Tag: change your mindset

Renewing Your Mind the Easy Way

Yvette Conatser2 Comments

Heart and Brain

In Romans 12:1-2, the bible talks about presenting your body a living sacrifice. It talks about renewing your mind, and it talks about knowing the perfect will of God. We all desire as Christians to be led by God, to hear His voice, and to follow Him. We look at these scriptures, and it looks like they are saying if you will present your bodies as a living sacrifice and renew your mind, then you will know the perfect will of God.

What we’re being taught a lot of times is that to renew your mind is to do. You read your bible. You pray more. You make confessions. You fast. It’s all about “you do.” That’s what the scripture sounds like it’s saying, present your bodies a living sacrifice.

If you’re a person with a problem with commitment, laziness, sticking with certain things–especially spiritual things–if feels like it’s impossible to change. It’s impossible to get your mind renewed. It’s impossible to know the will of God or to be walking in His perfect will.

Yet, the bible says that’s all of our destinies. We’re thinking it’s impossible for me to get there because I can’t even step up to the plate. I want to present mind renewal in a different light and in a different way.

First of all, it’s not manual, meaning it’s not by your works. Your being consistent reading the word. Your being consistent in prayer. Your doing anything consistently if you have a problem with that. You can still achieve being led by the Lord because it is the Lord who changes you.

The bible says the Holy Spirit leads you into all truth (John 16:13). He will lead you into a stronger walk with the Lord, a more committed walk with Him.

Renewing your mind happens when the Lord shows you where you’re believing wrong, and then He presents to you the truth. Then you have the choice–and the power–to make the choice for good. Then you follow that thing. When you do, boom, you start to get free.

Either you get free instantly from whatever it is that challenged you, or over time He gradually leads you more and more into freedom from that thing.

An Example of Instant Mind Renewal

I’ll give you an example of an instant change.

I used to be afraid of the dark outside. I was terrified that someone would jump out and get me. I live in a great neighborhood, so that thought was just silly and unlikely to happen. I had that irrational fear, and I couldn’t shake it.

One night, I was reading the bible, and Jeremiah 23:24 jumped out at me. The scripture talks about how God fills the entire earth and that no one is hidden from Him. That scripture jumped out at me that night, and I had such joy and peace in my heart as I read that.

I knew God was speaking this word to me. That’s all I knew. He gave me these warm and fuzzy feelings over it. I enjoyed it. Thank you, Jesus. Oh that’s wonderful. Hallelujah. It feels so good. Thanks. Then the feelings faded, and I went on reading the bible.

Two or three days later, I was outside and coming home from church. That same terror of being outside after dark came over me. I ran up to my door and jammed my key into the lock. Then I froze.

I closed my eyes and thought of that scripture I had read just days before and how God illuminated it to me. I said, Lord, you fill this entire earth. You fill this whole neighborhood. You fill my whole house inside. As soon as I said all of this, the fear broke. After that night, I was never again afraid to be outside after dark.

That’s an example of an instant change. That’s an example of a mind renewal. It wasn’t something I did. I didn’t pore over that scripture that talked about God filling the earth. I didn’t meditate endlessly over it or read it again and again.

That’s not to say I haven’t meditated on scripture and gotten results, because I have done that several times. What I’m talking about is when you’ve got a problem in your thinking or in your mind when you can’t seem to be devoted to doing something yourself. The Lord renews your mind.

Getting over that particular fear is an example of how God renewed my mind Himself. He presented me with the truth. A few days later, I experienced the fear, the area where my mind wasn’t renewed. I remembered how He had revealed the scripture to me, and I chose the truth.

In that moment, I had the knowledge of the truth and I had the power to choose the truth. In that, my mind was renewed, and I no longer feared. That’s the of renewing the mind we’re talking about. That is how your mind gets renewed when it’s not manual.

I’m presenting this information to you so you’ll realize that if you’re that type of person where you can’t be devoted, you can’t seem to stay in the word, you can’t pray as much as you think you should. You just can’t be consistent. There’s hope.

There are other areas in my life when I felt mental limitations. Like for example, we all have the mandate to go out and tell the world about Jesus. Let’s say you’re shy. You can’t seem to make yourself do it, and you’re wondering how you can renew your mind so you’re not shy. Regardless, you can’t do this or that because you’re also inconsistent.

Your Inner Workings and How God Changes You

The Lord is the one who renews your mind by presenting you with where your thinking is wrong–your believing in your heart is wrong. Actually it all starts in your heart. Whatever you’re believing in your heart, your mind will follow after. Whatever your mind is thinking on, your actions are going to follow that. The diagram below gives a good illustration of your makeup and how God works on you from the inside out.

