PRAYERFULNESS

The believer is "in the world" but not "of the world." Believers are to walk a sanctified, righteous life before the LORD JEHOVAH in a worldly-wise environment.

"By 1853 laymen had founded interdenominational organizations that crossed church boundary lines such as the PACIFIC GARDEN MISSION OF CHICAGO, THE SALVATION ARMY, and the YMCA, which founded twenty-six organizations that provided relief for the poor in rescue missions in the U.S. Americans still had many other problems in their nation, such as greed, poverty, alcoholism, corruption in government, and other evils that trouble society. People began to search for solutions and ask the government for help, but they did not seem to realize that the government can never solve the underlying problems of sin. In 1851 the South African Republic (Transvaal) was established.

In 1854 after coming to know Jesus as Lord, DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY, at age seventeen, testified, “I remember the morning after I had first trusted Christ. It seemed I was in love with all creation. I was ready to take all men to my hart.” By nature a man of great energy and impulse, he soon was involved in serving God. The Holy Spirit touched Moody to give all of his time to minister when he saw a whole class of girls converted because of their dying teacher. God used this to kindle a fire in Moody to see the lost saved by Jesus Christ. Being a Unitarian, he was converted to Congregationalism and in 1856 left his work as a shoe salesman in Boston, Massachusetts, to engage in missionary work in Chicago.

In 1856 THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY combined many independent telegraph companies to form a more unified service for the country.

REFLECTIVE PORTION: [[Prayer is the spiritual force that brings God “on the scene” and gives Him an avenue of access into men’s affairs. Prayer is one way of waiting upon the Lord. “Wait” means “to remain in readiness” to hear from Him and then obey Him. When a person seeks the Lord with his whole heart, the Lord will be found of that person. Then, when God speaks, a person should be ready to obey His Word and follow His direction. His direction may be as simple as breathing a “prayer” or the obedience to “draw water” for wine. His direction may seem ridiculous to the flesh, but trust and obedience to Him will bring a miraculous solution to any situation. Isaiah 30:18 informs the believer that the Lord waits in readiness to hear from the believer. “And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.” God waits on man to repent and surrender to His blessings. He waits for believers to care enough to intercede for the abundant life for others. He will not force His grace and mercy on anyone, but He will give His blessings to anyone who meets His terms of faith through Jesus Christ. Jehovah God is a God of judgment, so He cannot bless men contrary to His Word; but He will bless them to the letter of His Word when they fulfill righteousness. Praying is one way to “wait” upon the Lord and fulfill righteousness, a holy Way of life.]]

In 1857 MR. JEREMIAH C. LANPHIER of the North Reformed Dutch Church began to reach out to the people in the heart of NEW YORK CITY. It was a time when the volatile issues of slavery had exploded into open violence…."

EXCERPT from Chapter 20.

SALVATION - SOTERIA

To be set apart as a leader and servant of God Almighty, one must start with what salvation really is. Salvation of grace and mercy came by Jesus Christ. He came into the Roman world of political unrest, terrorism, and wars, which illustrated that the governments of that day had lost the ability to judge justly for its people. [Sounds much like today’s world, doesn’t it?] The lack of confidence in government caused by corruption in the administration plus the hardships of daily living caused despairing humanity to seek for hope in a saviour. From Old Testament prophecies the Jews knew their Messiah would come and deliver them from all these unreliable, worldly conditions. After four hundred years of silence from God, celestial angels announced the glorious news of a Saviour being born in the city of Bethlehem, which was hope for the Jewish people that God once again was dealing with them. Believing they were trapped by the uncertainty of life but seeking love, peace, and security, many of the Jewish priest and leaders were encouraged to believe that it was time for deliverance and a change of government. At the time Jesus was born, the needs of the people were much the same as the needs of people today. Everybody needs the Lord, and today people still look for a Saviour to heal their minds and bodies and give them peace in their hearts in a truly uncertain world of terrorists, immoral and unjust government, and atomic power. The true Saviour of the world, the Light in a dark place, came into a gloomy world that seemed void of hope. For over four hundred years the prophets, God’s spokesmen, had given no Word from God to the Jews, which caused a famine of God’s Word until John the Baptist came preaching and preparing the Way for Christ. Men and Women were longing passionately for someone to bring hope into their lives. People, even today, are still crying for love as they seek to believe in God and to experience fulfillment in knowing Him! The world wants to be persuaded that Jesus is the Man the Bible says He is, placing their confidence and trust in Him to help them with life’s problems and to give them eternal, everlasting life. Salvation comes from knowing Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Salvation is:

SALVATION in the Greek language is: Soter.
Some examples of each form of the word soter are:
Soteria, soterion, soterios, or sozein.


