I know you feel like there is no reason to smile. I know things have been hard for more than awhile. I know you feel lost, feel like a failure and more. I know you are beginning to wonder what life is for. I know you are sad and feeling bad and wish you had a simple way out. I know you need a break, or someone to take the burden you carry quietly around. I can tell you things will get better, and that in the end whether or not you suffer peace is what you will have found. I can tell you it has a point and that hard times are lessons for us all. But I'd much rather tell you if you need it I'm here to lift you everytime you fall. Because you are precious, special, you are a gift, you my friend are a blessing that would truly be missed. So wipe those tears away, hang in there for another day, because your moment is coming and I promise it's not far away
The students looked at the Grandmaster with curiosity and amazement. They had never seen him like this before. What was he going to do? He stood in the entrance of the Cage of Life, feet spread apart, and breathing deeply as he surveyed the scene. He had climbed the steep paths of Mount Moriah with his students in great anticipation. They were approaching the house of God; the Temple of the most High, and the Spirit of God that rested upon him quickened his pulse as they came near to this great symbolic structure. He had just recently defeated Satan in the Eternity Fighting Champion “Battle in the Wilderness” and returned in the power of the Spirit. He had come to the Temple with great expectation in his heart.
What a disappointment as he stood in the doorway and looked around on this scene of confusion. Oxen were bawling, sheep were bleating, some doves had gotten loose and were flying wildly through the temple seeking a way out, and the stench of manure was nauseating. Fighters were throwing punches over money, tempers were flaring, and hard words were flying back and forth. Here and there pious fighters were vainly seeking a quiet place in which practice prayer submissions. The Temple priestly fighters, oblivious to the confusion, were making a great show of religious form in their long robes. Proud Pharisees stood in the center of the cage and loudly prayed their long and eloquent prayers.
The Fight Begins
It was this scene that the Grandmaster now surveyed. He takes off his shirt and girds up his trunks. He looked just outside the cage and saw a pile of small cords that had been discarded. Picking them up, he began to braid them into a whip until he had a good sized scourge. He did not speak to his students; in fact he seemed to have forgotten them. His jaw was set, and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He made a loop on the end of the scourge and looped it around his wrist, took a firm grip on it and stepped forward inside the Cage and shut the door. A word of caution rose to Andrew's lips, and he started to reach for the Master to stop him. But James pulled Andrew back and said: "Let him alone, I feel that God is in this."
Suddenly he was striding among the sheep and cattle, untying them and shouting at them, wielding the scourge, driving them toward the main entrance of the temple. Each time he passed a cage full of doves, he opened the latch, turned it upside down and dumped the doves out. At first the sinful fighters did not know what was happening, and then there was complete confusion and chaos. Some ran to try to stop the beasts from running outside, but to no avail. Others finally saw who it was that was causing the commotion, and ran to stop him. One grabbed him by the arm and swung him around. There was an anointed glow on his face mixed with the dust and sweat as he turned to face them.
They reeled backward several steps in awe and fear as his voice sounded forth with authority:
"Take these things out of here; how dare you make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!" (John 2:16)
With that he began kicking the tables of the moneychangers, and piles of coins both foreign and Jewish began to scatter across the temple floor. As coins began rolling about, the merchants frantically chased them here and there, trying to gather up their profits. The multitudes that gathered to watch the fight began to jeer at the merchants on their hands and knees picking up their money, and applauded this courageous Anointed Fighter that had done what many knew should have been done long ago.
Jesus stood in the center of the cage and began to teach. Part of the students were busy helping to get the last of the sheep and doves out of the temple, while John, James, Peter, and a couple others gathered around Jesus as he taught. John whispered to his brother: "I heard the chief priests and scribes talking about killing the Master. We had better stick close to him in case there is trouble." But there was no trouble. The power of his words held them at bay.
"My house shall be called a house of prayer" he said, "but you have made it a den of thieves!” (Matthew 2:13).
He looked boldly in the direction of the chief priests at the edge of the crows. The temple had never before seen such a day as this.
A Scourge of Small Cords
John says that he made a scourge of small cords. Thank God for the "small Anointed fight camps" today that He is binding together to use as a ministry in His hand to defend souls and cleanse His Temple. For all that took place in that time is a picture of what God is doing in these last days in the purifying of the house of God.
