Blessed.

Blessed.

Just before opening my bible I had a vision of a lamb, laying at the base of the cross.

We’ve so been taught wrong, in certain areas of the bible. I have a natural bias toward a poverty mentality. I’ve tried changing this bias. I’ve tried affirmations. I’ve read books on a prosperity mindset. I spend hardly anything at all, outside what’s absolutely necessary, in the hope of saving more. I recite biblical promises of prosperity, decreeing and declaring God’s promises over my finances almost every single day, two and three times a day, sometimes more. And I’m not doing too bad, as a self-funded retiree, 10 years early.

Still, I have a poverty bias; constantly thinking how expensive things are and I can’t afford this or that and I have wondered at times, if this doesn’t cancel out all my hard efforts. All my life I’ve been told, to him who has more, more will be given. To him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. It’s even been told to me your bed shall be taken from under you, if you continually think lack. This has been put to me my whole life. Lies satan has used, as he works his way into twisting the word (just as he surely did with Eve and the eating of the fruit), only slightly twisted, but working on it none-the-less. A lack of fully understanding, causing great delays in the promises of God.

Money is the least in God’s kingdom, according to what I’ve been told, as Jesus calls it unrighteous mammon. These parables; to him who has, more will be given and even your bed will be taken from you, have nothing to do with a poverty mentality. The bed taken away is in relation to shaking hands on a pledge of which one has no method of repayment. If I default and I can’t pay, even my bed will be taken away (Proverbs 22:27). Nothing to do with a poverty mentality, but to do with pledging money one doesn’t have, which I wouldn’t do.

Mark 4:25; to him who has more, more will be given… This is in relation to the word of God, planted deeply in the heart, not to the poverty mindset. All the while, prosperity thinking or lack of, has nothing to do with these particular verses. What it means is the word of God starts as a small seed and grows in time, as one continues to study that word. If you don’t continue to study, you forget and what little knowledge you’ve gained is taken from you.

All this time I’ve been thinking because of my poverty mindset; that’s the blockage, that’s the area satan enters, but isn’t God greater than that? Is not God more powerful than satan? And so I’ve continued to believe in prosperity, in spite of my poverty mindset - God will honour His promise; that the work of my hands will prosper.

All this time I’ve been told that which we give will be measured back to us – I diligently give a good portion of my dollars and I think to myself; perhaps I’m still not giving enough. Diligent means giving what I should, where and when I should. There’s no need to think I’ve not given enough.

All the while, in my diligent application of reading His word, my knowledge of God has grown. And more and more I spread His word, speaking God’s word to others and telling what God has done for me…that is the measure. It’s not dollars, but in the word of God! The giving of our testimony.

The guilt I’ve carried, due to wanting more free time than work time, has been a burden on my shoulders for many years. I don’t have the latest car or an elaborate house, but I am rich in every area. The guilt I’ve carried, because even if I don’t need money, I’ve been told I should hold down a job and give my money away. For me, this has been a heavy weight.

God has changed my life. Sure, I don’t go on fancy holidays, but I’m blessed with a little caravan and a lot of time to use it. I’m blessed to have money in the bank and a few little investments. I’m blessed to have retired early, even if that’s not someone else’s dream. I’m blessed to be doing what I love; writing and taking photographs as I travel around the countryside. I’m blessed with good relationships, caring, loving children and healthy, gregarious grandchildren. I’m blessed with increased knowledge and a sharp memory. I’m blessed in good health and fitness. And I’m blessed to have a strong faith.

Yes, there is the parable of the talents, but the meaning behind it is the same; the planting and the growth, along with the faith that you have. You can smother your faith by the words you speak, heaping dirt upon your faith until there isn’t a glimmer of light shining. Like the man who buried his talent, due to his fear of the hard task-master.

I wasn’t doing this. I kept my thoughts to myself as I continued to speak the Lord’s promises over my finances. I was doing all I knew to do as I stood and waited for the promises to come to pass. Part of standing is not to speak against God’s word. It’s to stay strong, even if you aren’t seeing results, staying strong until your need is met and your prayer answered.

I am an overcomer. I’ve come a long way from where I started. And I owe it all to my great and wonderful God. That very same God who gave me the vision this morning, of the little lamb and the cross.

A lamb; soft, innocent, pure and representing new starts and new growth. The cross; a powerful symbol of the connection between heaven and earth, of the dying to the old self and resurrection of the new.

To him that uses his gifts shall increase be granted. A calling of attention to the word of Christ, instructing others, lest the knowledge be taken away. Let not Christ have died for nothing, as we stand upon His Word and await His promised return. Let us stand in full faith, until we see our desires manifest before our eyes; whatsoever that desire may be.

The Winning Results

    

                   The Winning Results 

Winning results are often not formed due to one big outburst, but by minute actions taken every day. The results are not in the goals set, but in the systems followed. Results are due to the practice you put in and the feedback you receive. If you’ve done a good job, if the feedback is positive, you’re more likely to repeat the action.

The way to win is to get better every day. A winner might just have the same goal as a loser, the difference being the strategies used; the finely tuned improvements consistently made in every area of your life. If you start and don’t continue, you lose. It’s your commitment to the process that takes you to the winner’s circle.

When we use ‘I am’ statements, we accept them as facts. I am always late. I am too shy. I am not good at… We need to change our beliefs in who we are if we want to see results. Replace negative statements with positive ones (I am always on time. I am confident.) and we retrain our beliefs, then our actions follow.

Erase those areas which are holding you back. Form habits which embody the persona of who it is you want to see standing before you in the mirror. Your actions reflect who you are and if you change what you do every day, your actions will line up with who you want to be.

When you change one habit, you begin to believe more in yourself and your ability to change another habit. You don’t need to do that action perfectly every day, you just need to do it consistently.