Christian-Belief-System-Diagram

When you think you need to present your body as a living sacrifice somehow but you can’t seem to make yourself do it, it’s because it hasn’t started in your heart yet. When it starts in your heart, you will make yourself a living sacrifice. You will be devoted to the Lord. You will be consistent. You will keep following the Lord.

It starts with that commitment in your heart. The Lord even helps you do that too. He helps you to make that commitment. All you need to do is ask Him, talk to Him. Lord, I want to make that commitment to You in my heart because I know it starts in my heart. Then He will, and you’ll find yourself committed.

When I found out that I needed to make a commitment to God in my heart to follow Him and to be led by Him, I knew I didn’t have the commitment in my heart. I was saved. I was a Christian. I never doubted that or was wishy-washy about it. The commitment to follow after Him and to hear His voice and to be led by it, I knew that commitment wasn’t there.

Previously, I had learned to gauge the atmosphere of my heart. I mean I could look in my heart and “see” whether I had the commitment. At that time, I opened my heart to Him. I was willing for Him to show me and help me to make that commitment. A few days later, I looked inside again and there it was. I’m not even sure when it happened.

This wasn’t even a manual thing with the commitment because I just said, Lord, I want You. I want that leading.

The Power to Pray You Already Have

You can look at Romans 12:2 where it talks about knowing the acceptable, good, and perfect will of God and say to the Lord, I want that in my life. Teach me how to make myself a living sacrifice. Teach me how to be committed. Show me those places where I’m believing wrong, Lord, where my heart is not aligned with Your word.

Guess what? He will do that. It’s not a work of your own. It doesn’t start out as a work of your own. When your heart believes right, the works follow. This is really powerful.

When your heart is believing right and in alignment with the will of God, and what He spoke in His word or to your heart, you will act on it. It’s not something you’re going to have to force yourself to do. It’s not something someone has to tell you to do. Go talk to someone about the Lord. No one is going to have to tell you to do when your heart is in alignment.

If you find that you’re not doing something, it’s because there’s a misalignment in your heart. But it is the Lord who illuminates that to you. It is the Lord who renews your mind on these things. All you need to do is turn to Him. Lord, I want to make that commitment. I want You to get these things right in my heart. Let’s work on it together. He’ll start doing it.

The decision to talk to the Lord and ask Him these things is already within your grasp. You already have the power to do that much. It is an instant thing you can do. You already have the ability to turn to the Lord and say, Hey, Lord, I need You. It’s You. It’s not me doing something. It’s not manual. It’s You who brings these things to my attention so we can work on them, so I can change.

Reading the word more, praying more, consistency will come. For now, don’t feel guilty. Don’t feel like you have to be the super disciplined person when you know that’s one of your biggest challenges.

Start right here, where you are right now. Talk to the Lord. Ask Him about that commitment thing and helping you to make the commitment. Then let Him lead you into the mind renewal. He will do it. That’s how we start having these experiences that the bible says we should have. It’s not our manual doing.  It’s for Him to show us the way.

The Holy Spirit leads us into truth.

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Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Check out some of our other teachings on this website to gain a better understanding of what God is like and how He made you to be. You can also watch us on YouTube, where we share videos on a weekly basis.

 

*Some of the above links are affiliate links, which means if you purchase after clicking through, I will receive a small commission. This at no additional cost to you.

 

 

 

 

 

Addicted to Pain Pills

Yvette Conatser2 Comments

I was addicted to over the counter pain pills until a supernatural encounter with the Lord started me on the road to freedom.

Now, before you click away or yell at your computer screen, saying to yourself over the counter pain meds are not the same as being addicted to prescription medication, I will say you’re probably right. But a big proponent of being addicted to any substance is the mental part.

What you believe you are addicted to or what you believe is your weakness that’s your weakness. As soon as your belief changes, you get free.

Related:
How to See God
Pulling Down Strongholds

Let me tell you about what happened to me. For many years, I had migraines, and it was probably due to certain health issues I had. I didn’t know they were migraines. I just knew I had severe headaches three or four times a week, every week for a long time.

I didn’t go to the doctor to find out what’s going on. I looked for over the counter pain meds and started taking them. I discovered Excedrin Migraine. It worked. I became so fearful of the pain of the migraine to the point that I started taking the medicine every single day.

Then I upped the dosage. Not because I needed to or because the pain wasn’t gone. I upped it because I started to become addicted to it. The pills had become my trusted friend. I felt like I needed it.

I took three pills a day every day. I started to feel I couldn’t live without taking three pills every day. Not because of pain but because like I said I trusted them. I felt a sense of being okay if I had three in my system. If I took two pills, I would feel desperate to take that third one, and I would take it.