It was a great day for scientists when they were able to lift a rocket above the earth, through the heat and friction barrier, into a realm in space where earth gravity had no pull upon it. There were many obstacles to overcome to do this. Tremendous heat had to be dealt with, caused by the friction set up by an object passing through the air at unbelievable speeds. As the object ascended into the higher heavens, it passed through a radiation belt, coming into contact with forces that would melt and destroy ordinary materials. Until finally it burst through to outer space where there was no friction, no resistance to motion, and absolute weightlessness. Earth no longer had any pull or attraction for it.
Let me tell you this, dear ones, that there are Anointed Fighters right now being brought by the Spirit into heavenly realms where powers of darkness are setting up terrific forces to try to destroy them. But, thank God, these are not made of "ordinary substance." They are called and ordained of God, anointed by His Spirit, and lifted by divine energy into realms never before attained by Adam's race. To say that there is great opposition to their ascension is putting it mildly. Tremendous heat and friction is being generated by powers of darkness in a desperate warfare against Anointed Fighters who are ascending into realms long held by Satan. Thrones are being cast down, the powers of heaven are shaking, and great fear pervades throughout Satan's kingdom. The hordes of hell have not known such a shaking since Jesus arose from the grave and ascended into the heavenlies, defeating every power of the enemy, and putting Satan to an open shame. Now is the time, the generation is here, for the consummation of the battle of the ages. Overcomers and saintly warriors of all ages who defeated the enemy by faith, in other realms, are now awaiting the final thrust... the breakthrough into an unlimited realm in God! Delete Comment
Far too many Anointed Fighters have been beat down inside the cage of life by the evil one and are feeling dirty, worthless and ashamed of themselves. As a result, they feel unclean and therefore unworthy to approach God and have the champion relationship that He wants to have with them! Shame knocks out our intimacy with God because it makes us feel unworthy and distant from Him.
What is the difference between guilt and shame?
Guilt is what takes place when a fighter realizes their failure. False guilt, which is one of Satan's best punches, is where the sin has been repented of and forgiven, but he still wants us to feel guilty or see ourselves associated with our pasts. We are speaking of false guilt, because true guilt should prompt the fighter to repent and turn from their sin, but false guilt is what Satan uses to knock out countless Anointed Fighters around the world.
While guilt is seeing what you've done, shame is seeing yourself as a failure because of what you've done. Guilt is looking at the sin, shame is looking at yourself. If you allow yourself to meditate upon guilt, it will turn into shame. Guilt, if not properly dealt with, turns into a stronghold called shame.
Meditating on false guilt builds strongholds
If we continue to leave our hands down and allow the enemy to punch us in the face with our past failures, it will wear us down spiritually, and the next thing the enemy aims at is getting the picture of ourselves distorted. He wants us to look at our past failures so much that we begin to see ourselves as failures!
Anybody who has been thinking about their past sins for long will begin to see themselves as dirty sinners and failures. The complete opposite of what they really are, providing they have repented of their sins and turned to God!
Shame is one of those things that the Bible speaks of as an imagination that must be knocked out:
2 Corinthians 10:4-5,"(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
An imagination is an image in your mind that is incorrect. If you see yourself as a failure, when you're actually a blood-washed champion of God in Christ... you've got an imagination that needs to be knocked out!
Shame is very destructive to our relationship with God
There is a good reason Satan wants us to feel like failures and dirty sinners. Feeling that way keeps us from confidently approaching God's throne and having a champion relationship with Him! The Bible tells us that the blood of Jesus was shed so that we can confidently approach an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father:
Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
God wants us to draw near to Him with a clean conscience that has been freed from dead works!
Hebrews 9:14, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
Even look at the Anointed Fighter Paul, the chief of sinners, he even made it clear that he was serving God from a clean conscience!
2 Timothy 1:3, "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day."
Worship is an intimate way of expressing our relationship with God. The Bible is clear that we should approach Him with a clean conscience that has knocked out sin:
Hebrews 10:2, "For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins."
Shame and guilt are based upon deception, which is the opposite of truth. So how are we supposed to worship God in Spirit and truth, if there are imaginations hanging around in our minds that are contrary to the truth?
John 4:24,"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
How do we knock out guilt and shame?
You need to stop thinking about your past failures. Are you ignoring them? No! You are ignoring a lie, not the sin, because the sin has been dealt with and washed away. Therefore, you are meditating on something that no longer exists! If your sins are in the depths of the sea, then why are you still thinking about them?
Micah 7:19, "...he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
You need to stop focusing on the problem (which has been dealt with), and begin to praise God for the solution to the problem, and think about how you have been washed clean from those failures! Instead of meditating on a lie, begin to meditate on the truth in God's Word concerning your past failures. Here are some champion verses to get you started:
Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness."
