Is your mind and heart kept by God?

Prayer

Do you pray?

1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing. 

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint

Luk 18:2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 

Luk 18:3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 

Luk 18:4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 

Luk 18:5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 

Luk 18:6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 

Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 

Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? 

Always pray. A widow constantly seeking justice for herself was granted that justice because she sought after it endlessly.  God wants to help us, He wants to listen to us.  Those who are God's will *cry* to him day and night.  That cry is through prayer.

Luk 21:36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Rom 12:12  Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

Col 4:2  Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving

1Pe 4:7  But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer

PRAY!

I can't help it this is on my mind endlessly it would seem--

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

God is trying to impress this upon me and by HIS grace it will happen. I need to go to him for all things, not just the things I deem prayer worthy.  Are we guilty of seeking God more when we are confronted with problems? Do we seek Him less when things are going well in our lives? Is it more normal to cry out than to praise?  We are to make requests of God, we are to use supplication with our God, and we are to THANK God.  All of these- prayer, supplication, thanksgiving- our requests.

We need God's peace which will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus!

Is your heart and mind kept by God's peace? Think about that, how wonderful it must be.

Please, Lord, please we cry out to you, we entreat you, we thank you!  Let your peace KEEP our hearts and minds!  We can't keep our heart and mind by ourselves. Is it any wonder we have so much trouble with our minds and hearts? We are way too busy trying to keep them ourselves.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE and WILL of our LORD JESUS CHRIST! Please, Lord, please! Save us from ourselves! Thank you!

Rejoice!

Rejoice! 

Dictionary definition-  Rejoice definition, to be glad; take delight (often followed by in): to rejoice in another's happiness

1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore. 

We are told to rejoice evermore. What are we to rejoice in?

2Co 6:10  As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing…

We are told to always rejoice even when we are sorrowful.   A contradiction?  Seeing the newly grieving widow smile- a contradiction? Watching as one who has lost everything, smiles- a contradiction? What are these people that they can smile amid personal disaster? Have you ever smiled while your life has fallen apart? We do smile not because we are happy about the awful circumstances in our life, but because perhaps a wonderful memory causes us a moments happiness, or perhaps the slip of knowledge that life does go on with others around us has us looking a bit to the future.  Maybe that smile is from the hope that the one thing in our life that cannot be taken from us is still with us- the hope found in our Savior. We can be sorrowful and yet rejoice in the hope we have in Christ.  It is a very sad world we live in, yet this world is not where our hope is placed. While this world brings tears, torrents of tears, not just once in our life but over and over again, the hope of a better world in Christ remains. The knowledge that this is not where our hope is place gives comfort.  So when our lives are destroyed in so many various ways we can tell ourselves that this life is temporary to eternity, and take solace in the future when there will be absolutely nothing to bring us any sorrow every again- this is hope.

Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. 

We rejoice not in ourselves, or our circumstances because our circumstances can change in a moment. We rejoice in the unchangeable, we rejoice in the Lord always!

Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. 

We rejoice through persecution- physical, mental, emotional persecution- we rejoice because we comprehend those who are Christ's will be tortured so just as He was abused. We rejoice because we know heaven is the reward of the suffering.

Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. 

Again, we do not rejoice even when we are used of God for His work, but we rejoice in HEAVEN. We do not rejoice in anything fully but our SAVIOR. The danger of rejoicing in anything other than salvation through our Savior is having those other things taken from us, whereas our Savior and the salvation He offers, the heaven He offers can NEVER be taken from us, never.

Rom 12:12  Rejoicing in hope…

We rejoice in HOPE.

Our hope is Christ!

1Ti_1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope

Tit_1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began

Tit_2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ

1Pe_1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

1Pe_1:13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ

1Pe_1:21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

May we truly find our rejoicing in CHRIST, our Hope in our Savior, in the promise of heaven.

All in HIS LOVE!

Admonition

Do we… warn the unruly? Or do we laugh at them and make excuses for their behavior? Do we call the unruly acceptable, ignoring them because their behavior is commonplace? Do we get a bit frightened around the unruly, afraid to warn them for fear of their retaliation? Do we simple believe it is not our place to warn anyone? Maybe we think that warning the unruly is for another day and age, another time and place, not here in our world in 2017.

Do we…comfort the feebleminded?

Do we…support the weak?

Are we… patient with all? Truly, are we patient with all?  What sort of patience do we possess? Do we have internal patience? Seriously, often we may appear patient but are we seething inwardly? Maybe we imagine we score points (so to speak) when we hide our impatience from others.  God sees all of us. God knows our heart. God knows our every thought. We need even our hidden faults to be given over to God. Do we have patience towards all in all ways?"

