Each moment we live a gospel we write,
a chapter today, a verse tonight.
Your gospel is written by the deeds you do,
the words you speak, the actions you take, the truth about you.
Those around you see by the life you live,
your very capacity to give and forgive.
When your race is run
and your living is through,
you leave a book called,
“The Gospel According To You!”
As I see it life consists of at least two major components – time and transition.
What you do with time and how you handle transition determines the quality of your life. Life throws fastballs, curve balls, and slow knuckle balls at us on a continuous basis. You have to adjust your swing to match the pitch. Time, transition, and those pitches thrown at us demand an ability to “Shift.”
Life forces a “Shift” at times and at other times provides an opportunity to “Shift.” If you refuse to “Shift” you will miss “God-moments” designed to bring you into your purpose.
Thoughts shape our lives. Your thoughts affect how you see the world around you, how you see others and how you see yourself.
We can control our thoughts and thus we can control our attitudes, our emotions.
You are not who or what you think you are, but what you think – you are!
Psychologists tell us we respond to what the brain, on the basis of previous experience, expects to happen next. We spend our whole lives becoming conditioned to patterns of behavior.
Through “cognitive maps” – formed by a lifetime of experiences – the brain learns what to expect next, whether it eventually happens that way or not.
How is your thinking?
Ever wonder what would happen if you became fully aware of God in your life? Full “God Awareness” in humanity was only experienced by Adam and Eve in the Garden. Their whole life came from Him. The degree to which we are “filled with God’s presence” is the degree to which we live free and live full. This necessitates the emptying out of all we are capable of into the lives of others. When we “spend” our life on behalf of others, God pays us back with abundant life, life to the full. If you could have your life like you want it, how would it be? You are, actually, in charge of your own personal universe. Whatever it consists of, you created. We create a “God-Life Flow” through us when we spend our life making our world a better place. Either we “spend” our life on ourselves (selfishness) or we sacrificially spend our life for God’s purposes. Life is only abundant, full and free when we totally surrender it up to Him. Luke 9:24 MSG…self-sacrifice is the way, My way, to finding yourself, your true self.
What are you “spending” your life for?
Do you ever wonder whether or not you are living the life God designed you to live? Ever think that just maybe circumstance, or challenge, or other people have unduly pressured you into who you have become?
Whoever you are, you are by choice. The choices you make, make you.
Your life is unique, original. You were born with creativity. The theme of our story is how we become human. God has designed life so that our experiences challenge our identity. Life is revealed as we live it, respond to it.
God is the designer, the architect, the provision of our life. We can only become who He made us to be as we embrace Him. Without Him at the center of our lives, our living becomes unbalanced, out of sync.
As you discover your God-given identity, you begin to realize that you are God-chosen, God-assigned and God-defined.
You then acquire a God-dominated imagination where His presence captivates your thinking concerning your responses to life.
Fear, doubt and unbelief no longer influence how you choose to live. God’s life flow through you intensifies and your life is more meaningful, fuller, and powerful than ever.
This is the “You” God had in mind when He designed you.
Only live “You”!Many people live their lives emulating others. Some never realize they are created as an “original.” Born original, we should not live as a ‘copy’ or die as one.
The beauty of any person’s life is seen as that person embraces fully their ‘originality’. Your only hope of making a meaningful contribution to life is to live who you really are.
The fact that you were born means God had need of ‘you,’ (the ‘you’ He designed), in the earth. There will always be some to whom you are sent. Spend your life with those who celebrate, value, and honor you. Never allow into your life those who de-value you, disrespect you, or dishonor you.
Someone once said,
Always be where you are.
Where you are determines who you meet.
Who you meet determines how you think.
How you think determines what you do.
What you do determines your destiny.
God’s plan for you is best lived in consecration. Consecration means “to devote, separate, set-apart.” The word originally meant “to fill the hand.”
My yielded life fills the hand of God for His Kingdom purposes. God fills my hand with tools, gifts, talents, abilities and favor necessary to accomplish His will for the ‘original me’.
Live Original!
The quality of any life is determined by the investment of time. Proper use of time brings strength, causes growth, and produces results.
Our physical body can be strengthened and conditioned by exercise.
Our mind can be enlightened and developed to master new skills.
Our resources (gifts, talents, abilities, assets) can be invested for increase.
Time is the substance of which life consists.
Time is opportunity to create a life.
Benjamin Franklin said,
Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.
The message of Jesus and the message of Christianity is a calling out into life.
Life in His Kingdom is filled with adventure and unlimited potential.
God has given us a life consisting of time for the purpose of grasping, perfecting, and performing His will.
He commands us to “redeem” the time. This word is a picture of a merchant searching through the market place for some valuable commodity and eagerly “buying it up” wherever it is found.
