Tag Archives: Belief

Love, Do No Harm

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Love does no harm. The Holy Spirit resides in us. We are love. Therefore, we should do no harm.

Light breaks through the darkness. Love breaks through hate. A soft voice is louder than a high volume pitch. An act of kindness changes the atmosphere.

The term ’Neighbor’ is figurative describing all people in your sphere. All people are your neighbors.

Our command is to love all people. There are no exceptions. Jesus did not categorize people to exclude them.

We can make a difference. It is time we overcome the hate that is blanketing the planet. We can change the world through the daily demonstration of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.

Do no harm…

More On Miracles

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Does God ever place an inquiry in your heart, something he wants you to learn more about? He planted my inquiry – miracles, and while researching miracles, this is what I am learning. I am not sharing this information to question anyone’s faith. I am sharing it to add another dimension of our God’s love for us. It is food for thought and something to share with God to gain greater understanding. I am doing the same. The question about whether miracles do exist today is a great conversation starter with the Lord.

Four Primary Types of Miracles
Johnhamelministeries.org

“For I am the Lord, I change not … ” (Malachi 3:6)
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

We are going to be looking at the four primary types of miracles performed by Jesus during His earth Ministry.  Jesus is the greatest miracle worker of all time.  The Bible says He has not changed.

Keep in mind as we look at these miracles that we cannot possibly look at them all in this lesson.  The Bible says that the number of miracles performed by Jesus would fill the libraries of the world if they were to be recorded.  We will look only at the four primary classifications of miracles.  This will give you an idea of what Jesus is still willing to do today for all who believe.

Noah Webster defines “miracle” as “an event that contradicts known scientific law.”

So a miracle is a supernatural act in the natural realm.  God actually suspends the Laws of Nature and moves supernaturally.

The reasons for God performing miracles are too numerous to list in this brief study.  I will share with you here only two of the most important reasons for Jesus performing miracles.  First, Jesus performs miracles to glorify Himself and His Father.  Second, Jesus is still performing miracles today to demonstrate His compassion for humanity.

Let us get right into the four primary types of miracles.

Miracles Over Nature

A miracle over nature would be a miracle performed over natural things.  Jesus turned water into unfermented wine in John, chapter 2.   That was a miracle over nature because those were natural elements.  All the elements of nature are subject to Jesus because He created them all.  (Colossians 1:16)

“Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth.  But as they sailed, he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with water and were in jeopardy.  And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then HE AROSE AND REBUKED THE WIND AND THE RAGING OF THE WATER: THEY CEASED, AND THERE WAS A CALM. (Luke 8:22-24 )

This is a wonderful example of Jesus exercising authority over the elements of nature, which were originally created by Him.  The wind and the sea are still subject to His Divine authority.  Somebody said, “Can’t do anything about the weather.”  But that is not what the Bible says.  If you ever find yourself in a natural crisis, on land, at sea or in the air, use your authority in Jesus’ Name.  Command the circumstances to change.  It will work for you.

Probably the most popular miracle of nature in the Ministry of Jesus is when He and Peter both walked on water in Matthew 14:22-33.

Jesus is still performing miracles of nature all over the Earth.  People do not see them when they do not believe in them.  God desires for you to experience miracles over nature.

Miracles of Supply

“And when they came to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?  He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers?  Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and TAKE UP THE FISH THAT FIRST COMETH UP; AND WHEN THOU HAST OPENED HIS MOUTH, THOU SHALT FIND A PIECE OF MONEY: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” (Matthew 17:24-27)

Of course, I am not telling anyone that when tax time rolls around that it is time to go fishing.  Nor am I saying that God would not tell you to go fishing for a money miracle.  What I am saying is that one type of miracle that Jesus performed was the miracle of supply.  Jesus is still performing miracles of supply today to glorify Himself and His Father, to meet the needs of His family and to cause people to come to Him.

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Luke 6:38 )

If you are faithful to support the work of the ministry with a percentage of the money that God gives you, He will see to it that your cupboards are never bare and your well will never dry up.  Malachi 3:10 reveals that as we open our hand, releasing what we have, God will open the windows of Heaven, releasing what He has.

