STANDING IN THE MIDST OF A STORM (Part 1)

TO DAY I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT STANDING IN THE MIDST OF A STORM.

Credit: Pasavign deviantart.com

 Kings 4: 12-26 2 Kings 4:18–20Philippians 4:8

Life is filled with storms—moments that test our faith, strength, and endurance. The enemy’s goal is always the same: to steal, kill, and destroy. Most importantly, he wants to destroy your faith. Storms are designed to paralyze you—physically, emotionally, and mentally. They often leave you feeling helpless. But as believers, we must remember that storms are not sent by God. If Jesus rebuked the storm at sea, then we can also rebuke the storms that rise against us.

The Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4 faced an unimaginable storm when her son suddenly died. At first, she did not know what to do. But she knew one thing—the presence of God was with the man of God. She laid her son in the prophet’s room and declared, “It is well,” even before she saw the miracle. Her words reflected her faith in God’s power to turn her situation around.

Key Points to Remember:

1. The enemy targets your faith to keep you from walking in the authority God has given you.

2. Negative words and thoughts can open doors to fear and defeat—guard your words carefully.

3. Real faith rests on God’s Word regardless of circumstances or evidence.

Summary:

Storms will come, but they don’t define you—your response does. Like the Shunammite woman,

keep your confession rooted in faith and truth. Declare “It is well” even in the darkest hour, because faith always opens the door to God’s power.

 

AN IMPORTANT KEY TO SONSHIP PART II

On our last session we talked about;  

UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF SON SHIP! 

 Today we are exploring Authority, one of the keys to sonship.  I want to show you another side of who you are and the power and authority that lies in every believer.  

Let's start in the book of Genesis in 1:26, and 27  It says  "and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.   So God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them."

In these two verses we see who we are as sons of God. When you look at this verse you see that you were created in the image of God. The word in Hebrew for create is bara; which means to create, shape, fashion.  We were originally fashioned in the image of God not birthed.  To be birthed you have to come from a womb.   Man was fashioned or made in the image and likeness of God. God is spirit and so is man.  He gave him power as a spirit being, to have dominion over the earth.

1.  Man was given a body to have authority in the earth and a spirit to have authority in the spirit world.
The late Charles Capps talks about this in his book Authority in Three Worlds.
 A. The fact that God formed Adam from the spirit made him a son of God.
 B.  He put his very image and likeness in him and gave him power in the earth.

2. Adam had  direct access to God and the heavens. He gave man dominion over the earth, his assignment was to rule and conquer everything in the earth.  Adam did not have to use physical strength but his words had power. He was created just like his father God, and he was given wisdom by the father. Just look at what he did.  He named all the animals in the earth.
 A. In Gen 3:8  And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.  ⁹ And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?   ¹⁰ And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 
¹¹ And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
In this scripture we where Adam was in direct communication with God. It was not just a voice walk in the garden but God was their.
He had access to him.
B. the fact that Adam hid himself from God present,let you know he could see God in a face to face relationship.
C. He know after his eyes were open to sin that he could not look on God in a face to face way anymore and live.
 
3. I want you to see something in the Word that God has done.  He has given us the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father has sent in Jesus name,  His job is to teach you all things and to bring all things to your remembrance. I want  to stop and look at the word teach here  in the Greek it is Didasko; either from daio or dao. To know or teach, to instruct by word of  mouth.  Didakos had inherent in the calculation of the increase in understanding of the student. The  student hears for the purpose of  understanding and  to learn.  When you look at what the  job of the Spirit, it is to teach you in a supernatural way, that gives you divine understanding  of what is in God's mind. 
A.   This was because of sin which broke the mans original knowledge in the spirit.   God has given knowledge back  too man through the birth of the Holy Ghost in us. There is more that I will share on this matter at a later time.

4. I want to deal with the key of speech as a son of God.   In the book of Matthew 8:5-10 and Luke 7:2-10 we have an account of  the centurion. In these accounts Jesus is teaching a principle about knowledge of authority. The centurion had a knowledge of authority.  He understood that when a word is spoken from a position of  authority, it must be performed according to the decree.  That is the power of your words, when you know you have authority you act on it by saying what you want to happen. When you understand this you have and the ability decree a thing. You are now walking in sonship in the Kingdom.

