Confidence pt1

Confidence

Those of us who have been around older Christians or even use to hearing preachers, can all agree that they have the “unique” ability to quote scripture and are quick on their feet with sound advice. As a young believer we yearn to be able to recite scripture and be able to give good, positive, word-based advice to anyone and everyone, to be confident in our faith and be a “poster child” for your generation.

This is a major problem for those of us who have perfectionist personalities, to the point that we only get into things only to be able to progress in it and become near experts at whatever it is that we are doing.

After some time goes by and you’ve been going to church and bible study, as well as reading various books, and you still can’t quote scripture or feel confident enough to give people advice , we begin to feel a little deflated. This oddly enough starts making us feel like maybe “I won’t be able to quote scripture or be good enough at remembering all the bible stories and characters”, which results in us pulling back from those things of God that we need to stick with.

The worst thing you can do is pull away from your church, bible study and your own personal studying.

To Be Continued….

The Two Paths

Choose Your Path

Many of us have heard about ‘choosing the right path’ or just simply finding the path that you need to be on, but how do you know you’re choosing the right path? What does God say about it?

Deuteronomy 30:15-20New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. ¹⁶ For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

God gave us two options (two paths), either choose life or choose death. Of course he tells us to choose life, even though many of us have chosen death by default because we didn’t know better.

There are only two paths to choose from so it makes it a lot easier to choose the right one as long as you know His word. Choose the path that you know follows His word and only produce good fruit, something that you can look back on and be proud of and not the path that would cause you to constantly contradict the word of God and you have to do things that are going to bear bad fruit that you can’t confidently look back on the decisions you made.

To be continued….

Power Of Forgiveness

The power of forgiveness is an amazing ability to have. Forgiveness can release,bind and speed up things in your life.

You hold so much weight in your ability to forgive someone who has done you wrong in some way. When you withhold your forgiveness you are forever linking yourself to that person until you forgive them.

The offense can be as little as someone stealing your bike in middle school to someone who had physically harmed you in some form. Everyone has had someone wrong them in life,but it’s how you move forward afterwards that has the longest lasting effects. So, holding onto your ability to forgive the person/people involved in doing you wrong,you are tightening the cuffs that are linking you with them. Meanwhile that person(s) is moving on with their lives, possibly not even thinking about you or what they have done to you.

Some of you may be satisfied knowing this and think that the other party doesn’t deserve to be forgiven because you are left with the aftermath of what was done to you,but you have to remember that you can’t be forgiven by God because you are withholding your forgiveness. He is no respecter of persons, therefore He will not forgive some believers and not others because He felt like it. The only way you can prevent God’s forgiveness is if you withhold yours.

Don’t let the person(s) move on with their lives while you’re stuck in your feelings about what had happened.

Forgiving is not condoning what was done to you, it is an act or choice that you make because you don’t want to linked to them anymore and you want to be able to be forgiven in the future.

Give

Luke 6:38New International Version (NIV)

³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

One of the most simplest concepts to grasp is to give. Regardless of religion, it has always been a part of being a good person to give to others or at least share.

Now when you take this and apply it to living as a believer (in Jesus Christ) you are to give to your local church and/or to other good ground, such as other churches, television or online ministries that are doing God’s work. This is outside of your normal tithe (10% of your income) that you have to tithe into your church, not only because it is requested of us scripturally (see Malachi 3:10),Malachi 3:10New King James Version (NKJV) “¹⁰ Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,That there may be food in My house,And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts,“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.” , but this also helps support our churches and allows them to pay their bills and to help others.

We are also to give an offering, this is completely optional including the amount you want to give. Giving an offering is the key to help you achieve a new level of financial freedom, say that you are believing for $5,000 to pay off some debt, you should not only have prayed for it but also sowed (offering) towards it, proving to yourself and letting God know that you trust that he will stay to His word.

Look at it this way, by you giving an offering you will be blessed regardless because it was your own free will that you gave. God has no other reason to do anything other than bless you! So don’t get things twisted that your church or institution is just trying to get your money, this is a blessing that works both ways. However don’t think that you are obligated to give an offering of any particular amount, unless you are led by the Holy Spirit.