Miracles of Healing 

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and HEALING ALL MANNER OF SICKNESS AND ALL MANNER OF DISEASE among the people.” (Matthew 4:23)

Jesus created your body.  He can restore your body when it begins to malfunction.  Some Christians have more faith in automobile manufacturers than they do in Jesus.  They know that when their automobile breaks, the manufacturer can fix it because the manufacturer made it.

If Believers had as much confidence in Jesus as they do in automobile manufacturers, sickness would not be as rampant in the Body of Christ as it is today.

It is always God’s will for people to be healed.  But people do not always get healed because they do not always meet the conditions of faith.  Jesus is limited by what we believe.  (Mark 6:1-6)

Not only does Jesus heal sick bodies, but He has also developed a pretty good reputation for raising dead ones.

“Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.  And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.  And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.  And HE THAT WAS DEAD SAT UP AND BEGAN TO SPEAK. And he delivered him to his mother.  And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.” (Luke 7:12-16 )

I have heard people say when it comes to raising the dead, “Yea, right.  I’ll believe that when I see it.”  I always tell them, “No, Jesus said you’ll see that when you believe it.”  We do not see more of these types of miracles today because we have fallen into tradition, religion, and unbelief concerning them.  The time is upon us now when all of the world will be astounded by all of the types of miracles we are studying today.  I personally have experienced all four types of miracles.

Miracles Over Demon Powers

“And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.  And all the city was gathered together at the door.  And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and CAST OUT MANY DEVILS; AND SUFFERED NOT THE DEVILS TO SPEAK, because they knew him.” (Mark 1:32-34 )

Somebody once said about the above verse, “Jesus healed many of these people, but He didn’t heal all of them.”  To which I say, “No, He did heal them all.  He healed as many as were sick.  He also cast out as many demons as were present.”

No matter how great the manifestation of demon powers in the Ministry of Jesus, they could never hold their own against Him.  The best they could do was to start talking incessantly to make the people think that their power was the same as Jesus’ power.  This was an attempt to discredit Him and make Him look like He was one of them.

I believe this is why Jesus would not allow demons to speak unless spoken to.  He would just tell them to “shut up and come out,” and that was that.   No matter how great the concentration of evil, the power of Jesus is tremendously greater.

Demon spirits today, as in Bible days, still cause dumbness, deafness, foaming, fits, insanity, teeth gnashing, sickliness, sickness, suicide, screaming, and exhaustion.  Jesus, through Believers, is still exerting power over all physical and spiritual manifestations of Satan and demon spirits.  Jesus is still drawing men and women to Himself through miracles over nature, miracles of supply, miracles of healing and miracles over demon powers.

Tell God that you believe in miracles.  Tell Him that He is welcome to perform miracles on your behalf.  Ask Him to use you to perform miracles on behalf of others.  He will.

Have you made Jesus the Miracle Worker the Lord of your life?  If not, just say, “Jesus, You’re my choice.” (Romans 10:13)  That’ll open the door to a parade of miracles in your life.

Be Blessed … John and Barbara Hamel

THIS IS A GOOD DISCUSSION TOPIC, ANYONE INTERESTED IN SHARING?

 

Remorse, Repentance, and Godly Sorrow

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Godly sorrow

Remorse, repentance and Godly sorrow, are part of the process of maturing in our Christian walk.

How many of us have sinned, and the sin changed our trajectory in life? It may have been at school, work, or in a relationship. The Bible says, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Fortunately, we live in the New Testament dispensation, and Jesus died to free us from our sins. Does that mean, we no longer sin? No, it means we are no longer bound by our sins. We, in our humanity – can be remorseful about the event. We can repent for our sin. And, most importantly, we can have Godly sorrow about our sin.

A few days ago, I was listening to Beth Moore’s audiobook, Praying God’s Prayers, and one of the things that stood out was the distinction between remorse, repentance, and Godly sorrow.  My mind (focus) would not leave this topic, I needed to know more and continued to query, what is the difference between the three forms of admission of sin? This is what I learned.

Unpacking the distinction between remorse, repentance, and Godly sorrow

Remorse

Let us begin with remorse, which is defined as a deep and painful regret for wrongdoing. A compunction – a feeling of uneasiness or anxiety by regret for doing wrong or causing pain. Remorse is sadness that primarily focuses on us. We seek forgiveness for our sin, but little more. This type of regret is referred to as worldly sorrow. Worldly sorrow lacks repentance.

