WHAT SHAL WE SAY

Read Rom. 8:28-31: What shall we say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us?

Me looking into your situation is far from me going through the same.  It is always easier to give your opinion while looking into someone’s dilemma at any present time.  Some will be insensitive or indifferent to our problems because it doesn’t concern them.  So encouraged or not by another human, we must muster up the strength and courage to forge ahead.  This is why encouraging ourselves through the Word of God is of the utmost importance.  Finite man will fail at times to give us the support, love, kindness, and encouragement we need.  Therefore, no one or nothing will give us the lift and wherewithal like the Word of God!

When God is for us, our problem(s) are so small because He is so great.  So we can say, in no uncertain terms, “Because God is for us no one can be against us.”  God predestine you for greatness.  He knew you before you entered your mother’s womb.  He called and ordained you for your mission, which no one else can accomplish but you!  He justified, sanctified, and glorified you because you have accepted his only way to relationship and fellowship with Him, Jesus Christ.  Therefore, even your light afflictions are working out towards your good.  Your financial difficulties are to cause you to be totally dependent on the one who owns the earth (Ps. 24:1), and not fear those who think they are in control.  Even those wrong things that certain ones did to you and I was to cause us to trust in our God, and to not put any trust in man (Ps. 118:8).  What shall we say?  Look at your mountain and say,  “Because God is for me, you cannot stand against me!”        

YOU ARE STILL STANDING

Ps 56:8- Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?  9.When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.  10. In God will I praise His Word: in the Lord will I praise His Word.

Of all the things I hate—the abuse of any kind to anyone, especially the sexual abuse of the defenseless, makes my righteous indignation boil at a feverish pitch.  It leaves them deeply scarred, distrusting, and damaged.  If you have suffered any type of abuse, God says that He has bottled your tears, and has not forgotten your pain.  “Where was God when it happened?” One might say.  In a world engrossed and saturated with sin, bad things happen to good people.  It does not mean that God did not know.  Rather, abuse of any kind shows the need of the victim and perpetrator.  Both need a loving savior to give them the right to enter the healing process.  You will never erase nor forget what took place, but God’s power to heal is available to you through His Word.  Rather than see the torment of the abuse, you will be taught to see it as a failed attempt of satan to snuff you out.  YOU ARE STILL STANDING!  

You may even want to see your offender suffer.  But remember, vengeance belongs to God (Rom. 12:19), and He has commanded His children to forgive (Mark 11:25-26).  “Yeah, but forgiveness seems useless!”  You might say.  To the contrary, forgiveness shows our willingness to believe God to heal us because of our obedience to Him.  Forgiveness is not for the perpetrator, but for the victim.  It reveals the resolve to love, rather than to be brought to the level that caused the beastly act of the violator in the first place!  This is what our Lord did when He forgave those who murdered Him without just cause (Luke 23:34).  He, too, was purposely violated, but He held no ill-will against His haters.  Are we better than Jesus?  Of course not!  His example of unconditional love should spark us to believe God for the spiritual revival of our hearts, the restoring of our souls, the renewal of our minds, and the eventual resurrection our bodies for using His word as our instruction manual during our redeemed life.  O, by the way, YOUR STILL STANDING.  Praise God for His Word.  God is for me!   

iTunes

Greetings all!

Pastor Troy V. Ingram’s live sermon recordings are available in the iTunes store for FREE!!!

In iTunes search for Mt.Olive House of Prayer or Pastor troy ingram.

They are available as free podcast. So you can listen and be blessed at home on you Mac or PC or on the go with you iDevice!

God Bless!

DEPEND ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

ZECHARIAH 4:6

   

Zech. 4:6-Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

With debts totaling in the trillions, America is still trying to go about as though it is business as usual.  They say the deficit is at 14.3 trillion.  Actually, it is much more if we add the phantom money that is being spent.  I call it this because there’s no cash exchanging hands, but rather the spending of funds that doesn’t exist.  As a nation our country has been living beyond its means for decades.  Greed has chewed away so much at the seams of this nation that loose threads are the only thing holding.  Oh, what a great deliverance would take place in America if our leaders would turn to seek God!  Our Father is the master at canceling debts.  “For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (I Cor. 10:26).  America turning to Jesus Christ and repenting would cause God to heal the land (II Chron. 7:14).

