YOUR CAPTIVITY BY POVERTY HAS ENDED

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Do you know that in Christ you are always in the place of the year of the Lord’s favour?  There is never a time that you are outside of the blessing of God.  You are blessed wherever you go and in whatever you do.  Deuteronomy 28 says, “You are blessed in the city and in the country.”  In fact, read the entire chapter because if what it says gets into your spirit, you will never worry about a thing again.

David said, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”

This is the good news that there is in Christ.  The blessing of the Lord shines upon you and you are a blessing in the earth.

Jesus came into the earth and announced that He was sent to bring the good news to the poor and that He was setting the captives free and proclaiming favour over their lives (Luke 4:18-19).  My God, did you hear that?  Your captivity by poverty has ended in Christ and as long as you obey the voice of God, you will walk in prosperity.

There is oppression in the earth, but this oppression cannot come near my tent.  Even in drought and famine my family will be fine, because I am in Christ.  And when He speaks and I listen, my prosperity is secure.

I don’t care if a hundred Christians are not living in prosperity. It does not change His word for my life.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and be a sign and a wonder for the nations to see.  Just watch my life.  Just watch the blessing arise on my family.  I tell you that you have seen nothing yet.  There is greater blessing coming to us yet.  Not because I am anything, but because my God is King and His word is truth and He cannot lie.

I don’t worry when my bank account looks bad.  I get excited because I know a miracle is on the way.  I know that He has to provide all my needs according to His riches in Glory and trust me, I have seen that glory.

I remember before I was married, I saw the treasure house of heaven in a dream.  Just before I got there, I was walking in heaven when this vibrant old man walked up to me and said, “Go to the treasury and get enough for your journey.”   This was none other than Father God.

When I got into the treasury, it was filled with gold.  I was inside of a huge room the size of a gymnasium and there was gold piled to the ceiling.  Out of the middle of it arose a spirit of mammon that came toward me as a giant hand.  It was going to destroy me and consume me, but I raised my hand to it and spoke to it and said, “The Father said that I can have enough for my journey.”

The hand broke off and fell beside me and formed a giant golden tiger that looked more alive than any creature I had ever seen before.  It then changed into a giant angel and started walking with me.

I have understood from that time to this that I have no financial problems at all.  I know that God will take care of every math problem that I have.  He will also meet me in the place of faith and provide for all my dreams in Him.  I dream of reaching the world for Christ and He will empower me to do it.  I also dream of providing for those that do not have such faith, but still want to reach the world for Christ.  I will provide for the ones God guides me to as well.  This I have done and will do in Christ.

You also can be empowered to accomplish great things in Christ.  Just believe…all things are possible if you only believe.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11)

Saint Paul was addicted to Christ.  He had no other desire but to obtain to the fullness of the resurrection that was promised to him because of the work of Christ on the cross.  He was willing to lay down everything that was important to him in this life.

There must have been something that God revealed to him that was so deep that he was willing to do this.  He was a lover of heaven.

Heaven has that way about it.  When you begin to have dreams and visions about the bounty that exists for us in resurrection, then death has very little effect on your mind.  I don’t want to die.  I want to live and lead as many people into the goodness of God that I can, but to die has very little sting to it, given the rewards that there are in store for us.

There have been times that I have talked about dying to an audience and I see them cringe at the thought of death.  I honestly forget that people are afraid to die so when I experience this cringe I am somewhat amused, especially when these are Christians that are afraid.  I pray for them of course that the fear of death would leave them.

My life is full on this side of eternity, but I still know that there is much more in store for me in heaven.  I don’t pretend that this side has more for me that the other side.  The other side is free from fear and sadness.  On the other side I will not have to walk by faith, but I shall always be full of his glory forevermore.  I shall be emotionally free forever.

Here I see the hope that I have in part, but there I shall see it face to face.  Here I am a stranger, but there I am a part of the culture of that place.  Here I am condemned for my faith, but there I am celebrated.