A. Our problem is in the receiving it , and understanding how to apply it.  It's like when you are going to the doctor he gives you a prescription and he tells you to take this pill three or four times a day and you will recover. We do what the doctor says because we believe him. But because it was written in the Bible,and we did not hear God say it physically our senses take over.   Our body and our mind takes over and what happen, is we are controled by our through's our emotion's and feelings.

B. We fail to get what has already been paid for us.  The reason is because of our mind our thought process has to be changed we have to do it by the Word of God. Romans 12:2 talks about being transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Our mind is the third strongest weapon we have outside of our words.  You ask the question what do you mean by this statement!
It simple when a person make up their mind about a certain thing or situation they will do it, or they will not do it. Your mind will control a lot of what you believe until you start operating out of your spirit. That is one of the jobs of the Holy Ghost, but we have to walk after the spirit this something we must chose to do.
 C. That is where our mind come into play, we must not let the thought of our feeling and the thought of the enemy take hold of us. You see this play out when Jesus was tempted for forty days and nights in the wilderness.
    I want you to go back to Genesis 1 : 26 when God made man he made him as a son, not just a man  or creature God put his image, which is a spirit which in the likeness of him. God even gave him a God mindedness where he could think the Father thoughts. But the devil knew he could not deal with Adam in his mind . But  the woman who had not heard what God told the man heard he knew that he could deceive her,  So he used the wisest  creature on earth to deceive her,the serpain and she would get to the man. That is how the devil attacked the man thinking.
 D.When you go to Genesis 3:6 you see where the woman's perception was changed about fruit. She thought that it would be good to eat, it appealed to her perception and it was pleasant to her senses to the point she lusted for it her spiritual appetite was deceived by a false desire. Adm who knew what God had said allowed her words to trap him into questing what God had said. Satin was able to make a suggestion through Eve due to the fact he had deceived her. It was a mind game for her to work on Adam to get him to give in, the moment he had a question about what God had said the could take him down. He did not know how he was as a son, nor did he know his authority.
I'm going to stop here because I want you digest this and look for part 3.

UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF SON SHIP! PART 1

This Picture is from www.divinerevelations.info/pics/

Today we will discuss powerful keys which must be understood and used to unlock the mysteries of son ship.
St John 1:12 says "But as many as received him (Jesus) to them he gave the power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name." Romans 10:9 says "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are a child of God. As you obey the
Word of God daily, you will begin to master the skills necessary to become a son.

What then is the significance of becoming a son of God?  What is my assignment as a son?  What are the benefits of son ship? What does the process of becoming a son actually look like? What are three keys that will help me unlock the mysteries of son ship?

In today's post I will provide a brief answer to these questions. Over the next few weeks we will discuss each of these areas in more detail.

1. The significance of son ship is that you become mature enough to handle the power of God, doing the works of Jesus and exercising His dominion and authority in the Earth. All of these works are done to give God and God alone the glory.  Romans 8:19 speaks about how the whole earth groans and waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.  People are in dire need of the demonstration of the power of God in their lives.  Sons, where are you? It is as if the whole earth is experiencing birth pangs, waiting on the sons of God to stand up and take their rightful place; going throughout the earth preaching good news, binding up the brokenhearted, setting  captives free, healing the sick, raising the dead and casting out devils.
2. My assignment as a son is to do the works of Jesus.  Acts 10:38 says "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power: who went about doing good and healing ALL that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him."  Mark 16:17, 18b says "And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; ...they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. As we meditate on the Scriptures, we gain the confidence to work these miracles just as Jesus did.
3. The benefits of son ship include our ability to possess the inheritance we have as heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. As sons, we understand how to access and allocate Heavenly resources for the benefit of the Kingdom of God. Heavenly resources are unlimited and include according to II Peter 1:3, ALL things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue.  My brothers, we must refuse lack in every area of our lives and in the communities we have been called to serve.  Just don't tolerate it!!! Why should we lack any good thing when God has already provided everything we need?  Stay tuned; we will talk about this more in an upcoming post.
4. The process of becoming a son involves my willingness to allow Jesus to become Lord in every area of my life.  It requires me to crucify the desires of my flesh and to instead allow the character of God to become highly developed in my life.  The process requires patience, humility, the ability to forgive and the grace to love unconditionally.  It teaches me to be a warrior and to understand the powerful weapons of our warfare.  II Corinthians 10:4 says " For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds:".
5. Three keys that will help us unlock the mysteries of Son Ship are:   