10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.11 Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.
2 Corinthians 7:10-11 NLT

When we are remorseful for a sin, which is wrongdoing, we are acting in our carnal nature. It is a human response to our wrongdoing. We acknowledge it and seek forgiveness from the person/s that were affected. The focus is our desire for them to forgive us.

Repentance

When we repent, we ask God for forgiveness for the sin or wrongdoing. True repentance offers forgiveness and places the sin in the “sea of forgetfulness’. This refers to God’s forgiveness, and how when we are justified in Christ, God forgets our sins so completely that they may as well be buried at the bottom of the sea. The crux of repentance is that we ask God to forgive us, and He does, but then we revisit the offense meaning, we have not forgiven ourselves. We failed to turn it over to God. If we believe God, we must forgive ourselves and place the offense at the bottom of the sea, or as far as the east is from the west. In short, we can no longer revisit it.

Question – do we change our course when we repent and continue to replay the sin in our minds? No. We have not given up the thought of the sin, though we may have chosen not to repeat it physically, it stills lives deep within us.

We asked for God’s mercy but did not accept it. In other words, we turned away from the sin but did not turn to God. Our repentance is incomplete. Our sin nature is still active and has not relinquished the sin. Our remorse and regret remain selfish and self-centered. We cry out for justice to relieve our own pain, but not for the pain we have caused others. Worldly sorrow produces death because Satan maintains a hold on us through our selfish cries for redemption. This sorrow falls short of Godly sorrow, in fact, it does not exist in the same universe.

Godly Sorrow

Godly sorrow is when we grieve for those we hurt when we sinned. It is defined as having grief over the sin, rather than the consequences of the sin. Godly sorrow (deep sorrow) is another element of repentance. Godly sorrow is lying prone before God crying out for His forgiveness. Godly sorrow leads to salvation and leaves no room for regret. As the scripture says, it produces earnestness, indignation, alarm, concern, and an acute sense of sadness as the result of the sin. “Godly sorrow is a kind of wretchedness that can bring the repentant sinner to tears of grief.”  (gotQuestions.org). James wrote that “Godly sorrow is the experience of lamenting, grieving, mourning and wailing,” (James 4:8-9). Godly sorrow results from a heartfelt conviction that we have offended God by our sin. When we have Godly sorrow, we resolve within our hearts that we will ‘cease to do evil’ and learn to do good with God’s help.

16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good.
Isaiah 1:16-17 ESV

One of the clearest examples of Godly sorrow can be seen in Luke 7:36-50. In summary, Godly sorrow:

*Draws us to Jesus
*Drives our faith
*Expresses itself externally
*Increases our love for Christ
*Produces assurance of forgiveness* (Five Signs of Godly Sorrow. Ryan Huguley.com)

As we mature as Christians, we move from being remorseful to of asking for repentance and moving into Godly sorrows. Our ultimate goal is to lay our sins before God and plead for his forgiveness and salvation, placing our focus away from the sin and to God. I hope this Post enlightens you, I know the study has provided a greater depth of understanding and has shown me where I have fallen short. I always questioned ‘why’ after repenting did I find myself reliving the sin over and over in my mind. The answer is clear – I did not release the worldly sorrow in exchange for Godly sorrow. The focus remained on me and not on those affected by my sin, or on offending God. I was still reliving the sin in my mind and feeling hurt by the result of the actions, failing to place the focus on others and crying out to God to help those who were hurt. Repentance does not focus on self. Remorse focuses on self. Repentance focuses on those we hurt, and Godly sorrow focuses on having offended God. Godly sorrow leads to salvation.

Godly sorrow is sorrow that is often misunderstood and therefore not executed as part of our repentance and turning away from our sin. Having read this, and pondering over replays of sin, can you now upgrade your repentance to Godly sorrow, turn away from the sin once and for all, place it in the sea of forgetfulness, and turn to God?

psalm51-12Re-Blog – https://wp.me/p98Coa-CH
Scripture – Bible.com, ESV
Images – Google Images
References – What is godly Sorrow,  gotQuestions.org; Five Signs of Godly Sorrow. Ryan Huguley.com; Vine’s Expository Dictionary; Guilt and Repentance, Dr. Nicolas Ellen, Slideshare.com (Google Images); Praying God’s Prayers, Beth Moore

Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com.