Here I am berated and mocked, but there I am a hero of the faith.

God is so good that He allows us to have encounters with His glory to keep us going.  He fills us with His presence and glory.  He gives us a dream and we feel His kingdom alive in our hearts.  We have a vision of His joy and His peace.  These little glimpses are enough to enliven us and quicken us so that we have hope and peace to live the day.

Troubles come to our lives and we rejoice because we know the hope of glory that lives in our hearts.  We know the fullness of assurance in Christ.  We know that the devil has no real power against us and that every attack is an illusion with little substance.  We know that God has plans for us and will fulfill them.  This we know in our hearts because of the revelation that has come to us by the Holy Spirit.

As we walk the narrow path, it doesn’t feel so narrow.  We look upon the horizon of eternity and see a fullness to come that is matchless on the side of time. But even here our spirits are enlivened because God continues to awaken us to His reality and goodness.  It is this goodness that we understand about God, which keeps us walking the path that we are on as we progress toward our destiny.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:9-12)

As long as we are on this side of eternity, we shall know in part.  My own thoughts I have not digested completely.  I inspect the contents of my mind in order to become self-aware, but without a saviour, this inspection can be troublesome at best.

When I come to a place within my memory that causes emotional turmoil, unless I have a saviour that can touch that part of me and cleanse it, then self-inspection becomes nothing more than self-justification or worse still, blame-shifting.

If I do not understand the need for forgiveness and repentance in my life, then looking deep into pain is not a relieving exercise.  We want to look deep into self in order to become freer, but when I look deep into myself and see my eternal guilt, freedom is like a mirage on the desert that seems to offer satisfaction to the thirsty but is not real.

Introspection must have release and release doesn’t come from justification or shifting the blame.  Freedom comes from forgiveness and repentance.  I must recognize my need for a saviour.

You see this programming within the human mind is flawed.  It is not capable of doing what it was designed to do because of original sin.  The program understands good, but is not able to carry it out.  This causes the program to break down and eventually die because he who knows the good that he should do but does not do it lives in sin…and sin kills.

It isn’t that we don’t want to do good or that we don’t try.  We do try!  Every single day we try to work out our good for the world to see and understand.  Inside of our hearts we want people to think that we are good people, because we know that good is good.  The evil that lurks within our hearts is like a disease that we want removed, but the more we try, the worse it seems to get.

We either blame God for this or we come to realize our need to be saved.

When Jesus died on the cross, He created a way for freedom to enter the hearts of men.  He opened a door into a new humanity.  It was like the program was repaired.  When we kneel and accept Christ into our hearts, then the navel-gazing has more meaning.  Each pain is released.  Each sin is healed.  We come to a new freedom and a new peace for our lives.

Each day in Christ, my mind is renewed.  I look into my life and see the things that I did that were sin.  I admit to God that it was sin and He heals my heart.  All the pain is healed.  We begin to understand the power of the great salvation that came in Christ.

As I repent more, then more freedom comes into my heart.  The world opens up to me and the good that I do comes to have real meaning, because it is led and directed by God.

Now I am free to advance into my destiny without being held back by guilt or shame or pain.

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?  (Matthew 25:34-39)

I love this passage in Matthew 25:31-46 in which the King is congratulating and rewarding his servants on the good work that they have done in feeding the poor and helping the sick.  He says, “When I was sick you took care of me and when I was thirsty you gave me a drink.”

The servant is distressed because he cannot recollect ever doing anything for the King and tells him so, and so the King continues and enlightens his servant by saying, “What you have done for the least of these you did for me.”

 

The servant did not consciously realize that he was serving the King.  His faith was internalized and lived out on a day-to-day basis among the people he encountered.