• Sons receive the mind of Christ from their study and meditation of the Word of God. Romans 12: 1-2 talks about us presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God which is our reasonable worship (service). We are also instructed to not be conformed to the ways of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Sons learn to think and subsequently act like Christ.  In 2015 let's develop the mindset of Christ to a greater extent.
• Sons know the voice of God because they know the Word of God! Sons know the will of God because they know the Word of God.  His Word is His Will! Sons are able to pray and decree from a heart of faith KNOWING THAT THE WORD IS ALWAYS WORKING.  Hebrews 1:3 says "he upholds all things by the word of his power."  This is why we don't have to pray "If it be thy will....." When tempted to doubt, sons understand that as they hear and meditate on the Word, faith is increased and doubt is driven out of their hearts. The voice of God gives sons supernatural wisdom and insight into issues they face always leading them to victory.  Some have referred to this as "inside information".
• Sons are led by the Spirit of God.  Romans 8:14 says " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."   What is the Ho;y Spirit illuminating to you as you pray and study the Bible?  Are you taking note of the still small voice?  Are you paying attention to the gentle nudges of  Holy Spirit?  He is the third person of the Trinity and has been sent into the Earth to teach us all things.  As you learn the voice of a dear friend, you will also learn the voice of Holy Spirit.  Sons learn how to appreciate and host Holy Spirit.  

Galatians 4: 1-4 talks about how a child is no different from a servant or slave. He/she is under tutors and governors until the appropriate time.  Son Ship supersedes gender.  To go from a child of God to a son of God takes a willingness to be processed. While the training may appear grievous, the outcome is glorious.

I Corinthians 13:11 says " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

The process of going from a child to a son is a journey that I pray you will decide to embark upon.  Many of you are already sons and desire to continue to grow in grace like our Savior.  As we journey together, we will grow in grace, in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man! Until next time....          

UNRESOLVED ISSUES BLOCKING YOUR PROGRESS?

 
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Have you ever found yourself going in circles and wondered why?  HAVE YOU TRIED REACHING FOR GOALS THAT SEEM UNOBTAINABLE?  Are you searching for answers to reasons for past failures?

In Mark 5:25-34, there was a woman who searched for an answer to her issue for twelve years. She had an issue of blood and had seen many physicians to resolve her problem.  She was literally bleeding to death.  The scripture says that she spent all of her money trying to find a solution and yet she grew worse.

It seemed that no man could help her.  She had probably tried every remedy known to man without success.  The fact that she tried all of these remedies demonstrated her determination to move forward.  Since the issue was not resolved, she continued to grow weaker.  It is as if she wasted her money and her time for all these years in search of an answer.

I am sure that all of us can relate to this woman.  We have all seen glimpses of our destinies and yet we don't understand fully the issues we carry that keep us from seeing the manifestation of these phenomenal dreams.

The issues we face today can no longer be prolonged, or remain unresolved.
Unresolved issues are like termites that gnaw at your joy, peace and your ability to make sound decisions.  Ignoring them causes hemorrhaging in your spirit.  Proverbs 13:12 says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick but desire fulfilled is a tree of life." The Good News is: YOUR ISSUES CAN BE RESOLVED RIGHT NOW.  Let's look at the methodology this woman utilized to receive her answer. 

First of all, she did not pretend to be without issues. She understood the importance of identifying her specific issue and was determined to receive her healing.  When she heard about Jesus, she received a revelation of His power to heal all issues.  She stopped looking to men and looked to Jesus, the Living Word.  This revelation changed her day and her year!  This revelation caused her to declare "If I touch the hem of Jesus' garment, I shall be made whole." The hem of His garment represented the promises of God.

This revelation caused her to make a personal declaration of faith which directly resulted in her healing.  She was in full expectation of healing.  Her strong desire to experience the bright future that she had always envisioned in her heart compelled her to quickly get to Jesus.  She was desperate for change.  She did not wait for a special healing meeting or for Jesus to discern her condition and then call her to himself; she instead grabbed his hem.  She acted on the promises of God.    

2015 is a New Year and a New Season.  You cannot move forward into the New Year with old issues.  You have to be honest with yourself and first identify the issues that have held you back.  Search the Bible to find Scriptures that pertain to your issues. 

Like the woman with the issue of blood, declare the Word over your life remembering I John 5:4..."and this is the victory that overcomes the world: even our faith."  The Word has the power to heal old issues if you will just receive it.
Receiving the Word often requires repentance and a willingness to follow  instructions from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

Faith always works by love!  Walk in love with God, your spouse, family members and everyone.  Ask God for a fresh revelation of the Scriptures you are standing on. Boldly decree these blessings out of your own mouth and then praise God for the manifestation of these promises.