I kept talking to the Lord, telling Him I hate this. I don’t like being attached to these pills. I knew they weren’t good for me. The warnings talk about liver damage if you take too many or take them too long. There was also the possibility of rebound headaches from overuse.

Whenever I tried to get off the pills, I would immediately get a migraine and immediately have rebound headaches. So I would get right back onto the pills.

One day, I was sitting on the side of my bed, communing with the Lord and worshiping Him. All of a sudden, the Lord said you trust in those pills and not in Me. At the same time He told me that, He showed me the degree of my trust was in the pills.

I had the sudden sensation of being in space, hanging on nothing. For a flash of time, God took away my dependency on the pills. He took away my trust in the pills. If I had both trust in God and trust in the pills, when God took away my trust in the pills, I should have been left with trust in God.

With the trust in the pills gone for just a flash of time, I had the sensation of floating in space, hanging on nothing. It was the most terrifying, shocking feeling I’ve ever had. It only lasted for an instant, but it was so jarring.

Immediately, I was so heartbroken that I could completely trust in the pills and completely not trust in God. Now, I had trust in God in other areas of my life, but in this area, I had zero trust in God.

There’s nothing wrong with trusting God for your healing while taking medicine to relieve the symptoms of your sickness. There’s nothing wrong with trusting God for healing while going to the doctor. I’m not talking about that here. I’m talking about a position I was in where I totally trusted in the pills and not in God.

When God showed me I didn’t trust Him at all in this situation, I cried. I repented and asked for His forgiveness. I asked Him to help me to get off the pills. Asked Him to help me to learn what it meant to trust in Him.

I didn’t get complete freedom and deliverance right then. In that flash where God took away the trust in the pills, He was just showing me where I was. God doesn’t want to force you to trust Him. He wants you to willingly trust Him, and that’s what He wanted for me.

When God took away my trust in the pills, He was doing it for only an instant to show me where my trust truly lay. It lasted just a flash of time, an instant, and it brought it all home. After that, I thought I would be free and I could just lay the pills down. As soon as I did, the same symptoms came back. Not only the pain returned, but my longing for the pills themselves.

Over the following months, I quit and picked up the pills, quit and picked them up. There were times when I would look in the mirror and hold those three pills in the palm of my hand and I would say, “Lord, I know you didn’t give me that experience on the side of the bed for nothing. I know you’re going to deliver me from these pills.”

I would say that but not every time I took the pills, just now and then. Sometimes I would say it and acknowledge the Lord. I know it. Maybe right then I didn’t trust the Lord, but I said to Him I know He was already in the process of bringing me to that place of freedom.

Months went by. Sometimes I would quit and I would think this is it! The symptoms would return, and I would fall back into taking the pills every day. I hid the addiction from my husband. I didn’t tell him I was taking so much every day. Not until I started making progress, that is.

Then one day, all of a sudden, the drive–and it was a drive–to take three pills was gone. I still had a drive, but it was less. So I took two pills. I no longer felt like I could not live unless I took three pills and no less. I suddenly felt like that wasn’t true anymore, and I could take two.

So for a few months, probably less than six months, I was taking two pills a day. Then I was thinking, God is giving me some kind of progress. Let me try one. Then something would happen, and I would get a migraine, and I would go back to two pills.

One day I switched to one pill, and I knew this is finally it. This is it! So, I transitioned off the pills very quickly. When you overuse pain medicine you can have rebound headaches. I had rebound headaches every time I went off the pills before my experience with God. I would have rebound headaches day after day until I would break down and get back on the pills.

The information I read said rebound headaches could last six to eight weeks. The last time I tried to get off the pills, I had a migraine for four days when I went cold turkey. Then I couldn’t take it anymore, and I picked them up again.

This time was different. I knew that I was free. I knew the addiction was broken. I transitioned down to one pill, then one every other day. Then I was like I know I’m free, so I’ll just skip another day. Oh, I’ll skip another day again.

I had a rebound headache two days compared to six to eight weeks. And that’s how God delivered me from an addiction to pain pills.

If you have a similar situation, whether it’s to pain pills or any habit, or anything in your life that you can’t seem to let go of, I encourage you to turn to the Lord in your heart. Ask Him to help you. Know that He will help you.

Think of my situation. I had zero trust in God. It’s not you who forces yourself to trust in the Lord. It’s God who teaches you how to trust Him. He shows you His gentle love, and that gentle love draws you in. When you start having encounters with the Lord, when you start talking to Him, and communing with Him in your own heart, you begin to trust him based on that relationship that you’re building.