Psalms 103:12,"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Titus 2:14,"Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from EVERY lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (NASB)
Ephesians 1:7,"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" (The word 'riches' in the Greek here means abundance and fullness!)Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus..."
Micah 7:19,"...he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
Psalms 103:2-4,"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;"
Knock out your past!
Why do you think God wanted us to be new creations? Because He did not want your past to be a part of you anymore!
2 Corinthians 5:17,"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Now that our past failures have been knocked out, we need to leave them there and press forward towards the championship God has for us:
Philippines 3:13, "...this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."
Hey Sis, Just know you n' yours are on my Prayer Hit List... Hope you have an Outstanding Day in Christ... Much Honor, Love, n' Respect 2 Ya! Be Blessed, WHEELS - "I ROLL over the Competition..." Thank You Jesus, that I can really "ROLL" over them... Satan get behind me because Im on a ROLL... All Praise, Glory, n' Honor n' Mucho Thanks Lord, You are My ROCK...
Nobody hates waiting more than I do. At Wal-mart, I use the self-checkout, because there is usually no line. Unless, of course, I commit the unpardonable crime of putting the bread on the wrong plastic bag and the machine begins yelling at me. Then, of course, I have to wait for the human to come over and fix the machine.
At the post office, I hate waiting an hour to mail a package. So I usually use the automated box that allows me to send anything slightly smaller than an elephant.
I especially don't like sitting in traffic in the Chicago suburbs, where I believe they widen the roads once every 76 years. So I have a better chance of seeing Haley's Comet than getting into the turn lane on my local highways. Nice.
So you can understand that I have an especially tough time waiting on God. He just doesn't seem to fit His plans into my rushed, hurried, panicked world. And in reading the Scriptures, I've learned that He hasn't changed.
In fact, almost all of the great men in the Bible had to wait. Some agonizingly long. Let's look at three examples.
Your Prince is Ready
Though Moses grew up in the house of Pharoah and was groomed to be the next in line for the throne, I believe he saw all of this as God raising him up to deliver his people, Israel. His mother probably had something to do with that.
As the years passed and Moses looked from the window of his stately palace and saw the oppression of his brethren, he grew more and more impatient. Finally, he acted on impulse and killed an Egyptian taskmaster.
So that meant 40 years in the wilderness. Here God's people were suffering and their future deliverer is leading sheep in the backside of the desert. Yet God wasn't delaying. He wasn't stalling. He wasn't anxious.
Finally, when Moses was broken and humble enough to be used as an instrument by God, God sent the 80-year old prince-turned-shepherd back to Egypt.
But do you see what his happening? The headlines wouldn't read, "Prince leads coup. Prince leads revolt. Prince overtakes Pharaoh." No, I wouldn't be about Moses anymore. It would be about God. How about, "God Miraculously Delivers His People."?
Dreams of Greatness
As a young man, God spoke to Joseph through dreams. In these dreams, Joseph was leading and his brothers and even world leaders were bowing at his feet. Kind of heady stuff for a teenager, don't you think? And it didn't play too well with his brothers.
But Joseph knew God was calling him to a special place. A place of impact and leadership and power.
So that's why Joseph was probably stunned and shocked when he found himself in the bottom of a pit, praying his brothers wouldn't kill him. Or when he found himself sold into a strange country, Egypt. Or when he was thrust into prison on rape charges.
Didn't seem like those dreams were panning out too well, did it? Didn't seem like God was working out His plan?
Oh, but God was working out his plan. And Joseph, while he didn't know a lot, He knew He could trust God.
Running for King
Okay, so this prophet comes to his house, dumps some oil on his head, and then whispers in his ear, "Oh by the way, you're going to be Israel's next king." But then it was back to the shepherd's fields, back to being the forgotten son and brother, back to obscurity.
David was anointed king as a teenager, but he waited 14 long years to assume the throne. And those 14 years were hard years. He was Israel's next king, but there was his madman, Saul, who was determined to see David dead and buried.
If you read the psalms you can experience David's angst. He scratched his head in wonder, "Why is God allowing Saul to do this?" "Why doesn't God just move Saul out of the way?"
But again, like Moses, like Joseph, David had to learn to trust God. And waiting, is trusting. David had to be broken, humble, and read to lead God's people.
Do you see a pattern developing here? God often gives his people a dream, a desire, a calling and then puts them through a period of waiting.
It is in this waiting where your real courage and character are forged. It is in this period of uncertainty that you're life takes on a whole new dimension. You learn how to trust God. You learn to lean on God. You learn what's important and what's not important.