Often when I prophesy over people, the Lord shows me their spiritual gifts.  I will see that they have a hospitality gift and like to feed people or they have an encouragement gift and like to speak into the lives of those that they come into contact with.  Many of these people do not realize that this is important work for the Lord.  They are looking for something much grander, but it is in the living of our daily lives and serving those that we come in contact with that which pleases God the most.

I usually tell them that if they continue to be hospitable or encouraging. then they will be fulfilling God’s will for their lives.  Such relief enters into them when I say this because many of them don’t know that they are fulfilling God’s will and live in fear of not pleasing Him.

I read somewhere once that “God likes to hide the righteousness of His friends from them.”

 

Real humility doesn’t even care if it is seen or heard.  Humility only cares that it connects with the one whom its soul loves.  We must work out our salvations with fear and trembling and as we do it is God works inside of us to will and work for His for His good pleasure.

Much of what is accomplished in the life of a believer is a mystery to the believer.  So much of the good we do is forgotten anyhow and that which we do remember is best forgotten.  We need to keep our eyes on the goal of our faith which is to inherit eternal salvation in Christ Jesus.

As we advance toward our destiny, let’s focus on getting closer to Jesus, for in so doing we will become like Him.  When His love permeates our hearts, we will live fulfilling God’s dreams.  He will empower us to do more and more and when we finally do appear before the throne of God, we will be amazed at the things we did while not even knowing we did them.

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: (Proverbs 8:1-3)

Many Christians talk about seasons.  There are long seasons and there are short seasons.  At the end of every season there is a CROSSROADS that opens the way into our next season.

When we live a life of the Spirit, these crossroads should not take us by surprise.  The Spirit guides us through our lives and before every major turn there are signs that help point the way into the next season.

I have travelled by car into many major cities.  Some of these cities are intimidating because they are so large.  I have gotten lost trying to navigate the signs that I see.  I have to be in tune with my GPS or a map in order to adequately guide myself through the maze of streets that I encounter along the way to my destination.  In fact if it were not for my guides, I would surely get lost.

In the same way we need to ask the Lord for a spiritual map in order to guide us to our spiritual destinations.  We don’t want to miss one destination that God has in store for our life.  We want to arrive at every place that He has in store.  Sometimes He will guide us through dreams and visions, sometimes it will be a witness in our heart, or a prophetic word.

In order to hear His voice, I must be humble.  Pride will stop me from understanding the voice of the Lord when He speaks.  It will further stop me from taking some turns because they don’t seem like what I might have in store for my own life.

I remember when Lydia and I bought our current house.  My real estate agent put the house on the itinerary for that day, but I wasn’t excited about it.  When we drove up to the house, I looked at it and decided I didn’t even want to go inside.  It was not in the right location in my mind and it looked small.

I told my agent I wasn’t interested in looking and to go to the house to tell the owner we would not be looking.  This he did, but then he ran back to the car.  He said, “You have to come and look at this house!”

My agent knew what we wanted more than we did.  He knew the kind of house that we were looking for and he felt that this was the house.  I was still not certain, but I trusted my agent enough to at least go and have a look.

Well, the house was exactly what my wife and I wanted.  We fell in love with it immediately, as did our boys.

We must submit to the leading of the Lord.  When He guides us we must respond.  We can miss many great opportunities because our own prejudices stop us from seeing things from His perspective.  He has blessings that cannot be counted for your life, but you must respond to each one.

When you come to the CROSSROADS, the key is to wait until you hear His voice and then respond.  Don’t fear missing it.  He speaks until you hear, but be obedient when He does speak, because He has so much that He wants to give.  Humble yourself in His sight and He will bring you to the greatest heights in Christ.

In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said to God, “You have shown great and steadfast love to David my father, and have made me king in his place. O Lord God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?” (1 Chronicles 1:7-10)

At the age of 15 I came to Jesus and asked Him to come into my heart.  It was a defining moment in my life.  I meant it.  I wanted Him in my life.  Even though trials would come to me in the years that followed, which caused me to question His goodness for a season, during this part of my life Jesus was the center.