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Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it.

How to Receive God’s Wisdom

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softmountains-3

Let’s say someone asks you for advice, and you really want to share the wisdom of God with them. You’re not sure what to tell them. You asked the Lord, “Lord, give me wisdom. Give me the words to say to this person.”

You wait, and you’re listening in your heart. You just can’t seem to get anything. You think, maybe God doesn’t want me to say anything, but you feel compassion for this person. You want to share, and you want to help them out. You’re just not sure how to receive God’s wisdom. How do you know when you’re receiving?

What you do in this situation is—you open up your mouth.

It’s as simple as that. You start out sharing what you already know to be true. Let’s say they are a Christian. You encourage the person with something like, “God is with you. God will never leave you. He will always help you out if you will trust in Him.”

You give the person that general type of Truth that you already know. As you’re speaking, because you’ve already turned to the Lord in your own heart and asked Him for His help and for His words of wisdom, as you’re speaking, your wisdom will expound. It will grow. At some point while you’re speaking with the person, your words will cross over from what you know to what God is imparting to you to share with them.

I guarantee if you will trust what I’m saying here, you will get excited. You will start to hear yourself say things that you may or may not have previously considered. As you consider the words either while you’re speaking or later—and you should be considering your words later—you start to see the depth to what you shared.

There is Truth to your words that you never considered. There will be a witness in your heary to confirm your words, that they are from the Lord. That is one way you receive and know that you are receiving wisdom from God.

You open up your mouth and let yourself be a tool for God’s use. If you never open up your mouth because you don’t think you’ve received anything, then you can’t get the wisdom out. God often shares wisdom with us for others in this way.

Just trust God and take a chance and do it. You’ll see. If you have asked the Lord for His wisdom and turned to Him in your heart, what comes out of your mouth will be God’s wisdom in this type of situation.

 

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Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it.

How to Receive From God in Every Area of Your Life

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63826353 - fall back time - daylight savings end - return to winter time
63826353 – fall back time – daylight savings end – return to winter time

How do you know you’re receiving from God? We talk about turning to God in your own heart because He is literally in there. We say to put your trust in God. Put your faith in God, knowing that He is in your heart and knowing that He wants to help you, and then receive from Him.

On a practical level, how do you receive that help?

Maybe you’ve read some of our material and you’ve read that we say talk to the Lord, and you’re wondering, “Is He talking back? I’ve asked God to help me with something. Is He helping? How do I know He’s helping? If I need His wisdom with something, how do I know I’m receiving His wisdom?”

When I was seeking God about what He wanted me to write about in this blog post, I asked the Lord what He wanted to say. I had all these thoughts already in my mind, all these subjects and ideas. I thought none of them were developed enough to make into an entire teaching. I was all over the place, thinking and thinking. I just wasn’t sure about what God wanted to say.

I kept talking to Him about it. I kept waiting and expecting that He would lead me. Sometimes I feel God has spoken a thought into my head, or from my heart. It’s a subtle thought. If I’m paying attention, it’s subtle, gentle, peaceful. It has joy attached to it. Sometimes the thoughts aren’t like that.

Sometimes We Don’t Recognize When He Speaks…At First

As I thought of these different things, I watched a video my husband made. I enjoyed it. Every time I got to a certain point in his video, I thought that point right there could be shared in a more practical way, in my style of giving practical examples. I watched the rest of the video and thought that was good. Then I would look at the video again, and in the same place, the same thought would come to me.

Later, as I discussed the matter with my husband, I told him I was still waiting for God to tell me what He wants me to share on the blog. I’m not sure. I’ve got all these ideas. He assured me God would let me know.

As I spoke with my husband about it, I suddenly said hold on, in one location in your video, I kept getting this thought that I could potentially expound on this idea. I said this has happened several times. I said, I think this is God. My husband said, “That’s God.”

Step One In Receiving From God is Believing.

The first step in receiving from God is to believe that He is going to get you your answer. It may not come in the time that you want it to, but it will come. Sometimes because we have blockages where we’re not trusting in Him, we don’t know the walls we throw up between God and ourselves. It may take a little time.

God doesn’t make us wait for the answer. We don’t know the barriers we put up between us and God, but He does know those barriers. He is always at work to get them down. I’m able to hear from God. I’m able to get direction. I know when He’s speaking, but there are times when I’m still unsure.

God Will Gently Remind You of His Faithfulness

Will God answer? Yes, He’ll answer. God will remind you daily, moment by moment, hour by hour sometime depending on what you’re going through, He’ll remind you,

Yes, I’m here. Yes, you can trust Me.

 Lord, can I trust You?