Do the required action more than you don’t do it and results will begin to appear. If you act as a successful person in the field you wish to become successful, you will do what that successful person does and then you’ll be that successful person.

Who do you wish to become?

What do you need to do in order to become that person?

Form an action plan and do it to the best of your ability. You’ll have setbacks and failures along the way, but keep doing the required action until the new habit is formed. It won’t take as long as you think. Just keep at it, until the habit is automatic.

Building good habits allows you to become the person you dream of being. The mind is constantly looking for relief/reward. The reward isn’t always good for us; overeating, drinking, smoking, drugs, gambolling, self-harm. The list is endless.

If we wish to overcome, we have to change our reward system. We do that by creating a new belief in what we want our life to look like, and it needs to be established so habitually that it becomes automatic.

When we can see ourselves working towards a healthier lifestyle, when we can feel the satisfaction of a job well done, we’re more likely to repeat the action.

If we can make a habit attractive, it becomes conceivable that we’ll do it regularly. These habits need to be working in every area of our life; finances, health, relationships, the workplace. And our habits are a result of the systems we put in place. Good systems, good results. Bad systems, bad results.

Avoid the lolly isle at the store, if you want to eat healthy. Pack a nutritious snack, if you think you’ll stop at the fast food joint on the way home. Take another route and don’t drive past that bottle shop, if you’re tempted to pull in and buy alcohol. Find something constructive to do, if you’re hanging out with the wrong crowd, for this helps keep you better occupied. These are just a few simple systems we can put in place to minimise poor choices, weak moments, automatic habits.

Read that book, take the class, study your weak areas. Eliminate the storms in your life. Eradicate the waves which crash upon you, throwing you into turmoil. Consistently change one poor habit, until all bad habits are replaced with good ones. Create new habits and you create a new life.

The Blessing.

The Blessing.

Whenever you speak, edify, for these words are a self-fulfilling prophecy (what you give out you get back). We should always aim to speak the positive, not the negative.

God wants to bless His people and He does it through us. As a church, we’ve been neglectful in this area. We’ve also been lied to; told that blessings are old testament, only for priests, or that they’re uniquely given by God, bound by the symbolic, tending to a sole use in the material and not the spiritual.

It is for us now, to reclaim the biblical understanding of what a blessing is. We’re to bless everybody and everything. We’re to multiply and extend, bless everywhere. It’s to be a beginning and an anointing of a lifetime of blessings throughout all generations.

The source of the blessing is God. God blesses through us. Use the blessing mightily, frequently and liberally. Bless all you come in contact with. The shepherd blesses the flock. Parents speak blessings over the children. Grandparents bless your grandchildren. Brothers and sisters bless one another. Husbands and wives bless each other. Bless to give comfort.

Bless finances, health, harvests, people, relationships, lands, stores, churches, governments. The list is endless. The conditions required are simple; faith and obedience. We want to reap blessings. We reap what we sow and we’re to sow blessings, not curses. As you bless, give a meaningful touch, for we are God’s conduit. He travels from His people, through our touch, to those who need blessing. We all need blessing.

The spoken word is a powerful thing. The most powerful thing in the world is God’s word and when you give voice to it, it does something to the heart of man that nothing else will do. So go ahead, encourage people in who they are, in how God sees them. Focus on potential, not on what is. Centre towards what could be and on what should be and don’t leave a single, unclaimed blessing with God. Use them all. You can never run out.

Numbers 6:24-26; The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Ezekiel 34:26; and I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in his season, there shall be showers of blessing.

The Slippery Slope Of Compromise.

All it takes is one little compromise, then another and then another and in the end, those little compromises don’t bother us any more. After that, those compromises become greater as we move further away from God in our sin. Each compromise leading to a little more pulling away from God, as our soul deadens itself to the prompts of the Spirit; a shadow now having been cast between us.

It tells us in Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” We’re kidding ourselves if we think we can lie and get away with it. Our lies will be exposed. God knows when we lie and the next time we pray, the Holy Spirit gives us a nudge as if to say; you can’t pray for that, until you ask forgiveness for the other.

Compromise isn’t all about lying either. It might just be something that’s a tiny smidgen away from an upstanding moral, but we let it slide this one time. And if we’re living for God, perhaps we should consider counting the cost before we embark on a long and round-about journey. Honesty and integrity live side by side and once we let either of those slip, it’s a slippery slope into the oceans of doom.

It’s not always easy to do the right thing. Dilemmas pop up out of nowhere and we have to ask ourselves which is the right thing to do in this situation? Sometimes it’s downright difficult to make the right choice in those moments. At times such as this we need the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to help us.

If we do take a wrong step, remember God gives us a window of mercy and grace and we should use that window to ask forgiveness and accept the mercy and grace offered. Come quickly to the place of repentance. Do not tarry. Also, the size of our sin is no barrier to salvation.  

The Pearl of Great Price (the kingdom of heaven) is more valuable than anything else in existence; God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Salvation; this is what we work towards and we don’t want to jeopardise it in any way, so be sure to be honest in all your dealings, even if they seem insignificant.

The lure of satan is not nearly so impressive as the touch of God. God is our peace: Breathe Him in. Set your standard and don’t deviate from it. The Designer has a specific purpose for your life and you don’t want to get off track at any point in time.

Determine your direction. Work towards your destiny. Move in your gifts at all times and one day you will be promoted. All we have to do is stick with the program and don’t deviate, don’t compromise, not even a little.

Wide is the road to hell and narrow the path to heaven. It’s not easy to always live with integrity, however we must put forward our best efforts and stay in the presence of God. A life of no compromise sets a standard for successful living. People will know you by your fruit. Be sure they see the fruit of honesty.