What manner of spirit are you?

What manner of spirit are you?

Luk 9:51  And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

Luk 9:52  And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

Luk 9:53  And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

Luk 9:54  And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

Luk 9:55  But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

Luk 9:56  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

Our Savior REBUKED His disciples when they asked Him if they should command fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans because they wouldn't make themselves ready for Jesus, they knew Jesus wanted to go on to Jerusalem so why would they bother to honor Him? Was that worthy of rebuke? Yes, but not DEATH! Our Savior did NOT want death even for His worst enemies, let alone those who were too lazy to honor Him because they were not in His final destination.  Our Savior REBUKED His disciples-

Ye know NOT what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is NOT come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

His disciples were closest to Jesus and here He was teaching them that their spirit was NOT His! They had a different spirit in them contrary to Jesus' spirit.  He told them they didn't know what their OWN spirit was.  Jesus knew their spirit was NOT His and if not His He knew the only other spirit it could be- Satan's.   Jesus wanted His disciples to have HIS spirit, not satan's. Jesus revealed His spirit in all that He did including this-

For the Son of Man is NOT come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

Jesus did not want to destroy anyone, and if we are HIS we must not want to destroy anyone either.  The spirit of destruction when you have the chance to reveal the spirit of Christ and salvation through Him, is not Christ's way. Only when all probation is up and every human being has had a chance to choose salvation or no salvation will Christ allow all evil to be destroyed and NOT before then.

We need to know what manner of spirit we have.

Please heavenly Father, please help us to have YOUR SPIRIT in us! We don't want the spirit of destruction. All in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Worship Believe

Jer 29:13  And ye shall SEEK ME, and FIND ME, when ye shall SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART.

Searching for something with all your heart.  What does this mean to you? What do you do when you search for something in general, without your heart being involved? 

If you search for a pair of socks chances are you're going to find them in your sock drawer or the laundry, or maybe even a store. You know where to look for what you're searching. If you search for something less tangible like love, happiness, and the like there is no store to buy those things at, they don't reside in a drawer or a washing machine.  How do you search for love?  You seek another person with whom you're compatible and you choose to love. You commit to that person. We fall out of love with people when we no longer commit to them.  Is it any wonder our Savior told us to love our enemies? He knew that love is a choice and we can choose to love those that despitefully use us, even the loved ones that hurt us the most sometimes.

When we search for love we can find it, if we choose to live love. If you're looking for happiness, again, your definition of happiness depends on what makes you happy and God's word tells us about happiness-

Pro_3:13  Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

Joh 13:15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

Joh 13:16  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

Joh 13:17  If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

If we count happiness in sinful things, we don't know true happiness at all.

But we are talking about searching for God with all our heart and how we do that.

We pray- we communicate with God. He is REAL, and we must know that He is real, live as He is real. He needs us to communicate with Him.  If we are searching for Him with all our hearts then we will talk to Him as we search. We will do ALL we can to live as He would have us live and HE tells us in His word how that is. 

Our whole duty is to believe in God, this is our WORK-

Joh_6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

How can you WORSHIP God without believing in Him, fully, wholly believe in Him? And if you do believe in Him, you must worship Him- you must make that belief REAL!

And that belief will be real if you LIVE in Him- truly worshipping Him constantly, not just once in awhile.  Worshipping God by BEING with GOD- having God with you in ALL YOU DO! Seriously, with ALL YOU DO.

Please, Father in Heave, help us WORSHIP You, seeking You with ALL our hearts, Believing in You fully! Your righteousness, not ours!

All in the name of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Searching for God With All Our Hearts- This Is Worship

Worship-  How do you give God your attention?

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, SAITH THE LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jer 29:12  Then shall ye CALL UPON ME, and ye shall go and PRAY UNTO ME, and I will hearken unto you.

Jer 29:13  And ye shall SEEK ME, and FIND ME, when ye shall SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART.

We must call upon God.

We must pray unto God.

We must seek God and find Him by SEARCH for GOD with ALL OUR HEART.

As I asked yesterday, can you worship something without giving it your attention? The answer is a resounding NO!

If we are searching for God with all our heart then we are a most assuredly giving God our attention- this is a form of WORSHIP.

We've been duped into thinking that worship is spending time simply listening to someone speak about God for an hour. We actually call it the Worship Hour.  And I'm NOT saying it's NOT worship, it very well could be true worship, but if that's ALL the attention we're giving God- an hour of worship- then we are NOT really worshipping Him at all, we're pretending and most likely deceiving ourselves into believing it's acceptable. It's not acceptable.

How often should you worship God? Should you truly only worship for a single hour every week?