Yes, you can trust Me.

Lord, can I trust You?

Yes, you can trust Me.

God will encourage our hearts over and over with complete patience. He doesn’t mind doing that. It is how He works with us very often. The bible says,

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies
never come to an end; they are new every morning; great
is your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

His mercies have to be renewed because we need them, every morning, every day, throughout every situation. Sometimes to receive, we don’t know that we are throwing something up in the way. That doesn’t mean that we won’t receive. It may be that it will lengthen the receiving time because we don’t know what’s in the way. God is always at work moving those barriers.

The thing to remember is to always turn to Him, knowing that you’re going to receive. You don’t have to put a time limit on it, but you can put a certainty on it.

God Will Settle Your Heart

There was a time when I turned to the Lord for the answer to my problem. I knew to turn in to God in my own heart. I knew the answer was coming from within because that’s where God is. I was flip-flopping inside my own heart. I felt like a flopping fish out of water.

My trust in God wasn’t there. I could recite the truth about God and about His promises. “Lord, You’re good. Lord, You answer.” I rolled through those things in my mind, giving praise to God. “Lord, you always answer, and I give You praise. You’ve always brought me out of every situation.”

I went through all of this, saying it out loud and in my mind. At the same time, in my heart, I knew I was flip-flopping in trust. I knew that the trust was not there. I didn’t have peace in my heart as I was turning to the Lord.

I stayed in that place, seeking the Lord in my own heart. I was honest with Him about where I knew I was. “Lord, I don’t have peace right now. I’m all over the place. I don’t feel my trust in You. I need this answer in this situation.”

I felt unsettled in my heart. I didn’t feel connected with the hope I have in the Lord. As I stayed there, all of a sudden the gentle peace of God came over me. The trust rolled in. I went from flopping about inside my heart to being settled and sure and trusting in Him.

When that trust came in, when that trust was forefront—when all of the flip-flopping was moved out of the way and there was only the trust there in my heart—then the answer came.

How Long Will It Take to Hear?

That was a shorter period of only a few minutes. There are other situations that may be more serious in your life, or you feel more desperate or you feel less hope in God that could take you more time.

Please know that you can always hear God’s voice right now, this second. But it’s possible with your barriers that you have placed between you and God—not barriers God has up—that specific answers to situations could take more time.

God may be developing you in one area while gently leading you step by step to reaching another, more challenging area. There are sometimes layers to issues we have and rather than it all being ripped off like a Band-Aid, God may be peeling it away little by little. Everything He does is for our benefit. He knows what you can handle and what you’ve opened your heart enough to receive.

There might be a process in your receiving a specific answer because there’s so much you’ve built up in the way of you just believing Him. There’s nothing wrong with having the mindset and the words said, “Look, I’m putting my trust in You, Lord. I’m turning to You in my own heart. I know this to be true.” And then you don’t see your answer right away.

Know that your answer is coming because you don’t know all the things God is removing from your heart and mind. You think one way, but the Truth is something else. God is working with you to get all of that straight.

Sometimes the thing you’re asking God for might have something to do with someone else. Then God has to work on that person’s heart and get them moving. It could take time in that regard. The fact is, at the end of the day, you will receive.

God Helps You to Receive From Him

You have to turn to God in your heart and let Him help you to receive. It’s not all on you. Sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves about receiving. Just know it’s not all on you. He will not only give you the think you’re asking for if it’s in His will, He’ll help you to get that thing.

If you’re not in a position to receive, God will place you in a position to receive. No matter how much time it takes, just know that He will. Know that God will help you to receive peace while you’re waiting for the thing to manifest.

 

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Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Made for Goodness

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As God reveals more of Himself to you, not only do you learn that He is good. You also learn about the goodness that He has placed in your own heart. You are made in His image, and when Jesus died on the cross for us, He provided goodness for us. He didn’t do it only to show us how awesome God is, but how good He is in and through us.

In Galatians 5:22, the bible lists the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the characteristics of God. The bible says that goodness is one aspect of the fruit of God. When a person gets born again, God renews our heart. He makes us brand new on the inside. Over time, as we learn to turn to Him and let Him teach us, He begins to reveal what this new heart is made of. We learn the characteristics of this new heart and how it is identical to Jesus.

In short, Jesus’ nature is our nature. As we yield more and more to the Lord’s leading and teaching, we display this beautiful characteristic that is goodness. Can you imagine? As a child of God, you are good!

Someone may read this and think, “You’re wrong, Yvette. The bible says all have come short of the glory of God and there is none good but God.” I didn’t say you made yourself good or that you were born good. No, we were all born in sin. However, Jesus provided that goodness. He did the work. He did the changing. As we walk with Him, He unveils just how much He did in us.

