What a Challenge

Jeremiah 17:9 says “ The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?"
God knows our hearts. The "heart" of a person includes one's thoughts, feelings, and what makes one "tick". Our hearts are notoriously sinful. Scripture clearly indicates that this sinful nature is present within us before we are even born! (Psalm 51:5) Since we are sinful from birth there is only one solution; a new birth is required! Jesus says "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again." (John 3:6-7) Without Jesus our hearts are not just sinfully diseased, they are not even beating -- they are spiritually dead. However this verse also applies after we have received Christ. You see our hearts continue to be plagued by the sinful nature that we were born with, to not be mindful and careful of this can lead to great pitfalls of deceit from our hearts. The simple fact that we still reside in these corrupt fleshly vessels is reason enough to know that we have to guard ourselves against the workings of a deceitful heart. Praise be to God that through Jesus Christ we have been blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, oh blessed Holy Spirit!! who is with us and in us to do exactly what is impossible for us according to this verse to "know our hearts", only He can reveal the innermost workings of our hearts and expose them to the marvelous cleansing light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Praise Jesus!!

Amen

Conscience helps our holiness

God bless you beloved, our conscience plays a big role in us living in holiness before the Lord. We often suffer as believers because we suffocate our conscience with our reasoning and justification. The Lord uses our conscience to communicate serious internal things to us. every person knows what is right and what is wrong because of the conscience element that the Lord has installed in us. The Bible says in Genesis 20:6 "Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me..." when our conscience is clear before The Lord we can walk without sinning against Him. We often hear The Lord telling us things that are important and essential to our spiritual walk, but we tend to rationalize it away, the danger is that if we rationalize too much for too long, we can create a calloused conscience or a seared conscience and loose the desire or the need of having a clean conscience before the Lord. Acts 24:16 says "So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." We must always strive to keep our conscience clear before God and man. It's not going to happen by accident, we have to make an ongoing effort to keep our conscience clear. What if our conscience is not so clear right now, how can we cleanse it (I'm glad you asked) Look what The Lord says in Hebrews 9:14 "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" The blood of Jesus cleanses our conscience so that we may serve God, by faith in Jesus sacrifice and the power of his blood we can attain the cleansing we need. Beloved let us strive to keep our conscience clean before The Lord more so now that The Lord is so near, a clean conscience will help us walk in holiness before The Lord, Hebrews 12:14 says "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

God Bless you all.

Walking In The Spirit

We must be prepared to pay a price in order to walk in The Spirit. We pay the price by putting God first, spending much time in prayer and loving His Word above all earthly pleasures, knowledge and entertainment. We have emotions like God, as we are made in His image, but He is not ruled by emotions and feelings. He operates by doing what is right, regardless of how He feels. He can be grieved by our attitude but He never changes in the way He loves us and treats us. He has no self-pity, no anger on His own behalf and no retaliation.

Meaning we must:

1) Desire to hear the Holy Spirit; (Galatians 5:16).

2) Be ready to obey His prompting; (Galatians 5:17-23, Galatians 5:25).

As a result we are:

Governed and guided by the Holy Spirit. We are not controlled by the Holy Spirit, we have a free will and can choose to disobey Him. Remember always that the Holy Spirit will NEVER speak to us in contradiction of scripture.

We have:

1) The words of Jesus in our minds (Romans 8:5-6).

2) The love of Jesus in our hearts.

The proof:

The power of Jesus will be evident in our behaviour, for the power of the life-giving Spirit through Christ Jesus has freed us from the vicious circle of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

Romans 8:5-11 States; 'Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with The Spirit have their minds set on what The Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by The Spirit is life and peace; The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by The Spirit, if The Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have The Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you'.

...will He really find faith on the earth?