I use to pray for hours and I would read my bible.  Between 15 and 17 I read the bible through twice and the New Testament four more times.   It was during this time that I began to pray and ask God for wisdom.

I prayed this way because I knew that there were benefits that would come because of it.  I had read about the dream of Solomon in 1 Chronicles 1:7-10 and that because he asked for wisdom God granted Him all blessings and favour.  I wanted to be like Solomon in His wisdom but not his sin.

And then I came to Proverbs 8 where I began to see the blessings that would come to the one that sought wisdom.  It would afford that one a life of righteousness, understanding, knowledge and the blessing and favour of the Lord.  Wisdom was better than gold but with it you would obtain an inheritance and full treasury.  There is no poverty in the place of wisdom.  With wisdom kings reigned and nobles ruled justly, but most important to me, with wisdom there was life and eternal life.

So, at an early age I began to ask the Lord to lead me down the paths of wisdom and to guide me and keep me by wisdom all the days of my life.

I wanted the seven spirits of God to rest upon my life as described in Isaiah 11:2: “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD.”  I now understand that this was the spirit that rested upon Christ and I wanted the same spirit to rest upon me.

To me this became about promise and covenant.  I understood that wisdom was my possession in Christ.  I knew that God had to grant it to me, so I began to declare it over my life and the lives of my children and wife.  I thanked God for the spirit of Wisdom that was upon us.  I declared over my life that my wisdom and the wisdom of my family would increase so that we would be a blessing to those we met.  I expected the spirit of Wisdom to operate in my life at all times.

Wisdom unlocks destiny.  When we wait upon the Lord, His wisdom guides us into all things that He desires us to do.  He will not leave you without wisdom.  He will come to you in the night hours in a dream, His small still voice will be within you or He will come through the voice of a friend or of angels.  The person who fears the Lord will recognize Wisdom’s voice when she speaks and if he/she allows wisdom to guide them, then all the days of his/her life will be lived in blessing and the favour of the Lord.

I expect God’s wisdom in my life in the same way I expect His blessing and favour.  Proverbs 8:35 says, “For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favour from the LORD.”  Therefore my expectation is for nothing less than God’s wisdom because I will not live outside of His favour and blessing.  I will not live as a cursed man ever again.  So obtaining wisdom to me is greater than life.

I expect God’s wisdom in my life in the same way I expect His blessing and favour.  Proverbs 8:35 says, “For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favour from the LORD.”  Therefore my expectation is for nothing less than God’s wisdom because I will not live outside of His favour and blessing.  I will not live as a cursed man ever again.  So obtaining wisdom to me is greater than life.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. (Psalm 46:1-3)

Are you afraid?  Are you easily shaken?  This is a fair question.  When troubles arise do you run and hide?  Are you easily disturbed?  Does anger enter your heart and frustration take over?  Do your eyes fall on your circumstances or on the power of God?  Do you see God or do you see the giant?

David was a boy, but killed a giant man.  He saw the circumstances that stood before him.  He was not compelled by his people, family or even the king to enter into that battle.  He could have chosen to walk away and no one would have questioned why.   Certainly, they would not have even thought of him as a choice.  He was a boy, after all.  But something rose in his heart.  He knew his God and he knew that this giant before him was no match for Him.

I get calls from people all the time asking me if they are going to be alright.  They want to hear me say, “Yes everything is going to be ok…don’t worry because God’s got your back.”  They call me because they want the confidence that is in my heart to speak to their situations.  They do not have that confidence on their own, so they are looking for a champion to command that darkness out of their lives.

If only they could be like David!  If only they could see from God’s perspective!  If only faith would rise up in their hearts so that they would see their circumstances from heaven’s eyes!  They would not worry one more day.  They would not lose their cool ever again.

It is actually not possible for you to experience anything but blessing in Christ.  Trials will come, but from that trial will rise a fire in your heart to conquer lands.  The devil may come at you one way, but he will run away in seven directions.  Yes, the devil always tries, but he never succeeds.