As we walk with Jesus, He uncovers more and more of the nature He exchanged with us for His suffering. Jesus died to redeem us back to the way that Adam was. Think about that. Adam was perfect. He was just like God, and Jesus restored that standing to each and every one of us.

Maybe you think, “I don’t see it. You don’t know what my family is like. We have anger issues.” You may think no way could you be like Jesus because you have self-esteem problems. Maybe you’re always depressed, and you can’t see how to lift your head.

One big one in our society today is our identity. Many suffering people are dealing with identity issues. They struggle with feelings they don’t always want, but they think the feelings are a part of them. At the same time, deep down they wish they were born differently.

Listen, I can tell you from personal experience, I was convinced of certain opinions about myself. I had emotions I didn’t know how to deal with. I was depressed. I tried to kill myself as a teen. I couldn’t see myself being any different than I was at that moment. It was impossible. I was born to be a depressed person. That’s what I believed wholeheartedly.

Later in life, I was convinced I was a pessimistic, scared-of-everything person. I didn’t think I could be different. Even as I learned to be successful in life, I still couldn’t shake those core beliefs about myself. I thought God must have forgotten about me when He was handing out those blessings of joy and promise.

Then one day, I started learning the truth. I discovered I could hear Jesus’ voice as He promised I could. All I needed was some big fat lies moved out of the way. With those gone, I could consider maybe God has something more.

One night the Lord made Jeremiah 29:11 come to life.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

This isn’t just a warm and fuzzy scripture. God literally planned out some good stuff for me and for you–specific plans for each individual. More than that, He planned before the world began that we would be as perfect and as joyful and unhindered as Jesus is.

When I could believe that maybe, just maybe, God didn’t mean for me to be this depressed, scared, screwed up individual and the emotions weren’t the way He created me, I could open my heart.

Opening your heart to God’s truth is the key. As long as you think, “No, no. Impossible. I can’t. I’m the way I am,” you are literally closing off your heart to God. He can’t help you to feel better if you assume this is the way you are. This unhappy, struggling individual is how you want to be? No.

So open your heart to Him. What is opening your heart to Him? It’s saying, Yes.

Yes, Lord, I believe You made me to be perfect like Jesus. Yes, Lord, I’m willing for you to teach me how to experience that perfection. I’m willing to let you change the emotions that seem like they are a part of my identity. Yes, Lord. I know you are not judging me or putting me down. You’re patient and kind and loving, and you’ll be right with me the whole time we’re working on me, even if it takes years.

Yes, Lord! My heart is open to You.

 

 

How Do I Put God First and Stop Feeling Guilty When I Don’t?

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Before you understand God better, people will quote the scripture about seeking God first. You get under pressure. You feel guilty because this thing you’re seeking, this thing you want or need is bigger in your eyes than God is.

You know the pain of not having what you need. But you might not yet know the joy of God alone. You may not have experienced the feeling of satisfaction His presence brings like nothing else.

Maybe you’ve been taught wrong. People might have said, “You need to…” and you got under condemnation. God knows how to reach you. He knows how to lead you and to temp you into giving Him a chance to demonstrate how complete you can feel in His presence.

That’s God’s M.O.

What does the bible say?  He gave His only son to save us. He loved us first. God goes the extra mile, and He has no problem doing so.

The thing about God is, what He says is Truth. He means it. We don’t see it at first or fathom how deep that goes–until He demonstrates it.

Jesus said from now on without me you can do nothing. Think about that for a minute. Absorb the implications. There is no clause in God’s covenant with us that says we have to prove to God we’re strong and that we are faithful to Him before He helps us.

He lives in us. When we breathe, He breathes. When we step, He steps. When we are weak and afraid, and we can’t seem to make ourselves act, He doesn’t step back and fold His arms to say, “I’ll wait!” No, He gets to work whispering encouraging words in your heart.

God highlights thoughts inside you that demonstrate how He came through for you the last time and the time before that. He helps you to replay those instances when He was your strength.

Sometimes you notice God working on you. Maybe you see the fear receding little by little. Other times you might look up and wonder when you became a bolder person.

God wants us to seek Him first, yes, but God will be the one who draws us into seeking Him first. All we have to do is give Him a yes in our hearts. We soften our hearts in that way toward Him. We allow Him to begin to flow out from the inside to affect our lives and us.

Yes, Lord, teach me. Grow me. Guide me. I want You to be my first priority. When I don’t know how that can be because I really want this thing that I have idolized in my heart, You help me. I know You don’t condemn me or try to make me feel guilty about it. You help balance me out. It may take a day, a month, a year, or years. It will happen. It is happening now.