Soter, (root word) (salvation) can mean to deliver out of wrong mental attitudes, even rescue or deliver an idiot.

How many times have you made a wrong decision and later said, “What an idiot I was for making that decision,” but don’t despair. Even now at this point in your life, if you will run to the cross and call on God, He will begin to work things out for you. By the Word you can recognize you have wrong attitudes about some things, about some people, and, perhaps, even about yourself. When you present your wrong mental attitudes to God, in prayer, the Holy Spirit will give you understanding of how to handle your situation through the light of His Word. Then, supernaturally by His power and with your cooperation, He will show you how to change your wrong attitude to a righteous attitude. When God called me back into church, after ten years of misery and heartache in the world, the Holy Spirit prompted me to begin a daily bible reading and prayer time. Even though saved at the young age of twelve, at twenty-eight I was spiritually still a baby. I still had no knowledge of the absolute principles of God’s Word that would give me enduring and sustaining character with peace of mind. I was nervous all the time, extremely self-conscious, and easily intimidated by others. Trying to decide what I “really” believed took hours only to forget almost immediately what it was I believed. One night while I was under the influence of love, the Holy Spirit impressed on my spirit to read “only the book of Ephesians” for a month during my daily Bible meditations. Every time I opened my Bible to read out of Ephesians, supernaturally, the Word was alive as He opened knowledge of Himself and heaven to my spirit. Among other thins, I learned that I was “accepted in the Beloved.” After that month of godly values being instilled into me, no longer did I feel like I was walking “a thin red line” between sanity and insanity. My loving, caring God had begun a good work in me to show me “who I was in Christ,” and what the rewards for serving Him were. No longer did I have to be an absolute idiot (an air head), not knowing what I believed. Then, the Holy Spirit began a process of showing me my humanistic attitudes and how to change them according to the Word of righteousness. Only God can change a soul! My love and appreciation for God is so great, I can’t express it all. I can’t live without Him in my life! What a loving, adoring Father we have to transform us into His image of wisdom, knowledge, mercy, and love!

Soteria (salvation), a word derived from the root Greek word “soter,” can mean physical, emotional, mental and spiritual deliverance, preservation, salvation for national deliverance or personal deliverance.

Upon acceptance and confession of Jesus as Lord, salvation (soteria) means spiritual and eternal deliverance granted immediately by God to those who accept His conditions of repentance, obedience, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For this purpose God uses the gospel, the good news, as His saving vehicle or channel of salvation. Bringing peace and harmony to a person’s situation, soteria can also be the present experience of God’s power to deliver from bondage. Soteria or salvation can be summed up as all the blessings of increase bestowed through the Holy Ghost on people “in Christ” to become the family of God.

Soteria (salvation) can denote deliverance from an unhappy situation….

Excerpt from Chapter 2.

LOYALTY

In Ur, the land of the Chaldees, Abraham, at seventy years of age, was called of God to give up the familiar surroundings of his home and family, a real sacrifice of friends, family, comfort and his position of prestige in the community. He was asked to journey in a particular direction toward an unseen land and reward. He had to count the cost of leaving Ur to follow God in His ways. When a person decides to follow God, it is not always a smooth and easy path. Until God forever cast the enemy from the earth, the devil is still there to kill, steal, and destroy any Word of God he can from your life. Yet, God's Ways are tried. His Ways will work every time you stand on the Word. God's not trying to figure out if His ways work, He knows they work...every time. God's Ways are tried and proven. Obedience to His ways, though proven and tried, doesn't mean the believer will live in a "rose garden," but it does mean the believer has a sure promise of eternal, blessed life with God; and God's promises are real...more real than anything you can see in the natural. The enemy will try to steal your vision, your health, your obedience, your loyalty, your faith, and your position in the kingdom of God, but don't let him. Continuing to be obedient to the Word requires that the believer bows down his ear to hear and does the commandments of God. It requires being willing to hear His wisdom and His sayings. It requires understanding and knowledge of all that God is. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying today. Is He calling you today? A willingness to accept God's call is rewarded with the eternal benefits and riches of living for God that cannot be compared in value to any earthly benefits or riches of not living for Him. God is a good God all the time! He calls a person to a particular vision, as He called Abraham to live in Canaan, but He does not give the entire "big picture" of the future or the difficulties that the believer will have to endure as a soldier of the cross for His sake. A calling is one of "following" to an eternal, secure place of living. It is not having insight and knowing the future of all things in this temporary, earthly place. Following requires faith, commitment, loyalty, obedience, patience, and love to receive the promises of God. Following Him in swiftness of justice, stability of a good life, and conquest over all of the enemy and the flesh is the power and beauty of victory "in Christ" to be able to live a quiet and and peaceable life in order to proclaim the "good news" of salvation to others. The Lord tries the hearts of believers to establish their loyalty to Him, yet He takes great pleasure in the uprightness of His people to endure the attempt of the enemy to try to discredit them before God. Believers cannot exalt themsleves, yet God has exalted the believer (who continues and abides) to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. He has preserved our very life by the application of the blood of Jesus Christ, making His children the very righteousness of God, planting them with longevity, fellowship, and peace in heaven with Him. By faith a person believes and embraces all that God wants to do for His children.

