I asked Mark to write a song about my personal testimony that I can sing. God inspired him to write the words that spoke directly to where I came from. It took us months to put together the music and my singing. I hope that someone can enjoy listening to this song and be encouraged that God can bring you to a place of freedom, no matter what you’re going through. God bless you!
Tag: overcoming fear
The Revelation Thomas Missed
Most Christians have heard of the story of Doubting Thomas. When we doubt, we are often encouraged not to be a “Doubting Thomas” and instead to believe God. We’ve read the account of Thomas in the bible. Jesus rose from the dead, and many of the disciples were reporting how they had seen Him. Thomas emphatically declared that unless he saw Jesus with his own eyes he wouldn’t believe.
Later, Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples and shows Thomas the holes in his hands from the nails. He tells Thomas to stick his hand in His side and proves to Thomas that He is flesh and blood. Then Jesus says this to Thomas:
“…Thomas because thou has seen me, thou has believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” – John 20:29
I woke up in the middle of the night, and God began showing me some truths about myself. He showed me where I was missing it in believing Him and in doubting Him. He encouraged me that I still had in me the seeds and the growth that He put in me from my mother’s womb.
I got excited knowing God was speaking to me and revealing to me some of what was in my heart–both good and bad. At the same time, the scripture above kept rolling through my mind. I started forming ideas about the meaning of this scripture, but for a little while as God was speaking to me, I avoided looking the scripture up to remind myself of the exact wording.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that God put this scripture in my mind, and He prompted me to take a look at it. In fact, God was giving me understanding of a scripture most people misinterpret.
But I doubted the new understanding.
Finally, I said, okay, Lord. If this scripture really means what I think it does, then the word “yet” will be in italics when I look the scripture up. That’s the only way it could mean what I think it means.
Let me explain for those who might not have learned this yet. The bible translators try their best to make the bible as clear as possible for English readers. The New Testament was originally written in Greek.
When a sentence translated from Greek to English doesn’t seem to make sense, the translator will add a word or two to make the meaning of the sentence plainer. Unfortunately, they can only go on their own intellect. Sometimes God’s original meaning can get jumbled in the process.
The translators wanted to indicate where they added words, so in the King James Version of the bible, the added words are in italics. When God gave me understanding of John 20:29, I knew that the italicized word was incorrect to the true meaning of the scripture. It was “proof” to me that God was leading me.
Let’s look at the scripture again, and I’ll explain what it seems to be saying according to the translation.
“…Thomas because thou has seen me, thou has believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” – John 20:29
Here’s a paraphrase. Thomas, because you see me with your eyes you believe, but blessed are people who have seen nothing YET believe.
These people don’t see anything, but they still believe. The word “yet” makes it a blessing in spite of promise. If “yet” doesn’t belong in the original text, which it doesn’t, then this sentence must have a different meaning.
The scripture should read: Thomas because thou has seen me, thou has believed: blessed are they that have not seen and have believed.
Most Christians think they are commanded from this scripture to see nothing and hold onto faith with everything they’ve got. They think that seeing nothing is what having faith is, that it’s the definition of faith. Seeing nothing and holding on until you see something.
Jesus didn’t say that at all.
Let me say that again. Jesus didn’t say to Thomas see nothing but believe. Jesus said “Not Seen” and believe. To understand this better, let me remind you of another scripture that we all know.
2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
For simple terms, let me say it like this. There are two types of substances in the universe. There is no “nothingness” just as there’s no non-belief. You can’t believe in nothing. You either believe the truth or you believe a lie.
There is the “seen” and the “not seen.” One is in the physical world, what we see with our eyes and what we experience with our five senses. Then there is the one that is spiritual, which we interact with spiritually.
The bible says in 2 Corinthians that we don’t look on the seen things. We look on the unseen. The unseen things exist, but they cannot be seen with the natural eye, unless of course, God manifests something in the natural. But it is still a spiritual happening.
Jesus was telling Thomas, don’t rely on the seen world for your information, Thomas. The real blessing is in seeing the “not seen.” What is the “not seen”? It’s when God speaks to your heart, when He gives you a vision, when you receive revelation, any connection with the Lord on a spiritual level, that’s seeing the “not seen.”
When you hear God tell you something, you choose to believe it. It’s that simple. What Jesus shared with Thomas was a clue to what was coming when He sent the Holy Spirit to us. He was sharing how the Lord would interact with His people going forward.
Jesus gave a similar hint when He spoke with the woman at the well in John 4. Jesus told the woman that there would come a time when people won’t worship the Lord here on this mountain or in Jerusalem but people will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Mark gives a teaching that opens these scriptures up even more so that we learn the true place of worship is in our own heart.