That’s how God is. He’s the Father running out to meet the prodigal son. He’s the Shepherd leaving the ninety-nine for the one.

He loves us to extremes, and He will teach you how to be like Him.

How to Change – How Are You Enlightened

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How does God enlighten the eyes of your understanding? He gives you the strength to face and see where you are now and then shows you where He made you to be. You and He compare the two, and you decide to follow His leading.

In Ephesians 1:13-14, the bible says:

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also that ye believed, ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise,

Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

The word “trusted” in that scripture is in italics, which means it wasn’t in the original text. It says in essence “…after you heard the word of truth…you believed…” The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us after we believe the truth. Sure. But also, He speaks the truth in our hearts, and we believe Him.

When we believe, he works out our change. That is referring to verse 14 where it says the Holy Spirit redeems the purchased possession, in other words our body and our minds. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to help us to begin to experience what Jesus did when He died on the cross.

To give a practical meaning of this scripture, I’ll share a small incident in my life. I received news about someone that I care about very much. This person has decided to follow a particular path that is contrary to the word of God. While I know this person is born again, they are not following God in the way that God made them.

Before this person shared their decision, God spoke to me and encouraged me. He told me He would strengthen this person to accept the truth, and that by accepting the truth, the person could change. I was greatly encouraged by God’s promise to me.

I am fully aware in my heart of the faith and trust in God that I have, that God will do just what He said. However, I began to pretend in my own my that my heart wasn’t broken over this person. I focused on my trust in God, which is good. But I fooled myself, as if I couldn’t acknowledge that I hurt in my emotions.

As I was in worship, the Lord began to help me to see where my emotions were and the place I denied that existed. I began to see this is really the same thing this person is doing. This person is denying what is there, the truth. The truth is always before us. God makes sure of it.

Sometimes, we don’t want to see the truth. We feel we can’t face it. We think it will break us or that it’s wrong to acknowledge that we have feelings that are contrary to what God says. We think we are betraying God somehow if we say, hey, Lord, I am believing this way when I know Your word says that.

It’s not wrong to acknowledge where you are with God. According to Ephesians 1, you have to see the truth and to believe it. Then you can move forward with the Holy Spirit to obtain the promise. It’s painful sometimes, but God won’t let us down. He will with the truth, heal, and bring us out of where we are emotionally, mentally, and physically to obtain the promise of wholeness spirit, soul, and body.

So in my worship time, I acknowledged to the Lord that I was hurting over this person all over again. After God had encouraged my heart about it. I wasn’t betraying God after He spoke His promise to me months ago. I wasn’t being honest about my hurting heart, so He couldn’t help me.

In that time, I came clean about where I was, and He was able to encourage me again. In fact, He was able to speak this scripture to my heart. Thereby, I could share it with you. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge where you are–with God–because He wants to bring you out and show you the freedom you have in Jesus.

———–

Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it. You can also watch some videos where my husband teaches about knowing God over at plainspeakingministries.com.

 

Real Peace Comes From Jesus

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If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you may have read scriptures like:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. – John 14:27

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:7

You may know the characteristics of the Holy Spirit and know that one of them is “peace” as stated in Galatians 5:22.

Yet despite knowing these scriptures, you might be looking for peace everywhere else except in Jesus. Now, I’m not going to throw scriptures at you and leave it there, expecting you to believe what I’m saying. I know personally what it feels like to have someone quote scriptures at me and find no comfort in hearing them. I also know what it’s like to look everywhere for peace and not find it.

What did Jesus mean when He said He left His peace with us? How can we obtain this peace? First, I want to give an example of seeking peace elsewhere other than in God. I like to give simplistic examples because it’s how I understand.

I wanted to lose weight, and so I chose a certain diet. During the change in how I eat, I started feeling badly. I started searching the internet for tips and ideas about what I was doing wrong. I watched video after video about the subject. I tested various answers I read about as to how to fix myself. Hours and days passed while I searched. I grew more and more frustrated about finding just the right balance as to how to feel okay.

I grew unhappier, but inside I would ask the Lord to help me to find the answer. As I continued to look for experts in the field and for regular people who had been in my situation, I couldn’t find anyone who knew exactly what I was dealing with. I kept asking God for help. I even resorted to begging Him.

Then the Lord spoke to me what He had said to me about someone else not long ago. He said, “You are searching and searching because you think your peace is found in what these people have to say.” He said to me, “I am your peace.”