Commitment. To be loyal one must be united and committed to a particular person, plan, or purpose. Much like patriotism, loyalty is a commitment from the whole heart to...

...Excerpt from Chapter 17.

FAITH: COMMUNICATION - EFFECTUAL - ACKNOWLEDGE

FAITH

COMMUNICATION -EFFECTUAL -ACKNOWLEDGE

PHILEMON 1:6
Consider Jesus, and hear Him say, “I will” heal you, help you, deliver you, and redeem you from all evil. As you consider and hear Jesus, knowledge and enlightenment come to seed your faith to believe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing until you understand and believe God.Faith is a transferable attribute passed from God to the saints in Christ Jesus. Faith works by love; and the believer must mix faith and unconditional (agape/hesed) love --the God-kind of love-- with the Word for it to benefit him (Hebrews 4:2). Faith and love mixed with the Word will benefit a person, a church, and the world (Galatians 5:6b).

Philemon encourages, Let “the communication of thy faith become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” Our faith becomes effective when we begin to acknowledge every good thing in us in the Lord Jesus and communicate this to others. What is residing in our heart, those good things we have learned from the Word of God, must be acknowledged and confessed. The Greek word for “confess” means “to say the same thing.” When we confess and acknowledge what God has done in our life, we are saying the same thing that God says about us as we communicate this to others. Romans 8:28-29 expresses that believers are called to be conformed to the image of His Son –this is “who we are in Christ.” Who we are in Christ Jesus and what He has done for us are some of the good things that are “in us” that we must recognize, confess, and put into action. Through the Word, God has given the believer a vision of being a successful, confident, victorious, mature child of God who succeeds at everything he begins to do (puts his hand to). When the believer begins to say what God says about His child and acknowledges the vision of being a success that God has given him (or her) through His Word, his (or her) faith will produce that vision. If the believer’s prayers and faith do not seem to be working to change the problem or situation around him, perhaps it is time for him to look inside his heart. The little foxes of wrong attitudes can spoil the vine and delay an answer to prayer. If you have tried everything, it seems, to walk in faith and nothing seems to be happening, God has the answer. Ask Him to go to the heart of the real problem and show you what must be done in obedience to His Word for you to receive your answer. We must consider “Jesus,” the author, finisher and perfector of our faith, and acknowledge Him in all areas of our lives. Jesus has blood-covered each believer [applied His blood to your heart) with a Covenant of Blessings ratified by His blood, the New Testament or New Covenant. His Word is your contract or covenant to see your successful destiny accomplished in Him. He has given you His Word, now you must partner with Him and walk in the Covenant. Jesus is greater than any circumstances, environment, heredity, or opposition that confronts one, or any loss or failure to attain. Greater is Jesus, our God, in us than anything the enemy can throw at us. Faith comes by continually considering Jesus, persistently believing in Him and His promises; while doubt comes from looking at the wavering circumstances of one’s life. Faith comes as you consider that Jesus can bring you Victory in every test, trial, or problem of your life, and believing that He will. Consider Jesus, and hear Him say, “I will” heal you, help you, deliver you, and redeem you from all evil. As you consider and hear Jesus, knowledge and enlightenment come to seed your faith to believe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing until you understand and believe God.