 

God Does Not Tempt Us

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James 1:13 speaks for itself. God is ALL TRUTH, therefore He cannot tempt us. We allow ourselves to be tempted/used by the evil one. I know I’ve been tempted.

Tempted and failed:

1) My parents taught me the difference between right and wrong. I attended Sunday School and was taught about temptation, but yet and still I had a friend who stole candy from the corner store every day on the way home from school. He would always try to entice the rest of us to join him. I held out for the longest, we were around nine years old. Finally, I gave in to the temptation. When I arrived home my Dad asked me where I had gotten the candy. He knew I had no money and teachers did not give candy to students for behaving back then. I already felt guilty and thought I was going to jail for stealing. He told me he was taking back me to the store (the owner was his friend) to report that I had stolen candy from him and he would decide my fate. I knew it was wrong. I was tempted and instead if standing in faith (like I did for weeks) I gave in to the devils evil ways and forsook the Word of God, ‘thou shall not steal’. I knew God could not tempt me, it had to be the evil one.

2) It was my first week on the job and we had a three/day weekend. I requested a few extra vacation days but had not yet earned the time off and the request was denied. Friends and I sailed to Catalina. Everyone else had five days vacation time, I had three. I knew I should not have gone, but it was a trip of a lifetime. I was tempted and failed. I took the trip. During the trip, I contacted my boss via Western Union, (this was long before email and cell phones) and told him there was no wind and the engine had broken, sharing that it would take a few days for repairs or according to the weatherman for the wind to pick up. This could have cost me my job, but I was young (this was a long time ago.) I felt guilty throughout the vacation, but by the grace of God, I did not lose my job. Some would have said God tempted them, but I knew it was Satan and took the bait anyway.

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Tempted and stood fast:

I worked for a management company that turned out to be unscrupulous. They wanted me to sign over a rather large check to them and threatened to tell the board president to fire me if I didn’t, but if I did they would promote me.

They thought they could persuade me. I knew this was the evil one trying to bind me. I reported the incident to the president and she fired the management company.

Temptation comes in all forms, from taking gifts from donors to cheating on tests and significant others, to major white crimes. God would never tempt us to do things outside of His Will. However, Satan tempts us every day. We know it is him because we can sense it in our spirit. The key is to acknowledge the temptation and walk away from it as fast and we can. I knew it was Satan and walked away.

Fact – God does not tempt. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and will use every trick available to do so.

God saves. Satan Kills. God is All Truth. Satan is All lies. God gives life. Satan takes life away. All truth cannot lie. Temptation is not of God. Temptation is of Satan.

I am certain that everyone reading this has temptation experiences, some that we don’t mind sharing and others we will never reveal to another. The ones that are too hurtful or embarrassing to share can be handed over to God. Ask for forgiveness, He will never forsake you.

Images – YouVersion.Bible.com; google.com
Scriptures – Biblegateway.com

God Is AD92E5C8-496A-41FC-A9B2-0A9F9DF5D2F6-7794-0000136086803E38
Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com, at the moment there is some duplication. I am working on merging the two to create one great site. Please bear with me through this process.

Jeremiah 31:3, He Drew You

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Isn’t this a beautiful verse? He has drawn us. Out of his mind, to paper he gave us life. Have you ever observed a child drawing. They do so with such intensity. Their focus is spot on. I can image the Lord doing the same.

The full verse reads:

I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you and continued My faithfulness to you. (‭Jeremiah‬ ‭31‬:‭3‬ AMP)

He loves us with everlasting kindness. It doesn’t matter what we have done with our lives; he loves us still. He has faith that we will find our way when we accept that he unconditionally loves us. His love is merciful and steadfast. It is covenant love. Covenant love is a pact between God and each one of us. It is everlasting.

How awesome is this? Shame cannot destroy it. Missed opportunities cannot destroy it. Pride cannot destroy it. You can run but you cannot escape God’s unfailing loving-kindness. He has drawn us. He created us. We came from Him. He unconditionally loves His creation, i.e., Us.