In John 20, Jesus wasn’t telling Thomas we have to be blind and still believe. Granted, we do believe God despite the circumstances and even if we don’t know what to do or don’t see the way out of a situation, we trust Him. However, that isn’t the subject of John 20:29.
I can go on and write about Hebrews 11:1 where it says “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” but you get the picture. Jesus was telling us we have a new language with Him that is a spiritual experience, and it will bless us. We walk by that leading because He is faithful to speak to us and show us the way. He doesn’t leave us blind.
Jesus was saying by My Spirit I will show you and speak to you and lead you. You will see the spiritual and you will believe and you will be blessed. Such an awesome revelation! God is good.
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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.
Expect Favor
Mark and I were discussing a movie snippet we’d seen about the story of Esther (Book of Esther chapters 1-10). In the movie, the king looks so severe as Esther dares to come before him without being summoned.
To give you a little background, in case you haven’t read the book of Esther or haven’t for a while, Esther was a Jewish woman, who was chosen among many other women to be King Ahasuerus‘ wife. The bible says that even before Esther entered the year long preparation, she was “fair and beautiful” (Esther 2:7).
The bible states of Esther, “And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her” (v. 15). Anyone who looked at Esther gave her favor. The king loved Esther above all the women. He gave her grace and favor and made her queen (v. 17).
Later, the king’s advisors turned him against the Jews so that the king decreed that all Jews must be killed. At the time, King Ahasuerus didn’t know his wife was a Jew. Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who raised her, called on Esther to go to the king and ask that the Jews be saved.
Esther immediately recited the law to Mordecai, saying anyone who goes before the king who wasn’t summoned would be put to death unless the king extended his scepter to spare them. Esther was afraid to go to the king because he hadn’t called her in a month.
This is where Esther went wrong. Esther thought she was bound by the laws of the land. I’m not saying she should just flaunt the law and break it. I’m saying she thought it bound her in the same way it bound everyone else. Esther forgot about favor.
Many people like to cite the story of Esther as a reason to fast, so they can obtain favor in a given situation. I submit to you that Esther didn’t have to fast at all. This statement might shock you, but hear me out.
Look at those scriptures again. Esther came in the door already having favor—with everybody. The king loved her and gave her favor and grace. Can you imagine what his real reaction must have been when she walked into his presence. He’d already had the humiliation of a beautiful wife not wanting to come when he summoned her. His first wife felt she was too good to go.
The king now had a beautiful wife who was eager to see him before he called. Even on a human level, that must have been flattering. The bible says he loved her and made her queen. His much loved and beautiful wife already had favor with him.
Esther’s real reason for fasting wasn’t to save the Jews but to see past her own fears to the favor that was already in place in her life. Remember what Mortecai said to Esther before she fasted. He said:
“…and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Es. 4:14).
Mortecai could have said, you’ve come to the kingdom because God knew the Jews would come into danger, and you’re the one who will get them out of it. You were put in place with favor to save them!
When Esther walked into the king’s presence, he was thrilled to see her. He was eager to do her bidding. Not because she had fasted but because of who she was.
Do you see that? Esther was already in position, and so are we. We’ve been encamped round about with the favor of God. All we need to do is put our trust in Him and expect the favor to be present.
Psalm 5:12 says, “For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.” You’ve already been given favor. It’s not something we have to strive for, beg for, work toward. God favors us and prepares the way.
Look for the favor of God because you already have it.
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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.
Living by His Influence
“When you know the truth, and you realize that God is the way out, and you depend on Him, it makes you free.”
This is a powerful statement Mark makes in the latest video. I think it will bless you to watch all of it.
When God Promises
We often make promises or say something we intend to do. Difficult circumstances arise, and we readjust what we promised or said. Others make us promises. They say they will help us, but they let us down. People get busy. They change their minds. An argument might break out while we’re waiting, and the person who made the commitment is too angry to follow through.
God keeps His promises.
In fact, God doesn’t speak any idle words. Ever.
More than a year ago, my heart began to break. I went to the Lord to find out what was wrong. This kind of thing had happened before, a heaviness that I couldn’t explain or track where it was coming from. I went to the Lord, and He showed me the origin and the solution.
In this particular situation, I couldn’t hear God clearly. I prayed in tongues. As I paced and prayed, I began to see someone in my life. Someone I loved. I began to see the negative situation this person was involved in. It hurt me to my core, and I kept praying for release.
Later that evening, I went to Mark and confessed the situation. We prayed together. We prayed in tongues. Mark gave the interpretation. Mark said that God would strengthen this person to receive the truth.