So if you're like me and you really hate to wait, know that waiting is trusting.
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I know you feel like there is no reason to smile. I know things have been hard for more than awhile. I know you feel lost, feel like a failure and more. I know you are beginning to wonder what life is for. I know you are sad and feeling bad and wish you had a simple way out. I know you need a break, or someone to take the burden you carry quietly around. I can tell you things will get better, and that in the end whether or not you suffer peace is what you will have found. I can tell you it has a point and that hard times are lessons for us all. But I'd much rather tell you if you need it I'm here to lift you everytime you fall. Because you are precious, special, you are a gift, you my friend are a blessing that would truly be missed. So wipe those tears away, hang in there for another day, because your moment is coming and I promise it's not far away
Hi Zeal!
It's great to see that your still on here! It's been a long time! How have you been?
The students looked at the Grandmaster with curiosity and amazement. They had never seen him like this before. What was he going to do? He stood in the entrance of the Cage of Life, feet spread apart, and breathing deeply as he surveyed the scene. He had climbed the steep paths of Mount Moriah with his students in great anticipation. They were approaching the house of God; the Temple of the most High, and the Spirit of God that rested upon him quickened his pulse as they came near to this great symbolic structure. He had just recently defeated Satan in the Eternity Fighting Champion “Battle in the Wilderness” and returned in the power of the Spirit. He had come to the Temple with great expectation in his heart.
What a disappointment as he stood in the doorway and looked around on this scene of confusion. Oxen were bawling, sheep were bleating, some doves had gotten loose and were flying wildly through the temple seeking a way out, and the stench of manure was nauseating. Fighters were throwing punches over money, tempers were flaring, and hard words were flying back and forth. Here and there pious fighters were vainly seeking a quiet place in which practice prayer submissions. The Temple priestly fighters, oblivious to the confusion, were making a great show of religious form in their long robes. Proud Pharisees stood in the center of the cage and loudly prayed their long and eloquent prayers.
The Fight Begins
It was this scene that the Grandmaster now surveyed. He takes off his shirt and girds up his trunks. He looked just outside the cage and saw a pile of small cords that had been discarded. Picking them up, he began to braid them into a whip until he had a good sized scourge. He did not speak to his students; in fact he seemed to have forgotten them. His jaw was set, and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He made a loop on the end of the scourge and looped it around his wrist, took a firm grip on it and stepped forward inside the Cage and shut the door. A word of caution rose to Andrew's lips, and he started to reach for the Master to stop him. But James pulled Andrew back and said: "Let him alone, I feel that God is in this."
Suddenly he was striding among the sheep and cattle, untying them and shouting at them, wielding the scourge, driving them toward the main entrance of the temple. Each time he passed a cage full of doves, he opened the latch, turned it upside down and dumped the doves out. At first the sinful fighters did not know what was happening, and then there was complete confusion and chaos. Some ran to try to stop the beasts from running outside, but to no avail. Others finally saw who it was that was causing the commotion, and ran to stop him. One grabbed him by the arm and swung him around. There was an anointed glow on his face mixed with the dust and sweat as he turned to face them.
They reeled backward several steps in awe and fear as his voice sounded forth with authority:
"Take these things out of here; how dare you make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!" (John 2:16)
With that he began kicking the tables of the moneychangers, and piles of coins both foreign and Jewish began to scatter across the temple floor. As coins began rolling about, the merchants frantically chased them here and there, trying to gather up their profits. The multitudes that gathered to watch the fight began to jeer at the merchants on their hands and knees picking up their money, and applauded this courageous Anointed Fighter that had done what many knew should have been done long ago.
Jesus stood in the center of the cage and began to teach. Part of the students were busy helping to get the last of the sheep and doves out of the temple, while John, James, Peter, and a couple others gathered around Jesus as he taught. John whispered to his brother: "I heard the chief priests and scribes talking about killing the Master. We had better stick close to him in case there is trouble." But there was no trouble. The power of his words held them at bay.
"My house shall be called a house of prayer" he said, "but you have made it a den of thieves!” (Matthew 2:13).
He looked boldly in the direction of the chief priests at the edge of the crows. The temple had never before seen such a day as this.
A Scourge of Small Cords
John says that he made a scourge of small cords. Thank God for the "small Anointed fight camps" today that He is binding together to use as a ministry in His hand to defend souls and cleanse His Temple. For all that took place in that time is a picture of what God is doing in these last days in the purifying of the house of God.