Let “the communication of thy faith become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus (Philemon 1:6).”Effectual means to be effective, to have the ability to produce end results. A spiritual seed when planted, cultivated, watered, and activated by the force of faith will grow producing an eternal end (or result in a harvest). Romans 5:2 affirms that we have access into the grace of God by faith. Your faith brings spiritual blessings. When you commit your works unto the Lord, your thoughts will be established (Proverbs 16:3). Your faith of believing reaches into the realm of the spirit, seizes the promise of God, and brings forth a tangible, physical fulfillment of the promise. Faith opens a door in your life that gives God an opportunity to work an abundant blessing for you. A person’s unbelief and discouragement does not change God, but He is affected and pleased to bless those who use their faith. God does not force you to have faith, but He wants to respond to your faith in Him. Don’t look at the circumstances that make you blue, tired, nervous, or run-down with lack of strength. Don’t look at the environment that says you are a loser, or your heredity that calls you dying. “Well, you know, my dad and his dad had lung cancer, so I probably will die with lung cancer. It’s just in my family.” What a lie! You belong to a different family now, the family of God, and your bloodline is pure because of the blood of Jesus. He has canceled our sin debt and redeemed us from any curse of sickness or natural family heredity. Don’t get discouraged, don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. He will “put you over.” The Psalmist noted: The people who had not even engaged in battle yet, but just looked over the hill and saw the enemy coming “looked unto Him and were radiant and [knew] their faces would never be confounded or ashamed (Psalm 34:5). Instead of looking at the enemy’s skill and all the problems connected with the battlefield, they looked to Jesus. When you look to Jesus and consider all He has done to redeem you, your face will never lose the radiance of His presence as your heart is enlightened with His Word. You will never have the look of defeat. The understanding of success and victory that Jesus gives is a wellspring of life to him that has it (Proverbs 16:22). You don’t have to have the look of a whipped or defeated person, for those who trust and extend their faith in Him will never be confounded, dumbfounded or lead astray. Those who look to Jesus, considering the cross and all He has done for mankind, will triumph victoriously every time.

The opposite of faith is doubt and unbelief. Romans 10:23b avows that “whatever is not from faith is sin.” Unbelief comes in the form of unreasonableness, obstinacy, rebellion, prejudice, presumption, insolence, stubbornness, self-will, prideful boasting, insensibility, hardness of heart and deceitfulness. What you believe must be a commitment, something that causes you to act with purity of heart. Satan always strikes at you in the snake-like manner of a question. Did God say? Will God really do that for you? Filling a person’s mind with questions and doubt will shut that person’s mind down to receiving from God. Because doubt and unbelief are sin, you must turn from thoughts that try to persuade you against believing God’s Word of absolute Truth. If you don’t, you will entertain those confusing thoughts that will allow doubt to remain. Then sin with its wages of death will lie at your doorstep to lead you into greater sin and unbelief. Turn from the sin and doubt of “intellectual pride” which is a distortion of the truth of your faith. “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keeps his way” (his thoughts, attitudes, habits, and character) “preserves his soul” (Proverbs 16:17). Thoughts can cause your mind to entertain false information, which is a distortion of the Truth of God’s Word. Entertain the distortion and a flat denial, a lie, will come forth from your lips. Receive the Truth of God’s Word and renew your mind (your thought life). Let Jesus live “big in you” as your faith grows and becomes strong in Him (1st John 4:4).

Let “the communication of thy faith become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus (Philemon 1:6).” To acknowledge is to admit the truth in confession. “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!” (Proverbs 16:16.) Speaking and acknowledging the good things Christ has done in you will release the outward results and manifestation. As you confess and acknowledge that Christ is your Saviour, on the inside of you the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is witnessing that you have been born again. Ordering your conversation according to faith, not according to your circumstances, will allow God to show you His salvation. He is a rewarder of those who by faith diligently seek Him. Faith is looking at the eternal promises of God, believing them without physically seeing them, and trusting in the eternal hope that is in Christ Jesus to see the answer to your need come forth. By faith those promises are then manifest in the life of the believer. A believer with weak faith that can’t seem to appropriate what belongs to him needs to be encouraged and taught more Word by brethren who are established in their faith. Teaching is a repetition of Truth that finally, as it is heard and understood, causes hope and faith to spring forth. Encouragement, then, lifts a person giving him the ability to take hope, and go forward. Praise God. Don’t suffer with smallness of heart or narrowness of vision. Grasp the hope, faith, and wonder of Christ’s risen life in you. Then give that hope and faith to others. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians (and to us), “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” As you consider daily what Jesus has done for you, He will enlarge and strengthen your heart with His love and His faith, and the glory of His Presence will radiate on your face. Don’t look at wavering circumstances, but look and acknowledge Christ in you, your hope of glory! Acknowledge that he has forgiven all your sins, that He has healed all your diseases, that He redeems your life from destruction, that He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, that He executes righteousness and judgment for you against oppression, that He makes His ways known to you, that he gives you His grace and mercy in time of need, and that He gives you liberty to worship Him and sets your free from all bondage of the enemy (Psalm 103; Lamentations 3:21-23).

