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Praise God, parsonsmom. Please post more. And i agree that it is our instructions to live a fruitful and abundant life. Thank you for teaching as you do.
To All:
My reasons for starting this thread are out of obedience to the Lord and because so many of us seem to be struggling to grow in Him. While I in no way know all there is to know of Him, and seek daily to learn from Him - both directly through His Word and His Spirit and from others who sit at His feet in Love - He continues to prompt me to take the risk and share what I have learned.
After He led me to share the following in another thread, He is now telling me to put this here. (In fact, in His gentle way, He will not leave me alone about it!) My constant prayer is to be pleasing to Him always, and be a blessing in some small way to others. And so it is with humility before Him that I offer this.
All I ask is that others will also post here what they have learned and are learning, that we may all grow in Him and come to the unity of faith, bonded together with Him in the Spirit of His great Love.
There was a time in my life when I did not think God liked me very much, when my whole life seemed to go from misery to misery. Yet, I believed; I knew the Bible very well; and I knew there was a love in me for Him. But I could never seem to get close to Him, and never really saw any specific answers to my prayers. I always felt as if I was following Jesus from way back in the crowd; as if I was climbing hills, only to catch a glimpse of Him going over another hill far in front of me. Finally, I just got fed up and told Him, "Lord. I don't care if You like me or not! I am still going to love You!" And right then, I made up my mind to know Him personally.
So what I would like to offer you are some practical steps that He led me to take (although at the time, I did not realize it was Him leading me) that He used to grow me and teach me and help me find Him. And what a difference this has made in my own prayer life.
1) Guard your tongue. Become aware of what you say out loud, for your words can rob you of any blessings He has for you. No matter how you feel, how depressed you get, etc., don't allow yourself to start speaking from those feelings. There are a multitude of scripture in the both the OT and NT which teach this.
2) Praise God. This truly helps in guarding the words of your mouth as well as overcoming negative feelings. You don't have to try to conjure up reasons for praising Him for the situation, just make up your mind to praise Him in the situation. He lead me (and I still do this at times when necessary) to say out loud: "I praise you Father that I am not moved by my feelings, but only by your Word. I praise you Father that I am not moved by what others say about me, but only by your Word." And so on. Truly, praise works!
3) Get His Word from your mind to your spirit. Two ways to help with this are (a) to never read the Bible without praying first, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in it; to open your heart to receive what He is teaching you; to open your understanding to grasp it. Etc. And (b) go through the NT finding every passage where it talks about who we are in Christ and who He is in us. In other words, everything positive that applies to us being new creatures in Him. Make a tape recording of your own voice saying these passages, applying them to yourself. Our spirits pay attention to what we say, and since it is with our hearts that we believe - not our minds - by saying His Word aloud we can re-program our inner man according to that Word. Example: "I am the Righteousness of God in Christ." Then, play that tape! I would put on headphones at night and play it as I went to sleep, night after night for weeks.
4) Don't try to believe for more than you have faith to believe. Faith is like a muscle; it must be exercised in order to grow. Just as you would not begin lifting weights with the maximum amount - the goal you want to reach - until you built up to it, so don't try to believe too far beyond what you know you can believe for. Judging this is tricky, I agree. But you have to start somewhere and I believe the Lord will guide you. Many, many times I have wanted to believe, but had to admit I really did not have that big of faith. Don't set yourself up to fail; but don't set your sights too low either. Exercise your faith and it will grow, until you can believe for big miracles.
5) Make it your primary goal to know Christ Jesus. More than anything else, seek to know the Giver rather than the gift. Humble yourself - in your attitude especially - before Him and trust Him to guide you. Remember that love is not a feeling, rather love causes feelings. We know He loves us - just like we know anyone loves us - because He says He does. His love for us is not dependent upon our feelings about it, anymore than our parents love for us was dependent upon our feelings. Realizing this is extremely important in our being able to trust Him, for our trust - our faith - is very much dependent upon our knowing and believing in His love for us in Christ. And we know He loves us because His Word says He does, and God does not lie.
6) Remember we have an enemy and he is a liar! Daniel prayed and even though the Lord heard his prayer the first day, it took 21 days for the answer to come. Pray, believe (because of His Word) that in the Name of Jesus we can be sure that the Father hears and answers our prayers, and then persevere in thanking Him for answering our prayer. The enemy delights in robbing of us of our joy, faith, confidence, peace, etc., as well as the answers to our prayers. Stay the course!