Political means and/or military might are not the answers to the financial woes of the democracy leader of the free world.  America needs the help of the Holy Spirit!  But in a nation where a lot of the inhabitants have gods, or have become their own god (Rom. 1:21-25), the hands of the Holy Spirit are tied, so to speak. So believers, we must depend upon the Spirit for guidance, protection, and providing our needs.  Let us be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit, and depend on Him rather than what we have.  For it is He who has access to the things we cannot get to.  Do what is right according to the Word of God in this land, but trust and depend on God to supply your needs.      

BE YE HOLY

TOPICAL VERSE: I PETER 1:15-16

Rom 12:1- I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

The definition of being holy and being sanctify or very similar.  Both define a set-apart life to God, and calls for a separation from the world to live our lives for the Lord.  Also, we are to progressively strive for both the rest of our lives.  The different is made clear to me through Nelson’s Bible Dictionary: “Sanctification results in holiness, or purification from the guilt and power of sin.”  What an eye opener!  God is holy, and needs not to sanctify Himself because holiness is the very essence of His nature.  So, we must set ourselves apart that the Holy Spirit can teach us how to live and be holy.  For us, sanctification comes before being made holiness because of the sin.  Though He knew no sin (II Cor. 5:21), even Jesus in His humanity suit spoke about how He sanctified Himself to be an example for us (John 17:17-19)!  He achieved it through the Word of God.  In other words, The Living Word kept His Written Word.

In a world full of sin and the pleasures thereof, it could seem like a tall order to sanctify ourselves and live holy unto the Lord.  Nevertheless, we must put aside the toys (the sinful pleasures of the mind, which will translate into acts) and mature in the Lord.  When we die we will leave everything here on earth.  Holiness brings the kingdom of God on earth because, as believers, we are to live as though everything on earth is dead to us (Gal. 6:14).  When the pleasures and desires of our flesh are starved to death—then we have sanctified ourselves and therefore are pursuing the character of God, holiness.   

CHECK THE SOURCE

TOPICAL VERSE: PS. 1:1-6

Ps 1:1-Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

When a columnist or an author gets word of a story, he or she must check the authenticity of it.  To print a story without having proof of its legitimacy could prove disastrous for the writer and whoever or whatever he or she wrote about.  Gossip, hearsay, and lies can ruin good reputations, and destroy anything good or wholesome: marriages, friendships, relationships, and opportunities have been lost because someone made a decision to listen to a source that corrupted their good manners (I Cor. 15:33; “communications”- associations—AMP).  

Psalms one sets the pace for the rest of the Psalms written by a few writers other than David, although he wrote approximately seven-five percent of the psalms.  None of the writers could rely on the ungodly, sinners, or the scornful to write Psalms that would encourage billions of God fearing people throughout the generations.  To be inspired to write for God—God had to be their source.  Therefore we, also, must find great delight in the Word of God in order to be led by God.  If we meditate on things from questionable sources, we will question ourselves down the road as to why we foolishly did so.  Am I in the Will of God?  Did I do what pleased the Lord?  Our motives, intentions, and the reasons for what we did are always linked to our source.  Always check your source.  Meditate on God’s Word daily, and He will order your steps (Ps. 37:23).  And may the source, Jesus Christ our Lord, be with you!    

UNITY

Read Judges 16

Judges 16:20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.

I often find myself meditating on the strongest human in the Bible, Samson.  The life of Samson could teach us many lessons.  It shows how lust and untamed desires could bring a person to his/her knees, or how we can be physically fit but spiritually and morally bankrupt.  Yet, the greatest lesson from Samson is obscured from a reader view.  All the successful judges of the book of Judges wanted God’s help in everything, and enlisted the help of their brethren to fight their enemies, but Samson decided to be a one man show.  He never solicited any help, or even mentioned unifying his people to bring about freedom from the oppression of the Philistines.  It was for this reason that when Samson thought his enemy would never enslave him, they did.  Not only did the strongest man of the Bible failed to create unity between his people, most of all, he aborted his unity with God!  “The Lord departed from Him.”