"I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8 NKJV

One of the most timely questions asked by The Lord as it relates to The Lords return. A profound question asked by Jesus himself! Will He really find faith on earth? Many nowadays are proclaiming to believe in Jesus, but will He really find faith when He returns? There's a verse in scripture that says that even demons believe and tremble, so a superficial belief that Jesus "existed" does not cut it as the meaning of true faith. These verses should serve as sobering elements for believers these days. Every believer should be doing his /her own spiritual inventory to see if we are truly living in faith. Look at what faith is according to Hebrews 11:1, the NIV says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Let's see again The Lord's question under the light of what faith is according to Hebrews 11:1.
(1) What is the hope that we're so sure of? (2) and how certain are we of what we don't see? (3) who don't we see? The first is Jesus' return, The believer has to be living with the 100% sure hope that Jesus Christ is returning, and show that hope living our lives as if He can return at any moment. Secondly we have to be certain, beyond the shadow of a doubt of what we don't see. For the sake of our Lord's question let's say (of WHO we cannot see) and who is this? The Holy Spirit! our eternal companion who is not only with us but in us, Halleluyah! We as believers have to be living our lives daily with the certainty that the Holy Spirit is right there with us, otherwise we will not, I repeat WILL NOT be able to walk in holiness. It is the knowledge of knowing that He is there with us that feeds the fear of The Lord in us and helps us to maintain the type of faith that The Lord wants to find in us when He returns. So the question can read "...will He really find (people with the pure hope of Jesus' return and the certainty of Him who we cannot see, The Holy Spirit) on the earth?
Let's meditate in the word, our redemption has never been closer.

Be Not conformed...

It seems like the majority always wins. At least that's how it is in man's society, with terms like the majority vote, “All those in favor say . . . ,” and other phrases that clearly indicate the losing battle of anyone who opposes the “popular opinion”; but tell you what, the Lord did not call us to be “popular.” He called us to be holy. God's kingdom does not function the way this earthly one does. With God, it is not the majority vote that wins. It is not the “popular opinion” that triumphs but rather those that through faith in Jesus Christ stand firm in obedience to God's Word. While it might be popular and convenient for some to go with the flow of the majority of this world's opinion, for us, it is dangerous and deadly to do so. The Word of God instructs us in Romans 12:2 to not be conformed, molded, shaped by this world (system) but rather that we ought to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. I am so, so grateful that the Lord has and is still renewing my mind through His Holy Spirit and His Word. I am convinced that the Word of God is alive and has an incredible transforming power.

God's Blessings are Yes and Amen!

Peace to all in the name of Jesus! just want to glorify The Lord at this moment and declare how faithful He is. A couple of years ago The Lord gave me a word in prayer and I wrote it down. He told me "it will not go past March". I was very excited to hear this from Him. My wife and I have a wonderful son his name is Samuel. We have been praying to The Lord to grant us the blessing to conceive once more. My son is now 7 years old, so as you can see we have been waiting for some time now. Back to what The Lord told me, March came and my wife did not conceive. Next March came and we did not conceive, however I was delivered from things in my life that had kept me bound for some time (Glory to God!!) March came again and nothing. But then guess what, March came again, and oh boy this March was it and my wife and I are now expecting our second child, Praise Jesus!! We are so blessed by his awesome mercies, and words are definitely not enough. So I pray that you rejoice with us as we expectantly celebrate the birth of our child. Blessings to all in Jesus name, AMEN!

Battling Bad Influences

Dear beloved, hello again just writing to let all know that The Lord has blessed me to be able to finalize a project that had for a while been in my heart. I have published a book titled "Bad Influences and The Believer". I believe it will be a blessing for your spiritual walk as it helps warn and prepare us to stand up against the onslaught of influences that come against us today. it is available at barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com and xlibris.com. Till next time. Enjoy the read.

Believers Wake Up!!

Dear viewers and brothers and sisters, it is with a sense of great urgency that I write in this blog the following words. Our redemption has never been more near than it is today. The condition of life all around us, the breakdown of all moral values and the falling away of the church are but a few of the markers that reveal without any doubt how close our Lord Jesus is to his second coming. This site will feature words of encouragement and exhortations to help us all to walk more holy lives, lives that truly please The Lord and not just simply appear to do so. The Bible clearly says in John 4:23
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." Beloved there is much junk circulating out there even in some churches we must be alert as believers and be sober! For good reason The Lord also says to us in his mighty word in Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." Be encouraged and be brave, stand up for Christ where ever you go and remember: Hebrews 12:14
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

May The Lord Richly bless as you persevere in true faith.