One of my preacher friends called me two days ago.  He was anxious because his dog attacked another dog causing so much damage that he was liable for $5000.00 (that he did not have) to pay the other owner’s veterinarian expenses.  He called me wanting me to get a word from the Lord for him.  An excitement rose up in my heart, so I told him so.  I told him I felt like an explosion of increase was about to take place in his life.

He told me that he had to put the money on his credit card and go to the bank for a loan.  In the natural it didn’t look good…but God!  The next day he called me back very relieved.  He said that his house insurance covered the damages.

The enemy tries, but he cannot succeed.  You have to know this in your heart that no matter what arises against you, the Lord has a way out.  There is nothing going to conquer your life.  Your enemy will not be able to shame you because you have the Almighty God as your best friend and He is looking out for you.

Have you read Psalm 18 and seen the response of God when His boy was surrounded by his enemies?  God came down to earth riding on a cloud of glory and squashed those enemies beneath His feet.

His peace will rise upon you in trials that come.  You will feel His presence in a way that you never imagined possible.  Even in the most difficult trials God will be there with you.  There is no one or nothing that can stop Him from coming to the aid of the one He loves.

So bury your head in His shoulder today and ask Him to come near to your heart.  He gives good gifts to His children and there is no greater gift than His peace.  So get ready for a visitation and baptism of peace.

THE COMING OUTPOURING

Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness. (Isaiah 35:4-8)

This morning as I was driving to work, the Lord spoke this prophetic promise from Isaiah into my heart.  Like you, I have been waiting for God to move in such a way that many millions of lives will be touched by the power of God.  Like you I have been seeing the darkness that has come upon our land and know that a revival must come to bring the hearts of the children back to the Father.

We live in a time when men and women grope about in darkness.  They are blind and they are deaf.  They don’t even know how to speak anymore.  They curse God and wonder why their lives are cursed, but this is not the end of the matter.

God is faithful and He is merciful.  He will not let this generation pass by without a visitation of His goodness.  There shall come a great awakening.  He shall open the eyes of blind hearts and He shall open the ears of those who refuse to listen and those that are lame in spirit shall be strengthened.  Their faith shall become strong.  Not only will they believe, but they will become burning ones that shine for others to also see the Lord on high.

In the places where the jackals thought they owned the earth, in the haunt of the demonic fold, there shall come a moving of God’s waters that washes away the darkness.  In that place of fear will come a rising of the presence of God.  Men and women who were bound heading straight into hell will be released by a supernatural moving of the spirit of God upon their lives. Just like the pouring out of the spirit on the day of Pentecost there will come a pouring of the spirit in our time on many towns and cities.  Thousands will be saved in one day.

Holiness now might be a curse word in the mouths of a generation bound by sin, but they shall come to rejoice in Holiness.  They shall become pure by the Holy Spirit and they shall become innocent once again.  The name of the Lord shall arise over their lives and they shall be known by a new name.

God is calling.  Are you listening? Can you hear His voice?  He wants to release you from the fires of darkness.  Call out to Him and He will hear your cry.  He will be faithful and you will leave for eternity under the sure mercies of Yahweh, the most powerful God.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

When you enter into the realm of God’s love it is about His strength of feeling in your inner man.  He is inside of you like a strong breath, pulsating in your heart and in your being.

His presence becomes a guiding force.  When you feel it, you feel capable of doing anything.  Ideas will come into your mind that would seem bizarre except for the fact that you are drunk on His Holy presence.  God in your inner man will cause you to walk on water.  You will jump and fly into mid-air.  Nothing seems impossible when God is closer to you than the breath you breathe.

I keep praying more and more to know the love of God.  I want to experience that love.  I want to be transformed by it.  I don’t want anything to come between me and my God and I am willing to do whatever he says to remain in the place of His presence.  When God speaks I am quick to listen because His spirit is all I desire.

