Do Not Put Out The Spirit's Fire

‎1 Thessalonians 5:9-28

9For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Final Instructions

12Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

19Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22Avoid every kind of evil.

23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

25Brothers, pray for us. 26Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Faith-Filled Prayer vs. Fear-Filled Prayer

We must learn to never pray to God out of FEAR but instead pray out of FAITH. Do not allow doubt and FEAR to enter in your prayers, because they will hinder you from receiving what God wants for you. FAITH opens the windows of heaven and allows God rain down His power in our lives and circumstances. FAITH is the key ingredient to an effective prayer. If you are having a problem with fear or doubt, pray to God and ask him to help you. Communicate with him daily to obtain a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. Listen to your favorite worship music and get lost in his presence. Read & study the Bible, as FAITH comes by hearing; and hearing by the word of God. Rebuke the devil and bind the spirit of FEAR. Make sure your prayers are always in the will of God, trust him and his will for you. I promise, he knows you better than you know yourself. When you pray; pray with boldness and expect him to move on your behalf. Listen closely to the spirit when you are in prayer; Figure out what he is trying to say. The more your seek his face, the more "in-tune", with his spirit you will become. Keep seeking, Keep trusting, Keep praying, and do not fear, only believe.

"Living In The Right Now"

WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY: Live in the right now and take each day by day. Be happy where you are, but never content enough to not want to progress into God's plan for you. Like an apple, we must not be ripened to fast but must stay within our perfect growth so we may become the fullest of what we can be in God. God is more interested in WHAT WE ARE rather than WHAT WE DO. So, like an apple we must not grow to fast or we may become bitter on the inside, and our character will not be as Christ-like as it could have been. You are in your perfect stage of growth. You are where God needs you to be. God's ways are not our ways, and he knows what he is doing within you. Just trust in him.

True Freedom In Christ

To All Those Who Say...

" I can do whatever I want, because God will forgive me."

God judges your heart. So with a sincere heart, God will forgive you, because he loves you. The real question is Do you truly love him? If you really love him, then why would you want to do something that would break his heart. We should learn and want to walk as Jesus walked. His passion for us to live a life of godliness goes deeper than we could ever imagine, and don't get living godly mixed up with being religious. He wants a relationship with you. He didn't come that we might have religion, but He came that we might have life and life more abundantly. So saying that, It is not sin itself that separates us from God, It is the running away from God, that sin causes.

"Ok, so if sin causes us to run away from God, what else does sin cause?"

When we sin willfully, it will be easier to sin the next time, and even easier the next time after that. We will start finding ways to justify what we do. The reason for this is, our hearts harden toward the love of God a little more every time we do sin "willfully". You might as well just hang Jesus back up on the cross when you intentionally go against his will. He doesn't ask you do obey his commandments because he wants to sit back and laugh when you mess up. His will is for you to obey him, because that is what is best for you. When you show God, you love him with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul, (which is one of his commandments) ; You in return will be happy, and God then is able to re-route the road of destruction you were on. In John 8:31 Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

" So, If I am free, then why am I not free to do what I want? "

Galatians 5:13-18 says...
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Romans 7:5-6 reads...
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

"So, this crucifying the flesh is too hard, I think I am just going to do the bare minimum to get to heaven."

There are many Christians that are almost walking the line of being lukewarm, but to live the "good life" here on earth, we must run as far away from that line as possible, and start running to Jesus Christ. Revelation 3:16 says "So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Many will go to Heaven by believing in Jesus Christ, but if you want to life the "good life" here on earth, You must completely surrender you whole life to God. That means giving up all selfish desires and saying "It's whatever you want God, and not what I want. You must become a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and faithfulness is not doing something right once, but doing something right over and over and over. Your goal in life must be to do the will of God; No matter what the cost. The more painful it is in your flesh, the more you’re growing spiritually at that particular moment. We must “Do what we don’t want to do, to get what we want to get.”

"Ok, I am going to make a list of what to do, and what not to do, so I can make sure I get everything right."

Some Christians make a law out of reading the Bible, or spending a certain amount of time with God, but we should be passionate about reading God's word, and spending time with him because of our relationship of love with him, not because a commandment told us to do so. Jesus said in John 14:15 " If you [truly] love me, you will keep [obey] my commandments. What he really meant was "If you love me, and walk in fellowship with me, you WILL keep my commandments. If you concentrate on loving God, then keeping his commandments will become a natural part of what you do. It become easier to keep them, because your focus is on God and not on the law. It is a promise he makes to you.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” So, ask yourself daily, "Am I loving God", and "Am I loving people". Freedom in Christ is letting everything else go, letting it die, so that we can live by the Spirit. When our physical bodies finally wear out, we won’t be judged by God for how much we know or for how well we applied “godly principles” and rules to life. As Jesus Himself said, it will all come down to whether we lived a life that showed we loved Him and loved other people.

"It's not religion, It's Jesus"

This is the response I gave to someone who asked this question.

"What makes your religion better than others?"