I was floored. I had felt so amazed and impressed when God showed me that this person I was concerned about thought that their personal pursuit would give them true peace. I knew that they were incorrect, that true peace is in God. But I didn’t think I fit the same mold with my diet. God was telling me I was no different than them.

I immediately stopped searching the internet. I resisted watching videos. It wasn’t wrong to take diet advice from someone who had been there, but I had put all of my hope in their knowledge to try to fix my problem. That part was wrong. I should have directed my hope in God and let Him lead me rather than desperately run around searching for peace.

When God told me this, I settled down and began to meditate on Him. What does it mean to receive His peace? He further said to me, “Your body is operating from a position of perfection.”

I believed that I had a broken system in my body and that I needed a way to fix it. The child of God should operate from a position of what Jesus already did. He already healed me. Therefore, I need to put my faith in Him and let Him show me how to take hold of what He has already done.

If I operate in my heart from a belief that I’m broken, then I’m already behind. I can’t fully take hold of the truth. So, I changed my attitude. “Lord, I believe You are showing me how to have my body operate as if it is whole. Even if my reality speaks differently than Your word, Lord, I know my reality is the one that’s wrong. So, Lord, show me how to receive Your reality, and let’s go from there.”

I gained greater peace when I stopped thinking I’m broken. I stopped being fearful that I might not find the answer to fixing myself. I stopped considering whether I couldn’t be fixed. Do you see the defeat in that? It’s all so iffy.

I’d rather operate from I’m fixed. Now, God, show me how to receive it in my reality. I have greater peace in knowing I have His help. I have greater peace knowing it doesn’t matter if I find the perfect answer from human beings or websites or videos. I have the help of the Creator.

Peace is God. When I can acknowledge that God is where I get true peace, I don’t have to search alone for an answer to my issues. I trust that He will help me resolve the issues. If my trust is not perfect, He will even help me to perfect my trust in Him.

Let me say that part again. If you or I don’t know how to trust in God, He will help us to learn how to trust Him. I like to say that God stacks the deck in our favor. All we have to do is first acknowledge that He is our help. We may not see it correctly yet, but we are willing to see it correctly with His help. It will come!

So, that’s where you and I are. Jesus is our peace. Jesus is our answer—for every problem. Even if we find it next to impossible to believe that He can help us with our issue, He still is the answer. It’s a simple understanding.

If you are born again, you have Jesus’ peace. He left it here in the form of the Holy Spirit. He (the Holy Spirit) will help you to receive peace from Him. All you need to do is ask Him. In your words, “Holy Spirit, help me to receive your peace in every area of my life. Help me to understand what it means to put my faith in You for every situation.”

It all comes down to talking directly to Him and opening your heart to His directing your steps. Not directing your steps as you are pursuing peace from another direction. But being open in your heart to Him showing you that you’ve been running the wrong way. He is always willing to show you.

You may think you will find peace if you make this decision or do this thing. You may think if you get this job, make this change in your life, get with that person, live this lifestyle, get rid of that person, eat low carb, eat low fat, cut out meat, eat only meat, on and on and on—peace, true peace, is in God. He is your answer.

Relationship With God – How to Get the Fire Back

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It’s such a blessing to know God. To experience His wonderful nature. And it’s so satisfying. After all if you are connected to the God who made you for a purpose and made all things that you have anything to do with, wouldn’t He be the one who can work you into your best destiny, who can line everything up to give you the life He designed you for? He is a God of light, of love, thoroughly good, and He can give you the best. Not creature comforts, but a fulfilling life, the true desires of your heart.

You want to be in touch with this God.

Knowing God where He lives, in your heart, is infinitely easier than looking for Him somewhere else, like up in the sky somewhere. He made a point of sending the Holy Spirit down here to you so you wouldn’t have to look for Him. Jesus made it possible by dying for you to have that opportunity. He took away all barriers to God, and now God is right here for you to know. You meet Him simply by believing in the name of Jesus.

Don’t you believe that? If you do, you have the Holy Spirit in your heart. He is your new heart, your new center. You are good at your core because Jesus has saved you and made you new. This is what it means to be born again a new creature. God lives in your heart, and He desires to work Himself through you from your heart out into all your mind, your will, your emotions, and even into your flesh. This is also how you are healed, how you stay young, how you stay lively.

If you’ll take a look at my video, I will get into these things and also about what it means to commit to God in your heart. It’s different than committing to do certain things. Committing to Him in your heart is committing to stay with Him and in Him, in you. It is not a one-sided relationship. It is fulfilling in an ultimate way. It is freeing. Because staying with Him in your heart, or in Him in your heart — staying in Him — gives you the strength to stay committed, the incentive to stay committed, with a unity and knowledge of the very person of God.