Are you “buying up” the moment or has the moment been “stolen” from you by broken focus?
“Carpe Diem” – Seize the Day!
SPELLED OUT AS AN ACROSTIC, FAITH MEANS “FORSAKING ALL I TRUST HIM.”
FAITH MUST BE OUR LIFE IF WE ARE TO KNOW THE LIFE OF FAITH. NOT ONLY ARE WE SAVED BY FAITH, BUT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE PRE-EMINENTLY IS A LIFE OF FAITH FROM BEGINNING TO END.
IN II COR. 1:24 WE ARE TOLD TO STAND BY FAITH.
II COR. 5:7 TELLS US TO WALK BY FAITH.
GAL. 3:11 TELLS US TO LIVE BY FAITH.
HEBREWS 11:6 TELLS US WITHOUT FAITH, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD.
THE BIBLE ALSO SPEAKS OF GREAT FAITH:
LUKE 7:9 - JESUS SAID, I HAVE NOT FOUND SO GREAT FAITH, NO NOT IN ISRAEL.
THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF FULLNESS OF FAITH:
ACTS 11:24 - BARNABAS WAS FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST AND OF FAITH.
THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF STEADFAST FAITH:
COL. 2:5 - THE STEADFASTNESS OF YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST.
FAITH IS A PRODUCT OF GOD. FAITH IS A DIVINE ENERGY, AS REAL TO THE SPIRIT WORLD AS ELECTRICITY IS TO THE NATURAL WORLD. FAITH IS A POWER, A PRODUCING FORCE. IT IS LITERAL. IT’S NOT AN ATTITUDE, A CONCEPT OR MERELY A DOCTRINE, IT IS A FORCE.
WHEN FAITH IS FUNCTIONING, THINGS HAPPEN.
FAITH’S SOURCE IS JESUS CHRIST. JESUS IS THE OBJECT OF OUR FAITH. HE CHANGES OUR FEAR TO FAITH.
FAITH IS UNQUESTIONABLY THE MOST ESSENTIAL IMPARTATION FROM GOD TO MAN, BECAUSE FAITH IS THE SOURCE OF OUR CHANNEL FOR OUR ACCESS TO GRACE, HEALING, THE INDWELLING OF CHRIST, JUSTIFICATION, LIFE, THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT, PROTECTION, RIGHTEOUSNESS, SALVATION, SANCTIFICATION, STANDING, STRENGTH, STEADFASTNESS, UNDERSTANDING AND WALK.
THE LIFE OF FAITH IS NOT OPTIONAL. IT IS OBLIGATORY.
WALK FAITHFULLY AND YOU WILL SEE THAT GOD NEVER FAILS US.
Jesus has given us the church as an instrument of instruction, guidance and protection.
Anything significant that happens in your life will be a result of God’s activity in your life.
The fuel, energy and life of the church is prayer.
Prayer is a relationship – not just an activity. It is designed more to adjust you to God than to adjust God to you.
God doesn’t need your prayers, but He wants you to pray because of what He wants to do in and through your life.
We often think of prayer as an outlet for expressing what we need – a cry to God for help.
But prayer is the asking of God to fulfill His needs through us.
God’s original thought is not the letting of believers to achieve their own aims through prayer, but God accomplishing His purpose through the prayers of believers.
God wants to meet our needs and will as it relates to His purpose.
Prayer is responding to God’s will since He seeks our cooperation with Him.
Isaiah 45:11
11Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Would you question Me about things to come concerning My children, and concerning the work of My hands [would you] command Me?
During the period called “time” all of God’s actions are governed by the church.
Today the church stands on earth as God’s vehicle for His will to be done. To the degree that we do His will, His power is released.
God is always waiting on the church to come into agreement with His will.
The church’s ministry today is the proclamation of the Gospel and the manifesting, on the earth, of the will which is in heaven.
Psalm 18:20-24
20GOD made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I got my act together,
he gave me a fresh start.
21Now I’m alert to GOD’s ways;
I don’t take God for granted.
22Every day I review the ways he works;
I try not to miss a trick.
23I feel put back together,
and I’m watching my step.
24GOD rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
One of the greatest life principles I have ever learned is:
Nothing can enter my life without first coming through His hands.
God’s hand is always on the control center of our lives provided we are fully surrendered to Him.
No individual in the Bible who ever fully followed Jesus was ever decreased, but was enlarged.
Where is your lack today, your area of barrenness?
As you sing forth God’s praises and worship Him, increase and enlargement will come to you.
As we move into the enlarged life God strips off the chains, bondage and restraints; He equips us, arms us, makes us ready and strengthens our hand. He makes us loose, pliable, maneuverable and ready.