I don't like "religion"....Religion just gets in the way of what's real. It gets in the way of the truth, and what really matters. Religion causes self-righteousness, and it causes division among the people....the body of Christ. Religion causes scales to cover our eyes,and be blind to the truth. So let's just say it's all about a relationship with JESUS. I mean who can argue with LOVE. ..... but if we were to talk about a religion in the way you meant it.....my religion is Christianity which means Christ-Like....and you can't judge one person for what the real meaning of Christianity is. So People stop using the excuse that people are the reason you are not a Christian..because truth is...It's all about JESUS....you should keep your eyes on him because humans are not perfect, but that's what grace is for.

Jesus Christ loves us so much that he would rather die than live without us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever would believe in him will not die but have eternal life. Our "religion" is not better, it's the only way. Why? Because it is the Truth. There is only one body, and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. How do I know? One reason is because the Bible says so. So how do we know the Bible is true? Because it works. Follow it, and see for yourself.

There are so many answers I could give you about why Jesus Christ is the only way, but I will end on this note. How can you argue with love?....True Love....Agape Unconditional Love....God is Love....He Love Us With A Passion....More than we'll ever know....He's coming soon... I can feel it... you can think I'm crazy if you want....but truth is ; This is a spiritual world and God lives in us and through us....he leads us and guides us. I am an ambassador of Jesus Christ and I am a soldier in his army, Just as you are called to be. It is easy to get wrapped up in physical temporary things...We need to stay spiritual because we are Spirits with a natural body. We need to get that concept....When we die our spirit....which is our true self....will either go to Heaven or hell. We must make sure we only worship God's holy spirit...and not an imitation.....As spiritual as the Indians were, they still got it wrong with worshiping the wrong spirit.

Sincerely pray to God and ask him to draw you near to him so you might live a life of happiness for eternity with him....pray to God and ask him to show you the truth...and when you do that...keep you eyes open...and keep a pure heart to be ready to recieve the biggest blessing you have ever recieved in you life. Some people have tried everything...but not God. What could it hurt? I'm sure satan will gladly take you back, if you decided you changed you mind.....but seriously think about it and not with your head...it can get confusing....think with you heart...It's not religion...it's Jesus...God Bless with Love

Serving From The Heart

From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he'll take charge of sending the rain at the right time - Deuteronomy 11:13-14 (MSG)

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Repeatedly, the Bible says to "serve the Lord with all your heart." God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to serve him and others.

How do you know when you're serving God from your heart?

The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. When you're doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you, or challenge you, or check up on you. You do it for the sheer enjoyment. You don't need rewards, or applause, or to be paid, because you love serving in this way.

The opposite is also true: When you don't have a heart for what you're doing, you're easily discouraged.

One characteristic of serving God from your heart is effectiveness: whenever you do what God wired you to love to do, you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. If you don't care about a task, it is unlikely that you'll excel at it.

On the other hand, the highest achievers in any field are those who do it because of passion, not duty or profit.

We've all heard people say, "I took a job I hate in order to make a lot of money, so someday I can quit and do what I love to do." That's a big mistake. Don't waste your life in a job that doesn't express your heart.

Remember, the greatest things in life are not things. Meaning is far more important than money. The richest man in the world once said, "A simple life in the fear-of-God is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches" (Proverbs 15:16 MSG).

Don't settle for achieving "the good life," because the good life is not good enough. Ultimately, it doesn't satisfy. You can have a lot to live on, and still have nothing to live for. Aim instead for "the better life" - serving God in a way that expresses your heart.

Figure out what you love to do - that which God gave you a heart for - and then do it for his glory!

(Inspiration From Purpose Driven Life)

What Is The Center Of Your Life?

What is the center of your life?
You can center your life around your career, your family, a sport or hobby, money, having fun, or many other activities. These are all good things, but they don't belong at the center of your life. None is strong enough when your life starts breaking apart. You need an unshakable center..... Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can bail you out when life is overwhelming. We need to center our lives in God the father, and actually whatever is at the center, is your god. Only Jesus Christ is the reason for everything, and without him there is nothing. There is no family, career, hobby, etc without him. He holds everything together. He created us for him and his purpose only. Jesus said that the way to be happy and successful in life is to “seek first the kingdom of God,” ...To “seek first the kingdom of God” means to bring your priorities in line with God’s. When your values are in line with God’s values and you let His priorities become your priorities, it’s a win-win situation. What is the God centered life? A God centered life is a life dedicated to living for God and learning and developing a desire to do the will of God. Study Jesus' life and all He did; Learn of his ways and follow in his footsteps. When you commited your life to Christ, you moved him to the center, but you must keep him there through worship. How do you know when God is at the center of your life? When God is at the center of your life...you worship, when God is not...you worry. Worry is the warning light that God has been shoved to the sideline. The moment you put him back at the center, you will have peace again. In the Bible Philippians 4:7 (Msg) says, "a sense of God's wholeness...will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. So lets get back to God. Let's put God at the center of our life, and stop worring about unimportant, temporary, petty things. Stop letting life get to us, and let God get to us. Lets not get wrapped up in worldy things. Let's focus on what truly matters. Earth is not our final home, we were created for something much better. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says " So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Everything comes from God alone, everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory. It is not about you, it is all about him. So let's act like it. Let's live a God-centered life. Proverbs 11:28 says "A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump, but a God-shaped life is a flourishing life."