We sometimes make the disastrous mistake of trying to do things on our own, knowing that we could use the Lord’s great incite, or the helping hand of man.  If Samson was in unity with God the Lord would have warned him to steer clear of the whore for hire, Delilah.  Instead, He fell for her charm and he lost his sight as a result of his poor choice.  Moreover, history recorded his fall from grace!  Thank God he was redeemed; yet, it cost him his life.  Let us allow his blunder to teach us to keep our souls in constant communion with our human spirit who is being led by the Holy Spirit.  It is He who keeps us in unity with His Word.             

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

Rom. 12:2- And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The enemy has the world centered on bringing everyone into the conformity of the lusts of the flesh.  Hollywood has done more than its fair share to make this purpose more of a reality every day.  Sex and violent rule what we watch on TV, and these two things have made millionaires of those who use their imaginations to purposely titillate the desires of the flesh.  All of this is taking place at the expense of desensitizing people all around the world.  Wrong is called right, and right is called wrong!  They frowned on a professor this week that had a couple do a live sex act in front of his consenting class, but pornography is readily available for free on the Internet.  What’s the difference?

My fellow Christians, we must not conform to the ways of the world.  The Will of God is that we shun the tastelessly sinful ways of our society, and incorporate kingdom living on earth.  To be different is a great challenge.  And the way to begin the journey is to be transformed in our minds.  Our minds must be renewed by the Word of God every single day.  We are what we eat.  So, what are we eating?  Jesus said, “It is written, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. & Luke 4:4).  If we are to be different, to make a difference, the people of the world must see a difference between what they do, and what we do.  

WHAT DO I BELIEVE

Isa. 53:1- Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

Isaiah 52:13-53:1-12 is totally Messianic.  This portion of Scripture speaks all about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Specifically—it deals with His childhood briefly (V.2), adulthood (V.2), our Lord’s death on the cross (V.5), and His triumph which made it possible for men to be freed from sin.  The prophet gave the most important news flash of all times about the One that died so that we might live!  Let God be true and every man a liar (Rom. 3:4), sinful humanity rejected and murdered their only means of salvation.  So Isaiah’s report actually became rhetorical: the religious people of Jesus’ days truly did not believe what was told to them.  Nevertheless, what God revealed came to pass exactly like He said it would.

We can buy Christian books, tapes, DVDs, CDs, attend any of the mega churches of our choice, or go to as many conferences as we please, but do we believe what the Word of God is reporting?  It is not enough to hear the beliefs of others, unless you and I are standing on the firm ground on our faith.  Messages or sermons may stir-up our emotions, but we are ill-advised if we try to live on emotions alone: “For we walk by faith, and not by sight” (II Cor. 5:7).  Since believing is the action of our faith, we must take God at His Word.  Jesus said, “I am the door….” So our Lord is the way to God, the way of escape, the way of peace, and through Him we have access to all that God has promised! God remained true to what He reported, and it came to pass as He said it would.  Now!  Are you and I going to believe God, or the negative reports we have been hearing?  Let us reflect.  What do I believe?

BEWARE OF THE LITTLE FOXES

Song 2:15- Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

In the Bible days agriculture was big business.  They worked hard one season preparing and sowing, to reap in another season.  Long hours, late nights, and many sacrifices were made to support the family.  Yet the husbandman looked forward to the benefits his labor would soon bring about.  Unfortunately, the farmer wasn’t the only one looking forward to the season of reaping.  So were the animals; in particular, the foxes.  Without warning these menace to the fields would come and eat away at the farmers profits as though they were given license to do so.  I am sure these jackals caused many a men to come to tears!  The wise ones, those who suffered enough and did something about it, took measures to protection and guard their fields

Let us beware of the little foxes in our lives.  The foxes that will steal our joy, gnaw away at our profits of peace, and trample on our fields of contentment.  The enemy will send them to ravish our fruit that the blood of Jesus paid for us to have (Gal. 5:22-23).  It is up to us to protect and guard our spiritual investments; lest the little critters from the world come into our fields without warning and leave us wondering why we did not do anything about it:  debt, worrying, rejection, inferiority, low self-esteem, sickness, loses, etc… these are just a few of the foxes.  Guard your and fill your heart with the Word of God.  Having faith in God’s Word, which reveals His promises, will limit what the modern day little foxes can do.