Excerpt from Chapter 12.

MEEKNESS - FOOT WASHING

In the traditional custom of “washing feet,” Jesus taught that meekness was unconditional love, sanctification, and servanthood (John 13:2-17).A perfect example of meekness is Jesus. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He did not threaten others but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously (1st Peter 2:23). When others offended Him, He never gave place to wrath. Because vengeance belongs to God, Jesus let His Father repay the evil done to Him with good. Jesus demonstrated meekness by being taught from instructions received from His Father God and from His earthly parents. A person who lacks meekness will not see a need for instructions from anyone in authority, such as God, parents, teachers, pastors, police, or government. At the age of twelve, Jesus was found in the Temple listening submissively to the learned teachers. He did not pose as their teacher, but He astounded them with His wisdom, intelligence, and understanding of the Scriptures. After Mary and Joseph had gone two days journey on their way home, they returned to find Jesus amazing the priest and elders. When His parents asked Him why He had stayed behind, Jesus replied, ‘Didn’t you know that I must be about My Father’s business’ (Luke 2:49). Jesus, meekly, respected His parents’ authority by going home with them, but Mary pondered these words in her heart. Subject to His father Joseph, Jesus not only learned the trade of carpentry, but He learned individual responsibility for His actions. Denying all fleshly temptations, His growth continued unimpeded by sin, but the natural process of growing-up was enhanced by a right relationship with His parents. His personal intellectual advancement in wisdom, His physical growth, His social training, and His spiritual development were part of the process of growing in meekness. “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). As a young man, He used His spiritual and intellectual knowledge to advance in wisdom. Growing in height as all twelve-year-old boys do, physically His stature increased, as he became an adult. He learned to socialize and communicate well with the people He knew. His spiritual stature increased, as He realized more and more the plan of the Father for His life. Meekness aided Jesus in becoming the Servant of God that was willing to lay down His life to redeem mankind.“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God: He rises from supper, and laid aside His garments: and took a towel, and girded himself…poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded” (John 13:3-6). In the traditional custom of “washing feet,” Jesus taught that meekness was unconditional love, sanctification, and servanthood. In Jesus’ day, it was customary to bath at public baths. On the return trip to the home, dust from the street would cling to a man’s feet. Arriving home, the long outer garment could be changed, but a household servant would wash the feet of a man (householder or guest) to make his body wholly clean. At the Last Supper when Jesus invited all of His disciples to eat the Passover with Him, no household servant was with them to perform this duty (John 13:2-17). Tabernacled in human flesh, “Jesus, knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God,” He arose from supper; and laid aside His [outer] garments, which symbolized His Divine powers that He had laid aside and left in heaven. Christ was with the Father before the foundation of the world, yet He came to earth in the form of Man. He declared His eternal existence when He said, “I and My Father are one.” In heaven Jesus laid aside his royal robe as King of Righteousness and came to earth to serve mankind. As a Man, filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, He laid aside His outer garments to wash His disciples’ feet. In those days, a girdle or belt was used to strengthen the loins to equip a man for a strenuous walk or for rapid, strenuous service (see Exodus 7:11). So Jesus took a towel and girded Himself for service. Jesus recognized His divinity, His authority as Lord of Creation, and His coming glory, and yet He took this task upon Himself. Very meekly, on His knees, He began to wash the disciples feet. When Peter bullishly asserted, “You’ll not wash my feet,” pride, independence, and self-will rose up in him rather than meekness. In meekness Jesus revealed that if He, Lord and Master of the Universe, washed His disciples’ feet, so should each disciple (believer) wash one another’s feet. The Lord’s commandment is that we love one another unconditionally.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: The utter devotion of the child of God to respect and love God is greatest when the child keeps His commandments and walks a godly path. The child, like His Master, will remove his coat for whole-hearted work in the harvest field and cleanse his feet from evil ways that he may walk humbly and softly with his Lord to build the kingdom. The lesson of “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” teaches that spiritually strong, meek saints will inherit and rule the earth with Him (Matthew 5:5). Jesus will soon take his rightful place as Ruler of the earth free from all of Satan’s deceptive tricks and free from all rebellion. Believers (saints) are heirs and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords. Developing the correct self-image of being in authority over Satan, yet under the authority of Jehovah God is meekness. To learn meekly to rule over the circumstances of your life prepares one to rule and reign as a king and priest forever. “Your earth” that you need to reign over now is that “plot of land” or the “soil of your heart.” What are you planting in “your earth?” Learn to plant seeds of character in meekness, goodness and righteousness. Meekness is the ability to rule over your life by walking in God’s strength, authority, ability and power. Jesus is the Sovereign Vine of agape/hesed love; we are the branches of His unconditional love to walk in meekness in the fear and respect of the Lord to build His kingdom. Without Him, without His unconditional love, we can do nothing!