The things of this world actually grow strange and dim when you encounter the glory of His presence.  I remember being fond of the strangest things before Jesus but when He came to life in my heart, all of a sudden these things paled in comparison to His wonderful presence.  I was willing to give up everything to stay in that place of presence.  I turned and walked away from the world in order to grasp the one thing my soul longed for more than anything else–and that was God.

And for these ten years I have been turning from the world more and more.  In the end the only thing that will remain is love.  The only thing that I will take with me into eternity is the presence of God.  I love Him more than life.  I want Him to be more real to me tomorrow than He is even today.

He is pruning me and cleansing me and making me more into His image.  Each time He speaks to me I become more like Him.  He whispers change and I change.

I have learned to listen quickly, because the rewards of His love and peace far outweigh anything that you or this world could give to me.  I have been tempted in many ways, but I continue in His presence, because it is better than all other temptations.

It is by faith that I have stepped into this place.  At one point I made the decision that Jesus was all I needed.  I determined in my heart that all other things that I needed in this life were not as important as He was.  I have not regretted one moment of my life in Christ.  Before Christ my life was filled with regrets.  I was filled with shame and sorrow.  Now these no longer rule my life.

I am ruled by the peace of God.  I am rooted and grounded in love.  Even when I make mistakes, He loves me.  Even when I fail, He is there.  He makes a way where there seems to be no way.  As long as I do what He says and I am obedient, then I remain in Him.

I pray for you and for me today that we will remain through every storm, through every crisis and through every trial.  I pray that you will walk on water and that you will see the foul waters of your heart turned into wine–the finest wine.

May His blessings surpass you and encompass you today.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:18-21)

Have you ever felt yourself fearing what the world thought of your faith?  I will admit that when I was younger I used to worry about what philosophers and the media thought of my faith.  I went as far as to renounce my faith at one point in my life because this fear was so strong.

The opinions of men are mortal in nature and have a certain lifespan that ends at the grave.  Each one of us will appear before the Father one day and have to account for the opinions that we allowed to influence our life.  We will stand before Him and give account for our beliefs that were not aligned with His word.  I can assure you that in that moment He will not say, “Oh that was a very good reason for not believing me.”

We are to trust and obey Him.  We are to renounce the thoughts and ways of the world even when they seem to have a speck of wisdom about them, and if we are easily swayed by these thoughts, then we probably shouldn’t be listening to them at all.

Too much sugar might taste good, but in the end it will make you sick.  It is the same with the thoughts of men. They seem to have an air of superiority about them, but in the end they cause emotional sickness and spiritual death.

We cannot take ourselves out of this world, but it doesn’t mean that we have to watch every movie that comes out or watch every show or news program on TV.  We don’t have to read the latest blogs or newspapers.  We can turn these things off.  These actually can become clutter that will inhibit us from walking in greater faith.

When you feed on a thought pattern that is not of Christ more than the word of God, it is going to have an effect on your ability to believe the things that God says.  In fact listening to the clutter can actually stop you from recognizing the voice of God when He does speak.

The Psalmist said, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (Psalm 119:97); and again “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105); and yet again, “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

It is when we cherish the word more than the world that our paths become straight.  It is when we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understandings, but acknowledge Him in all of our ways, that our paths are strong and secure (Proverbs 2:5-6).

The life of a Christian is a life of sacrifice, but the sacrifice does not seem so costly when the benefits of the Kingdom begin to appear at your feet.  I haven’t sacrificed anything for God that He hasn’t given back to me many times in this life, not to mention what awaits me in the life to come.

We need to start obeying Him and listening to Him more than we listen to the philosophers and sages of this world.  I don’t even subjugate myself to their thoughts anymore.  I choose to believe the evidence that my faith is presented in Christ.  My well-being and peace of heart are evidence to me that I have made the right decision.

You need to choose wisely today.