If you don’t believe in tithing and or giving an offering, test Him by actually doing it and stick with it for a while and you will see how blessed you are by not having things break down that will cost you a lot of money or have a financial increase.

Believe You’ve Received It!

 Mark 11:24New International Version (NIV)

²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

There is no greater benefit, other than salvation, than knowing that you have access to all you need and desire when you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. It’s unfortunate that not very many believers are taking advantage of this benefit or are just simply unaware of it.

This scripture, along with many others, are the keys to having more than enough.

Once you ask God for something in prayer, it’s then your job to constantly remind yourself that it’s yours and it has already happened/manifested. You have to train your mind to not focus on what is tangible right now and tell yourself that whatever it is that you prayed for is already in your possession. Don’t get frustrated, the biggest mistake is to give up believing that you will “actually” get whatever it is that you prayed for…that will “kill” your request.

The fastest way to get from prayer to manifestation is to:

·         Be very descriptive of what you want to happen/the item(s) you need/want

·         Find one or two scriptures to quote in your prayer

·         Meditate (repeat) those one or two scriptures to yourself often

·         Watch your words ( don’t say anything to yourself or others that contradicts what you are believing for.)

·         Remind yourself that whatever you asked for already belongs to you, it’s just waiting to be “delivered”.

·       Continue to stay righteous (asking for forgiveness, forgiving others, follow the word of God)

Mark 11:22New International Version (NIV)

²² “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.

Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:9-11New International Version (NIV)

⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,^[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.^[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

The gifts of the Spirit are so underrated that most churches don’t even embrace them anymore. These gifts are what keeps us whole and demonstrates just how awesome God really is. Gifts are given to show how much someone cares for the other person and is meant to bless both the receiver of the gift and the gift giver.

So imagine giving someone a gift that you feel is something that need and would bless them beyond belief, only to have them either tell you “Oh,no thank you I can manage without it” or just simply ignore it?

That’s what a lot of us do on a regular basis, whether we know it or not. It’s time we pick up our bibles and claim those gifts that have been given to us by our heavenly Father. Mankind has never been opposed to gifts, so don’t start now!

These gifts work miracles! And who knows when you will need those gifts in the future….or even now.

What’s the worst that can happen, you get the gift and but only get to use it every great once in a while…well what harm did it do by having the gift? Nothing!

Claim your gifts, by speaking to the Holy Spirit and inviting him in and to give whatever specific gift(s) that you want and believe that they are yours and work it!

It’s never too late to claim your gifts!

Celibacy

1 Corinthians 7:7-9New International Version (NIV)

⁷ I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

⁸ Now to the unmarried^[a] and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. ⁹ But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry,for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Celibacy

One of the toughest things to share with young people who are coming into the faith, has to be the belief on celibacy or chastity. We live in a very sexualized world where the sex scenes on television are becoming longer and more explicit over the years and commercials that more often than not have a very sexy woman or girl advertising something as simple as lotion or a fast food meal.

This all leads to the young men in the world to be hyped up, with the media and societal ideals playing with their hormones and making young women insecure and pressured into believing they have to be just a sexy or sexier than those images on television and in magazines.

Of course there are those out there who believe that by having sex (outside marriage) is liberating and that every woman should be allowed to do so and that it’s empowering, forgetting that they are giving away a piece of themselves to all their partners to that will eventually weaken them whether emotionally, psychologically and sometimes even physically- not very empowering when you really think about.

Unfortunately, when someone says that they are a virgin they are immediately accused of lying or assumed to be a prude or that they must be a religious freak. Although it’s unfortunate that it has come to this, don’t be fooled that it’s just another act and that you need to have sex when you know there is so much at stake when you do.

For those who have already had premarital sex, they are not damned for doing so. The point is to know better to do better. Temptation may be a lot stronger for someone who has already experienced it, however it is not impossible to resist. You will be amazed at the quality of guys or girls you will enter in relationships with because it takes a worthy person to appreciate and wait for marriage.

Value your virginity …..Value yourself moving forward and to resist temptation.