Do we tend to render evil for evil? If someone does us wrong we wrong them in kind? How simple and easy it is for us to respond to wrong doing by lashing out, by hurting those who hurt us. We call it a natural reaction, we call it being human, we call it normal and to be expected. We excuse such behavior in ourselves and in others, we do it because it is our natural tendency to behave in a way contrary to God ways.  Would we have to be reminded to behave in certain ways if those ways were natural to us? If we automatically were patient we wouldn't have to be told to be patient. But we are given admonitions because we aren't naturally inclined to do what we should.

Let us heed the warnings given to us and by the grace of God seek to obey the instructions we are given. When we fail to behave as we should, we need to seek forgiveness and also seek to listen in the future.

By GOD'S grace may we do all He instructs us to do, and not excuse the things we don't do by believing they no longer matter to God. Who are we to discount the word of God?  Jesus would have us follow Him and His way, Jesus made known to mankind the heart of God. Let us live for our Savior! 

Help us Lord, help us! 

1Th 5:12  And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 

1Th 5:13  And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. 

1Th 5:14  Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. 

1Th 5:15  See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. 

1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore. 

1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing. 

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit. 

1Th 5:20  Despise not prophesyings. 

1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 

1Th 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil. 

1Th 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

1Th 5:24  Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. 

1Th 5:25  Brethren, pray for us. 

1Th 5:26  Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. 

1Th 5:27  I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. 

1Th 5:28  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. The first epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Athens. 

In Spirit

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

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God is a Spirit-  what does that mean to you? The Spirit exists from everlasting to everlasting.  The Spirit goes beyond our flesh and soul-self. We've talked about this before but it needs more discussion. If we are to worship God in spirit we need to know what the Spirit is, right? God is a Spirit. God exists and God's declared Son gave up His Spirit form and took on the flesh of humanity.  Yet, humanity is more than the flesh. Jesus gave up His unique sole Spirit form and took on the human form and all it is comprised of. The human being has flesh, soul, and spirit.  Jesus was flesh, soul, and spirit. So even though He gave up His Spirit form He gained another form of the spirit, the same form of the spirit we all possess. Jesus lived by the Spirit, His spirit was never overcome by His soul-self or flesh-self. He worshipped God the Father in spirit fully.  Jesus gives us a new birth - a spiritual birth.

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

We who are flesh, soul-self, and spirit are born anew in the spirit when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Our spirit is once more able to reign over our flesh and soul-self. We can once more worship God in spirit. And this spirit change is a change that will go on in us until we enter death's sleep, or until Christ returns for us. 

The war we are in, this spiritual war is a constant war for our spirit. Satan doesn't want us worshipping in spirit, Satan doesn't want us to be born again of the Spirit. Satan would destroy us in spirit so that our soul-self and our flesh rule over us. The battle is unending as long as we live in the state we are in now.

Our Savior won the war for us, our Savior made a path of victory for all of us. We fight in the war that has been won because we are on victory's path and that path is through the war.

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 

1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 

We will suffer as Christ suffered.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 

1Pe 5:11  To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 

More tomorrow by the grace of our God, all through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. 

Continual Sorrow

Rom 9:2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 

Imagine….great heaviness and continual sorrow in our hearts.

Yet we are Christians and we are told to count it all joy when we fall into different temptations.

Jas_1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations

Joy and sorrow.  This is the life of a Christian. It is the life of our Savior.

Our Savior wasn't all doom and gloom. 

Joh 15:9  As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 

Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 

Joh 15:11  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 

Joh 15:12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 

Joh 15:13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 

Joy.

Luk 10:21  In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 

Rejoicing.

Jesus was not void of happiness, and neither should we be.  Likewise, Jesus was not without sadness, and weeping. 

In all things Jesus was ever mindful of the will of His Father, the will He was in complete agreement with. He created us with the ability to experience emotions. Did He want us to experience the emotions that are detrimental to us? No. He didn't want us to take on the burden of knowing evil, beyond the realization of its existence as something to be shunned. We chose to learn of evil in all its depths. When Satan said this--

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 

Gen 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 

He told Eve that if she ate that forbidden fruit her eyes - her understanding- would be opened and she would be like god- she would know good and evil. 

Up to that point she didn't know evil at all, this evil thing was a complete mystery. She did know this--

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

Now, if I told you that you would die, and you knew nothing of death you'd want a bit of clarification, yes? God would NOT give a command void of comprehension.  He impressed upon Adam the knowledge of death as something to be shunned. He told him that he shall NOT eat of that tree. He told Him it was the tree of KNOWLEDGE of GOOD and EVIL. 

We all know what it is like to be told not to do something, and then we do it, and later we wish we had listened and not done what we'd been told not to do.  Adam had NOTHING but good surrounding Him, all His needs were met completely. Eve was the same, all her needs were met.  Satan tempted her into believing that she needed more than what she currently possessed. This knowledge of the thing called evil and the fact knowing of evil would make her something more than what she was penetrated something inside her and she let the temptation become conceived in herself.