It was a great day for scientists when they were able to lift a rocket above the earth, through the heat and friction barrier, into a realm in space where earth gravity had no pull upon it. There were many obstacles to overcome to do this. Tremendous heat had to be dealt with, caused by the friction set up by an object passing through the air at unbelievable speeds. As the object ascended into the higher heavens, it passed through a radiation belt, coming into contact with forces that would melt and destroy ordinary materials. Until finally it burst through to outer space where there was no friction, no resistance to motion, and absolute weightlessness. Earth no longer had any pull or attraction for it.
Let me tell you this, dear ones, that there are Anointed Fighters right now being brought by the Spirit into heavenly realms where powers of darkness are setting up terrific forces to try to destroy them. But, thank God, these are not made of "ordinary substance." They are called and ordained of God, anointed by His Spirit, and lifted by divine energy into realms never before attained by Adam's race. To say that there is great opposition to their ascension is putting it mildly. Tremendous heat and friction is being generated by powers of darkness in a desperate warfare against Anointed Fighters who are ascending into realms long held by Satan. Thrones are being cast down, the powers of heaven are shaking, and great fear pervades throughout Satan's kingdom. The hordes of hell have not known such a shaking since Jesus arose from the grave and ascended into the heavenlies, defeating every power of the enemy, and putting Satan to an open shame. Now is the time, the generation is here, for the consummation of the battle of the ages. Overcomers and saintly warriors of all ages who defeated the enemy by faith, in other realms, are now awaiting the final thrust... the breakthrough into an unlimited realm in God! Delete Comment
Far too many Anointed Fighters have been beat down inside the cage of life by the evil one and are feeling dirty, worthless and ashamed of themselves. As a result, they feel unclean and therefore unworthy to approach God and have the champion relationship that He wants to have with them! Shame knocks out our intimacy with God because it makes us feel unworthy and distant from Him.
What is the difference between guilt and shame?
Guilt is what takes place when a fighter realizes their failure. False guilt, which is one of Satan's best punches, is where the sin has been repented of and forgiven, but he still wants us to feel guilty or see ourselves associated with our pasts. We are speaking of false guilt, because true guilt should prompt the fighter to repent and turn from their sin, but false guilt is what Satan uses to knock out countless Anointed Fighters around the world.
While guilt is seeing what you've done, shame is seeing yourself as a failure because of what you've done. Guilt is looking at the sin, shame is looking at yourself. If you allow yourself to meditate upon guilt, it will turn into shame. Guilt, if not properly dealt with, turns into a stronghold called shame.
Meditating on false guilt builds strongholds
If we continue to leave our hands down and allow the enemy to punch us in the face with our past failures, it will wear us down spiritually, and the next thing the enemy aims at is getting the picture of ourselves distorted. He wants us to look at our past failures so much that we begin to see ourselves as failures!
Anybody who has been thinking about their past sins for long will begin to see themselves as dirty sinners and failures. The complete opposite of what they really are, providing they have repented of their sins and turned to God!
Shame is one of those things that the Bible speaks of as an imagination that must be knocked out:
2 Corinthians 10:4-5, "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
An imagination is an image in your mind that is incorrect. If you see yourself as a failure, when you're actually a blood-washed champion of God in Christ... you've got an imagination that needs to be knocked out!
Shame is very destructive to our relationship with God
There is a good reason Satan wants us to feel like failures and dirty sinners. Feeling that way keeps us from confidently approaching God's throne and having a champion relationship with Him! The Bible tells us that the blood of Jesus was shed so that we can confidently approach an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father:
Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
God wants us to draw near to Him with a clean conscience that has been freed from dead works!
Hebrews 9:14, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
Even look at the Anointed Fighter Paul, the chief of sinners, he even made it clear that he was serving God from a clean conscience!
2 Timothy 1:3, "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day."
Worship is an intimate way of expressing our relationship with God. The Bible is clear that we should approach Him with a clean conscience that has knocked out sin:
Hebrews 10:2, "For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins."
Shame and guilt are based upon deception, which is the opposite of truth. So how are we supposed to worship God in Spirit and truth, if there are imaginations hanging around in our minds that are contrary to the truth?
John 4:24, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
How do we knock out guilt and shame?
You need to stop thinking about your past failures. Are you ignoring them? No! You are ignoring a lie, not the sin, because the sin has been dealt with and washed away. Therefore, you are meditating on something that no longer exists! If your sins are in the depths of the sea, then why are you still thinking about them?