As we are faithful to do these things , I know that we will all experience a prosperous and Happy New Year!!!

Holding Your Spiritual Ground

Photo Courtesy of the Official Redskins Blog

Today I want to talk to you about a very important principle and that being "holding your spiritual ground". What this means is holding steadfastly to the Word of God in lieu of factual truths that may be present. It is essential that the definition of facts and/or factual be defined in hopes of clarifying and the solidifying the important use this principle. 

The definition of facts as Merriam-Webster defines the term is “something that truly exists or happened.” In other words, facts or factual is something real; evidence that something real occurred. It presents a side of truth that suggests the issue before you is insurmountable or finished; absolute. It may be a situation that it’s past time for believing any further that any action taken can greatly the situation - death would be an example of this. Evenso, the time frame in which you have told others what you are believing for, no change has occurred in the physical and seemingly, all the bottom has fallen out of any hopes of the manifested desire. 

Today’s discussion centers on the Word of God bringing life to your situation thus, causing a resurrection restoring full life to the issue. 

If the historical roll was taken to those in spite of naysayers and impossible feats surely the names of Orville and Wilbur Wright (inventors of the first passenger airplane) would lead out on this role of changing the odds to their favor. Society benefit greatly beause of their undying will to “fly”. call in history and look at the Wright brothers who were told that man can not fly. 

Other names that have made this list of unwavering believers in the quest to go beyond facts and move into the supernatural are: Thomas Edison who tapped the current of electricity brought to household use by Benjamin Franklin to bring us lighting and many more inventions. The great scientist, George Washington who reputedly discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans changed the world of agriculture, farming and medicine. Dr.Charles Drew was a scientist and physical surgeon and medical researcher. His medical research in the area of blood was a major breakthrough in medical surgery causing changes in surgery, blood storage, transfusions, and blood donations the world over. he developed an improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early doing World War II. His research saved thousands of lives of solders, who would have died. He like all of the other people we have mentioned overcame great odds to produce what they were told could never happen. They held their spiritual ground believing that what they held in their guts was true even though facts didn’t support it. This is what our lesson is about this week - holding your ground in the spirit. 

Looking into the Gospel of John, chapter 11, the story of the Death and Resurrection of Lazarus centers on the message of holding your spiritual ground. Paraphrasing the scriptures we read were Lazarus had fallen deathly ill and even after being summoned Jesus tarried, foreknowing that Lazarus, his friend would die. Our Lord indeed allowed the platform to be developed in order to teach by precept and example the principle of holding your spiritual ground for indeed He, Himself had to hold His spiritual ground in order to resurrect Lazarus in the face of great scorn, mocking and disbelief.

The same was true as in the case of Jairus (Matthew 9: 18-26 and Mark 5: 21-43) who sought out Jesus for the healing of his daughter who eventually died prior to Jesus arriving. Jesus knowing full well that this occurrence was not permanent yet, His words to Jairus in the face of unbelievers, scoffers and professional mourners was simply, "Just believe."

Herein is the spiritual revelation: If one can only center their mind on the spiritual principle over what we see naturally - any fear can be conquered bringing forth supernatural occurrences. 

Jesus' words overpower any of those we speak outside of God's word. In both the aforementioned cases, Jesus had to deal with what was being said about Him, the issue at hand, and what had never been done before. He had to speak life into a dead and decayed situation and He has taught us this principle - that when ye stand believing even in the face of a decaying situation, when you refuse to move off the Word of God supernatural (divine) manifestation occurs.

Natural principles present facts, but not they don't present the finished work of God. The spiritual things are held together through faith! Therefore, when our faith is steadfast and unwavering we hold our spiritual ground reaping victoriously in both the natural and spiritual.

Jesus' example to us is to hold our spiritual ground even in the face of a decaying or seemingly decayed situation. He is truly the Resurrection and the Life.

Pastor Jasper

Afterthought: Proverbs 6:2 You are snared by the words of your mouth.

Forgetting About the Power Within - Speak To Your Goliath (Part II)

In my last post, I spoke of forgetting about the power within each of us to come against the Goliaths that often challenge us. That conversation began with me speaking with a co-worker regarding her son facing imprisonment and his drug use that eventually got him in that spot. While listening to her discouraged heart - the Lord reminded me of this scripture regarding the "storm" that will arise
from time to time in our lives.

