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Love
Joy
Gladness
Peace
Longsuffering
Patience
Forbearance
Gentleness
Kindness
Goodness
Faith
Faithfulness
Meekness
Gentle Power
Humility
Temperance
Self-control
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We are in a transition nationally, state-wide, and personally. You cannot
have transition without having a metamorphosis producing godly
transformation if you love God and yield to the Holy Spirit and the
working of the Word of God in your life. God is in the transformation
business! You will come out of it looking like a butterfly, with the glory
of the Lord upon you. God is transforming the Body of Christ in the earth
to permeate people, places, and things with His lovely fragrance, turning
the tables on the enemy as we lift up Jesus and take the opportunity to
minister for the kingdom of God.
We are rising up in our Lord's
anointing and in His authority. "And then he told them, 'Go into all the
world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere'" (Mark 16:15 New
Living Translation). As born-again believers, may this scripture always
resonate within us wherever we go, and in regards to whomsoever we meet up
with from day to day. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor"
(Luke 4:18-19 English Standard Version).
God has called us to be bridges for
others by laying our lives down even as our Master, Jesus, laid His life
down as a bridge between God and humanity. Job 22:30 tells us, "He will
even deliver the one [for whom you intercede] who is not innocent; yes, he
will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands" (Amplified Bible).
Also, Paul told Timothy in Second Timothy 2:26 to minister to those
ensnared, "...that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the
devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." It is not for us
to judge others by withholding our prayers of blessing, but simply to do
what God would have us to do. Simply walk before God, trusting in Him
continually. God tells us to walk before Him, as He told Abraham to walk
before Him and to obey His Word in Genesis Chapter Seventeen. When you
walk before God, it literally means to live your life pleasing God.
I found it interesting that even in the
natural, the way you physically walk speaks to others. Dr. Lester Sumrall
used to say, "I will know whether you will make it or whether you will not
make it when I see you walk." After having a major stroke August 15, 2004,
the final test to determine the level to which my brain functions were
restored and operative was that I had to walk on my tip-toes in a straight
line. Fifty days after the stroke, amazed and thrilled, the neurologist
dismissed me from any further visits after just this one visit. He
authorized me to drive, for in the midst of all the test results and
miracle testimonies he was ultimately satisfied when he saw me walk! Your
walk tells much about you!
In the New Testament we are also told to walk
like Jesus. First John 2:5-6, "But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily
is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that
saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."
If we say that we live in the Spirit, we ought to walk in the Spirit. If
we are going to be like Jesus, we must walk like Jesus. Jesus kept God's
Word, and walked in love.
Feed on love in the Word. Meditate on it, and
pray according to Matthew 22:37,39 "I love you Lord my God with all my
heart. and with all my soul, and with all my mind....and I love (name
someone) as I love myself." If there is someone that you are tempted to
not love, put their name in there. It will help to transform your
thinking, and shape your attitude to be Christ-like. In response to your
willingness to manifest God's love to all God will meet you with His
enablement and cause His agape love to work in and through you. This
pure love of God melts walls of distrust that the enemy tries to build
between ourselves and others. When we trust in God, and are emboldened by
His love flowing in us, we will not have to fear anyone as 1 John 4:18
points out, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out
fear...." Faith works in the atmosphere of love as Galatians 5:6
says, "...faith which worketh by love." If you create an atmosphere
of love, faith will go to working!
I heard this testimony on NBC which made me weep.
This man, a Christian, told how he and his partner owned a small
manufacturing company, which bid on Chick-Fil-A's contract for new
uniforms for their employees. He then said this, with a glowing
countenance full of God's glory, "We received the bid. The President of
Chick-Fil-A is a Christian, and I believe our two faiths came together!"
(Paraphrased.) God is building His kingdom! These Christian businessmen
had to take a step to trust God and have confidence (faith!) in one
another to enter into a greater dimension of relationship, which brings
great opportunities that would not otherwise be possible. I praised God
and wept, because before November 2, 2004 in America it was viewed as
ridiculous to be a Christian, but today it is ridiculous not to be.
Faith in God will bring a God-birthed
confidence for being knit with God's people. How can we be knit, fitly
joined together, if we cannot get beyond the walls of distrust in each
other's lives? Even doing something as simple as praying Matthew 22:37-39
can be a beginning that can cause walls to come down. You and I will see
people in a different light ~ through God's eyes and not our own. We will
attach less importance to how people are affecting us, but rather, be
concerned with how God wants to affect others through us.