SANCTIFICATION – A HOLY WALK: If the believer abides in Christ, he is holy as God is holy for he has had his spiritual bath and been cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus. Yet his feet are probably dirty from his daily walk where strife, anger, envy, jealousy, pride, and other carnal attitudes may have asserted themselves. He probably will need to be cleansed by the washing of the Word that brings repentance and forgiveness. Our daily walk must be clean and pure as we enter into God’s service. We are to prefer one another in love, as we forgive our brethren and walk in peace with each other in lowliness of mind, heart, and position to serve each other and encourage each other in paths of godliness. “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1st John 3:11). In our daily walk of life, if any man or woman does sin, there is still hope. “…Sin not. And if any Christian does sin, he has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1st John 2:1). True repentance before the Father brings forgiveness and cleansing, for God expunges the negative entry from your ledger sheet of your life with the blood of Jesus that erases all confessed sin and all condemnation. He wipes out and replaces that negative entry with a positive entry of righteousness in Christ Jesus to keep your holy walk perfected before Him. Then, as a vessel sanctified unto honor, the cleansed Christian can enter into service to minister for the Lord in the office or position that He has called you to perform. Cleansed of the little foxes of “wrong attitudes” or “unconfessed sins,” the forgiven Christian can keep building his character upon the Solid Rock of Jesus Christ. Then when entering into the warfare of intercession, strongholds of the enemy can be easily pulled down, as you “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand. Stand in belief to see the promises of God manifest. Stand “therefore having your loins girt about with truth…”(Ephesians 6:13-14). Since the carnal man is always at enmity with the spiritual man, the loins are to be girded with a belt of truth to strengthen and equip a person for the long, strenuous warfare of the day in a hostile, unspiritual world. Sins, iniquities, and foolishness of little things that are allowed to remain unrepented of will bring chastening from the Lord. If still not repented of, the sin will grow and form negative character that will cause his or her foot to slip far from the narrow path of following Jesus Christ. Unconfessed sin, even the smallest of sin, can keep you from hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit accurately as you pray, minister or witness to someone. Be quick to confess to the Lord, even the smallest of wrongs, such as leaving a “bad taste” in someone’s mouth because of your attitude or action, and accept His forgiveness. Keep your vessel sanctified for the river of the Holy Spirit’s power to flow through you and be of service to Him. A person can be robbed of his reputation (what he is thought to be), but he cannot be robbed of his character because that is what he really is. Bind yourself to Christ so that His character becomes your sanctified character, and be one with Him.

SERVANTHOOD: James, John, and others had been arguing over who would be the greatest among them (Luke 22:24). The Master wanted them to see that the “spirit of lording authority over others” is not a meek and serving spirit. “If I your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet,” for I am your example. “I say to you, the servant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than He that sent him. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them” (John 14-17). Believers are to deny worldly ambitions to be the greatest “in man’s eyes” and be without lust for money, power, and fame (Compare Matthew 18:2-4). The path to greatness is in being a servant to all to please the Father and do His will. When a believer submits himself to God and humbles himself before God and others, God will exalt that believer in the kingdom of God. We cannot exalt ourselves over others. In everyday relationships with others, quarrels, envy, and jealousy may arise, but we are to forgive one another and solve our problems by remaining in unity with Christ. If you want to be great in the kingdom of God, you must be the servant of all…being meek and humble. Being a servant doesn’t mean being a slave under the dominion of another with no choice. Being a servant means volunteering your self to serve and having the ability to help bring deliverance for another’s problems.

Excerpt from Chapter13.