberal supply.

I am not subject to the times. 

I live in the household of faith, not the dungeon of fear. 

My household is thriving, and not just surviving. 

My household is flourishing and not failing. 

Every bill is paid, every need is met and every debt is wiped out. 

I walk by faith and not by fear, in Jesus’ Name!