7) Practice listening. Set some time (20-30 minutes) aside each day to sit quietly before the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. Get a notebook and write what you hear inside. Don't worry about getting big revelations - because you probably won't; and don't worry if you don't get anything - because you may not for awhile. Consider it as you would any conversation: both sides talk in a conversation, not just one. So you are allowing the Lord His opportunity to speak to you and not you just talking to Him. And write down what comes to you. And even when you do begin to hear from Him, don't expect some earth-shattering revelations. For a long time the Lord had me practice this, just to learn how to hear Him no matter what was going on around me. And I am still learning. But measure everything you hear against His Word! And seek to be obedient to what He tells you. It is when we are faithful on the little things that He will trust us with bigger things.
8) Seek His will first and always. The Lord will never get in line with us; we must always get in line with Him. In all your prayers - for others as well as for yourself, seek His will.
May the Lord bless others through this, and continue to bless us all in the coming posts from His faithful ones.
LeastOne
Yes, post what helped you most.
Greetings Brinny: This has helped me more than anything; because it the Core of the Christian walk;
Obligation Covenant. #1.
Though it is only a mans covenant; yet if it is confirmed no one annuls; or adds to it; To Abraham and his Seed were the promises made; He does not say; to seeds; as of many, but as of one; And to your Seed; who is Christ. So that the law; which was four hundred and thirty years later; cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before; by God in Christ ; that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law; it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise; What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions; untill the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator; Now a mediator does not mediate for one only; but God is one; Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life; truly righteousness would have been by the law; So the Scripture has confined all under sin; that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe But before faith came; we were kept under guard by the law; kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed; Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ; that we might be justified by faith so that after faith has come; we are no longer under a tutor;
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law; having become a curse for us; for it is written; Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; To speak in terms of human relations, if even a man makes a last will and testament; merely human covenant; no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed; ratified; or confirmed. Now the promises; covenants, agreements were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed; his Offspring, his Heir. He; God does not say, And to seeds; descendants, heirs, as if referring to many persons, but, And to your Seed; your Descendant, your Heir, obviously referring to one individual, Who is none other than Christ; the Messiah. This is my argument: The Law, which began 430 years after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah, does not and cannot annul the covenant previously established; ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise and make it void; For if the inheritance of the
promise depends on observing the Law; as these false teachers would like you to believe, it no longer depends on the promise; however, God gave it to Abraham as a free gift solely by virtue of His promise. What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added later on, after the promise, to disclose and expose to men their guilt because of transgressions and to make men more conscious of the sinfulness of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed; the Descendant, the Heir should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made. And it; the Law was arranged and ordained and appointed through the instrumentality of angels; and was given by the hand; in the person of a go-between. Respectfully; Parsonsmom.
Greetings Brinny: This has helped me more than anything; because it the Core of the Christian walk;
Obligation Covenant. #1.
Though it is only a mans covenant; yet if it is confirmed no one annuls; or adds to it; To Abraham and his Seed were the promises made; He does not say; to seeds; as of many, but as of one; And to your Seed; who is Christ. So that the law; which was four hundred and thirty years later; cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before; by God in Christ ; that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law; it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise; What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions; untill the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator; Now a mediator does not mediate for one only; but God is one; Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life; truly righteousness would have been by the law; So the Scripture has confined all under sin; that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe But before faith came; we were kept under guard by the law; kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed; Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ; that we might be justified by faith so that after faith has come; we are no longer under a tutor;
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law; having become a curse for us; for it is written; Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; To speak in terms of human relations, if even a man makes a last will and testament; merely human covenant; no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed; ratified; or confirmed. Now the promises; covenants, agreements were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed; his Offspring, his Heir. He; God does not say, And to seeds; descendants, heirs, as if referring to many persons, but, And to your Seed; your Descendant, your Heir, obviously referring to one individual, Who is none other than Christ; the Messiah. This is my argument: The Law, which began 430 years after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah, does not and cannot annul the covenant previously established; ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise and make it void; For if the inheritance of the
promise depends on observing the Law; as these false teachers would like you to believe, it no longer depends on the promise; however, God gave it to Abraham as a free gift solely by virtue of His promise. What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added later on, after the promise, to disclose and expose to men their guilt because of transgressions and to make men more conscious of the sinfulness of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed; the Descendant, the Heir should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made. And it; the Law was arranged and ordained and appointed through the instrumentality of angels; and was given by the hand; in the person of a go-between. Respectfully; Parsonsmom.
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