Mat_2:2  Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

The three wise men from the east who came to see the newly born Savior went to WORSHIP Him. Did they wait for the worship hour? No. And I'm not being facetious, I mean it. The Jewish people worshipped at the temple on the Sabbath weekly. It's quite possible that some people only worshipped then- like the worship hour today, I don't know.  I do know they set the ENTIRE day aside for God, a FULL day to honor Him and going to the temple or synagogues to hear the word of God was only a small part of that day of worship.  Going back to the wise men, they didn't wait for the Sabbath, and they didn't wait for a worship hour, they went to the Savior expressly to worship Him and worship Him they did. They gave Him their FULL attention! They honored Him!

More tomorrow on this, by the grace of our GOD!

 In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Do you give God attention?

Jealous for our own good.

Exo 34:14  For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

God WANTS us. And why wouldn't He, He CREATED US. We are the WORKS of HIS hands and no others.

We understand on a human level what it means to be jealous over something we've created. We do not want others to take credit for our creations. Worse still, we don't want others to take something we love, truly love and destroy it.  Satan destroys us human being, that is his greatest purpose, to destroy God's creations.  God wants us! God is jealous for us! God does NOT want us to worship any other god, NOT because He wants to deprive us of a single thing! He wants to SAVE US!

We are to WORSHIP no other god but GOD.  We are to give God our ALLIGENCE, our LOVE, our ATTENTION.  Can you worship something without giving it attention?

Seriously, can you worship something- anything, without giving it attention?

No.

If you worship something or someone you give it time and quite frankly, a lot of it or you lie. 

You can lie to others, you can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to God.

Is your worship real? Or do you mouth the words? Do you play act your worship?

Do you give God attention?

By the grace of God may we truly give God attention- may we truly worship God and NO OTHERS!

All in the name of our Savior- Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Do we worship God?

Either our God is truly our God, or we are really worshipping ourselves. This is truth.

Do we WORSHIP God? 

What does it mean to WORSHIP God?

We need to know how to worship, don't we?

(Webster's Dict-) 'Chiefly and eminently, the act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; or the reverence and homage paid to him in religious exercises, consisting in adoration, confession, prayer, thanksgiving and the like.'

How do you give honor to God?

How do you pay God homage in religious exercises? 

Is calling upon the name of the Lord in prayer enough?

We need to WORSHIP God.

Joh_4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of God.

Please Father, teach us how we need to worship You!

All through Your Son Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Sheep and Wolves

The Devil.

Luk 8:11  Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Luk 8:12  Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved

People pride themselves on being smart.  They do! They take great pride in not being outwitted by others.

Unfortunately for a lot of so called SMART people- in their endeavors to be smart at all times they overlook the truth of the matter in favor of what they believe is real intelligence. If the truth doesn't appear to be intelligent enough for them they'd rather sacrifice truth to keep up the appearance of being smart.

Right now in a lot of circles it is fashionable to consider yourself too smart to be duped by believing in God and Jesus Christ, and of course the Holy Spirit.

Atheism is on the rise as is believing in a God who advocates violence over peace. The God who advocates violence is a God who obviously believes in action whereas peace isn't quite so active. Not believing at all is supposed to be a sign of the smart person's superior intellect. Amid the droves of sheep who they believe are following blindly they stand out, separating themselves.

When these people who no longer wish to consider themselves sheep in need of a  Shepherd do in fact separate themselves from the sheep it's because they aren't really sheep at all, but wolves, the attackers of the sheep, the devourers of the sheep.

They aren't pleased to simply go off and be intelligent sheep, too intelligent to follow a Shepherd, they transform into attacking wolves viciously defending their right to have no Shepherd at the expense of any sheep they might come in contact with.

The sheep who at one time followed a Shepherd, however briefly, don't realize that a malicious, evil force, the chief of all wolves, has succeeded in using its own supposed superior intellect to rip the truth from their hearts. The chief of wolves does not want the sheep to be protected by the Shepherd, but would rather pull sheep out of the fold and make them believe they too are really wolves so they can help him destroy as many of the flock as possible, even while destroying themselves.

The Devil is REAL.  And the Devil dwells in the PRIDE of each and every one of us. The Devil plays upon that pride and if we allow him to, he will infuse us with his pride the very same pride that was his downfall.

Was there pain and destruction, was there death before the Devil?  Not in our world. Not a single lie existed until the Devil.  Yet how incredibly many supposedly smart people decide to side with the father of all lies, the inducer of pain, the architect of destruction, the bringer of death, rather than the One who would promise them salvation- a life without pain, destruction and death.