Micah 7:19, "...he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
You need to stop focusing on the problem (which has been dealt with), and begin to praise God for the solution to the problem, and think about how you have been washed clean from those failures! Instead of meditating on a lie, begin to meditate on the truth in God's Word concerning your past failures. Here are some champion verses to get you started:
Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness."
Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Titus 2:14, "Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from EVERY lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (NASB)
Ephesians 1:7, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" (The word 'riches' in the Greek here means abundance and fullness!)Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus..."
Micah 7:19, "...he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
Psalms 103:2-4, "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;"
Knock out your past!
Why do you think God wanted us to be new creations? Because He did not want your past to be a part of you anymore!
2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Now that our past failures have been knocked out, we need to leave them there and press forward towards the championship God has for us:
Philippines 3:13, "...this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."
Daniel Darling
Nobody hates waiting more than I do. At Wal-mart, I use the self-checkout, because there is usually no line. Unless, of course, I commit the unpardonable crime of putting the bread on the wrong plastic bag and the machine begins yelling at me. Then, of course, I have to wait for the human to come over and fix the machine.
At the post office, I hate waiting an hour to mail a package. So I usually use the automated box that allows me to send anything slightly smaller than an elephant.
I especially don't like sitting in traffic in the Chicago suburbs, where I believe they widen the roads once every 76 years. So I have a better chance of seeing Haley's Comet than getting into the turn lane on my local highways. Nice.
So you can understand that I have an especially tough time waiting on God. He just doesn't seem to fit His plans into my rushed, hurried, panicked world. And in reading the Scriptures, I've learned that He hasn't changed.
In fact, almost all of the great men in the Bible had to wait. Some agonizingly long. Let's look at three examples.
Your Prince is Ready
Though Moses grew up in the house of Pharoah and was groomed to be the next in line for the throne, I believe he saw all of this as God raising him up to deliver his people, Israel. His mother probably had something to do with that.
As the years passed and Moses looked from the window of his stately palace and saw the oppression of his brethren, he grew more and more impatient. Finally, he acted on impulse and killed an Egyptian taskmaster.
So that meant 40 years in the wilderness. Here God's people were suffering and their future deliverer is leading sheep in the backside of the desert. Yet God wasn't delaying. He wasn't stalling. He wasn't anxious.
Finally, when Moses was broken and humble enough to be used as an instrument by God, God sent the 80-year old prince-turned-shepherd back to Egypt.
But do you see what his happening? The headlines wouldn't read, "Prince leads coup. Prince leads revolt. Prince overtakes Pharaoh." No, I wouldn't be about Moses anymore. It would be about God. How about, "God Miraculously Delivers His People."?
Dreams of Greatness
As a young man, God spoke to Joseph through dreams. In these dreams, Joseph was leading and his brothers and even world leaders were bowing at his feet. Kind of heady stuff for a teenager, don't you think? And it didn't play too well with his brothers.
But Joseph knew God was calling him to a special place. A place of impact and leadership and power.
So that's why Joseph was probably stunned and shocked when he found himself in the bottom of a pit, praying his brothers wouldn't kill him. Or when he found himself sold into a strange country, Egypt. Or when he was thrust into prison on rape charges.
Didn't seem like those dreams were panning out too well, did it? Didn't seem like God was working out His plan?
Oh, but God was working out his plan. And Joseph, while he didn't know a lot, He knew He could trust God.
Running for King
Okay, so this prophet comes to his house, dumps some oil on his head, and then whispers in his ear, "Oh by the way, you're going to be Israel's next king." But then it was back to the shepherd's fields, back to being the forgotten son and brother, back to obscurity.
David was anointed king as a teenager, but he waited 14 long years to assume the throne. And those 14 years were hard years. He was Israel's next king, but there was his madman, Saul, who was determined to see David dead and buried.
If you read the psalms you can experience David's angst. He scratched his head in wonder, "Why is God allowing Saul to do this?" "Why doesn't God just move Saul out of the way?"
But again, like Moses, like Joseph, David had to learn to trust God. And waiting, is trusting. David had to be broken, humble, and read to lead God's people.
Do you see a pattern developing here? God often gives his people a dream, a desire, a calling and then puts them through a period of waiting.
It is in this waiting where your real courage and character are forged. It is in this period of uncertainty that you're life takes on a whole new dimension. You learn how to trust God. You learn to lean on God. You learn what's important and what's not important.
So if you're like me and you really hate to wait, know that waiting is trusting.
Steven is good he just won his last fight Saturday he is now 4-1!
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