The very next week following this intense prayer, the person contacted me, revealing what I had seen in prayer. Over the following months, nothing changed. The situation seemed to grow worse.
More than a year later, the person was on my heart again. I prayed. God told me the truth would come up from inside this person’s heart. It wasn’t something that I or anyone else would reveal. Sometimes (often really) people can’t hear you. You must leave it to God to reveal the truth to their heart.
This person contacted me after so long, and I began to see that God was moving. But the thought came that it’s kind of too late, isn’t it? That hurt. Then God began to minister to me.
He showed me that what He says isn’t just idle words. It’s not for show. It’s not just a wish and an empty hope. What God says is truth. I began to think about how God had a plan to redeem man to Himself. Did you know His plan took four thousand years (4,000)?
From the time Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden until Jesus came into the world was four thousand years. How many times did it look dark, like God’s plan wouldn’t come to pass? How much evil happened in this world? How hopeless it must have seemed to those who had heard the promise.
Yet, God stayed at His plan, working out the details.
What God promises you isn’t idle. He’s not just trying to cheer you up falsely. He doesn’t speak a word to your heart just to give you temporary warm and fuzzies. He’s Truth.
Why did He say this person would receive the truth? Why would this person receive the truth if it was too late? What is truth for? Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
This person will learn the truth so that they can be free! In their heart. Even if they are living the consequences of bad choices, freedom in your heart and mind is incomparable.
The reason to be shown the truth is for freedom.
God spoke this truth to my heart this morning, and I bless Him for speaking to me. He’s good and faithful. I think of So Will I, a Hillsong worship song that I love. The lyrics are inspired by God. I’m sure of it.
God of creation
There at the start
Before the beginning of time
With no point of reference
You spoke to the dark
And fleshed out the wonder of light
There at the start
Before the beginning of time
With no point of reference
You spoke to the dark
And fleshed out the wonder of light
And as You speak
A hundred billion galaxies are born
In the vapour of Your breath the planets form
If the stars were made to worship so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You’ve made
Every burning star
A signal fire of grace
If creation sings Your praises so will I
A hundred billion galaxies are born
In the vapour of Your breath the planets form
If the stars were made to worship so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You’ve made
Every burning star
A signal fire of grace
If creation sings Your praises so will I
God of Your promise
You don’t speak in vain
No syllable empty or void
For once You have spoken
All nature and science
Follow the sound of Your voice
You don’t speak in vain
No syllable empty or void
For once You have spoken
All nature and science
Follow the sound of Your voice
And as You speak
A hundred billion creatures catch Your breath
Evolving in pursuit of what You said
If it all reveals Your nature so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You say
Every painted sky
A canvas of Your grace
If creation still obeys You so will I
A hundred billion creatures catch Your breath
Evolving in pursuit of what You said
If it all reveals Your nature so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You say
Every painted sky
A canvas of Your grace
If creation still obeys You so will I
If the stars were made to worship so will I
If the mountains bow in reverence so will I
If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I
For if everything exists to lift You high so will I
If the wind goes where You send it so will I
If the rocks cry out in silence so will I
If the sum of all our praises still falls shy
Then we’ll sing again a hundred billion times
If the mountains bow in reverence so will I
If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I
For if everything exists to lift You high so will I
If the wind goes where You send it so will I
If the rocks cry out in silence so will I
If the sum of all our praises still falls shy
Then we’ll sing again a hundred billion times
God of salvation
You chased down my heart
Through all of my failure and pride
On a hill You created
The light of the world
Abandoned in darkness to die
You chased down my heart
Through all of my failure and pride
On a hill You created
The light of the world
Abandoned in darkness to die
And as You speak
A hundred billion failures disappear
Where You lost Your life so I could find it here
If You left the grave behind You so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You’ve done
Every part designed in a work of art called love
If You gladly chose surrender so will I
I can see Your heart
Eight billion different ways
Every precious one
A child You died to save
If You gave Your life to love them so will I
A hundred billion failures disappear
Where You lost Your life so I could find it here
If You left the grave behind You so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You’ve done
Every part designed in a work of art called love
If You gladly chose surrender so will I
I can see Your heart
Eight billion different ways
Every precious one
A child You died to save
If You gave Your life to love them so will I
Like You would again a hundred billion times
But what measure could amount to Your desire
You’re the One who never leaves the one behind
But what measure could amount to Your desire
You’re the One who never leaves the one behind
God is so faithful, my friend. Trust Him. If He made you a promise, He will keep it. The fulfillment of what He said isn’t dependent on you but dependent on Him. He doesn’t go back on His word. He’s not subject to mood swings or hold grudges.