The supposedly smart would hold up the fact that salvation is a myth because it isn't given instantly but a promise that cannot be verified, as proof of its non-existence. The supposedly smart will call us the duped and deluded because we live on faith- the promise for the future unseen.  The supposedly smart would rather cling to their delusions taking pride in their wolf-self right now and get the accolades of other wolves than have hope of ever living a life free of all that is evil. They would rather embrace the evil as being something undefeatable calling it a part of life, than believe in the potential of life without any evil at all.  Unfortunately the lovers of evil are wolves, and often times wolves in sheep clothing.

While evil appeals to all that has been sin perverted in us, we don't have to embrace the perversion and call it good. Every temptation towards evil that is strong inside of us doesn't make us lovers of that evil unless we choose evil over God and all that is love, all that is truly good. Those temptations to us are battles, they are enemies, they are to be resisted, they are to be fought against and never truly embraced and accepted, never fully yielded to by allowing them to be call good and right in us.

We who would be sheep with a Shepherd to guide us, do not hate the wolves, we realize the wolves exist and we will constantly pray that the wolves seek to become sheep in need of the Shepherd.  We will love the wolves even as they attack us, for we are simple sheep only we know better and choose to love.

All by the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever! We would follow Him, our Great Shepherd.

Amen!

Taught to observe

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Mat_28:20.

TEACH THEM.

Observe all things- whatsoever I have commanded you.

TEACH THEM.

Observe ALL THINGS.

Observe WHATSOEVER JESUS COMMANDS.

Jesus commands-

Mat 5:12  REJOICE, and BE EXCEEDING GLAD

Mat 5:16  LET your light so shine before men

Mat 5:23  Therefore if thou BRING thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

Mat 5:24  LEAVE there thy gift before the altar, and GO thy way; FIRST BE reconciled to thy brother, and THEN COME and OFFER thy gift.

Mat 5:25  AGREE with thine adversary quickly

Mat 5:29  And if thy right eye offend thee, PLUCK it out, and CAST it from thee

Mat 5:30  And if thy right hand offend thee, CUT it off, and CAST it from thee

Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, SWEAR NOT at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:

Mat 5:35  Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

Mat 5:36  Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

Mat 5:37  But LET your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye RESIST NOT (the) evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, TURN to him the other also.

Mat 5:40  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, LET him have thy cloke also.

Mat 5:41  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, GO with him twain.

Mat 5:42  GIVE to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee TURN NOT thou away.

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, LOVE your enemies, BLESS them that curse you, DO GOOD to them that hate you, and PRAY for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you

Mat 5:48  BE ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Mat 6:1  TAKE heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them

Mat 6:2  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, DO NOT sound a trumpet before thee

Mat 6:3  But when thou doest alms, LET NOT thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

Mat 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest,  ENTER into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, PRAY to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Mat 6:7  But when ye pray, USE NOT vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Mat 6:8  BE NOT ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore PRAY ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread.

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Mat 6:14  For if ye FORGIVE men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you

Mat 6:16  Moreover when ye FAST, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance

Mat 6:17  But thou, when thou fastest, ANOINT thine head, and WASH thy face;

Mat 6:19  LAY NOT up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

Mat 6:20  But LAY UP for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Mat 6:25  Therefore I say unto you, TAKE NO thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.

Mat 6:31  Therefore TAKE NO thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Mat 6:33  But SEEK ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness

Mat 6:34  TAKE therefore no thought for the morrow

Mat 7:1  JUDGE NOT, that ye be not judged.

Mat 7:6  GIVE NOT that which is holy unto the dogs, NEITHER CAST ye your pearls before swine

Mat 7:7  ASK, and it shall be given you; SEEK, and ye shall find; KNOCK, and it shall be opened unto you

Mat 7:13  ENTER ye in at the strait gate

Mat 7:15  BEWARE of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Jesus instructed His followers in great depth giving them  all the guidance they'd need to actively live as He would have them live.  Instructions on what to do, what not to do, what to follow, what not to follow.  You can pray to God for help in living your life, desiring answers in some miraculous manner, but truthfully God has given us many of the answers we need already.

We need to SEEK the answers in HIS WORD TO US for ALL that life will throw at us!  Maybe the situation is super complicated but if we go to God's word we are instructed to TRUST in HIM- do we?

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Mat_28:20.

Are we taught? Have we learned? Do we know what we are commanded?  Do we fully understand that our Savior is with us ALWAYS even to the END OF THE WORLD? He is!

Please Father in heaven, please help us LEARN and OBSERVE all we are commanded, please. We would be with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior forever and ever! All by HIS GRACE, HIS LOVE!

Amen.