When we consider the event in Mark 4:37-38,  in which the disciples along with Jesus (being fast asleep down in the bow of the ship) encountered a great storm which seemingly overthrew them because of the greatness of the waves, the wind and the rain. The disciples forgot about the power that was given to them from Jesus. They were hit psychologically as well as physically because the greatness of this storm made them to feel powerless.

Fear gripped their hearts and thus controlled them rendering them bound. Storms blind us against seeing and hearing. In this mindset, nothing seemingly works right when it comes to the things of the Spirit. The focus yields everything negative because you're no longer believing by faith but by sight. These things make us feel as though we are powerless, but the Word of God teaches that we speak those things of power through faith, trusting that God will perform what we ask and believe. The Word declares "that before one jot or tittle of God's word passing away the whole world will come to end." (Paraphrase)

 In this session I want to look at the book of James chapter 1:1-8  King James Version (KJV): 

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

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

³ Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

⁴ But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

⁵ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

⁷ For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

⁸ A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

A lot of Christians don't know that their prayer is just as powerful as their confession of Faith.  In fact, your prayer is apart of your confession of Faith, but when you doubt what you have been praying, you are allowing the storm (this Goliath) to affect what you are confessing and believing. James talks about your faith being tested by temptations.  The temptation is always there to get you to not believe the word of God.  

The first feat of temptation is to make you believe that what you are praying in your confession prayer is a myth. The devil wants you to speak against your own prayer by saying, "God did not really intend for my prayer to come to pass".  He wants you to believe that your prayer is not a conquering weapon and that it is an impossible thing to bring about. 

It is your mindset that will cause you to be either defeated or be victorious. The mind understands facts. Facts seemingly is truth yet, facts are subject to the word of God. Facts will cause you to have a mindset change to stop from believing the word of God. It will get you to complaining about the things that are happening in your life. 

The solution is not to complain about these things even though the the storm is real our Creator is more powerful than the storm. The word of God will fix all of the things that created the storm and the damages of it. It will not only change the course of the storm but also change the effects of it. What you and I both need to know is the ability we have in Christ and recognize that we are more than conqueror's in Him. He is in us. That is the Christ man which gives us the ability to affect things with our words, and our words have the ability to affect the world. It's not that we are so great but it's the Christ in us that has made us the sons of God. 

The second and final part of this addresses complaining. When you complain you feed into the doubt the enemy  is challenging you with in regard to the storm. Your faith becomes doubt when you begin to believe and say what the devil is showing you as truth. So don't rehearse it! You give the situation the power over your faith which causes you to not receive the power God wants you to use. 

You begin to waver in your thinking and that doubt coupled with fear begins to drive, distract and destroy you because now you are reacting to what you see and hear - not in what you believe! Believe what is coming out of your mouth making sure it first and foremost God's word. If He said it - the storm is just that, a storm that will pass over, but you will unaffected by it and with every storm that's run its course - you find peace.

God bless you to really love, learn and lean on the Word of God.

Pastor J

Forgetting About the Power Within - Speak To Your Goliath (Part I)

On speaking with a co-worker regarding her son facing imprisonment and his drug use that got him in that spot and listening to her discouraged heart - the Lord reminded me of this scripture regarding the "storm" that will arise from time to time in our lives . When we consider the event in which the storm the disciples along with Jesus (being fast asleep down in the bow of the ship) forgot about the power that was given to them. They were hit psychologically and physically yet the greatness of this storm made them feel as though they could not get a handle over it and therefore felt powerless.

 

 Fear gripped their hearts and thus controlled them; bound by fear. Storms blind us against seeing and hearing. Nothing seemingly works right when it comes to the things of the spirit. The focus yields everything negative because you're no longer believing by faith but by sight. These things make us feel as though we are powerless, but the Word of God teaches that we speak those things of power through faith, trusting that God will perform what we ask and believe. The Word declares that before one jot or tittle of God's word pass away the whole world will come to end.

 

God has already placed in us the power to speak. The price has already been paid and all that is left is that we step in the path that God has ordained (walk in the way of the kingdom -mind perspective of Christ). God told Joshua to meditate on my Word day and night so that you will have success. Also, I will keep you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Therefore our issue(s) must align with the Word of God.

 

The "Truth" is what God has said what we can have, as well as what we can do.

 

(Stayed tuned for Part 2 of this series coming next week)