Let this be you, found in Luke 1:45:
“And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
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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.
Giving God Opportunity
Very often we are so laser focused on walking in faith and being a soldier for God, we forget to let God minister to us. We choose our words carefully, intending to only speak words of faith. We want to look, speak, act like we don’t have doubts or fears. Any false move, and we might lose ground. We certainly don’t want anyone else to know how much the pressures of life are getting to us.
Maybe that’s not been your experience. It’s been mine more than once. I get caught up in thoughts of staying on target, staying focused, believing God. My belief morphs into an act of my will. I’m peddling as hard as I can, or should I say treading water as hard as I can.
Okay, let me stop with the metaphors and speak plainly. Sometimes, I’m worried about an issue. I want to be in faith. I feel guilty inside because I’m not. I think about talking to Mark, but I don’t want to burden him. Then the pressure gets to me, and I “explode.” I tell him about my problem.
And then I get free.
In the moments that I talk to Mark, I suddenly become very aware of the Lord, moving and speaking to me in my heart. My joy, which is from the Lord, flows out from Him. I get encouraged. I start worshiping the Lord in my heart, even while I’m still speaking to Mark about the frustrations.
I begin to see–as I’ve seen a hundred times before–that I fell into the pattern of being so busy being a warrior I forgot to be a child. In my time of weakness, God hurried to show me His strength. What I have concluded from this is, the act of “complaining” to Mark actually helped me to let go of my will and submit to God.
I’m not saying one has to complain. I know we can and should submit to God continually, even in a silent time alone with Him. We can submit to Him actively at every moment of our lives, whether in conversation with others or not. It’s just that when I got in that rut, I couldn’t seem to submit.
I didn’t know I wasn’t submitting. I didn’t know I was holding more tightly to what I thought was right more than holding onto Him and letting Him lead me. I got off track while doing good. I wasn’t receiving God’s help because I was focused too much on me standing. Too me-focused.
In “giving up” by talking to Mark about my rampant emotions and fears, I let go. Then God, Who is ever ready to help, swooped in to release that joy and peace He always wants to give.
Giving up my soldier attitude helped me to give God an opportunity to help me. He centered me again, fine-tuned my focus, and got me back on track. Unfortunately, this happens to me far more than I like. But life is a journey, and God walks it with us step-by–step.
Give Him a chance, and He’ll straighten your path as well.
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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.
The New Place of Worship
The woman at the well asked Jesus where the proper place for worshiping God was located. In her mind, she was thinking Mount Sinai. The Jews were claiming the true place of worship was in Jerusalem. Many Christians think of God off in the distance, and they direct their focus outwardly when they are looking to the Lord.
Where is the true place of worship?
In this week’s video, Mark is continuing his series on the voice of God. He will talk about where the true place of worship is and where we are to look to the Lord.
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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.
Who Is Faithful–You or God?
God’s Faithfulness is Not Based On Yours
God is faithful. Even when you are not faithful, He remains faithful. He is true to Himself and true to you. He will answer no matter how many times you turn from Him and mess up.
Maybe you pray to Him and ask Him for certain things and then immediately go to figuring it out all for yourself. Maybe you immediately stop trusting Him. Maybe you want to improve. You know you’re doing these things, or you know you have this character flaw. Something you’re doing that you know is sin.
You just want to improve. You want to grow stronger. You want to be that faithful person who trusts God and believes Him. You want to stand firm. You wan to be that person, but time and time again you find that you’re falling away.
You get motivated today. Tomorrow you do whatever and turn away. Then you get motivated again and talk to the Lord. Then you fall into doing it yourself. If you will just keep your hope in the Lord, He will come through because He is faithful.
His help to you is not based on whether or not you’re faithful to Him or whether or not you continue to look at Him. He knows how to draw you. Right now, today, at this very second, God is working on your heart. He is retraining your heart to trust Him. He knows He is your hope.
Even if you don’t know that God is your hope, He is. Even if you know it now but in an hour when things get hard you don’t know it–God is your hope! Just keep your hope in Him. He will build your trust in Him because He is ever faithful.
The bible talks about Abraham being so faithful and how he didn’t consider his body, especially when we’re going through a physical ailment. I talk a lot about this because healing is important to me.
Abraham’s Faithlessness is a Good Example
We look at Abraham and read the verse that says:
“He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness[a] of Sarah’s womb.” – Romans 4:19
Abraham believed God’s promise that he would be the father of many nations when he didn’t have kids and was old. What I liked to look at in that story is how Abraham started out.