In a subject related to trust, I have observed in
my many years of being with leaders, and being myself a leader, that when
you begin to control people you lose your authority. God does not control
people. I have learned not to tell people what to do and what not to do, I
simply put the Word out there for them to make their own choice.
Know that God's people do listen to God, for God's
people want to please Him. As you pray for others, look to God to speak to
them in the way that they can hear and understand; so that they then can
respond in the way that God directs them to. As you pray, you may become
aware that in a certain situation you have been putting pressure on a
person to change. When you pressure people, you are trusting in yourself
to perfect others. As you trust God to speak to His people, even if they
choose not to go His way, continue to trust Him to be faithful to work out
His purposes for you in spite of what may be happening, and for the
ultimate good of others (as in the life of Joseph and his brothers).
Release them and entrust them to God. Determine to pray, to love, and to
obey. God is molding and transforming all of us. "...By love serve one
another" (Galatians 5:13). By love - not pressure or manipulation - by
love!
God is faithful to work on behalf of one and all
in response to the prayers of His people. The Lord gave me a wonderful
teaching which I ministered years ago, encouraging us that He will surely
give us beauty for the ashes (regrets, mistakes, or hurts) of our lives.
In that teaching, I spoke that if we will be patient, trust in God, and
attend to Him (not attending to those ashes ourselves!), He will work on
our behalf and make us glad. The ashes become fertilizer to make
what the enemy meant for evil to become a blessing that brings the growth
of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. This applies to us individually
and to our relationships with others. Leave the ashes alone ~ your own and
others ~ attend to God, pray, love, and obey!
It is
only as you surrender to God and to His way of handling things, that God
can go to work.
Jesus modeled this beautifully for us. John
2:23-25 "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day,
many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But
Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And
needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man."
Jesus trusted in God to work in His life, and in
the lives of the people. Even after Judas betrayed Him, when those whom He
had created cried out for His death upon a cross ~ Jesus trusted God to
complete His work in Him. For love's sake on behalf of the very creation
that called for His blood, Jesus went to the cross, and then rose from the
dead that we might be with Him forever.
God's way is the way of love. First Peter
4:8 tells us to, "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love
covers a multitude of sins" (English Standard Version). Proverbs 10:12
also says, "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins."
"Cover" in the Hebrew also means "prevents." The one you treat in an
unloving manner is one whom you are driving, provoking to sin. The one you
treat with love you are influencing not to sin ~ preventing their sinning!
I heard of an incident where a mother and
daughter were shopping together. The mother was hungry and her feet were
hurting. Upon leaving one store, the mother turned to her daughter in a
huff and said, "Did you notice how mean that clerk was to me, and did you
hear the response that he gave to me?" Her daughter replied, "Mother, he
didn't "give" anything to you, when you walked in to the store, you walked
in with it all over your face."
Victor Frankl, a Jew who had been brutalized in a
Nazi prison camp, wrote these words, "Your attitude is the greatest of all
freedoms and regardless of the circumstances, no one can take your
attitude from you. You give them your attitude." This from a man
brutalized and tortured! Circumstances cannot do it, and people cannot do
it. As you keep your attitude full of joy, you will have great opportunity
daily to influence under the anointing of God the lives of those around
you.
The Lord instructed me to write down what brought
me joy. One of the experiences I wrote down involved the time I went to
purchase a vacuum cleaner. I watched the young clerk as he talked, and my,
could he ever talk. As they say in Georgia, he could talk the horns off of
a billy-goat. This clerk jubilantly cried out upon completion of a
transaction, "Alright, who is the next victim?" I replied jubilantly
as well, "I am the victor not a victim, and I am next!"
He became speechless. I was in authority then for
the Gospel's sake! I talked to him, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit's
desire in the conversation, and found out that he was a political
representative of his county. I gave him my office number, website, and
invited him to call with his prayer needs, assuring him that we have a
"24-7, Pray USA" team that will pray for his political needs and decisions
and that God would surely answer and direct him in the counsel of the
Lord. We began to have a time. That brought joy to me!
God has said through a prophet that 2005 is the
year of OVERFLOW. God spoke personally to my heart that 2005 is also the
year of JOY. My mind immediately went to Isaiah Chapter Nine which
describes joy as a byproduct of great harvest. We will see many people
being born-again in this time! We are going to enjoy a personal harvest of
many things coming to pass in our own lives! We are going to bring forth
the fruit of the Spirit, ripened unto maturity, more than ever before!
Release the anointing, release the Spirit of Christ
upon and into those with whom you come into contact. Arise ~ knowing that
the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because he has anointed you to
proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent you to proclaim liberty to the
captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who
are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Amen.
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