God the Father and God the declared Son did NOT want us to know evil and the things that evil brings with it- but we chose otherwise.  As the Son took on flesh in that flesh He knew the sorrow of the flesh in the way we know it and His sorrow was great.   Is it any wonder the Apostle had continual sorrow? Is it any wonder that we too have continual sorrow, an underlying sorrow that will lie beneath any joy we may have.

Living without Christ as Christians longing for His return is amazing because we KNOW He will return for us, and be in us and love us right now, but it is still LIVING in a world filled with HORROR, with EVIL beyond imagining. We ARE pilgrims here, we are longing for a BETTER WORLD we know exists in Christ.

Yes, we continually sorrow as we continually HOPE.

Please, Lord, come soon! Please!

Let us be found in YOU now and forever!

Sinners, of whom I am chief.

Were the Apostles filled with the Holy Spirit?

Act 1:24  And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, 

Act 1:25  That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. 

Act 1:26  And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. 

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 

Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 

Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 

Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The answer to the above question is yes. The Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Apostles were leading lives in the Spirit, they were Spiritual Men.

Were their lives easy because they were Spiritual Men?

Paul speaking--

2Co 11:24  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 

2Co 11:25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 

2Co 11:26  In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 

2Co 11:27  In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 

2Co 11:28  Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 

2Co 11:29  Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 

2Co 11:30  If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 

2Co 11:31  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. 

2Co 11:32  In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: 

2Co 11:33  And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands. 

2Co 6:3  Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: 

2Co 6:4  But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 

2Co 6:5  In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; 

2Co 6:6  By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 

2Co 6:7  By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 

2Co 6:8  By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; 

2Co 6:9  As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; 

2Co 6:10  As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. 

2Co 6:11  O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. 

2Co 6:12  Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. 

2Co 6:13  Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged. 

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 

Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 

Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 

Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. 

The Apostles lives were FAR from easy because they were Spiritual Men. They didn't have easy, carefree lives. Yes, they trusted in the Lord, yet they remained men, they did NOT become Gods. If we are looking to become something unique and special, with amazing powers to live a spiritual life in some inexplicable way then we are being deceived!  If we are waiting for some miraculous change to take place in ourselves so that we are no longer ourselves, we are being fooled. We will forever be who we are and we can be no other than who we are in our personalities, in our essential being. The things we despise in ourselves and consider unspiritual, unseemly, ungodly are the things we need to pray on and relinquish, to fight the war upon without ceasing. We must seek forgiveness often never getting to a place we believe we no longer are in need of forgiveness. Being a Spiritual Man is NOT asking to be someone else, someone alien to us, but rather it is asking to be exactly who we are as well as a full on Christian warrior in the spiritual battle being raged all about us.

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'A Christian must be delivered from every misconception with respect to spiritual life. He often surmises, before he enters the spiritual sphere, that if only he could be as spiritual as his brother how happy he would be! He visualizes the spiritual odyssey as a most happy affair; and so he contemplates spending his days in perfect joy. Little does he know that the opposite is the truth. The spiritual path does not yield any enjoyment to the person himself; it is instead a life of daily fighting. To remove warfare from a spiritual life is to render it unspiritual. Life in the spirit is a suffering way, filled with watching and laboring, burdened by weariness and trial, punctuated by heartbreak and conflict. It is a life utterly outpoured entirely for the kingdom of God and lived in complete disregard for one’s personal happiness. When a Christian is carnal he lives towards himself and for his own “spiritual” enjoyment.'  The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

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Deliver us, Lord from every single misconception we have about what it means to be Yours. Help us to be YOURS wholly, fully YOURS. Work in us, do all for us we cannot ever do. Save us from all that is in us which would keep us from belonging to You! We would be YOURS! All though Jesus Christ our LORD our SAVIOR now and forever!

AMEN.

Spiritual Warfare.

Resisting the devil is not easy.  Those who are not engaged in the battle are already won and will find very little warring against them. Those who do not fight the spiritual fight can scarcely comprehend the fight as a reality in others. Those who do fight the spiritual fight can understand just how important it is for us to resist the devil- we know that resisting the devil is a REAL thing, not something manufactured by actors on tv and in movies, or authors in fictional books.  We are in a battle and in our battle the war is for our spirit and its suppression. Satan will take control over our spirit if we do not engage in the battle, if we do not resist, if we do not avail ourselves of the weapons and protection given to us by God. God WILL provide all we need to live for Him, may we by HIS grace and mercy, comprehend what He has provided and utilize His gifts to us.

In His love!

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'How shall we resist? With the Word of God which is the Sword of the Holy Spirit. As a believer receives God’s Word it becomes “spirit and life” to him. Hence he can employ this as his weapon of resistance. A heavenly believer knows how to use the Word of God advantageously to break down the enemy’s lie. Even now a battle is raging in the world of the spirit. Though unobserved by the eyes of the flesh, it is sensed and proven by those who are seeking heavenly progress.'  The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 

Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Eph 6:17  …and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God