God called Abraham out of his country. He told him to leave everything behind–family, friends, everything and to just go out basically on faith. At that point, God didn’t give Abraham specific instructions about where he was going. What did Abraham do? He messed up right away. He took Lot, his nephew, and that caused a lot of issues some time later.
Abraham didn’t trust God’s plan for his life at the beginning. He didn’t trust God to take care of Lot after he was gone, so he took him along. Think about that. How many times are acting as other people’s source because we don’t trust them to God? But that’s a subject for another day.
Over the course of Abraham’s journey, he lied, he schemed. He was afraid for his life, not trusting God to keep it. He did things his way without consulting God. He lied to two kings about who Sarah was. He didn’t trust that God would take care of him and his wife.
But God was ever faithful.
When Abraham didn’t trust God, and when he messed up, when he disobeyed God, God didn’t say you screwed up, Abraham. I’m going to leave you here. Forget it. I change my mind. God is not like that.
God was faithful. He knew it would take many years for Abraham to get a clue. He knew it would take a while for Abraham to fully trust Him and to have faith in Him. God didn’t start out on day one dropping a child on Abraham and ask him to sacrifice him because he trusted Him.
Abraham went through a long process of learning bit by bit how to trust God. Why did he learn that? Why was he able to learn to trust God so strongly that he didn’t look at his own body? It’s because God is faithful.
God was faithful to train Abraham’s heart to trust Him. God was faithful.
God Never Forgets a Prayer He Wants to Answer
That’s what you should remember today. Even if you asked God something twenty or thirty years ago, and you still haven’t seen the answer, if it’s within God’s plan, He will bring it to pass. He will.
If you can believe right now He is working in the inside of your heart to help you to trust Him, it will help you.
You want to be stronger? Maybe you have a character flaw, and you just want it to change. You keep going to God about it, but somehow you’re not receiving or you’re not believing. Maybe you keep turning back to that thing after you’ve talked to the Lord.
Perhaps there’s a habit that you’re seeking God’s help for, but somehow you’re not receiving deliverance. Say you have that habit and you give it up today and you pick it up tomorrow. You pick it up this hour, and the next hour you lay it down. Over and over, you keep seeing yourself fail and fail. You’re just so frustrated.
I want you to remember that God is faithful. He is right there with you in that struggle–with you. He knows the end. He knows at the end of that thing you’re going to lay it down. Why? Because He is training you in your hear to trust Him that you can lay it down.
The day will come. You may not know when, but God does. He trusts that it will come and it will happen. He knows that He is never going to give up on you no matter how many times you mess up.
Change Your Focus
Don’t focus on how you have messed up and how many times you have failed. Don’t focus on how unfaithful you’ve been to God. Don’t focus on how unfaithful you’ve been to trust and believe Him.
Think about how faithful God is to you. He’ll never give up. He will always train your heart. In fact, He is training it right this second. Right now, God is speaking some things to your heart and mind. He is speaking the truth.
Even if you are convinced contrary to the word and contrary to His desire, He knows how to bring you around to learning the truth. That’s what the bible means when it says:
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32
Let’s pause right there. You WILL know the truth. How awesome is that? Not you might know the truth. You will know the truth. You may think that some things you believe right now are truth and they’re not. God knows He’s bringing you around. He’s teaching you what truth is.
As He brings you around, you’re getting freer and freer. At some point, you’ll lay that habit down because you’ll know the truth, you’ll believe the truth, and it will make you free.
So be encouraged today. Know that God is faithful. Even when you’re not faithful, God is faithful. Right now, today, right this instant, He is teaching you gently, little by little, to be faithful to Him. God is the one who will teach you to be faithful to Him.
Focus on Me or God?
I like to concentrate on God’s attributes and not my own. Where I’m missing it, I don’t want to just look at that. I want to focus on God and how He never misses it. He is able to help me to always triumph (2 Cor. 2:14).
He’s helping me right now. He’s doing it right now.
If I’m messing up, and if I have a habit that I’m trying to lay down, but I keep picking it up and I talk to the Lord about it. Then I pick it up. I look to Him and then I look back to me over and over again.
I’m going to focus on Jesus.
I’m going to focus on Jesus’ perfection. That’s what God is looking at–His ability. His plan for you. He sees that end result where you are strong. Where you are walking like Him, talking like Him. When you are like Him.
God is seeing that end, and He is taking you through the steps. He knows the steps already that you need to take to get to that expected end (Jer. 29:11). So He’s taking you through it.
Focus on God. Focus on His faithfulness. He is faithful to take you through. Let that encourage your heart today.
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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.
Renewing Your Mind the Easy Way
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.
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
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.
Plain Speaking Ministry 